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Whenever we talk about holidays, my mother teases my sister and me about how we "make out like robbers". She is referring to the fact that we are half Jewish and half Indian, so we receive gifts on both the festivals of lights: Hanukkah and Diwali. Though my mother teases us, I don't mind getting two sets of gifts! 

Hanukkah is celebrated on the 25th day of the Jewish month, which is usually in December. On Hanukkah, like most Jewish families, we light a menorah(烛台) and say a prayer each night. We also say a special prayer on the first night. After that, it's a tradition for my sister and me to do "hot and cold" for our hidden Hanukkah gifts. When we walk towards the gift, our parents say "hot" and when we walk further away, they say "cold". We each receive one present every night of Hanukkah. Another part I like in this holiday is seeing family members who we do not see often. My aunt usually stays for a few days, and we sometimes visit other relatives. 

Diwali is celebrated on the 13th day of the dark fortnight of the month of Ashwin (October/November). To celebrate it, my family does a pooja, or prayers, in honor of the goddess Lakshmi. Since she is the goddess of wealth and prosperity, the pooja includes washing silver coins in milk and water. In India, people decorate their houses with lamps, similar to the way you might light up your house for Christmas. My family just places a few candles outside. We also set off firecrackers, which is my favorite part. We often do this activity with friends to add to the excitement.

Both holidays have different histories and stories. We celebrate them in different ways, yet both have the same meaning. They both translate into Festival of Lights, and they both mean family and presents for me! 

SUMMERFIELD SCHOOL REPORT

Term: Spring 

Name: Jane Elizabeth Pringle 

Age: 15 

Position: 15 

English 

She's fond of writing notes to her friends, but she is not at all fond of writing composition. Her work is full of spelling mistakes. I believe she is able to do better. 

B- Math 

She is good at figures, but lazy. She doesn't always pay attention and spends most of her time annoying the boy in front of her. She must concentrate. 

B Foreign language 

She will never succeed in learning foreign languages if she persists（坚持） in talking in English. 

B- Science 

If she persists in doing dangerous experiments, she will anger all of us! 

C History Getting better. 

A Geography Nice work. 

A Art 

Very good—like drawing pictures of her teachers. 

A- PE 

Excellent—very good at playing games. General: Jane is still a bit of tomboy, and she often gets into trouble with her teachers. She enjoys games and especially like playing football with boys and climbing trees. She must take things seriously. 

S. Sweet B Birth 

From Mistress Headmaster 

Every year on my birthday since I was 11, a white gardenia(栀子花) was sent to my house. No card ever came with it. Calls to the flower shop were not 1  at all. After some time, I stopped trying to 2  the sender's name and was just pleased with the beautiful flower in soft pink paper. 

I couldn't stop 3  who the giver might be. Some of my happiest moments were spent daydreaming (幻想) about the sender. My mother encouraged these daydreams. She'd ask me if I had been especially 4  to someone. Perhaps it was one of my classmates, 5 the old man who I once helped. As a girl, I had more 6  imagining that it might be a boy that I had 7 . 

A month before my high school graduation, my father died. I was so sad that I became 8  uninterested in my coming graduation dance, and I didn't care whether I had a new dress or not. My mother, in her own 9 , would not let me miss any of those things. She wanted her children to 10  loved, to be much like the gardenia: lovely, strong and perfect. 

My mother died ten years after I was married. That was the year the gardenia stopped coming. 

Charlie's life dream was to become a soldier, but he would never be able to because of his leg condition—he couldn't stand on his right leg. He was very sad about it. 

One day, Harris, 1  army officer, heard the story. After communicating with Charlie's parents, Harris thought of a good plan 2  would surprise the poor boy. 

A month later, Harris appeared in Charlie's classroom. In front of 3  classmates, Harris asked the boy, " Would you mind taking a ride with me?" Charlie 4  to the Army Reserve Center, where he really dreamed to go. Harris said to Charlie, "Today you will become a member 5  our team." Charlie thought he was 6  than anyone else in the world, 7 his dream came true. He raised his right hand and 8  the oath(誓言) loudly, "I volunteer to join the army and make all my efforts to protect the people and the country." 

9 people were moved by Harris's kindness. Harris said that it was simply part of his job, "When I joined the army, I made a promise to protect the people. That also means I will try my best 10  the dream of a child." 

注意：词数100左右。

With the ideal time for harvesting fresh tea leaves approaching, locals celebrated the beginning of the tea-picking season with a spirited ceremony held at Jingmai Mountain in Yunnan province. 

This annual event, which takes place towards the end of March, is a tradition among local minorities. Having been around for centuries, it is a perfect opportunity to show respect for the tea forest before harvesting the gifts of nature. Jingmai Mountain, renowned for its thick forests of ancient tea trees, has been an essential part of the locals'  lives for centuries. People there maintain an ancient method of tea cultivation featuring a unique multi-layered (层) ecosystem, which is regarded as the key to maintaining harmony between humans and nature. 

