Laws (法律) are the rules of society, like when you play games you need rules to tell you how to play. In our everyday life, there are laws that act like rules to tell you what to do and not to do. Every country has its own set of laws and some are special to that country. Of course, laws are more powerful than game rules. If you break the law, you may be fined or go to prison.

Laws are very important because they bring order to society. For example, drivers must stop when the traffic light turns red and go when it is green. If people go and stop freely, driving will be dangerous. That’s when the Road Traffic Safety Law is used. There is also Criminal Law (刑法). It punishes people’s bad behaviors such as stealing or killing someone. Usually, a country has many laws to guide us in life. Among them, the constitution (宪法) is the most important.

The constitution lists people’s basic rights and duties (义务). For example, China’s Constitution (宪法) protects peoples privacy. This means that nobody can look at your letters without your permission (允许). It also says that when you reach the age of 18, you will have the right to vote (投票) and stand for election (选举). Since the constitution is so important to our everyday life, it must be taken seriously. In China, the National People’s Congress (NPC), which is made up of a group of people who are elected by Chinese citizens is the highest authority (行政管理机构). It has the power to make and change the constitution and other laws.

3 . Many people know that rubbish is a big problem on planet Earth. What many people don’t know is that junk (垃圾) has become a problem in outer space too.

According to BBC News, there are more than 22,000 pieces of space junk floating around the earth.And these are just the things that we can see from the surface of the earth by telescopes (望远镜). There are also millions of smaller pieces of junk that we can’t see.

Objects (物体), like bits of old space rockets or satellites, move around the planet at very high speeds. They are so fast that even a very small piece can break important satellites or become a danger to astronauts. If the tiniest piece of junk crashed into a spaceship, it could damage the spaceship.

To make things worse, when two objects in space crash, they break into many smaller pieces. For, example, when a U.S. satellite hit an old Russian rocket in 2009, it broke into more than 2,000 pieces , increasing the amount of space junk.

To reduce additional space junk, countries have agreed that all new space tools can only stay in space for 25 years at most. Each tool must be built to fall safely into the earth’s atmosphere (大气层) after that time. In the upper parts of the atmosphere, it will burn up.

Many scientists are also suggesting different ways to clean up space junk. In England scientists are testing a metal net that can be fired into space junk. The net catches the junk and then pulls it into the earth’s atmosphere to burn up. The Germans are building robots that can collect pieces of space junk and bring them back to Earth to be safely destroyed.

“The problem is becoming more challenging because we’re sending more objects into space to help people use their mobile phones and computers,” says Marco Castronuovo, an Italian space researcher.

“The time to act is now. The longer we leave the problem, the bigger it will become,” he says.

4 . Different countries have different ideas about how to be polite. In Britain, table manners are important. Good table manners in England are as follows:

★How to sit

You should sit up straight in your chair. When you eat, don’t pick up the bowl and bring it to you. This is called very bad manners.

★Noises at the table

It is never a good idea to make a noise at the table.

★Using your fingers

Usually we don’t pick food up with our fingers when we are eating main dishes, but there are some foods such as pizza, sandwiches, chips (or fries) and fruit, we can eat them with fingers.

★Your mouth

It is not polite to talk with your mouth full of food, or to eat with your mouth open. And if possible, do not make any noises.

★How much to eat

It is polite to eat the food clearly that you have been offered, so a clear plate is a good plate. It shows that you enjoy the food. If you can’t finish everything and need to leave a little, that’s OK. You could saysomething like “That was very nice. ..Thank you.”

6 . ①Have you ever thought about what’s more important, looking fashionable or feeling comfortable? You might have noticed many people choosing style over comfort and some even go to extremes (极端) to follow fashion. But we should remember: being fashionable isn’t everything. It’s more important to be healthy.

②Some people believe that they need to be a certain size to look beautiful. So, they start extreme diets (日常饮食) that are not good for their health. They might not eat meals or eat too little, which can make them feel sick. Is it a healthy way to live?

③Also, many girls wear shoes with very high heels. They might think high heels make them look taller. But these shoes can actually hurt their feet and make it hard to walk comfortably, and it can increase risks of falls. Some even wear tight (紧的) clothes that influence blood circulation (循环) making it hard to breathe. Should we put fashion over comfort and physical health?

④Besides, some boys and girls spend a lot of time and money changing their hair color. The material they use is usually harmful to their health. To make their hair straight or curly, they also use tools that are hot enough to burn their hair. But using these tools too often or at very high temperatures can make the hair dry or even burnt. Is it really worth it to risk our health, spending so much time and money?

