【推荐1】Autumn is a good season to do sports, because in summer it is too hot. But what you feel is quite different from what your body feels. Your body works more slowly, so it is easy for you to be hurt（伤害）when doing sports. Here is some advice（建议）.

Drink water. It is often very dry in autumn and your body loses（丢失）water easily. So it is good to drink 500 ml of water two hours before you exercise. But be careful you cannot drink water as soon as（一旦）you finish your exercise. Just do it about 15 minutes after that.

Warm up your body. Before you do any sport, remember to do some warming-up activities such as walking or morning exercises to get your body ready for the sport.

Have outdoor activities. It is cool outside your door and the air is much better. So outdoor activities like climbing hills, riding bikes and running or jogging are much fun. These can help you lose more fat, get you relaxed and help you work well.

Do not eat too much after the sport. If you cannot control your mouth, it is better not to do any sport. You can have some fruit or vegetables if you really want to eat something.

【推荐2】There’s a saying, “No sports, no life.” Sports are very important to us. Sports help us to stay healthy and get good grades. Four good friends are talking about sports.

Linda is looking for something about how to keep healthy on the Internet. Here are the results.

★Have healthy eating habits.     1     So eat breakfast every morning and eat well. Try to eat a light lunch. Fruit and vegetables are an important part of your food. Don’t have dinner too late. Your body needs more time to digest (消化) most of the food.

★How often do you exercise? If you want to stay healthy, try to exercise for 30 minutes a day, three or four times a week.     2    

★Good sleep is important for your health.     3     Don’t eat or read in bed. Go to bed and get up early at the same time every day.

★Studies show that flu virus (流感病毒) can live on our hands for a long time.     4     Drink more hot water. Try not to go to crowded places. Don’t forget to wear masks (口罩) when you go out.

★    5     Also, seeing a dentist at least once a year is necessary. The oral examination (口腔检查) is not only for the health of teeth, but of the whole body.

【推荐1】Schools help protect kids’ mental (心理的) health in many ways. Some states in the US let kids take mental health days. Should schools offer mental health days? Here’s what some students have to say.

【推荐2】They hang from trees. They float in rivers and oceans. They are piled up in landfills(垃圾填埋场). Our frequent use of plastic products has, for many years, been a leading cause of serious environmental problems in the world. Last month, China drew up new guidelines(指导方针) aiming to bring plastic pollution under control across the country in five years’ time.

According to the new guidelines, the ban(禁令) on the use of non-biodegradable(不可生物降解的) plastic bags will have been applied to cities including Beijing and Shanghai by the end of this year. Other sources of plastic garbage will have been banned in these cities by the end of 2022. And that rule will have extended nationwide by late 2025.

Fortunately, China will not start from zero. Late last year, the country announced a national standard for biodegradable plastic shopping bags. It is technologically prepared for their production. Some regions have gained valuable experience that others can learn from. For example, Jilin province is leading the way by providing eco-friendly(环保的) shopping bags in some local supermarkets.

Given the size of China’s consumer market, one main obstacle(障碍) is the large number of plastic items that are being used by restaurants and e-commerce(电子商务) platforms. It’s estimated that nearly 25 billion plastic bags were used for deliveries in 2018. Most of them were rarely reused.

However, most Chinese people welcomed the government’s effort to reduce the use of plastics. “Beijing is thinking about the problem seriously,” said Tang Damin, a member of Greenpeace East Asia in Beijing. He added that the policy could be far more effective(有效) by using incentives(激励) such as a deposit(押金) return program on plastic products.

【推荐3】New York, London, Paris and other big cities are exciting places to live in. There are many interesting things to see and to go to. You can go to different kinds of museums, plays and films. You can also buy things from all over the world.

But there are some problems in big cities too. It is expensive to live there and there are too many people in some places of big cities. Every year many people move to the cities to find jobs, to study at good schools.

But sometimes these people can’t find work or a good place to live in. Also it is hard to keep the cities safe (安全的) and clean.

Some people enjoy living in big cities, others do not. Before moving to a big city, they should think about the problem of living there.

【推荐1】How do you feel when your teacher asks you to work in a group with other students? Do you like to work together with others or work alone?

The Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, did a test of students’ ability（能力）to work together in groups. They found that students who do well on tests by themselves are also possibly better at working with other people.

This finding is true for many countries. Students in Japan, South Korea, Finland and Canada, where test grades are high, also did well in working together to solve problems. ________. Chinese students, who have high scores as well, however, showed common collaborative（合作的）ability.

