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    Napoga is a 12-year-old girl in Ghana(加纳), Africa. It is hard for her family to get clean water. Every morning, she leaves home at half past five to get clean water for her family in a village far away. It takes her six hours to get enough clean water for daily(日常) cooking and drinking. She has no time to go to school or to play with her friends. Millions of people in the world are like Napoga. They can't get enough clean water to keep healthy.

    Earth Day is on April 22. But on all other days, we must also remember it. The water we use is the most important natural resource(自然资源) on the earth.

    Water covers 70% of the earth's surface(表面). But most of that is sea water. We can't use it for very many things. Fresh water covers only 1% of the earth's surface.

    You probably feel lucky that your life isn't as hard as Napoga's. But that doesn't mean you don't have to worry about water. We all face serious water problems. One of them is water pollution. All kinds of things from cars, factories, farms and homes make our rivers, lakes, and oceans dirty. Polluted water is very bad for people to drink. And dirty water is bad for fish, too. Now, 34% of all kinds of fish are dying out.

    How do cars and factories make our water dirty? First, they pollute the air. Then, when it rains, the rain water comes down and makes our drinking water dirty. Dirty rain, called acid rain(酸雨), is also bad for plants, animals and buildings.

    Scientists say that in 30 years, more than half of the people in the world won't have enough clean water. We have to learn how to save more water for ourselves and our children. Here is some advice for saving water:

●Turn off the water while you brush your teeth. You can save as much as 450 liters(升) each month.

●Leaky taps(漏水的龙头) waste a lot of water. Fix them right away!

●You can easily cut your 10-minute showers(沐浴) in half—and you'll be just as clean.

●When you wash dishes, don't let the water run.

●Only wash clothes when you have a lot to wash. If your washing machine isn't full, you're wasting water!

    Zhalong is a nature reserve in Heilongjiang in northeast China. It is one of the world's most important wetlands. The reserve offers food and places to live in for wildlife. It is an ideal home for different kinds of plants, fish and birds.

    Many birds live comfortably in Zhalong Nature Reserve all year round, but some only stay there for a short time. There are many fish in the wetlands, and the birds can easily catch them for food. Zhalong Nature Reserve is an important living area for red-crowned cranes. There are not many red-crowned cranes in the world. Some of them live in Zhalong.

    Some people want to change the wetlands to make more space for farms and buildings. This means there will be less and less space for wildlife.

    More and more birds are in danger because they do not have enough living space. Many of them died. The Chinese government wants to protect these endangered* birds, and they can be safe in Zhalong.

    Every year, a lot of visitors go to Zhalong to watch birds. This year, members of our Birdwatching Club are going to study the different kinds of birds in Zhalong and the changes in their numbers.

    We do a bird count once a year. We are now inviting middle school students to help. We need more people to help us count and do something to help the birds. Many people do not understand the importance of the wetlands. We hope this information will help them understand and make them do something to protect wildlife. 

    In many high schools, there are strict rules about using mobile phones. If your phone rings in class, for example, the teacher will be very angry.

    Every mobile phone has a ringtone (铃声). It tells you that someone is calling you. Now, there is a ringtone called “mosquitotone (蚊子铃声)”.

    Mosquitotone has a special sound. Only children and teenagers can hear it. As we get older, we are unable to hear some sounds with high frequencies (频率). As a result, a child or teenager can hear the mosquitotone ringtone, but someone of 20 or older can't.

    But sometimes, people over 20 can hear the ringtone. One British student's phone uses mosquitotone. In class, the student's phone rang. The 22-year-old teacher looked at the student and became unhappy. “I heard that. You know the rule：no mobile phone in class. ”

    Not all the students are interested in mosquitotone. Jerry Jones, a high school student of 17, says, “Using mosquitotone too often is bad for our hearing. I may use it for pleasure, but not in class. It's unfair(不公平的) to the teachers！”

    What do parents think of mosquitotone？“I think it is perfect for places like movie theaters,” says Connie Neeson, 44. “Think about it. You're watching a film and someone's mobile phone rings. Mosquitotone is good because many people don't hear it. However, it also has a bad influence（影响） on their study if students use it in class. ”

    The best way to teach your children to live a green lifestyle is to live that green lifestyle yourself. When kids see you picking up rubbish from the park, they see value(价值)in keeping public places clean Use these tips to introduce your children to green living：

    Use public transport. Use the car only when necessary; at other times, take trains and buses with your children.

    Ask for their help. Younger children often love grown-up activities. So have them carry a small bag of food waste to the bin, or let them help separate(分开)your recycling. Older children may want to take part in the activities like cleaning up the neighbourhood and organizing the daily recycling If they're not very interested, make environment-friendly activities a family-time priority (优先事项)

    _________________________ Petting farms for younger kids may help prevent(防止)farm animals from becoming something that they see only in books or on television. Many people believe that wild animals shouldn't be kept in any kind of zoos, but they do offer a valuable educational and conservation(保护)lesson. So if you want to visit a zoo, find a zoo that provides its animals with as natural an environment as possible

    Which is the tallest mountain on the earth? The answer must come fast—MT Everest, at a height of 29,000 feet.

    But that is only on land. For, if you were to measure (测量) from the bottom (底部) of the ocean. The tallest mountain in the world will probably be Mauna Kea in Hawaii. It is more than 15,748 feet under the sea and another 13.779 feet above it.

    As US scientist Cindy Lee Dover points out that the seafloor is the largest and least known place on the earth. We know more about Mars (火星) and Venus (金星) and the back side of the moon than we know about the seafloor.

    Some people have travelled to the deep water of the ocean to try to find all kinds of unknown animals and plants living in the deep water. Even scientists know very little about them. Many of them perhaps do not even have names. Some of the names given by scientists to newly discovered (被发现) animals are really funny. Among them are the spaghetti worms (意大利面蠕虫), named as such it is found in a tangle (缠结), it is often difficult to make out where one ends and another begins! Just like spaghetti.