A plant is a living thing. It uses its many parts to grow from a small seed to a large plant. Each part helps the plant stay healthy. Plants also need sunlight to grow. They get light from the sun and minerals from the soil. These things help the plant stay alive and grow.

    All pets' owners know that pets use their body language to communicate with us. Since they live much simpler lives than we do, they depend on us and they need to express their needs to us. For example, cats do this with their ears, bodies and sounds. Sometimes they simply want our attention, while other times, they are telling us" My food is empty."

    I have one cat. He tells me different things. For example, when his food bowl is empty, he lets out a howl(长嚎). When he is hungry and doesn't find food to cat, he climbs onto my table and walks on it.

Now research shows that 67% of people think they understand what their pets want or need. The more we show our understanding of what they are telling us, the better our pets will be able to communicate with us. Try to pay close attention to what your pet is "telling" you and you will find it is eager (渴望) to "talk" to you.

    A zero-waste life is a lifestyle that hardly creates any rubbish. So, a zero-waste store is about providing a kind of everyday and pleasant-looking zero-waste products to help people start on a zero-waste life journey.

    "Zero waste" or "danshari" was first suggested by a French woman called Bea Johnson. Her idea is: live a life and try not to create any rubbish; use different kinds of ways to save the environment such as stopping the use of one-off objects; giving unwanted things to others or giving them away to organizations like the Red Cross.

    Yu Yuan, 27, is deeply interested in this idea. She and her boyfriend have lived in Beijing for many years. And earlier she used to buy things without thinking about them carefully until she saw a video about "zero waste", in which a family of four placed the rubbish they produced every year in a jar (罐). After watching the video, Yu wanted to experience this zero-waste lifestyle with her boyfriend.

    A zero-waste life follows the 6R rule-Refuse Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Recycle and Rot. Over August-October when Yu followed the rule of zero waste 6R, she and her boyfriend Joe Harvey both produced only two cans of rubbish.

    Now, the couple have opened a small shop in Beijing, where they use wood products to take the place of plastic ones and cloth bags printed with environmentally friendly logos. Most products sold in the store can be reused. The store also has second-hand books and CDs/DVDs with, ideas to make the best of the used things.

    "Those who once experienced the non-waste lifestyle have slowly changed their ideas," says Ya, "The zero-waste lifestyle is not for ascetics (苦行僧). It is just around us at our finger-tips." Yu expects some of her friends to join her on the road to zero waste.

    We all cry for water when we are thirsty. But do you know, in very hot, dry weather, plants also make very low sounds as if they are crying for help?

    You see, in a plant's stem there are several hundred "water pipes" that bring water from soil all the way up to the leaves. When the ground turns dry, it becomes harder and harder for plants to do this.

    In very hot days, plants have to get any water that they can get.

    Scientists Robot Winter has found out that when plants can get no water, their "water pipes" snap(发出声音). When that happens, the whole plant vibrates(颤动) a little.

    Robot knows that healthy, well-watered plants are quiet. He also knows that dry plants are many insects' favorites and they often attack(袭击) them. How do the insects know which are healthy plants and which are not? Robot thinks that the insects may hear the plants "crying" and they may come to kill them.

    It is increasingly popular for Chinese youngpeople to share their experiences on social media (媒体), such as the"moments"(朋友圈)on popular instant messagingservice WeChat. "I have been reading 'JaneEyre' for 40 days with 48,000 words finished Li Anqi said. Li has beensharing her reading experience on WeChat moments every day since January.Working in Yinchuan, capital of Northwest China? s Ningxia, Li wants to learnEnglish very much, but cannot get rid of (摆脱)theeveryday work of school lessons.

    "I found many of my WeChat friends hadbeen reading books or learning English on mobile reading apps, and I did notwant to fall behind," Li said.

In January, she spent more than 100yuan buying an online reading class at the Bohe Reading app, which tellscustomers they can: "Finish reading your first English book here."

    At her reading class, teachers assignreading homework and give instructions to 430 class members every day.

    A survey reportreleased on Thursdaysaid 70.9 percent of primary and middle students in China use the Wechatinstant messaging App.

    At the same time, 75. 9 percent of Chinesechildren have their own mobile phones, according to China National Children'sCenter.

    The figures were based on a survey of nearly9000 children across China.

    However, 28. 8 percent of them never readnews online and 43. 2 percent have never touched newspapers.

    The center called for efforts to address thedigital divide between urban and rural education and protect children's privacy(隐私)asInternet users.

    I'm not much of a crier most of the time. But {#blank#}1{#/blank#} when I was reading a book on a plane, I started crying. Of course, it came as a big surprise when tears came up, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't {#blank#}2{#/blank#} myself.

    Oh no, not this now. I thought to myself. But even as the thought entered my brain. I felt the {#blank#}3{#/blank#} hot drop of salty water coming down my face. I put my head down, hoping that I could go on reading.

    In fact, the harder I tried, the more tears pushed their way out of my eyes. You could guess how surprised the man next to me looked.

    My head {#blank#}4{#/blank#} in shame. He must think I was crazy. Maybe I could turn towards him, hold up the cover of the book and say in my crying voice. "I'm sorry, sir. It's just a really good book!" But I didn't, say anything. Instead, I just put my head back against the {#blank#}5{#/blank#} and let the tears run. Do you know what decision I made while I was crying? My decision was that it was OK if he thought I was crazy. I preferred to be crazy instead of being the kind of person who wouldn't cry when the situation called for it, or who wouldn't let {#blank#}6{#/blank#} feel anything at all.

    I've been that girl who has spent so much time trying to make sure people didn't think f was crazy. But now I don't want to be that girl any more —that bored and {#blank#}7{#/blank#} girl. I'd rather {#blank#}8{#/blank#} this girl who is able to forgive (原谅), love and act, even if it means being disappointed or being hurt again and again.