1 . On May 28, some tourists were struck (击中) by lightning while climbing a mountain in Anhui province. More than 10 of them were injured by the lightning strike, with three of them seriously injured, said Guangming Daily.

The summer months have more storms than winter, making lightning strikes more common. But there are ways to avoid getting struck by lightning. Learn some ways to keep yourself safe.

Indoors

◆Don’t use phones with cables (电话).

◆Stay away from windows and doors.

◆Never take a shower or bath during a storm.

◆Don’t touch any electrical objects, and unplug electronics (拔掉电源) that you don’t need to use.

Outdoors

◆Stay away from tall trees.

◆Avoid open areas like fields or hills.

◆Keep away from other people to lessen injury.

◆Don’t go near water, wet things and metal objects.

◆Only go in a car if it has a hard, closed roof and the windows are closed.

4 . ①Have you ever shaken on a cold day? You may not have noticed, but as you shake, your body warms up. Shaking is one way your body stays warm. It happens when messages are sent from the nervous system (神经系统) to the muscles (肌肉). This is how it works.

②The nervous system has two parts. One part is the nerves. They look like long, thin lines. Their job is to carry messages to all parts of the body. The spinal cord (脊髓) and the brain make up the other part of the nervous system. Messages from the brain travel down the spinal cord. They go to the rest of the body through the nerves. Muscles receive these messages.

③Imagine waiting for a bus on a street corner. It’s a cold day, the bus is late, and you feel cold. Here’s what happens.

④A control center in your brain senses that you’re cold. It transmits a message down the spinal cord to all the nerves. The message races through nerves that connect to other nerves. Then it goes from the nerves to the muscles. The message says, “Warning! Prepare for action!”

⑤When a muscle moves, it makes heat. That is why you get warm when you run or play soccer. When your muscles get the message that you are cold, they get busy. First they tighten (收缩), then they loosen (松). They tighten then loosen over and over again. This makes you shake. You also get warmer.

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Until the beginning of July, there has been no rain in northern Italy for over 100 days. Add to that the high temperatures, and the locals get very dry conditions. This is the most serious dry spell (干旱期) for that area in the past 70 years. Because of this situation, the country’s longest river, the Po River is drying up!

This is bad news for several different reasons. The fresh water of the Po provides drinking water for northern Italy. Besides, farmers in this area need the water of the Po to keep their crops growing. What’s more, the flowing river water is used to create about half of the hydroelectric power (水力发电) for Italy. Its drying up means that more natural gas (天然气) will be used, which is bad for the environment.

There have been some interesting discoveries from this lack of rain, however. Between Florence and Milan, a long ship sunk (沉没) in 1943 appeared because of the low water levels of the river. Now many tourists and locals come to see this ship. A German tank has also appeared out of water near Mantua. At other places along the river, people can even walk on the sandy river bed. Although this may be interesting, people in Italy and around the world are hoping for the return of rain to refill the Po!

7 . Long ago, people didn’t need a lot of numbers, but when small villages grew into big cities, people started to need bigger numbers to count bags of crops and make trades. How did people in ancient time count numbers?

Paclfic Islands Some Pacific Island cultures count using the whole body. Different body parts stood for a different number, and the name of that part also means that number.	Rome Greek, Roman, and Hebrew mathematicians used letters for their numbers, The Romans, for example, used I for 1, V for 5, X for 10, L for 50, C for 100, and M for 1,000. To write 49, it took nine letters: XXXXVIIII.		Peru In South America, the Inca came up with a different way to note down numbers — by making knots on ropes. Different kinds of knots stood for different numbers, while the color of the rope may have showed what was being counted.
Maya Math The Maya of Central America (200-900 CE) were great mathematicians. They counted in groups of 20. They wrote their numbers from bottom to top, with the bottom row standing for one time (1s), the next row up for 20 times (20s), then 400 times (400s), and so on. They used bean-shaped dots● for 1, twig-shaped lines for 5, and they even had a shell shaped symbol for 0!

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Chopsticks are used by billions of people around the world, and they have an ancient past. The Chinese have been using them for at least 3,000 years. ________   

Early chopsticks were mainly used for cooking and were able to reach deep into boiling pots of water or oil. ________ This happened when a rapid population growth across China made cooks develop cost-saving habits. They began cutting food into smaller pieces that required less cooking fuel (燃料). Chopsticks are perfect for holding these smaller pieces of food.

As food was ready to be eaten in one bite, knives became less popular. Confucius believed that knives at the dinner table would remind eaters of the slaughterhouse (屠宰场). He also thought that knives’ sharp point will kill the happiness during the meal. ________

Whenever and wherever Chinese people are, they find it difficult to have a meal without chopstick. In addition, chopstick can be presented as a gift for people to express their feelings.

According to a survey, over 1.8 billion people use chopsticks. ________ It has become a common cultural symbol of Chinese food culture. There are many activities to suggest using chopsticks, such as “Chopsticks Day” in Japan, “Golden Chopsticks Award” in France and the trend of “For your health, please pick up your chopsticks” in Western countries.

10 . ①Have you ever wondered how people learn? It happens in the brain, but what is exactly found to make learning happen? Is there anything people can do to make learning easier?

②Most experts agree that learning is about memory. When a person gets a new idea, his brain stores the information. New information exists in the brain as part of short-term memory. That means the brain will not keep the new knowledge unless it becomes part of the brain’s long-term memory. For that to happen, the brain has to decide that the information is important enough to keep. So, for learning, the question is, how do we make the brain believe that new information is important?

③Have you ever heard that “Practice makes perfect” ? That’s because the act of repetition tells your brain that the skill or information is important. And this makes it more likely for the new knowledge to become part of your long-term memory.

④ For learning, you can also try connecting a new idea to your background knowledge. When the brain sees a connection between a new idea and something else you’ve already learned, it’s more likely to store it away as long-term memory.

⑤Another way is to go to some experts with new ideas. Ask them to explain clearly for you. It can help you learn to look at the new information in a new way that may make it easier for you to learn.

⑥And a final piece of advice for learning: Spread your studying over a few days and study for shorter periods with rest in between. Remember that learning is like exercise for your brain. Rest time is just as important as study time!

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