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!

    Many wild animals, such as pandas, are in d{#blank#}1{#/blank#}. Often there is not e{#blank#}2{#/blank#} land or forests, so the animals do not have a safe place to live.

    There are only about 1,600 pandas in the wild today. Pandas do not have many babies, and baby pandas often d{#blank#}3{#/blank#}. The situation is getting more and more difficult. We need to p{#blank#}4{#/blank#} them.

    The government is s{#blank#}5{#/blank#} up nature parks and the pandas live in peace there.

    Techeng Island(特呈岛)lies in the southeast of Zhanjiang. The villagers there used to make a living by fishing. But now, most of them make much money by doing business. They believe that their island is a gift from nature and they give thanks to it every day. In 2003, President Hu Jintao came to visit the island and pointed out that the government of Zhanjiang should take the is land into a "civilized new ecotourism island"(文明生态旅游新海岛). Since then, the island has opened a new page in history.

    Today, the island has become a popular place for tourists. It takes you about 15 minutes to get there by boat from Maxie Pier(码头)near Haibin Park. But it is a just 8­minute boat ride from Zhanjiang Port Pier. In the resort(度假村), you can not only enjoy the fantastic sights but also have a lot of interesting things to do, like walking on the beach, visiting the museum and enjoying the delicious seafood. The best way to relax yourself is to enjoy the hot springs(温泉)there.

    Welcome to Techeng Island! It's a place to visit!

Why Do People Blink (眨眼) Their Eyes?

    People blink their eyes tens of thousands of times every day. Scientists have long believed blinking was an involuntary movement and served mainly to keep the eyeballs wet. But a new study suggests it has a more important purpose.

    An international team of scientists from the University of California at Berkeley studied the blinking of human eyelids. The journal Current Biology published their findings. The team said they found that blinking "repositions our eyeballs so we can stay focused" on what we are seeing. They said that when we blink our eyelids, the eyes roll back into their sockets—the bony area that surrounds and protects the eyes. However, the researchers found the eyes don't always return to the same position (位置). They said this causes the brain to tell the eye muscles (肌肉) to reorganize our eyesight.

    Gerrit Maus is the lead writer of the report. He serves as an assistant professor of psychology at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Maus said, "Our eye muscles are quite sluggish (迟缓的) and imprecise (不精确的), so the brain needs to constantly adapt (改编) its motor signals to make sure our eyes are pointing where they should be. Our findings suggested that the brain measures the difference in what we see before and after a blink, and orders the eye muscles to make the needed corrections." The researchers said that without such corrections our surroundings would appear unclear and even jumpy. They said the movement acts "like a steadicam (摄影稳定器) of the mind."

    The researchers said they asked volunteers to sit in a dark room while storing at a small dot on a flat surface. They used special cameras to follow the volunteer's blinks and eye movements. After each blink, the dot was moved one centimeter to the right. The volunteers did not notice this, but the brain did. It followed the movement and directed the eye muscles to refocus on the dot. After the dot was moved in this way 30 times, the volunteers' eyes changed their focus to the place where they predicted it would be.

    Professor Maus said. "Even though the volunteers did not consciously register that the dot had moved, their brains did, and adjusted (调整)with the corrective eye movements. These findings add to our understanding of how the brain constantly adapts to (适应) changes directing our eye muscles to correct for errors in our bodies' own hardware."

    On a rainy day, about 150 volunteers worked for eight hours to clean up Carson Creek that is near a river. About nine tons of trash(H l)was taken out from there.

    "We did a good job, "said Alan Specter, the organizer of the event, "Were planning to come back here one more time, three years from now, Of course, we hope that there won't be so much trash next time."

    The trash came in all shapes, sizes, and colors: bottles, bicycles, batteries, furniture, clothing, plastic bags, dolls, and even a golf bag with a full set of golf clubs(球杆).

    The dirty and tiring work was done by two volunteer groups Save the Bay and Watch the Whales. Most of the volunteers came from a local police station and a fire station. And some of them were old people who had already retired (退休)。

    That day, it rained a little. All of them wore boots, gloves and raincoats. The work took place along a two- mile river with over 500 big yellow trash bags every where.

    No one found anything that cost much. A five- year-old boy found an earring which he thought might be worth a million dollars. He said he'd sell it. Then he'd donate half of the money to Watch the Whales, and use the other half to buy his favorite ice- cream every day.

    Many people laughed at the boy's story. However, it was easily found that the environment there did become better.