The Healthy Habits Survey(调查)shows that only about one third of American seniors have correct habits. Here are some findings and expert advice.
1). How many times did you brush your teeth yesterday?
Finding：A full 33% of seniors brush their teeth only once a day.
Step：Remove the 300 types of bacteria in your mouth each morning with a battery-operated toothbrush. Brush gently for 2 minutes, at least twice a day.
2). How many times did you wash your hands or bathe yesterday?
Finding：Seniors, on average, bathe fewer than 3 days a week. And nearly 30%wash their hands only 4 times a day-half of the number doctors recommend.
Step：We touch our faces around 3,000 times a day-often inviting germs(病菌)to enter our mouth, nose, and eyes. Use toilet paper to avoid touching the door handle. And, most important, wash your hands often with hot running water and soap for 20 seconds.
3). How often do you think about fighting germs?
Finding：Seniors are not fighting germs as well as they should.
Step：Be aware of germs. Do you know it is not your toilet but your kitchen sponge(海绵)that can carry more germs than anything else? To kill these germs, keep your sponge in the microwave for 10 seconds.
根据短文内容，选择最佳答案，并将选定答案的字母标号填在题前括号内。
When we can see well, we do not think about our eyes very often. It is only when we cannot see perfectly that we come to see how important our eyes are.
People who are nearsighted can only see things that are very close to their eyes. Many people who do a lot of close work, such as writing, reading and sewing（缝纫）, become nearsighted. Then they have to wear glasses in order to see distant things clearly.
People who are farsighted（远视的）suffer from just the opposite problem. They can see things that are far away, but they have difficulty reading a book unless they hold it at arm's length. If they want to do much reading, they must get glasses too.
Other people do not see clearly because their eyes are not exactly the right shape. This, too, can be corrected by glasses. Some people's eyes become cloudy because of cataracts（白内障）. Long ago these people often became blind. Now, however, it is possible to operate on the cataracts and remove them.
When night falls, colors become fainter to the eye and finally disappear. After your eyes have grown used to the dark, you can see better if you use the sides of your eyes rather than the centers. Sometimes, after dark, you see a small thing to one side of you, which seems to disappear if you turn you head in its direction. This is because when you turn your head, you are looking at the thing too directly. Men on guard duty sometimes think they see something moving to one side of them. When they turn to look straight at it, they cannot see it any more, and they believe they were mistaken. However, this mistake happens because the center of the eye, which is very sensitive(敏感的) in daylight, is not as sensitive as the sides of the eyes after dark.
Alibaba started taking the lead in China, simply enough, by connecting big Chinese, manufacturers(制造商)with big buyers across the world. Its business-to-business site, Alibaba.com allowed business to buy almost everything. Alibaba's advantage wasn't hard to identify: size.
Alibaba is just big, even by Chinese standards. Its marketplaces attract 231 million active buyers, 8 million sellers, 11.3 billion orders a year—and Alibaba is just the middleman. It encourages people to use its markets—not charging small sellers a percentage of the sale.
If you want a quick look into the influence of Alibaba on daily Chinese life, take my experience. I moved to Beijing almost a year ago and quickly got tired of visiting small stores across the crowded, polluted city of 20 million people in search of new electronics, bathroom furnishings. “You're looking for what exactly? Why not try it? ” my Chinese teacher asked me one day. With that, my wonderful new relationship with Alibaba began.
Alibaba's original business-to-business model now is secondary to consumer buying. Chinese retail（零售）buying makes up 80% of Alibaba's profit, and leading that group is Taobao, with 800 million items for sale and the most unbelievable selection of things you'll ever find. TMall.com is Alibaba's other big site, where you can find brand name goods from Nike and Unilever near the lowest prices.
What I have a hard time explaining to friends and family back in the U. S. is how China has gone beyond traditional shopping—big-box retailers(零售商)especially—in favor of online purchases on Taobao and a few other sites. In smaller towns than Beijing, where big retailers have not yet traveled, shopping online is shopping, and shopping is Taobao.
