1 . Last weekend, I said goodbye to another dear old friend. We had 12 fine years together, but our relationship was becoming dysfunctional(不正常的). Unwanted emissions and serious health problems were the final straw, leaving me with no choice but to make a trip to the knacker’s(收废汽车者的)yard.

I am now car-free for the first time in 20 years, and it feels strange. When I gave up meat, I did so mainly for environmental reasons, and I didn’t miss it at all. I would like to say the same about my car, but I can’t. It was first and foremost a financial decision: keeping the old car on the road was getting too expensive.

But doing the right thing for the wrong reasons is still doing the right thing — I now have a chance to rethink how I move myself and my family around, and can try to find a more environmentally friendly means of transport.

Going car-free is, I think, a lifestyle change that many of us are going to make over the next few years, as car ownership becomes increasingly unnecessary, expensive and socially unacceptable. However, it is easier said than done. Now my car is gone. I still need to get around. But how? I already cycle to work and use public transport when appropriate. But there are some occasions when a car seems to be the only way.

I won’t buy one: I have joined a car-share program and will use taxis more often. I will hire a car if I need to drive a long distance. But then I am still travelling in fossil-fuelled cars(燃油汽车), like when I quit meat and ended up eating more cheese. I fear I may have swapped one environmental problem for another.

I am also afraid to think about the ultimate fate of my car. I have just offloaded more than a ton of metal, plastic, rubber, fabric, electronics, oil and petrol that will end up in a landfill. There are millions of similar vehicles in the UK alone that will have to go somewhere.

Maybe I am overthinking it. According to Charlie Wilson, a climate scientist at the UK’s Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, getting rid of a private car is no doubt a positive step to reduce CO₂ emissions.

He points to research by the OECD’s International Transport Forum. “They showed that moving from a private vehicle fleet(车队)to a shared vehicle fleet can greatly cut the number of vehicles you need to deliver the mobility that we need and want. If that vehicle fleet is electrified, you can also bring CO₂ emissions close to zero.”

So in other words, just get rid of your car.

Joseph is a teacher in New York. He gives lessons to     1    (he) students about American history. But he was born     2     Kenya, an African country where the children lead a very different life. For example, a ten-year-old boy may spend     3    (much) time in taking care of cows than studying at school. The children also learn many     4    (skill) like how to live in the wild.

Unlike many other children, Joseph went to school. And     5    (lucky), when he was 15, he came     6    (study) in America and then became a teacher. Joseph has written     7     book called Facing the Lion. In the book, he talks about his childhood. He thinks     8     is very important for American children to learn about the cultural differences between their country     9     the others. He also thinks children should learn to be strong and full of hope. Now Joseph     10    (do) a project, hoping that it will help children face their own “lions”.

4 . Most American families are smaller than the families in other countries. Most American families have one or two parents and one or two children each.

Children in the US will leave their parents’ home when they grow up. They usually live far from their parents because they want to find good jobs. They often write to their parents or telephone them. And they often go to visit their parents on holiday.

Parents usually let their children choose their own jobs. Americans think it important for young people to decide on their lives by themselves.

Children are asked to do some work around their house. And in many families, children are paid for doing some housework so that they learn how to make money for their own use.

5 . While video games used to be considered harmful to young people, various studies have also proved the positive effects of computer games, especially action video games.

Angela Pasqualotto from the University of Trento and her team have now tested whether such video games can help primary school children learn to read. They’ve developed such a computer game called Skies of Manawak.

“Reading involves many important skills, including knowing how to move our eyes on the page or how to use our working memory to connect words into a meaningful sentence,” explains Pasqualotto. “It’s known that action video games improve these still, such as vision, general attention, working memory and cognitive (认知的) flexibility.”

For their study, the researchers tested 150 school children between the ages of eight and twelve. Half of them played the game Skies of Manawak two hours a week for six weeks. The other half, the control group, received the educational game Scratch, which is intended to teach children the basics of programming. Both games are basically to train the executive (执行的) functions of the brain.

“We started by examining the children’s ability to read words, non-words and paragraphs and their attention control,” explains Pasqualotto. “After six weeks, these skills were tested again.”

