How important is your appearance? Although everyone wants to be good-looking, are beautiful people always happier people? For example, it must be a problem to be a really beautiful woman, because some people may be more interested in looking at you than talking to you. They think of you as a picture rather than a person.

    Some people think that women who are exceptionally(格外地) pretty and men who are particularly handsome must be stupid. They believe that only unattractive(无魅力的) people can be intelligent(智慧的).

    On the other hand, no one wants to be really ugly, and have a face that even your mother doesn't want to look at; and no one wants to be plain, either--that is, to be neither attractive nor unattractive, and have a face that is easily forgotten. Being attractive is like being rich. It can help you find happiness, but it doesn't always make you happy.

    So maybe the best thing is not to worry too much about how you look, but simply try to be an interesting person. For interesting people have interesting faces, and interesting faces are almost always attractive.

It's early in the morning and the alarm clock has already rung several time. You have to pull yourself out of bed and rush to school because you're afraid of being late for school.

As a school student, this is probably a common experience for you. But thanks to new rules, students in Zhejiang and Heilongjiang provinces can now stay in bed longer than before.

On Feb 23, the Zhejiang Department of Education announced (宣布) a new rule that asks primary schools to start school later. According to the rule, start times could be different among different grades, with students in Grade 1 and 2 starting no earlier than 8:30 am.

A similar guideline (指导方针) was announced by the education department in Heilongjiang Province on Feb 24. Students from all primary and junior high schools in the province have been required (要求) to arrive at school no earlier than 8 am.

According to a 2016 study by the Zhejiang Department of Education, half students in Grade 4 slept nine hours or more a night, while the enough sleep time for primary students in 10 hours.

"I welcome the new rule so much. It is such a wonderful rule that gives my son enough time for breakfast, which is necessary for his health and growth", a mother named Xu Li said. She is from Hangzhou and his son is in Grade 1. These changes have received much praise as they make students get enough sleep and enough time for breakfast.

Pushing back school times isn't unique (唯一的) to China. In the United States, schools in at least 21 states began to start school later in 2017, as studies have shown that later school start times could be good for students' development.

    Near the village, there is an old famous temple. Some people want to build a new house where the temple now stands, because they can find no other area to build them, while others disagree with them. They meet to decide how to solve the problem. Here are their opinions about it.

The expert wants to protect the temple and believes that there are some interesting things buried in the ground. If it is destroyed or moved, people may never learn about how people lived in the past.

The businessman thinks that the houses should be built. History is important, but we must think about the future. The village needs development and building new houses will offer jobs to hundreds of people.

Villager A says, "We should build the new houses because we need houses to live in."

Villager B says, "We should protect the temple because it can attract many tourists to come for a visit. If the temple is destroyed or moved, we will lose a lot of business."

The village leader thinks that he has a duty to make life better for the villagers. They need jobs and new houses. He also thinks the cultural site (遗迹) is important and they should be careful with it as well.

第2单元的主阅读Fishing with birds介绍了一种中国的传统技艺—鸬鹚捕鱼。文章结尾写道：In 50 years, perhaps there will be no more cormorant fishermen in the world. 你觉得鸬鹚捕鱼这项传统技艺会消失吗?给出你的观点，提供至少两个理由，并进行适当的论证。

Have you seen any scarecrows (稻草人)? In the countryside of our country, some villagers like to set up some scarecrows in the fields in order to prevent birds from harming their crops. They think that this can play a role in driving away birds. In fact, not only farmers love to use scarecrows, but also some airports have installed scarecrows in such a developed technology today, which plays a very good role in driving away birds. Some people will say that birds are not fools, and they will come back to eat after a long time. So do the birds really feel scared? Can scarecrows really play a role in driving away birds? Not very — unless you're willing to put some extra(额外)effort into them.

While traditional scarecrows who couldn't move do work against "pest birds" (eg. crows and blackbirds), the effect is almost always temporary (暂时的). Over time, the birds get used to scarecrows who couldn't move and reuse their destructive (破坏性的)habits.

However, a few tricks can up your scarecrow's game. Researchers have learned that those with realistic facial features(特征)and brightly colored clothes are better at driving away birds. Also, moving a scarecrow around every few days often helps. According to several studies, flailing(大幅波动) scarecrows get the very best results.