Tornadoes(龙卷风) are one of the worst weather events on earth. Each year, tornadoes kill many people. The storms often carry homes, cars and trees from one place to another. And they can also destroy anything when they pass by.

      A tornado comes from a thunderstorm(雷雨) in the sky down to the ground. It is big at the top and small at the bottom.

      A tornado appears when winds in different directions meet in the cloud and begin to turn in circles. People can see tornadoes almost everywhere in the world. But most happen from late winter to middle summer. There is a second high season in November. During spring, warm air moves north and mixes with the cold air left from winter. In November, the opposite happens. Cold air moves south and mixes with the warm air left from summer.

      Tornadoes always come suddenly. Weather scientists have done something to predict(预测) tornadoes. But the storms often move too fast for people to protect themselves. Last year, tornadoes killed more than one hundred people in United States.

      Scientists say the best place to be in is a small room, without windows, in the middle the lowest part of a building when tornadoes come.

    Do you often think of life in the future? Will we study at home? Will we have robots? Will we fly to the moon easily? Everyone may have his or her views about that. Life in the future will be very different from life today. Between then and now many changes will take place, but what will the changes be?

    There will be changes in our food. Maybe no one will eat meat. Instead, people will eat more fruit and vegetables. People will stay away from junk food. Maybe people will be healthier.

    Computers will be small and useful. Maybe we will even put the computers into our pockets(口袋). There will be at least two computers in every home. And computer studies will be one of the most important subjects at school.

    Work in the future will be different, too. Dangerous and hard work can be done by robots. People will work fewer hours than they do now. And they will have more free time for sports, watching TV and traveling.

    All living things on the earth need other living things to live. Nothing lives alone. Most animals must live in a group, and even a plant grows close together with others of the same kind. Sometimes one living thing kills another, one eats and the other is eaten. Each kind of life eats another kind of life in order to live, and together they form a food chain (食物链). Some food chains are simple, while others are not. But all food chains begin with the sun, and all food chains become broken up if one of the links (联系) disappears.

    All life needs sunlight to live on. But only plants can use sunlight directly (直接). Plants are “factories”. They make food from sunlight, water and things in the soil (土壤) and air.

    Plants feed all other living things. Animals can only use the sun's energy (能量) after it has been changed into food by plants. Some animals feed directly on plants, others eat smaller animals. Meat-eating animals are only eating plants indirectly.

    What about human beings? We are members of many food chains. We eat wheat (小麦), rice, vegetables, fruits and so on. We also eat meat and drink milk. But humans often break up the food chains. They kill wild animals. They also make rivers, lakes and seas dirty. When these rivers, lakes and seas are polluted, the fish in them cannot be eaten. If men eat the fish, they will get strange diseases (疾病).

    Each form of life is linked to all others. Breaking the links puts all life in danger.

    You must have remembered the story from your childhood: an old man was worried about his sons because they always quarreled with each other. So one day he asked them to break a bundle(捆) of chopsticks tied together. Clearly, none of them could. But when the bundle was untied, they were able to break each chopstick easily. Why? This is because of the power of unity(团结).

    Dr. John Maxwell, in his book Success Journey says that every success is not something you can achieve alone. Think about it —if at the end of all the achievements, you find yourself alone, will you call it success in a real sense? It is known to all of us that success always belongs to unity. But we often seem to forget it when it comes to individual(个人的) success. Most of us consider our success as a personal thing.

    Your dream and your success do not belong to you alone. Even though you work hard towards your dream, there are people who are working behind you to make sure that you are able to give yourself a hundred percent energy.

    Do you think that it is possible without unity? Don't you feel that these people are doing their best so that you can be successful? And so, unity plays an important role, even if you are talking about your personal success. Just like those chopsticks, they can't be broken only when they are tied together.

    So, it is your responsibility to keep unity if you really want to be successful in your trip. Only if you always treat things and people seriously, you will succeed because all the things and people around you have connections in some way.

I'm Lucy from London. But now I'm in Beijing with my parents. Both of them are doctors and they love their job. I am a student and I love my school, too. School is a good place for me. I can do many things there.

I can learn a lot from school. I learn Chinese, math, science and English every day. Also, I can have fun at school. I often listen to music with my classmates. Sometimes, I talk about favorite movies and TV shows with them.

But sometimes I am not happy at school because there are too many activities and they always make me tired.

School is like my second family, and my classmates are like my brothers and sisters. The school is really a big and happy family.

Teaching kids gently

Students discuss whether it is right for strangers to educate others' kids. 

Recently, during a flight, a toddler (刚学走路的小孩) kept crying, and two strangers took her to the bathroom and locked her in there for "education". This led to a heated discussion. Examples like South Korea's "no-kids zones (区域)" and reminders (提示语) for parents on high-speed trains show how the public reacts to crying children. How do you feel about strangers "educating" noisy young children?

I think it's not OK for strangers to educate the children of others. Sometimes, children can be naughty and might shout in public. This can be annoying and make us want to step in. But from the child's point of view, a stranger stepping in and shouting at them can be scary. It can also hurt children's feelings. Parents can also feel stressed when their children disturb (打扰) other passengers, but they might not know what to do. Sometimes children cry to draw others' attention because they can't express their needs well. So as strangers, it's best to kindly remind parents to look after their kids and check if they are hungry or unwell. 

Cui Luoyao, 14, Beijing

Instead of strangers, parents should be the ones teaching their children how to behave properly. I believe many passengers "dislike children" not because of the children's behavior, but because they really can't stand their parents' attitude. As children grow up, it is normal for them to make mistakes and disturb others without meaning to because they are too small to understand so much information. What is really scary is that parents turn a blind eye to their children's mistakes, use "he is just a kid" as an excuse and force others to tolerate (容忍) their children. If a child really does something that disturbs others, then the parents should say sorry and solve the problem. 

He Liyan, 14, Jiangsu