A kind of far-fetched clay speakers might sound novel to you, yet nowadays music speakers made from clay have appeared on the market.
The makers of such speakers are from a German start-up called Mapu. They say the product is around 80 percent biodegradable (可生物降解的). That's not necessarily what most people look for in a set of speakers, but it's a commendablefeature at this time when electronic waste is piling up around the world.
The speakers are now often noticed due to their eco-friendly side, but those behind them did not set out to achieve that at first. The main inspiration was to keep traditional crafts alive in regions where they were disappearing, especially in rural Chile, where Pablo Ocqueteau, a co-founder of Mapu, was born. He, together with his partner Philinevon Agnes, had been wondering how to help bring traditional Chilean crafts into the modern world. Finally. they decided to make a speaker out of a traditional Chilean water jug found in most Chilean households.
Craftsmen in Nacimientoonce renowned for pottery (陶艺) but struggling to keep the art alive were only too happy to help the pair. After the first design of the speaker was made, Ocqueteauand Agnes talked with a professional engineer in Germany, who later proved the adapted clay jug had great potential as a speaker. Then the two cooperated with Sound Hub Denmark, whose engineers made slight changes to the speaker's design. Since then, potters in Nacimientohave created small groups of clay speakers. According to Duszeln, Maputypically pays craftsmen an above average fee for their work, and it has also funded tree-planting projects through ProNativo, an environmental organization, as well as a project to feed communities in Santiago during the first lockdown caused by the COVTID-19 pandemic.
The pair hope to make traditional crafts more attractive to young people. They also believe clay speakers can help further describe the benefits of clay, which has renewed significance in a world where people are concerned about the environment.
There are villages and towns around the world that have fascinatingly managed to preserve their original architecture and landscape with rapid modernization. Their rich historical context has led to their recognition by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites.
The Old Town of Lijiang
The Old Town of Lijiang in Yunnan, China, established in the 13th century, is home to the minority group — NakhiPeople. The small town in southwestern China still maintains its historical landscape. Its complex, ancient water-supply system is still functioning today.
Vlkolínec
Vlkolínecis a village that settles under the administration of Ruiomberokin Slovakia. It maintains more than 40 unaltered buildings from 1376. The village still hosts traditional log houses that were once popular, as well as the strip-shape characteristic of medieval (中世纪的) land share.
Old Town of Tallinn
Old Town of Tallinn dates back to the 13th century. It stands today as a preserved Medieval northernEuropean trading city on the coast of the Baltic Sea. Its narrow, winding streets still mostly keep their Medieval names, and the town wall, Town Hall, pharmacy and churches remain in close to their original condition.
The YangdongVillage
The Yangdong Village is located in Gyeongju, South Korea. It hosts over 150 tiled-roofed and thatched-roofed homes built throughout the surrounding thick forest. There are 54 historic homes that are over 200 years old. The area's landscape, sheltered by forested mountains was celebrated by 17th and 18th century poets for its beauty.
The argument that human-caused carbon emissions(排放) are merely a drop in the bucket compared to greenhouse gases generated by volcanoes has been making its way around the rumor mill for years. And while it seems to be reasonable, the science just doesn't back it up.
According to the US Geological Survey (USGS), the world's volcanoes, both on land and undersea, generate about 200 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) annually, while our automotive and industrial activities cause some 24 billion tons of CO2 emissions every year worldwide. Despite the arguments to the contrary, the facts speak for themselves: Greenhouse gas emissions from volcanoes compose less than one percent of those generated by today's human activities.
Another indication that human emissions surpass those of volcanoes is the fact that atmospheric CO2 levels as measured by sampling stations around the world, have gone up consistently year after year regardless of whether or not there have been major volcanic eruptions in specific years. "If it were true that individual volcanic eruptions dominated human emissions and were causing the rise in carbon dioxide concentrations, then these carbon dioxide records would be full of spikes —one for each eruption," says Coby Beck, a journalist writing for online environmental news. "Instead, such records show a smooth and regular trend."
