We humans are really complicated (复杂的) animals. We can talk, smile as well as cry. We can express different kinds of moods, such as happy, sad, angry and upset. They always change our ideas. There are steps you can try to manage your moods.

It is important to know what is acceptable and what is not for others. You should not hurt others, including hurting them with words.

You need to understand big feelings are very normal but your actions caused by these feelings will bring results. Taking a few deep breaths or slowly counting to ten can give you time to realize your body’s warning signs—whether you have a tense (紧绷的) body or bite teeth.

Saying what you wish for helps you open a problem-solving conversation. Certainly, your wish won’t always be an acceptable solution for all parties, but you can work out a better solution together with whom you are angry.

It’s okay to ask for help when you don’t feel that you can solve the problem alone. Asking your parents or teachers for advice may help you find better ways.

Sometimes you may still feel angry or upset even having worked through each of the above steps. In these situations it is often better to walk away or to find another safe way to deal with those feelings. Several days later, you may not feel as strongly about what happened.

Born in the 14th century, Naxi ancient music is one of the world’s oldest music types. The Naxi ethnic group (纳西族) living in Yunnan created it with their own instruments. But today, few people can hear it or even know of it.

“One of my classmates is from the Naxi ethnic group,” Liu Yunong said. “When she talked about this endangered music, I thought maybe we could do something.” The 15-year-old from Tianjin TEDA NO 1 Middle School is a music lover and guzheng player. Together with other classmates, she set up a project to promote (推广) Naxi music among young people.

“How to attract young people in a fun way is the most difficult job,” said Liu. “So we thought of the idea of using comic strips to introduce Naxi music.”

In the comics that they created, the leading role is a girl named Su Xiaodu. Her name comes from sugudu, a musical instrument of Naxi culture. After a boy named Liu Nana visited a Naxi cultural museum, Su came into his life, and the story began.

“Many of our classmates loved this form of storytelling, and it successfully attracted 300 people to attend our online activity during the winter holiday, where we introduced some basic of Naxi music,” Liu said. “We also planned to invite a famous Naxi musician, Xuan Ke, to give us a talk, but sadly, Mr. Xu passed away at 93 in early January. His death made us realize the importance of protecting traditional music,” Liu added.

After the online activity, some young people recorded videos of themselves playing Naxi music pieces, such as Shan Po Yang (《山坡羊》), in piano or guzheng. “When we received the videos, we felt everything was worth it,” said Liu.

Scientists have been hoping to explore the moon with robots. But the land on the moon is tough. There are steep (陡峭的) hills, big rocks and holes. It is not easy for common robots to move around. A small robot called COBRA is here to help.

Students from Northeastern University in the US made COBRA. It won the top prize in NASA’s Breakthrough, Innovative, and Game-Changing(BIG) Idea Challenge. The robot is made up of 13 mini-bots. It looks like a snake. It can wiggle (扭动) in the sand and along a dirty road. It can connect its head to its tail to roll down long and steep hills. Its spiral (螺旋) structure helps it move out of tough places more easily.

One of NASA’s biggest aims (目标) in the coming years is to put humans back on the moon. They did it more than 50 years ago. But this time, they hope to stay on the moon and set up a base. “If you’re going back to the moon to stay, robots are going to be an important part of it,” said NASA engineer Vandi Verma. She is also one of the judges of the BIG Idea Challenge.

NASA wants to build the base in an area on the moon’s south pole. That area may have frozen water, which is important for humans. But the area is full of steep hills and holes. NASA turns to young people for their out-of-the-box ideas. At the BIG Idea Challenge, the teams from different universities gave all kinds of solutions.

Holly had another bad night. The owl (猫头鹰) didn’t come back, but there was a huge army of ants that decided to march all over her body. Eco, her dog, got very excited and tried to eat them.

The next day, after breakfast, Holly waited for everyone to leave the house. Then she let down the rope ladder and took Eco for a walk. Eco loved it. He was happy to be on the ground again, and he ran and jumped and scratched and chased other dogs.

Holly wanted to see her friends, but she couldn’t stay away from the oak tree (橡树) for a very long time. She had to be there in case (以防) her father tried to cut it down.

When he came home from work, Holly’s father tried to get her down from the tree again. This time he was ready to take action! He walked up to the tree carrying a ladder. He leaned it against a branch.

“Right,” he said. “You’re going to come down from that tree right now.”

“No way,” said Holly. Eco barked in support.

“OK, if that’s the way you want it, I’m going to come up and get you.”

But before her father could step on the ladder, Holly climbed onto the branch, and pushed it away. The ladder fell with a crash.

Then Holly saw her mother coming from the kitchen. She was carrying a tray (托盘) with a bottle of fizzy water and a large mushroom pizza—Holly’s favourite food. But Holly didn’t eat the pizza. Her father took the tray and said, “Don’t think you’re going to get this, young lady. You’re not going to get any more food from us while you’re up in that tree!”

And with that, he walked quickly back to the house and threw the pizza into the waste bin. Holly’s mother said sadly, “Oh, Holly, don’t be silly. Come down and have a nice dinner with us.” But Holly didn’t answer. This was war.

Holly sat in the tree house with Eco by her side and made plans. She had to find something to eat. She had to keep in touch with her friends as soon as possible. And she had to get her sleeping bag—those blankets were really horrible! The food, her mobile phone and her sleeping bag were all in the same place. She had to get into the house when nobody was watching. She had no choice. She had to break into her own house. So Holly turned on her MP3, listened to her music, and waited for night to come.

—From Holly the Eco Warrior

71. 劳动实践对学生的成长有着至关重要的影响，它不仅可以培养学生的生活技能，增长生活见识，还能让学生在劳动中体会到付出的价值和收获的喜悦。比如为父母做一餐饭；帮助班级打扫一次卫生；在社区里做志愿服务等等。五一劳动节即将来临，请你写一篇英语短文，介绍你在生活中或课堂中的一次劳动实践。