I'd like to share 4 of my favorite blogs with you today. I'm guessing you know about some, but I'm hoping there might be a few new treasures for you to discover.
Design for Mankind
A lifestyle blog by Erin Loechner, filled with beautifully written articles on everything from design to parenting, to marriage, to work, to travel and more. And I have completely enjoyed the blog for six years.
A Cup of Jo
A lifestyle blog by Joanna Goddard, full of free topics, questions and regular posts on everything from food, design, travel, relationships to motherhood. This is another six-year read for me.
Enjoy it
A lifestyle and DIY blog by Elise Blaha Cripe, full of great ideas for all things DIY (memory-keeping, home decoration, photography, gardening...). I have been following Elise's blog since ten years ago.
Cupcakes & Cashmere
A lifestyle and fashion blog by Emily Schuman, full of all sorts great posts on everything from fashion, to decoration, to recipes, to work, to attitudes towards life. I had always heard people talk about this blog, but didn't start following regularly until a year or two ago.
It was dinner time for the Rangers, a group of mostly Indigenous (本地的) Australians who had spent a long day cleaning up the polluted beaches of the continent's northern coast. Soon they would be eating freshly caught fish and seafood cooked under the stars on an open fire, as their ancestors did.
The Rangers are of more than 100 Indigenous groups spread across Australia who have taken on the job of protecting the land of their forefathers. In Arnhem Land, they are the protectors of 3,300 square miles of land and sea. They comb the beaches by hand, picking up as much rubbish as possible. The task is very difficult as each day it delivers waves of new rubbish.
For the Rangers, cleaning the beaches is more than a vacation. For a people whose culture is strongly tied to the land, protecting the environment is equal to preserving their history.
However, colonization forcefully broke their connection to the land generations ago. Indigenous people were displaced and their cultural practices outlawed. Tens of thousands of years of traditional land management ended, and as a result many parts of the country now face serious disasters from invasive plant and animal species, bush fires and land mismanagement.
In recent years, the government has restored more than 20 percent of Australia's land to Indigenous owners. Since 2007, the Indigenous Rangers Organizations have been at work protecting this land.
Luck, one of the few non-Indigenous employees working with the Rangers, said the combination of old and new techniques and an appreciation for the culture of Indigenous workers has been critical to the program's success.
"You are working with staff who see the world different to you, so there is a much higher focus on the cultural aspects of work and life," he said.
"Being a ranger is a source of confidence. You feel strong," said Terence, a senior ranger. "Here we still live on the land. The culture is still alive."
Mary Lyon was a leader in women's education in the nineteenth century. It was a time when women's education was not considered important in the United States. States did require each town to provide a school for children, but there were not enough teachers. Most young women were not able to continue their education. If they did, they often were not taught much except the French language, how to sew clothing, and music.
Mary Lyon felt that women's education was extremely important. She believed women were teachers both in the home and in the classroom. Mary opened a school for young women in the village of Buckland. She suggested new ways of teaching, including holding discussion groups for students.
Then, Mary began to raise money for her dream school for the higher education of women. This school would own its own property (财产), guided by an independent group of direction. Its finances would be the responsibility of the directors. It would not depend on any one person to continue. And, the students would share in cleaning and cooking to keep costs down. In 1837, Mary Lyon opened Mount Holyoke Seminary for Women. In 1893, 34 years after her death, under a state law, Mount Holyoke Female Seminary became the first college to offer women the same kind of education as men.
Mary's efforts led to the spread of higher education for women in the United States. Her influence lasted as the many students from her schools went out to teach others.
If you use social media to chase away loneliness, a new study suggests you're going against the grain.
We may have heard a lot about the benefits of interacting with others online, but the findings of a study conducted by University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine scientists show a direct relationship between social media usage and feelings of isolation (隔绝). In short, the more time you spend on social media, the lonelier you may feel.
With increased interaction on a large number of apps that allow for endless virtual connectivity, loneliness seems like the last problem frequent social media users would face, but according to the leader of the study Brain Primack, it has the exact opposite effect.
"Mental health problems and social isolation are at widespread levels among young adults nowadays," Primack said, "We are naturally social creature, but modem life tends to separate us instead of bringing us together. While it may seem that social media presents opportunities to fill the social void (空隙), I think this study suggests that it may not be the solution people were hoping for."
