What is the most popular fast food today? Potato chips? Hamburgers? Or Sandwiches?Walk into almost any supermarket or corner store in America and you will see potato chips．Americans are the biggest eaters of potato chips and people in many other parts of the world enjoy them too．Do you know where this very popular fast food comes from?

    One day, almost 150 years ago, a cook in an expensive restaurant in New York State was preparing popular food—French fries．A customer in the restaurant didn't like the French fries, and complained(抱怨)because they were too thick．The cook cut some potatoes into thinner pieces and fried them．The waiter brought them to the customer．The customer tasted them, and asked to see the cook because he was still not satisfied ．

    The cook went to speak to the customer．The customer complained loudly about the chips again．The cook became very angry because the customer was so rude．He decided to play a trick(戏弄)on the customer．He cut some potatoes so thin that the customer wouldn't be able to pick them up．To the cook's surprise, the customer loved the new chips, and soon other customers wanted them too．People went home to tell their friends about this new food．The chips became so popular that the cook opened his own restaurant．

    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. Can we imagine life without paper or print?

    Paper was first created about 2,000 years ago, and has been made from silk, cotton, bamboo, and, since the 19th century, from wood. People learned to write words on paper to make a book. 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.

    Then printing was invented in China. When printing was developed greatly at the beginning of the 11th century, books could be produced more quickly and cheaply. As a result, more people learned to read. After that, knowledge and ideas spread quickly.

    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. So will books be replaced by computers one day? No, I don't think the Yao Ming posters on my bedroom wall will ever be replaced by a two-metre-high computer!

    These days haze(雾霾) is around us here and there. In fact, everyone has the power to change their living habits to help reduce it. Many local governments call on their people to take action to make the air cleaner.

    Transport is one of the biggest contributors(促成物) to haze. When, where, bow, why and what you drive all affect air quality. When one drives to work for one year, he uses as much energy as a bus rider uses in 10 years. So walk or ride your bicycle to work or school whenever possible. If it is necessary, you can use public transport instead of your car. Each person using public transport for a year instead of a car can save nearly a tonne of pollutants, including CO₂, from going into the atmosphere.

    Carpooling is another way to reduce carbon emissions (排放). Carpooling is the sharing of car journeys so that more than one person travels in a car. It immediately reduces your car's emissions by half.

    What you do inside your living space can have a big effect on the air quality outside it. You can do a lot of things inside and around your home that will help you pollute less and save some money.

    A large amount of our energy supply comes from burning coal, another contributor to haze. By cutting down your electricity use, you are cutting down on haze. So you may try to reduce your use of electricity by turning off lights, using your air conditioner wisely during the summer months, or updating some of your electrical appliances to low-energy models. For example, you can use energy-saving lamps that require less energy and last 10 times longer than common bulbs.

Many people catch a cold in the springtime or fall. Although scientists can send a man to the moon, why can't they find a way to stop the common cold? The 1 is easy. There are actually hundreds of kinds of cold viruses（病毒）out there. You never know which one you will 2 , so there isn't a cure（治疗）for each one. 

When a virus gets into your body, your body works hard to fight against it. When you have a cold, blood（血液）rushes to your nose and makes it stuffy（堵塞的）. You feel 3 because you can't breathe well, but your body is actually "eating" the virus. Your temperature rises and you get a fever, but the heat of your body is 4 the virus. You may feel uncomfortable, but actually your wonderful body is doing everything it can to kill the cold. 

Different people do different things to deal with colds. In the United States and some other countries, for example, people might eat chicken soup to feel 5 . Some people take hot baths and drink warm drinks. Other people 6 medicine to stop the uncomfortable feelings of colds. 

There is one interesting thing to note—some scientists say taking medicine when you have a cold is actually 7 for you. The virus stays in you longer because your body doesn't have a way to 8 it and kill it. Bodies can do an amazing job on their own. 

Lydia runs, and picks up rubbish along the way. What she does is called "plogging", {#blank#}1{#/blank#} activity combining collecting rubbish with running. Last June, she first learnt the idea of plogging on the Internet {#blank#}2{#/blank#} decided to plog.

Lydia runs four or five times a week and takes a daily walk {#blank#}3{#/blank#} her two dogs. She often wears her gloves and takes several {#blank#}4{#/blank#}(bag) when she goes out. Sometimes she spends half an hour {#blank#}5{#/blank#}(collect) rubbish. She says she {#blank#}6{#/blank#}(waste) the last few years of her running life. Now she feels {#blank#}7{#/blank#}(good) to do plogging than just running by the rubbish.

"It takes just a moment to stop and pick something up off the ground. {#blank#}8{#/blank#}, it makes a big difference to my community. Now my husband also joins me," Lydia says {#blank#}9{#/blank#}(proud). "It doesn't matter how much rubbish I pick up. It's a good way to protect {#blank#}10{#/blank#}(we) planet. And I hope more people can join in this activity."

Have you ever tried to hide your emotions from someone during a conversation? {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Scientists from the Ohio State University have found that people are able to tell other people' s emotions according to the changes in the color of their faces. 

Scientists studied pictures of people' s facial expressions. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} For example, happiness makes our faces red around the checks and a little blue around the chin. Disgust(厌恶) creates not only a blue-yellow color around the lips, but also a red-green color around the nose and forehead. " We believe these color patterns are the result of small changes in blood flow triggered(触发) by the central nervous(神经) system." Lead researcher Alex Nartime said. 

{#blank#}3{#/blank#} Does the color alone or also facial expressions help people tell others' emotions? To figure this out, scientists added color patterns to pictures of faces that showed no facial expressions. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} They were able to tell the emotions 75 percent of the time without any difficulty.

{#blank#}5{#/blank#} For example, when two people are heatedly arguing over something, we say they are red in the face. When a person is very angry, we say he or she is blue in the face.