Today, nearly five hundred weather stations in sixty countries receive satellite pictures.  When they receive new pictures, the meteorologists compare（比较）them with earlier ones.  Perhaps they may find that the clouds have changed during the last few hours.  This may mean that the weather on the ground may soon change, too.  In their next weather forecast, the meteorologists can say this.
　 So the weather satellites are a great help to the meteorologists.  Before satellites were invented, the scientists could forecast the weather for about 24 or 48 hours.  Now they can make good forecasts for three or five days.  Soon, perhaps, they may be able to forecast the weather for a week or more ahead（提前）.

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    Eat like a king in the morning, a prince at noon, and a farmer at night. This saying is all about the importance of breakfast. And now scientists can tell us just why it's so important. According to a study carried out at Imperial College London, UK, skipping (忽略)the first meal of the day not only means you eat more at lunch, but also that your brain wants to find more unhealthy foods.

    The study suggests that there is a special part of our brain called the orbitofrontal cortex (眶额皮层), which plays an important part in making choices about what we eat. It is used for identifying（识别） the taste of food, especially when skipping breakfast. It is more likely to target high-calorie foods when you're on an empty stomach.

    Scientists did an experiment on this. Dr Tony Goldstone from Imperial College London, scanned (扫描) the brains of 21 men and women, around the age of 25. On the first day, these people skipped breakfast before the scans. On the second day, they had cereal (谷物), bread and jam as breakfast. After the scan on both days, they had their lunch.

    When the volunteers had skipped breakfast, they ate around 20 percent more at lunch, compared with days when they had eaten breakfast. Their brain scans also showed the orbitofrontal cortex was especially responsive to high-calorie foods. "We believe that it identifies the value of foods – how pleasant, how delicious something is," Goldstone told The Guardian.

    Possible Earth-Like Planet Next Door?

    Scientists say they discovered an earth-like planet outside our solar system (太阳系). It is a planet that could support life.

    This planet is just 4.2 light years away from us. It is so close that space scientists have considered it as a next door neighbor. They say it could be reached by an unmanned spaceship before the end of the century -- in time for people alive today to see it.

    An international team of scientists found the planet moving around the star called "Proxima Centauri". The result came out last month from the scientific magazine Nature.

    Scientists have long thought that a planet with water is important for life. And it has to be neither too hot nor too cold. The newly-discovered planet is a little larger than earth Scientists have named it Proxima B. It moves around its sun, Proxima Centauri, once every 11 days.

    American scientists have been using instruments for years to look for earth-like planets. In 2013, scientists' best guess was that there are about one billion (1,000 million) "earths" in space.

    Alan Boss is the chairman of a group for outer space research. He said that Proxima B not only confirms (确认) the discovery of a planet, but also increases the number of other possible“earths” greatly.

    Boss said it is possible, even likely, that most stars have at least one earth-like planet, which he considers surprising.

    So from the early number of a billion, this new research suggests there may be as many possible earth-like planets as there are stars in the Galaxy (银河系). That is, anywhere from 250 billion to 500 billion "earths".

    This makes the possibility of living things increasingly likely Boss said he believes human beings will be able to show that there is life in places besides earth in his lifetime. "I am 65," he said, "but I expect to still be alive when it happens."

    1970 was World Conservation(保护) Year. The United Nations wanted everyone to know that the world was in danger. They hoped something could be" done.

    Here is one example of the problem. At one time there were 1,300 kinds of plants, trees and flowers in Holland(荷兰), but now only 866 are left. The others have been destroyed (毁灭) by modern people and their science. We are polluting earth, air, water and everything around us. We can't live without these things. If things go on like this, we shall destroy ourselves.

    What will happen in the future? Perhaps it's more important to ask "What must we do?". More and more young people have known this. Many of them are helping to save our earth. For example, they plant trees. In a small town in the United States a large group of girls cleaned the banks of 11 kilometres of their river. Young people may hear about conservation through a song called "No one's going to change our world". It was made by Cliff Gichard and other singers. The money from it will help to conserve tigers, elephants and pandas on the earth.

    Audio digital books(有声图书) are becoming more and more popular these days. One of the reasons for this is that audio digital books can be "read" in many places comfortably.

    The first favorite place of many people is in bed, before going to sleep. Many people like to just lie in bed in the dark before they fall asleep at night. This would be the perfect time to listen to an audio digital book. If you read a usual book, the lights have to be turned on and you have to turn the pages with your hand. An audio book can just be listened to while a person stays comfortably in bed.

    The next favorite place to listen to audio digital books would be in the kitchen. For some people, kitchen chores are boring. Audio digital books provide good entertainment, and people don't need to turn pages.

    An audio digital book is a favorite while a person is gardening. It can help take a person's mind off the job at hand. It can be fun and exciting to do gardening with the help of the book.

    An audio digital book is a favorite while a person is exercising. It allows the mind to be free while the legs, body and arms are kept busy. This would be a great place to listen to these books.

    What is an egg? Birds and fish give birth to many babies at one time. They can do this by laying (产) many eggs. The baby birds or the baby fish stay in eggs until they are ready to be born. What do eggs look like? When you make a fried egg, you can see a yellow part and a white part. The yellow part of the egg becomes a chick. The chick eats the white part until it comes out of the egg.

    What is a fruit? Why do plants have fruits? A fruit is the house of seeds (种子). Plants grow flowers to make fruits. Fully grown fruits fall down. Then, the seed grow root (根) under the ground. What happens next? Another plant grows! Usually seeds grow inside of a fruit, but strawberry seeds grow outside of the fruit.