In 1987 a small company named Huawei was started in Shenzhen. After more than 30 years of development, the company has now beaten Apple and become the world’s second largest maker of smartphones. It has also become the world’s supplier(供应商) of 5G in China and even in the world. Huawei is a wonder. Although it started producing mobile phones not many years ago, it has become one of the most famous phone companies.

But recently, Huawei faces some difficulties. The US government made a law to stop its sales in America. American officials said Huawei gave information that it collected to the Chinese government. At the same time, the US government planned to stop selling parts and services to Huawei. They believed that Huawei’s business would be hurt this way.

“We have never received such a request from the Chinese government and we have never tried to get into other systems to collect information, ” Ren Zhengfei, Huawei’s president said. “The law would have little effect on our company. Huawei has enough ability to deal with the problems. ” Ren added.

In an interview several years ago, Ren Zhengfei said, “I started Huawei with only £4000 at the beginning, but now it has become a $100 billion company. The experience was not as romantic as you imagine. ”

Facing the law of the US, Huawei is growing. Huawei’s smartphone sales around the world rose 50 percent compared with a year earlier in the first three months of 2019. At the same time, sales from both Samsung and Apple fell. So far, Huawei has grown into the world’s largest telecommunication equipment supplier, selling in 170 countries. It may beat Samsung as the largest smartphone maker in the near future.

4 . We have seen lots of science fiction movies about aliens (外星人). People travel to stars and even fight with aliens in the movies. But are there real aliens in the universe (宇宙)? Most of us think it is impossible, just like fairy tales. But the answer of some scientists is yes. So they have been searching for aliens in outer space for many years. They hope to find life signs of aliens.

Some scientists are used to using radio telescopes (望远镜) to search for aliens in space. In order to find aliens, they have worked hard for over half a century, but so far they have found nothing. Then some scientists guessed aliens might not want to connect us, but aliens could answer our messages. So some scientists sent radio signals into the universe. They hope one day they would be picked up by alien technology. These scientists want to prove (证明) that we are not alone in the universe.

But what should we do if the “alien phone” rings one day? Should we answer it? Stephen Hawking, the famous physicist, thught it could be dangerous to connect aliens. He said that the main purpose of aliens’ visit to the earth could be searching for our resources (资源). But other scientists think we have no need to worry. David Morrison, a NASA scientist, said, “If an alien radio signal reaches the earth from a planet thousands of light-years away, then they almost surely have solved all the problems we still have including the short of resources. Maybe they are much smarter than us, but why do they want to hurt us? I think we can try to connect them.”

Mother’s Day is coming. Have you planned something good for your mom? If not, here are some suggestions about how to make her happy.

Most children don’t know what their mom’s favorite thing is. You do? Then, what are you waiting for? Buy her something she likes. The best time to give it to her is that while she is sleeping at night. Put it on the table next to her to give her a surprise when she wakes up.

Your mother is without doubt the queen in your life and in your family, though her duties(职责) make her look like she is not: Give the lady a day off. You can do the housework and make some delicious food for her. It’s also a good choice to go shopping with her.

Mothers have special memories in mind. It is the time that they are with their babies. How about you? What’s your best moment with her? Maybe you can tell her how happy you were when she looked after you during terrible days in your life.

Those three words can make her heart jump for joy, you know? Just tell her “I love you!” And it would make her smile so sweet. Just try! We don’t want to. miss such a wonderful thing, right?

6 . Are you learning English and do you need help with grammar? Do you want to learn new vocabulary or slang(俚语)? Well, you can find help online with these top 4 English-learning websites.

Red walls, golden roofs, great halls and valuable treasures—the Forbidden City is already over 600 years old. But it holds many stories about Chinese culture and wisdom that remain with us today.

Built in 1420, the palace is the largest wooden palace on Earth. It covers more than 720, 000 square meters and has 1,050 buildings and more than 8,700 rooms. It’s famous for its symmetrical structure (对称结构).   “It’s planned along important Chinese culture beliefs of harmony (和谐), balance (平衡) and order,” China Daily reported.

Many little things in Forbidden City can be examples of ancient Chinese culture. For example, there are mythical (神话的) animals standing on the palace’s roofs. The number of animals shows that the status of a building—the more animals, the more important the building is. The Hall of Supreme Harmony (太和殿), he palace’s most important hall, has 10 mythical animals, more than any other building in the palace. There are also other practical designs that have protected the palace from over 200 earthquakes in the past 600 years. The complex bracket (复杂的支架) can support the whole building and it’s so strong that the palace can bear lots of weight.

“The Forbidden City stands as a testimony (证明) to the world as Chinese culture’ greatness,” China Daily reported.

9 . Have you ever eaten at a restaurant that serves Western food? If so, do you remember what the menu looked like? Western restaurant menus are quite different from Chinese restaurant menus. But how are they different?

Most Western restaurant menus do not have as many pictures as Chinese ones do—with a picture, you can tell what is in a dish. In some fancy（昂贵的）Western restaurants, a menu may not have any pictures at all.

But most Western menus show a list of ingredients（原料）for each dish. If you order a burger, the menu might tell you that the burger has cheese, ketchup and mustard（芥末）. The menu can also tell you how the food is cooked—for example, whether it is fried or steamed （蒸）.

Western restaurants use many different methods to design their menus and make them more attractive. In fact, there is a whole industry called “menu engineering”, according to the BBC.

Menu engineers are experts at designing menus. Their menus can increase sales and influence customers’ thoughts.

A well-designed menu can encourage customers to eat certain dishes. It can even make them believe that your restaurant’s food is of higher quality, even if they haven’t eaten the food yet.

For example, using descriptive（描述性的）words like “juicy” or “cheesy” can help dishes sell better. Instead of just writing “steak（牛排）” in their menu, a restaurant might write “sizzling steak”. This makes the steak sound more delicious.

Also, it is known that people pay the most attention to items at the top of a page. This is the best place for dishes that you want to promote.

As you can see, menus are not just simple lists of food!

10 . In late May, 2020, a country in Florida, USA suffered strong storms. The roads in the city changed into brown rivers.

When it rains heavily, rainwater builds up the streets, the drains (下水道) get plugged (塞住). And it becomes the key cause of weather-related problem of deaths in the USA.

A team of teenagers from local middle school made a plan to solve this problem. With the help of their science teacher, they invented a device (装置) to warn city workers when and where there is a danger of flooding (洪水).

Bianca, one of the team members, said, “All of us experience problems with flooding, and we knew we had to do something about it. Students at our school hope our device will help because most of them once met with this problem.”

A laser system (激光系统) was used in their device. When a drain is plugged up, the device could warn the city workers then they could clean the drain at once.

_______ Their classmates helped them find information about how to use the laser system. Class parents who were engineers help them solve the technique (技术) problems. They each took on a task that they are good at. Each member put in a lot of effort and finally they made it.