Last night's meteor(流星) shower left many people in Emerald Valley dissatisfied. They gathered in the suburbs of the city with heavy telescopes，expecting to watch the brightly burning meteors passing through the sky. However, what they found was a sky so brightened by the city's lights that it darkened the light of the meteors passing overhead.

    “My family was so frustrated，” admitted town resident Duane Cosby, “We wanted to make this an unforgettable family outing，but it turned out to be a huge disappointment.”

    Astronomers—scientists who study stars and planets—have been complaining about this problem for many years. They say that light pollution prevents them from seeing objects in the sky that they could see quite easily in the past. They call on people and the government to take measures to fight against it.

    Besides professional and amateur(业余的) star observers, there is yet a population that suffers even more from light pollution. This population consists of birds，bats, frogs, and snakes etc. For example, outdoor lighting severely affects migrating(迁徙的)birds. According to the International Dark­Sky Association, “100 million birds a year throughout North America die in crashes with lighted buildings and towers. ”

    Countless animals injuries and deaths result from the use of artificial lighting. Clearly, people enjoy the benefits of lighting their evenings, but some scientists think it can be harmful to humans, too. They worry that exposure to light while sleeping can increase people's chances of getting cancer.

    Emerald Valley is only one community that is becoming aware of the negative effects of light pollution. For years, Flagstaff, Arizona has enforced lighting rules in its city in order to help astronomers with their observations. Similar efforts have been made worldwide, and a movement is underway to remind us to turn off lights when we are not using them, so that other creatures can share the night.

    Sometimes I have to admire people's imagination but what I admire most is the businessmen's sense of smell. China's Singles Day, which falls on Nov. 11 every year, has far surpassed its U.S. counterparts of Black Friday and Cyber Monday—combined. Last year, Americans spent a record $12.8 billion online between Thanksgiving Day and Cyber Monday. It's impressive until you compare it to the $17.6 billion in sales made by Chinese consumers in a single 24-hour period during 2016's Singles Day.

    Singles Day is known as “Bare Sticks Day” or “Bare Branches Day” in Chinese—because the date “11/11” looks like bare branches and “one” is the loneliest number. Singles Day began in the early 1990s in the dorm rooms of Nanjing University when a group of single friends were sorry about the lack of significant others and decided to mark the day by organizing activities as a group of singles and reducing their loneliness by buying themselves a gift.

    Then in 2009, sensing s break between the sales period of China's National Day on Oct. 1 and Chinese New Year in late January or early February, Alibaba's Jack Ma saw an opening: sell to comfort lonely hearts.

    The first year did only $7.5 million in sales, but just 8 years later, shoppers spent $25.3 billion, or 168.2 billion yuan, this year—a 40 percent jump from last year's $17.6 billion. Foe comparison, Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the U.S. only netted $6.79 billion in 2016. Amazon doesn't release sales figures for July's Prime Day, but it's pretty safe to believe the not-quite-national-holiday doesn't come close to $25 billion.

    “More than $25 billion in one day is not just a sales figure,” Alibaba Group CEO Daniel Zhang said in a statement. “It represents the desire for quality consumption of the Chinese consumer, and it reflects how merchants and consumers alike have now fully accepted the combination of online and offline sales.”

    "An apple a day keeps the doctor away." Similarly, if we drink a little more water every day, we may find that we need to go to the doctor a lot less often. A healthy diet is made up of water and a great many different kinds of foods. We know that healthy foods like fruits, vegetables and fish, are important as they provide us with energy and fiber, without giving us too much fat and sugar. But why is water important?

The human body needs water to survive. Water is important as it carries poisons and waste out of our bodies. However, doctors advise us to drink plenty of water, much more than the small amount we need to stay alive.

    Some doctors believe that water is important for our health in all kinds of ways. They believe that a great many illnesses and health problems start as a result of dehydration (脱水)-—a lack of water in the body. Most people are dehydrated at least some of time, although they probably don't know it. It is surprising to learn that if we feel thirsty, we are already in the first stage of dehydration. In fact, we are advised to drink water before we feel thirsty.

    These doctors think that health problems such as headaches, high blood pressure and asthma (哮喘) could be helped if people drink more water. They also believe that drinking more water can help people who are overweight. Water contains no calories so it will not make us put on weight. If we drink water, we will probably drink less sugary soft drinks such as Coca-cola. Doctors also believe that drinking more water may stop people from overeating. They say that many people think that they are hungry when they are, in fact, thirsty. Doctors suggest, therefore, that we eat less food and drink more water. There are still many health problems that cannot be solved by drinking water, so we should not stop going to seeing the doctor completely. However, if we make a decision to drink water every day, we may find that we need to go to the doctor a lot less often.

