The word “day” has two meanings. When we talk about the number of days in a year, we are using “day” to mean 24 hours. But when we talk about day and night, we are using “day” to mean the time between sunrise and sunset. Since the earth looks like a ball, the sun can shine on only half of it at a time. Always one half of the earth is having day and the other half night. A place is moved from day into night and from night into day over and over by the spinning(旋转) of the earth. At the equator(赤道) day and night are sometimes the same length. They are each twelve hours long. The sun rises at 6 in the morning and sets at 6 in the evening. For six months the North Pole is tilted(倾斜) toward the sun. In those months the Northern Hemisphere(半球) gets more hours of sunlight than the Southern Hemisphere. Days are longer than nights. South of the equator nights are longer than days. For the other six months the North Pole is tilted away from the sun. Then the Southern Hemisphere gets more sunlight. Days are longer than night. North of the equator nights are longer than days. Winter is the season of long nights. Summer is the season of long days.

    Thousands of years ago,in the south of ancient China,there lived Shennong,a man who had an ox head and human body.Seeing that local people were suffering from disease,he built ladders and houses on a high mountain to store hundreds of medical plants.To remember him,people named the place shennongjia.

    The legend(传说）makes Shennongjia in Hubei an inciting place for tourists.Traveling there is a unique experience,as you can see sceneries of the four seasons from different altitudes(海拔）.“When the bottom of the mountain is summer,the top is spring and while the foothill is autumn,the top is covered with ice,”local people say of the special climate of Shennongjia.

    Shennongjia is also home to 5,000 species of animals and plants.Many animals in danger live there,such as the golden monkey,the clouded leopard and the Asian black bear.

    One interesting and mysterious(奇妙的）thing about Shennongjia is its legend of wild men.Some people once claimed that they saw big prints or big-foot creatures.Yet so far,scientists haven't proved it is true and some say they are just bears.

    The beautiful place has recently received a new title.On July 17,2016,Shennongjia Forestry District was added to United Nations World Heritage list as a natural site.Chins now has 50 world heritage sites(遗址），second only to Italy in the world.

    Every day there is less and less space on Earth for rubbish. Yet every day we make more and more rubbish. What can we do? We can recycle some of our rubbish. Recycling means that the rubbish will be made into something that can be used again.

    Recycling helps Earth. And it saves space in rubbish dumps(垃圾场). Half of everything that we put into landfills could be recycled instead. In fact, most things made of paper, metal, glass and plastic can be recycled.

    Paper  can  be  broken  into  small  pieces  and  made  into  new  paper. Steel and aluminum cans(金属罐) can be melted down(熔化) and made into new cans. The same is true of glass bottles. This can be done over and over again. Recycling doesn't take as much energy as making these things the first time. So we can use less of Earth's fuel resources.

    Plastic can be melted down, too. Then it can be formed into park benches(长椅), playgrounds and so on. Some people call plastic the "wood" of the future. Things made of plastic will last about 400 years—even if they stay outside in the weather. No wood can do that!

Information Card

    Sam Scott and his sister are both students. They1to school every day. Some students often take a bus to school. They sometimes play2after school. They do3homework before dinner. They watch TV4about an hour. They go to bed5 It's a good habit.