【推荐2】For almost 100 years, the Winter Olympics has been a celebration of snow and ice sports around the world. It is a special event that only happens once every four years.

Although the Winter Olympics started with just five sports across nine disciplines (分项) in France in 1924, it has grown to have seven sports across 15 different disciplines and has been held in 12 countries across three continents (大陆) so far. In 2022, Beijing hosted the 24th Winter Olympics successfully.

China has come a long way and achieved many goals since it took part in the Winter Olympics for the first time in 1980. In this short period of time, Chinese players have won medals (奖牌) in six of the event’s sports. Short track (短道) speed skating has been an area of expertise (专长) for Chinese players.

________ The Ministry of Education (教育部) has set a goal of building 5, 000 special schools by 2025 to improve winter sports education.

The government has also been encouraging primary and middle schools to add winter sports to their courses. Many provinces and cities have already acted on this suggestion. Classes will be set up in schools in northern China to boost interest in winter sports. In southern China, schools can work with ice rinks (溜冰场) and winter sports clubs.

Beijing has already set a good example. Nearly 840, 000 students in the city have begun to take winter sports lessons, including skating and skiing lessons, China News Agency reported.

【推荐1】In 2017, U.S. singer and actress Barbra Streisand lost her pet dog, Samantha. However, she wasn’t ready to give her up completely. She spent $50,000 and had her dog cloned (克隆).

Pet cloning, in fact, is now available for any pet owner — as long as you have about $50,000. Many people, like Streisand, can’t imagine life without their four-legged friend. So the idea of “bringing your dead pet back to life” sounds wonderful. However, are we really making a good decision to have our pets cloned?

Clones like Streisand’s new dogs aren’t created out of thin air. They require the help of several female dogs. First, scientists take certain cells (细胞) from the dead (or dying) dog. Then, they take special cells from a female dog. The cells of the two dogs are mixed with each other. After that, scientists put the cells into another female dog. The cells will grow into new dogs. The dogs will usually be born 60 days later. Sometimes,                    the clones die shortly after birth. Cloning companies will try again and more dogs will have to suffer.

If you have ever considered having your dog cloned, you may hesitate now. Many scientists are against pet cloning. Some of them say cloning companies are taking advantage of people who miss their pets. Some are worried that if people clone their pets, they will never adopt (领养) new pets. Millions of dogs and cats are waiting for a home. Pet cloning, therefore, is unnecessary.

Companies that offer pet cloning services are selling a dream of never having to say goodbye to our pets. But this is an unhealthy dream, both for the pet owner and for those female animals who are used as tools. Losing a pet is sad. But why should we spread the suffering to other dogs just because we love our pets? Why should we make our relationship with dogs all about ourselves?

【推荐2】There are some animals that can forecast (预报) weather in the world. Are you interested in them? Let’s see who they are.

Frog (青蛙)

People can know the weather from my voice. When I cry loudly (大声地), it means that rain is going to come. Also, when I get out from water and stay on the land, people will also know it is a sign (标志) of rain.

Fish

Before it rains, I feel that there is not enough (足够的) air in the water. So I always jump out of the water a few times. When you see that, you know rain is coming.

Dragonfly (蜻蜓)

When the rain is coming, insects (昆虫) are not in the high place, so I have to fly low to eat them for food. If you see me fly very low, remember to take an umbrella (伞) when going out.

Magpie (喜鹊)

People love me. They believe that when they see me, something good will happen (发生). It is the same with weather. If I am crying happily in the tree, it will be a sunny day.

Have you ever wondered why birds sing? Maybe you thought that they were just happy. After all, you probably sing when you are happy.

Some scientists believe that birds do sing some of the time just because they are happy. However, they sing most of the time for a very different reason. Their singing is actually a warning to other birds to stay out of their territory.

Do you know what a “territory” is? A territory is an area that an animal, usually the male (雄性) animal, considers as its own. Only he and his family are welcome there. No other families of the same species (物种) are welcome. Your yard and house are your territory where only your family and friends are welcome. If a stranger should enter your territory and frighten you, you might shout. Probably this would be enough to frighten him away.

