The traditional Chinese lunar calendar divides the year into 24 solar terms. Grain Rain (谷雨), as the last term in spring, usually starts on
Grain Rain comes from the old saying, “Rain brings up the growth of hundreds of grains”, which shows that this period of rainfall is very important for the
| * ①People drink tea in southern China, which is good for the eyes and would prevent bad luck. ②People eat the vegetable Toona sinensis in the *The Grain Rain Festival The festival is celebrated by fishing villages and the fishermen |
What would the world be like if cars could drive themselves? Imagine seeing an empty car passing by on its way to pick up its owner, or a car full of passengers who are reading, listening to music or even sleeping. But none of them are worried about the road ahead.
Well, all of this could be the future of driving. There are several companies, including Google, working on driverless cars. So far, no Google self-driven cars have gotten a traffic ticket (罚单), but some of them have been in accidents when other cars hit them.
These cars are now still in the testing stages (阶段). But, if the tests are successful, these electric self-driven cars could be put into use very soon.
The cars are so special that they can take the place of drivers during certain situations. They are able to park themselves, or slow down when they notice objects close by. They can also control the speed if there is danger.
Scientists and engineers believe, with the help of wireless signals (无线信号) , cameras and GPS, creating a safe self-driven car might be possible. The cause of deadly (致死的) road accidents is usually careless drivers or bad conditions. The self-driven car may be able to prevent these. However, some people don’t like the idea. American lawyer White Drake does not believe these cars are safe. He thinks that technologies can also be mistakes.
Self-driven cars | |
| Future of driving | An empty car can drive |
| Situation | They are in the |
| Qualities | They can park themselves, slow down and |
| Different ideas | Scientists think they can prevent road |
“Internet addiction (瘾)” was once used to describe young people who spent too much time watching videos or playing games online. But today, an increasing number of the old are becoming victims (受害者).
According to a report on the Internet use of China’s elderly people last year, 38.6% of people aged 60 or over were Internet users. And some surveyed elderly people spent at least 10 hours on the Internet every day.
Phone overuse could lead to the higher risk of many diseases like cervical spondylosis (颈推病). Besides health problems, elderly people’s phone addiction also brings family problems. For example, their adult children often get upset when they stay up late playing with the phone or shop online blindly.
Why do old people depend heavily on mobile phones? It’s because they have lots of spare time and they wish to communicate with others.
Though it’s natural for the elderly to meet their spiritual needs through the smart phone, they should limit their time on the Internet and get regular rest at night. Adult children should go home more often to talk with their parents and reduce their sense of loneliness and encourage them to do healthy activities.
1. What’s the main idea of this text?2. How long did elderly people spend on the Internet every day according to the report?
3. What problems could phone overuse lead to ?
4. Why do old people depend heavily on mobile phones?
5. What can we do to help the elderly in our families to have a healthier life?
In China, writing brushes, ink sticks, paper and ink stones are called the Four Treasures of Study. The writing brush in Huzhou, the ink (墨水) stick in Huizhou, the xuan paper in Xuancheng and the ink stone in Duanxi are the most famous.
The writing brushes are used to draw the pictures on painted potteries (陶器). They are mostly made of the fur of animals. Tools made of wool are called yanghao and those made of the weasel’s (鼬) tail hair are called langhao.
The ink stick produced in Huizhou is of high quality. Two famous skilled men Xi Chao and his son produced a kind of high-quality ink stick. As a result, the Emperor Li Yu in the Southern Tang Dynasty announced to give them the family name “Li”. From then on, the fame (声誉) of the Li Ink Sticks spread widely. In the Song Dynasty, its producing area was changed into Huizhou, and it was then called the Hui ink Stick.
Paper is among the four great inventions in ancient China. The famous xuan paper appeared in the Sui and Tang dynasties. In Nuanzhou, it’s said that Cai Lun’s pupil Kong Dan happened to see the ebony (檀木) in the rivers. It was turned white in water. Then he used the bark (树皮) to produce the world-famous xuan paper.
