【推荐2】On vacations my parents often take me to the zoo in our city because I like animals. I have a lot of toy animals in my room. In the zoo I can see tigers, elephants, monkeys, pandas, bears, dolphins, giraffes and many other animals. Some animals are very friendly, but some are not. Tigers, bears and some snakes are very dangerous. That is why they have to stay in cages. But I don’t think it’s good for animals to stay in cages. They should be free. The animals in cages can’t be happy.

Tigers usually live in forests and mountains. They should go back to nature (自然). They can run very fast. They catch and eat small animals like rabbits and deer, but now they live in small rooms. They have nothing to do every day. So they walk in the cages, and they want to get out. When they are tired, they sleep. I feel sorry for them.

I think the most interesting animal in the zoo is dolphin. I like watching them swim and jump. They swim fast and they jump very high. They can play with a ball. They can stand up and “walk” on water! They are very friendly to people. If you fall into the water and you can’t swim, they may come up to help you. However, they can only stay in a small pool. They should go back to the sea.

【推荐3】“Last night, there were 20 elephants on my farm,” John from Kenya said. “They ate all my crop (庄稼). What can I do?”

Elephants are cute animals, but they brought serious problems for the farmers near Mount Kenya National Park. The elephants often left the park, went into the farms near the park, and ate their crops. So farmers slept in their fields (田地). If elephants came, they drove them away. However, the next day, the farmers were too tired to do their work.

Then, someone thought of a better way. They built electric fences (电栅栏) to keep the elephants out. The farmers had more time for their work. However, these fences were expensive to build. So they had to give up building electronic fences.

“The elephant problem started when more people came to Mount Kenya and started new farms,” a scientist said. “The elephants had lived here for a very long time before people came. At some times of the year, elephants go from one place to another. They remember their old routes (路线), and they walk through anything that’s there—like a farm or even a house.”

Now the government has a plan. It wants the people around the park to start tourism. People around the world love elephants. When more and more elephant-lovers come to visit Mount Kenya National Park, those farmers can make money by serving them. The government hopes that this way, people and elephants will live together happily.

【推荐2】Thousands of years ago, Chinese poet Qu Yuan wrote the poem Tianwen, in which he came up with many questions about the sky, stars, nature, and the world around us. The poem showed his doubts about traditional ideas and the spirit of finding the truth.

Inspired by the great poet, China has named its next planetary exploration tasks (行星探测任务) after the poem. The first one—a Mars (火星) exploration task—has been named Tianwen 1. This shows China’s strong wish to explore space and discover its secrets.

Up to now, China has been making great progress in space exploration. As early as 1970, China sent its first man-made Earth satellite (卫星) into space, becoming the fifth country in the world. Since 2003, China has carried out six Shenzhou tasks and sent two space labs into Earth’s orbit (轨道). In December 2018, China became the first country to send the probe (探测器) Chang’e 4 to the moon’s far side, which people can never see from Earth.

In the future, the Tianwen will follow the Shenzhou and Chang’e and move further into space. The first step is to send a Mars probe this year, which will mark the start of China’s exploration of the Mars. The probe is expected to move around, land on and explore Mars in one task. If it succeeds, it will be the first to complete all of these in one task.

After this task, China plans to visit Mars again in 2028, in order to collect soil from the surface and bring it to Earth. Around 2030, China will explore Jupiter. There is no doubt that China’s space exploration will have a bright future.

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【推荐1】As we all know, everyone has a different temperament（脾气）. It is usually believed that both genes（基因）and environment may affect people’s temperaments in different ways. But now scientists have found that the season of birth also plays a role.

Scientists did a survey among 400 university students. In the study, the students needed to finish a questionnaire（问卷）. The purpose of it was to find out which of the four kinds of temperaments they were more likely to have. Scientists found the students always answered something like “ My mood often changes for no reason” and “ I love to deal with new projects, even if they are risky” . These answers were then matched with their birthdays.

They discovered that people born in summer easily changed their moods between sadness and happiness compared with people born in winter. Those who always felt positive were mostly born in spring and summer. The study also found that those who were born in autumn less probably had a mood of depression（沮丧）which might easily drive them to cry.

Scientists said that this was probably because the seasons had an influence on certain chemicals（化学物质）in the human body. And the chemicals were important to control people’s moods even in adult life.

【推荐2】Many people say that they are working too many hours. They don’t have enough time to relax or to stay with their family.

Working hours are different from one country to another. In France, people spend about 1, 646 hours a year at work. In Japan, however, people work about 2, 159 hours a year.

Why do people work so many hours? Some people work extra hours because they want to make more money. However, many companies don’t pay overtime. Their workers don’t get more pay for more work. Some people think it’s their duty to work more hours. Some are afraid of losing their jobs if they don’t work more hours.

Many people say that their vacations are too short. In France, people get five weeks of paid vacation a year. In Germany, they get four to six weeks, and in the United States, two weeks. One study shows fewer than half of workers use all their vacation days. In Great Britain, there is a saying, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull (迟钝的) boy.” If that is true, there must be a lot of dull people in the world.

【推荐3】How do you feel when your teacher asks you to work on a group project with other students? Do you like to work together with others or work alone?

The program for International Student Assessment(PISA), which aims to evaluate education systems worldwide by testing the skills and knowledge of 15-year-old students, carried out a survey of students’ ability to work together in groups. They found that students who do well on tests by themselves are also likely to be better at working with other people.

This finding was true for many countries. Students in Japan, South Korea, Finland and Canada, where test scores are high, also did well in working together to solve problems. But this was not the case for every country. Chinese students, who usually can get high scores as well, displayed just common collaborative(合作的)skills.

“One reason might be that Chinese parents and teachers focus too much on grades, said Zhao Zhongxin, former   vice   president   ( 前副经理 ) of the Chinese Family Education Association. “Students have a lot of exam pressure and they regard school as a place for competition.”

“However, collaborative skills are very important for preparing students today’s society,” he added. “Luckily, more Chinese parents and teachers are realizing the importance of this and are thinking of ways to help students improve it.”

Another interesting finding from the PISA survey was that girls are most likely to be better than boys at working together. They said girls show more positive attitude(   态 度 ) toward relationships, which means they are more willing to listen to others’ opinions.

PISA also found that the classroom environment tends to influence how well students collaborate. In classes where there are a lot of activities that require communication, such as class discussion, students would have better attitudes towards collaborating.