I have a list of some of my recent purchases on Taobao for a sense of how extensive(广泛的) the marketplace is. Almost everything arrived a day or two after ordering with free shipping. I'm not even a big buyer, because I need friends to help me search the Chinese-language site. When I was searching my purchase history on my Chinese teacher's iPad, which helps me buy goods, I looked through with great difficulty about 10 of her purchases for every one of mine.
Dogs are wonderful companions all their own, but they can also help change your life so that you're more accepting of new friendships. A new study studied how dogs' brains responded to the human voice and found that “the human brain responds to dog emotions the same way it responds to human emotions” and that the dog's brain does the same.
Dogs are pack animals, so in terms of pet ownership, your dog will prefer to stay with you rather than somewhere alone. Think about how this concept applies to friendship. People today are getting more and more used to spending time on social networking, email, and text. While all methods of communication are good, there is nothing like seeing your friends and hearing their voice. With good friends, sometimes a look explains everything, and you can only get this when you're together hanging out in person.
Let's face it, dogs never hide their feeling. They let you know what they enjoy doing most, whether it is chasing a ball, going for a walk, or getting a treat. For people, it's harder to be open with your emotions. But in order to truly find a friend, you'll need to let go of your fears and put trust into your friends. The reality is that you'll never make everyone you meet happy one-hundred percent of the time, so if your friends and family think you're great, put aside the need to be liked by everyone.
Dogs wait for you to come home and are so happy to see you again that they practically do a happy dance when you walk through the door. Friends, on the other hand, are sometimes so busy that even hearing from a friend becomes an unwelcome interruption. Rather than avoid calls or emails, make a point to talk to friends on a regular basis.
Sometimes your expectations don't survive.But you have to make it through.
After a lengthy visa application procedure,I left my father with our dog,jumped on a flight,and there I was in London.Since Europe is an aspiration in my country,I had imagined it as a place where things always worked perfectly.I was alone in dealing with all kinds of problems as they arose,that was alright and this is how I became my own “special person” during my Erasmus exchange.
The accommodation I could afford was far from the city.To make things worse,I was new to many things,and definitely an outsider.But it wasn't an exception to carelessness,I found out.My dorm was in a silent neighborhood. Little did I know that those calm streets would he visited by loud fire trucks...And because of me!
That morning,I closed the kitchen door after placing some bread in the toaster.I was still half asleep and looking for what to wear.For some reason,the automatic mechanism of the toaster to push the slices up didn't work. When I went back to the kitchen,it was full of thick white smoke.Coughing hard,I opened the windows,stepped outside the door for a breath,and then went in again to reach for the fire extinguisher（灭火器）.It was the first time I used one,and had to get out of the kitchen to be able to see how to unlock it.It was only then the fire alarm went off!I went in again and made sure I put off the fire.
Nothing was like how I planned.A few times I hung out in the school cafeteria,but couldn't make friends.I went to discover the city,alone.Independence wasn't something to be ashamed of after all.I wish I had made friends with people,but it turned out that I had to learn I wasn't in need of others' company to enjoy life.I tried to make the best of my time,thinking that being alone is a blessing too,just like being with friends is.My international experiences that followed definitely made me more social,but now I know that being alone is not a weakness,but a part of life to embrace.Just like our mistakes,carelessness or bad luck,I can say it was during my time in London that I learnt I was,despite everything,a strong and special person who can cope with（处理）anything that comes her way.
It was close to midnight and it was unusual to see vehicles on the road. However, several trucks pulled over and workers silently unloaded camera equipment and cardboard boxes, and then carried them inside the Morgenson family home.
What took place over the next eight weeks was inspired by a Hollywood movie called The Joneses about a family of marketers who move into a local neighborhood to sell their products secretly to their neighbors. The idea was to test the power of word-of-mouth marketing. By filming a 'rear' family in unscripted (无剧本的) situations, my team and I would document how the Morgensons' circle of friends responded to brands and products the Morgensons bought into their lives.