The ink stone was already very popular in the Han Dynasty. In Ming and Qing dynasties, Duan Ink Stone, She Ink Stone, Tao Ink Stone and Chengni Ink Stone can not only be used in writing and painting but also for admiration.
| The | |
| The writing brushes | They are used to draw the pictures and mostly |
| The ink stick | Two famous skilled men were In the Song Dynasty, its producing area was changed into Huizhou. |
| Paper | The famous xuan paper appeared in the Sui and Tang dynasties. Kong Dan used the |
| The ink stone | In Ming and Qing dynasties, ink Stone can not only |
Critical thinking is about thinking better. Training your critical thinking skills can open up a door to the better world. But the journey of being a person with critical thinking is difficult.
Train your questioning skills.
Asking questions is perhaps the key act of critical thinking. If you don’t know what questions to ask, you may as well not get the answer. Finding the answer is what critical thinking is all about.
Think several steps ahead.
Think several steps ahead. Once the problem you are working on may begin, use your imagination to guess what the possible futures will be.
Spare at least 30 minutes a day to improve your brain function.
Spend 30 minutes in your busy day making your brain more powerful. There are a few ways that you can do:
●Try to be active in finding the solution to be a problem a day.
●Find the time to exercise regularly.
●Eating the right kinds of foods is to keep your brain in good health.
Critical Thinking It is not | |
| Ways to Improve Your Critical Thinking | Think critically by asking questions and finding |
| Spend-30 minutes a day training your brain function. ●Try to ● Do regular exercise every day. ●Eat right kinds of foods to keep your brain | |
| As long as you keep practicing, you can improve your critical thinking a lot. | |
6 . As a teenager, you’re trying to learn who you are. You’re going through mental and physical changes. You’re dealing with different kinds of stress and trying to succeed in school.
The good news is that though the teen years are tough, there are skills you can learn to make them a lot easier.
If you’re a teen and trying to manage your feelings better, here are a few skills for you to deal with your feelings.
Name the feeling. What feeling are you experiencing? For example, are you sad, stressed. angry, joyful or excited?
Accept what you’re feeling. Many people worry that their feelings will increase. So they are not willing to accept them, hoping that they’ll just go away. However, that’s impossible. Remind yourself that it’s OK to feel your feelings.
Become familiar with your feelings. To understand your feelings better, you should pay attention to your feelings all the day. You may record how you’re feeling in the morning, afternoon and at night on a piece of paper. Next to your feeling, also write down where you notice it in your body.
Express your feelings. Expressing a feeling is a good way to reduce it. For example, you can express your feelings by crying, exercising, writing about them or talking to someone you trust. Just be sure that whatever activity you choose, it doesn’t hurt you or anyone else.
At different times in your life, you’ll experience different difficulties. But by learning some helpful skills, you’ll be able to live a comfortable life.
How to deal with your feelings | |
| Main idea | The teen years are tough, |
| Skills to help you manage your feelings | Name the feelings that you are experiencing. |
| ◇Be willing to ◇Remind yourself not to hope that the feelings will go away. | |
| ◇Pay attention to your feelings the ◇Write down where you notice them in your body. | |
| ◇Express your feelings ◇Don’t hurt anyone whatever activity you choose. | |
| Conclusion | Learn some helpful skills, and you can live comfortably even though you may have |
Have you heard of the air taxi? An air taxi can carry people from place to place by air. It looks like a helicopter (直升机). It doesn’t need a long runway to take off or land. It can go straight up. and down.
On February 27, an air taxi finished its first test flight (飞行) in Guangdong. The flight started from the Shekou Cruise Homeport in Shenzhen to Jiuzhou Port in Zhuhai. The 60-kilometer trip took about 20 minutes. By car, the same trip takes two or three hours.
