● Try to stay away from places with too much noise. If you have to go, wear earplugs. A pair of good earplugs can cut the noise by 30 decibels. ● When swimming, remember to put earplugs into your ears to stop water from getting in.

● Never put anything sharp into your ears. If you think you have too much earwax, ask your mum or dad to help you clean it out. Keep these things in mind! Then you won't be saying “WHAT? WHAT?" when you are older.

    Millions of children in the United States go to summer camps. Some go to play outdoors at traditional camps in the woods, in the mountains or on lakes. But families now have many choices of special camps. These can be in the middle of nature or a big city. Special camps offer young people the chance to learn about different subjects: Anything from space exploration to business to medicine.

    In technology camps, one subject that children can learn about is video game design. They learn how to use computer programmes to create games of their own. One programme that teaches video game design is called Cybercamps. Children can learn how to design their own virtual(实际上的) worlds to set their video game in. Then, they programme their own rules and objects into the game.

    Cybercamps also offers courses in robot building and Web design. A recent story in the Washington Post described how one child made a robot that could sing a song. Another made a robot that could follow a black line drawn on a piece of cardboard. Also, children can learn how to make Web sites. One child made a site for pokeman, one of his favourite cartoon shows.

    Do equations and historical( 历史的) facts give you a headache? A change in the school timetable(课程表) may be the cure.

    This  suggestion  is  based  on  a  recent  study  carried  out  by  scientists  from  Royal  Holloway, University of London, the UK. They found that teenagers could get higher marks in math if they studied in the mornings and better grades in history if they were taught in the afternoons.

    The researchers studied students' grade reports, class timetables and absence rates( 缺席率) at a middle school in Bulgaria over nine years. The results showed that when teenagers had math classes earlier in the day, they scored about 7 percent higher in tests than when taught in the afternoon. Lower-ability students feel stressed most when they were studying math in the afternoon. In history, students taught in the afternoon scored about 6 percent higher than when they were taught in the morning. However, there was no sign that similar patterns( 模 式 ) work for other subjects such as languages or geography.

    Velichka Dimitrova, who did the study, said the findings show that we perform( 表 现 ) better at different times of the day. “In the morning, our brains are better and fresher, so we are better at doing something like problem solving, where we require more speed and attention” Dimitrova told The Telegraph. “In the afternoon, it seems that this process slows down. On the other hand, history is more suitable for the afternoon, when we are more creative and open to discussion,” she said. Subjects such as foreign languages require both memory and creativity. This is perhaps why the time of day had no influence on language learning.

    Time-of-day influences such as these are believed to have something to do with the body clock.

    This is the system in our bodies that controls when we need to sleep. Some schools in the US and UK have tried later school starting times for teenagers, whose body clocks change as they grow into adults. Dimitrova believes schools should jump at this chance to improve their students' performance just by changing their timetables.

    For thousands of years, humans have explored(探索)the Earth. Nowadays, we are exploring space. Astronomers (天文学家) are the modern﹣day explorers, Now, many astronomers are looking for new planets and new places for humans to live in the future. But where do astronomers start looking？

    First of all, astronomers look for a star. That's because our own Earth moves around a star (the Sun). More importantly, it is the correct distance( 距离) from the Sun for heat and light. So when astronomers have found the star, they look at the planets around it. In recent years, astronomers have found nearly 400 new planets with stars. However, many of these planets are either too near to the star or too far away.

    However, if the planet is in a good position, astronomers look for three key things: water, air and rock. Water is important because all life needs water. Humans can drink it and they can also grow plants with water. And plants produce air for humans to breathe and food to eat. Rock on a planet is also important. That's because there is often water under the rock.

    After many years of scrutinizing, astronomers have found a planet that is similar to the Earth. It's Gliese 581g and it's near a star. The astronomers think it has water and rock and the average(平均的) temperature is between -31℃ and -12℃.That's cold, but not colder than Antarctica or the Arctic Circle, for example. Gliese 581g is bigger than the Earth. A year on Gliese 581g is only 37 Earth days instead of 365. But astronomers do not think these are big differences and some of them think Gliese 581g will be a new Earth. However, Gliese 58Ig is twenty light years from the Earth.

    Have you ever been ill? When you are ill, your body becomes hot, and there are pains all over your body. You must be unhappy because of it. You don't want to work. You stay in bed feeling sad.

    What makes us ill? It's germs. Germs are everywhere. They are very small and you can't find them with your eyes, but you can see them with a microscope (显微镜). They are very, very small and there could be hundreds of them on a very small thing.

    Germs are always found in dirty water. When we look at dirty water under the microscope, we can see them in it. So your father and mother will not let you drink dirty water.

    Germs aren't found only in water. They are found in the air and dust (灰尘). If you cut your finger, and if some of the dust from the floor goes into the cut, some of the germs will go into your finger. Your finger will become big and red, and you will have much pain in it. Sometimes the germs will go into all of your body, and you will have pain everywhere.