2 . On a clear night, you can look in the sky and see the moon and stars. You might even see the blinking light of a working satellite as it flies past, on its way around the earth. And, even though you can’t see it, you are also looking at the largest junkyard in the solar system.

Higher than the highest clouds but much closer than the moon, the junkyard stretches from the earth’s surface to 20,000 miles overhead. There are tens of millions of pieces of trash there. Some of the pieces are rocks and dust from passing comets, but most of them are manmade, from large satellites and rockets that fell apart after they stopped working. Together, all the space junk would weigh about 11 million pounds on Earth, or more than 3,000 cars. In the last 50 years, human beings have sent thousands of artificial satellites into space. When a satellite stops working, it usually falls back towards the earth and burns up in the atmosphere. Satellites are at high altitudes, however, fragments remain in earth’s orbit.

________ Nobu Okada, Chief Executive of Astroscale, a company working on ways to clean up space junk says hitting “even a small piece… has enough power to blow up other satellites.” To keep track of the junk, the scientists have to know two things: where the junk is now, and where it is going to be in the future. What can be done about the problem of space junk? The large pieces of junk can’t be brought back to earth because the technology is too expensive. If countries work together to control the amount of trash we send into space, we can keep the problem under control. In the future, perhaps we can even clean up the mess.

These days, anyone who use WeChat or QQ also uses memes. Memes, or biaoqingbao in pinyin, have become an important part of online chatting among Chinese. Here are some ideas about memes from middle schools’ students.

	Hi, my name is Zhuo Yueqian. I like memes of cartoon characters and animals. They are often used to show our different moods such as happiness and sadness. At the same time, using funny memes can make our friends closer. I also find that sometimes memes can better comfort a sad person than words.
	Hello, I’m Wang Jiaming. It’s good to use memes, but we should be careful when using memes to communicate with the elderly as they may not understand them. Besides, if we depend on memes too much, it will weaken our ability to use language in the future.
	I’m Lin Xinrong. Using memes can stop people from feeling worried, as some memes are quite interesting.   We may feel happy and comfortable. However, if we are talking about something formal and important, it may be impolite to use memes.

6 . Kung Fu Panda Po, cute Minions, Harry Potter, Megatron... Want to have fun with all of them? Now you get the chance to do so —and much more—by visiting the Universal Beijing Resort (UBR). It is in Beijing.

Here, Magatron and Minions are the most popular with visitors. Magatron looks like a big robot, with a height of more than two meters. It likes talking a lot with people and it allows visitors to take photos with it. Minions is a cute little guy with a yellow body. It has big eyes with a pair of glasses. Though it has few hair, it is really smart.

In the Hollywood Zone, movie lovers will not only enjoy some famous Hollywood films, but also learn a lot about film making experience at the film studio. In the area of Future Water World, some amazing water shows put visitors inside the world of water. Besides those magic places, the place is also a foodie heaven with 80 restaurants serving all kinds of food from different movies.

     ▲      For example, the Kung Fu Panda Area of Awesomeness, is the first “area” with such a theme* in the world. The area has small bridges and flowing water and special pavilions built in the Chinese style*. People can see lanterns everywhere inside. More interestingly, visitors can eat plenty of Chinese food in restaurants. Most restaurants look like traditional Chinese buildings.

Building such a fantastic park wasn’t easy. But Chinese wisdom and power helped push it forward.

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9 . Do you want to learn a new language as fast as possible? If you want to speak like a native*, work hard, don’t be afraid of mistakes and you can be a good learner. Here are some ways to learn a new language.

1. Watch shows and listen to the radio.

We are not born with the language speakers around, that’s why we should build up the listening and watching environment* for learning. Doing these can help you quickly improve your listening and speaking skills. And it is interesting, isn’t it? Just turn on your computer and go to the Internet to get what you need.

2. Read kids’ books and easy ones loudly.

Kids’ books are super easy to understand, they can help you learn a new language well! You can read quickly. After reading, you can tell the story to your family or friends in the new language.

3. Start from the 100 most used words.

At first every word may be new for you, we should choose the most used ones. They are used every day and we can use them every day, so we can remember them more quickly and use them a lot. Sometimes you may not understand sentences, but knowing some key words can help you understand better.

4. Don’t worry about grammar.

We are afraid to learn when we think grammar is very difficult. Grammar is important, but they are not the first thing for a language. The language is for talking and sharing something with others. Don’t be afraid of the mistakes.

If you want to get some more tips, just visit www.wikihow.com!

Do you know koala? It is an animal living in the forests of eastern Australia. The koala spends most of its life in the trees, eating at night and sleeping for up to 18 hours a day. Koalas spend most of the night feeding on eucalyptus leaves. A koala needs 100 trees!

In the wild, koalas can live up to 20 years. They can only grow up to 9 kg and between 60 to 85 cm. The first Englishman reached Australia, there were over ten million koalas. However, there are only 58 thousand today. How could this happen? The wild fires, the change of the weather and traffic.

The koala may look like a bear, but it is a marsupial which carries its young in a pouch. They have a lot of fur which protects them from hot and cold days.

Female koalas give birth to their young after 35 days. Baby koalas are called joeys and live in their mother’s pouch for 5 to 7 months, feeding on her milk. After seven months the joey leaves the pouch and stay on to its mother’s back or belly. It lives with its mother for up to a year until it can get itself food.