1 . Hybrid cars (混合动力车) are cars that run on both petrol and electricity. They have a small petrol engine and a battery and electric engine to provide electric power.

The general rule of hybrid cars is that the car runs on petrol, and the electric engine kicks in when additional power is needed, for example when going uphill or speeding up. In some hybrid cars the petrol engine turns itself off when not needed, for example when the car has stopped at traffic lights, keeping only the electric engine running.

Traditional cars have large engines to deal with driving uphill and speeding up. Most of the time, this high engine power is not needed, but the engine continues burning up fuel (燃料). Hybrid cars have much smaller petrol engines, pushed by electric engines when needed, so they use less petrol. Hybrid cars are also lighter and aerodynamically (空气动力学地) designed for greater fuel efficiency.

Another way that fuel use is cut is by a system of “regenerative braking (刹车)”. The electric engine is used to slow down the car, rather than traditional brakes. The energy produced by the slowing car is changed into electrical power, which is automatically stored in the battery. In fact, the battery recharges when you brake. In traditional cars the energy produced when braking is wasted.

Car makers have been experimenting with electric and hybrid cars since the late 19^th century. The first hybrid car, came out in Japan at the end of 1997. However, hybrid cars appeared in America only in 1999.

As they use less fuel, hybrid cars are cheaper to run. There are also some steps to encourage people to buy them. In some countries, hybrid car owners pay a lower rate of tax, and don’t have to pay on certain roads. In some cities around the world, hybrid cars are allowed to park for free.

2 . You should try your best to create your own family library so that you and your family are always learning. “It is a great mistake to think that education is finished when young people leave school. Education is never finished even if you grow older,” said Mrs Child in The Mother’s Book. “Collecting a library of books in your home is really helpful to your family.”

“What is really interesting about having so many books in your home is that a book you buy has a chapter about the deeper knowledge of your favorite subject at school,” said a university graduate. Researchers in a study try to find out what parents do has an influence on how well their children do on tests. One positive aspect they find is the availability of a large number of books at home. This has a stronger connection, especially when you read to your children every day. The more books your older kids have access to at home, the more likely they are just to be reading for fun, rather than having to wait for weekly trips to the library.

John Henry, one educated parent, said, “I have been homeschooling my children using the philosophy (哲理) of A Thomas Jefferson Education. This philosophy of learning is based on the reading of classic books.” Clinton Fadiman said, “When you reread a classic, you do not see more in the book than you did before; you see more in you than before.” Classic books also make you smarter and wiser! The wisdom comes in the examples in the lives of the characters.

“It is within your power to guide your children in their reading and to develop a strong wish in their hearts for good books. It is the most unfortunate if a person doesn’t have a wish for good reading. The reading habit, like charity, should begin at home,” said Mrs Child.

3 . In 1990, Hal Donaldson was 23 years old, fresh out of college and found himself in Calcutta, India, where he was asked to interview Mother Teresa.

Donaldson says about the great woman famed for feeding the hungry, “She wasn’t wearing shoes and her ankles were swollen. She sat down with me and was very polite.” After the interview, Mother Teresa asked him, “What are you doing to help the poor?” Donaldson admitted that he was young and wasn’t focused on helping others. With a smile on her face, Mother Teresa said, “Everyone can do something.”

Those words deeply struck Donaldson and forced him to face hard truths about himself.

Hal Donaldson grew up in the San Francisco Bay area. When he was 12 years old, his parents were hit by a drunk driver; his father died, and his mother was seriously injured. To make ends meet, they went on welfare. Donaldson says, “I had holes in my shoes and clothes. When you’re teased at school for that, you just want to escape.”

He managed to do just that. Donaldson got into college and turned his focus to making money for himself. He says, “I was just trying to find my way out of insignificance.” However, it’s easy to overlook others along the way. I was the guy that would see a homeless person and cross the street, so I didn’t have to confront (面对) him. My focus was on climbing to the top instead of helping those trying to climb with me.

Donaldson returned home from India with a different thought. He traveled to eight cities in America and stayed on the streets and listened to stories of the homeless. “My heart broke,” he says. “I knew I could no longer just live for myself.”

Inspired by Mother Teresa’s words and the stories he’d heard across America, Donaldson loaded a pick up truck with $300 worth of groceries and handed them out to anyone who needed help. In 1994, Donaldson created the nonprofit organization, Convoy for Hope, which works with communities across America and around the world. Their work focuses on feeding children, women’s empowerment, helping farmers and disaster services.

4 . When I was 12 years old, I already knew that my teen years were going to be the worst years of my life. I was a total outsider, bullied (欺凌) at school. I felt completely alone in my small town.

But by starting to do volunteer work when I was 14, I turned my problem into a passion for helping others. The opportunity to practice kindness made me feel like my life had a greater purpose. The more positive energy I shared, the more kindness and appreciation I received. I realized that my purpose in life would be to reach out to people, specifically teenagers, and help them feel less alone.

Books were my true friends back then. I was so thankful that the authors wrote those books. The kindness they offered me with their books saved my life. One of my biggest dreams was to become an author so I could write books that would help other teenagers the way those books helped me.

After surviving terrible experiences at school and at home, I made a choice to take the optimistic, positive road in the next steps of my journey. My dream career, one I thought was only possible for the authors I loved, is what I am doing now. I have been a full-time author of teen novels since 2007 and am grateful for this amazing opportunity to reach out to readers every single day.

