If you watch the sky for about an hour after the sun goes down, you may see some “moving stars”. But they’re not real stars. They’re man-made satellites (人造卫星). And the biggest of all is the International Space Station (ISS). From May to July is the best season to watch the ISS flying over the earth. People can see it with their eyes.

The ISS is the biggest satellite and scientists want to live on it. They think that the best way to learn more about space is to live there.

When the space station is finished, it will be like a city in space. People will stay and study there with many of the things they have at home. Laboratories, living rooms and power stations are being built. The ISS is the most expensive space program. Billions of dollars are being spent on it every year.

Scientists hope that the ISS will be (B) a stepping stone for future space exploration (探测). “The ISS will help us understand the human body better, explore space and study the earth. It can help us make life on the earth better,” said Kathryn Clark, an ISS scientist.

Sixteen countries are part of the program: the US, Russia, Canada, Japan, Brazil and 11 European countries. China isn’t an ISS country, but it has helped to do some experiments. In 2003, China sent some rice up to the ISS to find out what space would do to it.

Do you ever feel like your thoughts are going round in circles? One minute, you’re thinking about your homework. The next minute, you’re thinking about your plans for the weekend.

Is it possible for us to slow our thoughts down or even stop them? It depends on your understanding of “thinking”, according to Michael Halassa, a researcher at MIT, US. We go through each day in one of two states (状态)—we either realize that we’re thinking or we don’t. Our brains won’t stop thinking completely until we die.

“The brain never actually stops thinking.... Most thoughts are actually in the background without us noticing them and there’s not really a way to turn these things off,” Halassa said.

Human brains can unconsciously process (无意识地处理) about 11 million pieces of information per second (每秒), according to Forbes.

You can compare this to how a computer works. Even when you aren’t using your computer while it’s turned on, it is still doing things “in the background”. Your computer, much like your brain, is “thinking” without stopping, even if you’re not consciously using it. Some researchers have called this “thought-chatter”. It describes the random (胡乱的) thoughts that pop in and out of our minds at different times during the day. Some thought-chatter can be fun, such as daydreaming. Albert Einstein came up with his famous theory of relativity (相对论) while daydreaming at work. But too much thought-chatter can make us feel too worried. Meditation (冥想) can help us clean up some of this thought-chatter.

History is the story of us human beings. Everyone and everything in the past are part of history. But history is not only what happened in the past. The word also means the study of the past, through old written records（文字记载） and other kinds of facts.

Why do we study history? One reason is that we enjoy it. A good story is even better if it is true, and history is full of good stories, though they can be terrible, too. A more important reason is to understand ourselves and the world we live in. To understand the things happening now, we need to know why they happen in this way or that way. We cannot understand the time now if we know nothing about the past. History helps us understand better why things are the way they are.

Of course, history books cannot tell us everything about the past, not even everything that is recorded（被记录）.A history of the world has to record part of the people and events, because not all of them are important all over the world.

In the past, different countries and places owned great civilizations（ 文明）.Usually, only three or four lived at the same time. While they went on, they changed the lives not only of their own people, but of their neighbors.

Title: History

【推荐1】Eating habits are different in different countries. The Chinese have a saying, “Eat good things for breakfast, eat a big meal for lunch, but eat less at supper.” Many people in the USA agree that people start a day with a good breakfast,     1    

Most people in America only have a short time for their lunch,     2     After work, they can have more time to eat a big dinner. Also a quiet dinner at home with all the family members talking about their day is a good way to take a good rest after a long, hard day of work.

    3     In China, very often you can hear people talking and laughing loudly, and they are just having a good time.     4     it is not like this. They usually eat a good meal far away from the noisy places. If they are making some noise (噪音),     5     even the manager of the restaurant will ask them to be quiet.

Have you ever forgotten where your socks are when you wake up in the morning? Can you remember what you ate for lunch a week ago? You may think that being forgetful is not a good thing. But now you should be thankful.

Scientists from the University of Toronto found that forgetting is actually a key part of learning. Remembering all the things is not always easy. Forgetting unnecessary information can help our brains work better.

What kind of information is unnecessary? Scientists say that this may have something to do with the environment we live in. Our brains may require us to remember less in the environment which changes quickly. For example, a supermarket worker meets many people every day and will probably only remember them for a short time. But a designer who often meets some certain people will remember longer. That’s because our brains keep making new neurons(神经元) from stem cells(干细胞), said Paul Frankland, a professor at the University of Toronto.

There is a special area in our brains called the hippocampus (海体). It is important for us to learn and remember. When new neurons go into the hippocampus, they renew our old memories. This could explain why you forget so much information about the time when you were very young.

However, being forgetful is not always good. When you don’t have enough sleep, you may have a hard time remembering new information. Sleep helps the brain store and keep new facts and information.

Do you enjoy your school life? Are you happy every day?

Many teenagers have problems that worry them. Some do not learn their school subjects well. Some are good at learning and do well in exams, but they are doing so poorly in sports that their classmates call them “bookworms (书呆子)”. So many teenagers are under stress. How to solve these problems? Here are some ways for you to deal with stress.

Firstly, eating a healthy diet, getting enough sleep and doing exercises are very important. These will help us to keep fit.

Next, for schoolwork, planning ahead (提前) can help. Making a list of the things you need to do and planning when to do them can help you organize your time. If you are weak in a subject, you should spend more time on it than before and ask a teacher for help.

Then, as a student you should pay no attention to people who laugh at you. Instead you should find the things you are good at. Then you should also spend enough time on your hobbies.

Finally, it is necessary for teenagers to share problems with friends and parents.

Now boys and girls, are you clear about how to enjoy your school life? Come on and face it bravely and actively.