Read the questions and answer YES or NO, then you will find out how good you are.

⒈When you don't understand something, you ask questions.

⒉You like listening to older people talk about the past.

⒊You think that you can learn something interesting from everyone around you.

⒋You are brave enough when you have to talk to people you don't know.

⒌You enjoy reading books about famous people.

⒍You always see and talk to different people.

⒎You are interested in learning new ways of doing things.

⒏You enjoy sharing experiences with friends and learning from people of all ages.

⒐You talk a lot about yourself.

⒑Even if you are often wrong, you make your own decisions.

⒒You hate teaching what you are good at: sports, technology and so on.

⒓Your parents don't understand you, so you don't talk to them much.

Score Now! (开始计分 )

    Score2 points if you answer YES to each of the first 8 questions, and 0 if you choose NO.

    Score 2 points if you answer NO to each of the last 4 question, and 0 if you choose YES.

    18-24. You are friendly and open-mind. You make people feel important by listening to what they have to say. You'll probably succeed in learning all kinds of interesting things.

    10-16. Remember that every single person you know can teach you something. You will great make your life rich and colorful.

    0-8 About 400 years ago, a famous writer wrote, “No man is an island.” This is still true today. Try to be more open and interested in people around you.

    What was discovered by accident? The answer is penicillin(青霉素). It kills germs. By killing germs, it saves lives. Suppose you are sick. You go to a doctor. She examines you. She says you have a "staph" infection(葡萄球菌感染). She gives you some medicine. You take it. The medicine knocks out the staph. Soon you are well. Before penicillin, this would not happen. Staph was almost sure death.

    Everyone wanted a medicine. Laboratories worked day and night. They grew the staph in small dishes. Then they tried to kill it. Nothing worked.

    The laboratory dishes had covers on them. They kept things from falling into dishes. Molds(霉菌)were a big worry. They are always in the air. You can't see them. They're too small .There are thousands of different molds. Molds can make an experiment (实验)fail. That's why dishes are covered.

    Dr. Alexander Fleming was working to kill the staph germ. He worked for years. One day he took a cover off a dish. He looked inside. There was a thick growth of staph germ. There was also some mold. Then he saw something strange. Where the mold was, there was no growth of staph. This is what Fleming probably thought. "By accident, I found a mold to kill the dreaded staph."

    This is how penicillin was found. But here's the real miracle(奇迹). There are thousands of kinds of molds. But only one kind can kill staph. The mold must have fallen into the dish a few days before. The cover was probably off only a few seconds(秒). In those few seconds the right mold fell into the right dish. Another mall might have thrown the dish away. But Fleming was very careful and smart. He understood what the mold did. How lucky the humans were!

    Did you know that each day one person in the USA throws away 4.4 pounds of rubbish? Almost every month, we throw away our own rubbish in packaging alone. Packaging (including boxes, bags, etc.) comes to our homes with the things we have bought. Several weeks ago, the TV news said that in a city in Italy tons of rubbish were piled up in the streets, and the smell was rather terrible. What can we do to help? We should get to know the following Rs.

    Reduce To reduce means to make less rubbish. That is one of the first things we all should do for the environment. Reduce your rubbish by doing things like packing your lunch in reusable containers(可再利用的容器), taking smaller portions(份) at dinner so you don't waste food when you have had enough, writing on both sides of paper, and using less water when taking a shower.

    Reuse to reuse is to use things again. Think about the bags you get from the shop. They can be reused to carry your lunch, to hold your rubbish, or to collect used cans. You can even take them back to the school next time to carry your things instead of getting a new bag!

    Recycle(回收利用) Recycling is an important part of keeping our planet clean and green. It can also save energy. Be sure that you don't throw things in the rubbish bins that can be recycled to make something else Paper, plastic, cans and bottles can all be recycled. But food, electrical waste and mobile phones cant. When you are not sure whether something can be recycled, go to your parents and teachers for advice.

Follow the three Rs, and every one of us can do something to save the Earth. It is also the best way to save ourselves.

    Posted on 25 March by Selina

    I used to shower with soap every day, but my skin(皮肤)always felt dry and itchy(发痒的). Then two months ago, I heard of the no-soap movement. Since then, I've given up using soap in the shower. I still shower every day. I just don't use soap because it's filled with chemicals.

    So, what's so bad about using soap? Well, the chemicals in soaps can be harmful to our health. So, if we use soap, our skin will take in the chemicals, which will then end up in our bodies. According to the scientists, some of the chemicals used in a soap are quite dangerous. During my research, I also learnt that soap removes moisture(水分)from the body. This is actually why my skin was so dry and itchy.

    Getting used to washing my body without soap was a huge change. For the first week, I felt a bit dirty and I didn't smell great, either. However, during the second week, my skin felt clean without strange smell. Best of all, my skin problems disappeared, and now I have softer and healthier skin.

    On the whole, going soap-free has not only saved me time and money, but has also improved my skin. What's more, this experience has made me take a look at some of the other products I use in the shower, such as shampoo. More about that in my next blog!