Primack and his team examined the social media habits of 1,787 U.S. adults aged 19 to 32 via a questionnaire that asked about the time and frequency they spent on the most popular social media platforms. Eventually, they determined that young adults who are constantly logging into social media reported more feelings of isolation than those with less social media usage. Frequent exposure to unrealistic descriptions on social media instead of face-to-face social interactions may give people the impression that others are living happier, more connected lives, and this may users feel more socially isolated in comparison.
When writing the story of your life, don't let someone else hold the pen. Here are some ideas for writing a life story:
Live happily in your own way. You are not in this world to live up to the expectations of others, nor should you feel that others are here to live up to yours. What success means to each of us is totally different. Success to others may mean being a good parent. Success is only about spending your life happily in your own way.
There are thousands of possible paths up the mountain of life, so it really doesn't matter which path you start off on. The only mistake is by wasting time running around at the base of the mountain, telling everyone that your life path is wrong.
Embrace (信奉) new ideas, lessons, and challenges. Sometimes growing up means growing apart from old habits, relationships, and situations, and finding something new that truly moves you. You should look very clearly into the unknown and enjoy it. Because when you come in contact with things that you don't know, that's when you're learning, growing, and truly living.
Live honorably through kindness. If you live honorably, no matter how old you get, you'll never lose your beauty.Spend quality time with people you love. People don't live forever. Appreciate what you have, who loves you and who cares for you. You'll never know how much they mean until the day when they are no longer beside you. Someday you will either regret not doing so, or you will say, "I'm glad I did."
A. Lost time is never found again.
B. Appreciate the little things in life that mean a lot.
C. Change your path when you must, but keep moving forward.
D. There is nothing more wonderful than seeing life as an adventure.
E. For others, it may mean to simply be happy or it can be all of the above.
F. And remember, there is no better thing than reaching out and holding the hand of someone in need.
G. Make wise choices every day because the way you live each day is a sentence in the story of your life.
A wise man was passing through a city. While he was walking, he 1 a coin on the road. He picked it up. Despite his 2 life, he was satisfied and he had no use of that coin. So, he planned to 3 it. 4, throughout the day he didn't find such a person. Finally, he reached the 5 area and spent a night there.
Next morning, he 6 up and was told that a king was going for his invasion of another state with his army. When the king saw the wise man, he 7 his army to stop. He came to the wise man and said, "I am going to beat another 8. Thus, my state can be 9. So 10 me to be victorious".
After 11, the wise man gave the coin to the king! The king was confused with this because he is already one of the 12 kings! He 13 asked, "What's the meaning?"
The wise man explained, "I found this coin yesterday in your 14. But I had no 15. So I had 16 that I would donate it. I walked around till the evening, but found no one such. "
"Everyone was living a 17 life. It seemed that they were satisfied with what they had. But today, the king of this state, still has the desire to 18 more and is not satisfied with what he already has. I feel you are 19 this coin."
The king realized his 20 and gave up the planned war.
Once a young man was passing by a street where he saw an old man sitting by the roadside (beg) for money. That old man was sitting there with empty bowl in front of him, and a cardboard sign was put up beside the bowl. There was a sentence (write) on the cardboard: "Blind-Please help!"
The young man felt very bad that no one planned (give) him any money. So he went to the old man and took his cardboard in his hand. He then took a thick marker pen out of his pocket and re-wrote the sign without hesitation and then left. The old man noticed that someone was writing something (differ) on the board but didn't say anything.
Just in a few minutes, that empty bowl (fill) with money. The old man noticed that and stopped a stranger and asked him was on that cardboard. The stranger replied, "It says, "It's a beautiful day. You can see it. I cannot." Our (choose) of words and language can create positive or negative effects others. If we choose the right words, then we can (true) connect with people and change their views.
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（∧），并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线（\）划掉。
修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：⒈ 每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；
⒉ 只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。
Every year, my parents and I pay visit to my grandparents in my hometown.
To be honestly, I didn't want to go this year. You know, my hometown in their memory was so dirty. Rubbish could be seen everywhere, that annoyed me a lot. After thinking for some moment, I asked my parents that whether we could let my grandparents come and stay with us. Heard this, they just smiled.
When I got on the bus, I was surprised to find that the village was very clean that I hardly recognized it. Then I decide to visit my grandparents more often.
⒈你平常是怎样去上学的；
⒉描述你最理想的交通工具：
⒊交通工具的改进给人们带来了什么。
注意：⒈词数100左右；
⒉可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
