Have you ever planted a few trees on Tree-planting Day? Every year, millions of people, both the young and the old,1 a lot of trees. But this may not be the best way to make our world a 2 place. Last week we visited a city in Liaoning
Province. We were 3 to find most of the trees had been burned near the hills. We asked why. The workers nearby told us that the trees 4 soon after they were planted because they weren't watered well enough. So the 5 burned them and cleaned the place for planting 6 trees this year. We found a small card on one of the trees and it 7 , "I hope this tree will grow up with me to be the backbone (栋梁) of our country." The workers said that planting trees was important,8 making them alive was more important.
Some people now have a new idea that they can donate ( 捐赠) some 9 and let professionals (专业人员) plant and take care of the trees because their knowledge about planting trees is 10 . Do you think so?
A guide dog is a blind person's eyes. It helps a blind person do things and go places.
Guide dog puppies (小狗) live with families. The families take the puppies to stores, schools and other places. They teach the puppies to sit down and stand up. Then the puppies go to school. Trainers teach the dogs to do more things there. The dogs learn to go right and left. Next the dogs learn to carry harnesses, just like a kind of clothes. The harnesses fit over and around the dogs' bodies. The harnesses have metal handles (金属手柄) on the top. The blind people hold the handles. It helps them know which way the dogs are walking.
When guide dogs finish school, they are ready to help. The dogs will help their owners go to school or work. They will help their owners get on and off the bus. They will lead their owners around things in the way. They will guide their owners cross busy streets. The owner and a guide dog become a team. Blind people will not feel alone any more. They always have their best friends with them.
Can trees talk? Yes—but not in words. Scientists have reasons to believe that trees really can talk with each other.
Not long ago, scientists learned about some surprising things. First a willow tree (柳树) was attacked (攻击) in the woods by caterpillars (毛毛虫). The willow tree changed the chemicals of its leaves and made its leaves tasteless so that the caterpillars got tired of the leaves and stopped eating them. Even more surprisingly, the willow tree sent out a special vapour—a message causing its neighbours to change the chemicals of their own leaves and make themselves taste terrible too.
Talking, of course, doesn't need to be always in words. We can talk with each other by smiling, raising our shoulders and moving our hands. We know that birds and animals use songs, sounds and movements. Bees express themselves by dancing—flying in certain patterns that tell other bees where to find nectar (花蜜) for honey. So why shouldn't trees have ways of sending messages?
The world is not hungry, but it is thirsty. It seems strange that nearly 3 / 4 of the Earth is covered with water while we say we are short of water. Why? Because about 97% of water on the Earth is sea water which we can't drink or use for watering plants directly (直接地). Man can only drink and use the 3%—the water that comes from rivers and lakes. And we can't even use all of that because some of it has been polluted.
Now more water is needed. The problem is how we can avoid ( 避免) a serious water shortage in the future. First, we should all learn how to save water. Second, we should find out the ways to reuse it. Scientists are making studies in this field. Today, in large cities, water is used only once and then runs to the sea or rivers. In fact, it can be used again.
Finally, the sea seems to be the best answer. There is a lot of water in the sea. All that needs to be done is to get the salt out of the sea water. This is expensive, but it's already used in many parts of the world. Scientists are trying to find a cheaper way of doing it. So you see, if we can find a way out, we'll be in no danger of drying up.
Animals are our good friends, so we should protect them.
What kind of pet would you like? A lovely rabbit, a cute hamster (仓鼠) or some beautiful fish? Lots of kids love animals and want to keep a pet. But not every family in America can have a pet. So in some countries, such as the US, the UK and Australia, school classes have their own pets.
Keeping a pet is not easy. Fish need clean water and the right food. Rabbits need fresh vegetables and a warm place to live in. It is even not easy to keep a hamster. What would you feed a hamster? How about snakes? Class pets teach kids about the world around them and being responsible is very necessary. Sometimes the pets have babies. It's really exciting, but it also means more animals to look after.
Students take turns to look after the class pets. Every week the pets have new "mum and dad" to look after them. You may want to know what happens to the class pets during school holidays. At the end of the term, the teacher asks a responsible student to keep the pet at his or her home for the holidays.
Keeping a pet is not only fun, but also helps us to know more about animals and love them more.
Plants are very magical (神奇的). . Animals and man cannot make food from air, water and sunlight. Animals can get their food by eating plants and other animals. Man can get his food by eating plants and animals too. So animals and man need plants in order to live. . There are two kinds of plants: flowering plants and non-flowering plants.. You can know some trees from their flowers and fruit.
. Some plants are large and some are small. Most of them are green. Thanks to the plants around us, we can live on the Earth.
A. Plants are valuable for animals and man
B. Almost all the trees around us are flowering plants
C. That is why plants are important to animals and man
D. You will find that there are many kinds of plants around you
E. This is because plants can make food from air, water and sunlight
Clean water is not only important for people to produce food, but necessary for our life.
However, many people in Asia and Africa don't have enough clean water to use. The World Health Organization reports that almost 4,000 children die each day of polluted water or lack of water.
Farmers use 70% of the world fresh water to produce food. Home use takes up only 8% in the world. But as cities grow, more water will be used. The local government has to try to make people use less water. In European cities, people are saving water by using less. They even keep waste water for other use. In Australia, the government encourages people to collect rainwater and recycle water from showers.
Scientists and the UN are looking for good water management as the key to solving the problem. We can all work together to protect our fresh water in our daily life.
I like to read fairy tales before going to bed. One night, while I was reading, I (fall) asleep on my own sofa and I had a sweet dream.
In my dream, I imagined (be) a king with a large area of farmland. Every day, there were (quantity) of fresh food on the table for me to eat and there were (million) of people getting down on their knees in face of me. Suddenly, a dog appeared and (bark) at me. I (wake) up and found that I was sleeping by (I) on the ground. What a dream!
A tree can go hungry when it needs food to grow and it likes sugar very much. It's not (A) ____ same sugar in candies, but a special kind called glucose (葡萄糖) that makes trees grow. Trees make their sugar in their leaves. The sugar in the leaves then is spread into all other parts of the tree. This kind of sugar is made in a process (B) called photosynthesis (光合 作用).
Photosynthesis happens when a tree needs the sunlight and chlorophyll (叶绿素) to (C) turn CO2 and water into glucose. This glucose is the food that a tree needs when it grows. When the leaves are turning green, we know the tree is eating. But it isn't the glucose that makes the leaves green. It is the chlorophyll.
In spring and summer, trees grow the most ( D) 因为它们能吸收足够的阳光. Days become shorter and there is (E) ____ sunlight when autumn comes. This makes a tree realize it's time to get ready for winter. The leaves begin to turn red, orange and golden because there is less sunlight and water for photosynthesis, (F) and the green chlorophyll is going to disappear. As winter is coming, the tree has enough food it has kept when it is still warm and passes the season in a resting state, just like bears do! The only difference between them is that bears get into a cave and lie down to rest while trees lose their leaves and stand up to fall asleep.
