On Monday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicted that 42% of Americans could be overweight by 2030. Our expanding bodies not only lead to a medical problem, but also endanger personal safety in some situations—in an airplane crash, for example, according to a recent article in The New York Times.

The New York Times' Christine Negroni reports that engineers and scientists are questioning whether airplane seats are designed to protect overweight travelers. Government standards(标准) for airplane seat strength—first set more than 60 years ago—require that the seats be made for a passenger weighing 170 pounds. Today, the average American man weighs nearly 194 pounds and the average woman 165 pounds. Negroni reports:

     “If a heavier person completely fills a seat, the seat is not likely to behave as designed during a crash,” Robert Salzar, the leading scientist at the Center for Applied Biomechanics at the University of Virginia. “The energy that is built into the aircraft seat is likely to be overpowered and the passengers will not be protected properly”.

     “Nor would the injury be limited to that passenger only,” Dr. Salzar said. “If a seat or a seat belt fails,”he said, “those people who are seated nearby could not be safe from the uncontrolled movements of the passenger.”

    Most complaints(投诉) about airplane seats focus on their lack of comfort and high ticket price, and whether overweight passengers should be made to buy two seats. But The New York Times' article brings up another reason to feel anxious about flying. Investigators(调查者) got in touch with the airplane seat and seat belt makers, but they refused to talk about the problem. Experts agreed that crash testing should be done. Both airplane seats and seat belts should be tested, they said.

    Fortunately, however, according to Nora Marshall, a senior adviser at the National Transportation Safety Board, the board's investigators have never seen an accident involving a commercial plane in which the weight of a passenger was a problem.

    I was attending a party one night given in Sir Ross's honor; and during the dinner, the man sitting next to me told a humorous story based on the quotation(引语): “There's a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will.”

    The storyteller mentioned that the quotation was from the Bible. He was wrong. I knew that, and I knew it positively. There couldn't be the slightest doubt about it. And so, to get a feeling of importance and display my superiority, I appointed myself as an unwelcome committee of one to correct him. He stuck to his guns. “What? From Shakespeare? Impossible! Absurd! That quotation was from the Bible.” And he knew it.

    The storyteller was sitting on my right; and Frank Gammond, an old friend of mine, was seated on my left. Mr. Gammond had devoted years to the study of Shakespeare. So the storyteller and I agreed to submit the question to Mr. Gammond. Mr. Gammond listened, kicked me under the table, and then said: “Dale, you are wrong. The gentleman is right. It is from the Bible.”

    On our way home that night, I said to Mr. Gammond: “Frank, you knew that quotation was from Shakespeare.” “Yes, of course,” he replied, “Hamlet, Act Five, Scene Two. But we were guests at a happy time, my dear Dale. Why prove to a man he is wrong? Is that going to make him like you? Why not let him save his face? He didn't ask for your advice. He didn't want it. Why argue with him? Always avoid your sharp angle.” The man who said that taught me a lesson I'll never forget. I not only had made the storyteller uncomfortable, but also had put my friend in an embarrassing situation. How much better it would have been had I not become argumentative.

    Nine times out of ten, an argument ends with each of the contestants more firmly convinced than ever that he is absolutely right. You can't win an argument. You can't because if you lose it, you lose it; and if you win it, you lose it.

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    So what is rewilding?

    Imagine our natural homes growing instead of shrinking. Imagine species (物种) diversifying instead of declining. That's rewilding. Rewilding is ecological restoration. Rewilding offers hope for wildlife, humans and the planet.

    Why is rewilding important and necessary?

    Our natural ecology is broken. The places where you would expect wildlife to exist have been reduced to wet deserts. The seabed has been destroyed and there have been no living creatures any more.

    Our wildlife is disappearing. Many wonderful species have declined over the past century. We've lost more of our large animals than any European country.

    We need keystone species. These vital species, including top predators (食肉动物), drive ecological processes. Their loss has worsened our living systems.

    Nature looks after us. Good natural ecology can provide us with clean air and water, prevent flooding and store carbon. Rewilding can leave the world in a better state than it is today.

    What are challenges?

    As a long-term project, our "rewilding britain" has its challenges. Many people are not interested, because we have got used to the lack of native forests. Many farmers oppose the idea. They thought it a crazy idea to bring back predators because they would start killing farm animals. It takes time to educate them. Above all, we need money! So we need your help!

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    Help us bring back living systems and restore wild nature!

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    Open up new chances for rewilding and push for change.

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New archaeological discovers suggest that trade between Europe and Asia along the Silk Road probably began in some form many centuries earlier than once thought. The findings, coupled with a widening range of scientific and historical research, could add a fascinating new page to the epic of the Silk Road.

