Silence is unnatural to man.He begins life with a cry and ends it in stillness.In between he does all he can to make a noise in the world,and he fears silence more than anything else.Even his conversation is an attempt to prevent a fearful silence.If he is introduced to another person,and a number of pauses occur in the conversation,he regards himself as a failure,a worthless person,and is full of envy of the emptiest-headed chatterbox（喋喋不休的人）. He knows that ninety nine percent of human conversation means no more than the buzzing of a fly,but he is anxious to join in the buzz and to prove that he is a man and not a waxwork figure（蜡塑人像）.

    The aim of conversation is not,for the most part,to communicate ideas;it is to keep up the buzzing sound.There are,it must be admitted,different qualities of buzz;there is even a buzz that is as annoying as the continuous noise made by a mosquito.But at a dinner party one would rather be a mosquito than a quiet person.Most buzzing, fortunately,is pleasant to the ear,and some of it is pleasant even to the mind.He would be a foolish man if he waited until he had a wise thought to take part in the buzzing with his neighbors.

    Those who hate to pick up the weather as a conversational opening seem to me not to know the reason why human beings wish to talk.Very few human beings join in a conversation in the hope of learning anything new.Some of them are content if they are merely allowed to go on making a noise into other people's ears,though they have nothing to tell them except that they have seen two or three new plays or that they had food in a Swiss hotel.At the end of an evening,during which they have said nothing meaningful for a long time.They just prove themselves to be successful conservationists.

    The Israeli farmers who pioneered the revolutionary technology known as drip irrigation weren't trying to solve one of the world's most urgent problems．They were just trying to survive．They lived in the desert，and they didn't have enough water to grow their crops．

    In its simplest form, it was little more than a pipe with holes in it. But behind each hole was a hi-tech dripper that let out just the right amount of water. Snaked along a row of crops so that the holes were positioned directly above the roots, the pipe could direct each precious drop of water directly to the plants, getting a bigger harvest while using a very small amount of the water．

    Over time, the farmers improved upon the technology, perfecting the drippers that regulated the flow of water, and connecting the pipelines to computers that could determine exactly how much water each plant needed and when．

    If the global population kept growing, the rest of the world would increasingly resemble their little community in the desert. So they began selling their irrigation systems in other parts of the world，eventually expanding to more than 110 countries. Netafirm, the company says it's lifting people out of poverty and conserving water at a time when the importance of doing so has never been clearer．

    The mass adoption of drip irrigation won't save the world by itself. To avoid the coming catastrophe, nearly everybody will, in some way, have to do more with less, perhaps through accepting and using other new technologies. Otherwise, it's going to get ugly．

    No one enjoys hearing the sound of someone else chewing their food. Most of the time, though, it's not that big a deal but a minor annoyance.

    But for a small group of people with misophonia (恐音症), the sound can be painful, causing extreme anger and deep discomfort. The most ordinary sounds of chewing and breathing can drive them crazy. Past attempts to explain the causes of misophonia have suggested everything from compulsive disorder to an easily-annoyed personality—but according to a study published yesterday in the journal CurrentBiology, the true criminal is the structure of the brain.

    For the study, a team of researchers led by Newcastle University neuroscientist Sukhbinder Kumar recruited (招募) 42 volunteers, of whom around half had extreme misophonia and the other half served as the control group, and played them several different noises: some ordinary; some harsh, like the sound of a person screaming; and some that were ordinary for the control group but known to be annoying for misophonics, people with misophonia, like the sound of breathing. As the participants listened, the researchers monitored them for signs of anxiety, both physical symptoms and behavioral expressions, and observed their brain activity using FMRI scans.

    The only significant difference in reaction between the two groups happened, during the misophonia-specific sounds, when those with the condition showed physical changes that suggested they were entering fight-or-flight mode.

    Misophonics had increased activity in the AIC, an area known to play a central role in the system that determines which things we should pay attention to. When the trigger sounds were played, there was not only more activity in this region but also abnormally high levels of connection to other regions.

    Misophonia, in other words, may be a result of misplaced attention the brain of a misophonic focuses on things that other people normally tune out (不予理会). On a related note, on behalf of misophonics and manners-minded moms everywhere: Please, chew with your mouth closed.

    The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California is one of the world's most beautiful bridges. It is also one of the most visited places in the world. Vehicles(车辆)cross the bridge an average of 41 million times each year. More than 1800 hundred million vehicles have used the bridge since it opened more than 70 years ago.

