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（网格状的穹顶）in Hawaii, with five other people, to mimic（模仿） 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（半岛）. 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.
Twenty years ago, German-born Kathrin von Rechenberg left Paris, France, where she used to work for some luxury brands. She didn't leave to make a fortune. In search of a particular kind of material called fragrant cloud organza（香云纱）, she came to Shunde, a small city in South China's Guangdong Province.
Rechenberg has a passion for making clothes at a very young age. When she was 11, she made her first dress by herself. Then she went to a specialized school for three years to improve her skills in clothes making. After earning the first prize in a clothesmaking competition in Germany, she won a full scholarship from the top haute couture（高级女式时装）school in Paris. There, she worked for famous haute couture houses as an honor graduate.
But instead of following the steps of some famous designers in haute couture houses, she simply quit her job, and made her way to China to explore the beauty of fragrant cloud organza. As a result, she created her own brand, Rechenberg Art Couture, and found a way to express her own philosophy in making clothes.
Rechenberg learned that the production of the material involves more than 30 intervals of dyeing（染色）and natural drying at each interval, while the last step is to cover the fabrics with mud so that the latter's rich iron elements can react with the tannic acid and silk fiber to change the colors. After the dyeing, the fabrics must stand for years before the entire process is completed. However, such materials nourished （滋养） by the natural soil, water, and sunshine have a unique energy and become fabrics that can "breathe".
She draws inspiration from geometric lines and architectural shapes and reduces unnecessary tailoring to preserve the original art design as much as possible. For Rechenberg, a perfect cut should be precise and smooth, just like Chinese calligraphy, which is often finished at one stretch. In addition, she always avoids complicated decorations. "Making clothes is about taking off things unnecessary, and you have more strength when it is kept simple, "she said.
In 2020, Rechenberg was awarded the title of friendship ambassador of China's textile intangible cultural heritage. Meanwhile, her own brand has become increasingly popular.
Many ancient populations used inscriptions（铭文） to document different parts of their lives. But the objects containing such inscriptions have been damaged over the centuries.
The researchers, led by Alphabet's AI company DeepMind, developed a new AI-based method which serves as a technological tool to help researchers repair missing inscriptions and estimate the true origins of the records. They call their tool Ithaca. The system is the first deep neural（神经的）network that can restore the missing text of damaged inscriptions. The researchers said it trained Ithaca on the largest collection of data containing Greek inscriptions from the non-profit Packard Humanities Institute in California. Feeding this data into the system is designed to help the tool use past writings to predict missing letters and words in damaged inscriptions.
The researchers reported that in experiments with damaged writings, Ithaca was able to correctly predict missing inscription elements 62% of the time. In addition, the tool was 71% correct in identifying where the inscriptions first came from. And when historians work on their own, the success rate for restoring damaged inscriptions is about 25%. But when humans teamed up with Ithaca to assist in their work, the success rate jumped to 72%.
Thea Sommerschield from Ca'Foscari University of Venice said the system had already provided new information to help researchers reexamine important periods in Greek history. In one case, Ithaca confirmed new evidence presented by historians about the dating of a series of important Greek decrees（法令）. The decrees were first thought to have been written before 446/445 BCE. But the new evidence suggested a date in the 420s BCE. Ithaca predicted a date of 421 BCE. The date change may seem small but it has significant implications for our understanding of the political history of Classical Athens.
The team is currently working on other versions of Ithaca trained on other ancient languages. DeepMind has launched a free, interactive tool based on the system for use by researchers, educators, museum workers and the public.
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.
Applying the correct time management skills and tips can help you get more organized and increase productivity. The more of these tools you learn to use, the more that you will get done each day.
First, get your work list ready for the following day the evening or night before. The best exercise is for you to plan your entire next day as the last thing you do before coming home from work. When you plan your day the night before, your subconscious then goes to work on your plans and goals while you are asleep. Very often you will wake up in the morning with ideas and insights that apply to the work of the day. A major reason for insomnia（失眠）is your lying awake trying not to forget to remember everything that you have to do the following day.
