Growing roots

    When I was growing up, I had an old neighbor named Dr. Gibbs. He didn't look like any doctor I'd 1 known. When Dr. Gibbs wasn't 2 lives, he was planting trees.

The good doctor had some3 theories on planting trees. He believed in "No pains, no gains". He never 4 his new trees, which was5 many people. Once I asked why. He 6 that watering plants spoiled them, and that if you water them, each following tree generation will 7 weaker and weaker. So you have to make things8 for them. He talked about how watering trees

    9 shallow roots, and how trees that weren't watered had to grow deep roots in

    10 of water. I came to understand that he meant deep roots were to be 11 I planted a couple of trees a few years back and I took good care of them. Two years of12 has resulted in trees that expect to be waited on hand and foot. Whenever a cold wind blows, they 13and tremble their branches. Funny things about those trees of Dr. Gibbs'. The lack of water seemed to 14them in ways comfort and ease never could.

    I used to15for my sons that their lives will be easy. But16 I've been thinking that it's time to17 my prayer. I know my children are going to meet

    18 and I'm praying they will be strong. The prayer for comfort is seldom met. What we need to do is to pray for deep roots,19when the winds blow, we won't be20away.

    In storm-ravaged (风暴肆虐的) Santa Clarita, California, last March, Martinez approached Runner Road carefully. A 1 creek(小溪) had flooded it. Martinez, driving a Toyota SUV, 2 he'd be OK. Big 3. Halfway across, the rushing waters grabbed hold of his vehicle, sweeping it off the road. It finally 4 a good 80 feet away, when the 5 somehow lifted the SUV and put it into the ground at a 45-degree angle. Shaken, and trapped inside with the water rising quickly, Martinez was certain he was going to 6.

    On the road right behind Martinez were a delivery 7 and his niece. They 8 the horror unfold, and when Martinez's SUV came to 9 in the middle of the pouring creek, the man leaped to 10. First, he grabbed heavy-duty (结实的) 11 from the back of his van and tied the unsteady SUV to 12 posts. Then he climbed on the top of Martinez's 13 and hit a rear window with his fists. Frustrated, he 14 to his niece and yelled, “Give me a 15!”

    Over and over he hit the rock into the 16 very hard, but in vain. “We were scared that something else was going to come down and take the SUV, take him, take my uncle,” Krystina Reyes, 27, said. But her uncle's name was not publicly known.

    Reyes's uncle shouted to Martinez to 17 away from the window. He 18 and threw the rock. 19, the glass broke. Soon, a soaked Martinez went out of the window, and the men escaped to dry land.

    Martinez was saved by a(n) 20 delivery driver.

    With his leg lame and his teeth uneven, the boy thought of himself as the most unfortunate child in the world. He 1played with his classmates, and when asked to answer questions, he always 2his head without a word.

    One spring, his father brought home some saplings (树苗).3of his children would plant a sapling and he promised, "Whoever 4 his sapling best shall get a gift." The boy certainly wanted to get the gift.5seeing his brothers and sisters watering the trees, he6 an idea: he hoped the tree he planted would die soon. So watering it once or twice, he never7 it.

    Several days later, he was 8 to find it not only didn't die, but also grew so many fresh 9. Compared with those of his brothers and sisters, his appeared greener. His father kept his 10, bought the boy a gift and said he would become an outstanding11 after growing up.

    From then on, the boy slowly became12 and confident. One evening, he suddenly13 his biology teacher once said that plants 14 grow at night. Why not go to see the tree?

    When he came to the courtyard, he found his father working near the tree! Immediately he15: Father had been secretly 16 his tree! He returned to his room, tears in his eyes.

    Decades passed. The boy didn't become a botanist. 17, he became the U.S.18. His name was Franklin Roosevelt.

    19 is the best nourishment (滋养品) of life. 20 it is just a bucket of water, it can make the tree of life grow well!

There's one patient that Sarah Rose Black still thinks about. Back in 2019, the nursing team at Toronto's Cancer Center called to ask if she could reach out to a patient who had been there for about a week. The man was struggling, and unwilling to communicate with workers or be part of any activities. 

