Isaac Newton, the great British scientist, is often so deep in his thoughts that he will forget to eat his dinner.

    One day his friend came to have dinner with him. Dinner was put on the table but Newton didn't come out of his study（书房）. His friend sat down and waited for him. After waiting for quite a long time, he decided that Newton must be so deep in some new theory that he forgot all about the dinner. So he began to eat the chicken without Newton.

    When he finished, he thought he would play a joke on his friend. He put all the chicken bones（骨头）back on the dish and covered them with the dish over. Then he left Newton's house. He was quite certain that his joke would work.

    Several hours later, Newton came out of his study, feeling very hungry. He saw the table was ready for dinner and so he sat down. When he lifted the cover and saw the bones of the chicken, he was greatly surprised. He turned, looked at the clock, and saw that it was long past his usual time for dinner.

    "Well, well," he said to himself, "I thought I ate nothing, but I am wrong." He got up from table and went back to his study and began to work again.

    A tornado happened in Illinois, the USA on April 9th. The tornado hit the ground at around 7:00 p. m. on Thursday evening. According to a report, eight of the 150 local people were taken to hospitals after the tornado. All the people there were evacuated(撤离), and the power was off across the area. The Red Cross and Salvation Army built a rescue centre in a high school.

    Chad Connell, the Chief of Kirkland Community Fire District, said he watched the tornado moving toward the town from his house. “I've never seen anything like it in my life," he said, almost lost for words.

    It is reported that about 20 houses in Ogle County were badly damaged or even destroyed. Luckily, no people were killed or badly hurt there. It is also reported that 12 people were trapped(被困住) in a restaurant which collapsed(坍塌) in the tornado in Rochelle, about 20 miles south-west of Fairdale.  Raymond Kramer, 81, was one of them.  He said they were trapped for 90 minutes before the emergency crews were able to rescue them.

    "When the tornado hit, we all got a dust(灰尘) bath," Raymond told a reporter. "Everyone there got covered with dust. We are so lucky that we are finally saved. "

    When he was nine years old, American boy Milo Cress had a question: How many plastic straws(吸管) do Americans use every day?

    He quickly learned there wasn't a simple answer. The boy tried to work it out himself. Through lots of research, Cress found out that Americans use about 500 million straws every day. In hopes of reducing plastic waste, he founded the Be Straw Free project in 2011.

    Cress started the project in his hometown – Burlington, Vermont. He asked a local restaurant to stop offering straws with every drink order. It was a simple change. However, it would save money. And by doing that, the restaurant would cut down on its straw use by 50 percent.

    For the years that followed, Cress tried to spread his project across the United States. More and more restaurants agreed to join. They stop providing the customer with a straw unless he or she asks for one. Last April, Seattle became the first American city to completely ban (禁止) plastic straws.

    Plastic pollution has been one of the most serious problems today. According to scientists, more than eight million tons of plastic end up in the ocean each year. Plastic straws are especially terrible. They make it easy for people to get comfortable with single-use plastics.

    After his project became popular, Cress took his findings on the road. He has since spoken to tens of thousands of students around the world. He wants to encourage more people to say no to plastic straws.

    "Focusing(聚焦) on straws is one simple step we all could take," Cress says. "And it makes me feel that I, as a kid, could make a difference, too."

    Alan comes from New York, and now he is having a great time visiting his aunt in China. Today is Sunday. It's his eleventh birthday. He gets up early and wants to make a cake for his birthday party in the afternoon.

    When he comes out of his bedroom, he sees a big bowl of noodles on the table. It's a bowl of tomato and egg noodles. Alan usually has bread and milk for breakfast in America. Alan likes the tomato and egg noodles, but he still wants to know why his aunt cooks noodles this morning

    "It's your birthday today," his aunt says, *in China, many people eat very long noodles on their birthdays. It's a symbol of long life. We never cut up the noodles, and we call the long noodles changshou noodles.”

    "Thanks. I think it's my first special gift I get for my birthday," says Alan.