If so, you have actually scared the stranger away without having to fight him. A bird does the same thing. But he expects an outsider almost any time, especially at nesting (筑巢) season. So he is screaming all the time, whether he can see an outsider or not. This screaming is what we call a bird’s song, and it is usually enough to keep an outsider away.

Birds sing loudest in spring when they are trying to attract a mate and warn others not to enter the territory of theirs.

You can see that birds have a language of their own. Most of it has to do with attracting (吸引) mates and setting up territories.

【推荐1】Will humans someday live and work on Mars? Many scientists think so. In fact, they are already working on plans to turn Mars into a new earth.

Humans need three basic things to live: water to drink, and food to eat. Because there are not enough of them, it isn’t possible to live on Mars right now. For one thing, there is not enough oxygen.       There is also no running water —just some ice. So how can we make Mars inhabitable? The answer is a process called terraforming.

Terraforming means changing the environment of a planet so that it is similar to Earth’s. On Mars, the average temperature is about -60 degrees Celsius. So one of the main goals of terraforming Mars is to warm it up. One idea for warming Mars comes from a problem here on Earth. Most scientists agree that Earth is becoming warmer because of increased levels of carbon dioxide (二氧化碳). We might create similar conditions on Mars by building factories that send out carbon dioxide, which will change the environment there. Carbon dioxide will melt the ice in Mars’ polar areas. When the ice becomes water, the water will send out the carbon dioxide that is inside the ice. In addition, rain will fall, and it may be possible to grow plants for food. The plants will add more oxygen to the air.

There will be many difficulties in terraforming Mars. The project could take many centuries, and the cost will be high. We have some of the technology, such as the ability to create carbon dioxide, but not the money. However, life on Mars is a real possibility in the future.

【推荐2】Most people have map apps on their phones that can show their locations and guide them to where they want to go. But how do these app systems know your location at any time or place? They find you by using satellite navigation system.

A navigation system uses groups of satellites to find the user’s location. This location information is then sent to a receiver.

The first satellite navigation system is the Global Position System (GPS), which belongs to the United States. It is the world’s famous navigation system. But China’s satellites are important for improving the navigation system. Beidou is larger than GPS in size.

China sent Beidou’s first navigation satellite into space in 2000. China also became the third country to build a navigation system after the United States and Russia. As of right now, over 30 countries in Africa and the Middle East are using the Beidou system.

With its world-leading technology, Beidou is leading Chinese people to a better life in different areas. For example, over 6.2 million vehicles in China are using Beidou for navigation.

At the Beijing Daxing International Airport, Beidou has been used to keep track of vehicles indoors and outdoors. Each baggage cart has Beidou to help passengers get their baggage faster.

For a navigation system, the number of satellites is important for improving the system’s positioning accuracy. The more satellites, the more accurate the positioning is. The satellite navigation system is useful in many ways.

【推荐3】Lisa, a 14-year-old girl, from the USA, used an app to make her dream come true. She tried it out on a childhood photo of her mother. Guess what? In the old photo, her mother, a little girl at that time, began to smile at her. It sounds like Harry Potter’s moving photos, doesn’t it?

It’s not magic, but a real thing. The app that Lisa used is called My Heritage. By using an AI（人工智能）technology, the app allows users to animate（使……成为动画）still photos. The technology is the work of D-ID, an Israeli（以色列的）company. At the beginning, they designed it to bring photos of people in history to life. This means you can see them blink（眨眼）, and even turn their heads. Now Americans find it fun and many are giving it a try with their old photos. Millions of users have watched their loved ones come to life in old photos.

The service is easy to use. First download（下载）the app. Next, click（点击）on the menu and choose “photo” from the list. Then upload（上传）the photo you wish to animate. The AI technology will take around 20 seconds to work its magic on the photo. Then it’s done!