The village has been located halfway up the mountain, close to the tea forest in the middle of the mountain, while farmland is in lower areas with abundant water sources, which can avoid disturbance to tea forests during planting. 

The ancient tea forests are now refreshing as the younger generations are introducing new ideas aimed at better developing the tea industry in this area. Xian Gong, 39, started a farmers'  cooperative in 2010 in Jingmai village. Over time, she expanded the initiative by developing it into a company integrating the cooperative, a tea factory, a hostel and a shop under one roof. Today, the tea gardens cover an area of more than 600 hectares and generate an annual output of more than 200 tons, helping nearly 500 households increase their incomes. 

A growing number of villagers are embracing new business opportunities by establishing cooperatives, tea factories and homestays. Many have adapted to the latest trends, such as selling tea through live streaming and sharing details of their daily lives and work on social media platforms. 

The recent boom in the modern tea industry has motivated the residents to take better care of their ancient tea forests. In addition to their efforts to resist using chemicals and avoid planting other crops in the tea forests, the local government has applied over 20 rules and regulations for the protection of precious ancient tea forests. They hold a strong belief that the tea mountain is the most valuable gift left by their ancestors and it is their due responsibility to protect and make good use of it. 

 My family and I went on a holiday last year to visit some distant  (relative) I had never met before. They lived in  flat in New York in the city center. It was (excite) to visit them and they were very friendly and welcoming! They took us sightseeing and we went to a lot of places. 

 The one problem I had was sleeping at night. They live on the ground floor of their building  I could hear all the sounds of the city. During the night, lorries came (collect) rubbish and they kept me awake. They (visit) us in London next year and I can' t wait to show them around. 

Want to make people laugh?  Here are a few tips to keep in mind if your goal is to tickle some funny bones. 

Consider your audience. Your audience, whether it' s your parents in your living room or a paying crowd at an auditorium, must be able to connect with any situation you describe in your jokes. If they can' t relate to the joke, or if they don' t completely understand it, then it' s simply not funny to them.  If you have to explain a joke to someone, the person might eventually understand it, but he or she probably won' t think it' s funny. This is the reason that many jokes don' t translate well into another language. They rely on an understanding of a particular culture. You can translate the words but, without an appreciation for the background, many translated jokes aren' t very funny. 

There' s a reason that people say, "Stop me if you' ve heard this one" before telling a joke. If your audience already knows (or can guess) the end of a joke before you tell it, then it' s not going to make them laugh. People laugh at the end of a joke because they' ve been told a story and led toward its ending, (unconsciously) thinking about what will happen next or how it will end. Surprise is part of the reason that you want to learn to tell jokes without laughing. If you laugh, then your listeners expect you to say something funny. If you tell a joke without laughing or smiling, then they' re more surprised when you get to the funny part.

Check your timing. Another important part of humor is timing, or delivering the punch line at the best possible moment.  The reason is that this builds tension. The listener knows the end is coming and is waiting for it. When you finally tell the punch line, the listener feels a sense of relief and is more and inclined to laugh. 

A. Use surprise. 

B. Choose your jokes. 

C. Then you' ve got to know what' s funny. 

D. Make sure your jokes are often told within limited time. 

E. It' s often useful to pause before telling the last line of a joke. 

F. When we hear something that wasn' t what we were expecting, we find it funny. 

G. People love jokes that, based on their experience, make them say, "That' s so true!"

Cornell University researchers have developed a silent-speech recognition interface that uses acoustic-sensing ( 声学传感) and artificial intelligence to continuously recognize up to 31 unvocalized commands, based on lip and mouth movements. The low-power, wearable eyewear—called EchoSpeech—requires just a few minutes of user training data before it will recognize commands and can be run on a smartphone. 

Ruidong Zhang, doctoral student of information science, is the lead author of "EchoSpeech—Continuous Silent Speech Recognition on Minimally-obtrusive Eyewear Powered by Acoustic Sensing," which will be presented at the Association for Computing Machinery Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) this month in Hamburg, Germany.

"For people who cannot vocalize sound, this silent speech technology could be an excellent input for a voice synthesizer. It could give patients their voices back," Zhang said of the technology' s potential use with further development. In its present form, EchoSpeech could be used to communicate with others via smartphone in places where speech is inconvenient or inappropriate, like a noisy restaurant or quiet library. The silent speech eyewear can also be paired with a stylus (触控笔) and used with design software like CAD, all but erasing the need for a keyboard and a mouse.

Outfitted with a pair of microphones and speakers smaller than pencil erasers, the EchoSpeech become a wearable AI-powered sonar (声呐) system, sending and receiving soundwaves across the face and sensing mouth movements. A deep learning algorithm (算法) then analyzes these echo profiles in real time, with about 95% accuracy. 

