“Our aim is to take our art to the world and make people understand what it is to move,” said David Belle, the founder of parkour ( also called free running－a kind of extreme sport).

    Do you love running? It is a good exercise, yet many people find it boring. But what if making your morning jog a creative one? Like jumping from walls and over gaps, and ground rolls? Just like the James Bond in the movie Casino Royale? Bond jumps down from a roof to a windowsill and then runs several blocks over obstacles on the way. It is just because of Bond's wonderful performances that the sport has become popular worldwide.

    Yes, that's parkour, an extreme street sport aimed at moving from one point to another as quickly as possible, getting over all the obstacles in the path using only the abilities of the human body. Parkour is considered an extreme sport. As its participants dash around a city, they may jump over fences, run up walls and even move from rooftop to rooftop.

    Parkour can be just as exciting and charming as it sounds, but its participants see parkour much more than that.Overcoming all the obstacles on the course and in life is part of the philosophy(理念) behind parkour. This is the same as life. You must determine your destination, go straight, jump over all the barriers as if in parkour and never fall back from them in your life, to reach the destination successfully. A parkour lover said, “I love parkour because its philosophy has become my life, my way to do everything.”

    Another philosophy we've learnt from parkour is freedom. It can be done by anyone, at any time, anywhere in the world. It is a kind of expression of trust in yourself that you earn energy and confidence.

    One night in February 1962, John H. Glenn. Jr., flew over Australia. The man in the Mercury(水星) capsule（宇宙飞行容器）was alone, but friendly voices reached him by radio. On the dark land 100 miles below, he saw a sprinkling of light. They marked the city of Perth, where people had turned on their lights as a greeting to him.

    In Friendship7, Glenn radioed, “ The lights show up very well. Thank for everybody for turning them on.” His capsule raced on to the east.

    During his three orbits of the earth, Glenn could always reach one of eighteen tracking stations. Some of them were on ship at sea. Others were in the United States.

    Many of the stations had been built with the help of other countries.These countries allowed Americans to bring in radio equipment and set it up. Without the help of such lands as Nigeria（尼日利亚）, Zanzibar（尚巴西，坦桑尼亚领土的一部分）, and Mexico, there would have been breaks in the worldwide radio network.

    John H. Glenn. Jr., was the first America to orbit the earth. For his flight, the tracking network（跟踪网络） covered 60,000 route miles. Five hundred men worked in the stations along the route. Since his flight, the network has grown. Today, it covers more than 100,000 route miles and has about one hundred stations. One-third of these stations are outside of the United States.

    It had been some time since Jack had seen the old man. College, career, and life itself got in the way. In fact, Jack moved clear across the country in pursuit of his dreams. There, in the rush of his busy life, Jack had little time to think about the past and often no time to spend with his wife and son. He was working on his future, and nothing could stop him.

    Over the phone, his mother told him, “Mr. Belser died last night. The funeral is Wednesday.” Memories flashed through his mind like an old newsreel as he sat quietly remembering his childhood days.

    “Jack, did you hear me?”

    “Oh, sorry, Mom. Yes, I heard you. It's been so long since I thought of him. I'm sorry, but I honestly thought he died years ago.” Jack said.

    “Well, he didn't forget you. Every time I saw him he'd ask how you were doing. He'd reminisce (回忆) about the many days you spent over 'his side of the fence' as he put it.” Mom told him.

    “I loved that old house he lived in.” Jack said.

    “You know, Jack, after your father died, Mr. Belser stepped in to make sure you had a man's influence in your life.” she said.

    “He's the one who taught me carpentry. I wouldn't be in this business if it weren't for him. He spent a lot of time teaching me things he thought were important… Mom, I'll be there for the funeral.” Jack said.

    Busy as he was, he kept his word. Jack caught the next flight to his hometown. Mr. Belser's funeral was small and uneventful. He had no children of his own, and most of his relatives had passed away.

    The night before he had to return home, Jack and his Mom stopped by to see the old house next door one more time, which was exactly as he remembered. Every step held memories. Every picture, every piece of furniture… Jack stopped suddenly.

    “What's wrong, Jack?” his Mom asked.

    “The box is gone.” he said.

    “What box?” Mom asked.

    “There was a small gold box that he kept locked on top of his desk. I must have asked him a thousand times what was inside. All he'd ever tell me was 'the thing I value most'.” Jack said.

    It was gone. Everything about the house was exactly how Jack remembered it, except for the box. He figured someone from the Belser family had taken it.

    “Now, I'll never know what was so valuable to him,” Jack said sadly.

    Returning to his office the next day, he found a package on his desk. The return address caught his attention.

    “Mr. Harold Belser” it read.

    Jack tore open the package. There inside was the gold box and an envelope. Jack's hands shook as he read the note inside.