Furthermore, some scientists believe that volcanic eruptions, like that of Mt.St. Helens in 1980 and Mt. Pinatubo in 1991, actually lead to short-term global cooling, not warming, as sulfur dioxide (SO2), ash and other particles in the air and stratosphere(平流层) reflect some solar energy instead of letting it into Earth's atmosphere. SO2, which converts to sulfuric acid aerosol, when it hits the stratosphere, can linger there for as long as seven years and can exercise a cooling effect long after a volcanic eruption has taken place.
Scientists tracking the effects of the major 1991 eruption of the Philippines' Mt. Pinatubo found that the overall effect of the blast was to cool the surface of the Earth globally by some 0.5 degrees Celsius a year later, even though rising human greenhouse gas emissions and an El Nino event caused some surface warming during the 1991-1993 study period.
In an interesting twist on the issue, British researchers last year published an article in the peer reviewed scientific journal Nature showing how volcanic activity may be contributing to the melting of ice caps in Antarctica but not because of any emissions, natural or man-made. Instead, scientists Hugh Corr and David Vaughan of the British Antarctic Survey believe that volcanoes underneath Antarctica may be melting the continents ice sheets from below, just as warming air temperatures from human-induced emissions erode them from above.
When we see cute babies, or adorable baby animals, many of us feel a strong urge to squeeze or pinch them or even bite them. Scientists call this strange response "cute aggression".
Stavropoulos' s team gathered 54 people to look at 32 pictures of four sets. One set contained photos of cute baby animals. Another set contained pictures of less-cute, fully grown animals. The other two sets were photos of human babies which were digitally edited. One set was changed to emphasize features we find cute, such as big eyes and full cheeks. The other was edited to reduce those features.
The scientists found that the participants had much more feelings of cute aggression towards images of baby animals than those of adult animals. Surprisingly, this difference was not seen from the two sets of human baby pictures in comparison.
To assess cute aggression, the participants were asked questions about the degree of wanting to aggress the subjects of the photos, and of wanting to care for them. Scientists suspect these responses are associated with not only the brain's emotional systems, but also its reward systems, which adjust motivation, pleasure and feelings of "wanting".
Cute aggression may give humans the highly adaptive ability to control emotional response. To limit the motivation of positive feelings, the brain gives commands of the aggression. In other words, the brain throws in a bit of aggression to keep the good feelings from becoming uncontrolled. "If you find yourself fascinated by how cute a baby is, ——so much so that you simply can't control it——that baby is going to starve. "It stops us from investing too much energy into cute things. So, there is no need to feel bad for the desire to pinch them at the sight of cute babies. It's not because we're mean people. The "unfriendly" movement of our fingers is just our brain's way of making sure nothing gets too cute to handle.
I adore poetry-I still remember early lessons on haikus back in my Grade Three classroom. Poetry can be amazing. Here's three ways to bring poetry into your classroom.
Combine poetry and art
Poems often use a few words to create pictures, so they're perfect to combine with art. Students can write a poem inspired by a piece of art or create a piece of art inspired by a poem, which can be especially effective when you're looking at particular styles of art-abstract art or sculpture.
They can look at how poetry can be a part of public art or how words, color and shapes can be combined to create something beautiful.
Create poetry displays
Due to their shorter size, poems make wonderful subject for displays. There are a few ways you can display poetry in the classroom. For instance, if you write or explore poems on a particular theme, you can use that to create a display. Autumn poetry can be displayed on colorful trees made out of paper.
Students can also use a display board to create their own poetry. They can also write lines of poetry to pin up on a board to continue a poem which is being written.
Explore poetry in song
Poetry and songs are two different forms of writing. They both use rhyme, rhythm and highly effective word choice to make you feel something. Students can also think about how already written songs could be set to music.
Take a moment to share some poetry with your students and open up a whole world of different rhythms, rhymes and pictures made out of words.
A. This can be especially effective with songs.
B. You can start with using one to inspire another.
C. Beach poems can be written into a beach scene.
D. But it's not hard to see the similarities between them.
E. Students can also combine poetry and art in one piece.
F. They create poetry using pieces of paper with words on a board.
G. Share some poetry with your students and open up a whole world.
15 years ago, Erin Merrynmet a ginger kitten who needed a home when she was a student in a small college town. He1 into her arms and refused to let her go.
"I was 2 immediately and decided that I would take a 3 and try hiding a kitten in my college dorm where animals are obviously not allowed," Erin recalled.
