September 8, 2017, was an exciting date for Katey Walter Anthony. On this cool, windless evening she first visited Alaska’s Lake Esieh. Few people visit this remote area of wilderness, covered by frozen ground with spruce trees. Thousands of lakes dot the region. But Walter Anthony quickly realized that this lake was strange. As her boat moved across it, she came to a place where the water seemed to be boiling.

The water wasn’t warm. Bubbles of all sizes streamed up, popping at the surface. One bubble, as large as a softball, gave off a loud sound as it burst. The bubbles, which rose with such force that they slowly pushed her boat to the side, covered a part of the lake larger than a football field.

Walter Anthony leaned over the edge of the boat and collected some bubbles in a bottle. Then she struck a match and opened the bottle to release the gas she had just collected. The gas caught fire!

The fire dancing over the bottle confirmed her belief. It showed that the lake was flowing out a gas called methane. Each molecule(CH4) contains one atom of carbon bonded to four atoms of hydrogen. As a strong greenhouse gas, it can absorb radiation from the sun, warming the atmosphere. Methane, along with carbon dioxide, is a major source of global warming.

Scientists believe that the Arctic could release large amounts of methane over the next 100 years. Some of them worry that this methane will cause the world to warm more quickly than they had predicted.

Walter Anthony has spent nearly 20 years trying to understand this threat. She is trying to measure how much methane is coming out of warming Arctic lakes. And to her, Lake Esieh could be a warning. If other lakes respond the same way, the Arctic could be poised to flow out far more methane than anyone had expected. “We don’t even know how much gas is down there,” she says. “It’s a wild card.”

The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls

——By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The tide rises, the tide falls,

Along the sea-sands damp and brown

The traveler hastens toward the town,

And the tide rises, the tide falls.

Darkness settles on roofs and walls,

But the sea, the sea in the darkness calls;

The little waves, with their soft, white hands

Efface the footprints in the sands,

And the tide rises, the tide falls.

The morning breaks; the steeds in their stalls

Stamp and neigh, as the hostler calls;

The day returns, but never more

Returns the traveler to the shore,

And the tides rises, the tide falls.

Captain Henry, a 98-year-old American retired fisherman, has become a first-time author, having written and published his autobiography In a Fisherman's Language after learning to read at the age of 91.

Mr.Henry spent most of his life without even his closest family members knowing he was illiterate. Forced to quit school in the third grade to take odd jobs, he kept the secret close to his chest, only telling his late wife. Henry's granddaughter, Marlisa, told reporters how he used tricks, like waiting for others to order at restaurants first, to avoid the issue.

A family argument in his 90s, she said, aroused his desire for education.“He signed a document he could not read about where he was going to live, Marlisa said. Starting with his name, he eventually moved on to the ABC's and children's books. He put them down since his wife fell ill. After the tragic loss of his wife, he went back to reading and began to log (记录) his life. He wrote about his family's voyage from Portugal to the US, how he went on to captain a boat, and his many journeys at sea.

His life stories have become so popular that nearly 800 copies were sold in the first two weeks after the book's release. One thousand more have since been printed as requests for the book flood in from as far as Germany. And now even Hollywood producers have approached Mr. Henry about buying the rights to his life story for a big screen adaptation.

The family also now has a book agent and a deal in the works to publish a second edition. Meanwhile, the family says they are reconnecting and closer than ever as a result of Henry's late-life efforts.“Everyone has a story,” Marlisa said, “It teaches that when you're down and out, never give up.”