With the help of 35 video cameras and 25 microphones hidden inside the furniture, the operation done secretly showed something shocking. The most powerful hidden persuader of all isn't in your TV or on the shelves of your supermarket. It's a far more important influence that's around you almost every waking moment: your very own friends and neighbors. There is nothing quite so persuasive as observing someone we respect or admire using a brand or product.
Our analysis also found that the brands the Morgensons used went faster. About one third of the Morgensons' friends began promoting these same brands to their friends. We also found that the brands their friends were most likely to buy at the Morgensons' suggestion were the bigger and better-known ones. This proved my thoughts that traditional marketing and secret marketing work well together. The most persuasive advertising strategies are strengthened by word-of-mouth advertising.
Whenever I meet with company managers, I tell them that the people who hold the real marketing power are mouse-clicking consumers and their wide circles of real-life friends. In other words, the people who hold the real power are us.
It's a good idea for families to talk about what they would do to escape（逃跑，逃离）a fire. You'll want to talk about escape plans and escape routes，so let's start here.
An escape plan can help every member of a family get out of a burning house. The idea is to get outside quickly and safely. Smoke from a fire can make it hard to see where things are，so it's important to learn and remember the different ways out of your home.
If you live in an apartment building，you'll want to know the best way to the stair or other emergency exits. If you're in a room with the door closed when the fire breaks out，you need to take a few extra steps：
Check to see if there's heat or smoke coming in the cracks(裂缝) around the door.
If you see smoke coming under the door—don't open the door!
If you don't see smoke—touch the door. If the door is hot or very warm—don't open the door!
If you don't see smoke—and the door is not hot—then use your fingers to lightly touch the doorknob(门把手)．If the doorknob is hot or very warm—don't open the door!
If the doorknob feels cool，and you can't see any smoke around the door，you can open the door very carefully and slowly. When you open the door，if you feel a burst of heat，or smoke pours into the room，quickly shut the door and make sure it is really closed. If there's no smoke or heat when you open the door，go toward your escape route exit.
Here's advice on where to find job applications.
Company Websites
If you are interested in working for a particular company, visit their website. Career information is usually listed in the “Careers” or the “About Us”section of the site. Often, you will be able to apply for all company positions directly from the website.
Job Boards and Engines
If you aren't sure what company you want to work for, you can look for job applications on job boards and job search engines. These contain job listings for positions at many different companies. Sometimes you have to go to the company website to fill out a job application. At other times, you can apply directly on the search engine or job board.
In Person
Applying for a job in person is a little different than applying for employment online. It's not as complicated, but you will need to be prepared to apply and interview on the spot. You have to make sure you dress professionally, and bring all the materials you need.
Below is a list of sample employment applications and click to find what you want.
Parents may think they're smart about where they store medicines, but their kids are smarter. Nearly 60,000 young children are rushed to the hospital every year after getting into medicines not meant for them, according to a new report from Safe Kids Worldwide.
The report finds little connection between what parents know about storing medicines safely and what they actually do. Nine out of 10 parents know that medicines should be stored up and away out of reach and sight, but 7 out of 10 of them admit not doing that. They leave medicines out on kitchen counters, sinks and sofas, believing babies and toddlers(学步者)aren't tall enough or strong enough to reach them. Unfortunately, they probably can. Children as young as a month have ended up in an emergency department because they'd been poisoned by getting into a medicine that was left within reach.
Most poisonings related to medicines—particularly among babies and toddlers—occur within their home. Kids develop rapidly and they want to explore their environment. At certain ages they have a lot of hand-to-mouth activity, and so it's very common for them to explore their environment and then try to taste what they find.
The new Safe Kids worldwide report includes a survey of 2,000 parents with children under age 6. While the number of children visiting an emergency department for accidental poisonings had declined since the 2010 maximum, the decline has slowed in recent years.
