The first rule of popular science is to reveal the wonder and mystery of the world. For that reason, Sentient (Picador), written by photographer and wildlife film-maker Jackie Higgins, is my pick of the year. According to my interviews with many readers, I select other four newly-published books in 2022.
Delicious
This book describes how our ancestors hunted and consumed ancient animals such as mammoths, bison, giant camels and many more now-extinct species. The diet of the Clovis peoples of North America was a menu described as "a record of a lost world". This book explains how our dinners robbed the world of so many large animals. It gives inspiration for how modern humans can be at peace with nature.
The New Climate War
In 1999, Mann published a graph showing the rapid post-industrial rise in global temperatures. Two decades later, his book The New Climate War remains convinced that we can prevent climate change. This book sets out a common-sense approach to carbon pricing and a revision of the Green New Deal. Of course, there are still many people who deny that climate change is even happening.
The Geodesic Dome
Physicist Kate Greene imagines that she spends four months in a geodesic dome in Hawaii, with five other people, to mimic living in a colony on another planet. The story describes the future of our Earth. Kate makes readers cherish the natural environment. "No sunshine on our skin, and no fresh air in our lungs," Greene turns the frustrations into a moving story.
Florida Scrub-Jay
The birds were once common across the peninsula. But as development over the last 100 years reduced the habitats on which the bird depends, the species became endangered. Mark Walters travels the state to report on the natural history and the current situation of Florida's flag ship birds. This book can raise people's awareness of protecting the birds' habitats.
In my childhood, my mother spent her evening hours doing something for someone else. Sometimes she knitted(编织) hats for babies, and at other times, she cooked chicken soup for sick neighbors. Therefore, I wasn't surprised when one evening my mother announced she had undertaken a new project.
"I am going to telephone seniors," said my mother. "Every night? But you don't even know these people." "It doesn't matter," she said, "What's important is that I listen."
I was sixteen years old and couldn't understand why my mother was willing to spend her evenings talking to strangers. She had friends and my two older sisters to call if she felt lonely. "They will talk your ear off. Some people didn't even stop to catch breath." I said.
My attitude didn't stop my mother's enthusiasm for the project. That evening, she settled on the sofa and dialed. When she finished the call, I said, "Why do you care whether she had cookies or rice pudding for dessert?" My mother grasped one of my hands and said in a proud tune, "I'm the only person she talked to today."
It took me more than thirty years to fully understand the meaning of that statement. Now, as my mother is near eighty, I find myself thinking about those nightly calls she used to make. I am often the only person who telephones my mother, and sometimes I'm the only person she speaks to all day. I ask her what she cooked for dinner, but mostly I just listen as she describes a walk she took, or how her dog Lucky stole foods from the refrigerator. I realize that my mother's calls were life lines that ensured housebound seniors remained connected to the world. Without her, their world would have been empty.
A 57-year-old Tonga man survived 27 hours at sea in the ocean after a tsunami wave swept him out to sea.
The incident (事件) happened after the huge eruption of a volcano in the island kingdom of Tonga. Lisala Folau said that he was painting his house when his brother told him a tsunami was moving toward the small island of Atata.
Folau is disabled and has difficulty walking. He said he climbed a tree to escape the first wave but when he got down, another big wave swept him away. "I could hear my son calling from land, but I didn't want to answer him because I didn't want him to swim out to rescue me," said Folau.
Folau was swept out to sea at about 7 p. m. local time. Then, he said he swam another eight hours to a second island with no one living on it before finally swimming again to the main island of Tongatapu. The experience lasted more than 27 hours and covered 7.5 kilometers.
Folau said that he went underwater nine times. "On the eighth time I thought, ‘The next time I go underwater, my arms are the only things that are keeping me above water'," said Folau. "So the ninth time I went under and came up and grabbed a log (原木). And that's what kept me going."
In an interview, Folau said he was frightened when the waves took him from land into the sea. "What came into my mind when I was helpless at sea was one thing," he said. "That was my family."
The amazing story of Folau's survival was shared on the Internet. And people described him as a "real-life Aquaman (潜水侠)".
If history is "a race between education and catastrophe", education seemed until recently to be winning. In 1950 only about half of adults globally had any schooling; now at least 85% do. Between 2000 and 2018, the proportion(比例) of school-age children who were not enrolled(使加入) in classes fell from 26% to 17%. But the rapid rise in attendance masked an ugly truth: many pupils were spending years behind desks but learning almost nothing. In 2019 the World Bank started keeping count of the number of children who still cannot read by the time they finish primary school. It found that less than half of ten-year-olds in developing countries could read and understand a simple story.
Then the pandemic struck and millions of pupils were locked out of school. It should be noted that globally, the harm that school closures have done to children has vastly outweighed any benefits they may have had for public health. The World Bank says the share of ten-year-olds in middle-and low-income countries who cannot read and understand a simple story has risen from 57% in 2019 to roughly 70%. If they lack such elementary skills, they will struggle to earn a good living.
This should be seen for what it is: a global emergency. Nearly every problem that confronts humanity can be alleviated by good schooling. Better-educated people are more likely to work out a cleaner energy source, a cure for malaria or a smarter town plan. If the damage the pandemic has done to education is not reversed(逆转), all these goals will be harder to reach.
Politicians talk endlessly about the importance of schooling, but words are cheap and a fit-for-purpose education system is not. Spending has risen modestly in recent decades but fell in many countries during the pandemic. Apart from the money, the education system itself is in urgent need of change: Testing is a mess, leading governments to overestimate levels of literacy. New teachers have been hired but not trained properly. Teachers, who have come through the same education systems they are supposed to be improving, often struggle to teach.
