How often do you use your car? Can you use your car less often? Do you know the following facts in the UK?
·About 50% of all car journeys are just for fun.
·Over 80% people go to work by car.
·25% car journeys are under two miles.
·70% car journeys are under five miles.
WALKING & CYCLING

Instead of using the car for short journeys, why not walk or ride a bicycle? Walking is the most popular form of exercise—it's healthy and it can save money. If you work nearby, try walking or cycling instead of driving. Walking your children to school gives them valuable road experience.
BUSES

Bus companies are using new buses: some run on new fuelswhich produce less pollution; some have easier access（通路）for disabled and old people. There are special traffic lanes (行车道)to make bus journeys easier. So do something to help solve the pollution problem—-let the bus take you to work and your children to school.
TRAINS

All car journeys, long or short, can be hard work. For some trips, it is wiser to take the train. Leave your car at home and walk, cycle or take a bus to and from the station. Train travel is fast, safe and comfortable. Train tickets are not always expensive.

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    Do you like blueberries? But maybe you don't know blueberries well.

    Farmers often grow them on bushes(灌木丛) in the field. A blueberry is small and round. Many blueberries can grow on one bush. At first, the blueberries are green. You can't eat the green berries. A lot of sun and rain help them become sweet. When the berries become blue and big, they are ripe and sweet.

    After the blueberries are ripe, people put them into boxes and bring them to stores and supermarkets. People buy the blueberries and take them home to eat. After they wash the berries, they eat them one by one. Some people like to cook with blueberries. They make blueberry muffins(松饼) and pancakes. They like to make blueberry juice. Others like to make blueberry ice cream. It is very cool!

    “Without music, life would be a mistake,” famous German philosopher(哲学家) Friendrich Nietzsche said over a century ago. Music is a big part of our lives. But in recent years, some US schools have cut music classes to control budgets(预算).

    For example, Chicago public schools hurt arts education when it fired(解雇)over 1,000 teachers. Among them, 10 percent of the teachers taught art or music, according to The Washington Times. In fact, this is not just a problem in the US. In other countries, such as China and the UK, music classes are not thought to be as important as ones like science, math and history. That's partly because music is not seen as a very important life skill, and it isn't tested. Many students are busy with schoolwork, so parents and students choose to focus on subjects that are tested more often.

    However, learning music is beneficial(有益的)in many ways.

    When playing music, you need different abilities to work together. It is not as simple as it looks, according to Kenneth Guilmartin of Music Together, an early childhood music development program. For example, when playing the piano, people see music notes and decode(解码)them in their brains. They also use their fingers to make sounds. You need to deal with all these things at the same time.

    Music has a special connection with science as well. You can see that many scientists are good at playing music: Einstein played the violin, and German physicist Max Planck was talented in playing the piano.

    Garbage(垃圾) Island

    You can't see it from the air. It's almost impossible to see from a ship. But somewhere in the North Pacific is a huge island of garbage, just below the water surface.

    What is the island made of?

    The garbage island is not an island, but a collection of millions of plastic and other objects. The water movements of Pacific Ocean bring the objects together and cause them to go around in a big circle.

    Charles Moore found it in 1997 and named it “the Great Pacific Garbage Patch” .

    Where does all the plastic come from?

    Much of the garbage comes from everyday objects, such as shopping bags and water bottles. Some of these objects finally reach the ocean. Garbage from the western coast of North America takes about six years to reach it. Objects from East Asia take about a year. Other garbage comes from ships passing through the area.

    Is the Garbage Patch dangerous?

    The larger pieces of garbage are a problem for wildlife. For example, sea turtles（海龟）and seabirds often think the plastic is their food. They eat the plastic and die.

    In addition, the plastic stops sunlight from reaching deeper water. Without sunlight, very small sea animals die. Then, there is less food for larger fish to eat.

    What can we do to help stop it?

    Cleaning up the island isn't easy. But we can make people realize the problem. One environmentalist(环保主义者), David de Rothschild, is sailing around the world in boat made of plastic bottles to teach people about the problem of garbage in the sea.

    Another idea is that we can recycle the plastic garbage. Environmental engineer Cesar Harada is building a robot that collects pieces of plastic. Harada hopes to use his robot in the Pacific. Harada also has a website for reporting environmental problems. He says, “I hope everybody can become an environmental activist.”

My name is Nancy. I'm twelve years old. I'm from China. I am a middle school student. I'm in Class Three. I like green and blue. This is my new friend. Her name is Wendy. She is thirteen years old. She is from England. We are friends, but we are in different classes. Wendy is in Class Four. She likes red and yellow. She is a good student. All the students and teachers in her class like her. Wendy likes swimming, and she often swims after school. I can't swim. I like basketball and football. I often play basketball with my sister in the afternoon. 

We like animals very much. I have a dog, and she has a cat. Where are we now? Oh, we are in the park. We are playing with our dog and cat.