Prescription and over-the-counter medicines cause the most severe poisonings, but vitamins and supplements(补充品)can also cause problems. There are steps families can take to lower the risk for an accidental medicine poisoning.
Sitting is an art that isn't getting passed along. People these days feel as though they have to be doing something. If they are not working, they are jogging, or playing tennis or golf to guard against illnesses, or taking courses to improve their minds or bodies -- or they are parked in front of the TV. Sitting in front of the TV isn't sitting -- it's watching.
People used to sit a whole lot. You would walk down the street or drive down the road, and there they would be, out on the doorsteps, sitting. You could go to the grocery to buy some garlic or some fruits and vegetables and sit on the bench out front m the summer or around the fire in the winter. You could go down to the store to buy an outer garment, an electric grill or anything else. There were sitting benches out in the town square. At the garage, there were straight-backed chairs. There among the oilcans and tires and spare parts, you could kick back and sit.
Houses used to have sitting rooms, where the grown-ups would go after Sunday dinner. Mom and Dad, Grandpa and Aunt Ruby would gather round, sit and digest (消化) the fried chicken and talk about Aunt Ethel's illness, and how well the minister did today. They may just talk a load of garbage and even gesture with their hands when they become excited. Outside, the younger generation, the children would play on the ground, and the afternoon would pass by in a comfortable haze（ 悠闲的氛围).
That sort of thing looks like doing nothing. A recharging battery (正充电的电池) doesn't look as if it's doing anything either. Sitting restores your soul. If you want to enjoy a truly full life, don't just do something--sit there.
People typically wash their hands seven times a day in the United States, but they do it at a far higher temperature than is necessary to kill germs, a new study says. The energy waste is equivalent to the fuel use of a small country. Amanda R. Carrico, a research assistant professor at the Vanderbilt Institute for Energy and Environment in Tennessee, told National Geographic that hand washing is often “a case where people act in ways that they think are in their best interest, but they in fact have inaccurate beliefs or outdated perceptions.”
Carrico said, “It's certainly true that heat kills bacteria, but if you were going to use hot water to kill them it would have to be a way too hot for you to tolerate.”
Carrico said that after a review of the scientific literature, her team found “no evidence that using hot water that a person could stand would have any benefit in killing bacteria.” Even water as cold as 40°F (4.4℃) appeared to reduce bacteria as well as hotter water, if hands were scrubbed, rinsed(冲洗)and dried properly.
Using hot water to wash hands is therefore unnecessary, as well as wasteful, Carrico said, particularly when it comes to the environment. According to her research, people use warm or hot water 64 percent of the time when they wash their hands. Using that number, Carrico's team calculated a significant impact on the planet.
“Although the choice of water temperature during a single hand wash may appear unimportant, when multiplied by the nearly 800 billion hand washes performed by Americans each year, this practice results in more than 6 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent emissions annually,” she said.
The researchers published their results in the July 2013 issue of International Journal of Consumer Studies. They recommended washing with water that is at a “comfortable” temperature, which they noted may be warmer in cold months and cooler in hot ones.
German engineers Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz built the first successful gasoline engines in 1885.After 1900, however, the United States became a leader in automobile production.
The first cars were handmade and very expensive. Only people in rich cities could afford them. The first company to make gasoline cars in the U.S. was the Duryea Motor Wagon Company. Then, in 1901, Ransom E. Olds Began mass-producing his car, the Oldsmobile. In 1913Henry Ford made great strides in the mass production of cars by using an assembly line in his factory. Mass production meant that each car was less expensive to make. Now car ownership was affordable for the average person. By 1916there were more than one million cars in the United States.
The automobile gave people the freedom to travel anywhere there were passable roads. Families that lived great distance apart could travel by automobile to visit each other. People could visit places they had never seen before.