The same energy that was once poured into building schools and filling up classrooms should now be used to improve the lessons that take place within them. No more children should stumble (蹒跚而行) through their school days without learning to read or add up.
Handwritten Chinese characters can be beautiful. Living in a digital era with smartphones and computers, most students sooner or later ask themselves this question:
Knowing how to write Chinese characters by hand is just cool. It feels like magic when you write a few strokes(笔画)on paper that don't normally make sense, but they suddenly come together and create a meaning.
Handwriting characters trains your muscle memory, making characters stay longer in your memory and improving your reading and speaking skills. However, without knowing how to write characters by hand, you are very unlikely to reach a level above intermediate(中级的).
Handwriting characters is a form of meditation. Once you learn how to stay focused, you will not only notice that your concentration skills improve, but you will also find yourself feeling calm and relaxed when writing characters.
Most people agree that we should learn to write last least some characters at some point as a student of Chinese, although not necessarily straight away and not necessarily all the characters that you can say. But unless you don't care about written language at all, you should learn the basics of handwriting. You don't need to be a calligraphy master, but you do need basic handwriting skills to do this. Simply looking at things is, as usual, a bad way of learning.
A. And amazingly, you can understand it.
B. Is it important to learn Chinese culture?
C. Handwriting characters trains your concentration.
D. Learning characters is a good idea for all students.
E. Without it, it will be very hard to understand characters.
F. Is it really necessary to learn how to write by hand in Chinese?
G. You can learn Chinese to a certain level without handwriting characters.
One day, my uncle brought home a parrot. My cousin and I called it Mitthu. My family were so1 strongly that they trimmed(剪掉) its wings. They said if it left home, it wouldn't2 outside without us.As time went by, we grew and so did Mitthu. Its wings grew quite a lot. Mitthu wasn't kept in a cage. I sometimes wondered why it didn't3 . Maybe it was quite attached to us and didn't want to leave us, or it didn't want to leave the luxurious life and4 the harsh reality of life.As I grew older, I5 that Mitthu's life wasn't very different from mine. I was pampered(溺爱) and6 carefully. I was prohibited from really7 the outside world. My house became my whole world, which was like an invisible8 that had bound my spirit.Now I'm sent out to study and told that I have the whole sky to fly, but9 , just as Mitthu, I am not able to do so. Mitthu and I might be two different beings but we are10 in a similar situation. I am afraid of flying. I am afraid my behavior might hurt my parents' feelings. These emotions and11 will never really allow us to fly independently!It's good for parents to love and12 their children, but, sometimes, over-protectiveness from parents might harm their children's future and13 children's decisions. True14 is to allow kids to grow freely and let them try15 things. Thus, they will be brimming with confidence and courage.
For Greek photographer George Doupas, Beijing is home now. During the past decade, he has been photographing the city, capturing its beauty sharing these photos online and in exhibitions.
"This (true) represents Beijing—the old and the new, nicely mixing together," Doupas said while showing his photograph of the Zhihua Temple, a delicate Ming Dynasty building. It (locate) in front of a modern office building, Galaxy SOHO, which features weaving bridges and interlocking passageways.
With rich historical heritage, Beijing (be)an important center of traditional Chinese culture since the Ming Dynasty. Doupas often gets (lose) in the city's splendid ancient architecture. Meanwhile, he is also amazed by the modern city (combine) high-end businesses and various industries. "It is fascinating to see a rapidly-developing city that invests so much effort in preserving its past, which is I decided to pursue my career here," he said.
Doupas is determined to continue with his career in China, hoping to serve as bridge between China and the West. The (display) that show his photos about Beijing have attracted a large audience in Greece and the Czech Republic.
"I call Beijing my home now," he said, "I'll keep sharing photos of China the rest of the world."
注意：
1. 写作词数应为80左右；
2. 请在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Dear Robin,
Yours,
Li Hua
The day was Thankful Thursday, our "chosen day" of service. It's a weekly tradition that my two little girls and I began years ago. Thursday has become our day to go out in the world and make a positive contribution, however small it is. On this particular Thursday, we had no idea exactly what we were going to do, but we knew that something would present itself.
Driving along a busy Houston road, I prayed for guidance in our quest to fulfill our weekly Act of Kindness. Around the noon hour, my two little ones wasted no time in letting me know their hunger, chanting, "McDonald's, McDonald's, McDonald's" as we drove along. And I began searching earnestly for the nearest McDonald's. Suddenly I realized that almost every crossroad I passed through was occupied by a beggar. And then it hit me!
If my two little ones were hungry, then all these beggars must be hungry, too. Perfect! Our Act of Kindness had presented itself. We were going to buy lunch for the beggars. After finding a McDonald's and ordering two Happy Meals for my girls, I ordered an additional 15 lunches and we set out to deliver them. It was exciting. We would pull alongside a beggar, make a contribution, and tell him or her that we hoped things would get better. Then we'd say, "Oh, by the way, here's lunch." And then we would head to the next crossroad.
It was the best way to give. There wasn't enough time for us to introduce ourselves or explain what we were going to do, nor was there time for them to say anything back to us. The Act of Kindness was anonymous and empowering for each of us, and we loved what we saw in the rearview mirror: a surprised and delighted person holding up his lunch bag and just looking at us as we drove off. It was wonderful!
注意：
1. 续写词数应为150左右;
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Then at a crossroad stood a small woman, asking for change.
She looked at me and added, "You know what, this is my daughter's favorite."
