Imagine a mass of floating waste is two times the size of the state of Texas. Texas has a land area of more than 678,000 square kilometers. So it might be difficult to imagine anything twice as big. All together, this mass of waste flowing in the North Pacific Ocean is known as the Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch（太平洋垃圾带）. It weighs about 3,500,000 tons. The waste includes bags, bottles and containers-plastic products of all kinds.

    The eastern part of the Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch is about 1,600 kilometers west of California. The western part is west of the Hawaiian Islands and east of Japan. The area has been described as a kind of oceanic desert, with light winds and slow moving water currents（流，流动）. The water moves so slow that garbage from all over the world collects there.

    In recent years, there have been growing concerns about the floating garbage and its effect on sea creatures and human health. Scientists say thousands of animals get trapped in the floating waste, resulting in death or injury. Even more die from a lack of food or water after swallowing pieces of plastic. The trash can also make animals feel full, diminishing their desire to eat or drink.

    The floating garbage also can have harmful effects on people. There is an increased threat of infection（感染）of disease from polluted waste, and from eating fish that swallowed waste. Divers can also get trapped in the plastic.

    Its existence first gained public attention in 1997. That was when racing boat captain and oceanographer Charles Moore and his crew sailed into the garbage while returning from a racing event. Five years earlier, another oceanographer learnt of the trash after a shipment of rubber duckies got lost at sea. Many of those toys are now part of the Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch.

    In August,2017, a team from the University of California, San Diego became the latest group to travel to it. They were shocked by the amount of waste they saw. They gathered hundreds of sea creatures and water samples to measure the garbage patch's effect on ocean environment.

    Mr. Parker was born in a small village. His father was so poor that he couldn't send him to school. The boy had to help his parents to do some farming and learned English and maths by himself when he was free. Later on he was made to leave his home village and hoped to find a job in a city. And as soon as war broke out, he joined the army. He couldn't forget his terrible past and fought with the enemies bravely. So he became a general when he was fifty. He was honest and friendly to his soldiers and often punished those who tried to pocket a portion of the soldiers' pay (克扣军饷). And his soldiers liked him very much.

    Once Mr. Parker heard from a soldier. In the letter the young man said the food in their military camp was very bad and he wished the general could go to find out the reasons, the old man went there at once, without telling anybody. He went in the kitchen and examined everything carefully and found it was very dirty. Then he went in the soldiers' bedrooms and found there were a lot of fleas. He became angry and asked the soldiers, “What do you think of your food, young men?”

    The soldiers saw their officer standing by the general and said nothing Only a new soldier said, “Very bad, sir!”

    “What did you have for lunch today?” asked Mr. Parker.

    “A fried chicken, some fish and pork, a cake, six eggs and I had three cups of wine.”

    “Really?” Mr. Parker called out in surprise. “It's the King's lunch, I think!”

    “So do I. General,” said the young man. “But it's my birthday today. I paid three hundred dollars for them all in the restaurant!”

    Two summers ago I was about to turn fifty and wanted to do something I'd never done before. My daughter Bailey thought skydiving (跳伞) would be perfect for me. I can promise you that of all the things I was thinking of doing, jumping out of an airplane never came close to making the list. As I age, I seem to have developed a growing fear of heights.

    After several requests from my daughter, I finally said yes and she looked almost shocked. I told a friend what we were doing, then we set off. We had a 3-hour drive to the jump site. We drove through some beautiful countryside, but then we passed a small cemetery(墓地). Then we passed another cemetery and another one. I asked if so many people died jumping out of airplanes in this area that they needed to keep building more cemeteries to bury all the bodies!

    As we squeezed into the little plane, I tightly held the right hand of my partner Ronnie. The short ride to altitude was cruel for me. As Bailey stepped to the door, she looked back at me and said “Dad, I'm sure you can do it!” I said yes as she rolled out. I immediately looked behind me and said “RONNIE I AM NOT FEELING GOOD!” He said, “It's going to be great. Besides, it's too late now anyway”, and we jumped out.

    The next five minutes were some of the most amazing of my life. It was so beautiful and peaceful—except for the parts where I was screaming. I prayed to God for the parachute (降落伞) to open, but mostly I told Him how thankful I was for my life and being with me through good and bad.

    What do you remember about your life before you were three? Few people can remember anything that happened to them in their early years. Adults' memories of the next few years also tend to be unclear. Most people remember only a few events—usually ones that were meaningful and distinctive, such as being hospitalized or the birth of a new baby.

    How might this inability to recall early experiences be explained? The passage of time does not account for it; adults have excellent recognition of pictures of people who attended high school with them 35 years earlier. Another seemingly reasonable explanation—that infants do not form enduring memories at this point in development—also is incorrect. Children two and a half to three years old remember experiences that occurred in their first year, and eleven month olds remember some events a year later.

