【推荐2】The International Space Station (ISS) became humans’ first “home” in space in 2000. It welcomed its first worker that year, paving (铺设) the way for 20 years of future research.

“We should know that we’re all citizens (公民) of not a country, but of the planet,” NASA astronaut Scott Kelly said while talking about working in the ISS.

Over the past 20 years, the ISS has mainly been used as a science lab, hosting 241 people from 19 countries, according to NASA. They’ve gone on space walks, done research on how space affects the human body, and even grown different plants in space.

The station’s development has also been good for people on Earth. For example, the station’s water purification technology has been used in poor areas to provide clean drinking water. The station also plays a role in warning us of natural disasters (灾害).

However, after working for over 7,000 days,the station is starting to get old. It has leaked (泄露) air a few times. Scientists think that the station can keep working until 2024. After that, they’ll bring it down to Earth. It’s believed that Earth’s atmosphere (大气层) will burn up most of the station. The rest of it will fall into the Pacific Ocean.

In the future, space will be home to more stations like the ISS. NASA is building a space station that is smaller than the ISS near the moon. Also, China’s space station will be put into use in 2022.

【推荐3】Several months ago, an old man in Dalian failed to travel by underground. At the station, he was asked to show his health QR code (健康二维码) on the smartphone, “What is QR code?” the old man asked. “I have money to buy a ticket. Why do I need a smartphone?” In the end, he had to leave the station.

Over 10 years ago, people still had to leave their house to buy a train ticket or pay their bills. Now all these can be done with a smartphone, and in some cases, only with a smartphone. On the one hand, the fast development of science and technology is making our life easier. But on the other hand, it is creating problems for old people.

Many old people have devoted (奉献) their whole life to working for the society, but now it seems the society has left them behind. What can be done to make a difference. Some volunteers are trying to help. They teach the elderly to use smartphones. However, it only helps to solve part of the problem.

Many old people have physical problems, poor eyesight makes reading on small screens difficult. And their less sensitive (灵敏的) fingers make it hard for them to use touch screens. Perhaps these are problems that smartphone makers should try to deal with.

Moreover, if you have grandparents or know some elderly people, lend a helping hand to them when they need it. And remember to be patient. Technologies that you think are easy to learn may be a huge problem for them.

【推荐1】The world is not only hungry, but also thirsty for water. It seems strange that nearly 3/4 of the earth is covered with water while we say we are short of water. Why? Because about 97% of the water on earth is sea water which we can’t drink or use for watering plants directly. Man can only drink and use the 3% — the water that comes from rivers and lakes.

And we can’t even use all of that, because some of it has been polluted.

Now more water is needed. The problem is: Can we avoid a serious water shortage later on? Of course we can. Firstly, we should all learn how to save water. Secondly, we should find out ways to reuse it. Scientists have always been making studies in the field. Today, in most large cities water is used only once and then runs to the sea or rivers. But it can be used again. Even if every large city reuses its water, still there will not be enough. What could people turn to next?

The sea seems to have the best answer. There is a lot of water in the sea. All that needs to be done is to get the salt out of the sea water. This is expensive, but it’s already used in many parts of the world. Scientists are trying to find a cheaper way of doing it.

【推荐2】In the universe, as we know, there is the sun, the moon, the earth and many stars. Through our geography lessons, we know the earth goes round 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.

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

The sun is bright enough to give out very strong light. The moon can’t give out 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 actually(事实上) the stars are much bigger and brighter than the moon. They look smaller than the moon because they are farther away from the earth.

There are still many other planets in the universe. All of them move round the sun. But of all these planets, only on the earth are there living things and people can only live on the earth too. At 9:00 am, on October 15th, 2003, Chinese astronaut Yang Liwei was sent into space. He stayed there for 21 hours. It was the first time for Chinese to get into space.

【推荐3】Everyone has got two personalities (性格) -the one that is shown to the world and the other that is secret and real. You don't show your secret personality when you're awake because you can control yourself, but when you're asleep, your sleeping position shows the real you. In a normal night, of course, you often change your sleeping positions. The important position that best shows your secret personality is the one that you go to sleep.

If you go to sleep on your back, you're a very open person. You normally trust people and you are easily influenced by new ideas. You don't like to make people unhappy, so you never express your real feelings. You're quite shy and you aren't very confident.

If you sleep on your stomach, you are a person who likes to keep secrets. You worry a lot and you're always easily becoming sad. You never want to change your ideas, but you are satisfied with your life the way it is. You usually live for today not for tomorrow.

If you sleep on curled up (蜷缩), you are probably a very nervous person. You have a low opinion of yourself and often protect yourself from being hurt, so you are very defensive. You're shy and you don't usually like meeting people. You like to be on your own.

If you sleep on your side, you have usually got a well-balanced (平衡的) personality. You know your strengths and weaknesses. You're usually careful. You have a confident personality. You sometimes feel worried, but you don't often get unhappy. You always say what you think, even if it makes people angry.