【推荐1】As parents, you can help children deal with the fear of natural disasters and help protect them from being hurt by telling them how disasters happen, and what to do when disasters happen. Here are some tips for you:

◆ Find out what disasters are possible in your area by visiting your local library;

◆ Think about where your family should go if your house is destroyed;

◆ Teach children the warning signs and signals in your area and practice what to do if a disaster happens.

◆ Once you know the danger, ask your children to help check the safety in your house. You and your children can also work together on a disaster plan and prepare a disaster box with food, water and necessary tools.

◆ If a disaster does happen, pay attention to your children’s behavior. Changes in behavior, for example, acting strangely, mean that your children need help.

◆ Allow children to share their feelings about what has happened such as drawing a picture or writing a story.

◆ Let friends and neighbors help you if they can.

◆ Continue to tell your children that they are loved.

The past years have shown we need to prepare for the worst earthquakes. So an earthquake emergency kit (急救包) should be something we need to have.     1     Well, that may not be a problem because you can buy your own one online.

According to experts, around 275 earthquakes are felt every day around the world.     2     There is a 30% higher chance that you will survive (幸存) an earthquake if you have the kit.

Some people think they can go to a shelter after an earthquake.     3     There may be too many people in the shelter. You may not find food or water, either.   

    4     But whether you are near the fault line (断层线) or far from it, owning one for your household is still a must. Studies show that some states that are near the fault line have earthquake magnitudes (震级) of above 4.5.     5    

So if you don’t have an earthquake emergency kit at home, make one yourself or buy one online.

【推荐3】A storm swept through two villages in the New Territories, destroying (摧毁) fourteen homes. Seven other houses were badly damaged (破坏) and their owners had to leave them, and fifteen other houses had broken windows or broken roofs. The storm killed one person and made several persons get hurt. Altogether over two hundred people were homeless after the storm.

A farmer, Mr.Tan, said that the storm began early in the morning and lasted for over an hour.

“I was eating with my wife and children when we heard a loud noise,” he said. “A few minutes later, our house fell down on top of us. We tried our best to climb out but then I saw that one of my children was missing. I went back inside and found him, safe but very frightened.”

Mrs. Smith said that her husband had just left for work when she felt that her house was moving. She ran outside at once with her children. “There was no time to take anything,” she said. “A few minutes later, the roof came down.”

It rained heavily. Soldiers helped to take people out of the flooded area. The welfare department (福利部) brought them some food, dry clothes and shelter.

Have you told a lie?     1    . However, scientists have found that lying can make it difficult for your brain to finish more important things.

Lying takes much more hard work for your brain to do than telling the truth.     2    . Also, when asked more questions about their story, they must give an answer at once. Here’s an example:

Imagine you’re late for class and the teacher asks why and you decide to lie. So you say, “    3    ” Your teacher asks, “The book I asked you to read last week?” if you say yes, the teacher might ask to see the book. So you might say, “No. It was a different book.” There are only two sentences in the lie, but you just give your brain a lot of extra work. It is far easier to just tell the truth, “I got up late.”

The prefrontal cortex（前额皮质）is the part of the brain people use when they are lying.     4    . Using too much brainpower（脑力）to lie means there’s less available for other things.

Lying is even harder for young people.     5    . So when young people are getting used to lying, they’ll have a harder time doing other things, like making study plans or following a healthy diet. So think twice before lying next time!

【推荐2】We wash vegetables before cooking them. And we wash our hands before we start eating. That is because we know washing can clean our food and keep diseases(疾病) away. But, do you see cows, dogs or cats wash their food? No, they don’t.

But there is one kind of animal called raccoons（浣熊）. I think they’re interesting. They like to wash their food before eating. And raccoons don’t eat any food if they can’t find water around. Even if they eat, they don’t look happy about it. We don't know why they wash the food. It is not because they like clean things. Because they also wash the food in the dirty(脏的) water!

In fact, they find most of their food in the dirty water. They are very lazy. They usually sleep all day. They live in places where there is water and trees. Usually, they build home in the trees.

They are gray or brown in colour. They have big ears and small eyes. They are good looking. So I think they look very lovely.

【推荐1】Whats going to happen in the future? Will robots control our planet? Will computers become smarter than us? Not likely. But here are some things that scientists say are most likely to happen in 10 to 30 years from now, according to the BBC.

Digital money

We used to pay with cash for everything we bought. Now when we use a credit card to shop online, money is spent without us seeing it. That means we are already using digital money. Using a card is much easier than searching our pockets for change. It is also safer than crying a lot of cash.

When ATM cards were fist introduced, they were not accepted everywhere. But now its hard to live without them. It’s reported that people in Sweden completely stopped using cash last year, and the US might be next.

Bionic（仿生的）eye

It’s no longer something only in a science fiction movie. People who are blind may have a chance to get their sight back—by wearing bionic eyes.

A blind eye can no longer sense light, but a bionic eye can use a camera to “see” environment and send data（数据）to the mind. Now the bionic eye only allows patients to see lights and unclear shapes. A high resolution（高清的）image could be just a few years away.

Self-driving cars

Unlike a human driver, a self-driving car won’t get distracted（分心）by phone call, the radio or something outside the window. Sensors（探测器）and cameras on the car would allow it to reduce the number of road accidents. You could even take a nap while the car drives itself. In the future, driverless cars would be widely accepted.

【推荐3】Jack is an American student. Every day, he says “ni hao” to his teachers and classmates at school. “Ni hao” means “Hello” in English.

Jack is learning Chinese. Now he can write his Chinese name and some easy Chinese characters (文字). And he can speak a little Chinese with people. He thinks Chinese is very difficult, but it’s also an interesting language (语言). He wants to take a trip to China one day. He loves Chinese history, so he wants to go to Beijing and Xi’an.

In America, 40,000 students are learning Chinese. In 2022, the number of students will increase to 100,000. “I have some friends in China. They say English can help them find good jobs (工作),” Jack says. “I think Chinese can also help American students find good jobs.”

Now there are more than 500 Confucius Institutes (孔子学院) all over the world (世界各地). These schools will help foreign students learn Chinese.