【推荐1】You speak，write a letter，and make a telephone call. Your words carry a message. People communicate(交流)with words. Do you think you can communicate without words? A smile on your face shows you are happy or friendly. Tears in your eyes tell others that you are sad. When you raise your hand in class，the teacher knows you want to say something or ask questions. You shake your head，and people know you are saying “No”. You nod and people know you are saying “Yes”. Other things can also carry messages. For example，a sign(招牌,标志)at the bus stop helps you to know which bus to take. A sign on the wall of your school helps you to find the library. Signs on doors tell you where to go in or out. Have you ever noticed that there are a lot of signs around you and that you get messages from them all the time?

People can communicate in many other ways. An artist can use his drawings to tell about beautiful mountains，about the blue sea and many other things. Books are written to tell you about all the wonderful things in the world and also about people and their ideas. Books，newspapers, TVs, radios and films all help us to communicate with each other. They all help us to know what is going on in the world and what other people are thinking about.

【推荐1】Steven Stein likes to follow garbage trucks. His strange habit makes sense because he’s an environmental scientist who studies how to reduce litter, including things that fall off garbage trucks as they drive down the road. What is even more interesting is that one of Stein’s jobs is in support of an industry behind the plastic shopping bags.

Americans use more than 100 billion plastic bags every year. So many end up in trees or along highways that a growing number of cities do not allow them at checkouts. The bags are banned (禁止) in some 90 cities in California, including Los Angeles. Seeing these headwinds, plastic-bag makers are asking scientists like Stein to make the case that their products are not as bad for the planet as most people think.

Among the bag makers’ reasons: many cities with bans still allow shoppers to buy paper bags, which are easily recycled but require more energy to produce and transport. And while plastic bags may be ugly to look at, they only make up a small percentage of all garbage on the ground today.

The industry has also taken aim at (针对) the product that has appeared to take the place of plastic bags: reusable shopping bags. The stronger a reusable bag is, the longer its life is and the more plastic-bag use it cancels out. However, longer-lasting reusable bags usually require more energy to make. One study found that a cotton bag must be used at least 131 times to be better for the planet than plastic.

Environmentalists don’t doubt these points. They hope paper bags will be banned someday too and want shoppers to use the same reusable bags for years.

【推荐2】Do you know what birds use to build their nests? You may say that birds usually build their nests with sticks, leaves or grass. But do you know that birds are also building their nests with rubbish these years? The rubbish includes cigarette butts (烟头) and plastic bags.

A group of European scientists looked into about 35,000 studies on bird nests. They found that birds have used man-made things in nests almost everywhere on Earth except Antarotica. Some rubbish seems to be helpful. This is why birds “like” putting it in their nests. For example, cigarette butts have special smell, so they can keep insects away and protect the baby birds. Plastic bags are useful in keeping the animals warm, and other hard things, such as paper cards, can make nests stronger.

However, in the end, human rubbish may only bring more harm to birds. The toxic (有毒的) chemicals in cigarettes hurt the baby birds. They may get sick or have shorter lives, according to a study. To make matters worse, if the cigarette still burns when the bird brings it back to its home, it may set fire to the nest. Pieces of fishing net may also trap birds, and it’s impossible for them to get out by themselves. If the baby birds eat other kinds of rubbish by accident, they will also get hurt. Our bird friends in the air are feeling the bad effects of humans polluting the environment.

【推荐3】When you are shopping for the week’s food, you may get a large box or two of bottled water. On your way to a soccer game, it’s easy to take a cold one out of the fridge, right?

But all those plastic bottles use a lot of fossil fuels(矿物燃料). In fact, Americans buy more bottled water than any other country in the world, about 29 billion water bottles a year. In order to make all these bottles, 17 million barrels (桶) of crude oil are used. That’s enough oil to keep a million cars going for twelve months.

Americans drink bottled water because they think it is better than water out of the tap, but that’s not true. In the United States, local governments make sure water from the tap is safe. People love the convenience(便利) of bottled water. But may-be if they realized the problems it causes, they would try drinking from a glass at home or carrying water in a steel container instead of a plastic bottle.

Plastic bottles pollute the environment but recycling can help—instead of going out with the rubbish, plastic bottles can be turned into useful items. Sadly, for every six water bottles we use, only one makes it to the recycling bin. The rest are sent to landfills. Or, even worse, they end up as rubbish on the land and in rivers, lakes, and the ocean. Plastic bottles take many hundreds of years to disintegrate under the ground.

Remember this: Recycling one plastic bottle can save enough energy to power a 60-watt (瓦) light bulb for six hours.

【推荐1】Have you ever seen black smoke out of factories, turning the sky a dirty gray?     1     Cars, trucks, buses pollute the air too. Smoke from fires pollutes the air.

Land pollution, water pollution, and even noise pollution are also big problems. Both factories and common families may thoughtlessly dump（倾倒）rubbish and waste on land or in water. When farm chemicals（化学品）that help crops grow sink into the ground and water, they pollute too.     2    

Ocean life isn't safe from pollution. Ships carrying oil sometimes have accidents that dump their oil into the ocean.

    3     Dirty air, or smog, is hard to breathe and makes people and animals sick. Dirty water makes people and animals sick when they drink it or wash or live in it. It also kills plants. If land takes in too much waste, nothing will grow on it, and it becomes unfit to live on.