A week later she was caught and given 48 hours to4 the cat. "I planned secretly for a month to 5 my parents to let me keep him. Mom finally 6 .Dad never said yes but I won and got my 7 "said Erin.
Six years ago, Erin had Abby, her beautiful daughter. She didn't know 8 Bailey would think about the new addition.
But it was love at first sight, and as Abby grew, he became her 9 brother, watching over her every step of the way.
A video clip showing Abby reading to Bailey went viral on the Internet in 2018.Numerous people 10 Erin on social media platforms.
11 ,while Erin and her family spent every day with the cuddly cat, the world did not get to know Bailey for very long. On December 8, 2018, the 14-year-old cat passed away from kidney 12 .
A full month after Bailey's passing, Erin still got cards and gifts from caring individuals. Erin 13 her family has received more than 500 cards from around the world.
It is this love that Erin hopes Bailey's 14 hold on to. She wants her furry "first-born" to be remembered as a symbol of 15 that inspires others to treat the world with love.
Climate change has caused a rise in sea levels. This has increased the amount of salt in fresh water (use )on coastal farms. As a result, farmers are (gradual) unable to use fields close to the sea.
However, Mare Van Rijsselberghe, a farmer in the Netherlands is now using a (mix)of sea and fresh water (grow)healthy and tasty vegetables.
He teamed up with scientists from the Free University of Amsterdam and divided a farm eight irrigated areas. Separate pipes pumped fresh and sea water, and computer program created water with eight levels of salinity(含盐度).
The water levels and the levels of salinity were controlled by computerisedmeasuring devices called "sensors". Mr. Van Rijsselberghesaid he was able to harvest vegetables from most of the eight test areas. He said the vegetables were smaller than grown in fresh water. But he said they also had more sugar and salt, so they tasted much (good).
He found that potatoes grew better than the other vegetables in the combination of sea and fresh water. Mr. Van Rijsselberghesaid four kinds of these potatoes would be sent to Pakistan thousands of hectares of land (damage) by salinization(盐化作用)last year.
注意：
1.写作词数应为80左右；
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Dear Henry,
Yours,
I was 8 years old then. I had little need of luggage. But something about my grandma's old leather suitcase, which had been there beneath my bed, appealed to my imagination. The cracked (有裂纹的)handle felt firm in my hand and made me feel like I was going to places. But I hadn't used the old suitcase before that day.
It was a fall morning in our North Carolina town, and a fine mist dampened the fallen leaves. I was angry. My mother had slighted (冷落) me somehow, though now I have no idea what caused my anger. I wanted to make her pay. I decided to run away.
I said, "Goodbye, Mom. "I stood outside the kitchen door with the suitcase firmly in my hand. "Goodbye, Mom," I repeated twice more. At last, Mom emerged, wiping her hands on a dish towel. I lifted the suitcase a little just to make sure she didn't miss it. "I'm leaving home," I said. The plan was to let her suffer guilt and beg for a minute or two, and then I would agree to stay.
"Did you pack lunch?" Mom's question knocked me off balance. "Isaid I'm leaving. I'm running away. Forever!" I said. Instead, she smiled and said, "Well, would you like me to fix you something? I just made chocolate chip cookies. ""Maybe a cookie. "I hesitated. "All right, I'm off. "As I stepped onto the front walk, fresh-baked chocolate chip cookie tucked (被塞入) into my coat pocket, I looked back at our big yellow house.
Surely, she would follow me. I stared at the front door, waiting for it to be opened. I watched the lace curtains in the living room window for movement. But, no! Not even a flicker (摇曳) of a curtain! My mother didn't care if I ran away. Had she ever loved me at all? So I had nothing to do but go on walking away. I got to the sidewalk and took a right turn, moving slowly on. I had traveled 150 feet before I stopped. I had no idea what would come next, blank and frustrated. I took a bite of the still-moist cookie, put it back into my pocket, and decided that my mother deserved one last chance. I turned around and moved back to the house, leather suitcase swinging like a swing. A moment later, I was back at home.
注意：
1.续写词数应为100左右;
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
"Jack?" my mother's trembling (颤抖) voice was heard from the dark living room.