Before the mass production of cars, people lived close to work. Their means of transportation included walking, riding a bicycle, using a horse and carriage, or taking a train. The automobile gave people the ability to live farther away from work. The result was that gradually people moved out of the cities to the less crowded suburbs.
The automobile industry created millions of jobs. The jobs were not just in the auto factories, where the cars were assembled. Workers were needed to make auto parts, run gas stations and repair shops, and work at new motels and restaurants that served people who traveled by car. Jobs became available at car rental companies. People were needed to build roads. These jobs and many others still exist because of the automobile.
We may think we're a culture that gets rid of our worn technology at the first sight of something shiny and new, but a new study shows that we keep using our old devices (装置)well after they go out of style. That's bad news for the environment—and our wallets—as these outdated devices consume much more energy than the newer ones that do the same things.
To figure out how much power these devices are using, Callie Babbitt and her colleagues at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York tracked the environmental costs for each product throughout its life—from when its minerals are mined to when we stop using the device. This method provided a readout for how home energy use has evolved since the early 1990s.Devices were grouped by generation. Desktop computers, basic mobile phones, and box-set TVs defined 1992.Digital cameras arrived on the scene in 1997.And MP3 players, smart phones, and LCD TVs entered homes in 2002, before tablets and e-readers showed up in 2007.
As we accumulated more devices, however, we didn't throw out our old ones.“The living-room television is replaced and gets planted in the kids' room, and suddenly one day, you have a TV in every room of the house,” said one researcher. The average number of electronic devices rose from four per household in 1992 to 13 in 2007.We're not just keeping these old devices—we continue to use them. According to the analysis of Babbitt's team, old desktop monitors and box TVs with cathode ray tubes are the worst devices with their energy consumption and contribution to greenhouse gas emissions (排放)more than doubling during the 1992 to 2007 window.
So what's the solution (解决方案)?The team's data only went up to 2007,but the researchers also explored what would happen if consumers replaced old products with new electronics that serve more than one function, such as a tablet for word processing and TV viewing. They found that more on-demand entertainment viewing on tablets instead of TVs and desktop computers could cut energy consumption by 44%.
Some parts of the garden are for the rest of the world to admire. Others are for you to disappear to when you don't want to be found. Of course, that's easy enough to arrange when you have lots of land with space for the kids to run round and cosy "garden rooms" for the adults to enjoy. But when your garden is on the small side, you might think it's a tall order. Well, you're wrong.
To create a secret garden, people tend to take the routine: surrounding a small garden with high fences and then placing a lawn(草坪) in the middle and borders round the edge. Far from making the most of the area, that just makes it look a lot smaller and more boring. Dividing it up makes much more use of your space and means you can have your practical family area plus a secret garden.
When you're searching for the perfect secret site within your existing set-up, consider your present favourite spot. A secret garden needs to be special—a complete contrast to the more practical family parts of the garden. Perhaps you take a folding chair down to a quiet corner that gets evening sun; maybe you sit and watch the pond or simply slip out to the patio(露台)with a glass of wine.
It's quite easy to change an existing favourite feature into a secret place. You could top the patio with a pergola(棚架) pole and plant a grapevine for shade, or position a bench overlooking the pond and plant bamboos to screen it from the rest of the garden.
The areas you create needn't all to be the same size—or even the same style—but if you're planning a major redesign, take your time and work it out on paper before committing time and money. Then when it's done, you'll really be able to relax and enjoy it.
Whenever we see a button, we are eager to press it because we know something will happen. This is true in most cases, for example on a doorbell and on the "on/off" button on the TV. But some buttons are actually fake, like the "close" button on a lift.
Many people are in the habit of pressing the "close" button because they don't have the patience to wait for the lift doors to shut. But lifts "close" buttons are a complete scam, at least in the US-the doors will not close any faster no matter how hard you press.
