Feifei,an 11-year-old boy from Xuzhou,Jiangsu Province,suffered from a sudden acute eye disease which has almost led to blindness.The disease was caused by excessive（过度的）eye fatigue（疲劳）during the winter vacation, during which he played computer games for continuous 10 days and nights.

    Many youngsters in China nowadays are increasingly addicted to computer games and other electronic products. This is followed by a series of health problems,with the most typical case being myopia,or nearsightedness.

    According to the latest research report released by the World Health Organization (WHO),the myopia rate among Chinese teenagers ranks first in the world—70 percent of high school and college students.The rate is nearly 40 percent in primary school students,while it is only 10 percent for their peers in the United States.

    There are at least 10 million people in China with severe myopia,and they are likely to get pathological（病理性的）myopia in middle age.Pathological myopia can't be treated with glasses or surgery,and it is one of the biggest factors that lead to blindness,Xu Xun,director of the ophthalmology（眼科学）department at Shanghai General Hospital,pointed out.

    Experts explain that two major factors lead to the high rate of myopia among Chinese people.One is high academic pressure,and the other one is excessive use of electronic devices over a long period of time.Genetics,on the other hand,are not the main reason,as only 20 percent of Chinese people had myopia in the 1960s.

    "Teenagers are now faced with severe academic pressure,which means they often study without natural light. This increases their risk of becoming nearsighted,"Xu said.

    Experts suggest that youngsters maintain a proper balance between study and rest so as to protect their eyesight, and parents should play an active role in the process.

    The Internet, social media, and smart phones allow you to learn many things.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}However, just like in the real world, not everyone online is your friend. Some may use these tools to send unpleasant messages to you, and some may use your information to do something bad. It's very important to know how to stay safe and have positive experiences online. Here are some tips for you.

    Be careful about friend or follower requests. When you have a friend or follower request, check the person's information first.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}Only accept friend or follower requests from people you have met in the real world. Don't chat with people you don't know or trust. This is a good way to keep you safe.

    Review location(定位) services on your phone and other mobile devices.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}They may put you in danger because others can find you easily. To make sure of your safety, turn off the "location services" or "locations settings" features on your mobile devices. Also turn off GPS for the camera, chat and other social media apps.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#}Strong passwords (密码）should have some upper and lower-case letters, numbers and symbols. If you have a strong password, it'll be difficult for others to know it. Also, avoid having the same password for all your social and education accounts (账户). It is really not safe for your accounts.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}If someone sends unpleasant messages to you online, find someone you feel safe talking to. For example, you can talk to a parent, a teacher or a trusted adult and ask him to help report and block(屏蔽) the person. Don't try to do the same thing when others do something that hurts your feelings online.

A. Create strong passwords.

B. Try to get help when necessary.

C. Find out if he or she is someone you know.

D. Friend requests can tell a lot of information.

E. Talk to someone you find safe to talk to online.

F. They also allow you to talk with friends online.

G. Location services can tell others where you are.

C

    Languages have been coming and going for thousands of years, but in recent times there has been less coming and a lot more going. When the world was still populated by hunter-gatherers, small, tightly knit(联系) groups developed their own patterns of speech independent of each other. Some language experts believe that 10,000 years ago, when the world had just five to ten million people, they spoke perhaps 12,000 languages between them.   

    Soon afterwards, many of those people started settling down to become farmers, and their languages too became more settled and fewer in number. In recent centuries, trade, industrialisation, the development of the nation-state and the spread of universal compulsory education, especially globalisation and better communications in the past few decades, all have caused many languages to disappear, and dominant languages such as English, Spanish and Chinese are increasingly taking over.

    At present, the world has about 6,800 languages. The distribution of these languages is hugely uneven. The general rule is that mild zones have relatively few languages, often spoken by many people, while hot, wet zones have lots, often spoken by small numbers. Europe has only around 200 languages; the Americas about 1,000; Africa 2,400; and Asia and the Pacific perhaps 3,200, of which Papua New Guinea alone accounts for well over 800. The median number （中位数）of speakers is a mere 6,000, which means that half the world's languages are spoken by fewer people than that.

   Already well over 400 of the total of 6,800 languages are close to extinction (消亡), with only a few elderly speakers left. Pick, at random, Busuu in Cameroon (eight remaining speakers), Chiapaneco in Mexico (150), Lipan Apache in the United States (two or three) or Wadjigu in Australia (one, with a question-mark): none of these seems to have much chance of survival.

    Driving is absolutely a necessary skill in today's world. What you need before you master it is a driving license（驾驶执照）. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} But before it becomes a time saver, it is a very time-consuming （耗时的） thing. Without proper practice you cannot learn this skill.

    First of all, for lack of driving knowledge or skills, many people die of road accidents every year. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}If you are brave and scream “I would”, then I highly advise you to reconsider your attitude towards driving. Your driving can be much safer for both yourself and other people if you always keep to the speed limit and traffic rules.

