見見老鼠凱薩琳和大象馬克。凱薩琳非常勇敢又喜歡冒險，但馬克的個性十分害羞，對許多事情都感到害怕。不過，朋友都喜歡黏在一塊兒，所以凱薩琳走到哪兒，馬克就會跟到哪兒。有時候，他們也會碰上非常棘手的情況...
Mark and the magic beans 馬克與魔豆
It was the beginning of spring, and Mark and Kathleen were having a garage sale to sell some of their old junk. Mark had lots of old sweaters and pants that he had grown out of, and Kathleen had several boxes of toys that she didn’t play with anymore. So they set up a table in the garden and waited for people to come by.
By lunch time they had already sold most of their stuff and made enough money to buy some pizzas, so Kathleen went to the pizza store while Mark manned the table. Shortly after she left, a strange man walked up to Mark and began looking at the clothes and toys. He was wearing a purple cloak and a tall hat with stars on it. Mark thought he looked like a magician.
“Have you seen anything you like?” asked Mark. The man replied, “How much is that bike?” He was talking about Kathleen’s new bike, but it wasn’t for sale. Mark explained that Kathleen loved it too much and would never sell it. The man thought about that for a while, then said, “How about if I give you a bag of magic beans?”
Mark looked at the beans, which looked just like normal coffee beans. Kathleen was always complaining that Mark was too boring and never took any chances, so he said, “OK, it’s a deal. I’ll give you the bike for the beans.” The man handed over the beans, got on the bike and rode off.
When Kathleen returned from the pizza store, Mark told her what had happened. “You sold my bike for a bag of magic beans! How could you do that?” She grabbed the beans and threw them away. But as soon as the beans landed in the soil, they started to fizz and jump around. And then something really strange began to happen…
(JOHN PHILLIPS, STAFF WRITER)
初春時節，馬克和凱薩琳舉辦了一場車庫拍賣要清掉一些不需要的舊東西。馬克有一大堆穿不下的舊毛衣和褲子，凱薩琳則有好幾箱再也不玩的舊玩具。所以他們在花園裡放了一張桌子，等著客人上門。
不到午餐時間，他們已賣掉大部分的東西，賣得的錢夠買幾份比薩，於是凱薩琳就去比薩店，而馬克則留下來看攤子。她出門後不久，有一位陌生男子走向馬克，開始瀏覽那些衣服和玩具。他穿著一件紫色的斗篷，戴著一頂有星星圖案的高帽子。馬克覺得他看起來像個魔術師。
馬克開口問：「你有看到什麼喜歡的東西嗎？」那名男子回答：「那輛腳踏車怎麼賣？」他說的是凱薩琳新買的腳踏車，但那並沒有要賣。馬克解釋那是凱薩琳非常心愛的腳踏車，所以絕對不會賣。那名男子思忖了一會兒後說：「如果我用一袋魔豆跟你換呢？」
馬克看著那些看起來就跟普通咖啡豆沒什麼兩樣的豆子。凱薩琳老是抱怨馬克很無趣，從不把握任何機會，所以他說：「好吧，成交！我用這台腳踏車跟你換那些豆子。」那名男子把豆子交給馬克，就騎上車走了。
凱薩琳從比薩店回來後，馬克告訴她剛剛發生的事。「你用我的腳踏車去換了一袋魔豆！你怎麼可以那樣？」她搶過豆子隨手扔掉，但豆子一掉進土裡就開始嘶嘶作響四處亂跳。接著非常奇怪的事發生了…
（翻譯：袁星塵）
Renhe sat stiffly at the Wei Ya banquet, picking at the symbolic dishes on the table. Fish for abundance, sticky rice cake for progress — it all seemed superstitious to him. The shrine to the Land God near the entrance, adorned with offerings, incense, and fruit, struck him as frivolous. “What does this have to do with running a business?” Renhe scrolled on his phone as his co-workers performed skits and poorly sung songs. He wasn’t even paying attention to the lucky draws when his name was called. The room filled with applause and cheers as he went to the stage
The cocoa industry is currently facing a crisis, with this year’s cocoa trading price soaring to an unprecedented $10,000 per ton—a 400 percent increase from last year—stemming from diminished crop yields. Given cocoa’s indispensable role in chocolate-making, this surge has driven up chocolate prices and triggered concerns about the sustainability of global chocolate production. West Africa, home to over half of the world’s cocoa trees, is at the center of this issue. The Republic of Cote d’Ivoire and the Republic of Ghana, in particular, are facing severe challenges from both natural disasters and human-induced factors, substantially impacting cocoa harvests. Climate change, with
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