Another thing an astronaut has to learn about is eating in space．Food is weightless, just as men are.

    Food for space has to be packed in special ways．Some of it goes into tubes that a man can squeeze into his mouth．Bite-sized cookies are packed in plastic.

    There is a good reason for covering each bite．The plastic keeps pieces of food from traveling in the spaceship．On the earth very small pieces of food would simply fall to the floor．But gravity doesn't pull them to the floor when they are out of the plastic in a spaceship．They move here and there and can get into a man's eyes or into the spaceship's instruments．If any of the instruments is blocked, the astronauts may have trouble getting safely home.

    As astronauts travel on longer space trips, they must take time to sleep．An astronaut can fit himself to his seat with a kind of seat belt. Or, if he wants to, he can sleep in a sleeping bag which is fixed in place under his seat．But be careful he must put his hands under the belt when he goes to sleep．This is because he is really afraid that he might touch one of controls that isn't supposed to be touched until later.

    Feifei, an 11-year-old boy from Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, suffered from a sudden acute eye disease which has almost led to blindness. The disease was caused by excessive(过度的)eye fatigue(疲劳)during the winter vacation, during which he played computer games for continuous 10 days and nights.

    Many youngsters in China nowadays are increasingly addicted to computer games and other electronic products. This is followed by a series of health problems, with the most typical case being myopia, or nearsightedness.

    According to the latest research report released by the World Health Organization (WHO), the myopia   rate among Chinese teenagers ranks first in the world—70 percent of high school and college students. The rate is nearly 40 percent in primary school students, while it is only 10 percent for their peers in the United States.

    There are at least 10 million people in China with severe myopia, and they are likely to get pathological(病理性的)myopia in middle age. Pathological myopia can't be treated with glasses or surgery, and it is one of the biggest factors that lead to blindness, Xu Xun, director of the ophthalmology(眼科学) department at Shanghai General Hospital, pointed out.

    Experts explain that two major factors lead to the high rate of myopia among Chinese people. One is high academic pressure, and the other one is excessive use of electronic devices over a long period of time. Genetics, on the other hand, are not the main reason, as only 20 percent of Chinese people had myopia in the 1960s.

    "Teenagers are now faced with severe academic pressure, which means they often study without natural light. This increases their risk of becoming nearsighted," Xu said.

    Experts suggest that youngsters maintain a proper balance between study and rest so as to protect their eyesight, and parents should play an active role in the process.

    Riding School:

    You can start horse—riding at any age. Choose private or group lessons any weekday between 9:00 a.m. and 8:30 p.m.(3:30 p.m. on Saturdays). There are 10 kilometers of tracks and paths for leisurely rides across farmland and open country. You will need a riding hat.

    Opening Hours: Monday through Friday: 9:00 a.m.—8:30 p.m.

    Phone: (412)396—6754  Fax:（412）396—6752

    Sailing Club:

    Our Young Sailor's Course leads to the Stage 1 Sailing qualification. You'll learn how to sail safely and the course also covers sailing theory and first aid. Have fun with other course member, afterwards in the clubroom. There are 10 weekly two-hour lessons(Tuesdays 6:00 p.m.—8:00 p.m.).

    Opening Hours: Tuesdays: 6:00 p. m.—8:00 p.m.

    Phone: (412)396—6644 Fax: (412)396—6644

    Diving Centre:

    Our experienced instructors offer one-month courses in deep-sea diving for beginners. There are two evening lessons a week, in which you learn to breathe underwater and use the equipment safely. You only need swimming suits and a towel. Reduced rates for couples.

    Opening Hours: Monday and Friday: 6:30 p.m.—8:30 p m.

    “We haven't found anything that we can't recycle!”

    Cigarette ends are everywhere—littering our streets and beaches—and for decades they've been thought of as “unrecyclable”. But a New Jersey based company, called TerraCycle, has taken on the challenge, and has come up with a way to recycle millions of cigarette ends and turn them into industrial plastic products. Its aim is to recycle things that people normally consider impossible to reuse.

