Everyone Can Change the World

    What can we do to help protect the environment? It seems useless to just pick up a piece of trash, but what will happen if you keep doing it every day? Tommy Kleyn, an ordinary man from the Netherlands, may give you the answer.

    Tommy Kleyn walked past a polluted river on his way to work every day. It used to be a beautiful view, but the trash on the bank made it dirty and smelly. So Tommy decided to pick up the trash along the river a little bit at a time after work. "It took me about 30 minutes to fill one garbage bag with trash, but one garbage bag didn't seem helpful in a place as polluted as this. I decided to fill one bag of trash each day as I passed by," Tommy said. Every day, Tommy took pictures of the river and shared them on his Facebook page. To his surprise, in just six days, he had made great progress with his cleanup effort. He felt happy and kept doing it. Gradually, more and more people knew about Tommy's story. Other people in the community began following in his footsteps and cleaning up trash on their way home, too.

    "The idea is to encourage people to fill one garbage bag with litter each day. It only takes 30 minutes, but it really makes a difference and you will be amazed at how good you feel afterwards," he said.

    People from all over the world have been moved and inspired by Tommy's story. No effort is useless if we keep doing it every day. Ordinary people like you and me can also make a difference to the world we live in if we take actions right now.

    In most parts of the world, many students help their schools make less pollution. They join environment clubs (环境俱乐部). In an environment club, people work together to make our environment clean.

    Here are some things students often do.

    No garbage (垃圾) lunches. How much do you throw away after lunch？Environment clubs ask students to bring their lunches in bags that can be used again. Every week they will choose the classes that make the least garbage and report them to the whole school.

    No car day. On a no car day, nobody comes to school in a car-not only the students but also the teachers！Cars give pollution to our air, so remember:

    Walk, jump, bike or run.

    Use your legs! It's lots of fun.

    Turn off the taps! Do you know that some toilets can waste twenty to forty cubic (立方的) meters of water an hour？In a year, that would fill a small river！In environment clubs, students mend those broken toilets.

    We should love our environment. Let's work together to make it better.

    A city without cars would be very strange, right? But Venice is such a city.

    Venice is in the northeast of Italy. It wasn't built on land, like Beijing or Shanghai, but on more than 110 islands. Seawater is everywhere around the city.

    Even so, traveling isn't that difficult. The waterway has always been the best way to get around. There are 117 waterways and more than 400 bridges that connect one river with another and can also guide you where you want to go. People in Venice move from place to place by boat. They like to enjoy the scenery and cool summer nights while taking boat trips. They can talk to other people as they go along the river.

    Water makes the city special, but it is also a big problem. Sometimes tourists will have such strange experiences. One moment they walk across the Rialto Bridge, and there's nothing special. But when they come back to the bridge an hour later, it's underwater and everyone is wearing rain shoes.

    Once, people used too much underground water. This made the city get lower little by little. Now the city has gone down by 23 centimeters. Another problem is that the temperature has risen over the years. This has made ice of the Arctic Ocean（北冰洋）melt（融化）.

    Scientists are trying different ways to stop the city from getting even lower. The Italian government has asked some of Italy's biggest companies to build the MOST project, which was planned to be built under the seawater to stop the rising water. Anyway, this project is helping solve the problem.

    Venice lies in the northeast of Italy. You can't{#blank#}1{#/blank#} cars in this strange city. Although it was built on {#blank#}2{#/blank#} 110 islands and seawater is almost everywhere around the city, traveling is{#blank#}3{#/blank#} There are 117 waterways and more than 400 bridges that connect one river with another one. People can take a {#blank#}4{#/blank#}from place to place there{#blank#}5{#/blank#} water makes the city special, it is also a big problem. Scientists are trying different ways to stop the city from being covered by water in the future.

    If you lose 12 times, will you just give up? Dale Carnegie, a pioneer in public speaking and self-development, kept trying. And he became famous by showing people how to be successful.

    Carnegie was born in 1888 in the central United States. As a son of a farmer, the boy had to get up at 4 a.m. every day to milk the cows. When Carnegie first entered college, he felt hopeless because of his clothes and ordinary (普通的) looks. His mother encouraged him, "Why not try to be better in other things instead of just dress and good looks?"

    Carnegie tried to be more active in college. He joined the debate (辩论) team. But one after another, he lost 12 times. The young man was so disappointed in himself that he even thought of ending his own life for so many failures.

    But soon Carnegie was seen practicing public speaking on the riverside. His hard work brought good results at last. In 1906, Carnegie won a famous speech match and became widely famous.

    The young man made his own words come true: "Believe that you will succeed, and you will." In order to share his success, Carnegie started schools and wrote books. More than 50 million copies of his books have been printed in 38 languages. They are still helping people on the road to success.

Information Card

    My name is Wang Hai. I am a happy boy. Let me tell you something about my school life. I usually go to school on foot. And I am never late. My morning classes begin at 8:00. We have many subjects, such as math, English, Chinese, biology and so on. Of all the subjects, I like math best. I think it's very easy and interesting. But I don't like history at all. I think it's boring. After school we often do outdoor activities. I like playing ball games. I am good at playing basketball. And I can also do some other things, like drawing and swimming. My school life is very interesting. I like it very much.

    Jack was seven years old. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} One day, their mother took them to their aunt's house to play when she wanted to go to the big city to buy some gifts. It was the holiday season.

    The children had a good time at their aunt's. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Then, at half past four their aunt took Jack into the kitchen (厨房). She gave him a delicious cake and a knife and said to him, " {#blank#}3{#/blank#}and give one of the pieces（块）to your sister, but remember to do it like a gentleman(绅士)."

    "Like a gentleman?" Jack asked. " {#blank#}4{#/blank#}"

    "They always give the bigger piece to the other person." said his aunt at once.

    "Oh," said Jack. He thought about this for a few seconds(秒). Then he took the cake to his sister and said to her, " {#blank#}5{#/blank#}".