⑤So, let’s rethink what’s really important. Is it fashion or is it our well-being? Clothes or hairstyles don’t tell us anything about a person’s character. Instead of spending a lot of time choosing clothes, we could use that time to do fun things with friends. And instead of following extreme diets, let’s eat properly and exercise regularly. Remember, your worth is not decided by your appearance, but by who you are as a person.

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7 . A new video series (系列) called Escape from the British Museum came out on August 30th, 2023. It has caused heated discussions in China’s social media recently.

The three-part series was created by two Chinese video vloggers. It features a woman who plays the role of an ancient jade teapot, a beautiful piece of China’s history. Her partner is a reporter who helps the jade teapot return to China. Together, they tell a tale of how the teapot, a symbol of Chinese artistry, escapes from the British Museum and finds its way back to China.

The videos were inspired (赋予灵感) by an Internet friend. He suggested making a video to record the hard way of Chinese cultural relics (文物) returning home from the UK to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year and to raise awareness about the importance of cultural heritage (遗产).

To bring this story to life, the two loggers travelled all the way to the UK and spent three whole months shooting the videos. The story they created is based on real events and facts, and aims to draw attention to the Chinese relics that are kept in museums far away from their home country.

The British Museum is known to have a total of 23,000 Chinese relics, while about 2,000 Chinese relics are on long-term display. The Chinese objects, from the New Stone Age to the present, include paintings, prints, jades and so on.

For long, the British has said that the cultural relics are safer and better protected at the British Museum, to refuse their return. But the British Museum was reported to have lost some cultural relics, which has caused a lot of concern around the world.

The videos are not only fun to watch but also serve as a reminder of the rich history and culture of China. The creators of the series hope that their work will inspire a love for Chinese heritage.

Though there is still a long way to go to return the cultural relics, China’s search for the lost cultural relics abroad will not stop.

8 .

In an unusual move, the wildlife workers in Florida, the US, are feeding manatees (海牛) to keep them from hunger. So far, they have already given out 25 tons of lettuce (生菜). Manatees can be as long as 13 feet when they grow up. They can weigh up to 590 kilos. Although they look big, manatees only eat sea grass and other sea plants. That’s one reason why they’re sometimes called “sea cows”. They spend most of their time in warm water which is not deep looking for food.

But Florida’s manatees have been on the US government’s list of endangered animals since 1967. One of the biggest problems for manatees is boats. Manatees are curious, and quite slow. That has led to thousands of manatees being hurt or killed by boats!

With protection, manatees managed to pick themselves up. At one point, there were only about 2,000 manatees left in Florida. But in 2016, there were about 8,800 manatees.

But now manatees are facing a new problem. Many of the beds of sea grass that manatees depend on have been killed by pollution. Polluted warm sea water and fertilizers (化肥) from farmlands have created huge growths of algae (海藻) on the ocean’s surface. It prevents the sunlight that allows the sea grass to grow. The problem is especially serious in Indian River Lagoon. About 90% of the sea grass beds in the area have died off.

So last December, the wildlife experts came up with a plan to get emergency food for the manatees. They decided to feed them green vegetables like lettuce. It has been very successful. They’re working hard to make a difference.

9 . Xuwen, a small town in the south of Guangdong, is called the “hometown of pineapples (菠萝)” in China. One in three pineapples sold in the country comes from this place. There, farmers produced nearly 700,000 tons of pineapples in 2021. But what makes Xuwen so successful?

In 2019, the Guangdong government introduced a marketing system (市场体系) for pineapples grown in Xuwen and set up a special working group to make it happen. They called it “12221”, including the following five parts: “one” database of agricultural products (农产品数据库); “two” teams, namely buyers and producers; “two” marketing areas, sales areas and production areas; “two” activities, helping buyers into the production area and agricultural products into the market; and “one” goal—rural vitalization (乡村振兴).

The project sent the fruit to bigger markets by finding buyers and improving the business sense of growers as well as using big data to guide production and sales methods. “It changed people’s opinions and helped farmers have a better understanding of marketing,” said Liu Yicun, who used to work at the Xuwen government.

A lot of people from around the country visit Xuwen because of pineapples, helping the development of the local tourism industry. The local food plays an important part when young tourists choose where to go. It’s common for young travelers, especially those born in the 1990’s and 2000’s to go on journeys. At the same time, they can taste something new.