The population of the Earth is growing faster. It is important that we look after the Earth. We need it! The Earth gives us a lot of things. We also give the Earth a lot, but some of the things are not good.

   In nature, when something dies, other animals and plants get food from it. Every animal or plant gives food for other animals or plants. However, animals can't get food from many of the things that we "give"the Earth. Animals and plants can't eat metal, plastic and glass. These things will stay in the ground for many, many years.
   Some rubbish is very dangerous for plants and animals. In some places, many animals live together. One animal makes food for many more animals. If we put rubbish and chemicals in the water, the plankton(浮游生物) can die. If there isn't any plankton, many animals have nothing to eat.
   So what can we do? Don't leave any rubbish in the countryside! Don't make so much rubbish!

    TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It is a set of meetings, held in various (不同的) cities around the world every year. TED meetings invite speakers to give reports on different topics. The speakers are from different parts of the world. They are usually experts in their fields and talk about new ideas and recent developments that are important to their work. The speakers are often also well-known with people such as Microsoft giant Bill Gates and the world-famous expert, Jane Good all, having given talks. There are many talks on environment and international development, aid work, and how to help poor people with all kinds of new ideas. There are also a number of talks about education and education reform (改革).

    As the talks cover a wide variety of topics, all speakers have a strict time limit — each report must last no longer than 18 minutes.

    Like all organizations, however, TED has had its downs as well as ups. Some people think the organization is turning intelligent members of the scientific and other communities into entertainers (表演者). What else, those who attend must be very privileged (有特权的) with tickets for TED events costing about $ 6,000 (or more).

    However, www.ted.com, the organization's website can make many great talks become accessible to everybody who has an Internet connection. Every weekday, a new video is uploaded (更新) from a TED event, allowing people around the world to listen to the talks for free. At only 18 minutes, even if the video is not that interesting, you know you are not going to waste too much time.

Most TED talks are in English but there are talks available in other languages, too. As a result, the site is excellent for practicing English and learning new vocabulary, especially in a topic that you find interesting and enjoyable.

    The cartoon movie Bolt is an interesting movie. All the characters are very lovely. The movie is about a dog and his name is Bolt. Bolt is a dog star. He always thinks he is very strong. He often plays in TV programmes. Many people love him. So he is a little proud.

    One day people take him to New York, but the poor dog is lost there. The place is far from his home town. It's about 2,000 miles away. Bolt wants to return to his world. He has to face all the danger by himself. He begins to go across the USA.

    On his way he meets Mittens, a lonely cat. Then they meet a mouse. His name is Rhino. He likes watching TV very much. They become friends.  They meet many strange animals and people on their way.

    At last Bolt feels that he can be a hero both in TV programmes and in real life. The movie is very instructive. Children can learn something from it.

A British woman used an ancient Chinese invention to help her son deal with a modern problem. 

Dr. Rashmi Mantri grew up in India. She was taught how to use an abacus to solve math problems when she was a little girl. After noticing her son Dhruv had great difficulty with math，she started emploving the same ancient Chinese tool to help him after school. 

In just six days，Dhruv started to show rapid progress with the abacus. He enjoyed learning on it because it was like a game. He started to learn fast and would go on to become an excellent student in math. Surprised by the progress，teachers asked Dhruv to perform with the abacus at a school meeting，where some parents even came to ask for advice on using it to help their kids. 

Known as the Fifth Invention of Ancient China，the Chinese abacus helped people so lve all kinds of math problems in ancient China and is still used today. People find that using an abacus can also improve thinking and practical abilities. In 2013, the Chinese abacus was officially listed as an intangible cultural heritage of human beings(人类非物质文化遗产). "The abacus becomes a playing tool for younger children. It feels like a game. I think the success comes because children can touch and feel an abacus and picture it in their mind. "said Dr. Mantri.