    4     Most people find it hard to change the way they live, even if they want to. And governments and big factories find it even harder to change, since the changes are often unpopular or costly（代价高的）.

Even small changes help, however. Reusing things instead of throwing them away helps.     5     So does recycling. And perhaps the future will find people using cleaner forms of energy, such as wind power and solar energy.

【推荐2】When the air is polluted, we wear masks(口罩) to protect ourselves. What about bees and butterflies? They can’t wear masks.

New Scientist magazine recently reported findings from James Ryalls and his team at the University of Reading, UK. Their study found that air pollution is harmful to pollinators(传花粉者)-insects like bees and butterflies. They can’t smell flowers because of the pollution.

Pollinators are important. They spread pollen among plants with flowers. This helps the flower produce seed and fruit. Without pollinators, farms cannot make food. We all need pollinators.

To do their study, Ryalls’ team built eight areas. Then, they put nitrogen oxide and ozone(氧化氮和臭氧) into six of these areas. The other two areas had normal air. They were the control group.

“The results were much more severe than we thought,” said Ryalls. In their tests, the levels of pollution in the six areas were similar to “road traffic pollution”. In such conditions, 70 percent fewer insects entered the areas. Once they were there, they didn’t hang around. Visits to flowers dropped by 90 percent.

Scientists explained that gases like nitrogen oxide and ozone can break down the smell of flowers. This makes it hard for insects to find their food.

Maybe the most frightening thing is that the researchers created pollution levels that could be allowed in the UK. But Shannon Olsson, a scientist in India, thought the results were important because the study showed the level of pollution can keep pollinators away.

“Air pollution is another stress on insects,” said Ryall. “That adds to all the other stresses… causing their numbers to decline(减少).”

【推荐1】What color do you think can be popular (受欢迎的) in the future? Some people think “blue” will be popular, because blue means being peaceful (平静的). The color of the sky and the sea is blue. When people see it, they often feel quiet and calm. Everybody in the world doesn’t like war. Many people lose their family in wars. Blue can help them be peaceful.

Other people think “green” will be popular because they think it is the color of nature. When people wear green clothes, they will remember to make the environment better. But if we say someone is green, it means that he or she is young and doesn’t have much experience (经验).

“Yellow” will also be a popular color. Why? People are very busy these days because they have a lot of work to do. The soft color can make people feel relaxed. So some people like to watch yellow after work. But a yellow-belly is always afraid (害怕) of doing something.

“Black” will also be popular. It always looks cool, and men often show off their social position (社会地位) by using this color. But the black sheep of the family is not a good thing.

【推荐2】Most people may not think that them am any problems with watermelons, but some Japanese sellers do. Them is often wasted space when they store watermelons, because round watermelons do not sit nicely on shelves. So some clever farmers have solved the watermelon problem. They make their watermelons grow in squaw glass boxes. So the watermelons become square. The only problem now is the price. The square watermelons cost about 80 dollars each.

Many people know the saying, "Roses are red, violets are blue, sugar is sweet and so are you." Well, today the poem needs to change to "Roses are red, roses are blue!" Australian scientists have just recently discovered that when they put a chemical from a blue flower into a rose, they can create nearly 100% blue rose. some of science's inventions are beautiful, not just useful!

Since the mid-1990s,many Chinese farmers have had amazing rice harvests. For many years, Chinese scientists have been working on developing new kinds of stronger rice and now they have produced a new kind, called super rice. Super rice not only can protect itself against insects and diseases, but it also produces more than any other kind of rice. Today farmers can grow almost one and a half times more rice than they could grow in the past.

Doctors might be able to use vegetables to fight cancer now. US scientists have discovered a way to put a chemical into tomato plants while they are growing. When cancer patients eat the tomatoes, the tomatoes will fight the cancer in their bodies. These cancer-fighting vegetables are not yet for sale, because scientists have not finished testing them. If the study finds no problems with the tomatoes, then patients can begin to use this easy and delicious new treatment.

【推荐3】①Walking around the city, do you see girls wearing hanfu or people wearing T-shirt with Chinese characters (汉字) in the streets? Have you noticed that traditional Chinese culture is getting more and more popular in China? It’s called guochao or China-Chic.

②In the past, China’s market was full of foreign companies. There were few Chinese brands (品牌). In 2018, Chinese sportswear brand Li-Ning made changes to the situation. It introduced its Wu Dao collection (系列时装) to the world. The collection not only looked fashionable, but also showed traditional Chinese culture. It quickly caught people’s attention all over the world, and it became the start of guochao.

③Later, many Chinese brands, from food, drinks and clothing to mobile phones and cars, started to add Chinese culture into their products. “We want our products to be the ones that young people would like to share”, they said.

④These brands got what they wanted. Young people converted their attention from Western culture to guochao. What’s more, they started to develop interest in traditional Chinese art and literature. Now they wear traditional clothes and listen to Chinese music. Some of them are working together to spread Chinese culture to people around the world.

⑤At the same time, people of different ages start to choose products “made in China”. According to a survey, 68% Chinese people prefer Chinese brands. They are still open to international brands, but Chinese brands are their best choice.

⑥No matter how guochao develops, there is one thing that won’t change—people’s confidence in our country’s development and culture is growing.

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