【推荐1】“Fire! Fire!” Students were running out of the classroom. They used wet clothes to cover their mouths and noses. Was there a fire? No. It was just a fire drill（演习）. On June 15th, 2015, students in a middle school in Jingmen learned some safety skills when a fire broke out.

What can you do to make your houses safer? Don’t put phone chargers（充电器）on your books or bed. And also we should not charge for too long. Don’t use candles in your bedroom. Check to see if you have broken electric wires（电线）in your house.

What should you do if you are caught in a burning building?

If the fire is big, stay low and get out quickly. Make your clothes wet so they will not catch fire. Use wet clothes to cover your mouth and nose. Always use the stairs, don’t use the elevators. Because elevators may break down anytime. If the room is full of smoke, keep close to the floor where the air is cleaner and cooler. Once help arrives, wave a flashlight or cloth at the window to let the firefighters know where you are.

Now students’ English handwriting gets worse and worse. That means their teachers feel worried．Is your English hand writing beautiful？If not，here are three steps that really work！

◆ Use paper with lines

Using paper that has lines can keep you writing straight when you write English words or sentences．Those lines on the paper can help you to write words in the right size．Be sure to fill the lined space completely．And make sure those capital letters（大写字母）are written properly．

◆ Slow down

If your writing is hard to read，try slowing down a little．For some kids， going slower makes the handwriting clear．If you write too fast，it’s hard for you to stop where you should，and even worse，you may make more mistakes．

◆ Hold your pencil right

When you hold your pencil the correct way，writing is much easier．Try to relax and don’t hold the pencil so hard．Let your writing appear nice and clean．If you do so，people will guess you are a student with a good habit．

◆Draw more pictures

Drawing can improve your handwriting. You need to use the skills to control your pencil better when you are drawing pictures. Even though you have no chance to draw at school, you can practice by yourself at home.

Handwriting is very important．Imagine you are a world-famous movie star or a well-known sports player，what do you do when your fans run up to you？Give them your autographs（亲笔签名），of course！

【推荐3】WHO’s Advice to Protect Yourself from COVID-19

The World Health Organization, or WHO, has the following advice to protect yourself from being infected with the COVID-19(新型冠状病毒肺炎) or other flu-like diseases.

__________

Clean your hands often and carefully with an alcohol-based hand cleaner or wash them with soap and water. Washing your hands kills viruses that may be on your hands.

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Stay at least one meter away from anyone who is coughing or sneezing. When someone coughs or sneezes, they release small drops of liquid from their nose or mouth which may contain the virus. If you are too close, you can breathe in virus if the person coughing has the disease.

___________

Your hands touch many surfaces where viruses can survive up to nine days. Once contaminated(污染), hands can carry the virus to your eyes, nose or mouth. From there, the virus can enter your body and can make you sick.

Practice respiratory hygiene(呼吸卫生)

Make sure that you, and the people around you, cover your mouth and nose with your elbow or facial tissue when you cough or sneeze. Then throw away the used tissue immediately.

__________ if you have fever, cough and difficulty breathing

If you have a fever, cough and difficulty breathing, seek medical attention, and follow the directions of your local health official. Calling ahead will permit the health official to quickly direct you to the right health facility. This will also help to prevent possible spread of COVID-19 and other viruses.

We all know that recycling rubbish is very important. But sometimes it is not so convenient (方便的) when we can’t find a recycling bin anywhere.

Now a team of middle school students from North Dakota, US has solved that problem by designing(设计）the Recycling Bin app (应用程序).

This app encourages people to recycle. It provides users with a map of local recycling centres, and it allows them to save locations as favourites. Besides, this app also reminds users to recycle.

The group of nine sixth-graders is from STEM Centre Middle School. They came up with the idea as part of a school project for the Verizon Innovative App Challenge. Their school provided professional app training. It held a contest and gave Samsung tablets (三星平板电脑) as prizes.

