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.

    Imagine one day, the water taps in your house stop running. You have to buy water from shops. And still there {#blank#}1{#/blank#}water for everyone. Your mother has to save the family's shower water to do other things. Would you be able to stand that kind of life?

    Probably not. But that's what kids in Yemen are experiencing. Experts said Yemen is going to be the first country in the world to run out of water. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}a report, the capital, Sana'a, will run out of drinking water as early as 2025.

    Because of the shortage, the government often cuts the water supply. Hannan, an 18-year-old girl from Lahej, told the Times: "In a good week we'll have the water supply all week. But then the following week there will be water only for {#blank#}3{#/blank#}."

    Hannan said only rich people have enough water to use. They can buy water from the shops or from the water trucks. Private companies own the trucks. They {#blank#}4{#/blank#}every day to sell water—at very high prices. "A lot of people can't afford it," she said.

    The government is {#blank#}5{#/blank#}making use of seawater. But it will cost a lot and it may not happen soon enough to help the people of Yemen.

    Today, roller skating (滑旱冰) is easy and fun. But many years ago, it wasn't easy at all. Before 1743, people never tried skating on wheels. That changed because of a man named John Joseph Merlin. Merlin's work was making instruments. In his free time he liked to play the violin. Merlin was a man with many ideas and many dreams. People called him a dreamer.

    One day Merlin received an invitation to go to an important party. He was very pleased and a little excited. As the day of the party came near, Merlin began to think. He wanted to find a way to make a wonderful entrance at the party. Merlin had an idea. He thought that he would attract a lot of attention if he could skate into the room.

    Merlin tried different ways to make himself roll. Finally, he decided to put two wheels under each shoe. These were the first roller skate shoes. Merlin was very proud of them. He dreamed of arriving at the party and skating into the room while playing the violin. He was sure that everyone would be very surprised.

    On the night of the party Merlin rolled into the room, playing his violin. Everyone was really surprised to see him. There was just one problem. Merlin had no way to stop his roller skating. He rolled on, playing the violin. Then, with all eyes on him, Merlin hit into a huge mirror on the wall. The mirror broke into many pieces with a very loud noise. But nobody forgot Merlin's wonderful entrance after that.

    If you had billions of dollars, would you donate almost all of it to charity? Well, that's what Mark Zuckerburg, CEO and founder of Facebook, just said he would do.
    Zuckerburg and his wife Priscilla Chan promised to give 90% of their Facebook shares to society. Right now that is about $45 billion, and they plan to donate the money to things like science and education.
    Many billionaires have done similar things. Bill Gates, creator of Microsoft, made The Giving Pledge, an activity in which billionaires promise donate more than half of their wealth to charities. This started in 2010, and now 139 people from 15 countries joined it.
    But giving back and helping others isn't just for big billionaires. People like Zuckerberg, and Gates may have more to give, but people with less are doing it, too.
    Especially around the holidays, people want to do their part and give back to people who are less lucky than them. Schools may have food collections where people bring a few food items, and together they can make a big donation to places like homeless people's homes.
    People also host special events like concerts of runs to be creative while raising money. Regular people donate whatever they can to US charities like the United Way and the American Red Cross.
    Then these charities are able to help US communities in different ways like education, health and improving the lives of the poor. These individual donations come together to make a big difference.

Chopsticks are a pair of small equal-length sticks, usually made of wood, used for eating Asian food. Chopsticks are mainly used in China. And it is believed that the first chopsticks were developed in China. Chopsticks play an important role in Chinese food culture. Chinese chopsticks are usually 9 to 10 inches long. They are round on the eating end which means heaven (天), and the other end is square which means earth. The appearance of chopsticks said goodbye to those days when our Chinese ancestors(祖先)had to use their hands to eat.      

Besides, the use of chopsticks has also been a part of Chinese food culture. There are some taboos that you must pay great attention to when you use chopsticks. Firstly, don't use them to hit your bowl or plate. Secondly, never use them to point at others. Thirdly, don't put them in different food without taking something. Fourthly, don't cross the chopsticks on the table. And lastly, don't leave your chopsticks standing in the rice. Chinese people do this only when they honor (尊重) the dead.

Nowadays, chopsticks have many new usages. For example, you can buy a pair as a gift to your friends and relatives. In Chinese, it reads "筷子", which means having sons soon, so a newly-married couple will be very happy to accept it as their wedding gift.