Hello, my name is Mary. I love sports. I like fruit and vegetables. I don’t like ice-cream or hamburgers. So I think I have good eating habits. Kate, Gina, Bill and Jack are my good friends. But our eating habits are not the same. What do they like for breakfast, lunch and dinner? Let’s look at the chart (表格).

【推荐3】Nowadays, more and more people know the importance of health, yet many students are not as healthy as they could be. According to the survey, although more than 90 percent of primary, middle and high school students have fair health, only 33 percent of primary school students, 42 percent of middle school students and 28 percent of high school students are in excellent health.

According to this survey, we found that many students’ lifestyles are not good because they often eat junk food and seldom exercise. Only a few students exercise more than 1 hour every day. So what does a healthy lifestyle look like?

First of all, we need to have enough sleep. Every day we should sleep for at least 8 hours. Staying up late is bad for our health, so we’d better go to bed before 10 o’clock at night. It’s said that drinking a cup of milk before going to bed can help us sleep better.

It is also important to eat enough vegetables and fruit every day. As an old saying goes, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” So, it’s necessary to have some fruit every day. Also, do remember to drink enough water every day. Besides, many students believe that eating fish can make them cleverer, so they choose to eat fish more than twice a week.

All in all, we should maintain a healthy lifestyle. Hoping everybody can be happy and healthy.

【推荐3】Why are some people just 1.5 meters tall, while others reach 2 meters? Studies have found that genes（基因）decide one’s height. There are about 4,000 genetic variants（变异体）that play a role. Each of them might make a person’s height less than 1 mm taller or shorter.

Now US scientists have found the most important genetic variant for deciding height so far. This genetic variant causes people to be shorter.

Each piece of this genetic variant can make a person’s height 2.2 cm lower more or less. If people have two pieces from their parents, they will be 4.4 cm shorter more or less.

These findings were developed from a study of Peruvians（秘鲁人）. They are known for being short. The average height of men is 1.65 meters, while women are 1.52 meters on average.

Scientists said only people with native American ancestry（血统）have this genetic variant. About 80 percent of the genes of a Peruvian come from this ancestry.

Scientists also found that Peruvians living by the sea have more of the genetic variant than those living in mountains or rainforests. This shows that height might also be affected（影响）by one’s environment.

One more question, why can’t we keep growing taller?

We grow taller because our bones grow. Bones increase in length because of the growth plates inside them. However, when we reach puberty（青春期）, the growth plates become fully grown. At the end of puberty, they stop growing. So we can’t grow taller any more.