Master painter Zhang Daqian (1899-1983) was well known for having a large number of friends and students. Among them, painter Li Qiujun was special.

    They got to know each other through Li's elder brother, who was one of Zhang's best friends.

    They admired each other's artistic talent and became confidants, which resulted in a romantic relationship.

    In 1948, Zhang produced Spring Clouds Amid Autumn Landscape, a mountain-and-water ink painting featuring gongbi (meticulous brushwork), as a gift for Li's 50th birthday.

    A year later, Zhang permanently departed from the mainland, and traveled and exhibited around the world before settling down in Taipei in 1976.

    After leaving the mainland, he often said that he missed Li, who died in Shanghai in 1973.

    Spring Clouds Amid Autumn Landscape will be auctioned in Hong Kong on Oct 4.

    The painting not only marks a friendship between the two painters, but it deserves special attention because it shows Zhang at the top of his game as he sought to master the mountain-and-water style, according to C.K. Cheung, head of Sotheby's Chinese painting department.

    Sotheby's will auction the work at its major autumn sale, which runs from Oct 1 to 5.

    Cheung says the painting's composition and Zhang's attention to details reflect his incorporation of traditional touches, especially from Song Dynasty (960-1279) paintings, while also developing his own style.

    Glacier Bay is one of the most famous parks in America, located in the state of Alaska. This park in the southeastern part of the state covers more than 1 million hectares of Alaskan wilderness. It includes mountains, glaciers (冰川), bays, and even rainforests. Glacier Bay supports hundreds of kinds of animals, including many species of birds, fish, bears, whales and sea lions.

    As its name suggests, much of Glacier Bay National Park is covered by glaciers. A glacier is a large area of ice that moves slowly down a slope (斜坡) or valley, or over a wide area of land. Glaciers cover more than 5,000 square kilometers of the park.

    Glacial ice has shaped the land over the last seven million years. The glaciers found in the park today are what remains from an ice advance known as the Little Ice Age. That period began about 4,000 years ago.

    During the Little Ice Age, the cold weather caused the ice to grow and advance. That situation continued until about 1,700s, when the climate began to warm. The higher temperatures caused the ice to start melting. That melting led the huge glacier to separate into more than 1,000 different glaciers.

    The extremely tall and jagged (参差不齐的) mountains seen in Glacier Bay National Park were formed by the ice advancing and then melting over time. The melting of the ice also created water that filled in and created the many fjords (峡湾) within the park. Fjords are narrow parts of the ocean that sit between cliffs or mountains.

    The huge amount of water from the melted ice killed off many kinds of plants. Vegetation returned to the area over the next 200 years. The regrowth in plants also brought back many animals to the land. This return of life to Glacier Bay is why it is sometimes called “a land reborn” by people.

    Devon, 17, is used to paying her own cell phone and car expenses. But lately it's been harder. The family she baby-sits for hasn't been calling as much as usual and she couldn't find a job over the summer. Devon's dad said it's a sign of the tough economy. He told her he's feeling the pinch too and that he had to use her college fund to pay the loan(货款).

    This kind of money troubles isn't strange to common families these days. In fact, it's hard to avoid news about the economy on the screen of the TV or the computers recently. It can seem a bit worry and some families are hit really hard.

    For most people, the big problem is that things cost more at a time when they have less money to spend. But higher prices aren't the only problem. Many people are having a tough time making payments on some types of home loans.

    Therefore, some families are cutting back on what they spend.  For example, eating out less, staying home instead of going on vacation, moving to a less expensive house and so on.

    However, as discouraging as things may seem now, the good news is that the economy always gets back on track after a while. Jobs may be hard to find, but the slow economy can open up new opportunities. The couple Devon babysat for might cut back on evening's out, but they could be interested in hiring her for after-school care. Perhaps it's time to sell her old toys and baby gear (设备)in the basement(地下室) or help others sell these items online if she is good at it. She could charge them a fee to sell their old stuff(东西).

