My grandmother is over eighty years old. She always complains about how greatly things have changed, and she often says that life used to be better.

    Families aren't families the way they used to be. If a husband and wife are having problem with their marriage, they don't stay together any more. They choose to divorce. Mothers used to stay at home and take care of their children, but now everyone is busy working; no one has time to look after children at home.

    And the cars! No one walk any more; people get richer and richer, and more and more people buy cars and drive. We used to walk five miles to school every day, even in winter. But now children don't.

    And in school, children don't have to think any more. When I was at school, I used to add, subtract, multiply and divide using my head in math class, but now, children use calculators instead.

    Most families have computers and TVs now. In the past we didn't have computers or TVs, we spent a lot of time talking with our family members. But now, people are too busy to talk to each other. If they have time, they'd watch TV or surf the Internet rather than talk to family members. They are even too busy to eat and think.

    Life used to be simple, but it isn't any more.

Information Card

    Think about the distance（距离） you traveled in the last six months of your life. About how many miles（kilometers） did you go? Lucid went quite a distance. On March 22, 1996, she started a journey. She traveled 188 days, 4 hours, and 14 seconds in total. This is a little over six months. So what distance did Lucid travel? She went 75.2 million miles（1,203,200,000 kilometers）!

    How could Lucid go so far? How could she journey so fast? Lucid was an American astronaut and she was in space. She lived on a space station. The space station was the Russian space station Mir. She lived and worked with two Russian astronauts.

    On Mir, it was hard for Lucid to know what day it was. Why? Mir. did not stay in one place. It orbited the Earth. It went around the Earth. Mir's orbit meant that darkness did not mean the day was over. Darkness fell many times during a 24-hour period. Darkness fell about every 45 minutes. Lucid did something to help her remember what day it was. She wore pink socks on every seventh day. The pink socks reminded Lucid about something else, too. The pink socks helped Lucid remember that Jell-O would be served for dinner. On Mir, Jell-O was a special treat. It was only served on Sunday.

    Lucid worked hard to deserve the honor of working on Mir. She went to school for a long time. She was one of the first six women to be accepted into the astronaut-training program. She flew on several American missions. When accepted for Mir, she had to learn Russian in less than 18 months. On Mir, Lucid conducted many experiments. One experiment she conducted was with wheat. Lucid grew wheat. Growing plants in space was important, because green plants could provide oxygen and food for space travelers.

    A long time ago, there was a big apple tree.A little boy liked playing around it every day.

    As the little boy grew up, he no longer played around the tree.One day the boy came back to the tree.He looked sad. “What's troubling you?” asked the tree.The boy answered, “I want my own house. I need money to buy it.”

    “You can pick my apples and sell them. Then you will have money.”

    A few years later, the boy returned. He told the tree that he wanted to go sailing(航海) around the world.

    “Use my branches(树枝) to build your boat. You can sail far and be happy.” So the boy cut the branches to make a boat. He went sailing and didn't return for a long, long time

    Many years later, the boy returned. ”Sorry, but I don't have anything for you anymore,” the tree said, crying.

    “All I need is a place to rest. I am tired after my travels.”

    The tree replied, ”Good ! Old tree roots(根) are the best place to rest.” The boy sat down and the tree was glad.

    The tree in this story is like your parents. Your parents are reliable and giving, like a tree, and will always love you, no matter where you are.

A. basketball      B. soccer    C. golf      D. tennis   E. volleyball

    Once upon a time, in the forest there lived a baby elephant, who had no friends. ________________ of the animals wanted to be his friend because he was too large.

    One day, a wild fire happened in the forest. The animals ran to safer places. The dry trees caught fire and the fire was sure to go all around the forest. The baby elephant ran to the nearest river, collected much water in his trunk (象鼻) and rushed to the burning trees. He sprayed (喷) the water on the fire. Finally, he put out the fire.

    Later, while he was resting after the hard job, all the animals and birds came to him and expressed their thanks for his kind help in time. They were now ready to have him as their good friend and their hero. They said, "A friend in need is a friend indeed."

    The baby elephant was happy to get so many friends and played games with them. He walked through the forest, carrying several small animals and birds on his back.

    Waste sorting(垃圾分类) is a big matter worldwide. In order to sort the rubbish properly and protect the environment, people in different countries are using different methods to sort their waste.

    UK A UK company invented a "smart bin" to help with waste sorting. People just need to drop their waste into the bin(垃圾箱). A camera and sensors(感应器) in the bin can tell what type of rubbish it is and correctly sort it. The bin also compresses(压缩) the waste so it takes up less space.

South Korea South Korea is using a method called "Pay For Your Waste" to encourage its people to reduce food waste. When throwing away rubbish, people have to separate their food waste from their other rubbish and put it in a bin. The smart bin then weighs the food. People have to pay for their food waste by scanning(扫描) a barcode(条形码) on the bin. If they throw away more rubbish, they will pay more.

    Japan Japan is leading the world in waste sorting. They sort waste so carefully that even plastic bottles and their caps go into different bins. Different types of paper products have their own bins.

    China China is improving its waste sorting efforts. Shanghai has worked with Alipay to create a "green account(账户)"service for its residents(居民). The city is asking all of its residents to sort their waste into four groups: wet, recyclable, harmful and dry.