While I was in hospital for a heart surgery, something affected me and made me do something meaningful. Before my surgery, my doctor showed me a video, in which there were patients like me and they each had a heart pillow, so I decided I would get one.

Right after my _______, I asked about the heart pillow. Unluckily, I was told they didn’t offer it but it could be _______ at the hospital gift shop. So my daughter bought one for me. It was comfortable and became my “security blanket”. However I was _______ that many patients couldn’t get that comfort. So I took this whole mission upon myself. I called various hospitals to find out what they used for patients after heart surgeries. I also found a site _______ that the cloth pillows were considered dangerous because it might spread bacteria to patients. I _______ understood, but that didn’t stop my mission. I continued to call the manufacturers. Finally, a lady called back and told me about the heart pillow that they had produced, which could be _______ and disinfected (消毒).

I did all my _______ so that no one could think of a reason why this wouldn’t work. It took me over a month to be able to meet with the hospital authorities to _______ my finding. I’m glad that they agreed and are _____ getting these pillows for patients. I cannot be ________— I actually did something that will help many patients.

Clarence Birdseye had the chance to go on a trip to the Arctic,     1     people caught fish and then put the fish in a container office     2    (freeze) it quickly. When people cooked the fish later, it was still good! This gave Birdseye     3     idea.

He thought people could also have this kind of food at home. In 1926, Birdseye invented frozen food. People were able to store food in     4    (freezer) for a long time.

How to stay positive when things don’t go as     1     (plan)? One effective strategy is to focus on what you can control. While certain aspects of a situation may be     2     your influence, identifying and taking action on the elements within your control can empower you. This proactive approach helps shift your focus from dwelling on the disappointment to     3     (take) constructive steps toward a positive outcome.

More than 5 million shared bikes on the Chinese mainland are using positioning and navigation services     1     are provided by the country’s Beidou Navigation Satellite System. These shared bikes have been equipped     2     domestically developed Beidou-based positioning chips. These chips feature high accuracy and sensitivity, and low power consumption, which allow for an easier management for city authorities. Since June 2020, 59 Beidou satellites, including the first four experimental ones,     3     (lift) on the Long March 3-series rockets from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province.

When my father died, one of the tasks that fell to me was to sort through and decide which objects to save and which to throw away. Now I look at the objects of my life as if I were dead, wondering, what will my children do with the human skull that sits on the bookcase? They’ve been wanting to throw it out for some years, but will they know how much can be learned from living with a skull? And I know they will throw the white plastic head of a horse on my desk into a rubbish bag without a thought, never knowing that it is the only piece remaining from the first chess set I owned. It is me at age twelve.

But the final decisions are left to those who know us least — our children. I was the closest to my father and knew him well; however, only when I was going through his study did I learn he had collected picture postcards of hotels. What was I to do with all the objects that had been him? The sad part of me wanted to put everything in my car and take it home. The rational won, however, and I filled rubbish bags with old newspapers, magazines, apologizing to his spirit as I did. I could not throw out the thousands of pictures he had taken on his travels. I brought the pictures home, though I will never look at them. I brought twelve boxes of my father home.

I look at the objects that are my life and the only way my children can satisfy me is by not touching a thing. But they must if I am to go on with my death. And I wonder how many boxes of me will my children keep? I look at these objects that are me and know, too, that they are symbols of how alone I and each of us is, for no one knows what any object means except he or she who owns it. Every object of our lives is a memory, and emotion surrounds around it, hiding and protecting a tiny truth of the heart. Only I have the memories of when and how each one was obtained; I look at the objects that are me, and the memories are warm and permeated (弥漫) with love.

“Find your passion!” is an appeal well-intended and meant to inspire. But is it good advice?

“Finding” a passion implies that it already exists and is simply waiting to be discovered. Unfortunately, this idea doesn’t square with what science tells us. Instead, passions are developed. They often begin with a spark (火花) of curiosity caused by something in one’s environment, such as a fascinating physics lecture. Through a process involving repeated engagement and-positive experiences, people can come to personally value that content or activity and internalize it. What was at first interesting becomes an interest. If these qualities continue to intensify, a passion can emerge.

Actually, assuming passion as inborn tend to cause people to be less open, less courageous in the face of challenges and less creative in pursuit of new interests. Thus, encouraging people to “find” their passion may cause them to eventually believe that interests and passions are unchangeable. People who think this have a fixed mindset of interest. By contrast, some people, whom we refer to as having a growth mindset of interest, view their interests and passions as developed.

People with a fixed mindset of interest, for example, may fall into the trap of thinking, “If I have already found my passion, why keep exploring?” In recent studies, after engaging in a new science task, arts students with a fixed mindset expressed less interest in a scientific topic than arts students with a growth mindset. Meanwhile, science students with a fixed mindset responded similarly to an art-related task. For those with a growth mindset, having a strong pre-existing interest in the arts or sciences did not get in the way of them viewing a new area as interesting.

Worse still, people with a fixed mindset of interest tend to expect their passions to provide limitless motivation, such that their favorite topics should never feel too difficult or demanding. Such a mindset can also limit creativity and innovation. If people believe they are restricted to only a few inborn interests and, in consequence, do not explore other areas, they may miss seeing important connections across different fields. That loss is especially unfortunate considering how leaders at innovative companies have long prized problem-solving that draw ideas from diverse disciplines.

Of course, not every activity will become a burning passion. But a growth mindset of interest will help you remain open and curious. The old saying “find something you love to do, and you’ll never have to work a day in your life” needs to be updated.