    More companies and recyclers are taking steps to ensure that old electronic devices such as TVs and computers aren't sent to poor countries.

    The Basel Action Network, a Seattle-based non-profit that largely exposed the overseas discarding (丢弃) of US electronic waste, on Thursday launched a programme to use third-party employees to certify (证实) recyclers who don't export dangerous electronic waste.

    The so-called e-Steward recyclers will also agree not to discard the waste in US landfills and agree to meet other criteria. The certification is intended to provide companies and consumers with some assurance that the waste, which can include toxins (毒素) such as lead and mercury, is disposed of safely.

    The Government Accountability Office, in a 2008 report, declared that US electronic waste was often disposed of unsafely in such countries as India. There, workers recycle gold, silver and copper from the waste, often in open-air acid baths.

    The Basel Network also says it won assurances from 13 organizations, including Samsung, Bank of America, Wells Far-go, that they'll use e-Steward recyclers whenever possible. Wells Fargo had already been using recyclers who declared not to export. So far, Basel has certified three recyclers and seven sites.

    Before e-stewards, even, companies that wanted to avoid export of electronic waste had to “hope for the best”, when, they handed their waste to recyclers, says Robert Houghton, president of Ohio-based recycler Redemtech. It is an e-Steward that counts major companies among its customers. “Now, they can get some proof,” Houghton says.

    Basel's standards compete with another set launched in January. It was made by industry and backed by the Environmental Protection Agency.

    That standard, called R-2, doesn't ban the export of dangerous electronic waste but requires that it be handled safely. Instead of a ban, the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries says, efforts should be made to help poor countries develop safe recycling.

    A professor from the University of Georgia is allowing students to choose their own grades to reduce their stress and to walk out of any class if they don't like “the group dynamics.” If the professor were to write a book outlining this educational philosophy（教育理念）, what could it be titled? Would you like to write down your possible title and then send an email to us?

    How to enter:

    Submissions should be emailed to contest@theweek.com.

    Please include your name, address, and daytime telephone number; this week, please type “No stress” in the subject line.

    Entries are due by noon, Eastern Time, Tuesday, Aug. 29.

    In the case of similar entries, the first one received gets credit. All entries become property of The Week.

    Winners will appear on the Puzzle Page on the Sept. 8 issue and at the week.com/ puzzles on Friday, Sept. 1.

    What to win:

    Winners will get a chance to discuss some topics they care about face to face with the professor. They will also be given a book from the professor.

    Winners will get a one-year subscription（订阅）to The Week. They will receive 4 free issues first. They'll also get 46 more for a total of 50 in all for just $ 1. 39 per issue! They'll receive instant access to the digital edition. If you're not completely satisfied, just cancel it and any trial issues you receive are yours to keep.

    People have grown taller over the last century, with South Korean women shooting up by more than 20cm on average, and Iranian men gaining 16.5cm. A global study looked at the average height of 18-year-olds in 200 countries 1914 and 2014. The results show that while Swedes were the tallest people in the world in 1914, Dutch men have risen from l2th place to claim top spot with an average height of 182.5cm. Larvian women, meanwhile, rose from 28th place in 1914 to become the tallest in the world a century later, with an average height of 169.8cm. James Bentham, a co-author of the research says the global trend is likely but once you average over whole populations, genetics plays a less key role," he added.

    But while height has increased around the world, the trend in many countries of north and sub-Saharan Africa causes concern, says Elio Riboli of Imperial College. While height increased in Uganda and Niger during the early 20th century, the trend has reversed in recent years, with height decreasing among 18-year-olds.

    "One reason for these decreases in height is the economic situation in the 1980s," said Professor Alexander. The nutritional and health problems that followed the policy of structural adjustment, he says, led to many children and teenagers failing to reach their full potential in terms of height.

    Bentham believes the global trend of increasing height has important implications. "How tall we are now is strongly influenced by the environment we grew up in," he said. "If we give children the best possible start in life now, they will be healthier and more productive for decades to come."