Since ancient times, human beings have looked up at the night sky. Comets (彗星) and meteors (流星) flying through the blackness were seen as signs from the gods. They were used to tell the future of human lives.

    In 2013, a meteorite shower hit an area in Russia. It injured around 1,200 people. In ancient times, this would have been a strange and terrible experience. Today, thought, science offers simple explanations for the occurrence (事件).

    Meteorites are small pieces of debris (碎片) that float around in space. Sometimes, they come near a planet, such as Earth. When they enter our atmosphere, they often heat up and become very bright. This is why they are sometimes called “fireballs”. They are usually made of metals, such as iron (铁), and other minerals (矿物). The Russian meteorites were stony, with iron making up 10 percent of them.

    Meteorite showers, such as that in Russia, happen when a large meteor enters the Earth's atmosphere and, due to heat, breaks up into small parts. Most of these are very small — smaller than a grain of sand — and so don't even make it to the ground. But others can cause a lot of damage.

    The meteor in Russia weighed 10 tons when it entered our atmosphere, and broke up about 20-30 miles (30-50 km) above ground. The sky was filled with bright lights and loud noises. Many windows were broken. The damage cost Russia around 206 million yuan.

Most people have heard of the Great Wall of China, but not many people outside of China know about the Grand Canal.

This man-made waterway — known in China as Da Yunhe — is more than 1,700 kilometres long and some parts of it are more than 2,000 years old. It connects the north of China with Hangzhou, a city in the southern part of the country. It's the longest man-made waterway in the world.

It was built as a way to transport grain(谷物) from the rich agricultural land in China's south to cities in the north. In fact, it's not one canal, but a system of canals and rivers connected together. It's still an important part of the transport system in China. Thousands of boats use it every day to transport grain and many other types of cargo(货物).

Now the Chinese government is doing new work on the Grand Canal. It is making parts of it deeper, so bigger ships can use it. The canal will also help to move water. There is a lot of rain in the south of China, but not as much in the north. The canal will carry millions of litres of water from the south to the north.

The Grand Canal is much less famous than the Great Wall, and not very many tourists visit it. But it's possible to go on a cruise(乘船游览)along some of the oldest parts of the canal. Passengers on these cruises see beautiful parts of China that other visitors don't see.

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要求：(1)短文须包含图中所有信息, 可适当发挥；(2)文中不得出现个人真实的姓名和校名；(3)词数80词左右, 标题和开头已给出, 不计入总词数。

Reading Outside Class

As we all know, reading has a lot of advantages. 

……

Have you even seen fireflies(萤火虫)?Fireflies are small insects. You can't see them{#blank#}1{#/blank#} any season except summer. The lights made by fireflies are probably one of the most magical things to see on a summer night. Do you wonder{#blank#}2{#/blank#} fireflies make this light?

There is a part that can make light under a firefly's stomach. Fireflies take in air and{#blank#}3{#/blank#}

(useful) it to produce light with special cells (细胞).Different kinds have {#blank#}4{#/blank#}(they) own special flash patterns, just like humans have different languages. They use these flash patterns to find other members of their group.

Fireflies {#blank#}5{#/blank#}(main) use the light to get friends' attention. The males (雄性) fly around while{#blank#}6{#/blank#}(turn) their lights on and off, hoping to get the attention of a female (雌性).They try to flash very quickly, because the {#blank#}7{#/blank#}(fast) males flash, the more attention they can get from females. Fireflies also use the light to make their {#blank#}8{#/blank#}(enemy) scared.

If you haven't seen many fireflies lately, you are not alone.{#blank#}9{#/blank#} number of fireflies may be dropping because of some reasons, such as light pollution and chemical medicine use. Another important reason is that fireflies' living places are destroyed by humans.{#blank#}10{#/blank#}(luck), Chinese scientists recently found three new firefly kinds in Yunnan. Yunnan might have the right environment for these magical insects to live in.

Wild animals are important to us. They live together with us on the earth. If there are no animals on the earth, we will not live on either. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

But some people still don't know the importance of protecting them. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}Every day there are many wild animals being killed. So lots of wild animals have died out. We can't see them any more.

Today wild animals are becoming less and less. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} If this goes on, there will be no animals left on the earth in the future. 

Luckily, many people began to know the importance of protecting wild animals. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} They teach others about the importance of protecting wild animals. Now many countries have made some laws (法律) to protect wild animals and to stop people from killing them. 

{#blank#}5{#/blank#} We should do our best to protect them because protecting them is protecting ourselves too.