【推荐1】China has named its first five national parks—Sanjiangyuan National Park, Wuyi Mountain National Park, Giant Panda National Park, Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park and Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park. They cover a land area of more than 230,000 square kilometers and protect nearly 30 percent of the country’s key wildlife species （物种）.

Sanjiangyuan area is an important source of freshwater resources in China. More than 60-billion-cubic-meter clean water is sent downstream each year, and the volume has increased in recent years.

Wuyi Mountain National Park is known as “the kingdom of snakes”, “the world of insects”, “the heaven for birds”, and “the key to the study of Asian amphibians and reptiles”, Wuyi Mountain National Park has 558 kinds of wild vertebrates, 33.27 percent of the types in Fujian province.

Giant Panda National Park protects more than 1600 wild giant pandas. They account for （占） more than 70 percent of the pandas in China.

Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park is China’s main area where Siberian tigers and Amur leopards live. There are about 40 Siberian tigers and about 50 Amur leopards.

Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park has the largest tropical forest in China. The park covers nine cities and counties, with a total area of 4,400 square km, or about one-seventh of Hainan Islands land area.

In the future, national parks are expected to be natural classrooms for everyone. Different kinds of animals and plants live here. The country is moving fast to protect them.

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【推荐2】The earth is 4.6 billion years old. We humans have lived on the earth for only 35,000 years, but during this period, we have changed our planet a lot in many ways. Some things we have done are very good for the earth while others are bad.

The Amazon rainforest in South America, at seven million km², is the largest rainforest in the world. The forest is important for people all over the world because it produces a lot of oxygen, and also helps to cool the weather. But large areas of the rainforest are being cut down for wood—55% of the forest could be gone by 2030! The World Wildlife Federation(WWF) is helping to stop some areas of the rainforest from being cut down.

At 68,000 km², the Aral Sea was one of the largest lakes in the world before the 1960s. Then rivers were diverted(修改河道) and it has been getting smaller ever since. By 2007, it was only 10% of its original size and had divided into three separate lakes. Dust storms happen again and again and the villages sit on the edge of a huge desert(沙漠) with large ships stranded(搁浅) in its sand. A dam(水坝) has been built to try to bring back higher water levels in the North with some success.

In China, about 3,600 km² of grassland near the Gobi turns into desert every year. There are often storms that blow dust all the way to Beijing. The storms are getting worse each year and have a deep influence on farmers.

The goal of the Green Wall Project, started in 1978, is to increase forests in northern China from 5% to 15% in order to stop the desert from growing. The project faces many challenges. However, people must never give up on it.

Saving the disappearing nature needs everyone’s effort. Although each one of us may only do a little, together we can make a big difference. What can you do to protect the environment?

【推荐1】Rachel Carson was born in the USA in May, 1907. Her mother, Maria Carson, had been a schoolteacher. She also loved nature. She showed Rachel the beauty of nature. She also taught Rachel a deep love for books. As a quiet child, Rachel liked to read and write stories. At a very early age, she decided she wanted to be a writer some day. Her story first appeared in a children’s magazine when she was ten years old.

Her first book, Under the Sea Wind came out in 1941. In 1948, Miss Carson began working on another book, The Sea Around Us. She always researched carefully when she wrote. She collected information from more than one thousand places to write The Sea Around Us. When the book came out in 1951, it won the National Book Award. It was No.1 on the best­seller list for more than a year. The Sea Around Us made Rachel Carson famous.

Rachel Carson’s most famous book, Silent Spring came out in 1962. In this book, she pointed out that the use of some kinds of pesticides (杀虫剂) like DDT would cause the number of birds to decline because it would kill them as well. Finally, in November 1969, the United Sates government decided that the use of DDT must stop in two years.

Rachel Carson has been regarded as a great environmentalist (环保主义者) and writer. She will be remembered by the world.

【推荐2】“Basketball is not only for young people,” my grandpa often says.

Grandpa is a retired (退休的) teacher. He likes basketball. He is only 165 cm tall. He isn’t strong. And he can’t run fast. But he is a member of a basketball team.

“I play for 15 minutes in every game,” says Grandpa. “I can score 10 points (得十分) for my team.” He is right. He is really good at basketball. I learn a lot from him. Grandpa plays basketball with his friends. They play for about an hour every time. Sometimes their team comes to our school. And they play with our school team. Then the young students and the old people can have fun together.

“What’s sport? Sport is a game to make people healthy and happy,” Grandpa says to me.

【推荐3】On the first day of school, our professor introduced a special classmate, a little old lady to us.

“Hi, my classmates. I'm Rose, eighty-seven years old." We all laughed when hearing this.

“Of course you laugh!” She stopped for a while. “Why are you in college? That’s because you are at such a young age, But I'm here just because I am not young.”

Over the course of the year, Rose became a model in the college. Everyone knew her and she easily made friends wherever she went. She loved to learn about anything that the young likes.

At the end of the school year, we invited Rose to speak at our dinner party. I’ll never forget what she taught us.

“We do not stop learning because we are young; we grow old because we stop learning. So please be happy and stay young. You can find humor every day. There are so many people walking around who are dead because they don't even know it! There is a great difference between growing older and growing up.

At the year's end Rose finished the college subjects.