Color is everywhere in lives. But what does color mean? Why are people more relaxed in green rooms? Why do people do their best in blue gyms? That's the magic of color!

    Scientists from the US did an experiment. They asked two people to go into two different rooms. One went into a room painted in pink, and the other went into a blue room. They had to stay in the rooms for one hour. But they had to guess the time, because they didn't have a watch or any other thing to see the time. In the end, the person in the pink room came out in about 40 to 50 minutes. The person in the blue room came out after 70 to 80 minutes.

    The results show that color can change people's feelings about time. Warm colors make people feel that time is going faster than cool colors.

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      There are too many cities around the world. And each city needs water in many ways. Water on Earth falls mainly as rain. So the rainfall (降雨量) is important to each part of the world. And it is different from one city to another. The following chart shows the average (平均的) rain fall in four different cities in July and January.

    You probably know a typhoon is a large and powerful storm that can cause a lot of rain and wind. Everyone pays attention to typhoons because they can be dangerous. Some typhoons come and go and really don't cause much more trouble than a bad thunderstorm. Others may damage homes and cause some floods that go away on their own.

    Typhoons are always a concern, especially for people who live near the coast. When a typhoon is on the way, weather forecasters can say which areas will be affected. Maybe you've heard people call a typhoon a "natural disaster", but what does that mean? A natural disaster is something that happens in nature and causes big problems, like a typhoon, a tornado(龙卷), an earthquake, or a tsunami. But wherever you live, it's important to remember that there are lots of people looking out for you. In a bad storm or other crisis, this would include not only mums and dads, but also police officers, firefighters, doctors, nurses, and other people who are trained to handle emergencies.

    Smartphone apps certainly make our lives easily. However, sometimes they can also cause problems.

    Recently, the Ministry of Education(教育部) announced that teacher should not use Wechat or QQ to give homework or ask parents to grade kids's homework.

    Many teachers in China depend heavily on apps to give homework. The kids have to do their homework, stare at a phone screen. For example, Liu Yanming, a sixth-grade student in Shanghai, usually has to use his mother mobile phone to do his homework. Liu Yong, his father is afraid that apps could distract kids by encourage them to watch something unrelated(无关) to homework. "He is just 12 years old, and I do not want to buy him a cellphone," Liu told China Daily. "I also worry that my son's eyesight will be hurt because of staring at the phone for too long."

    However, Bai Yueping, president of Shanghai Tangzhen Middle School, defended (辩护) using apps for homework. Parents can understand their kids' learning situation and supervise (监督) them to finish the homework, Bai told China Daily.

    Zhang Siqi is a student from Renmin University of China.       "The use of WeChat or QQ to give homework is convenient," Zhang told China Daily. "We're living in an Internet era （时代）. It's unwise to refuse to take advantage of technology."

    Chu Zhaohui, a researcher at the National Institute of Education Sciences, believed that it is impossible to stop the use of electronic devices(设备) in the Internet era. However, students should use them when it's necessary, such as when they do listening exercises. "We don't want to stop outline education models, but they must be used carefully. Modern technologies are good... but they should not steal the show(喧宾夺主) ," he told China Daily.

    If you ask soma people, "How did you learn English so well?" You may get a surprising answer, "In my sleep!"

    These are people who have taken part in one of the recent experiments to test "Learn-While-Sleep" methods, which are now being tried in several countries, and with several subjects, of which English is only one.

    Specialists say that this "sleep study" method speeds language learning greatly. They say the average person can learn two or three times as much during sleep as in the same period (时期) during the day, and does not affect his rest in any way, A word of warning, however, that sleep teaching will only strengthen in your mind what you have studied already while you are awake.

    In an experiment. lessons were broadcast (广播) over the radio. Each lesson lasted twelve hours from 8: 00 p. m. to 8: 00 a. m. The first three hours of English grammar and vocabulary were given with the students awake. At 11: 00 p. m. a lullaby was broadcast to send the student to sleep and for the next three hours the radio whispered the lesson again into his sleeping ears. At 2: 00 a. m. a sharp noise was sent over the radio to wake the sleeping student up for a few minutes to review the lesson. The cradlesong (a kind of soft song making you fail asleep easily) sent him back to rest again while the radio went on At 5: 00 a. m. his sleep ended and he had to go through the lesson again for three hours before breakfast.