1 . We all know that many people like to go to the café and drink some coffee there. They can talk with other people and listen to music when drinking coffee. But the silent(沉默的) cafés are very popular in Tokyo, Japan these days.

A young woman sits alone in a café. She is drinking coffee and reading a book. After a while, she writes some words on the notebook and then she shows it to the waiter. It says “Where is the toilet(厕所), please?”

We can see many “silent cafés” in Tokyo. They look the same as other cafés. But people in “silent cafés” can’t speak. They can only communicate with each other by writing on the notebook.

The “silent cafés” are very popular in Tokyo, because people there are under too much pressure(压力) of work and they need to relax themselves. They want to stay alone for some time, so they like to go to the “silent cafés”.

4 . How terrible it would be if there was fire! Today is November 9. It’s time for us to learn a lot more about fire, especially what to do if we are caught in a fire：

1 Shout out

If you smell smoke or see fire, shout out “Fire”！Shout as loudly as you can, because people may be asleep.

2 Call 119

Never try to put out the fire yourself, even if it is a very small one! Get help from your parents or call 119.

3 Keep down close to the floor

If there is a lot of smoke in your room, keep down close to the floor.

4 Test the door

Test the door before you open it. If the door is cool, open it carefully. If the door is hot, do not open it！Try to find a different way out.

5 Get out

If you can, get out of your home as soon as possible.

6 Don’t use the lift

Never use the lift during the fire. It may also go wrong.

7 Don’t go back

Never go back into a burning building！

Xi’an celebrated the first-ever China Hanfu Day on April 18, 2017. There were catwalks shows and traditional music concerts which were held by people wearing traditional Chinese clothing. Hanfu fans from all over China gathered there to take photos and put them online for a Hanfu photo competition.

The event encourages young Chinese people to wear and take part in Hanfu, the traditional clothing of the Han ethnic group(汉族).

The organizers said, “Traditional culture is the lifeblood of China. We hope young Chinese people can wear our traditional clothing during festivals to show China’s unusual culture to the world. This will also make them understand the culture better and feel proud of being a Chinese.” The event invited people to post their pictures in traditional clothes. By April 22nd, 2018, it had already got over 155 million page views, with thousands of people sharing their pictures.

Historically, Hanfu has influenced many of the neighboring cultural clothing including the Japanese Kimono and Korean Hanbok. However, Hanfu started to fade(衰弱) when Manchu people took control of China. Luckily, there has been a rise in popularity over recent years. According to Hanfu Information(HI), a Hanfu promotion(宣传) group, over 21,000 sets of Hanfu were sold online earlier in 2018. Another online survey by HI in 2017 showed that over 88% of people believe that wearing Hanfu is a good way to learn about Chinese culture.

How are you? I’m in Tampan with my family. Tampan is a seaside town with lots of beaches. We’re here on holidays but the weather is terrible. It’s raining all the time! There isn’t much to do here when the weather is bad.

It’s a small town. There aren’t any museums or cinemas. Luckily there is a big library. There are quite a lot of books in it. I like reading the books on languages. I think it’s helpful for me to go on a trip to another country.

Our hotel is next to the library. In front of the hotel, there is a big park with a lake and lots of trees. There are a lot of beautiful birds around the lake. They are very lovely.

Behind the park, there is a big supermarket. You can buy things there for 24 hours. The chocolate ice cream there tastes delicious. How is your holiday?

Love from Tom

Food Is Our Fuel（燃料）

Everything that is alive needs energy（能量）. All animals get the energy they need from food. People are animals. Think about the human body as an amazing machine. It can do all kinds of things for us. Food is the fuel that helps keep the amazing machine running.

Plants use sunlight to make their own food. Animals cannot do that. Some animals eat plants. Some animals eat other animals as meat. Some animals, like people, eat both plants and animals.

Since plants make their own food using sunlight, the sun’s energy is found in plants. The sun’s energy is very strong.

When we eat plants, we get more of the sun’s energy than when we eat animals. That’s why it is good to eat fruits and vegetables. When an animal eats a plant, the energy is less strong.

Like a car that has to be filled with gasoline, living things have to eat again and again.

Instead of gasoline, living things use food as fuel.

Look at the picture on the right. What is it? Yeah, it’s a special(特殊的) robot car, ROPITS. Japan made it this year. It’s a new kind of car. The car can drive itself(它自己). It is very easy for people to use it.

ROPITS is short for Robot for Personal Intelligent Transport System (个人智能交通系统机器人). ROPITS has only one seat. The Japanese made it for old and disabled (残疾的) people in Japan.

What makes the ROPITS special? One can ask it to pick him or her up from a computer or a smart-phone(智能手机). After he or she gets in the car and tells the ROPITS where to go, it will begin to drive itself and let the driver enjoy the ride.

The ROPITS will not have traffic accidents (事故) because it drives very slowly, not more than 7 kilometers an hour.