Amid rolling farms and green pasture 150 miles northwest of Sao Paulo, Brazil, two tropical forests bloom as one. The first consists of a single species, row after row of non-native eucalyptus (桉树), planted in perfect lines like carrots. The other is haphazard, an assortment of dozens of varieties of native saplings.

There’s no denying it: This forest looks ridiculous. The gangly (修长的) eucalyptuses shoot like witch fingers high above patches of stubby fig (矮壮的无花果树) and evergreen trees. Yet these jumbled 2.5-acre stands of native trees, ringed by fast-growing exotics, are among many promising efforts to resurrect the planet’s forests.

The eucalyptuses, says Pedro Brancalion, the University of Sao Paulo agronomist who designed this experiment, get big so quickly they can be cut after five years and sold to make paper or fence posts. That covers nearly half or more of the cost of planting the slow-growing native trees, which then naturally reseed ground that has been laid bare by the harvest. And this process doesn’t hamper natural regeneration.

You needn’t look far these days to find organizations trying to save the world by growing trees. Too often, tree-planting groups are so focused on getting credit for each seedling planted that they ignore what matters most: What kind of woodland is created? At what cost? And most importantly: How long will it last? Using the numbers of trees planted as a magic “proxy for everything,” Brancalion says, you “spend more money and get lower levels of benefits.” You can literally miss the forest for the trees.

Tree planting seems like a simple, natural way to counter the overwhelming crises of climate change and biodiversity loss. Trees provide wildlife habitats and slurp carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. No wonder trees are hailed as the ideal weapon. Yet for every high-profile planting operation, devastating failures have occurred. In Turkey, Sri Lanka, and Mexico, mass plantings have resulted in millions of dead seedlings or have driven farmers to clear more intact forest elsewhere. Trees that have been planted in the wrong places have reduced water yields for farmers, destroyed highly diverse carbon-sucking grassland soils, and allowed for invasive vegetation to spread. Simply reforesting the planet isn’t going to do much if we don’t also start cutting down on our emissions from the burning of coal, oil, and natural gas. Tree planting also can’t replace old-growth forests. Saving them is even more important than growing new forests.

So, what should we do?

To Brancalion, the answer is obvious: Restore native forests, mostly in the tropics, where trees grow fast and land is cheap. While that may require planting, it may also call for the clearing out of invasive grasses, the rejuvenation (使有活力) of soils, and crop yield improvements so that farmers will need less land for agriculture and more can be allowed to revert back to forests.

The combining of eucalyptus harvests with native plantings is just one more reminder that successful restoration must provide value to local communities. In many cases, if we let nature do the heavy lifting, Brancalion says, “the forest can regrow quite effectively.”

What a comedian can teach you about managing stress

We often accept stress as part of the cost of modern life, but it really doesn’t have to be. We all know that laughter is the best medicine.     1     People who can laugh at their own misfortunes bounce back faster and stronger. Here is what a comedian says about coping with stress.

You can try to find a different perspective.     2     Once a friend of mine fell asleep in the middle of a class. His teacher decided to make fun of him by inviting students to applaud, wondering whether my friend would applaud along when he woke up. He did and the whole class burst outlaughing. After learning everything, he was both embarrassed and ashamed of course but after a while, my friend laughed. “If this had happened to someone else, it would have been amusing. So it’s no less funny, just because it happened to me. “

    3     There’s no doubt that we all experience great stress now and then. We’ve all been personally affected, in some way. You might not have felt like laughing at the time But now, looking back, you could consider all of the strange aspects of the experience and all of the things you did to keep active or simply stay sane (神志正常的) .

When you share stories with your friends, you can choose to share stories of trauma (创伤) and pain, or you can choose to lift their spirits with stories of hope and growth.     4     Take the exact same story and change the focus from “feel sorry for me” to “laugh with me”. Keep in mind that we’re all in this together, that we all share the same ridiculous experiences, and that we can laugh together at whatever life throws at us.     5    

The Grand Canal is a vast waterway system in China, running from Beijing in the north to Zhejiang province in the south. It stretches for nearly 3,200 kilometers and passes through eight of the country’s provinces and municipalities.

Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site, the canal is the longest and oldest artificial river in the world. It has played an important role in ensuring China’s economic prosperity and stability, and is in use today as a major means of transportation.

The Beijing section of the Grand Canal is 82 km long. Along it, cultural relics and sites on both banks are important symbols of culture and are considered a top priority for protection by the local government.

The city government has unveiled two development plans: the first is an implementation plan for the protection, inheritance and utilization of the canal’s cultural values; the second is a construction plan for building a Grand Canal-themed national cultural park.

The plan sets up three implementation milestones in the next five years. In 2020, efforts have been made to lay a firm foundation for the construction of the Grand Canal National Cultural Park, with the Tongzhou section of the canal open to navigation and a management mechanism of the park established. By 2023, significant progress is expected to be made in coordinating the protection and utilization of cultural resources along the canal, with the national cultural park basically set up. By 2025, the park will become a new cultural landmark in Beijing. The Grand Canal, with its cultural resources put under protection and ecological conservation along its banks significantly improved, will embrace improved cultural and tourism development. Cities along the canal by then will welcome further coordinated or integrated development.

The Beijing section of the Grand Canal, a valued asset for the capital, is marked out as a river boasting rich cultural resources, ecological value, social benefits and economic potential. The capital is set to roll out more measures to bring out the best in the canal.

With its protected cultural resources and improved ecological conservation along its banks, the Grand Canal will embrace improved cultural and industrial development.