    However, three other explanations seem more promising. One involves physiological changes relevant to memory. Maturation of the frontal lobes (额叶) of the brain continues throughout early childhood, and this part of the brain may be critical for remembering particular episodes in ways that can be recalled later. Demonstrations of infants' and very young children's long-term memory have involved their repeating motor activities that they had seen or done earlier, such as reaching in the dark for objects, putting a bottle in a doll's mouth, or pulling apart two pieces of a toy. The brain's level of physiological maturation may support these types of memories, but not ones depending on clear verbal descriptions.

    A second explanation involves the influence of the social world on children's language use. Hearing and telling stories about events may help children store information in ways that will endure into later childhood and adulthood. Through hearing stories with a clear beginning, middle, and ending children may learn to take out the idea of events in ways that they will be able to describe many years later. Consistent with this view parents and children increasingly engage in discussions of past events when children are about three years old. However, hearing such stories is not sufficient for younger children to form enduring memories. Telling such stories to two year olds does not seem to produce long-lasting verbalizable memories.

    A third likely explanation for infantile memory loss involves mismatch between the ways in which infants encode information and the ways in which older children and adults recall it. Whether people can remember an event depends critically on the fit between the way in which they earlier encoded the information and the way in which they later attempt to recall it. The better the person is able to reconstruct the perspective from which the material was encoded, the more likely that recall will be successful.

    Hiking is a great way to get active and reduce stress while you are exploring the city. Visit our page to find some of the best free walking tours across New York City.

Greenbelt on the Go

Tuesday, August 14, 2018 10:00a.m.—11:30a.m.

    Join us for relaxing walks through our parks. Enjoy the pretty views of them, as we point out a few of the distinct features that make each park special. The length of each hike will be determined by the pace of the group. Considering the environment, your foods are not allowed. Registration is required. To register, please email naturecenter@sigreenbelt.org before August 14.

    Position: Greenbelt Nature Center in Blood Root Valley, 700 Rockland Avenue at Brielle Avenue Staten Island

    Event Organizer: Staten Island Greenbelt Conservancy, Greenbelt Environmental Education Department

    Phone Number: (718)351-3450

    Contact Email: naturecenter@sigreenbelt.org

    Adult Afternoon Hikes

Wednesday, October 10,2018 1:30p.m.—3:00p.m.

    Get familiar with the Greenbelt and local parks by hiking with other adults! You're encouraged to bring small meals and drinks for the break time.

    Position: Greenbelt Nature Center in Blood Root Valley, 700 Rockland Avenue at Brielle Avenue Staten Island

    Event Organizer: Staten Island Greenbelt Conservancy, Greenbelt Environmental Education Department

    Phone Number: (718)351-3450

    Contact Email: naturecenter@sigreenbelt.org

    The South Pole at Wards Point

Thursday ,November 15,2018 7:00a.m.—7:00p.m.

    The three miles of nearby natural shoreline are a sandy beach. Shells, rocks, and stones of every shape and size can be found here. Not to be missed are the park's other attractions: four galleries, and five historic houses!

    Position: Conference House Park Visitor Center in Conference House Park, 298     Satterlee Street, Staten Island

    Event Organizer: Conference House Park

    Contact  Email: john. kilcullen@parks. nyc.qov

    Community Days at Conference House Park

Wednesda, September 19, 2018 12:00p.m.—2:00p.m.

    Enjoy new gardens at the Visitor Center. Explore and help repair the three self-designed gardens: vegetable, native plant, and sculpture. Experience kids crafts, adult art programs, Tai Chi, Kung Fu, Peking Opera and more in this lovely setting.

    Position: Conference House Park, 298 Satterlee Street, Staten Island

    Event Organizer: Conference House Park

    Phone Number: (718)227-1463

    Contact Email: john.kilcullen@parks. nyc.qov

    I must have looked deep in thought, or as deep in thought as an 11-year-old man can, when my grandmother glanced up from her weeding to ask, “You have something on your mind, don't you?”

    “Yes, I was thinking that someday I want to be an Olympic speed skating champion like my hero, Eric Haiden, I want to be a doctor like my parents and I want to help children in Africa.”

    I immediately knew I had confided in the right person when a knowing smile broke across her face. “Johann, of course! You can do anything you want to do!” she said simply. And with my grandmother's support, I set out to pursue my passions.

    14 years later, I was well ready to take hold of my first dream: becoming an Olympic champion. The Olympics in 1994 were in my home country, Norway. As I entered the Olympic stadium, I wasn't the best athlete, and many had doubts about my ability to perform well. But I had something special working for me. I had a woman in the first row who believed in me following my passions just as much as I did. For the first time ever, my grandmother was going to see me skate.

    It happened. Breaking a world record, I won the gold.

    As I stood on the podium(领奖台) that I had dreamed about my entire life, a curious question popped into my head. Why me? Why did I win, given all the other incredible competitors out there? The reason had to be more than a grandmother who shared a belief in her grandson's dream. The question led me to only one answer: because I wanted to make a difference in the world, and with all the media attention on my success, I could.

    I immediately knew what that difference had to be: hope in the lives of the children in Africa. Six months earlier, I'd been invited to Eritrea as an ambassador for Olympic Aid.