Joy always rides her bike to school. It's four miles to school and it takes her about fifteen minutes. Joy likes riding to school. She says it's good for her health.

    Edward usually goes to school by bus. He likes talking with his friends on the bus. It's about ten minutes' journey (旅程) to school by bus.

    Mary's home is near the school. She usually walks to school. It's about five minutes' walk. Mary says she likes taking walks after meal.

    Tom is a TV reporter. An amazing thing happened to Tom yesterday evening. He was walking alone on his way home when he saw bright lights in the sky. Then a spacecraft(航天器) showed up. At first he thought it was orange and white, and it was coming closer and closer. Then it stopped a few metres above the ground. He saw two people inside. They had big ears and small eyes, but no hair. Tom thought they were aliens. He had a camera with him then, but he was too scared to take a photo. Then he began to feel weak and fell to the ground. An hour later, he woke up. He found himself lying on the grass in front of his house. He couldn't explain how he got there. Of course he told his friends about this strange experience. All of them said he was kidding.

    What can we do to help protect the environment? It seems useless to just pick up a piece of trash(垃圾) ,but what will happen if you keep doing it every day? Tommy Kleyn, an ordinary man from the Netherlands, may give you the answer. Tommy Kieyn walked past a polluted river on his way to work every day. It used to be a beautiful view, but the trash on the bank made it dirty and smelly. So Tommy decided to pick up the trash along the river a little bit at a time after work. "It took me about 30 minutes to fill one garbage(垃圾) bag with trash, but one garbage bag didn't seem helpful in a place as polluted as this. I decided to fill one bag of trash each day as I passed by," Tommy said. Every day, Tommy took pictures of the river and shared them on his Facebook page. To his surprise, in just six days, he had made great progress with his cleanup effort(努力) . He felt happy and kept doing it. Gradually, more and more people knew about Tommy's story. Other people in the community began following in his footsteps and cleaning up trash on their way home, too. "The idea is to encourage people to fill one garbage bag with litter each day. It only takes 30 minutes, but it really makes a difference and you will be amazed at how good you feel afterwards, "he said. People from all over the world have been moved and inspired(激励)by Tommy's story. No effort is useless if we keep doing it every day. Ordinary people like you and me can also make a difference to the world we live in if we take actions right now.

    You may think that inventions are far away from your everyday life. But in fact, almost everyone can invent things. It's just that they do not realize that their ideas could be the start of an invention. Once inventors see their ideas have some practical value, they don't let them slip way.

    For example, the inventor of the dishwasher, American Josephine Cochrane, loved to give dinner parties. But she found it took long to wash her dishes by hand. She decided that a machine could do the job faster and with fewer mistakes. So, in 1886, she set out to make one for herself.

    Here are the steps to create inventions. The first and most important step is to find the problem. You can start by looking at what is wrong with things you use now. You can ask grandparents or neighbors if they remember ever saying: "I wish someone would invent something for…" Or you can look at people in different areas--such as on the street, or at school. Then you might notice situations or things in need of improvement. Remember to record you ideas and work. This will help you develop your invention and protect it when it is completed. The next step is to think about possible solutions (解决方法). An invention is a new way of solving a problem. So think of many, varied and unusual ways. You can often come up with a solution to a problem by looking at it from a different side.

    The hardest part of inventing, even for a lot of inventors, is coming up with a problem and finding a solution. Once you have an idea, you can always get help building your invention. This problem-solving technique can also work in your everyday life. So, why not try it in your studies, in your relationship with others, or even in the way you look at the world?