学进去

It’s a great feeling when someone gives you a compliment (赞美), isn’t it?1．When you compliment someone, he/she will become open and begin to talk with you. How do you give an appropriate compliment, though? It’s important to be sincere and specific about your praise.

When someone does an activity or a task particularly well, let him/her know about it by saying “You did a great job!” 2． For example, “That was a great presentation! I particularly liked the funny examples you used.”

3．You can use “I like” or “I love” to start compliments, especially if someone wears a new coat or has a new haircut. For example, “I love your hair today” or “I like your skirt”.

When you’ve bought something new, it feels great when other people are excited about it. For example, if you take out your new mobile phone and a colleague says, “What a cool phone!”, it makes you feel like you made the right decision to buy it.

4．

Compliment someone on their personalities and you'll make a new friend. For example, if you like how happy a coworker is, you can tell him/her, “You are always so happy. It makes my day better.”5． If you like how organized another colleague is, tell him/her, “I really appreciate how organized you are. I would love to be as organized as you.”

Washing machines are one of the greatest inventions of the last few centuries.They have made life easier. Unfortunately, washing machines also contribute to the environmental issues of energy use and micro-plastics flowing into the oceans. That is why the washing machine manufacturer(制造商), Samsung, and the outdoor-wear company, Patagonia, are working together to make a change.

For Patagonia, the issue of micro-plastics has been on its mind for years—its woolen jackets release many microfibers. As for Samsung, new requirements throughout the world have forced many producers to start thinking about ways to help reduce the number of micro-plastics. There are currently more than 14 million tons of micro-plastics floating in the oceans. Though people previously think of things such as plastic bottles and fishing lines when it comes to plastics in the ocean, thousands of micro-plastics are released into seas with every wash.

The issue is a sort of catch-22. In order to reduce energy costs, manufacturers try to make their machines more efficient. These machines use hotter water and are designed to create more friction(摩擦) between the clothing in the machine. However, both of these things lead to the release of more micro-plastics. So, using Patagonia clothes as test cases, Samsung came up with a two-fold solution: One is a technology called Eco-bubbles, which creates more bubbles to make the detergent(洗涤剂) more powerful, and the other is a water purifier that can filter(过滤) out more micro-plastics.

The cooperation between the two companies is proof of how complicated protecting the environment can be. On the one hand, clothing that is well-constructed and durable is a weapon in the fight against fast fashion. On the other hand, the material used to make those clothes and the way they are washed can also add pollutants to the environment.The same goes for washing machines. There is no one-size-fits-all solution. The fight against climate change requires creative thinking and learning how to attack a problem from many angles. This will certainly lead to even more strange and fruitful cooperation between the environmentally conscious companies.

Having a personal trainer is one of the best ways to stay on track with your workouts, push your limits and try new things. But it often costs more than $100 a class, and getting to and from the gym can take up a lot of time.

Over the past ten years, fitness apps have been trying to copy the personal training experience exactly, and in recent years many have included artificial intelligence (AI) to create workouts. A growing number of products offer personalized works that match your abilities, goals and equipment you have, which usually cost around $100 a year.

However, some experts warn that while AI fitness apps are useful for many exercisers, they’re not the right fit for everyone.

AI fitness apps create personalized training programs using information from personal users and the experiences of other users.

In the future, these apps could collect even more information to give ever more personalized feedback (反馈), said futurist David Brin. But, he added, more information doesn’t always lead to better advice. “What you need to consider is whether the advice will actually be good for you, in the long run,” he said.

Furthermore, computers can learn a lot about different workout routines, but they can’t yet create the social interactions that make the training successful, said Nikola Banovic, professor of computer science and engineering at the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory of the University of Michigan.

The AI fitness apps we have now can’t offer encouragement or provide comfort on a bad day. “As humans, we need more than just the workouts that will get us to our goals,” Dr Banovic said. “We need to be encouraged — that’s something only a real trainer can do right now. It will be some time before AI training does this well.”

Being a writer in the 21st century can keep you in front of a screen for so long that it feels like the room is sideways. Being a human with the Internet can mean hours spent on social media, scrolling and posting for so long that your sense of reality actually becomes sideways. Three years ago, I started to search for ways to deal with my anxiety. I had a brilliant idea, one that felt completely foreign to people like me: I’d go outside, to the real outside.

I grew up in the city, not hiking or camping, so I knew nothing about the outdoors. I have three kids with endless energy, so I figured I could solve two questions at once. I would get a breather from my job and the kids would play with insects and realize there is nothing better than nature.

We drove to Great Falls, Virginia, where hundreds of people on any given day spent hours meandering through the hillside and forest. The blue water pulsed, turning white and crashing powerfully hundreds of feet beneath us. The kids held their breath as if they had seen magics. But it’s just nature, just the outside, and that had been there all along. Since then, we’ve been fascinated.