    Electronic book publishing has many of the same risks and opportunities as electronic music publishing. By delivering text direct to the reader's computer screen, the e-book could cut down costs, and allow creators to deal directly with their audience, by passing (绕开) traditional publishers and traders. But it also raises the possibility of mass piracy (盗版). Phil Rance, founder and managing director of Online Originals, a London-based e-book publisher, sums it up, "No one wants Napster (在线音乐服务) to happen to books."

    Indeed, the most popular MP3may have put the frighteners on an industry that generally operates some way behind the "bleeding edge". The Meta Group, a leading US-based market researcher, says publishers are far too concerned about protecting their rights, "We believe all the recent legal control over Napster is like putting a finger in a river that is already overflowing. Publishers need to deal with reality and come up with new ways to develop wide electronic distribution, asking the question: How can we use the certainty of wide distribution to our advantage."

    At the moment, most publishers would like to limit the use of e-books to the person who bought them, or to the computer used to download them. If that can be done, e-books become just an extra income stream in a publishing industry that would continue to operate the way it does today, according to Terry Robinson, business manager for Adobe's e-paper group. "If you've cracked the digital rights aspect, you've cracked the market." He says.

    Robert Nichols, Books Director at BOL agrees, "Rights management is absolutely important. Publishers just say that 'until copyright is secure, we are not going to talk'."

    Sales of Apple's new iPhone 11 in China began on Friday, but were met with a cooler reception from consumers than in previous years. Unlike in previous years, no long lines were seen outside Chinese shops on Friday for the new iPhone, and the product release only made the headlines in a few media outlets.

    Huawei unveiled(公布)its Mate 30 smartphone series on Thursday night. Its new devices have won consumers' hearts at home and abroad. Many compared it with Apple's new iPhone 11, saying that beats the new iPhone in terms of innovation and quality. One customer surnamed Zhao, an IT specialist who pre-ordered a Mate 30 Pro on Friday, said that he chose Mate 30 without hesitation. Zhao said, "It's obvious that Huawei's new phone with its advanced 5G mode would lead the future global telecommunication market, and its new innovative features in gesture and side control attracted my attention, too."

    In contrast with iPhone 11's lukewarm(冷淡的)sales, Chinese netizens have engaged in discussions on Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro. An online poll on the Mate 30 and iPhone 11 on Weibo on Friday showed that more than 60 percent of netizens chose the Mate 30, while less than 20 percent chose the iPhone 11. Many chose Huawei not out of patriotism (爱国主义)but for its technology.

    Overseas consumers also engaged in active discussions on Huawei's new flagship devices on technology sites and social media platforms. On Twitter, many netizens said "nice", "best phone ever" and "my favorite one" on Huawei's Twitter account. Some netizens in countries like the UK, the Netherlands and Argentina asked when Huawei's new devices would be released in their countries.

Every year on April 1,April Fools' Day is celebrated in many countries around the world.In France,it's called "Poisson d' Avril"or"Fish of April".In Scotland, the holiday is often called "Gowkie Day".In Iraq, the holiday is called "Kithbet Neesan" or "April Lie".

History experts say people have celebrated April Fools ' Day for a long time.Some believe April Fools' Day comes from the ancient Romans more than two thousand years ago, which was a day of playing games and pretending to be someone else.

Others say the day for fooling began in France in 1564.when King Charles changed the yearly calendar.He moved New Year's Day from April 1 to January I Many people did not know about the change because of communication problems then.Some people continued to celebrate New Year's Day on April 1.Other people called them April Fools and played jokes on them.

In the United State, April Fools' Day is just a day of joking and playing tricks on friends.These kinds of jokes are also called pranks(恶作剧).These jokes typically end in the prankster shouting "April Fools"!

Simple pranks, like telling a friend a funny lie or making prank phone calls, are still common.But major companies also get in on April Fools' Day in a much bigger way.A few years ago,on April 1,Starbucks announced it was introducing new coffee cup sizes-plenta and Micra.The very large cups,bigger than a human head,remained useful for customers even after finishing all that coffee.According to Starbucks,the cups could be used as a rain hat,a pot for plants,or a lampshade.

It did not take long for customers to catch on to the prank.More and more people use media or smartphone apps to play pranks on their friends on April Fools' Day.One very annoying smartphone app,Cat Facts,sends funny facts about cats to your friends 5 phones every day.