Kindness saved me when I needed help the most. Even small acts of kindness can change someone’s life. You never know what someone else is going through. But by practicing daily kindness, you become an architect of positive change.

5 . What a day! I started my new school this morning and had the best time. I made lots of new friends and really liked my teachers. I was nervous the night before, but I had no reason to be. Everyone was so friendly and polite. They made me feel at ease. It was like I’d been at the school for a hundred years!

The day started very early at 7:00 am. I had my breakfast downstairs with my mom. She could tell that I was very nervous. Mom kept asking me what was wrong. She told me I had nothing to worry about and that everyone was going to love me. If they didn’t love me, mom said to have a good talk with them. I couldn’t stop laughing.

My mom dropped me off at the school gate about five minutes before the bell rang. A little blonde girl got dropped off at the same time and started waving (招手) at me. She ran over and told me her name was Abigail. She was very nice and we became close straight away. We spent all morning together and began to talk to another girl called Stacey. The three of us sat together in class all day and we even made our way home together! It went so quickly. Our teacher told us that tomorrow we would really start learning and developing new skills.

I cannot wait until tomorrow and feel as though I am really going to enjoy my time at my new school. I only hope that my new friends feel the same way, too.

6 . When you are about to go to a boarding school (寄宿制学校) in England, there are many different questions that may come to mind. But once you look at them with some perspective (视角), you will certainly feel easy. Here is a normal boarding day.

Early Morning:

Usually boarders get up around 7:00 am and have around an hour to take a shower and put on their uniform before breakfast.

Lessons:

Classes start at 9: 00 am and every lesson lusts for 50 minutes. After two lessons, at 10: 40 am, you’ll have a short break. The next period of classics will include two more lessons.

Lunch:

Lunch is usually held around 12:30 pm at the dining hall, where you’ll join your friends to enjoy a hot dish. After an hour of lunch, you’ll have three or four more lessons to attend.

Dinner:

At 5:00 pm you will have finished your school lessons for the day. Most boarding schools in the UK offer their full boarders different kinds of hot meals to choose from.

Activities/ Sports:

All boarding schools in the UK provide many different kinds of activities for their boarders, such as football, swimming, golf or art.

Prep:

An important part of boarding school life is the supervised homework session known as “prop”. Although “prep” might sound stressful, it’s a great way for you to keep up with your studies.

Free time:

Once you have done all your classes and activities, it’s time to relax.

Bedtime:

In most boarding schools, the lights go out around 10:30 pm.

Being nervous just before you go to a boarding school is completely normal and understandable. Hopefully, knowing the usual routine (常规) can help you. Once you are there, you will also see how exciting life in a boarding school in England can be.

7 . In Singapore, authorities are looking at the possibility of digging deeper underground to create new space for human activity. The demand for underground lighting is therefore expected to rise in the future. Fortunately, a team of Nanyang Technological University (NTU) researchers has designed a “smart” device to harvest daylight and relay it to underground spaces, trimming the need to draw on traditional energy sources for lighting.

To develop the daylight harvesting device that can sustainably handle the problem, the NTU team drew inspiration from the magnifying (放大) glass, which can be used to focus sunlight into one point. The device sits above ground and just like the lens of a magnifying glass, the acrylic ball acts as the solar concentrator, enabling the sun’s rays to form a sharp focus at its opposite side. The focused sunlight is then collected into one end of a fiber cable (电缆) and transported along it to the end that is fixed underground.

As the sun moves across the sky throughout the day, so will the position of the focused sunlight inside the acrylic ball. To ensure that maximum sunlight is being collected and transported down the fiber cable throughout the day, the system uses a computer chip-based mechanism to track the sun’s rays. The Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates of the device location are preloaded into the system, allowing it to determine the spot where maximum sunlight should be focused at any given time. Two small motors assisted by computer chips are then used to adjust the position of the fiber to catch and transport sunlight from the focused spot.

Assistant Professor Yoo Seongwoo, lead author of the study said, “Our innovation is made of commercially available off-the-shelf materials, making it potentially very easy to produce at scale. We have intentionally designed the device to be lightweight and compact, which makes it convenient for our device to be combined with existing facilities in the urban environment.”

Moreover, the NTU researchers found the device’s luminous (发光的) efficiency far exceeds that of commercially available LED bulbs recorded in experiments. The quality of the light output of the NTU smart device is also comparable with current commercially available daylight harvesting systems which are far more costly.

9 . Every country has its favorite food. Italians like to eat pizza. Indians like to eat hot food. Japanese like to eat fish.

In England, one of the most popular foods is fish and chips. People usually buy it in a fish and chip shop. They put it in paper bags, and take it home, or to their workplace. Sometimes they eat it in the park or on the road. American fast food is the most popular in the world. In a lot of big cities in the world, you can find people eating hamburgers and chips.

Fish and chips, and Chinese take-away food are very popular in England. But they are less popular in the USA. The Americans eat take-away food, too, like chicken. But the most popular kind of take-away food is the hamburger. It looks like bread with meat in it. Ham (火腿) is kind of pork, but the hamburger does not have any pork in it. The hamburgers are also popular in England and Australia.