Ask someone what they have done to help the environment recently and they will almost mention recycling. Recycling in the homes is very important. However, having to recycle often means we already have more products than we need. We are just dealing with the results of that over-consumption in the greenest way, but it would be much better if we did not bring so many goods home.

    The total amount of packaging（外包装）has increased by 12% between 1999 and 2005. It is 1/3 of a home's waste in theUK. In many supermarkets, food products are packaged twice with plastic and paper. Too much packaging is doing serious damage to the environment. The UK, for example, is running out of land because of this unnecessary waste. If such packaging is burnt, it gives off greenhouse gases which go on to cause the greenhouse effect. Besides, the plastic from the package puts some creatures indanger, especially birds and fish.

    Recycling helps, but the recyclingitself uses energy. The solution is not to produce such waste in the firstplace. Food waste is a serious problem, too. Too many supermarkets encourage customers to buy more than they need. However, few of them have the idea that this cannot continue. For example, supermarkets should encourage customers to reuse their plastic bags.

    But this is not just about supermarkets. It is about all of us. We have been used to the idea that packaging means excellence while anything unpackaged is of poor condition. This is especially true of food. But this idea has spread to other products, which often have farmore packaging than necessary.

    There are signs of hope. As more of us recycle, we are beginning to realize just how many unnecessary goods are collected. We need to face the waste of our consumer culture, but we have amountain to climb.

    Many people travel to different places in the world by air. Usually it takes a long time, perhaps half a day, for passengers to stay in the plan. So airlines（航空公司）offer passengers food. But it is common that they feel bad about food taste. Do you agree?

    To solve this problem, airlines try hard to improve their food. They would like to do so because they don't want to lose customers.

    However, according to scientific research, part of the reason why plane food tastes bad is that at high altitude（海拔）we can not taste things as well as we do on the ground. Also scientists have found that our noses become very dry even before a plane takes off. As the plane moves up, the change in air  pressure（气压）reduces one third of the sensibility（感觉）of our taste buds（味蕾）. So our taste buds become senseless. The sad face, however, is that our noses don't know it.

    All of these help explain why food on the plane tastes so bad. They also help explain why airlines choose to offer passengers salty and spicy（辛辣的）food. Without doing so, the food would be tasteless.

    Now there are many researches on this. According to one of them, some volunteers are asked to lie with their feet higher than their heads for weeks. And scientists write down their feelings about food taste.

    Though scientists try their best, it is not as easy as they thought. Because they can't deal with the special environment successfully, such as the change in air pressure, making food taste good is still hard for them.

    We all need a healthy environment, but we produce waste every day and it is harmful to our environment. Though we are young, we can still do something to help. In fact, even the simplest everyday activities can make a real difference to the environment. Here are some ideas for you to live a green life.

    Remember these three words; reduce, reuse and recycle.

    Reduce means" use less". Don't waste things. This saves money and reduces pollution and waste going into the environment. Before we buy something new, think if it is really necessary or maybe the old one will be just as good! When we do buy thing, choose local products if possible, and try not to buy too many things from abroad.

    Reuse mean" use again". Use things for as long as possible. When we buy things, make sure that they last a long time. We should take care of them so that they will last, and we should repair them if we can instead of throwing them away and buying new ones. Don't use a paper cup or a paper bag. It's better to use a china cup(瓷杯) and a lunch box because you can use them again.

    Recycle means" change things into something else". Although it takes energy to change something into something else, it's better than throwing things away or burning them. Find out what can be recycled in your neighbourhood and take part in recycling programmes. We should also buy products made from recycled materials, such as recycled paper, to help save trees.

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    Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star is a lovely song for children, but it has two misunderstandings (误解). First, stars aren't little. Some may be Earth-sized, but most are bigger than Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system (太阳系). Second, they don't twinkle; they shine. And the brightness and color of the light from each star provide information about its temperature, size and even its age. viewing the stars from Earth is a bit like looking at them through a water filter (过滤器) because the air is thick compared to the emptiness of space. What is more, air is always moving, so starlight appears to be moving, too. The air also makes stars appear dimmer (暗淡的) than they would be if we could see them from space.

    If you stop and look at the sky carefully on a dark and moonless night, it's easy to find color differences among stars. The color of a star is a signal of its surface temperature. The hottest stars are blue, and the next hottest are white. Yellow stars like the sun are next, while red stars are the coolest of the visible (可见的) stars. Many red stars are so dim that people can't see them at all, and some stars hardly send out any light at all. One reason that stars different in brightness is that hotter stars produce more energy than cooler ones, but another important reason is that some are much bigger than others.

Some stars appear brighter to humans simply because they're closer. Astronomers rank (排列) the brightness of stars which are seen from Earth by giving them a name known as magnitude (光度) —the smaller the magnitude, the brighter the object. They have also designed a number that ranks stars according to how bright they are when compared to each other. With a magnitude of minus 26.7, the sun is the brightest object in the sky.