“One reason might be that Chinese parents and teachers pay too much attention to scores,” said Zhao Zhongxin, former vice president of the Chinese Family Education Association. “Students have to face a lot of exams and they think school is a place for competition.”

“However, collaborative ability is very important for preparing students for today’s world,” he added. “Luckily, more Chinese parents and teachers have known how important this is and are thinking of ways to help students with this ability.”

Another interesting finding from the PISA test was that girls are better than boys at working together. They said girls are more positive to work with others, which means they are ready to listen to others’ ideas.

PISA also found that the classroom environment will influence（影响）how well students work together in groups. Students may do better if there are a lot of activities, such as class discussions, group work.

【推荐3】In Singapore, many middle school students spend a lot of time on their studies. People think good schooling is a ticket to success in their future, so, many of these students try their best to get good marks in their exams. They have a lot of schoolwork every day and exams are usually difficult. Sometimes, some of them have to go to remedial (补习的) classes after school.

There are many after-school activities: sports and games, music and dance, hiking and rock-climbing, etc. They are also very happy to do community service (社区服务).

In their personal time, most students like to listen to pop music. Hollywood blockbusters (好莱坞大片), Hong Kong and Singapore movies are very popular among them. Some of them also spend their free time surfing the Internet, e-mailing their friends and playing computer games. They sometimes go to cafes, fast-food restaurants, shopping centers and big bookstores, so, it looks like the life as a middle school student in Singapore is not easy but it is rich and colorful.

【推荐1】In Pontevedra, Spain, people don’t shout. Since cars are not allowed in the city, there are no horns（喇叭）or noises from car engines. People don’t have to try hard to make themselves heard. What you hear in the street, instead, is the singing of birds.

“Listen,” says Miguel Lores, the mayor（市长）, opening the windows of his office. From the street below rises the sound of human voices. “More than 14,000 cars used to pass along this street every day. There were more cars passing through the city in a day than people living here.

Lores became mayor in 1999. He spent months walking around the city. “The historical city is dead,” he said one day. “It is full of cars. It is heavily polluted. There are a lot of traffic accidents. The elderly and children aren’t able to use the streets because of cars. People who had a chance to leave have done so.”

At first, Lores thought of improving traffic conditions. However, he couldn’t come up with a good plan. After lots of discussions, the government finally decided to get rid of（清除）cars.

The change has brought Pontevedra many benefits. Traffic accidents are now rare（罕见的）. CO₂ emissions（排放物）are down by 70%. Many people are moving to the city, making it lively again.

Most local people like the change. Ramiro Armesto, a mother of two young children, said, “In the past, the first thing to see in the morning was traffic jams. Now, the city is cleaner, quieter and safer.” Raquel Garcia, another parent, said she had stayed in many cities around the world. However, she had never lived in a city as “easy to live in” as Pontevedra. “Even if it’s raining, I walk everywhere. The feeling is wonderful,” she added.

【推荐2】Along with firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce and vinegar, tea is considered one of the seven necessities for life in China. Now, it has also won global recognition (认可) as a shared cultural treasure of humans.

On Nov.29, Chinese traditional tea processing skills and their related social practices were added to the UNESCO intangible cultural heritage (非物质文化遗产) list. Since ancient times, Chinese people have been planting, picking, making and drinking tea.

More importantly, China's tea culture has formed Chinese customs. It is Chinese traditional custom that a host should welcome visiting guests with boiled tea. A poem by Song poet Du Lei reads, “I offer tea, not wine, to a guest on a cold night. When water boils on the stove, fire burns with flame bright (寒夜客来茶当酒，竹炉汤沸火初红).”

Boiling tea is one of the oldest Chinese tea brewing methods, dating back to the Tang Dynasty (618—907). Tea leaves were boiled for a long time and sometimes they were cooked together with other things. Later in the Ming Dynasty (1368—1644), a faster and more convenient method become more popular—steeping (冲泡).

These days, the old method is making a comeback. On the app Xiaohongshu, or Little Red Book, there are over 40,000 posts on the topic of “stove-boiled tea” (围炉煮茶). They lightly roast tea leaves before boiling them in a teapot on a stove. People sit around the stove in a natural setting and have snacks with their hot tea. Some also wear traditional hanfu as if it could take them back to those ancient times. Through “stove-boiled tea”, people can taste a slower life and find their inner peace. As is written in one Xiaohongshu post, “It is very relaxing to drink hot tea, feel the fall breeze, and chat with best friends.”