Out of Absurdity On the Ending of Catch-22

As one of the first and most original creations of literary postmodernism, published in the year 1961, Catch-22＇s （1961） position in American literature remains secure. Yet its ending has been held as unconvincing ever since its publication. Taking the overall structure, tone, and the theme of the novel into consideration, this paper aims to prove the credibility of this controversial part. It consists of five sections apart from an introduction and a conclusion. Section One provides general information on the life and works of Joseph Heller. Section Two traces the impact of existentialism and the generation of black humor to clarify the literary position of Catch-22. Section Three brings out the disputative opinions on the ending part. Sections Four and Five, try to prove Yossarian＇s final desertion a natural and convincing ending from different perspectives： Section Four analyses how Yossarian gains an entropic vision of the cosmos; section Five studies his existential vision of physical life and searches for the immediate factors that propel Yossarian＇s desertion. Section five also explains the ending＇s change in tone and structure. The conclusion summarizes the paper and points out the social significance of the novel.

Characterizing Spatial Patterns of Phenology in Cropland of China Based on Remotely Sensed Data

This study used time-series of global inventory modeling and mapping studies （GIMMS） normalized difference vegetation index （NDVI） datasets at a spatial resolution of 8 km and 15-d interval to investigate the spatial patterns of cropland phenology in China. A smoothing algorithm based on an asymmetric Gaussian function was first performed on NDVI dataset to minimize the effects of anomalous values caused by atmospheric haze and cloud contamination. Subsequent processing for identifying cropping systems and extracting phenological parameters, the starting date of growing season （SGS） and the ending date of growing season （EGS） was based on the smoothed NVDI time-series data. The results showed that the cropping systems in China became complex as moving from north to south of China. Under these cropping systems, the SGS and EGS for the first growing season varied largely over space, and those regions with multiple cropping systems generally presented a significant advanced SGS and EGS than the regions with single cropping patterns. On the contrary, the phenological events of the second growing season including both the SGS and EGS showed little difference between regions. The spatial patterns of cropping systems and phenology in Chinese cropland were highly related to the geophysical environmental factors. Several anthropogenic factors, such as crop variety, cultivation levels, irrigation, and fertilizers, could profoundly influence crop phenological status. How to discriminate the impacts of biophysical forces and anthropogenic drivers on phenological events of cultivation remains a great challenge for further studies.