{#blank#}3{#/blank#} There are a lot of courses, but generally we divide them into four types. The first type is the most typical one that takes place in a classroom. The second and third types are driving simulations — learn how to drive on line. The last type is the best because it is simply practice. Your coach will teach you how to drive a car while you are driving on the road.

    When choosing the right course, you need to consider the cost. If you have enough money, you can take practical lessons or the ones that take place in a classroom. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Free materials about driving are easy to find on the Internet. Remember that practical experience is a must if you are serious about your health and safety.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Bad preparation for driving may result in hurting yourself or ever others. Attend driving courses and treat them seriously as they matter a lot to you.

A. Being able to drive can save you a lot of time.

B. Who would enter a car after bottles of beer?

C. You're never allowed to drive without a driving license.

D. It's necessary to treat driving courses seriously.

E. You can also learn these courses online if they cost you too much.

F. A lot of time and money are needed to get a driving license.

G. You need to complete the driving courses to know the basics of driving.

Stay on the brighter side of life

    One very important component of optimism is gratitude or feeling grateful. In fact, there is a strong connection between a grateful attitude and a heightened sense of well-being. Appreciate all the positives in your life by starting a gratitude journal in order to remember what you're grateful for. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    Feeling down? Instead of feeling sorry for yourself waiting for the universe to throw you a bone, try acting like you're happy—even if you aren't. A sincere smile and a forced smile will cause the same chemical reactions in your brain, so you can actually fool your mind into feeling better by making it react chemically as if things were going well. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Reassure yourself that everything is good—even if you don't feel it.

    “{#blank#}3{#/blank#} If you're stuck in traffic, then everything else must be going horribly too,” says Anne Parker, a wellness counselor. By blowing negative events out of proportion, you're setting yourself up for feeling down all day. Instead, acknowledge that you're stuck in traffic, but also bring to mind something good, like the beautiful scenery outside the window. That way, you'll get in the habit of forbidding negative circumstances from blanketing your whole day.

    Swearing to lose 20 pounds or to run a marathon seems like goals leading to happiness, but they take time to achieve. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}You may even end up admitting that you have been defeated. However, if you focus on the small milestones that occur along the way, you will feel positive about your progress, which will give you the strength to keep going.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Try making someone else's day better. A report by United Healthcare and Volunteer Match found that volunteers are 72% more likely to characterize themselves as optimistic compared with non-volunteers. Plus, 89% of volunteers say that volunteering has improved their sense of well-being, and 92% say that it enriches their sense of purpose in life.

A. Try to help someone in need.

B. Want to give your attitude a lift?

C. People tend to think in an either-or way.

D. Act in an optimistic way—smile, laugh, tell a joke.

E. You'll fail to appreciate more important things in your life.

F. By focusing on not having accomplished them yet, you will start to feel down on yourself.

G. By remembering the pleasant things in your life, you can actually turn a negative attitude around.

    Astronomers have taken the first ever image of a black hole, which is located in a distant galaxy (星系).The black hole is 500 million trillion km away and was photographed by a network of eight telescopes across the world. It was captured by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT).

    The announcement was made in Washington, Brussels, Santiago, Shanghai, Taipei and Tokyo. Details have been published today in Astrophysical Journal Letters.

    Prof Heino Falckc, of Radboud University in the Netherlands, who suggested the experiment, told BBC News that the black hole was found in a galaxy called M87. "What we see is larger than the size of our entire Solar System," he said. "It has a mass 6.5 billion times that of the Sun. And it is one of the heaviest black holes that we think exists. It is an absolute monster, the heavyweight champion of black holes in the Universe."

    The image shows an intensely bright "ring of fire", as Prof Falckc describes it, surrounding a perfectly circular dark hole. The bright halo is caused by very heated gas falling into the hole. The light is brighter than all the billions of other stars in the galaxy combined - which is why it can be seen at such distance from Earth. The edge of the dark circle at the center is the point at which the gas enters the black hole, which is an object that has such a large gravitational pull (万有引 力）,not even light can escape.

    "It is remarkable that the image we observe is so similar to that which we get from our theoretical calculations. So far, it looks like Einstein is correct once again." said Dr Ziri Younsi, of University College London -who is part of the EHT cooperation.

    Chinese scientists were involved in the observation through a telescope in Hawaii. They were also highly involved in follow-up data processing and theoretical analysis, said Shen Zhiqiang, head of the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Shanhai Astronomical Observatory and a member of the EHT international team.

    Shanghai and Taipei were selected as two of the cities to hold news conferences, together with Washington, Brussels, Santiago and Tokyo, a recognition of China's contribution.

    "In the fields of astronomy, radio astronomy, and space astrophysics, China has made a significant contribution to this global project," Falcke said.