The 2016 Rio Olympic Games have come to an end. Without doubt, many Chinese sports fans sat in front of the TV and cheered our athletes on, hoping that they would get as many gold medals as possible.

    But sometimes our desire for gold medals can result in the sadness of failure. When Liu Xiang, China's track hero, pulled out of the Beijing Olympics due to injury, he greatly disappointed many Chinese sports fans.

    But things are different now. In the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, we saw a healthier and more lenient Chinese attitude toward the sports people, fully in line with the Olympic spirit.

    China didn't win any gold medals on the first day. But, instead of criticizing the athletes who failed to finish on top of the podium(领奖台), the majority of fans were happy with their efforts. “Reacting in the right way when an athlete misses out on gold shows the maturity of a person, and is also a challenge for a country to face up to in the process of development,” commented CRI.

    Swimmer Fu Yuanhui won fans' hearts, even if she only won a bronze medal in the 100m backstroke final. Her fans on her Sina Weibo micro blog have increased 100,000 to over 6 million. Many sports fans appreciated her straightforward character and attitude toward competition.

    “The warm support from Internet users shows that public attitude toward competitive sport and the Olympics have gotten to a higher level,” said an article in the People's Daily.

Make Your Brain Smarter

    You know that eating a proper diet and getting plenty of exercise help make your body healthy and strong. But did you know that there are ways to make your brain healthier and smarter? Studies show that when the brain is forced to do something new, it creates new neural (神经的) pathways. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} 

    ● Limit your TV viewing.

    Watching an average TV show requires very little brain power and brings the same result as neglecting (忽视) physical exercise.{#blank#}2{#/blank#} If you watch TV, choose something educational and informative.

    ● Use your non-dominant (非支配的) hand.

    If you are right-handed, use your left hand for everyday activities, or use your right hand if you are left-handed. Doing familiar things in a new way will cause your brain to create new neural networks. Brushing our teeth is something we do daily. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} But maybe we should. Experts suggest that we can force the brain to work by changing things up and working with our non-dominant hand. So the next time you brush your teeth, open the tube, apply your toothpaste and brush with the opposite hand.

    ●{#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    Jump in the shower and shut your eyes. Even if you drop the soap—that's okay. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Searching for the soap while feeling the textures (质地) with your eyes closed works. Using your fingers to make fine distinctions between objects or textures can reconnect the brain areas involved in touch, suggests Larry Katz, a professor of neurobiology at Duke University Medical Center and author.

A. Shower with your eyes closed.

B. Smart people rarely follow a set pattern.

C. The more pathways you have, the smarter you will be.

D. Use your different senses.

E. We really don't put that much thought into it.

F. Put your brain to best use.

G. Your brain will become weak just as your muscles do.

    In my living room, there is a plaque (匾) that advises me to “Bloom (开花) where you are planted.” It reminds me of Dorothy. I got to know Dorothy in the early 1980s, when I was teaching Early Childhood Development through a program with Union College in Barbourville, Kentucky. The job responsibilities required occasional visits to the classroom of each teacher in the program. Dorothy stands out in my memory as one who “bloomed” in her remote area.

    Dorothy taught in a school In Harlan County, Kentucky, Appalachian Mountain area. To get to her school from the town of Harlan, I followed a road winding around the mountain. In the eight-mile journey, I crossed the same railroad track five times, giving the possibility of getting caught by the same train five times. Rather than feeling excited by this drive through the mountains, I found it depressing. The poverty level was shocking and the small shabby houses gave me the greatest feeling of hopelessness.

    From the moment of my arrival at the little school, all gloom (忧郁) disappeared. Upon arriving at Dorothy's classroom. I was greeted with smiling faces and treated like a queen. The children had been prepared to show me their latest projects. Dorothy told me with a big smile that they were serving poke greens salad and cornbread for “dinner” (lunch). In case you don't know, poke greens are a weed-type plant that grows wild, especially on poor ground.

