China’s top legislature (立法机构) passed the Yellow River Protection Law on Sunday. Due     1     (come) into effect from April 1, the law explains water conservation on the river basin, ecological protection and     2     (restore), conservation and intensive use of water resources, flood control and pollution prevention among other measures.

The Yellow River, the second     3     (long) river in China, is called the mother river of the Chinese nation. Since the founding of new China, large-scale protection of the river     4     (carry) out and remarkable achievements made. The introduction of the Yellow River Protection Law will further enhance the river’s governance (管理) and protection.

The law     5     (cover) a series of key issues, such as ecological environment fragility and water shortage. This means the settlement of some of the “pain points”     6     have long troubled the river now has a legal basis. The law also     7     (specific) highlights the need to strengthen the protection, inheritance and promotion of the Yellow River culture.

The Yellow River basin is home     8     a lot of cultural relics, ancient documents and other important cultural heritage, and     9     (they) protection is a very important part of the river’s protection and governance, since it is of irreplaceable significance to promoting     10     inheritance (继承) of Chinese civilization.

3 . A measure in the House’s $ 2 trillion economic bill would require states to cut greenhouse gas emissions (排放) promising rewards for transportation departments that post reductions and “consequences” for those that don’t.

Peter A. DeFazio, chairman of the Transportation Committee, said the proposal is designed to push states to act. “We’re going to give them very large motivation to actually make those meaningful targets and deliver on those targets,” he said. According to the proposal, states that cut emissions could get a $ 1 billion pot of money and potentially receive other bonus funding from the federal government. The bill doesn’t spell out potential consequences for not reducing emissions, leaving the decision to national transportation officials. Experts say they could include barriers to accessing highly prized grant funds (拨款).

Much of the attention on cutting emissions from the transport industry-the nation’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases-has focused on the adoption of electric vehicles by putting money in charging factories and supporting battery-powered cars. The new measure sides with environmental advocates who argue the nation can’t battle a changing climate without changing how Americans move around. Environmentalists say the nation’s changing to electric vehicles probably won’t happen quickly enough to limit temperature rises unless Americans can be convinced to drive less, and that would mean building new networks focused on walking, cycling and transit (运输).

Opposition to the emission measure is deep-seated. The heads of five western state transportation departments wrote a letter to Capitol’s committee last month saying the proposal would harm rural areas because options such as heavy-traffic pricing are not well-suited to places which are populated in few people, and it doesn’t make sense to target those state agencies when there are multiple reasons that influence emissions, including fuel economy standards for cars and local decisions about where to build stores and homes.

Kevin DeGood, a transportation researcher, said basic construction shape how people can get around. “It is funny that the state transportation departments suggest in the letter that they do not deeply influence greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation industry,” he said.

5 . Among the constant adjustive education standards and requirements, it’s important to ask a question: exactly what do we want in a high school graduate?

Some people think the goal is to enter college and earn a bachelor’s degree. Others find that interpretation too narrow, preferring that young people leave school with the skills to move into living-wage jobs. But one thing many people can embrace is that high school graduates are skilled in basic math and English.

A proposed law, House Bill 1308,could ruin that goal. Students must do the following things to get a diploma: earn 24 credits of coursework; complete a High School and Beyond Plan matching those courses; meet one requirement of a series of “graduation pathways”. The problem is that these pathways don’t work for all kids.

In large part, that’s because they guide students toward college standards. Last year, after surveying nearly 1,000 students, researchers discovered that 18% of students said they were “not good” at math, and 33% said they were poor test-takers. For them, the current pathways are a barrier because of their emphasis on these skills.

The new pathway is instead focused on performance. It would allow kids to create a presentation—say an exhibit or report — demonstrating mastery of two core subjects, but not necessarily math or English. When the bill came up for discussion, over 350 people showed their support, because it’s possible that through the performance pathway, a student could create a project emphasizing mastery in “fine arts” and “health and fitness”. Rep. Sharon favors the proposal. In a hearing, she spoke of her granddaughter, who wrote and self-published a novel while still in school, to illustrate the kind of project is workable. While Tafona Ervin worries that the lack of emphasis on math and English could lead students to graduate without solid skills.

If the purpose of education is to ensure that young people are prepared to pursue a fulfilling life, finishing school uncertain of one’s abilities in math and English weakens education’s goal.

7 . The Big Debate

Are road tests necessary for teen drivers?

Some say new drivers should be able to get a license without taking a road test.

8 . My generation — people born after 1990 — are accustomed to “all-in-platform” life, where we use mobile apps of different platforms to do almost everything in life.

For instance, I ordered a cup of coffee on Monday using an online delivery app. Then, I called a taxi by tapping on the app of a ride-booking service. Next, I bought some necessities on shopping platform Taobao. That done, I moved on to various other online destinations to get my daily fix of music, reading, social networking and so forth.

Platforms now play an increasingly important role in almost all aspects of day-to-day life, not just in economic and political processes. Consumption and social interaction are closely linked to platforms now.

But, I began to get confused recently. I thought I was being treated differently. My friend and I called a taxi at the same time on a ride-hailing platform (打车平台) and found that for the same destination, the prices were different. The price indicated on my phone was higher. One of the potential reasons could have been that I regularly use the ride-hailing platform and have a higher ranking while my friend doesn’t use it that often. So, the ride-hailing platform offers discounts to newbies like her, to attract and have such customers.

China’s latest efforts in regulating monopolistic or improper market behavior are of great significance in protecting consumers’ lawful rights.

“The essence of platform-based monopoly (垄断) is that a large number of users are gathered on only a select few platform companies, leading to uneven data gathering different platforms. But in China some platforms use their own data and traffic (流量) to expand capital in a disorderly way,” said Wang Yong, deputy director of the Institute of Economics at Tinghua University.

Data monopoly also brought another inconvenience for comumers — platforms block links to each other. For instance, link to WeChat Pay of Tencent is not available on Alibuba’s Taobao while there is no Alipay link on JD app’s payment options.

Last year, Meituan was charged with preventing customers from using Alipay as a payment option on Meituan apps and platforms.

In July, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology launched a six-month special rectification (专项治理) for the internet industry, asking platform operators to stop blocking each other’s link.

“More efforts should also be made to strike a good balance between personal information protection and interconnectivity between platforms Companies are being encouraged to further develop data encryption (加密) technology so that the data are available but not visible.”

Although tobacco use among Chinese middle school students has decreased in recent years, the number of electronic cigarette smokers     1     (double).

Despite being called     2     “safer alternative” to smoking, e-cigarettes contain nicotine, which is highly addictive and leads to many health issues, cancer     3     (include).

The newly revised Law on the Protection of Minors (未成年人),     4     will take effect on June 1st , 2021, includes     5     (policy) regarding electronic cigarettes for the first time. It forbids the sale of e-cigarettes to minors. Also, it bans     6     (set) up cigarette stores near schools and places where minors are present     7     large numbers.

The new law     8     (expect) to be a powerful legal weapon protecting the youth and will     9     (fundamental) solve the problem of tobacco sales to minors. Compared with the previous version, the new law lists clearer punishment rules to certain violations. Stores selling cigarettes to the minors will be fined up to 5,000 yuan     10     even risk getting their business license canceled.