Cars make our lives more convenient. But they can also be a problem. For example, fossil fuel(化石燃料) cars mainly cause air pollution.

    To improve the environment, many countries are developing electric vehicles(EVs，电动车). Among them, China is' taking a leading role and has created the world's largest EV market.

    Last year, over 40 percent of the 753, 000 EVs sold in the world were sold in China, more than twice as large as the number sold in the United States.

    "Filling up a fossil fuel car with gas is more expensive than charging an electric car," said Wu Hao, who bought an electric car this year.

    However, there are still some problems. It can be hard to find charging piles and the cars can't go far before needing to be recharged.

    Some of these problems are being solved. In 2014, China had 31, 000 charging piles. Now China has the world's largest EV charging network, with more than 167，000 charging piles in total.

    Developing EVs is one of many efforts that China has made to cut down pressure on its environment after the government promised to stop increases in carbon dioxide emissions by 2030.

    "As China goes, so will the world's car industry," the Wall Street Journal said. China has taken a leading role in the world's electric vehicle industry.

    Everyone knows the strange feeling of your fingers wrinkling up (起皱) when they're wet. Sometimes when in water, it seems as if your hands have aged 30 years in a second. But is this an accident? Or is it something that nature has built into our bodies?

    Scientists at the University of Newcastle in the UK recently did a test. They asked people to pick up things (some wet and some dry). And take them from one place to another. Some people did this with dry hands, while others had to leave their hands in water for 30 minutes first so that their skin was wrinkled. The study found the second group with wet hands had an advantage when carrying things that were also wet.

    The scientist Tom Smulders said that "this wrinkling of our fingers in wet conditions could have helped with gathering food from wet vegetation or streams". Wrinkling happens when blood vessels contract (血管收缩) and pull the skin back.

    A long time ago, humans lived a very difficult life in a brutal world, where the smallest advantage could make a huge difference. Having wrinkled skin might have helped people catch fish. This would help them get through the winter. These humans would then have had an advantage. Their genes would be accepted by natural selection.

Along with firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce and vinegar, tea is considered one of the seven necessities for life in China. Now, it has also won global recognition as a shared cultural treasure of mankind.

On Nov. 29, Chinese traditional tea processing skills and their related social practices were added to the UNESCO intangible cultural heritage (非物质文化遗产) list. Since ancient times, Chinese people have been planting, picking, making and drinking tea.

More importantly, China's tea culture has formed Chinese customs. It is Chinese traditional custom that a host should welcome visiting guests with boiled tea. A poem by Song poet Du Lei reads, "I offer tea, not wine, to a guest on a cold night. When water boils on the stove, fire burns with flame bright."

Boiling tea is one of the oldest Chinese tea brewing methods, dating back to the Tang Dynasty (618—907). Tea leaves were boiled for a long time and sometimes they were cooked together with different kinds of herbs and fruits. During this process, people can enjoy a quiet time. Later in the Ming Dynasty (1368—1644), a faster and more convenient method become more popular—steeping (冲泡).

    ▲    . On the app Xiaohongshu, or Little Red Book, there are over 40,000 posts on the topic of "stove-boiled tea" (围炉煮茶). They lightly roast tea leaves before boiling them in a teapot on a stove. People sit around the stove in a natural setting and have snacks with their hot tea. Some also wear traditional hanfu as if it could take them back to those ancient times. Through "stove-boiled tea", people can taste a slower life and find their inner peace. As is written in one Xiaohongshu post, "It is very relaxing to drink hot tea, feel the fall breeze, and chat with best friends."

I'm Rose, today is my first day at school. I am a new student. My father drives (开车) me to school in the car.

I have an orange schoolbag. In my schoolbag, I have five books, six notebooks and a pencil box. The pencil box and the schoolbag are the same (相同的) color. Three pens, four pencils, two erasers and a ruler are in my pencil box. And I have a lunch box. It is orange, too.

My classroom number is 402. It is big and tidy. There are 38 students in my class. But there are 39 desks and 39 chairs in the classroom. Why? The teacher also has a desk and a chair. The students' desks are brown. But the teacher's is yellow.