    Obviously it would be even better for the environment if everyone just stopped smoking, but the statistics show that although there has been an increase in anti-smoking ads and messaging, between 2000 and 2014, global sales of cigarettes increased by 8 percent, and a whole lot of those cigarette ends are ending up as trash. Since most of our litter eventually ends up in waterways, cigarette ends can surely pollute the surrounding environment. “It only takes a single cigarette end to pollute a liter of water,” TerraCycle founder, Tom Szaky, said. “Animals can also mistake littered cigarette ends for food.”

    So how do you go about turning all those poisonous ends into something useful? TerraCycle does this by first breaking them down into separate parts. They mix the remaining materials, such as the tobacco and the paper, with other kinds of rubbish, and use it on non-agricultural land, such as golf courses. The filters (过滤嘴) are a little harder. To recycle these, TerraCycle first makes them clean and cuts them into small pieces, and then combines them with other recycled materials, making them into liquid for industrial plastic products.

    They're now also expanding their recycling offerings to the rest of the 80 percent of household waste that currently can't be recycled, such as chocolate packaging, pens, and mobile phones. The goal is to use the latest research to find a way to stop so much waste ending up in landfill (垃圾填埋), and then get companies to provide money for the process. And so far, it's working.

    “We haven't found anything that we can't recycle,” communications director of TerraCycle, Albe Zakes, said. “But with the amount and variety of packaging and litter in the world, we are always looking for new waste streams to address.”

    Most Europeans want small cars. Many Americans prefer large cars. As a result, European automakers produce a large number of economical, light weight cars, while American automakers build bigger, heavier cars.

    The price of gas has much to do with this. The petrol is expensive in Europe, so Europeans naturally prefer cars that will go a long way on a small amount of fuel. There are other reasons. Many European cities have very narrow streets. In these cities a small car is more practical and easier to handle than a large one.

    Some Americans like powerful engines in their cars. They enjoy having wider cars that are comfortable for large families and long trips. They are prepared to pay higher costs to get these advantages. Other Americans, however, have learned to like the small and smart cars. Many visitors to Europe during and after World War I discovered that small cars were fun to drive and easy to park in small spaces. They were delighted to learn how far small cars could go on a few gallons of gasoline.

    In the 1950s many Americans began buying European cars. In 1957, for the first time, the United States imported more cars than it exported. The best seller among these imported cars was a cool-looking but small car from Germany. Americans immediately gave it another name “ the bug”.

    Today, American car buyers have a wider choice. There are big cars for people who want large room, comfort, and power. And there are small cars, mostly imported but some American-made, for people who want easy parking and economical operation.

    I am astonished at the way God knows when to send a special gift of encouragement at just the right time! It might be in a dream, a lost letter, a memory, or something found that we'd forgotten about.

    My grandmother was from a town in Michigan. And summer after summer I enjoyed staying with my grandparents as a young child. I was from the city and loved the small town where they lived. People knew everyone, their children, their pets, their ancestors.

    Grandma was always using her hands for something exciting …She would make sandwiches and we'd have tea parties, plant flowers and carefully tend them. She loved knitting sweaters as well as making beautiful quilts　for her grandchildren. I remember the small thimble ( 顶 针 ) she would place on her finger while doing her needlework.

    A few years ago, when Grandma left this earth for her new residence in Heaven, I bid farewell to my loving grandmother. How quickly our lives can change! We had just had tea together a couple of months earlier, on her 91st birthday. I missed her very much, but I noticed it mostly on my birthdays, because there was no card from Grandma. She'd never forgotten my birthday!

    On one particular birthday when I was feeling a little low, something happened and made me feel as if she was sharing that special day with me. I was arranging some colorful pillows that she had made, and suddenly I felt something inside one pillow; it was small and hard. I moved the object to a seam (缝) that I carefully opened, and, to my delight, out came a tiny silver thimble!

    How happy I was to find something that had been a part of her! Not realizing k had fallen off her finger, I pictured her sewing h into that little pillow that I just happened to fluff (抖松), to place on my bedspread (床罩) that day. I carefully laid the thimble alongside the others Id collected over the years. What a precious memory of a very special lady who, somehow, I knew, was laughing in delight at sewing her thimble into my pillow. I heated the kettle and made some tea, using my best china, as Grandma always did, and then enjoyed my tea and Grandma's thimble. What a wonderful birthday that was!