Most of us think the telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell. In fact, an Italian named Antonio Meucci was officially recognised (认定) as the inventor a few years ago. Who is Meucci and why wasn't he known for his invention at the time?

    Antonio Meucci was born in Italy in 1808. He studied engineering and drawing. During his studies, Meucci started to experiment with electricity. When two places were connected with wires, people in those places could hear each other talk.

    In 1850, Meucci and his wife, Esterre, moved to New York. Meucci was worried about his wife, because she had become very ill.  To solve this problem, he connected metal cables between his home and his workshop. This way, they could talk to each other conveniently.

    Meucci invited a group of people to see his new invention. They listened in amazement as the voice of a singer was heard through the wires.

    Even worse, Meucci never applied for a patent (专利) on his invention. Meanwhile, Alexander Graham Bell was working on the same idea and in 1876 the patent for the telephone was given to him.

    In 2002, more than a century after Meucci's death, his work was finally recognised by the government.

    Every morning my father buys a newspaper on his way to work. Every evening my mother looks through magazines at home. And every night, I look at the posters with photos of David Beckham and Yao Ming on my bedroom wall before I go to sleep.

    Paper was first created about 2, 000 years ago, and has been made from silk, cotton, bamboo, and, since the 19th century, from wood. But in those days, books could only be produced one at a time by hand. As a result, they were expensive and rare. And because there weren't many books, few people learned to read.

    When printing was developed greatly at the beginning of the 11th century, books could be produced more quickly and cheaply.

    Today information can be received online, downloaded from the Internet rather than found in books, and information can be kept on CD-ROMs or machines such as MP3 players.

    Computers are already used in classrooms, and newspapers and magazines can already be read online. No, I don't think the poster about Yao Ming on my bedroom wall will ever be replaced by a two-metre-high computer!

    My friend has a large police dog, Jim. Police dogs are often clever. Every Sunday afternoon my friend takes Jim for a long walk in the park. Jim likes these long walks in the park very much. One Sunday afternoon a young man came to visit my friend. He stayed a long time. He talked and talked. Soon it was time for my friend to take Jim for his walk. But the visitor still stayed. Jim became very worried about his walk in the park.But the visitor paid no attention. He went on talking. Finally Jim could not stand any longer. He went out of the room and came back a few minutes later.

    Like humans, dogs donate blood too, but not every dog can donate blood. The dogs are screened (检查) for health first.They may donate three or four pints (品脱) a year, which can help animals that are suffering from illnesses like cancer or an accident like being hit by a car. One pint can save up to three dogs.

    Owners volunteer their pets for the short procedure (程序), which requires no sedative, a kind of medicine given to calm him or her down. It's the dog that finally chooses to lie still and give.

    Sandy Lucas brought her 7-year-old black German shepherd, Raina, to the mobile blood station (流动血站) when it was parked at her small village. Sandy said she wouldn't have troubled herself with highway traffic and city parking problems to take the dog to Penn Vet's animal hospital in downtown Philadelphia, which is twice as far from her home.“I was very, very excited that she had the right blood that was needed to help another dog out,” said Sandy. “We'll surely do it again.”

    A group of people organized a reading party in Fujian province, on March 29. More than40 reading lovers gathered together.

    "It is the first time to organize a reading party like this, and I hope more reading lovers can join us and share the joy of reading." said one of the organizers.

    They set up a chat group on mobile messenger app We Chat, and anyone can apply to be member of the group through the platform(平台Club members are encouraged to read at home and share their reading experiences at reading parties. They hold the party every two weeks. The organizers make a list of recommended(推荐)books ion the chub member

For the group's first reading party, another organizer of the reading party recommend Authentic Happiness by Marin Seligman, an American psychologist educator and author of

Information Card

    Here I want to tell you some information about water.

    Water covers most of our planet. People can find it in oceans, lakes and rivers, and under the ground. Water moves in the environment by evaporation, condensation, and precipitation. The warm Sun helps water change into vapour and rise up into the sky. It is evaporation. The vapour in the air forms clouds in the sky. It is condensation. When the clouds get heavy enough, the water falls back to the ground as rain or snow. This is precipitation.

    Ocean water has too much salt in it. Much of the water travels far over the land. When it travels over the land, the water picks up salt from the rocks and soil. About 97.5% of the Earth's water is salty water. It is expensive to take salt out of the water.

    All people need clean water. They need it for drinking, for cooking, and for bathing. Some people in a village in South America did not have clean water. Their water was full of oil and dirty things. People there got sick when they drank the water. Other people heard about the problem. They sent empty water tanks (储水池) to the village. Rainwater fell into the tanks. Now the people in that village have the clean water.

    As a well-known Chinese TV hostess, Dong Qing is now hosting two cultural shows, Chinese Poetry Conference and The Reader. The two shows are encouraging people to love traditional culture and find the beauty of life.

    Dong was born in a highly educated family in 1973. She had a great love for traditional literature (文学) from an early age. In 2015 when she was about to study in the US, Dong received an invitation from the director of Chinese Poetry Conference asking her to be the hostess. Because of her passion for traditional literature, Dong accepted the job.

    "The contest interests me very much. Hosting it is a process of learning about poetry and performing," said Dong. To her great joy, the show has become more and more popular.

    Under the slogan (口号) "Reading touches people's hearts", the new TV show The Reader has become a success. It invites famous guests from all walks of life to read something. Dong works as both the hostess and producer.

    The Reader became a turning point in Dong's 21 years of hosting. She said it brought her "quite a huge challenge".

    "There is no shortcut (捷径) in this world. If you want to be a good host, you need to make thorough preparations," said the beautiful hostess. "The charm of life lies in its unknown, so we just have to try and keep going."

    Writing a poem is all about observing the world around you. In fact, you can write anything that you like. Most people choose love as their topic; some people choose people as their topic; some people even choose the gate of the old farm as their topic.

    If you are interested in writing poems but don't know how to write, you can read or listen to poems first. It is almost certain that poets improve their skills by reading or listening to good poems.

    A poem may be born at any time. That's what's usually called inspiration (灵感). Once you have the beginning, you simply need to build the rest of the poem around it. At other times, you may want to write about a thing or an idea. Write down all the words and phrases that come to your mind when you think of that idea. Allow yourself to put all your ideas into words. It may sound difficult, but do not be afraid to express your feelings.

    Feelings make poems, and if you lie about your feelings, it can be easily known in the poem. It's said that a novel is “words in the best order”, while a poem is “the best words in the best order”. Think of the words you use. Some words will fit together perfectly but some won't, so choose your words carefully. You should use only those words that are necessary.

    Angelo Casimiro made something new at the age of fifteen.

    Casimiro made a device(装置）. It can charge（给……充电）your cellphone as you walk! When you run, jump or walk, a pair of discs(唱片）inside the shoes can produce electricity. It can be used to charge your phone or any other devices with a USB port!

    People have to move a lot if they use the device to charge. Those who like travelling in the wild will love it. It takes about eight hours' jogging to charge a lithium-ion（锂离子）battery and two hours' playing basketball will only give the cellphone about 10 minutes' charge.

    A device called SolePower is a kind of insole（鞋垫）that can produce electricity. SolePower is like Casimiro's device, but it can fully charge a cellphone after over a four-kilometre walk. So there's a lot for Casimiro to do to make his invention（发明）better.

    Anyway, Casimiro's device is quite good. After all, his invention started something new, right?