Do you know why different animals or pests have their special colours? Colours in them seem to be used mainly to protect themselves. Some birds love eating locusts (蝗虫), but birds cannot easily catch them, why? It is because locusts change their colours with the change of the colours of crops. When crops are green, locusts look green. But as the harvest (收获) time comes, locusts change to the same brown colour as crops have. Some other pests with different colours from plants are easily found and eaten by others. So they have to hide themselves for living and appear only at night.

    If you study animals' life, you'll find the main use of colour is to protect themselves. Bears, lions and other animals move quietly through the forests and they cannot be easily seen by hunters. This is because they have the colours much like the trees.

    Have you ever noticed an even stranger act? A kind of fish in the sea can send out a kind of very black liquid (液体) when it faces danger. While the liquid spreads, its enemies cannot find it. And it immediately swims away. So it has lived up to now though it is not strong at all.

Think about the colors of fruit and vegetables: the red of tomatoes, the orange of carrots, and the purple of grapes.

You can eat fruit and vegetables of all colors—green, yellow, blue, purple and white. Each color is important to our health. These colors work together for our bodies.

Red gives us a healthy heart. Red helps improve our memory (记忆力). Yellow is good for our eyes. White can reduce (降低) cholesterol. Green is good for our eyes, too. It also gives us strong bones and teeth. Blue helps us keep a good memory as we grow old. It also helps our heart. So when you are buying or eating fruit and vegetables, remember to try fruit and vegetables of different colors.

Is your school strict?

 Cooking is supposed to be the most basic living skill for humans. However, there are many kids who are used to being fed and taken care of everywhere like" little emperors and little princesses". They can't tell the differences between food materials like leeks (韭菜) and shallots (大葱).

 In order to stress (加强) the importance of hard- working spirit education among students, the Communist Party of China Central Committee recently released (发布) the guidelines (方针). The guidelines call for students to respool labor work. Students should learn basic life skills and develop good working habits through such education.

 Students will be required to understand and master the basics of home cooking from preparing vegetables to finally being able to complete the whole process of home cooking independently. These will be lifelong skills for kids, helping them develop into well-rounded persons instead of those who are just able to take exams.

 As children's first teachers, parents should also encourage children to learn how to do chores at home. Students should master one or two life skills every year. These skills can include cooking, washing their own clothes and tidying their rooms.

 It's really important for students to take labor education both at school and at home.

Sijo Zachariah comes from India and he works in Dubai. Last year, Zachariah returned to India for a wedding ( 婚礼). However, he got stuck ( 困住) there because of COVID-19.

'There was almost no food available in stores," he said. What's going to happen? How are we going to feed ourselves?" From that thought, Zachariah and his father started planting food on the land in front of their house. They took seeds (种子) from all of the fruit and vegetables they could find. Zachariah watched helpful videos online.

In the end, the land didn't just help the father and son. It helped feed people in 20 homes nearby. We also taught our neighbors how to plant. food," Zachariah said. Soon every home was planting food. The hot, wet weather made growing easy.

Zachariah once studied and worked in Wales. One thing he really liked there was the food. It tasted better than food at home. He found the reason the food there was fresh and local. So 'he only planted food that was from his hometown. He also recorded videos to teach others.

Now Zachariah is planning to change his job. He will stop fixing (修理) planes for living. He will plant food. "It' s a big change for me. But this is what makes me happy—helping others and being in nature," he said. 

Martin had a lot of friends at school. He 1 told his family how many friends he had. 

One day, his father called him for a bet (打赌). "Martin, I bet you for the bike you wanted."

"Really?! What's the bet? " Martin couldn't believe his 2 .

"You do not have as many friends as you think. Not everyone is 3 friend."

Martin asked, " 4 can I test whether they are my friends?"

"I have something special. 5 me."

A few minutes later, Martin saw his father walking back, looking like he was carrying something heavy. But Martin could not see anything.

"This is a magic chair. Take this to the club, and sit on it 6 . Then you can tell who are your real friends," his father said. 

The next day when Martin was in the club with the "chair", he asked everyone together and said, "Friends, you are about to see my magic here. 7 closely."

Then Martin tried sitting on the chair. But he fell. Everyone laughed. 

He made another try and fell again. The laughs 8 .

Martin kept trying and fell.

He tried again but did not fall this time. He saw John, Abram, Julie, and Terry carrying him up 9 he would not fall. The others still laughed. 

Now he 10 his real friends.