Humans sweat to keep cool. But did you know that besides them, only a small percentage of the world's animals keep cool by sweating? In fact, animals have a variety of ways to beat the cruel heat, some of which you might say are even a little bit strange.
Giraffes
We know that giraffes live in a particularly dry, hot environment, but they don't sweat. How do they stay cool? The answer lies in their beautiful skin pattern, which is like a large network with a very complex vascular (血管) system under each patch (斑块). A giraffe's special blood flow can force heat out of its body. Because of their rather large skin surface, this is a more-than-effective way to escape the heat.
Elephants
As the largest land animal on earth, elephants rely on their huge pair of ears. Simply by tapping their ears, elephants can lower their body temperature by 120℃ or more. Moreover, elephants often open their ears when facing the wind to reach this cooling effect.
Dogs
The dog's way of escaping the heat is probably the most common in our daily lives--sticking their tongues out. By breathing heavily, dogs quickly force the heat from their body and breathe cooler air in, which enters their lungs and cools their entire body.
Koalas
Koalas are well-known for their "laziness", so it's natural to see one lying on a branch and think it's just being its lazy self, but that's not the case. Researchers say that the koalas select their trees very carefully, looking in hot weather for tree bark that is cooler than the air temperature. By getting into the cool surface of the bark, koalas can stay relatively comfortable during Australia's powerful heat waves.
I'd been asked to go to an editor's office with the old program "We have a story we think you'd be perfect for". Here was the topic: We want you to write about how middle-aged men have no friends. Seeing that, I couldn't help thinking, "Excuse me? I have plenty of friends." Then the editor told me there were all sorts of evidence out there to show how men, as they age, let their close friendships go, and that the fact can cause all sorts of problems and have a terrible impact on their health.
As I walked back to my desk in the newsroom--a distance of maybe 100 yards--I quickly search for my friend list. First of all, there was my friend Mark. Wait, how often do we actually hang out? Maybe four or five times a year? And then there was another best friend from high school, Rory, and…I actually could not remember the last time I'd seen him.
There were all those other good friends who seemed as if they're still in my life because we follow one another via social media, but as I ran down the list of those I considered real, true, lifelong friends, I realized that it had been years since I saw many of them, even decades for a few.
By the time I got back to my desk, I realized that I was indeed perfect for this story, not because I was unusual in any way, but because my story was very, very typical. And as I looked into what that means, I realized that in the long term, I was heading down a path that was very, very dangerous. And I knew I needed a change.
Many people dream of going into space, but until recently only professional astronauts had that privilege. That all changed in 2022, with successful first missions for several space tourism companies.
First off the runway, in early July, was Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic company. Its spaceship, called VSS Unity, took four passengers and two pilots on a trip to the edge of space, where they experienced weightlessness and saw the Earth from above.
Unity has a fully reusable design--it is carried to a height of 9.5 miles under a larger "mothership" plane called Eve. It is then released before firing its own rockets to reach its maximum height of 53 miles. As it begins to fall, its wings turn around so that it floats down slowly like a shuttlecock (羽毛球), before levelling out and flying back to land like a normal aeroplane. Virgin Galactic hopes to begin regular flights in 2023.
Less than two weeks later, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos's New Shepard rocket made its first flight, launching a space capsule with four passengers to an altitude of 66 miles. Among those on board were Bezos himself and 82-year-old Wally Funk, a pioneering female pilot who trained for NASA's Mercury programme in the early 1960s but had waited 60 years for her chance to go into space. Funk became the oldest person to fly in space but only held that record until October, when 90-year-old actor William Shatner flew on the second New Shepard launch. Shatner played Captain Kirk in the Star Trek TV series and films.
In September, the Inspiration 4 mission carried four ordinary people into orbit around Earth. The launch was the first private passenger flight for Elon Musk's SpaceX company, using a Dragon spacecraft that is also used for NASA missions. Designed to raise awareness and funds for St Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, US, the mission was paid for by billionaire Jared Isaacman. He was joined on the three-day flight by medical researcher Hayley Arceneaux, competition winner Dr Sian Proctor and hospital supporter ChrisSembroski.
If you were to throw, say, a banana peel out of your car while driving along the motorway, that would be a completely harmless action, due to the fact that it's part of a fruit--right? Actually, no. A banana peel can take up two years to decompose(分解), and with a third of motorists admitting to littering while driving, that's a whole lot of waste banana peels, or much worse. An orange peel and a cigarette butt has a similar biodegrading (生物降解) term to that of a banana, but tin and aluminum (铝) cans last up to100 years; and plastic bottles last forever, as do glass bottles and plastic bags.
Despite the fact that longer-lasting materials will serve to damage the environment, we can't only measure the severity (严重) of a certain type of rubbish by its lifetime. For example, despite having a fairly short biodegrading span, more than 120 tons of cigarette-related litter is thrown in the UK every day. Similarly, our regular littering here and there has caused the UK's mouse population to increase by 60 million. This suddenly isn't so mysterious when you consider that since the 1960s our annual littering has increased by an astonishing 500 percent.
It's not a cheap habit either: UK taxpayers spent £500 million on keeping the streets clean. So, it's not surprising that if caught fly-tipping, you could face a £20, 000 fine. Regardless of how severe the punishment might seem, however, among the reported cases only 2, 000 were punished out of 825, 000, so we still have some way to go in making sure people obey the rules.