The latest and most surprising discovery is pieces of silk found in the hair of an Egyptian mummy from about 1000 BC, long before regular traffic on the Silk Road and at least one thousand years before silk was previously thought to be used in Egypt. Other research may extend human activity along this route back even further, perhaps a million years to the migration of human ancestors into eastern Asia.

The official origin of East-West commerce along the road is usually placed in the late 2^nd century BC when an agent of the Chinese Emperor Wu-di returned from a dangerous secret mission across the western desert into the remote high country of Central Asia. The agent, Zhang Qian, travelled as far as Afghanistan and brought back knowledge of even more distant lands such as Persia, Syria and a place known as Lijien, perhaps Rome. Historians have called this one of the most important journeys in ancient times. His journey opened the way for what have been thought to be the first indirect contacts between the ancient world's two superpowers, China and Rome. Chinese silk, first traded to central Asian tribes for war horses and to the Parthians of old Persia in exchange for acrobats and ostrich eggs, was soon finding its way through a network of merchants to the luxury markets of Rome.

But the new discoveries show that Chinese silk was apparently present in the West long before the Han emperor started organized trade over the Silk Road. The research could change thinking about the early history of world trade and provide insights into the mystery of just how and when Europe and the Mediterranean lands first became aware of the glorious culture at the other end of Eurasia.

    When I was about 12 years old, my older brother, James, smuggled a BB gun into the house. Our parents had told us many times that we were not allowed to bring home guns or knives, even if they were just toys. Having any form of weaponry in our home was strictly forbidden.

    James brought me to his room. He opened his closet door and took out a shoebox that was buried beneath a heap of clothes. The BB gun was inside. I was immediately enamored by the shiny barrel.

    "Can I shoot it, Jamesie?" I asked, hopefully.

    "Noway,"James said, taking it from me and putting it back.

    One day, when no one was home, I went into James' closet and took it out. For some in explicable reason - I have no idea what I was thinking - I went to the front window of the second floor in our row house. I cracked the window open. I pointed the gun outside and shot. I quickly shut the window and peeked outside.

    In a matter of seconds, old Mr. Schlosberg came out of his grocery store. He looked back at his store window. He looked up the street. He looked down the street. Then he looked straight across to our house.

    Thankfully, Jamesie made it home before Mother or Father.

    As he stepped through the door, I could hear old Mr. Schlosberg call his name. "James, James," he called. "Come here, son."

    After several minutes, James ran back across the street and into the living room. I had retreated into the kitchen. "Alma!" he screamed. "Get out here! You cracked Mr. Schlosberg's window with my BB gun!"

    "Oh, please, Jamesie," I begged. "Don't let him tell Mother. She will whip my bottom real good!" Jamesie sighed. He wiped my tears and went back across the street to Mr. Schlosberg's. I don't know what James said to that man, but there was never a mention of the incident again.

    Years later, I found out Jamesie had used the money he got from his newspaper route to pay for Mr. Schlosberg's cracked window. He only got one cent for every paper he delivered. He managed to pay back the debt just before he went off to fight in World War II.

    Since that day, I have never touched a gun: a BB gun, a water gun, a real gun, or any other type.

On a steamy July day in Bayonet Point, Florida, Gene Work and his brother-in-law, Mark Rouco, were resodding（重新铺草皮）Gene's yard.

The lawn had grown 1  in the heat, and the Works had been threatened to accept a huge fine if the situation wasn't remedied. The new sod was sitting in the driveway, but the job was slow-going.

Gene, then 40, wasn't feeling right. He went inside to take a break and 2  on the couch, clutching his chest. His wife, Melissa Work, called 911 quickly. Even though he was 3  down death, Gene had one thing on his mind: that 4 .

If the sod wasn't 5  that day, it would die. "While he was having his heart attack, literally in and out of consciousness, he kept 6  me to have it put down because he didn't want it to go to waste," Melissa wrote in a Facebook post.

Soon Pasco County Fire Rescue arrived and took Gene and Melissa to the hospital, leaving Rouco behind to 7  the yard. Within an hour, he had managed to remove the old grass. He was about to lay the new sod, which he 8  would take him well into the night, 9  two emergency vehicles appeared. Seven men—the same ones who had treated his brother—10 . Gene had told them how 11  he'd wanted to get the sod down, so they had returned to help. The job was done in under two hours. Meanwhile, Gene had surgery to insert stents（支架）in his heart, 12  a potentially deadly blockage.

He's home now, fully recovered—and enjoying his beautiful lawn. The Works are still 13  that those EMTs went above and beyond their job 14 . "These men," Melissa told tampabay.com, "saved Gene's life, and then came back to save his grass. That's just so 15 ."