How much do you know about haze? Haze can also be called smog. The word smog is from the words “smoke” and “fog”. It first appeared in the early 20th century. It is a kind of air pollution caused mainly by cars and factories.

Smog will do great harm (危害) to your health, especially lungs (肺). It can make you cough and cause skin or eye problems. It seems that we can do nothing to stop it, but only wait until the wind blows all the smoke away. However, there are some easy way to stop it from hurting you on hazy days.

Don’t exercise in the open. Exercising in the open makes you breathe (呼吸) deeply and you will take in particles (颗粒物) deep into your lungs.

Stay indoors and keep the air clean. You can just stay in your room and close your doors and windows. Use air purifiers (空气净化器) if necessary to keep the air in your room clean.

Wear a mask. Paper and cotton masks cannot help you in the haze weather, but some special masks can keep you from breathing in particles in the air.

Change your diet. Scientists find that Vitamin A, C or E can greatly help protect your eyes, nose and lungs. So eat more green vegetables and fresh fruit every day. What’s more, do not eat food with too much fat. It is bad for your lungs.

How are you? This week we did a project on the history of London.

My grandfather said that London in the 1950s was a terrible place to live because the air pollution was so bad. There were many factories and they caused a lot of smoke. The smoke caused heavy black fog in the sky. The people of London called this “smog”.

Sometimes the smog was so thick that people could not see anything at all. Taxis and buses could not go anywhere as it was too dangerous to drive. The smog was also harmful to people’s health, and some people found that it was difficult to breathe.

In 1965, the government made new laws about the pollution, and the air got much cleaner. Today it is clean and we never see smog in London, and now people find that it is not difficult to breathe any more.

Since the 1950s, people from all over the world have come to live in London. My grandfather says that this is one of the best changes. Now he can eat food from India, China, Italy and Germany in his neighbourhood.

I like living in London today, and I am happy to have friends from all over the world.

Write back soon.

【推荐1】Last year, fashion designer Jiang Xi made online videos of her practising Baduanjin, one of traditional Chinese regimens (养生之道). During a period of four weeks, over 10,000 people clicked on the videos. Most of them are aged between 20 and 30. “When practising Baduanjin, you can keep yourself from the stress and worry of living in big cities,” said Jiang Xi. Under her influence, Jiang Xi’s elder brother Jiang Nan also became a lover of Baduanjin. Though they live in different cities, the two have found a new family connection in Baduanjin.

Every weekend, a group of young people practise Baduanjin next to the lake in Xiaogang Park. Feng Junhua, the organizer, gathers young people interested in Baduanjin, and finds a comfortable place in the park to bring peace to their mind and body. “Practising Baduanjin prevents people from the stress of socializing,” said Feng. “You will also find it easy to learn because you can practise it anytime and anywhere without any instrument.”

Traditional regimens have also become famous abroad. Liu Jianan and his friends organize lessons of Chinese regimens and have attracted many foreign students. At Expo 2020 Dubai. Liu and his friends were invited to perform Baduanjin. “During the performance, people felt the great Chinese culture and advantages to their bodies,” said Liu.

Traditional Chinese culture needs the inheritance (继承) of the young. Young people are looking for their inner “order” in a changing world. Traditional Chinese regimens have brought a specific and natural way of life which helps achieve a balance between their inner world and the outside world. This is where young people and traditional Chinese culture mix.

Electric scooter safety

If you look around the streets of London, you’ll see people move around in many different ways. Whether it’s on the way to work, a journey to the shops, or a sightseeing trip, there’re people on buses, the Tube, cars, motorbikes, bicycles and even roller skates. The traffic is already heavy and now there’s a new way of transport—electric scooters (e-scooters).

This traditional children’s vehicle (交通工具) has become more advanced over the years. And now, scooting has become a cheap and easy way of transport, so it’s no wonder they’re becoming more and more popular in cities around the world. But following a lot of traffic accidents caused by electric scooters in the UK, questions are being asked about their safety and whether traffic laws should be changed.

Some scooter riders have been seen on pavements (人行道) and others on the road jumping red traffic lights, making the car drivers annoyed (恼火). In the UK, the law states that anyone mustn’t ride a scooter on the public highway or pavement. The police will fine (罚款) the riders up to £300 and take away six points on their driving licence (执照) for doing so. But, despite (尽管) this, it seems that there’re still many young people on e-scooters everywhere. And now users are calling on rules to be changed.

The UK government is looking at how safely they can be used on the road and is reviewing the law. But its transport minister, Michael Ellis, has told the BBC that, “e-scooters are appearing in countries around the world and are an exciting innovation (创新) for which we know there is need. However, safety must always be in our mind when thinking about their use on public highways in this country.”

It’s true there are dangers in riding a two-wheeled scooter. Despite the fact that only a few e-scooters can be faster than 30mph, they sometimes only have one brake ( 刹车) and no lights. They also become dangerous if the riders hit something, and however confident the riders may be, larger vehicles on the road make them easy to be hurt. So it seems more work needs to be done to give e-scooters a safe space to travel in.

In China, some students are anti-fashion(反时尚). They don’t like their parents’ clothes. They are not like their parents. In summer they wear big sweaters. They are outside around their trousers or shorts. They seldom wear socks or stockings. In winter they wear coats with the collar(衣领) standing. Their sleeves(袖子) are very long. So you can’t see their hands. Sometimes you may think they are handicapped(残疾的).

On their clothes you can often see some English words, such as “fashion”, “fairy fox”, “impossible”. But sometimes you may find some words are wrong. Many students do not know what those words mean. That shows they are not good at English. Some students’ hair is yellow or red. They think they are handsome or beautiful. They like to wear colourful trainers. Is that really cool?