【推荐3】Many people have realized that air pollution can cause damage to people’s health.    1    Air pollution can affect an animal’s health. Make yourself know of the types of air pollution and discover ways how you can help your pets.

How does pollution affect animals？

All animals, whatever their size, can be affected by pollution. Experts agree that pollution affects animals in the same way as it does humans.    2    Not only do animals breathe in harmful gases from pollution, but pollutants (污染物) are also absorbed through the skin and come from food and water.

Types of air pollution.

    3    And it’s important to get familiar with air pollution that affects the health of both animals and humans.

Acid Rain (酸雨)—When water drops in clouds combine with acidic air pollutants, the water turns acidic.    4    

Global Warming—The planet is warming due to greenhouses gases, which include carbon dioxide, methane, and water vapor. These gases are released into the atmosphere from air pollution.

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You can keep the pets in your home safe from air pollutants by keeping fresh air entering your room and purifying (净化) air with equipment. Unfortunately, this doesn’t protect wildlife, but it’s a step in the right direction to protect your beloved pet’s health. Besides, you should also use less energy, reuse and recycle as much as possible.

【推荐1】Our dog Sandy is a golden retriever（猎犬）. He sits in front of our house all day waiting for someone to come by and throw him a stick. Chasing sticks or tennis balls and bringing them back is the major activity in his life.

Once we performed an experiment to see how Sandy found these sticks and balls quickly.

There was one particular pile that must have had hundreds of sticks. We picked up one stick, walked away from the pile and then threw it back into the pile. It was impossible for us to tell with any certainty which stick we had originally chosen. So many of them looked alike to us that the best we could do was pick out seven sticks which resembled the one that had been thrown.

We tried the same thing with Sandy, only before throwing the stick we carved an X on it.

Then we threw it, not once but a dozen times into the pile. He circled the pile over and over.

Each time he brought back that stick. It wasn’ t the shape or the size or look of the stick that he used to pick it out from all the others. It was the smell we left on the stick. It is hard to imagine, but for dogs every living creature has its own distinctive smell.

The environment is the world that all living things share. It is what is — air, fire, wind, water, life, sometimes culture. Living creatures are born into the environment and are part of it too. For a dog like Sandy a book isn’ t much different than a stick, whereas for us one stick is pretty much like every other stick. There is no one world experienced by all living creatures. Though we all live in the same environment, we make many worlds.

【推荐1】Nobody ever imagined that after being lost for more than half a century, the intangible cultural heritage known as Gaolou Mixian would be restored and passed down by a young man. “As someone of Gaolou origin, I have a responsibility to restore our ancestors’ art form,” said Chen Guorui, the world’s only inheritor of this ancient art.

Gaolou Mixian uses rice paste(米糊)to glue together selected grains of transparent rice to create realistic figures or structures. It is a unique folk art that developed during the Qing Dynasty and reached its peak during the first half of the 20th century. Each household in Gaolou village would make rice structures that they put on display in their ancestral halls during the Chinese New Year, which attracted people from all sides.

However, due to the wet weather in southern China, these rice-made artworks would only last three to four months before losing their shape. It is for this reason that these works are not seen in museums in China. Due to various historical reasons, most people in Gaolou village did not pass down the art form, which caused it to disappear nearly 70 years ago.

Chen found out about this after hearing one former resident express disappointment about its loss. Curious, he started to do research and tried out the methods he heard about from older people in the village. After several months of exploration, Chen finally completed his first successful work.

Over the past five years, Chen has gradually improved his skills and even begun using new techniques, such as creating some colorful artworks with colored grains of rice. Since 2017, people at home and abroad have taken an interest in this long-lost art form. To avoid being the last inheritor(传承者), Chen has been giving classes to some students at a primary school in Fuzhou with the support of local education authorities.

【推荐2】Living in a foreign country, people experience culture shock. As a Chinese in Britain, I am no different.

Basically, there are five stages of culture shock.

Stage one can be called the tourist stage.

If you travel a lot, you’ll agree with me. Everything in a new place is very exciting to a tourist.     1    After all, tourists don’t usually stay too long in one place.

The second stage is the shock stage.     2    I am new in the country. Will someone cheat or rob me? We don’t know anybody here and we miss our homes and families. Luckily, my “shock” period was quite short. I had so many things to do every day, I didn’t have time to get depressed.

    3    We learn to deal with the difficulties and stop complaining. This period can be slow and if you fail, you have to go back to the shock stage. I am very lucky. I have a roommate who has lived here for several years. Every time I talk to her, the sky seems clearer.

    4    We feel more comfortable and can live with the new culture. I think this will take a long time because I don’t see any trace（迹象）of it in me.

The last stage is called re-entry shook. This is the shock from going home. Everybody is happy to see you again but you’ve changed.     5    

But I believe that all the shocks will go away if you can think positively.

【推荐3】Most of time black and white appears as opposites. White means light and purity(纯洁),while black is darkness and evil. But it is not always true. Sometimes the words are used differently.

White hats and black hats represent the traditional meaning of the words. The hats are used to tell the “good guys” and the “bad guys” in American western movies. Now the tradition of white hats and black hats is no longer a part of movie making,but you still hear the expression when people talk about good guys and bad guys. “A black sheep” is a person who does things that are not accepted,who breaks tradition. “A black sheep” is rejected(被排斥)because he brings shame to his group. A family may have a member who is thought of as “a black sheep”,a person who is not welcome at family gatherings.

Black is also used in some expressions that describe good things. Being “in the black” for example,is a good thing for anyone. It is a business expression that means a company is making money. When someone says his business is “in the red”,he means it is losing money.

White usually means something good. A “white collar” job,for example,is the kind of job many people want. It is a job where you work at a desk,using your brain instead of your muscles. Sometimes white is used in an expression that is not good. “Whitewash” is such an expression. At first “whitewash” meant to paint over something with a white paint to make it look better. But now “whitewash” has a different meaning: to hide or cover up mistakes or failures.