Black isn't a doctor or a nurse. Since 2013 she has played an important role for patients at the center as a music therapist (治疗专家). On any day, she might see one person who's anxious about an operation, another who's in need of a calm moment.

So, Black walked into the patient's room and introduced herself. She asked if she could sit and offer to play some music. In an effort to persuade him, she said, "If you don't like it, you can just tell me to leave." After some gentle urging, the man in his 70s, who had lung cancer, told her a few musicians he liked and then turned away to look out the window. But as she started to play one of his favorites, a change came over him. He turned towards Black and started to cry. 

She stopped playing. "Do you want me to continue?" "Certainly," he said through tears. "It was as if the music went places that nothing else could," recalls Black. The music showed up at a moment when it felt like a hug. 

As Sarah Rose Black says, people have been connecting with music for their whole lives—she is just helping them use it again at a time when they need it most. 

"We have a heartbeat, so we have a drum (鼓) inside us; we are wired to be musical people," she says. She smiles softly as she reflects back on the experience.

Kelli Boehle says her son Nik was an amazing and caring person. Nik was diagnosed(诊断) with cancer in 2008 when he was 17. He passed away in 2012. But Nik's kindness and generosity have lived on long after his death.

After he was diagnosed and started treatment, Nik was granted (给予) a wish experience from the Make-A-Wish Foundation. "For just this period of time, we didn't think about cancer, "Kelli Boehle said. "All we thought about was enjoying our time together."

In 2009, Nik met another young man Nate, who was also going through cancer treatment. He'd been diagnosed a month after turning 18, and Nik learned he was too old to qualify for a wish. The night before Nik passed away, he asked his mother to help ensure that young adults fighting cancer could have their wishes come true too. 

"It was like a seed he planted that just wouldn't stop coming into my mind, " she said. In 2012, Kelli Boehle started Nik's Wish. The nonprofit grants wishes to young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 who are battling cancer. Nate was the organization's first wish recipient. "It's meant to bring them joy and know that they're loved and that we're fighting for them, too, "Kelli Boehle said. 

Recently, 19-year-old Jordan Morrow received her wish to attend a Taylor Swift concert as part of a trip to Los Angeles. For Morrow, who has spent the last year battling brain cancer, going to the concert has done more than lift her spirits. "I think it's something to get me through whatever comes my way, "she said. "And I'm thankful for Nik's Wish for that. "

In the 11 years since Nik passed away, the organization has granted more than 300 wishes across more than 30 states. In the beginning, Kelli Boehle says she wasn't sure she could be a wish maker and work closely with the young adults. But now, it's her favorite thing to do.

The Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), China's leading aircraft maker, created the country's first fully solar-powered drone (无人机). The large drone, Qimingxing 50, took off at 5:50 pm on September 3rd, 2022, from an airport in Yulin of Shaanxi Province and stayed in the air for 26 minutes before landing on the same runway. AVIC said that all systems of the unmanned plane functioned well on its first flight.

Powered by six electric motors with solar batteries, the drone is designed to conduct long-time operations in near space. Near space is that part of Earth's atmosphere at altitudes of 20 to 100 kilometers. It is above the top altitudes of commercial airliners but below orbiting satellites.

Qimingxing 50, also called "quasi-satellite", features high operational efficiency and eco-friendliness and will be tasked with high-altitude reconnaissance (侦察), forestry fire monitoring, atmospheric environmental inspection, aerial mapping, communication signal relay and other operations.

"Thanks to its capability to conduct very long endurance flights in near space, the drone can essentially become a substitute for satellites," a Chinese aerospace expert said. Satellite services are not always available due to the limited number of satellites and relatively fixed schedules of overhead passes. In time-sensitive missions, near-space drones can offset these disadvantages, the expert said, noting that satellite services could also be damaged in wartime, so near-space drones could replace them in this occasion.

The successful first flight of the Qimingxing-50 lays a solid foundation for the development of key technologies in the country's new energy field, the composite (复合的) material field, which will enhance China's ability to perform tasks in near space and over far oceans. AVIC will seize the opportunity to increase investment and speed up the development of large solar-powered unmanned aircraft.