    “Upon my death, please forward this box and its contents to Jack Bennett. It's the thing I valued most in my life.” A small key was taped to the letter. His heart racing, and tears filling his eyes, Jack carefully unlocked the box. There inside he found a beautiful gold pocket watch. Running his fingers slowly over the fine cover, he opened it.

    Inside he found these words carved: “Jack, Thanks for your time! Harold Belser.”

    “Oh, My God! This is the thing he valued most…” Jack held the watch for a few minutes, then called his assistant and cleared his appointments for the next two days.

    “Why?” his assistant asked.

    “I need some time to spend with my son.” he said.

    The world's insects are hurtling down the path to extinction, threatening a "catastrophic collapse of nature's ecosystems", according to the first global scientific review. More than 40% of insect species are declining and a third are endangered, the analysis found. The rate of extinction is eight times faster than that of mammals, birds and reptiles.

    "It should be of huge concern to all of us, for insects are at the heart of every food web,  they pollinate the large majority of plant species, keep the soil healthy, recycle nutrients, control pests, and much more. Love them or loathe them, we humans cannot survive without insects," said Prof Dave Goulson at the University of Sussex in the UK.

    The analysis, published in the journal Biological Conservation, says intensive agriculture is the main driver of the declines, particularly the heavy use of pesticides. Urbanization and climate change are also significant factors.

    One of the biggest impacts of insect loss is on the many birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish that eat insects. A small number of adaptable species are increasing in number, but not nearly enough to outweigh the big losses.

    Matt Shardlow, at the conservation charity Buglife, said: "It is gravely sobering to see this collation of evidence that demonstrates the pitiful state of the world's insect populations. It is increasingly obvious that the planet's ecology is breaking and there is a need for an intense and global effort to stop and reverse these dreadful trends."

    Want to explore new cultures, meet new people and do something worthwhile at the same time? You can do all the three with Global Development Association (GDA).Whatever stage of life you're at, wherever you go and whatever project you do in GDA, you'll create positive changes in a poor and remote community (社区).

    We work with volunteers of all ages and backgrounds. Most of our volunteers are aged 17-24. Now we need volunteer managers aged 25-75.They are extremely important in the safe and effective running of our programmes. We have such roles as project managers, mountain leaders, and communication officers.

    Depending on which role you choose, you could help to increase a community's access to safe drinking water, or help to protect valuable local cultures. You might also design an adventure challenge to train young volunteers.

    Not only will you help our young volunteers to develop personally, you'll also learn new skills and increase your cultural awareness. You may have chances to meet new people who'll become your lifelong friends.

    This summer we have both 4-week and 7-week programmes:

    GDA ensures that volunteers work with community members and local project partners where our help is needed. All our projects aim to promote the development of poor and remote communities.

    There is no other chance like a GDA programme. Join us as a volunteer manager to develop your own skills while bringing benefits to the communities.

    Find out more about joining a GDA programme:

    Website: www.glodeve.org

    Email: humanresources@glodeve.org

Plastic-Eating Worms

    Humans produce more than 300 million tons of plastic every year. Almost half of that winds up in landfills(垃圾填埋场) and up to 12 million tons pollute the oceans. So far there is no effective way to get rid of it, but a new study suggests an answer may lie in the stomachs of some hungry worms.

    Researchers in Spain and England recently found that the worms of the greater wax moth can break down polyethylene, which accounts for 40% of plastics. The team left 100 wax worms on a commercial polyethylene shopping bag for 12 hours, and the worms consumed and broke down about 92 milligrams, or almost 3% of it. To confirm that the worms' chewing alone was not responsible for the polyethylene breakdown, the researchers made some worms into paste(糊状物)and applied it to plastic films. 14 hours later the films had lost 13% of their mass — apparently broken down by enzymes (酶) from the worms' stomachs. Their findings were published in Cun ent Biology in 2017.

    Federica Bcrtocchini, co-author of the study, says the worms' ability to break down their everyday food — beeswax — also allows them to break down plastic. "Wax is a complex mixture, but the basic bond in polyethylene, the carbon-carbon bond, is there as well," she explains, "The wax worm evolved a method or system to break this bond."

    Jennifer DeBruyn, a microbiologist at the University of Tennessee, who was not involved in the study, says it is not surprising that such worms can break down polyethylene. But compared with previous studies, she finds the speed of breaking down in this one exciting. The next step, DeBruyn says, will be to identify the cause of the breakdown. Is it an enzyme produced by the worm itself or by its gut microbes(肠道微生物)?

    Bertocchini agrees and hopes her team's findings might one day help employ the enzyme to break down plastics in landfills. But she expects using the chemical in some kind of industrial process — not simply "millions of worms thrown on top of the plastic."