Like many people acting on the desire to eat healthy and local, Acropolis resident Eduardo Jimenez decided to plant a garden in his backyard. He ploughed the soil, he planted the seeds, and he even set up a fence to keep out the deer. Eduardo did everything right. Or so it seems. However, when {#blank#}1{#/blank#} time has come, he has not one tomato, bean, or leaf of lettuce to show for his hard work. How did this happen? The answer comes in the form of a small, brown, particularly smelly insect: the stink bug.

    Unlike their picky cousins, stink bugs feed on some 300 species of plants, including figs, blueberries, corn, and kiwi fruits as well as soybeans, peas, and weeds. Although they do little damage to the plant itself, they make the fruits and vegetables {#blank#}2{#/blank#}. For this reason, stink bugs pose the most serious threat to the big agriculturalists and macro farm operators. Macro farmers have more {#blank#}3{#/blank#} in their produce, and therefore have more to lose. While hobbyists like Eduardo are left to face the disappointment of an unsuccessful garden, macro farmers are forced to live with the loss of entire tracts of cash crops—a fact that has left many {#blank#}4{#/blank#} able to clothe their children or put food on the table.

    Last season alone, several New Jersey pepper farmers saw 75% of their crops damaged. Pennsylvania lost half of its peach population, and, according to the US Apple Association, apple farmers in the mid-Atlantic states lost $37 million. This year could be worse. As a result of this {#blank#}5{#/blank#} in the supply of fresh fruits and vegetables, shoppers have seen {#blank#}6{#/blank#}—sometimes quite dramatic—in prices at the grocery store. Prices of apples in Maryland are up 8%. In the north-Atlantic states, prices for peppers shot up an astonishing 14%. Not only are these items becoming more expensive, but they are also getting harder to find. Last week, Marge Jenkins of Athens, Georgia reported having to check three different stores before encountering a decent batch of peas. And this, she assures us, is a regular {#blank#}7{#/blank#}. Accidentally brought from Asia, the stink bug has no natural {#blank#}8{#/blank#} in America, and thus its population is rising sharply. Reported sightings of stink bugs are becoming increasingly numerous, as the dried, brown, trapezoidal(不规则四边形) shells of the dead bugs are everywhere in some areas. This has farmers and scientists alike {#blank#}9{#/blank#} their heads in search of a remedy. Hope, they believe, may lie with an Asian parasitic wasp(黄蜂), which helpfully lays its eggs inside stink bug eggs.

    The larvae(幼虫) of the wasp consume the stink bug from the inside. But the {#blank#}10{#/blank#} of such a solution is still several years away, as scientists must first determine if it is safe for the wasp to be introduced into America. Until then, some farmers are resorting to homemade traps. Others have even contemplated the use of peacocks and praying mantises, which, they imagine, will gulp down the little stinkers.

    The United Nations' series of "language days" are designed to promote the use of the six official languages of the UN as well as to celebrate cultural and linguistic diversity (语言多样性). Chinese Language Day is the 20th April. It's a time chosen to fit in with the Chinese{#blank#}1{#/blank#} of Guyu (古语), which honours Cangjie—the four-eyed {#blank#}2{#/blank#} figure who is traditionally understood to have created Chinese characters in the time of the Yellow Emperor, 5000 years ago.

    Mandarin (普通话) is the most-spoken language in the world, with over 1.5 billion speakers. When most people think of "Chinese", it is Mandarin that they are {#blank#}3{#/blank#}. But Mandarin Chinese is far from the only variant of the Chinese language—or the only language spoken in China. In fact, there are a great number of Chinese languages. Remember—this is a country which is both very large and very, very old. Different regions are within the {#blank#}4{#/blank#} expanse of territory, that is, China can be {#blank#}5{#/blank#} not only by great distances but also by broadly geographical features such as mountain ranges.

    It is hard to guess how many dialects actually exist. In general, dialects can be {#blank#}6{#/blank#} classified into one of the seven large groups: Putonghua (Mandarin), Gan, Kejia (Hakka), Min, Wu, Xiang, and Yue (Cantonese). Each language group contains a large number of dialects.

    Understanding the situation is {#blank#}7{#/blank#} by the fact that, while many Chinese people in different geographical areas of the country may not understand each other when they speak their regional dialect, they may share the same written language even if their pronunciation of different characters within that language may{#blank#}8{#/blank#}.

A {#blank#}9{#/blank#} feature across all Chinese languages is tone. For instance, Mandarin has four tones and Cantonese has six tones. Tone, in terms of language, is the pitch (音高) in which syllables (音节) in words are spoken. In Chinese, different words {#blank#}10{#/blank#} different keys. Some words even have pitch variations in one single syllable.