My grandma passed away last week. My mum began the painful yet necessary task of sorting through her belongings.

“Is there anything you want from grandma’s flat?” Mum texted me.

“Her aloe (芦荟), please.” I required zero thinking time.

Sometime around 1975, Grandma, always believing good things would happen in the future, received this plant as a gift, which she appreciated and placed in her doorway. It came from the local butcher. Five years later, my mum married the butcher’s son and had me. Grandma revealed to me this particular plant was a living relationship between the two families. And so was I.

Recently, whenever we visited Grandma’s flat, I attempted to fix this concept in my children’s minds. “That was a gift your great-grandma bought your other great-grandma! It’s older than me!” Then my kids would nod and ask Grandma for a sweet.

Numerous times, Grandma gave me cuttings or clippings of the plant, hoping I might raise my own and continue the legend. Yet, every time, my new branch died with my awful gardening skills. But that didn’t used to matter, because I could turn to Grandma, who would wait and accept my disturbance without becoming upset. Then I got another clipping and tried again. But now I can’t. So, I decided that the plant will go and live with Ann, my mother-in-law, who is a genius with a greenhouse.

The plan is for Ann to keep hold of the original plant. In time, she can teach me how to deal with its cuttings properly, and then maybe one day I can settle the plant in my place.

In the meantime, Ann will allocate (分配) clippings among my relatives, as Grandma used to do. My wife’s two sisters, for example, are both better at tending plants than I am, so it is quite imaginable they, too, will offer cuttings of the plant to their partners, spreading this loving plant across my entire extended family.

Don't worry about why the chicken crossed the road—the bigger question is whether it'll make it at all. 【小题1】 But that road risk has dropped because of the COVID pandemic.

When officials began issuing stay-at-home orders to slow the spread of COVID-19, Shilling and his colleagues quickly realized they were witnessing a novel experiment: 【小题2】

The answer is a lot of things, including fewer accidents and lower greenhouse gas emissions from cars. In their latest report, the researchers found that driving less has also led to a dramatic decrease in roadkills.

"【小题3】 As far as I'm aware, no other action has been taken since creation of the national parks."

The team documented about a third fewer kills in the four weeks following shutdowns. If such a slowdown persisted for a year, 27.000 large animals would be saved in just those three states.

【小题4】 Some populations in urban areas are at risk of local extinction, and vehicles are one of the top killers. However, in recent months, traffic deaths of mountain lions have dropped by 58 percent, revealing an important clue about how to save them.

People are now returning to the roads as stay-at-home orders are lifted. 【小题5】 "Yeah, I just say—everybody loves wildlife, you know—and if we can find a way to not kill them, it seems like everybody can line up behind that."

The Ocean Awareness Student Contest(International)

We invite middle and high school students from around the world to attend the 2017 Ocean Awareness Student Contest! The theme is Making Meaning out of Ocean Pollution, and it challenges you to research, explore, explore interpret, and say something meaningful about the connections between human activities and the health of our oceans.

This year, we challenge you to concentrate on one type of ocean pollution and “make meaning” of it through art, poetry or film. We encourage you to connect it with your own life, your own local community, or something else that is personally meaningful to you, but what’s most important is to pick a topic that inspires you.

Do research on your own. Ask tough and complex questions, and think about the way science and society help you explain the topic

To explain your topic, create your own work of art, writing, poetry or film.

The closing date for entries is on June 13, 2017, at 11:59pm.

Submit as an individual: This means that you are the only creator of your submission .

Submit as a group: Groups can be of unlimited size, but you must provide the names of each group member. There will be one group leader who will be the contact(联系)person for the group and prizes will be awarded to the group as a whole.

The winners will receive scholarships (up to $ 1,500), and each year we give out over 140 prizes(totaling up to $80,000) as well as chances to the winners to work with us and to get their works exhibited and published.