"We' re moving sonar onto the body," said Cheng Zhang, assistant professor of information science and director of Cornell' s Smart Computer Interfaces for Future Interactions (SciFi) Lab. "We' re very excited about this system," he said, "because it really pushes the field forward on performance and privacy. It' s small, low-power and privacy-sensitive, which are all important features for using new, wearable technologies in the real world. "

Most technology in silent-speech recognition is limited to a select set of predetermined commands and requires the user to face or wear a camera, which is neither practical nor achievable, Cheng Zhang said. There also are major privacy concerns involving wearable cameras—for both the user and those with whom the user interacts, he said. 

Acoustic-sensing technology like EchoSpeech removes the need for wearable video cameras. And because audio data is much smaller than image or video data, it requires less bandwidth to process and can be relayed to a smartphone via Bluetooth in real time, said François Guimbretière, professor in information science. "And because the data is processed locally on your smartphone instead of uploaded to the cloud," he said, "privacy-sensitive information never leaves your control. "

This week I watched an international news program and saw what looked like most of the planet—the Americas, Africa, Europe, Asia—painted in bright oranges and reds. Fahrenheit (华氏温度的) temperatures in three-digit numbers seemed to burn all over on the world map. 

Heat records have burst around the globe. This very weekend, crops are burning,

roads are bending and seas are rising, while lakes recede, or even disappear. Ice sheets melt in rising heat, and wildfires attack forests. People are dying in this heat. Lives of all kinds are threatened, in cities, fields, seas, deserts and forests. Wildlife, farm animals, insects and human beings are in pain. 

The UN' s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) says there is more deadly heat in our future because of climate change caused by our species on this planet. Even with advances in wind, solar and other alternative energy sources, and international promises and agreements, the world still derives about 80% of its energy from fossil fuels, like oil, gas and coal, which release the carbon dioxide that' s warmed the climate to the current temperatures of this hot summer. The WMO' s chief, Petteri Taalas, said this week, "In the future these kinds of heatwaves are going to be normal. "

The most alarming word in his forecast might be: "normal. " I' m of a generation that thought of summer as a sunny time for children. I think of long days spent outdoors without worry, playing games or just wandering. John Updike wrote in his poem, "June":

The sun is rich

And gladly pays

In golden hours,

Silver days,

And long green weeks

That never end.

School' s out. The time

Is ours to spend.

There' s Little League,

Hopscotch, the creek,

And, after supper,

Hide-and-seek.

The live-long light

Is like a dream. . .

But now that bright, "live-long light," of which Updike wrote, might look threatening in a summer like this.

The extremely hot weeks that we see this year cause one to wonder if our failures to care for the planet given to us will make our children look forward to summer, or fear another season of heat. 

South Africa' s viniculture industry employs around 270,000 people, producing some of the world' s most sought-after wines. But not all jobs are best left to humans. In some cases, it' s better to get your ducks in a row, and then put them to work. 

Outside Cape Town on the banks of the Eerste river, Vergenoegd Löw, the Wine Estate, has repurposed a centuries-old practice by gathering a group of ducks to keep its vineyards free of pests. "I call our ducks the soldiers of our vineyards," says managing director Corius Visser. "They will eat aphids, they will eat snails, they will eat small worms—they keep (it) completely pest-free. "

The species, the Indian runner duck, is flightless, with a peculiarly upright stance and highly developed sense of smell. The duck troops are employed on a 14-day circuit through the vineyards, eating and fertilizing the ground as they go. 

The ducks' "annual leave" takes place during the harvest (they' d eat the grapes). During this time they search for food on open farm pasture, swim in a nearby lake and undergo selective breeding, says Visser.

Duck eggs are consumed in the vineyard restaurant, but never the ducks themselves—"that would be like eating a colleague," Gavin Moyes, the estate' s tasting room manager, said in a 2020 interview.

Inspired by ducks used to remove pests from rice paddies in Asia, the winery calls on the services of some 1,600 ducks as part of its effort to make wine production more sustainable. "The world is moving away from more conventional farming to (being) a bit more organic," Visser explains. "For Vergenoegd, it' s a big goal … to have less influence on the Earth, the soil and the environment. "

As a pioneering winemaker with industry influence—vines have been grown on the estate since the late 17th century—Vergenoegd Löw is hoping to convince others to adopt its approach. Visser says the vineyard plans to sell 750 ducks to other vineyards and replenish numbers by breeding the birds. 

"I think the industry itself has the potential to engage more in experimental ways," he adds. That requires money, and increasing the price point of South African wines could help fund Vergenoegd Löw and other vineyards' green initiatives.

"If we can achieve that, we can then put back some of that (income) into our people, into our land, and become more sustainable," Visser says.