“We found a seven-fold improvement in attention control in the children who played our action video game compared to the control group,” said Pasqualotto. The team also saw significant improvements in reading speed and accuracy among Skies of Manawak players—there were no improvements in the kids who played Scratch. It’s also worth mentioning that the children’s reading skills have improved, although the game itself doesn’t contain any reading exercises.

“For the study, we also carried out three further evaluation tests six, twelve and eighteen months after the training. Each time, the trained children performed better than the control group,” adds Pasqualotto.

Of course, while the study suggests some benefit in action video games, it does not mean that one must do nothing else.

6 . The Enrollment of International Students of Xi’an University of Science and Technology (XUST)

Application Procedure

1. Log in to the website (gjjl.xust.edu.cn) to download and fill in the Application Form for International Students;

2. Provide digital photocopies or scans of valid (有效的) regular passport.

Charge List

1. Registration fee ( not refunded) : ￥200 per person (under 3 months), ￥400 per person (over 3 months)

2. Tuition and other charges

Medical Insurance

According to the regulations issued by the Chinese Ministry of Education, all international students are required to purchase the Comprehensive Insurance & Protection scheme for Foreigners Staying in China on the registration day. Students who do not have valid medical insurance will not be allowed to register.

Medical insurance fee: ￥800 per person per year

Contact Information

Room B202, Admission Division, International Exchange and Cooperation Office, Xi’ an University of Science and Technology, 58 Yanta Road, Xi’ an, Shaanxi, 710054, China.

Tel: + 86-29-85583033

Fax: + 86-29-85583719

E-mail: luc@xust.edu.cn

Website: www.xust.edu.cn

7 . Will printed newspapers disappear one day? It’s quite possible. Here are some reasons.

First of all, printed newspapers aren’t the only way to get information. You can find the same information on the Internet. Besides, you can read a lot of information online for free, which makes the Internet even more attractive.

Lots of people are becoming Internet users and most of Internet users read news online. For example, I usually get new information about events that happen in the world by reading short messages on Twitter. As far as I know, students in our university hardly read newspapers. One can argue that older generations may have been used to reading printed newspapers and do not want to change anything, but research proves the opposite. According to a study, the number of Internet users aged between 70 and 75 has increased greatly within four years. This fact sounds strange, but some of Internet users are over 73 years old.

Where do newspapers get their money? The answer is “advertisers”. It is quite expensive especially when you have a lot of other opportunities. Online advertisements are becoming more and more popular. It is good to both sides because it is easier to track (追踪) how many clicks have been made on this link than to find out how many people have actually read a newspaper and paid attention to advertisements.

Also, printed newspapers are not environmentally friendly. They need tons of wood, lots of electricity and many delivery (运输) ways to produce and transport the papers.

8 . If having to make a choice between reading an e-book and a printed book, which would most people choose? Some would go for an e-book while some still prefer the hard-printed book.

Undoubtedly, e-books do have benefits. Firstly, changes to an electronic publication are relatively easy to make. They are quicker to obtain. E-books are more easily updated. The printed books on many subjects can become outdated very quickly. Secondly, e-books can be easily and quickly kept up to date. You usually get far more than just the e-books. Most e-books are sold with bonuses and related information that usually do not come with the purchase of a printed book. Moreover, they take up less space. Instead of a big library, you can fit literally thousands of books on your computer. It also makes it easier to share this information with families and friends.

For nearly twenty years, additionally, futurists have been predicting the development of printed books. The conventional view has been that digital e-books are on the verge of replacing paper books. However, this has not been the case. A printed book has its advantages too. Firstly, it is an object that can be carried and used alone. It needs no electric outlet (插座), no batteries, nothing. Secondly, e-books will always require some forms of support that the printed book does not need.

I believe that the online publishing has not taken off because people want real books. What is being published online more and more are pamphlets (小册子) and things that really do not need to be in print. These are stuff that people throw away afterward. More often, people do not want to read a book on the computer. What could be better than a paper book? It lasts a long time. These books are designed to last a long time without disappearing.

To sum up, there is no denying that the printed book is still very much preferred over its digital cousins. Reading electronic publications is just not the same when it comes to books. People are still very interested in real books and notebooks.