    The bridge was painted "International Orange" because that color went well with the natural surroundings. The color also is easier to see in the heavy fog that often covers the area. But the Golden Gate Bridge was not named for its orange color. It was named for the body of water that it crosses，the Golden Gate Strait.

    The Golden Gate Strait is the entrance to the San Francisco Bay from the Pacific Ocean. The Golden Gate Bridge links the city of San Francisco with Marin County, California.

    Planning for the bridge began in the 1920s when the area around San Francisco was growing. People living in the area needed another way to get to the city besides small ferries(渡船).

    Joseph Strauss was the chief engineer for the project. Work began in 1934. Mr. Strauss demanded the strongest safety protections in the history of bridge building. These included the first use of "hard hats" to protect the workers' heads and special glasses to protect their eyes.

    A special safety net was suspended(挂)under the bridge. This net saved the lives of 19 men during the construction. However，11 other workers were killed when they fell from the bridge through the net. Still，this was a new safety record for the time.

    The Golden Gate Bridge opened in 1937.It extends 1280 meters across the water. The total length is 2737 meters. It was the largest suspension bridge(吊桥)in the world until 1964.That is when the Verrazano Narrows Bridge opened in New York City. Today，the Golden Gate Bridge is the ninth longest suspension bridge in the world.

    If you rent an apartment in Beijing, you also rent the landlord or landlady for at least a year. It's important you find a good match because you have to deal with them in the long term. For me, it was love at first sight with the elderly couple who owns my apartment.

    It was quite a tough trying to find the right apartment when I first arrived in Beijing. The apartments were either unsuitable or I find fault with the owners who looked indifferent at best and unfriendly at worst. But that all changed when the renting agent's car stopped in front of a hutong house in the heart of the capital.

    I saw an elderly couple, in their 70s perhaps, waving to me. They were warm and welcoming at first glance, and when I saw them attentively hanging up the curtains in what would become my bedroom, I was just about sold on the place and the owners!

    Chinese people talk about yuanfen, meaning fate that brings people together. Before I met my current landlords, I thought the concept of yuanfen was overrated. A generous landlady who liked me and wanted me to move into her apartment had used the term in reference to me. But it was this lovely couple that changed my mind about the concept.

    We have become accustomed to visiting each other at home. The couple's apartment is lovingly decorated, boasting a recent wedding photo of themselves taken in bridal wear. The landlord likes to smoke and sip tea, while the landlady takes great pride in her appearance.

    After three years, I dare say they treat me a bit like a "daughter", despite having two grown sons, one of them close by. They give me gifts of tea or clothes, and I bring them souvenirs from my trips. A match made in heaven, indeed!

As the COVID-19 pandemic hit hard, fishermen watched their markets dry up. Restaurants-normally major fish buyers-closed or cut back orders significantly. Fishermen weren't sure if they were going to get paid for what they fished.

Meanwhile as people lost jobs, food banks started to see a great demand for services. Things were getting desperate, with long lines for food assistance in many states.

Out of these dual crises, a new idea was born. Food assistance programs across the country have started connecting with local fishermen to stock up on local seafood, many for the first time. And the arrangement seems to be helping the fishermen, the economy and those in need of healthy food.

According to Catherine D' Amato, CEO of the Greater Boston Food Bank, the network usually keeps four or five weeks of food on hand in case of emergencies. The pandemic hit, and "we found ourselves below one week of stock and going down rapidly," she says. That's because the food bank normally distributes about I million pounds of food a week, and that became 2.5 million pounds of food a week, D' Amato says. While Congress and the states have increased funding and donations for food banks during the pandemic, it hasn't been enough.

"For many years, we have been wanting to be able to work with organizations in the fishing industry," D' Amato says. But it's complicated. Fishermen catch a lot of big fish, and food banks who might take it need the products to be cut small and easy to use for customers. It also has to be fish they know and recognize. The barriers have been too high in many places to make it work. But this spring, the state department of agriculture connected the food bank with some grant makers. They talked to some local fishermen about developing a traditional New England fish soup.

The grants paid fishermen for their catch and provided money for a local manufacturer to process, freeze and deliver the soup to food banks in family-size servings. The soup is helping to feed families and keep fishermen fishing. The fishermen hope to sell it in stores soon, and Damato hopes to purchase more soup and expand into new seafood products for her customers.