Nowadays, lots of foreigners are learning Chinese. Like many of them, I 1 knew two words of Chinese ("Ni Hao" and "Xie Xie") when I first came to Beijing, China in 2009. As you can guess, my life was 2 for a while after I arrived. Simple tasks like ordering food or taking a taxi were quite stressful.

    I knew I had to learn more Chinese, so I 3 a Chinese class. My teacher was 4, although I didn't learn enough to have a real conversation. Later I studied on my own as well, but my progress was still slow. And I decided to 5.

    Around this time, I started playing in a band with a Chinese man who became one of my best friends in Beijing. He taught me a lot of 6 about music, such as "melody". He learned a lot of English from me in return, so it was a good way to 7 language and culture.

    I have learned enough Chinese to 8 many problems like booking train tickets. These days, there are more foreigners who are studying Chinese. I can 9 why it's an amazing language. Finally, I found that the best way to learn a 10 is to make friends with native speakers and spend time with them.

    Most cars run on gas. Gas cars work verywell. But there is a problem. Cars that run on gas make the air dirty. Thedirty air is not good for people, animals or trees. Gas cars make the air dirtyfor all living things. What can we do? We can drive electric cars!

    Electric cars do not use gas. These cars donot make the air dirty. These cars have batteries that power their motors (马达). The batteries can be charged (充电) manytimes. They can be used again and again. This makes electric cars great.

    But electric cars have problems too. Theyare slower than gas cars. They are also very quiet. This means that some peoplecan't hear them when they go by. They may not think a car is coming. So theyhave to be careful.

    People are finding ways to make electriccars better all the time. Maybe one day all cars will be electric. That wouldbe much better for the world.

Now students' English handwriting（书法）gets worse and worse. That makes their teachers feel worried. Is your English handwriting beautiful? If not, here are four steps that really work!

u  Using paper with lines (线条)

Using paper with lines can keep you writing straight when you write English words or sentences. Those lines on the paper can help you to write words in the right size.

u  Slow down

If your writing is hard to read, try slowing down a little. For some kids, going slower makes the handwriting clear. If you write too fast, it's hard for you to stop where you should, and even worse, you may make more mistakes.

u  Hold your pencil right

When you hold your pencil the correct way, writing is much easier. Try to be relaxed and don't hold the pencil so hard while writing, and then it makes your handwriting nice and clean. If you do so, people will think you are a student with a good habit.

u  Draw more pictures

Drawing can improve your handwriting. You need to use the skills to control(控制) your pencil better when you are drawing pictures. If you have no time for drawing at school, you can practice it at home.

Some have good handwriting and some don't. Anyway, handwriting is very important. You need to take time to improve it.

Computers make people's lives really easy. People can use their computers for working, {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (shop), or playing games. Laptop (笔记本) computers make people's lives even {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (easy) as people can take laptops anywhere. They can work, shop, or play games any place {#blank#}3{#/blank#} any time. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} there is a problem with laptops. People can {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (burn) by them!

People who sit with laptops on {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (they) legs for hours and hours have noticed they get dark marks on their legs. The hot laptop is toasting the skin. {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (doctor) have noticed more people show up with "toasted skin syndrome (综合症)". The marks are not {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (danger), but they look strange because they are just in one spot on people's legs.

Companies that make computers tell people not {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (let) warm computers touch bare skin for a long time. Wearing pants and putting a laptop's case under the laptop is {#blank#}10{#/blank#} (usual) enough to protect one's skin from the computer's heat.

Health problems which are related to climate change are getting worse, say two research reports.

The report s followed 44 health problems that are related to climate change around the world. They include heat deaths, infectious diseases（传染病）and hunger. "All of them are getting worse," said Marina Remanello. She is research director of the Lancet Countdown project. "With global worming getting worse, doing nothing on climate and health will cost more than acting now, one of the reports says.

The reports are called "code red for a healthy future". One report is centred（集中）on the US and the other is centred on the whole world. The reports found some dangerous facts. At-risk populations like older people and the very young are more easily influenced by high temperatures. For people over 65, the researchers found they stayed living in warm places where it is easier for some diseases to spread. For example, coast areas are warm enough for dangerous bacteria （细菌）to grow. In some poor nations me season for disease-spreading mosquitoes（蚊子）has got longer since the 1950s.

The research also found that 72 percent of countries saw an increase in wildfires. And in 2020, up to 10 percent of the world's land surface was influenced by extreme（极端的）drought. In the US, the heat. fire and drought caused the biggest problems. The Pacific Northwest and Canada saw extreme neatwaves. An earlier study found that the heatwaves would not have happened if there were no human-caused climate change.

Liu Yaxuan is totally a homebody. Every weekend, this14-year-old student from Tsinghua High School watches popular TV dramas like The Journey of Flower(《花千骨》) and plays with her mobile phone. She hates playing outdoor sports. "It's too tiring," she said.

She is not alone. In recent years, more and more Chinese teenagers are becoming homebodies. A survey of kids aged 2 to 14 showed about 60 percent of them spend less than one hour doing outdoor activities every day. 

 This problem may have to do with heavy academic pressure(学业压力). Hu Huilan, 12, from Shenzhen Nanshan Language School, is busy with much homework and many after- school classes on weekends. "I don't want to get behind, " she said. 

 Even if this isn't a problem, kids still prefer indoor life. Wang Di, 12, from Anhui No. 50 Middle School, often reads Harry Potter, listens to music and surfs the Internet at home. "I can do so many things I like at home rather than hanging out in smoggy weather, " she said. 

 The situation for foreign students is quite different. Tina Smith, 15, from a high school in Toronto Canada, says her peers(同龄人) don't like staying indoors at all. " They spend their free time outdoors even if it just means going to the park or reading a book under the tree. Nice weather, little homework and rich outdoor activities enable us to do that, " she said.