【推荐1】Our Future in Space

Many people believe that one day, we may leave the Earth to make our home among the stars. At that time, many people, including you, might live in a space station 200 miles above the Earth.

Space Cities

There will be cities like the one we are living in now.     1     Hundreds, or even thousands, of people will live, work and go to school there.

In fact, we have explored(探索) part of the Moon, and even sent spaceships to the surface of Venus and Mars.     2    

Go into Space

The Moon is full of valuable metals. These metals—if we got them—could be used to build factories and space stations.     3     In that case, more energy can be turned into electricity—for creating comfortable living conditions.

From space, too, we can look down on the Earth and study the atmosphere, its weather, and the influence of air pollution to save it.

At Home in Space

    4     For example, we have to protect ourselves from the ultraviolet(紫外线) because it can give us bad sunburns. Besides, our bones(骨头) will become weaker if we stay out in space for a long time. But we’ll surely find out the solution.

Yet, these risks won’t keep people from going into space.     5     And people will live there with many different interests—medicine, farming, teaching and so on.

The next hundred years will be filled with other worldly adventures, exciting scientific discoveries, and danger, as humans leave the Earth—perhaps forever.

【推荐2】People in many parts of North and South America will be able to see a total lunar eclipse (月食) on Sunday night and early Monday morning. The eclipse is special, and it is called a super blood wolf moon by some people.

The moon will be a little closer than it normally is to the Earth. For this reason, it will appear brighter than usual. Such a moon is called a super moon. When the moon is completely eclipsed, it looks darker and appears to have an orange or even a red color. The sunset on the Earth looks orange for a similar reason. Because of its reddish color, an eclipsed moon is sometimes called a blood moon.

In North America, there are traditional names given to each of the 12 full moons that happen throughout the year. January’s full moon is known as the wolf moon or the great spirit moon.

Is there anything I should get ready when I look up the lunar eclipse?

“There are no precautions (预防措施) you need to take when looking at a lunar eclipse, since the moon is never bright enough to hurt your eyes like the sun,” according to Walter Freeman, a physicist at Syracuse University.

It’s just a wonderful thing for the whole family to see because it’s fairly rare to have all these kinds of things together at the same time.

In the universe, there is the sun, the moon, the earth and many stars. Through our geography lessons, we know the earth goes around the sun, and the moon goes round the earth. We have day and night because the earth keeps turning all the time. When our part of the earth turns to the sun, it is day. When our part of the earth turns away from the sun, it is night. The other part of the earth is always contrary.

Just because the moon is closer to the earth than the sun, it looks much bigger than the sun. Big things will look smaller when they are further, and small things also look bigger when they are nearer.

The sun is big enough to give out very strong light. The moon can’t give any light at all, but it looks quite bright, too. Why? In fact, the light from the moon comes from the sun. The moon looks much bigger and brighter than the stars. But in fact, the stars are much bigger and brighter than the moon. They look smaller than the moon also because they are further away from the earth.

Earth is so important because living things and people can only live on the earth. And some countries have sent astronauts to the space to learn more about the universe. At 9:00 a.m. on October 15th, 2003, Chinese astronaut Yang Liwei was sent up to space. He stayed there for 21 hours. It was the first time for Chinese to get into space.

【推荐1】①The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games opened on February 4, which coincided with “Lichun,” the first of the 24 solar terms（节气）in the traditional Chinese lunar calendar, showing the start of spring. “Lichun” also became an important element at the opening ceremony.

②Lichun is called “Start of Spring” in English. It is the first solar term in the year. It also shows the change of the season and marks the end of winter and the beginning of spring. The date for Lichun usually comes on February 4 or February 5 in solar calendar. After Lichun, days become longer and nights become shorter, while weather is getting warmer. The following is some information about this solar term.

Stand the egg

③In China, it is said that the egg can be set up on the first day of the spring. It is believed that if someone can make the egg stand on the first day of spring, he will have good luck in the future. Try to stand eggs today on your own. If you succeed in the challenge, it means good luck is coming.

Hold a special ceremony（仪式）

④People in China began holding a special ceremony on the day of Start of Spring about 3,000 years ago. In ancient China, people mainly lived on farming, and the change of seasons greatly influenced farming. Spring is the season for planting. After Lichun farmers may start to work in the field. And vitality（活力）heads back to all lives. For city people, time has come for them to do outdoor activities and enjoy warm sunshine.

Eat special food—Chunjuan

⑤People try to eat something new to keep the spring. There has been a long history of eating chunjuan during Lichun. People will wrap some vegetables with chunjuan. Besides enjoying chunjuan with vegetables, farmers will also send chunjuan as presents to each other.

【推荐2】Maybe you have seen scenes in movies where a pilot has a problem during the flight and you hear him shout “Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!”. But what does “Mayday” mean? Mayday is an internationally known distress call (求救信号), mostly used by pilots and boat captains. The signal can be sent out on any channel by radio communication.

This emergency call first came about in the 1920s. At that time, the standard distress call was “SOS” and was typically used by navy (海军) captains. The message was sent in Morse code by telegraph. In Morse code, “SOS” is three dots (点), three dashes (线) and three dots. The signal was very clear. However, aircraft pilots use radio calls, so saying the letters “SOS” could be misheard as other letters, such as “F”.

Frederick Stanley Mockford, a radio officer at Croydon Airport in London, was asked to think of a word that would mean you need help. Because of the number of flights that flew between Croydon and Paris, he chose Mayday, as it sounds similar to the French word “m’aider”, which means “help me”.

In a bad situation, pilots are asked to repeat the signal three times to make sure that it’s heard clearly by others. If the pilots don’t get a reply within two minutes, they should repeat it. Once they receive a reply, more information, including the flight name, their situation and the number of people on board should be reported. Sometimes pilots are told to go to a nearby airport or location where they can make an emergency landing. While Mayday signals mean a very serious situation, they do not always end in deaths.

Although there are dangers, air travel is still the safest means of transport.