The air taxi is powered (驱动) by electricity (电). It has a top speed of 200 kilometers per hour and can carry up to five people. On one charge (充电), it can travel 250 kilometers. If everything goes well, it hopes to start carrying passengers in 2026.
1. What does an air taxi look like?2. How long did the air taxi fly for its first test flight?
3. What's the top speed of an air taxi?
4. How many people can an air taxi carry up to?
5. How far can an air taxi travel on one charge?
The flu easily spreads from one person to another. If you are weak, you probably catch the flu easily. Do you know how you can avoid the flu? Here are four suggestions:
First, you can eat everything you want but make sure that your diet is healthy. The healthier you are, the better it is for you to avoid (避免) any type of illness around. Most doctors suggest drinking lots of fresh fruit juice and water is helpful to avoid the flu.
Second, if a member of a family or a friend has the flu, stay away from him or her until he or she is well. The flu is very communicable (可传染的). If you stay with the person with the flu, you can catch the flu easily. Wear a mask (口罩) and avoid using things that the person with the flu used.
Third, exercising will make you stronger, which means a stronger immune system (免疫系统), too. Exercise often so that your body will keep healthy. It doesn’t matter what kind of exercise it is.
Finally, happy people are healthy people. Their life isn't stressed out, so they may be safe from illness. If you are unhappy, you will easily get sick.
Follow the suggestions above and you can avoid the flu easily.
| |
| | Eat |
| Stay away from him or her when a person has the flu. Wear a mask and avoid using things that the person | |
| Exercise often to | |
| Be a happy person to be safe from illness. | |
I enjoy reading, which helps me improve my English a lot. How to enjoy reading like me? Here are some suggestions for you.
Firstly, it’s important to choose a book which is the right level for you. If you are just starting out with English, don’t try to read a 600-page classic novel!
Secondly, although having a dictionary at hand to look up words is useful, you should try not to translate word by word, or you will soon get bored. Look up the words that you think are difficult to understand the text and learn them in a sentence. This will make it more likely that you will remember them in the future.
Finally, interest is important but perseverance (毅力) is the key. Although at first it may seem that reading has become a chore, you will soon get into the story and you will end up not being able to put the book down! The feeling of finishing a book in a different language is very satisfying. If you finish one, don’t stop there! The more you read, the more vocabularies you will learn and the more you will become familiar (熟悉) with sentence structures and common phrases.
If you want to learn English well, I hope you will pick up more books in English from now on.
Firstly | It’s important to choose a book which is the |
Secondly | You should try not to |
Finally | Don’t stop reading! Pick up and read more books in |
Wu Yuren, a retired (已退休的) professor of physics from Tongji University, has caught much attention on Douyin for her efforts to the popularization (普及) of science, Wu has already practised science popularization for 16 years. However, science popularization is never an easy task. Translating difficult physics principles (原理) into easy-to-understand language requires both a deep knowledge of physics and a strong ability to express and show the principles with experiments (实验). And it is even more difficult to teach science to children.
To help solve these problems, Wu and her team turned to short-form videos three years ago. In the videos, Wu shows people interesting physics experiments. To her surprise, her videos are popular with people of all ages.
So far, Wu’s popular science videos have attracted (吸引) over 1 million fans on the Internet.
In her videos, Wu often wears a multifunctional vest (多功能马甲) which has many pockets all over it. Her pockets are full of magical “toys” such as water bottles, coins and glasses. She uses them as teaching tools. She is always able to make use of these everyday things to explain complex phenomena (复杂的现象) found in the field of physics.
“Physics is very interesting. I hope to tell teachers and kids how to teach or learn physics,” she said. As long as more and more people can realize the beauty of physics and enjoy endless fun in the world of science, she feels that all of her efforts are worthwhile (值得的) .
1. How long has Wu Yuren practised science popularization?2. How did Wu Yuren solve the problems she ran into in science popularization?
3. What does Wu Yuren’s multifunctional vest look like?
4. What does Wu Yuren hope to tell teachers and kids?
5. What do you think of Wu Yuren?
