Green is an important color in nature. It is the color of grass and the leaves on trees. It is also the color of most growing plants.

    Sometimes, the word green means young, fresh and growing. Sometimes, it describes something that is not yet ripe or finished. For example, a greenhorn is someone who has no experience, who is new to a situation. In the fifteenth century, a greenhorn was a young cow or ox whose horns(角) had not yet developed. A century later, a greenhorn was a soldier who had not yet had any experience in battle. By the eighteenth century, a greenhorn had the meaning it has today—a person who is new in a job.

    Someone who has the ability to grow plants well is said to have a green thumb. The expression comes from early nineteen hundreds. A person with a green thumb seems to have a magic touch that makes plants grow quickly and well. You might say that the woman next door has a green thumb if her garden continues to grow long after your plants have died.

    The Green Revolution is the name given some years ago to the development of new kinds of rice and other grains. The new plants produced much larger crops. The Green Revolution was the result of hard work by agricultural scientists who had green thumbs.

    Green is also the color used to describe the powerful feeling, jealousy(嫉妒). The green-eyed monster is not a frightening creature from outer space. It is an expression used about four hundred years ago by British writer William Shakespeare in his play “Othello”. It describes the unpleasant feeling a person has when someone has something he wants. A young man may suffer from the green-eyed monster if his girlfriend begins going out with someone else. Or, that green-eyed monster may affect your friend if you get a pay rise and he does not.

    Long bus rides are like television shows.They have a beginning，a middle，and an end with commercials(广告) thrown in every three or four minutes.The commercials are unavoidable.They happen whether you want them or not.Every couple of minutes a billboard glides by outside the bus window.“Buy Super Clean Toothpaste.” “Drink Good Wet Root Beer.” “Fill up with Pacific Gas.” Only if you sleep，which is equal to turning the television set off，are you spared the unending cry of “You Need It！Buy It Now！”

    The beginning of the ride is comfortable and somewhat exciting，even if you've traveled that way before.Usually some things have changed—new houses，new buildings，sometimes even a new road.The bus driver has a style of driving and it's fun to try to figure it out the first hour or so.If the driver is particularly reckless (鲁莽的) or daring，the ride can be as thrilling as a suspense story.Will the driver pass the truck in time？Will the driver move into the right or the left hand lane？After a while，of course，the excitement dies down.Sleeping for a while helps pass the middle hours of the ride.Food always makes bus rides more interesting.But you've got to be careful of what kind of food you eat.Too much salty food can make you very thirsty between stops.

    The end of the ride is somewhat like the beginning.You know it will soon be over and there's a kind of expectation and excitement in that.The seat，of course，has become harder as the hours have passed.By now you've sat with your legs crossed，with your hands in your lap，with your hands on the armrest or even with your hands crossed behind your head.The end comes just at the right time.There are just no more ways to sit.

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    You may have heard the term self-awareness, but what is it and why does it matter?

    Being self-aware can influence how you feel in your job and in your personal life. Daniel Goleman takes that connection much further, saying self-awareness is the key to success. He describes self-awareness as “knowing one's internal（内在的）states ,preference and resources”, and then monitoring that “inner world” information as it comes up. If you can be as aware of your feelings and thoughts, you'll be better able to deal with new situations. Because you know yourself better, you'll be more accepting of yourself, your thoughts and your feelings, Goleman says.

    But self-awareness doesn't stop at how you see yourself. It's also understanding and acknowledging how others see you. Tasha Eurich, an organizational psychologist, explains that self-awareness has two parts — internal and external（外部的）. Internal self-awareness means we can clearly see our own values, thoughts, passions and feelings. External self-awareness is clearly seeing how others see us. People who are externally self-aware tend to be better leaders.

    So how do you know if you're self-aware or not? Eurich developed a short online quiz to help. You're not the only one who has to take it. Someone who knows you well also has to answer questions about you.

    In a recent TED Talk, Eurich refers to self-awareness unicorns. This group makes up only a small part of all the people she has studied. These are people who not only believe they are self-aware, but other people who know them would agree. Additionally, these unicorns would say they have improved their self-awareness in their lives and again, those who know them well would agree.