The contest aims to develop interest in science, technology, engineering and Maths. In this contest, students present an app design that could solve a problem in their school or community. The nine students came up with the idea for the Recycling Bin when they saw a need for more recycling.

“We thought that this would really help a lot of people,” Jaden Hilkemann, 12, told Time For Kids.

They kept their design simple so that anyone could use it. Now the free Recycling Bin app has been put into use in the Google Play app store for Android phones or tablets.

“I was so excited when it showed up at the app store,” Seralyn Blake, 12, said. “A lot of people downloaded the app. It was pretty cool.”

The “Great Green Wall of China” project is over forty years old. In this project, people plant trees in Northern China. Why are trees so important to us? Because it is healthy to live around trees. They can keep us healthy, just like doctors. So we call them “doctor trees”.

Trees have the ability to clean the air. For people in large cities with air pollution, trees are very important. Workers are planting trees not just in city parks. They are also planting trees along streets to help clean the air.

Some scientists think that trees not just help clean the air. They are also good for our health. A study shows that people in hospitals feel better when they can see trees from their rooms. And people with trees near their homes usually exercise more frequently.

Scientists are also studying the healthy effects (作用) of trees on human minds. One effect of trees is that they make people feel happy and relaxed. When walking through the neighborhood with more trees, people will walk slower and talk more with each other. Of course, another good effect is that “doctor trees” work for free!

How many friends do you have? If you have many, you’re lucky. If you have a few good friends, you’re more than lucky. Friends can make our lives richer. They are very important to us.

46 They bring us soup, and keep us company when we’re ill. They make us laugh when we feel awful. Without friends, we feel lonely, and that loneliness isn’t just a sad feeling-it can make us unhealthy. Studies show that feeling lonely can be as bad for our health as smoking lots of cigarettes (香烟) every day!

47 When we feel down or don’t believe in ourselves, our friends are there to point out all the great things about us. They cheer us up and make us feel like we can do anything. They’ll let you know how amazing you are.

48 They make us to be our best selves by setting a good example and encouraging us to try new things. Their good qualities, like being kind or hardworking, can be passed on to us too. So, if your friends are friendly and hardworking, you might find yourself becoming friendlier and more hardworking too. 49

Homecoming is an American festival for students in the new term. There is a school party for them. Their family and friends can come to the party, too.

The seven-day festival Homecoming begins on September 28th in our school. We have some interesting things for you this time.

The first day is School Day. Your parents can come with you to see our school. Then there is a big dinner on September 30th. You can eat vegetables, salad, fruit, hamburgers and ice-cream. The next day, there’s a big sale. You can sell and buy old books and school things such as pencil boxes and schoolbags. Then on the evening of October 3rd, we have a school party. Girls in long white dresses and boys in black suits (套装) come to the party. It can be great! The next day, there’s a big game the American football game. It can be really interesting to watch. Come and have a good time with us.

What is the best-selling book in the world? Is it the Harry Potter series or Secret Garden? According to the Guinness (吉尼斯) World Records, the Xinhua Dictionary is the world’s most popular dictionary and the best-selling book.

In 1950, Chinese language experts, Wei Jiangong and Ye Shengtao, started to edit (编辑) the Xinhua Dictionary. There was a lot of discussion, research and paper work. Some hand scripts (稿件) were checked again and again like compositions, People’s Daily reported. After three years, with the hard work of all, the first Xinhua Dictionary finally appeared. Today, 567 million copies of the dictionary have been sold around the world. However, revisions (修订) to the dictionary go on to be made. So far, the Xinhua Dictionary has been revised 11 times. In order to keep up with the times, some popular and widely used Internet words are also added to the dictionary. For example, in the 11th edition, the expressions “晒工资(show off salary)” and “ 晒照片 (show off pictures)” were included. All these efforts have made the “National Dictionary” of China.

The Xinhua Dictionary is so popular that it has become a useful tool not only for Chinese people but also for foreigners who are learning the Chinese language and culture.