To take back our beautiful cities, we need to do more than simply not leaving rubbish where it ought not to be. We need to care more about the world around us.
My fear of water started from childhood. It began when I was four years old and father took me to the beach. I was so scared that I kept away from water for a long time, but I still wanted to play with water.
I was determined to learn swimming at the age of ten. At the K. P. L. B. was a pool offering the opportunity. The K. P. L B. pool was quiet. I was afraid of going in all alone, so I sat on the side of the pool to wait for others. Then came a big boy. He yelled, "Hi, Skinny! How'd you like to be ducked?" With that he picked me up and threw me into the deep end. I landed in a sitting position, and swallowed water. I gathered all my strength when I landed and made what I thought was a great spring upwards. Then I opened my eyes and saw nothing but water. I tried to yell but no sound came out.
When I came to consciousness, I found myself on the bed in the hospital. After that, I avoided water whenever I could. It prevented me from the joy of boating and swimming. Finally, I decided to get an instructor. Piece by piece, I practised hard and finally he built a swimmer. Several months later. the. instructor was finished, but I was not. Sometimes the terror would return.
I swam across the Lake Wentworth. Only once did the terror return. When I was in the middle of the lake, I put my face under and saw nothing but bottomless water. I laughed and said, "Well, Mr. Terror, what do you think you can do to me? "I had conquered my fear of water.
A. This went on till July.
B. It seemed a long way down.
C. I never went back to the pool.
D. I went down, down, endlessly.
E. But I was not frightened out of my wits.
F. This bad luck stayed with me as the years rolled by.
G. There the huge waves knocked me down and swept over me.
I used to be a very self-centered person, but in the past two years I have really changed. I have started to think about other people 1 I think about myself. I'm happy that I am becoming a 2 person.
My change started when I was at Palomar College. At first, I just wanted to get my 3 and be left alone, so I hardly 4 to anyone in my classes. By the end of my first semester, I was really 5. So I tried an 6 I started asking people around me how they were doing, and if they were having trouble. I 7 to help. That was really a big 8 for me. By the end of the year, I had several new friends, two of 9 are still my best friends today.
A bigger cause of my new 10, however, came when I took a part-time job at a Vista Nursing Home. One old lady there who had Alzheimer's disease became my 11. Every time I came into her room, she was so 12 because she thought I was her daughter. Her real daughter never 13 her, so I took her place. When she died, I was 14 but I was very grateful to her.
I am a much better person today than I used to be, and I hope I will not forget these experiences. They have 15 me to care about other people more than about myself.
I began my journey studying in China in March 2016, when I came to Beijing Language and Culture University (BLCU) to get my bachelor's degree in Chinese language. As a youth from the USA, I feel that (study) in China is one of the best ways to (true) understand this amazing country. Having studied at BLCU, I have the chance not only to interact with international students from all over the world but ) (make) friends with local Chinese students.
Through various activities, I was able to develop many friendships with Chinese students. It was through these friendships I had the opportunity to better understand what the university life of average Chinese student was like. Because many Chinese friends (come) from different areas around the country, I was able to gain a (good) understanding of China than before.
Besides the activities, my absolute (favorite) were the times when my close friends from school would gather in my dorm room to cook and eat. It may sound like nothing special, these were some of my cherished (珍爱的) memories at BLCU.
I sincerely hope that more foreigners in China can take advantage of (they) time to experience the food, the culture, and especially the people.
"Mommy, don't go," my three-year-old son screamed as I walked to the door. My fifteen-year-old leaned against the kitchen counter with his arms folded across his chest, not screaming, but glaring at me as I pulled his little brother off my legs.
"Are you mad at me too?"
"You spend all your time taking care of other people's kids, but what about us?" Dylan left angrily.
I was shocked and a little hurt. How could my own child not understand that the work I was doing was saving lives? Then the answer hit me. He didn't know, because he had never seen what Healing the Children actually did. Dylan had heard the stories of sick children, but had never once looked into the eyes of a child and understood the hard truth--that without our help, the children would likely die.
"Get dressed. You are going with me," I said.
I spent the drive explaining the case of Hector to my son, who pretended to ignore me the entire time. "He's seven, only weighs thirty pounds and is very sick. He has a heart condition called Tetralogy of Fallot, which could kill him. It is a miracle (奇迹) that he is still alive."
I went on to explain that it took a team of volunteer medical staff to get Hector to the hospital from his remote village and care for him while he was there. Still, Dylan seemed unimpressed.
We stopped at a convenience store for water and snacks. Dylan had one large and one small Slurpee (思乐冰饮料). He said the small one was for Hector. I doubted whether the little guy would be able to drink it, but remained silent. This was the first interest Dylan had shown in being there. I wasn't about to ruin it.
I stopped at the nurses' station to check on Hector's progress while Dylan went to his room. Our patient was recovering physically, but the nurse was concerned that Hector was struggling emotionally. She said, "Kids usually bounce back fast, but he hardly speaks and never smiles."
注意：
1）续写词数应为150左右；
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Imagine my surprise when I heard laughter from Hector's room.
……
On the way home that night, Dylan asked me several times whether Hector would be okay.