    Thankfully, anyone can become more self-aware, as long as they're willing to devote some time and effort to the cause.

    According to the Guinness World Records, a Sitka Spruce (锡特卡云杉) growing on New Zealand's southernmost island is the loneliest tree on Earth. Not only is it the only tree on Campbell Island, but the nearest other tree can be found over 200 km away on the Auckland Islands.

    Bluff, Campbell Island is one of the harshest places in the world. With strong winds blowing almost all year round and less than 600 hours of sunshine, it's not exactly a good place to live in, which is probably why, except for occasional visits by research scientists, it, has remained deserted for over half a century.

    It is believed that the Sitka Spruce on Campbell Island was planted by Lord Ranfurly, a former governor of New Zealand, sometime between 1901 and 1907. It's not clear why he decided to plant there, but according to some sources he said that the island was not productive, and took the first step to cover it with forestry. His idea was never going to work because of the harsh climate of the area, but somehow the Sitka Spruce survived.

    Apart from its reputation as the loneliest tree on Earth, the Sitka Spruce of Campbell Island has a series of other particularities. First of all its shape makes it look more like a giant cauliflower than a tree. This is believed to have been caused by repeatedly cutting down its trunk every year, for decades. Another interesting thing about the world's loneliest tree is that, though it is over 100 years old, it has never produced cones (球果).

    Who knew a lonely tree growing 200 km away from its nearest cousins could be so interesting?

    Mark Elliot Zuckerberg was born on May the 14th, 1984. He is the creator of the social media site Facebook. He was a star student at school, winning prizes in astronomy, maths and physics. He was also good at Classical studies. He studied Psychology and Computer Science at Harvard University, which is where he created Facebook. His invention led to his becoming Time magazine's Person Of the Year for 2010.

    Zuckerberg excelled in everything he did in his youth. He was captain of the school fencing team, spoke many languages and was a highly skilled computer programmer. While other kids played computer games, he designed them. He created his first network while in high school to connect all of the computers - in his father's dental surgery. He also built a media player which attracted the interest of Microsoft and AOL.

    Zuckerberg started at Harvard in September 2002. In his first year, he created Facemash, a Facebook predecessor (前身), which let students select the college's best looking people from a selection of photos.

    He launched Facebook from his Harvard room in February 2004. It was the start of a rollercoaster ride that would connect half a billion people worldwide and make him the world's youngest billionaire.

    Mark Zuckerberg is now one of the most influential people on the planet. He has dined with the president of the USA and regularly attends global economic summits and technology conferences. He stated: "The thing I really care about is the mission, making the world open." In 2010, Zuckerberg signed a promise, in which he promised to donate at least half of his life wealth to charity.

    Mention the word superhero, and the images that come to mind are of fictional characters like Spiderman, Wonder Woman, or Batman. However, photographer Josh Rossi has used his camera to show the world's real superheroes — young children who are battling severe diseases and disabilities.

    The event leading to the creative project began in 2016, when Rossi fulfilled his then three­year­old daughter's dream of becoming Wonder Woman. Thanks to the handmade costume and Rossi's impressive Photoshop skills, the photoshoot instantly became a hit.

    Since it was Wonder Woman that brought about the idea, Rossi decided to focus on the superheroes that will appear alongside her in the upcoming movie, Justice League. To make the photo shoot more meaningful to the kids, he matched each child with a superhero with whom they had the most in common.

    The first member of the real­life "Justice League" was Kayden Kinckle. The five­year­old uses prosthetics (假肢) to walk because both his legs had to be cut off due to a born disorder. To Rossi, Kayden's perfect superhero was Cyborg, who was a healthy boy before a terrible accident left him injured, forcing his father to keep him alive with robotic parts.

    Teagan Pettit was born with only half a heart and has already gone through three open­heart surgeries. According to Rossi, the nine­year­old fits the bill for Superman because they both have a weak heart. The fictional superhero grows weak when near Kryptonite (氪), while Teagen's half heart is too weak to control his body temperature. The photographer says, "Superman and Teagan both have hearts of steel!"