【推荐1】You can see a sea turtle named Herman, an octopus (章鱼) called Octavia, and a seal named Lidia at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington, D.C. Rather than real animals, they are actually artworks made out of plastic trash from the ocean.

These artworks are part of a traveling exhibit called “Washed Ashore: Art to Save the Sea”. The Washed Ashore project, led by the artist called Pozzi, works to raise awareness about plastic pollution in Earth’s oceans.

More than 315 billion pounds of plastic litter the world’s oceans today. Most of the plastic is garbage from towns and cities, as well as trash that people leave on beaches. Rainwater, winds, and high tides bring the trash into the ocean or into rivers that lead to the ocean. Once it is under the waves, the plastic begins to break up into smaller and smaller pieces.

Thousands of sea animals die each year from eating plastic bags and other things. Each year, millions more pounds of plastic end up in the ocean. A recent study found that if that continues, by 2050 the total weight of plastic will be more than that of all the fish in the ocean.

The Washed Ashore project is working to stop that from happening. Since 2010, Washed Ashore volunteers have collected 38,000 pounds of plastic trash from more than 300 miles of beaches. They helped Pozzi create more than 60 artworks of sea creatures harmed by plastic pollution.

“These artworks are a powerful reminder of our personal role and global responsibility in preserving biodiversity (生物多样性) on land and in the sea,” says Dennis Kelly, director of the National Zoo.

【推荐2】Smog in Europe and North America could be more than 25 times more deadly than the average air pollution found in Chinese cities, a new study suggests. In the largest ever study of its kind in the developing world, researchers tested the effects of air pollution on the health of people in 272 cities in China.

They found average annual exposure to fine particles, known as PM2.5, in those cities was more than five times higher than the level recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), according to a paper in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

However they also discovered that it was much less likely to increase the death rate than PM2.5 in Europe and North America.

The researchers, led by Dr Maigeng Zhou, of the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, suggested this was because China is affected by large amounts of natural dust blown by the wind from arid areas, while most pollution in the West comes from industry.

They found that for every increase of 10 micrograms of air pollution in a cubic meter of air, the mortality rate increased by 0.22 percent, discounting deaths from accidents.

Professor Frank Kelly, an expert in environmental health at King’s College London, who was not involved in the study but has studied air pollution in China, told The Independent: “Those relative risks are considerably less than those seen in Europe and the US. For mortality(死亡率) in Europe we are working on a six percent increase per 10 micrograms.” That suggests air pollution in Europe is about 27 times more toxic than average air pollution in China.

However, Professor Kelly said cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong were likely to suffer from Western-style air pollution. "The natural dust component there is not of the magnitude that it would dwarf the coal, biomass and fossil fuel signals,” he said, “That may be true in certain cities whose pollution is not dominated by local power generation or major traffic congestion.”

Natural dust particles can cause physical damage to the lungs and trigger an asthma attack. Particles of carbon produced when fossil fuels are burned can lead to similar problems but they are also coated with toxic heavy metals, chemicals and volatile organic compounds. These are able to pass from the lungs into the blood stream where it is thought they cause further damage to the body.

Areeba Hamid, an air pollution campaigner with environmental group Greenpeace, said: “Poisonous air causes damage to people’s health wherever in the world they live. We now know fumes from diesel(柴油机) vehicles are a lot more poisonous than car companies claimed and this is a big cause of air pollution in Europe and North America. These companies have a lot to answer for, but so far they’ve managed to avoid any real accountability.”

The study of cities in China found the average annual expose to PM2.5 was 56 micrograms per cubic meter, compared to the WHO guideline limit for safe air quality of 10 micrograms.

People who were older than 75, had less education or who lived in hotter places were more likely to die. It is thought people in warmer cities were more likely to spend time outside or leave their windows open, thereby breathing more polluted air, the researchers said. They also speculated that less well educated people might have poorer access to health care or experience poorer environmental health conditions.

【推荐3】We’re often reminded of the importance of preserving the planet as we see it for future generations—and children at St Oswald’s Primary School in Chester certainly agree.

Nine-year-old Isobel Kelleher from the school’s Hummingbirds class thinks adults need to take note.“Sometimes they can be busy and I don’t think they think they can make a difference，but if everyone does a little bit it all adds up，”she tells HuffPost UK.“We started looking at plastic pollution in our oceans and the things like plastic bags and broken down pieces of plastic that are polluting them.”she says.“Fish can eat the plastic and they can die，or we might even eat the fish ourselves.”

Mr Timms，Isobel’s teacher，has been spearheading a new project at the school which lets children loose creatively to raise awareness of the need to be more environmentally friendly.The entire Hummingbirds class，which is made up of 9 and 10-year-old pupils，has been busy writing poems and creating online video adverts to warn adults about the serious situation of our oceans and wildlife.

Mr Timms thinks children have an important role to play in teaching us how to take care of the things around us.“We sometimes overlook how much we can really learn from children.”he says.“It has been really hard to believe having parents come in saying that their children have been asking them to stop using plastic，and to recycle more，and even stopping them using plastic straws.”

Mr Timms is proud of his Hummingbirds class.“The message that they would like to send to the world is simple:stopping this isn’t someone else’s job，and it won’t be OK if we just leave it.”

【推荐2】Volunteering means working for free to help someone else. Mrs. Obama says volunteering is very important. “It should be part of everyone’s life,” she says.

Many teens agree. They say that helping others feels great and makes a difference. These days, more teens volunteer than work for pay. Teens clean up parks, walk dogs at animal shelters, visit the elderly, and more.

Some cities, including Seattle, Chicago, and Washington D.C., require high school students to volunteer. Students must volunteer in order to graduate. The student volunteers learn new skills and help their communities.

Many parents subscribe to the idea, saying volunteering helps teens build job skills. But most teens don’t want to be forced to volunteer. They say they are busy. And they say volunteering is only fun if it’s a choice.

Read both sides of the debate and decide.

1）Volunteering can help teens get into college or get a job;

2）Many cities and towns need help. Volunteers can help keep important programs going;

3）Not all teens will volunteer if it isn’t required. Students are demanded to have this record for graduation, and get ready for adult life.

1）Most teens are already very busy with classes, homework, jobs, and sports. Forcing them to do more isn’t fair;

2）It should be up to each person. Helping doesn’t feel good if you must do it;

3）Finding a volunteer job isn’t always easy. Students shouldn’t be kept from graduating because of something they can’t control.

【推荐3】Tokyo, the capital of Japan, is one of the largest cities in the world. It is also one of the world’s most modern cities. Twice last century, the city was destroyed and rebuilt. Thousands of people were killed and millions were left homeless as buildings fell down and fires broke out throughout Tokyo. It took seven years to rebuild the city. During World war Ⅱ, Tokyo was destroyed once again. As a result of these disasters there is nothing of old Tokyo remaining in the downtown area.

After the war, the people of Tokyo began to rebuild their city. Buildings went up at a high speed, and between 1945 and 1960, the city’s population was more than doubled. Because of the Olympic Games held in Tokyo in 1964, many new stadiums, parks and hotels were built to offer rooms to visitors from all over the world. As a result of this fast development, however, many problems have come about, housing shortage, pollution, and waste disposal (处理) have been serious challenges to the city, but the government has begun several programs to answer them.