【推荐2】Do you know the two cute mascots? You may know the five “Fuwa” from the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. On September 17 of 2019, the two mascots first showed on TV. Now, let’s see who they are. Look at the panda! It looks like an astronaut (宇航员) and looks fat, so we call it “Bing Dwen Dwen”. White is the color of ice and snow. “Bing Dwen Dwen” likes ice sports very much and is good at them. That’s why it is the mascot of 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games. Do you think the red mascot looks like a lantern (灯笼)? The lantern’s name is “Shuey Rhon Rhon”. When the Chinese New Year comes, people always make or buy red lanterns. Red is the color of hope and good luck. So people think their dreams will come true in the New Year. “Shuey Rhon Rhon” can give players hope and help them do well in the 2022 Beijing Winter Paralympic Games (残奥会). Many people in different countries like the two mascots very much, and they show their love for them.

【推荐3】Social media (社交媒体) is certainly an interesting place to learn others’ opinions. You can read everything from strange ideas to true facts and everything in between. But when you’re spending time online and reading so many opinions, it’s quite possible that you’ll sometimes see someone write something that you strongly disagree with.

In fact, you might feel so strongly that you feel like you should reply to this person at once. You might do some research, find some facts of your own and reply to what they’ve written. You finish writing out your reply, click “Post” and win the argument.

However, it’s not really much of a victory. Most people don’t like it when other people disagree with their ideas, especially online strangers (陌生人). It’s unlikely that they will change their opinion just because you argued with them. In fact, it’s possible that you make them feel more confident (自信的) that they’re correct. And the thing is, when you get in these kinds of fights online, it slowly influences (影响) you. You might not know it at first, but the argument that you take part in can actually have a bad influence on your mood. If you argue often, you start to enjoy arguing and then end up doing it even more. It’s a dangerous cycle.

I guess the best thing to do is to tell yourself that most arguments aren’t worth it. There are much better and more interesting things to do, whether online or in real life.

【推荐1】You need some bread and milk. But half an hour later, you leave the supermarket with a trolley（手推车）full of food. What games do supermarkets play to make us spend so much money?

The tricks usually start before you walk in. Outside the supermarket entrance, anybody who walks past can smell warm, fresh bread. That makes us hungry and ready to buy lots of food, not just bread.

Now you're inside and, of course, a small basket would be fine, but all they have are trolleys. And of course the problem with a trolley is that it looks sad and lonely with just one or two products inside. So we may fill it with something. In fact, supermarket trolleys are actually getting bigger so that we buy more.

Of course, many people shop in supermarkets because they think everything is cheaper than in other shops. So supermarkets offer very cheap prices on some things but then have higher prices for other products. One new trick is to put red stickers on products. Customers usually connect red stickers with lower prices so the red stickers is easy to be noticed, even when there is no reduction! Interestingly, this trick appears to work more with men than with women.

There is a story behind the position of everything in the supermarket. For example, customers often go only to buy milk. So they put it right at the back, forcing you to go past hundreds of shelves full of other products. The position of products on each shelf is also important. The most expensive products are usually at eye-level so you see these immediately. The exception is anything that children might like. These products are on lower shelves so that kids see them.

Apart from what you see and smell in a supermarket, what about what you listen to? In most supermarkets they have soft, slow music. It's so relaxing that you slow down and spend more time （and money） in the store. You also move more slowly when the supermarket is busy. Experts suggest it's better to shop when it's quieter, on a Monday or a Tuesday for example. And be careful with queues at the checkouts. These are sometimes deliberate（故意）, to make you buy something from the checkout shelves while you wait.

So, next time you go into your local supermarket, remember these tricks and see if you can come with just the things you went for.

【推荐3】Rainforestsare some of the most beautiful places on the Earth. Tall trees grow high into the air. Millions of different kinds of animals run and play under the trees. Rainforests cover two percent of the earth, but they have over 50 percent of the world’s plants and animals. 

It takes at least one minute to plant a tree. In that minute, 60 hectares（亩) of rainforests are destroyed forever. Six kinds of animals become extinct; they will never be seen again.

Every second, people cut down one hectare of rainforests. They use the trees to make things like paper. Because they cut down the trees so fast, the rainforests become smaller and smaller. By 2030, they will all be gone. 

You can help save the rainforests. Try not to use too much paper; then paper companies will not cut down so many trees.

【推荐1】Once upon a time, there was a fair with different shops in town. Among those was a small shop set up by a young man.

The shop was filled with colorful jewelry and other things made of glass. One of the pieces caught a jeweler’s eye. It was shining so brightly that the jeweler thought it was a precious diamond（珍贵的钻石）. He asked the shop owner,” What’s the price of this piece?”

“20 dollars,” replied the owner.

The jeweler wanted to save some money, so he said, “I can give you only 15 dollars for it.”

The shop owner refused.

There weren’t many people around the shop, so the jeweler thought to himself, “If I come back later, the shop owner may change his mind.” After hanging about for a while, he returned to the shop, only to find the piece missing. He asked the shop owner, “Where is the piece I asked for a moment ago?”

The shop owner replied , “I sold it for 20 dollars.”

The jeweler got angry and said,” What a fool（傻瓜）you are! It was not a glass piece but a precious diamond.”

The shop owner replied, “I’m not a fool but you are! You knew that piece was precious, but you tried to buy it for 15 dollars and left.”