1 . Do you know the two lovely mascots (吉祥物) ? You may know the five “Fuwa dolls” from the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. On September 17 of 2021、the two lovely mascots first showed on TV. Now, let’s see who they are.

Look at the panda! It looks like an astronaut. It wears an ice shell (冰壳) and looks fat, so we call it “Bing Dwen Dwen”. White is the color of ice and snow. “Bing Dwen Dwen” likes ice sports very much and is good at them. That’s why it is the mascot of 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games.

Do you think the red mascot looks like a lantern? The lantern’s name is “Shuey Rhon Rhon”. When the Chinese New Year comes, people always make or buy red lanterns. Red is the color of hope and good luck, so people think their dreams will come true in the new year. “Shuey Rhon Rhon” can give players hope and help them do well in the 2022 Beijing Winter Paralympics Games (残奥会).

Many people in different countries like the two mascots very much, and they show their love for them on the Internet.

3 . The latest sports craze is not even a sport. According to a recent article, “e-sports” are attracting a large number of audiences.

In e-sports, players and teams compete in popular video computer games such as Dota 2 and Ovenvatch. Fans fill arenas (竞技场) to watch the action live on huge television screens.

The games have gone way past kids playing against each other while sitting on a sofa at home. The International, a major competition for players of Dota 2, awarded $24 million in prizes, with the winner taking home almost $11 million. A recent e-sports competition attracted more than 80,000 fans to the Olympic Stadium in Beijing, China.

I have to admit that I am not a big fan of computer games. I know that some games can be educational, but I think too many kids spend too much time sitting in front of a screen shooting space aliens. I think it would be better if kids spent more time reading or playing real sports such as basketball, baseball and soccer.

And please don’t tell me that competitive gaming is a real sport because it requires hand-eye coordination(协调). According to my American Heritage Dictionary, a sport is “an activity involving physical effort and skill”. I don’t think anyone works up much of a sweat playing video games.

Too often, regular sports send kids a kind of message. Competition starts early, when lots of kids are not ready for the ups and downs of games. Trails and travel teams come next, giving too many kids the message they are “not good” at sports. So lots of kids give up sports and start playing more video games.

Maybe everyone in youth sports, including coaches, parents and kids, should think more about the advantages of real sports.

4 . The way we spend our time can be divided (分) into three “bottles”. They are the necessary tasks bottle, the voluntary tasks bottle and the happiness bottle.

Every day, we spend time filling the necessary tasks bottle with useful things like making money, taking a shower, eating food and paying bills. We then fill another bottle with voluntary tasks. These are things that we do for others, but we may not enjoy them. This bottle gets filled with tasks like by taking children to activities, cooking family meals and washing clothes for the family. The two bottles are very important. If we don’t fill them each day, our family won’t run properly.

However, we often forget to fill the third bottle—the happiness bottle that we fill with activities that make us happy. Is your happiness bottle sometimes empty at the end of the day? Between doing all the necessary and voluntary tasks, time flies by, and before we know it, it is time for bed. We all have days like that.

This is why each day we have to make an effort to fill our happiness bottle. I always fill mine by going to the dance class. And every time I leave the class, I feel much happier. This week, I had the pleasure of taking part in a guitar practice in my neighborhood. We showed our musical talent and played music for charity (慈善). It was a time of fun, friendship and music-making. At the end of the day, my happiness bottle was filled to the top.

Make sure to fill all the three bottles. Will your activities bring joy to your life? Or are the other two tasks taking up all your time? Try to find ways to achieve a balance (平衡). At the end of the day, hopefully we’ve done all we can to make sure that our happiness bottle is filled.

5 . If someone asks you, “What color is the sky?” I think you will answer “blue”. I’m afraid that you are wrong. The sky has no color. It looks blue because we are looking at the blue sunlight （阳光）. It is shining（闪耀）on little bits of dust（灰尘）in the air.

Is the sky full of air? I’m sure that you have asked（已经问过）his question, too. We know that there is air all around the world, but we couldn’t fly very high because as we go high, the air gets thinner（稀薄）. If we go far enough away from the earth, we find there is no air.

Maybe we can answer some questions now. What is the sky? Where is it? It’s all round the world. The sky is space（宇宙）. In space there is nothing, but only the sun, the moon, the earth and all the stars.

7 . Will it matter if you don’t take your breakfast? A short time ago, a test was given in the United States. People of different ages, from 12 to 83, were asked to have the test. During the test, these people were given all kinds of breakfasts and sometimes they got no breakfast at all. Scientists wanted to see how well their bodies worked when they ate different kinds of breakfasts.

The results(结果) show that if a person eats a right breakfast, he or she will work better than if he or she has no breakfast. If a student has fruit, eggs, bread and milk before going to school, he will learn more quickly and listen more carefully in class.

The result is opposite to what some people think. Having no breakfast will not help you lose weight. This is because people become so hungry at noon that they eat too much for lunch. They will gain weight instead of losing it. You will lose more weight if you reduce your other meals.

Do you like the movie Sonic the Hedgehog《刺猬索尼克》? Did you see this movie? Many of you may know Sonic because he is from the game Sonic the Hedgehog.

Sonic is a blue hedgehog. He has green eyes, and he usually wears white gloves and red sports shoes. Sonic can do many things. He can run very fast. He can also “fly” in the air on his blue skateboard (滑板).

In the movie, Sonic lives alone (独自) in Green Hills, a small town in the US. At first, no one in the town knows him. Soon the policeman called Tom finds Sonic, and they become good friends. At the same time, the bad scientist, Dr Robotnik, wants to catch(抓住) Sonic and study him. Can Sonic stop Dr Robotnik? You need to find the answer in the movie.

“Sonic is fun, and I love this blue fast hedgehog,” the American actor, Ben Schwartz, said. In the movie, he did the voice (声音) for Sonic. Ben loves it because he is also a fan (影迷) of the game Sonic the Hedgehog.

9 . Do you know London Zoo? It’s very famous. Many people know it. It is in London. The zoo was first open（开放）to people in 1847. Sometimes the zoo is also called Regent’s Zoo.

Now there are over 16000 cute animals in the zoo. You can see many animals—pandas, lions, tigers, bears, giraffes, koalas and many more. You can also meet some African animals—elephants and hunting dogs. It’s really great fun to see them.

It also has many beautiful trees there. The zoo is usually open from 10:00 a. m. to 4:00 p. m. Do you like animals? Do you want to go to the zoo? When you are in London, you can go to the zoo by bus or by subway.