1 . There are 8 billion humans on Earth. The sun is 150 million kilometers away. The universe (宇宙) may have 200 billion trillion (万亿) stars...

As scientists explore (探索) the world with more and more high-tech tools, the numbers that they use are also becoming bigger. Recently, scientists added four new names for numbers: ronna (10²⁷), quetta (10³⁰), ronto (10⁻²⁷) and quecto (10⁻³⁰).

Almost all human brains have a problem dealing with big numbers. In ancient times, early humans had no need to develop such a skill. They only needed to understand small numbers, like the number of people in the their family, or how many animals they had caught. So there’s no need to tell the difference between large and very large.

_______ One way is to turn big numbers into something you know. For example, if imagining 400, 000 people is too hard, you can think that a soccer playground usually can hold around 40, 000 people. Then 400, 000 people mean 10 soccer playgrounds of people. Or if you have 1,000 yuan, then a millionaire (百万富翁) has 1,000 times more money than you.

Although it is not necessary for us to understand larger numbers, we still can work out them and get useful answers.

3 . People care a lot about food and their health. What hot words about food and health caught Chinese people’s eyes in 2023? Let’s see some hot words from the first National Nutrition Literacy Conference (全国营养科普大会) held on Dec 9, 2023.

☆ Pre-made dishes (预制菜)

Pre-made dishes are half-finished or finished dishes. They are already cooked or prepared. However, they may cause health problems. For example, some have too many additives (添加剂). So doctors advise people not to eat too many pre-made dishes.

☆ Nutritional literacy (营养素养)

It shows how well a person can learn and understand nutrition information and skills which are important for making good nutrition decisions.

☆ Dietary regimen (食养)

A plan or set of rules that show what and how much a person should eat to keep in good health.

☆ Aspartame (阿巴斯甜)

It’s a sweetener widely used in food to take the place of sugar because it is low in calories (卡路里) and much cheaper than sugar.

And the last one is called an all-encompassing approach to food (大食物观). It means people need to have all kinds of food.

Health comes first. Do you live a healthy life?

7 . As one of the four great traditional Chinese festivals, the Qingming Festival is the most important festival to sweep the tombs (坟墓) and honor (尊敬) our ancestors (先人).

The Qingming Festival can be dated back to over 2,500 years ago. During Spring and Autumn Period, Jie Zitui, a loyal (忠诚的) official of the state of Jin followed the Prince Chong’er and cut off meat from his leg for the prince to eat. Later on, Prince Chong’er returned to his country and became the king of the state of Jin. To thank his follower, the king invited Jie Zitui to work for the state. But Jie refused, he still wanted to live in the mountains. The king set fire to the mountain to make Jie out. Unluckily, both Jie and his mother were burned to die in the fire. In honor of Jie Zitui, the king made the date of Jie’s death as the Cold Food Day and the following day as the Qingming Festival.

The Qingming Festival usually falls from the fourth to sixth in April every year. When it comes , the temperature is rising and it is a good time for spring outing. People go outside to enjoy the warm sunshine and beautiful scenery. In addition, farmers are busy planning to grow beans and plant melons before and after Qingming.

8 . Ice cream is one of the most popular foods to enjoy during the spring and summer months. Many people wonder about who invented ice cream first and how long it has been around.

The history of the sweet dessert is hard to say. Many countries have said they invented ice cream. However, historians know that ice cream was around as early as 4th century BC., during Spring and Autumn Period in Chinese history. It was known that in China, people were able to freeze (冷冻) milk and add ice to it. So it is most likely that ice cream was brought from China to Europe.

First ice cream shop in America opened in New York in 1776. Americans were first to use the words “ice cream” to mean the frozen food. In 1851, the first large ice cream factory opened in Baltimore.

Today ice cream is a popular dessert enjoyed by people around the world.

9 . In the United States, a young man can’t have a full-time job until he is 16, but children under 14 can make some money by doing a part-time job or housework with their parents’ permission (允许).

There might be money hidden in all the things they can do around the house. They may have a list of chores like cleaning their rooms or doing the dishes. Children may have to do these chores “for free”. But they can do more than their regular (常规的) chores to make money. Here are some examples.

“I make money by cleaning up the yard and cleaning up other people’s yards,” says Justin, 11.

Some of them are using their creative ability. Lena, 13, gets money by making dog sweaters and selling them to her neighbors. Jasmine, 12, even writes articles and movie reviews for different magazines!

When they make money by doing chores, they have to know how much they will be paid. And they can also learn how to talk about “business” with others.

American people think for young men making money is learning. By working to get their own money, children will be learning skills they’ll need to succeed in the world.

10 . The latest findings from the Zhurong Mars Rover helped scientists learn about the weather changes on Mars about 400,000 years ago, according to a study in Nature.

Mars is the planet that has the most Earth-like environment in the solar system. Scientists think that the study of its change can help us learn about the future of our Earth.

To take photos of the planet’s surface (表面), researchers used the cameras from Tianwen-1 and the Zhurong Rover. Also, they used the surface analyzer (分析仪) to learn more about the wind changes near the Rover’s landing place.

Their findings show that the area probably experienced a change in weather, marked by a wind change 400,000 years ago. According to the study, the wind changed nearly 70 degrees from northeast to northwest. The weather change of Mars was because of a change of the Martian axis (火星地轴).

The finding helps improve our understanding of weather change on the planet. It also shows a possible point of studying the future weather change on Earth.