李老師陪你探索英文世界 Exploring English with Ms. Lee

大象所付出的感情與靈性，比我們想像中的還豐富？

既然AI都來搶藝術家飯碗了，會不會以後的美與醜，都是AI機器人說了算？

At the beginning of a new year, many people like to make New Year Resolutions（新年新希望）, but most resolutions tend to focus on oneself. For example, some people want to lose weight, some want to get better grades, some wish to find a partner, and some resolve to go to bed earlier. Although there’s nothing wrong with self-improvement, experts have suggested that focusing on the relationships between people around us may go a long way（長期而言） to making us happier. One long-running study on human happiness shows that our interpersonal relationships （人際互動關係）are essential to our well-being（身心健康）. So how can one make New Year Resolutions around bettering our relationship? Well, you can start small by simply noticing the times when people help you. This can shift your perspective （改變觀點）to remember that happiness isn’t something we achieve alone. Another relationship goal you can try to set is turning a solo pursuit into a two-person goal. For example, if there’s a sibling that you want to have more connection with, you can just call and say something like, I was thinking that we don’t see each other often enough, and I’d like to spend more time with you in the new year. Can we work on this together? Ultimately creating moments of love will make your life more meaningful!

廚神也非從小立志拿鍋鏟，茫茫人生還找不到夢想，也不代表一輩子看不到成功的曙光。

Do you know that from September 29 to November 25, the moon won’t be the only celestial being （天體）that orbits （繞行）the earth? If you look up into the space using a high definition telescope（高畫質望遠鏡）, you will in fact see a mini moon, an asteroid named 2024 PT5. An asteroid（隕石） is a small rocky object that travels around the sun. After November 25, this mini moon will leave the earth‘s gravitational pull（地心引力） and fling back into the outer space. Even though we can’t see it with our naked eye since it’s only the size of a school bus, I personally think it’s so comforting to know that besides the moon, our planet will have a new companion for two months in this vast universe. And this asteroid will return to earth’s orbit again in 2025 and 2055. Scientists are interested in getting to know more about asteroids because they contain minerals （礦物質）and water that could be useful to humans in the future in our space exploration.

For people who bet in the future of electric vehicles, this will be an exciting piece of news. Researchers in Arkansas, a state in the Midwest of the US, have announced that they have found huge reserve of lithium （鋰的儲備區）in southern region of the state. Lithium is a valuable, scarce raw material that’s needed to make batteries for electric vehicles. According to the scientists involved, there might be five to nineteen million tons of lithium （鋰）buried in that geological area, which will be more than enough to make the world‘s demand（需求）. However, they need to figure out how to extract lithium without causing too much destruction （破壞）on the environment. Most of us probably don’t know that lithium is tough to mine and has been linked to pollution, water depletion （水源浩劫）and other environmental problems. So actual mining of it won’t take place any time soon.

Remember back in elementary school days, you are asked to memorize that there are seven continents in the world. And they are Asia, Europe, North America, South America, Antarctica, Africa, Oceania. You are even asked to do some worksheets to help you memorize all of the seven. Well, that number might change in the future. According to an October article in the New York Times, based on any maps, one can clearly see that Asia and Europe are connected, which is why they are often called Eurasia. If this observation is true, shouldn’t there be just six continents? Moreover, North America and Asia are connected by Bering Sea Shelf, which was once dry land 15000 years ago, and that was how prehistoric humans migrated transcontinentally. Looking from this perspective, aren’t Asia, Europe, and North America technically one continent? So we would end up with only five continents? The disagreement occurs partly because there are two definitions of continents：those recognized by cultures around the world and those recognized by geologists. Both of these two don’t offer clear cut explanations and definitions. One group of geologists even go as far to say that there are only two continents on Earth, Antarctica and everything else. If this train of belief becomes mainstream, imagine how we will all have to relearn everything.

Imagine discovering a lost city while you are pulling an all-nighter to finish your history paper. That’s what happened to an archeology student studying in Tulane University in Louisiana. Luke Auld-Thomas, a doctoral student at Tulane spotted the ancient Mayan site in the scans collected by NASA using lidar, a technology that uses airborne lasers to penetrate dense vegetation. The ruins were unknown to archaeologists, but some farmers living in that region of Mexico were aware of the site‘s existence. Luke and his colleagues named the lost city Valeriana, after a nearby lagoon. They estimated the city may have had a population of as many as 50,000 people at its peak between AD 750-850. Researchers expect to discover more ancient Mayan cities in the future. The findings will make the collapse of Mayan civilization even more mysterious: The more people there were, the more difficult it is to explain the massive depopulation later on.

故事頗荒唐的但卻又很富英式幽默的文字，但，仔細想想，用這樣直球對決、一針見血的文字來敲醒執迷不悟的腦袋，不是也挺過癮的嗎🤭

When we think of elite mountaineers, the people that come to mind tend to be Caucasian white men. However without Nepal‘s ethnic Sherpas‘ assistance, their record-breaking achievements would not be possible. Sadly, Sherpas‘ contributions to this sport remain largely unseen and unrecognized . Naturally they also rarely receive the lucrative endorsement that foreign mountaineers are able to garner. One young Sherpas has made up his mind to change the narrative and status quo. In October this year Nima Rinji became the world’s youngest person to scale the fourteen highest peaks on the planet. All fourteen are 8000 meters above sea level. He’s only 18. He beats the previous record holder by a mile. The holder before is also a Sherpa, who didn’t summit all fourteen peaks until he was almost 30. Nima comes from a family of mountaineers. In fact, his family runs one of the largest mountaineering expedition companies in Nepal. His father became the youngest person to summit Mt Everest without using any oxygen support. His uncles were the first pair of brothers to scale all fourteen highest peaks. Despite all the prestige, many Sherpas want their offspring to shun the career of mountaineering because Sherpas are often viewed as guides rather than athletes. They need to fix ropes, carry food and supplies, and pave the way for their foreign clients to fulfill their dreams and break their records. Even though they shoulder all the responsibilities and face higher risks of mortality, their foreign clients receive more recognition and financial endorsement. Outdoor wear and gear companies like North Face and Patagonia don’t pay a Sherpas to endorse their products. Nima Rinji wants to change that by positioning himself as an athlete rather than a guide. He wants to show his community that mountaineering can be a prestigious job, instead of just a pathway out of poverty.