It started in the 199os when the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed in the US, making sure that all lifts stayed open long enough so that people with disabilities could enter. Only US firefighters and repairmen can use the buttons to speed up the door-closing process if they have a code or special keys.
But to normal lift riders, the buttons aren't completely useless. According to psychologists, fake buttons can actually make you feel better by offering you a sense of control." Perceived（能够感知的）control is very important. It reduces stress and increases well-being," Ellen J. Langer, a psychology professor, said," Having a lack of control is associated with depression."
Experts have revealed that a lot of buttons that don't do anything exist in our lives for this same purpose. For example, many offices in the US have fake thermostats（温度调节器）because people tend to feel better when they think they can control the temperature in their workspace.
But psychologists found it interesting that even when people are aware of these little" white lies", they still continue to push fake buttons because as long as the doors eventually close, it is considered to be worth the effort.
"That habit is here to stay," John Kounios, a psychology professor, said," Even though I have real doubts about the traffic light buttons, I always press them. After all, I've got nothing else to do while waiting. So why not press the button in the hope that this one will work?"
I waited in line for hours in Central Park for tickets to Shakespeare, so I could share my experience with you. I hope my experience will be helpful to you!
⒈Plan for the weather.
You'll be sitting outside for several hours waiting for tickets. If it's going to be a sunny day, bring sun cream and water. If you think it might rain, bring your umbrella or raincoat. If the day promises to be unseasonably cool, you'll be happy you've brought a sweater or jacket along.
⒉Keep yourself entertained.
Bring an iPad, a good book, some magazines or even some work along with you to pass the time. You'll be in line for about 3-4 hours, and you'll be glad to have a crossword puzzle or other games to kill the time once the people-watching starts to get boring.
⒊Know the basics.
Free tickets are being given out for the same day's performance and they are not changeable. That means if it rains, you're out of luck. That also means that you have to wait for tickets in the morning and attend the evening's performance the same night (Doors open around 8 p.m. for the 8:30 p.m. show.).
⒋Feeling fortunate? Enter the online ticket lottery(抽签获票).
If you don't want to spend several hours waiting in line for tickets, you can try your luck on the Internet. Once you set up your account, you can enter the online ticket lottery between midnight and noon. You'll get an email message around noon if you've gotten tickets, and you can pick up your tickets at the Delacorte Theater between 5:30 pm and 7:30 pm.
Under Ohio law, a driver can have 12 points' worth of violations within two years before his license is automatically suspended(失效). That is, he could be caught going 30 miles over the limit three times or cause several accidents resulting in careless-driving charges before losing the right to drive. Should he commit vehicular manslaughter(驾车过失杀人), his license would be suspended, but he could get it back in as little as six months. Other states have similarly forgiving laws. Considering that 94 percent of crashes involve some form of driver error or injury immediately before crashes you have to wonder. Are we too tolerant of bad driving-or is the problem more basic? Are we, as humans, simply not suitable for the task?
According to one analysis, 4 million of the nearly 11 million crashes that occur yearly could potentially be avoided if distractions (使人分心的事物) were removed. But instead, we actively seek out distractions, like texting. Analysis of 28 studies confirms that typing or reading on our phones while driving badly affects reaction time, vehicle control, and, yes, collision rate. Some researchers have concluded that texting while driving may cause more of an accident risk than driving either under the influence of marijuana(大麻) or at the legal alcohol limit. And, contrary to a generally accepted idea, teenagers aren't the primary offenders: A survey of more than 2, 000 adults suggests that they are just as likely as teens to have texted behind the wheel, and much more likely to have talked on their cellphone.
That isn't to say we're all equally bad in the driver's seat. Perhaps unsurprisingly, people who report becoming angry while driving are more likely than others to behave recklessly(不计后果地)on the road. So are people who drive fancy cars. In one pair of studies, researchers observed that drivers of expensive cars were less likely than those with older, less expensive, or beat-up vehicles to give way to other drivers and pedestrians.
