Find Which Direction Is South

    Do you have a good sense of direction? If not, please take with you a compass. But if you forget to take a compass, you can still find your way.

    It's never a good idea to imagine that the family member who was entrusted (委托) with the job of map-reading actually knows where the family is. You can tell by the slightly confused load on their faces that nothing on the ground seems to match the map. Never mind. The sun is shining and it's still morning.If you don't know the exact time, you can still find out where south is, but you'll need to be patient.

    ①Find a straight stick and put it in the ground in a place where you can mark its shadow.

    ②Try to position the stick as vertically(垂直)as you can. You can check this by making a simple plumb line (铅锤线) with a piece of string and weight. You haven't got any string? OK, use a thread from your clothes with a button tied at the end to act as a weight.

    ③Mark the end of the shadow cast by the stick.

    ④Wait approximately half an hour and mark the end of the shadow again.

    ⑤Keep doing this until you have made several marks.

    ⑥The mark nearest the stick will represent the shortest shadow, which is cast at midday, when the sun is highest in the sky and pointing to the exact south.

    ⑦Pick a point in the distance along the line between the shortest shadow and the stick.

    ⑧That point is south of where you are.

    ⑨Now you can turn the map, like you did before, and find which way you should be travelling.

E

    Maybe you know floods, earthquakes, sandstorms and so on. But did you hear of typhoons(台风)?

    Typhoons are some of the worst storms, usually around the Pacific Ocean（太平洋） and the South China Sea. Most happen in July, August and September.

    How does a typhoon happen? When lots of sea water gets hot in the summer sun, it evaporates （蒸发）into the air. This makes the air hotter. When the air gets warm enough, it starts to move higher up into sky. Then cooler air around it rushes in. It fills the space that is left. After the air gets warmer, it starts to move quickly, making wind. The wind goes in circles（圆圈）and it keeps moving higher in the sky. The warmer the air gets, the quicker the wind moves. And when the wind moves faster than 30 meters a second, a typhoon begins.

    A typhoon has two parts, one is called the “eye”. In the eye, the wind does not move so fast. The other part is the wall of clouds around the eye. Here are the strongest winds and hardest rains.

    Typhoons are very dangerous. In November this year, Typhoon Haiyan killed 5500 people in Philippines. More people are missing（消失）.

    What to do when a typhoon hits（袭击）?

⒈Stay inside. Close all the windows and stay away from them.

⒉Try to bring all of your things inside. Strong winds could even blow away your bikes!

⒊Listen to the radio or TV for important information.

⒋If you're told to go to a safer place, do it right now.

    Do animals have a culture? What do we mean by "culture?" Lately social scientists have begun to ask if culture is found just in humans, or if some animals have a culture too. When we speak of culture, we mean a way of life a group of people have in common. Culture includes the beliefs and attitudes we learn. It is the patterns of behavior that help people to live together. It is also the patterns of behavior that make one group of people different from another group.

    Our culture lets us make up for having lost out strength, claws, long teeth, and other defenses. Instead we use tools, cooperate with one another, and communicate with language. But these aspects of human behavior, or "culture," can also be found in the lives of certain animals. Animals can make tools, for example. We used to think that the ability to use tools was the dividing line between human beings and other animals. Lately, however, we have found that this is not the case. Chimpanzees(非洲小猩猩) can not only use tools but actually make tools themselves. Animals can also share knowledge with each other and use their own language to communicate. So it may be important for us to know that the line dividing us from animals is not as clear as we used to think.

    Tablets are really useful devices, but their big screens always make them as a burden to carry around without a bag. Wouldn't it be great if there were a phone with the powers of a tablet that could be folded up and fit into the hand?

Now something like a tablet-shaped but foldable phone is about to become available. In February, South Korean electronics company Samsung and China's Huawei both showed foldable phones, The Galaxy Fold and Huawei Mate X respectively. Mobile phone use has entered the "foldable future", The Verge noted.

    The technology could change our lives in unusual ways. These devices, due to their foldable screens, give us the larger screens we want. At the same time, they still fit easily into the pocket. As USA Today noted, they're "the combination of a small tablet and smartphone, all in a single device".

    The technology could change other devices too. For example, we could make TVs that stick to walls like posters, or fold up easily to hide away in drawers. In crowded modern cities, they will help us to make full use of available space.

    In a keynote speech, Samsung's senior vice president of mobile product marketing, Justin Denison, called the foldable screen "the foundation for the smartphone of tomorrow". "It's a piece of white paper for us to paint something beautiful on together," he said.

    So is there nothing to stand in the way of the foldable future?

According to technology news website Android Authority, the necessary displays* were difficult to produce. At present, these foldable devices cost too much. For example, the price of Huawei Mate X is 17,500 RMB. That's a price that few people will be able to afford.

    But if the foldable device isn't going to change the world overnight, there is no doubt that it is coming.

    Patrick Moorhead, an industry expert told The Verge, "Few are debating if foldable mobile displays are the future of smartphones; the only question is when and by whom."

    When you look at the sky at night, the Moon looks bigger than the stars. Actually (实际上), the Moon is much smaller than the stars and the Sun. It's much smaller than the Earth. But the Moon is much closer to us than any star. That is why it looks so big. If you hold a coin close to your eyes, it looks big. If you look at it across the Moon, it looks small.

    The Moon moves around the Earth. It makes one trip in about four weeks. The Moon looks flat to us. But it is a round ball, like the Earth.

    People once thought the Moon had fire (火) on it. They thought the fire made it bright. Now we know the Moon is like a mirror. It gets its light from the Sun.

    Our sunlight comes from the Sun, too. What is the Sun? The Sun is a star. The stars we can see have their own light. There are many big stars we cannot see. Their light has burned out. Others are still bright, but they are so far away that we cannot see them. The Sun looks bigger and much brighter than other stars in Galaxy because it is the nearest of all stars. The Sun and the other stars we see are very hot, but the air around us saves us from the heat of the Sun.

    The Sun gives us light and warmth (温暖). It makes plants grow and turns leaves green. It makes life possible on the Earth. It is a life giving star.