Schedule your time. The very act of using your organizational skills to plan your day, week, and month, gives you a greater feeling of control and will help increase productivity throughout your day. You'll feel in charge of your life. Mastering your time organization actually increases your self-esteem（ 自尊） and improves your sense of personal power.
Start early. To increase productivity, start your day early. In the biographies and autobiographies of successful men and women, almost all of them have one thing in common. They developed great organizational skills and the habit of going to bed at a reasonable hour and rising early. Many successful people arise at 5:00 A. M. or 5:30 A. M. As a result, they are always more effective than those who sleep in until the last possible moment.
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A. Prepare in advance. B. It reduces stress and releases energy. C. Increase productivity with prime time. D. Then they can have enough time to think and plan for the coming day. E. Your most important work requires that you be at your best, and creative. F. A major benefit of doing so is that this exercise lets you sleep more soundly. G. The more time you take to think and plan, the better organized you will be in your life. |
One day, my uncle brought home a parrot. My cousin and I called it Mitthu. My family were so1strongly that they trimmed（剪掉） its wings. They said if it left home, it wouldn't2outside 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 and4the harsh reality of life.
As I grew older, I5that Mitthu's life wasn't very different from mine. I was pampered（溺爱）and6carefully. I was prohibited from really7the outside world. My house became my whole world, which was like an invisible8that 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 are10in a similar situation. I am afraid of flying. I am afraid my behavior might hurt my parents' feelings. These emotions and11will never really allow us to fly independently!
It's good for parents to love and12their children, but, sometimes, over-protectiveness from parents might harm their children's future and13children's decisions. True14is to allow kids to grow freely and let them try15things. Thus, they will be brimming with confidence and courage.
Still consider the CBA China's(popular) basketball league? Think again!
With over 10, 000 spectators（观众）(roar) on their feet every night, amateur inter-village basketball tournament held last week in Southwest China's Guizhou province has become a massive hit online.
In 2018, the village-level tournament(include) in the Chi Xin Festival, which celebrates harvest on the sixth of June on the lunar calendar. Since then, the annual competition has become a center for enthusiasts from nearby and many who drive up to 200 km from Guiyang and surrounding areas(experience) the unique gathering.
"The number of spectators and the participating areas that the tournament covers (increase) for four continuous years, and the key to its popularity isthis tournament truly belongs to local people and connects neighborhoods like no other event does. The proximity（邻近）to each and every player and spectator makes it special," said Cen Jianglong, a co-organizer of the tournament, has played basketball recreationally for 20 years.
During the four-day competition, over 50 million online(view) had tuned in to watch live streaming of the games. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian also joined in the fun, sharing a video clip of the games on Twitter accompanied by the message: "The rural basketball match in Guizhou is on!_a great atmosphere!"
A few days before Christmas, while enjoying coffees, my girlfriend and I noticed a woman trying to get her bank card to work.
"Do you know her?" I asked my friend.
"I do. Give me a minute. I'm going to go and see if I can help," she replied, standing up to walk over to her.
A few minutes later, my friend returned to the table with the woman. The woman looked upset. Her eyes were swollen, as if she'd been crying all night. She looked pale, tired, and messy. After I was introduced, my friend asked her if she was okay. She admitted she wasn't and burst into tears.
I could sense she was a little embarrassed by her emotional response. Wanting to put her at ease, I quickly told her not to worry. I shared that I was a new mom with many troubles and I'd already cried fourteen times that day. She laughed but soon her tears were flowing again.
For the next forty-five minutes, my friend and I both sat and patiently listened to her. She lost her husband before Christmas and their bank accounts were now left nothing. As a stay-at-home mom of two, in one split second, her entire life had come crashing down around her.
We tried our best to cheer her up. My friend even tried to give her some cash, which she refused. When she finally got up to leave, she wiped her tears, thanked us both for listening, and walked out.
As I drove home, I couldn't stop thinking about how depressed she looked when she left the cafe. No one deserves to feel that sad, I thought, especially right before Christmas. There must be something I can do to help. I racked my brain（绞尽脑汁） for an answer.
注意：
1）所续写短文的词数应为150左右；
2）续写部分分为两段，每段的开头已给出。
Gladly, a solution came.
The kids were overjoyed when hearing that Santa（圣诞老人）sent them gifts.
