【推荐1】We all live on Earth and enjoy our life every day. Do you know all the interesting facts about the Earth?

The Earth is not round.

Do you think the Earth is round? Will the Earth is not completely round.

The Earth is really old.

Grandmas and grandpas are old, but the Earth is much older. Scientists think that the earth is about 4.5 to 5 billion (十亿) years old.

Much of the Earth is water.

About 70% of Earth is water, and only about 30% of Earth is land.

Earthquakes happen all the time.

Earthquakes (地震) take place all the time. But most of the time, they are very small and human beings cannot even feel them.

________.

There are many mountains on Earth. Mount Everest is the most famous one because its peak is five and one-half miles above sea level. It is the highest. There are more interesting facts about the Earth. Can you tell us some?

Thousands of years ago, Chinese poet Qu Yuan (about 340-278 BC) wrote the poem Tianwen, meaning Quest for Heavenly Truth. He came up with a series of questions about the sky, stars, nature, myths and the world around us. The poem showed his doubts about traditional ideas and the spirit of finding the truth.

Inspired by the great poet, China has named its upcoming series of planetary exploration missions (行星探测任务) after the poem. The first one in the series-a Mars exploration mission-has been named Tianwen 1, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) said on April 24, China’s Space Day. This shows China’s desire (渴望) to explore the universe and discover its secrets.

China has been making great progress in space exploration. As early as 1970, China launched its first man-made Earth satellite (卫星), becoming the fifth country in the world to launch a man-made satellite independently. Since 2003, China has carried out six Shenzhou manned missions and launched two space labs into Earth’s orbit (轨道). China’s moon exploration missions-the Chang’e series-started in 2007. In December 2018, China became the first country to send the probe (探测器) Chang’e 4 to the moon’s far side, which always faces away from Earth.

The Tianwen series will follow the Shenzhou and Chang’e series and move further into space. The first step is to launch a Mars probe this year, which will mark the start of China’s exploration of the Red Planet. The probe is expected to orbit (绕……轨道运行), land on and explore Mars in one mission. If it succeeds, it will be the first to complete all of these tasks in one mission. The Long March 5 rocket will send the probe to Mars. It will take seven months to reach the planet and land.

After this mission, China plans to visit Mars again in 2028, aiming to collect soil from the surface of the planet and bring it to Earth. Around 2030, China will explore Jupiter and several asteroids (小行星), according to CNSA.

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【推荐2】On the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific, some villagers cut down trees in a special way. If a tree is too large to be cut down with an ax (斧子), they try something else—yelling (喊叫) at it. Woodsmen with special powers climb up a tree at dawn and yell at it at the top of their voices. They continue doing this for 30 days. After 30 days, the tree dies and falls over. It seems like the yelling kills the spirit of the tree. According to the villagers, it always works.

It’s too bad they don’t have the advantages of modern technology and a scientific mind.

No matter how true the story actually is, it reminds me of something. I often yell at my wife, the telephone and workers. And sometimes I even yell at the TV, the newspaper and my children. I have been known to shake my fist (拳头) and yell at the sky at times.

The man next door yells at his car a lot. And this summer I heard him yell at a ladder for most of an afternoon. We modern, educated people often yell at traffic, bills, banks and machines. Machines and relatives get yelled at the most.

It doesn’t do much good. Machines and things just sit there. Even kicking it doesn’t usually help. As for people, well, the Solomon Islanders may have a point. Yelling at living things does tend to (有做……的倾向) kill the spirit in them. Sticks and stones may break our bones, but words will break our hearts.

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Wind power is a very clean source of energy. This is how wind power works. Wind makes windmills spin (旋转). When the windmills spin, they make electricity. Then we can use the electricity.

A lot of people think that wind power is new, but that's not true. For thousands of years, people have used wind to sail boats and move water. We still do those things today, but these days we mostly use wind power to make electricity.

Wind power is a very popular source of energy. Most people think that we should use it more and more. First of all, it's clean. Windmills don't pollute the environment at all. Second, we can use wind power forever. After all, we will always have wind. Also, wind power is cheap, and it's getting even cheaper.

A lot of people don't understand wind power very well. They believe that there are problems with wind power, but many of those problems are not real. For example, some people say that windmills are dangerous for birds. They used to be true, but it isn't true anymore. Old windmills killed birds because they spun very fast. New windmills spin slowly and they aren't dangerous for birds.

However, there are real problems with windmills. One problem is that many people think windmills are very ugly. This is a problem for people, because windmills are often in very pretty areas. Also, wind doesn't blow all the time, so we can't use wind power all the time. Finally, windmills are noisy.

Wind power is becoming more and more common. Right now, more than 80 countries use wind power. About 2.5 percent of the world's power comes from the wind. For some countries, that number is a lot higher. Wind power gives Denmark more than 25 percent of its electricity.

【推荐2】My name is Linda. This is a photo of my family. Look! The old woman is my grandma. The woman in red is my mother. The man in black is my father, Harry Smith. He is a teacher (教师) in a school. This tall (高的) man is my uncle, David Brown. He is my mother’s brother. He is next to my mother. I’m in white. My family is very happy. I love my family very much.