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CaliforniaCondor's Shocking Recovery

      California condors are North America's largest birds, with wing-length of up to 3 meters. In the 1980s, electrical lines and lead poisoning(铅中毒) nearly drove them to dying out. Now, electric shock training and medical treatment are helping to rescue these big birds.

      In the late 1980s, the last few condors were taken from the wild, and there are now more than 150 flying over California and nearby Arizona, Utah and Baja in Mexico.

Electrical lines have been killing them off. “As they go in to rest for the night, they just don't see the power lines,” says Bruce Rideout of San Diego Zoo. Their wings can bridge the gap between lines, resulting in electrocution(电死) if they touch two lines at once.

So scientists have come up with a shocking idea. Tall poles, placed in large training areas, teach the birds to stay clear of electrical lines by giving them a painful but undeadly electric shock. Before the training was introduced, 66% of set-freed condors died of electrocution. This has now dropped to 18%.

Lead poisonous has proved more difficult to deal with. When condors eat dead bodies of other animals containing lead, they absorb large quantities of lead. This affects their nervous systems and ability to produce baby birds, and can lead to kidney(肾) failures and death. So condors with high levels of lead are sent to Los Angeles Zoo, where they are treated with calcium EDTA, a chemical that removes lead from the blood over several days. This work is starting to pay off. The annual death rate for adult condors has dropped from 38% in 2000 to 5.4% in 2011.

Rideout's team thinks that the California condors' average survival time in the wild is now just under eight years. “Although these measures are not effective forever, they are vital for now,” he says. “They are truly good birds that are worth every effort we put into recovering them.”

    Why do we read poetry? First obvious one: because we enjoy it. The only other reason is for academic purposes, and that's not why this is here.

    Many of us read poetry simply because we often feel depressed and hopelessly lost, and in poetry we see how beautiful and strange everything is. So in that way poetry calms our anxiety.

    There are many different kinds of poems. They are not all calming. Some poems make me anxious, angry, scared, and sad, which is why I value them. As a reader, I want a full meal, not just dessert. I want the sweet and the bitter. Often, I read poetry when I'm already relaxed. In fact, I read more when I'm not stressed out.

    Here are the main reasons I respond to poetry, as far as I can tell. Metrical(格律的) poems are about setting up rules and then bending them. Usually, this is done by setting up a rhythm and then violating it or almost violating it. And then returning to it again. This satisfies my desire for order and also my desire for testing boundaries.

    Poetry plays with language and often slams words together in surprising ways, which is thrilling the way food can be when the chef has paired ingredients you never thought would taste good together but somehow do.

    Many poems are dense. Words mean two or three things at once and lots of suggestions are packed between the lines. This is intellectually inspiring and it allows me to read the same poem over and over always finding new things in it.

    And, of course, there's the subject matter. It interests me just as it would if the same subject was explored in a story or essay. Not all poems interest me in this way, but then not all stories and essays do, either.

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Making Peace with Your Parents

    As a teen, you're going through big changes physically and mentally. Your interests are increasing.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}Here is the challenge: Kids need to explore the world in new ways, and parents need to protect them from the dangers that are all out in that world. These conflicts can easily set off fireworks in otherwise calm houses. Sometimes conflicts can't be avoided. But by paying attention to the building blocks of successful relationships, you can work towards making home a happy and healthy place for you and your parents.

    For example, try to find a time to talk when your parents are not angry, tired, distracted or hungry. A good time to talk is when you're all relaxed. Timing is everything if the conversation begins to turn into an argument, you'd better calmly and coolly ask to stop the conversation for now.{#blank#}2{#/blank#} Listen to what your parents are saying, and repeat it back to them. This shows them that you're listening. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Respect is the building block of good communication. People who respect each other and care about each others' feelings can disagree without getting things ugly.{#blank#}4{#/blank#} How do you build trust? Trust comes by actually doing what you say you're going to do. Some teens find that doing fun activities with their parents can improve their relationships. Sometimes we forget that parents are more than rule-maker—they're interesting people who like to watch movies and go shopping—just like their teenagers!

    What do you do if you are trying your best, but your relationship with your parents continues to be rocky?{#blank#}5{#/blank#}You can find supportive adults, such as a teacher or a coach, who can lend an ear. Remember you can only change your own behavior. Your parents are the only ones who can change theirs.

A. You may consider seeking outside help.

B. And then you'll be able to accept what your parents say.

C. You can pick it up again when everyone's more relaxed.

D. Faced with the challenge, children don't know what to do.

E. And your desire to take control of your own life is growing.

F. It also gives them a chance to clear things up if you're not on the same page.

G. You are more likely to get along with your parents and have more independence if your parents believe in you.

    Two years ago, something happened that changed the way I look at the world. On my birthday, my grandfather, walking home with his hands full of groceries, fell and hit his head on the sidewalk. Just as we were leaving to meet him for dinner, we got the call that he was in the hospital. At first, I thought nothing of it, but when I heard the whole story, I couldn't believe it. He hit his head so hard that he had a blood clot in his brain and it had to be operated on immediately. Everyone thought he would die.

    Although my grandfather survived emergency brain surgery, he had complications (后遗症). He could hardly talk and he couldn't walk. Shortly after, he was admitted to a nursing home. Today, he lives at home with my grandmother and is doing much better, but this isn't about him. It's about what I saw at that nursing home.

    I saw something that many people haven't seen, and some do often choose to ignore it, I saw more sadness in those days visiting the nursing home than I thought. In that one place were hundreds of old people who were alone and forgotten.

    So what as to be done with the situation of the old? This is not an easy question, but something must be done. Perhaps groups in the community could assign each member to one nursing home patient with whom they could keep in regular contact. Maybe a school could focus on a nursing home and send cards, pictures and letters to residents. If periodic visits were arranged, I'm sure that for some, if not many, those students would be the only visitors they had all month. These are just a few ideas; we all need to work together.

    I hope everyone to tour a local nursing home I further expect you to do something about it. You'll brighten someone's day, or maybe even his or her life.

The "Great Green Wall of China" project is over forty years old. In this project, people plant trees in {#blank#}1{#/blank#} part of China. Why are trees so important to us?

Because it is healthy to live around trees. They can keep us {#blank#}2{#/blank#}, just like doctors. So we call them "doctor trees".

Trees can clean the air. For people in large cities {#blank#}3{#/blank#} air pollution, trees can be very important. Workers are {#blank#}4{#/blank#} trees not just in city parks {#blank#}5{#/blank#} also along streets to help clean the air.

Some {#blank#}6{#/blank#} think that trees not just help clean the air. They are also good for our health. A study {#blank#}7{#/blank#} that people in hospitals feel better when {#blank#}8{#/blank#} trees from their rooms. And people with trees near their homes usually exercise more.

Scientists are also studying the healthy effects (作用) of trees on human minds. One effect of trees is that they make people feel happy and {#blank#}9{#/blank#}. When people go through the neighborhood with more trees, they will walk slower and talk {#blank#}10{#/blank#} often with each other.

Of course, another good effect is that "doctor trees" work for free! Writing 3