    Dorothy never ran out of reports of exciting activities of her students. Her enthusiasm never cooled down. When it came time to sit for the testing and interviewing required to receive her Child Development Associate Certification, Dorothy was ready. She came to the assessment and passed in all areas. Afterward, she invited me to the one-and-only steak house in the area to celebrate her victory, as if she had received her Ph. D. degree. After the meal, she placed a little box containing an old pen in my hand. She said it was a family heirloom (传家宝), but to me it is a treasured symbol of appreciation and pride that cannot be matched with things.  (360 words)

    The Israeli farmers who pioneered the revolutionary technology known as drip irrigation weren't trying to solve one of the world's most urgent problems．They were just trying to survive．They lived in the desert，and they didn't have enough water to grow their crops．

    In its simplest form, it was little more than a pipe with holes in it. But behind each hole was a hi-tech dripper that let out just the right amount of water. Snaked along a row of crops so that the holes were positioned directly above the roots, the pipe could direct each precious drop of water directly to the plants, getting a bigger harvest while using a very small amount of the water．

    Over time, the farmers improved upon the technology, perfecting the drippers that regulated the flow of water, and connecting the pipelines to computers that could determine exactly how much water each plant needed and when．

    If the global population kept growing, the rest of the world would increasingly resemble their little community in the desert. So they began selling their irrigation systems in other parts of the world，eventually expanding to more than 110 countries. Netafirm, the company says it's lifting people out of poverty and conserving water at a time when the importance of doing so has never been clearer．

    The mass adoption of drip irrigation won't save the world by itself. To avoid the coming catastrophe, nearly everybody will, in some way, have to do more with less, perhaps through accepting and using other new technologies. Otherwise, it's going to get ugly．

    Nola (August 21, 1974 -November 22, 2015) was a northern white rhino(犀牛) who lived at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park near Escondido, California. At her death, she was one of only four remaining northern white rhinos in the world. The other three lived in Kenya. World Rhino Day, held on September 2, is to raise awareness(意识) of the less than 30,000 other rhinos left on Earth.

    “Rhinos need our help today, not tomorrow,” Nola's lead keeper Jane Kennedy said. “Last year we lost over 1,200 rhinos just in South Africa. If we continue to lose more than 1,000 rhinos a year, in 10 to 20 years all the rhinos on the planet will be gone.”

    “Unfortunately, most animals are in danger of dying out because of humans,” Kennedy says.“ Humans have either poached animals, or because there are over seven billion of us, we've taken up too much of the world's resources ”. Poachers illegally hunt rhinos for their horns. They sell the horns for thousands of dollars per pound, to be used for art, jewelry, and decorations. Experts believe that one rhino is poached every eight hours.

    In 1975, the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research started the Frozen Zoo, a program through which researchers have collected cell (细胞) samples from more than 8,000 different types of animals, including the northern white rhino. Scientists hope that by studying the rhino cells, they will get greater understanding of it, and will find ways to increase its numbers.

    Jane Kennedy describes World Rhino Day as “a celebration of rhinos along with an awareness campaign for everybody across the world to know that rhinos need our help.” At the San Diego Zoo, children and adults are welcome to visit and speak with zookeepers to learn about rhinos. But you don't have to live in San Diego to celebrate World Rhino Day. It is observed around the world, with zoos and wildlife parks holding special events and programs to teach people about rhinos, and enable them to see the animals up close. For more information, go to www.worldrhinoday.org.

    At the age of 14, James Harrison had a major chest operation and he required 13 units (3.4 gallons) of blood afterwards. The blood donations saved his life, and he decided that once he turned 18, he would begin donating blood as regularly as he could.

    More than 60 years and almost 1,200 donations later, Harrison, whose blood contains an antibody (抗体) that has saved the lives of 2.4 million babies from miscarriages (流产), retired as a blood donor on May 11. Harrison's blood is valuable because he naturally produces Rh-negative blood, which contains Rh-positive antibodies. His blood has been used to create anti-D in Australia since 1967.

    "Every bottle of Anti-D ever made in Australia has James in it," Robyn Barlow, the Rh program director told the Sydney Morning Herald. "It's an amazing thing. He has saved millions of babies. I cry just thinking about it." Since then, Harrison has donated between 500 and 800 milliliters of blood almost every week. He's made 1,162 donations from his right arm and 10 from his left.

    "I'd keep going if they let me," Harrison told the Herald. His doctors said it was time to stop the donations — and they certainly don't take them lightly. They had already extended the age limit for blood donations for him, and they're cutting him off now to protect his health. He made his final donation surrounded by some of the mothers and babies who his blood helped save.

    Harrison's retirement is a blow to the Rh treatment program in Australia. Only 160 donors support the program, and finding new donors has proven to be difficult. But Harrison's retirement from giving blood doesn't mean he's completely out of the game. Scientists are collecting and cataloging his DNA to create a library of antibodies and white blood cells that could be the future of the anti-D program in Australia.