Driverless cars are looking better and better. They won't text with each other, or get angry. And they won't cut you off just for the hell of it.
One night recently, I was driving down a two-lane highway at about 60 miles an hour. A car approached from the opposite direction at about the same speed. As we passed each other, I caught the other driver's eye for only a second. I wondered whether he might be thinking, as I was, how dependent we were on each other at that moment. I was relying on him not to fall asleep, not to be put off by a phone conversation, not to cross over into my lane and bring my life to a sudden end. Though we had never spoken a word to each other, he relied on me in just the same way.
Multiplied a million times over, I believe that is the way the world works. At some level, we all depend upon one another. Sometimes that dependence requires us simply not to do something like crossing over the double yellow line. And sometimes it requires us to act cooperatively, with friends or even with strangers.
As technology shrinks our world, the need increases for cooperative action among nations. In 2003, doctors in five nations were quickly organized to identify the SARS virus, which saved thousands of lives. The threat of international terrorism has shown itself to be a similar problem, one requiring coordinated action by police and intelligence forces across the world. We must recognize that our fates (命运) are not ours alone to control .
In my own life, I've put great stock in personal responsibility. But, as the years have passed, I've also come to believe that there are moments when one must rely upon the good faith and judgment of others. So, while each of us faces the case of driving alone down a dark road, what we must learn is that the approaching light may not be a threat, but a shared moment of trust.
Chinese cuisine is widely known and enjoyed all around the world. Who doesn't long for a favorite Chinese dish? But there is one interesting concept concerning Chinese food which is almost unheard of in the West, and which is becoming increasingly ignored by the youth of the East—the ancient custom of "tonic food".
Tonic food is food which is consumed to improve one's well-being or avoid sickness. For instance, it was once the custom for new mothers to eat a sesame oil (麻油) hot pot every day for the first month after giving birth. It was believed that this dish would benefit the muscles, reduce pain, improve circulation, stimulate sweating, and warm the body. Some foods, such as goat meat and spinach, are seen as "hot", while others, such as Chinese cabbage and radish, are seen as "cold". One should be careful not to eat too much of either "hot" or "cold" food. However, how much "hot" or "cold" food one should eat depends on the time of the year, how the food is prepared and what it is prepared with, and the individual's health.
The custom of employing tonic foods for a healthier life also influences the catering industry. Chinese herbal medicines, such as wolfberry (枸杞), can be found on many a restaurant menu, either added to fruit tea or as a beneficial addition to a dish. These herbs attract customers, such as over-worked office staff, in need of a modest pick-me-up.
So, whether you need to boost your strength with a large helping of chicken soup, or increase your mental powers with a serving of pig's brain soup, you may find that this ancient Chinese custom could be just the tonic you were looking for.
In the African country of Malawi, fishing is a way of life for people who live near lakes. Fishing employs over 50,000 people there. Traditionally, the fishers have several methods to dry the fish for the market. They include frying, smoking, or placing them on wire racks. But since the fishers dry their catch in the open air, about half of it slowly breaks down and goes bad. And some animals even try to eat the catch.
Now, solar tents are being used to help dry fish on Lake Chilwa, Malawi's second-largest lake. The solar tent is made from clear plastic. The plastic is stretched over a large wooden structure. The tent looks like a greenhouse, a glass building where plants can grow in the cold weather.
Jennifer Mussa is a local fish trader. "When we collect fish from the lake, we dry them inside this solar fish dryer," she said. In the past, it would take one-and-a-half to two days to dry. Now the fishers will put it in the morning; by the evening, they can take the fish out. The solar tents have also helped fish traders get higher prices at the market for cleaner, better-quality fish.
Money for the tents came from Cultivate Africa's Future. The organization works to improve fishing and farming methods with simple inventions. The goal is to increase access to food, resources, and markets for the communities. The organization also encourages people to use energy-saving kiln ovens to smoke fish, not open fires. Then people can cut down fewer trees for firewood.