Last summer I felt my home’s walls closing in, so I decided to go camping. I built my first fire. My kids watched my every move, asking every ten minutes to help get more branches and roast meat. About a month, my craving to take a break from the city grew again. We camped two more times before the cold came, each time seeing a bit more of what nature had to offer city folks.

When Ariel Cordova-Rojas rode her bike to Jamaicia Bay Wildlife Refuge in Queens, New York, last November, she planned to go hiking and bird-watching. Bingo!

A mile into her walk, she spotted a beautiful female mute swan (疣鼻天鹅) near the water’s edge. Cordova-Rojas, 30, who had worked at the Wild Bird Fund recovery center in Manhattan, knew that mute swans can be battle some. But as she approached this one, it didn’t move. She was certain that the bird needed medical attention. Cordova-Rojas placed her jacket over the bird’s head to keep it calm, carefully picked it up, and held it in her arms. And then a thought struck her: What do I do now?

Her best bet was the recovery center, but that was across the East River and clear on the other side of town. How was she going to transport a 17-pound swan on her bike all that way? Luckily, some strangers driving by offered her, her bike, and the swan a lift to a nearby subway station. She worried others might be disturbed. However, on the subway, no one seemed particularly fazed by the feathered passenger. One guy, says Cordova-Rojas, was “sitting right in front of me on his phone. I don’t know if he noticed there was a swan in front of him”.

Cordova-Rojas called the recovery center, and Tristan Higgin-botham, an animal-care manager, picked her up at the subway station and drove bird, bike, and the rescuer to the facility. There, staff members determined that the swan might have lead poisoning.

The staff got the swan back up on her feet. She even made a boyfriend at the center — another injured swan. Sadly, even with all that tender loving care, the swan fell ill with a bacterial infection. Two months after Cordova-Roias came to her rescue, she passed away.

It’s a disappointing ending, but the real story is just how far some people are willing to go to save a swan in the big city-literally. In all, Cordova-Rojas traveled two hours by foot, car, and subway (with her bike). “That’s the perfect summary of who she is,” says Higginbotham.

Looking forward to your early reply.

Yours,

Li Hua

For many people, catching a smell of freshly cut grass is a pleasant sign that warmer weather is here to stay. For the grass, however, this scent signals an entirely different story.

The smell we associate with freshly cut grass is actually a chemical SOS, one used by plants to beg nearby creatures to save them from attack. After all, when danger strikes —whether it's gardening equipment or a hungry caterpillar — plants can't lift their roots and run. They must fight where they stand. To protect themselves, plants employ a string of molecular (分子) responses. These chemical communications can be used to poison an enemy, warn surrounding plants of dangers or attract helpful insects to perform needed services.

Clearly, plants can communicate. But does that mean they can feel pain? According to some researchers, plants release gases that are the equivalent of crying out in pain. Using a laser-powered microphone, researchers have picked up sound waves produced by plants releasing gases when cut or injured. Although not audible to the human ear, the secret voices of plants have revealed that cucumbers scream when they are sick, and flowers cry when their leaves are cut.

There's also evidence that plants can hear themselves being eaten. Researches show that plants understand and respond to chewing sounds made by caterpillars dining on them. As soon as the plants hear the noises, they respond with several defense mechanisms.

For some researchers, evidence of these complex communication systems — giving out noises via gas when in pain — signals that plants feel pain. Others argue that there cannot be pain without a brain to register the feeling. Still more scientists infer that plants can exhibit intelligent behavior without possessing a brain or conscious awareness.

As they grow, plants can change their paths to avoid obstacles or reach for support with their tendrils (卷须). This activity comes from a complex biological network distributed through the plants' roots, leaves and stems. This network helps plants reproduce, grow and survive.

As my son and I were leaving for his basketball class, we found a cat sitting outside the door. Since we are not typically_________with animals in my neighborhood, the cats usually_________when they sense human presence. But this one sat still when she_________found us a couple of steps away. We felt she might be in need of some_________

With my encouragement, my son_________up the cat. We are usually quite afraid about_________animals, but this time he brought her in. We_________a little bit of milk, and she drank as we took turns stroking（轻抚）her back.

When we had to leave, she_________us out of the door. Two street dogs showed up and she_________in fear. We all felt__________for her. We tried to put her in our car__________we could take her to the basketball class, but she jumped off.

We did an act of__________towards the cat, but in a way, I think nature and the cat did a much bigger act of kindness towards us. We were given a(n)__________to engage（参与）in a moment, where one could just give without any expectations. We could feel a(n)__________, without having to say any words, and learn the joy of__________.