In London's art gallery six or seven men, mostly in their 30s, are busy painting the walls with new designs in colorful lettering and clever tricks. Tins of spray paint and beer stand on the ground. The atmosphere is not unlike that of a golf course: a mix of concentration and relaxation.

    Graffiti(涂鸦) painting is traditionally a daring hobby. Teenagers avoid security guards to put their names on trains and buses. But over the past decade that has almost disappeared from Britain's cities. Between 2007 and 2017 the number of incidents of graffiti recorded by the British Transport Police fell by 63%. A survey by the environment ministry shows that fewer places are damaged by tags(绘名) than ever. Graffiti are increasingly limited to only a few walls. In time the practice may die out entirely.

    The most obvious reason for the decline in tagging and train-painting is better policing, says Keegan Webb, who runs The London Vandal, a graffiti blog (博客). Numerous cameras mean it is harder to get away with painting illegally. And punishments are more severe. A generational change is apparent, too. Now teenagers prefer to play with iPads and video games. Those who do get involved tend to prefer street art to graffiti. And the internet helps painters win far more attention by posting pictures online than they can by breaking into a railway yard.

    Taggers and graffiti artists mostly grew up in the 1980s and 1990s. Those men are now older and less willing to take risks. "We can't run away from the police any more," says Ben Eine, who turned from tagging to street art. The hip-hop culture that inspired graffiti in the first place has faded. Video games and comic books provide more inspiration than music.

    Graffiti may eventually disappear. But for now the hobby is almost respectable. Mr Eine says he has lots of friends who used to paint trains. Now with wives and children, they paint abandoned houses at the weekend. It has become something to do on a Sunday afternoon—a slightly healthier alternative to sitting watching the football.

    The world itself is becoming much smaller by using modem traffic and modern communication means. Life today is much easier than it was hundreds of years ago, but it has brought new problems. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}Pollution means making things dirty. It comes in many ways. We see it，smell it, drink it and even hear it Man has been polluting the earth.{#blank#}2{#/blank#} Many years ago, the problem was not serious because there were not so many people. When the land was used up or the river was dirty in one place, Man moved to another place. But this is no longer true. Manis now slowly polluting the whole world. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}It's bad for all living things in the world, but it is not the only one kind of pollution. Water pollution kills our fish and pollutes our drinking water. Noise pollution makes us angry more easily {#blank#}4{#/blank#}They stop people from burning coal in houses and factories in the city and from putting dirty smoke into the air. The earth is our home. We must take care of it {#blank#}5{#/blank#}And we must take care of the rise in population at the same time.

A. The more people, the more pollution.

B One of the biggest is pollution.

C. Air pollution is still the most serious.

D. Many countries are making rules to fight pollution.

E That means keeping the land, water and air clean.

F I hope scientists can find ways to solve the serious problem.

G Strange diseases have appeared in some places because of pollution.

    Corals (珊瑚) are often described as undersea forests, but they are declining far more quickly than the Amazon. The coral reefs (礁) are likely to be among the first ecosystems to be wiped out by climate change.

    A temperature rise of just 1 to 2℃ can lead to the death of the algae (海藻) upon which corals depend, draining them of color and making the structure more fragile. These bleaching (脱色) events can be temporary if waters cool, but the more frequent they are and the longer they last, the greater the risk of damage is. But that's exactly what is happening. Bleaching was first observed in 1983. It was seen on a global level in 1998, then 2010, and then from 2015 to 2017. Most available scientific evidence tells us that unless we do something to limit warming to 1.5℃, we will lose 99% of the world's coral reefs in coming decades.

    But there are other threats beyond warming. Off the Philippine island of Palawan, its old reefs have been badly damaged by dirty water from the tourist holiday center, pollution from boats and overfishing. The area ought to be a shelter because it's one of the ocean regions most bearable to climate change. "Even here, we are losing our corals," said David Obura, chair of the Global Specialist Group in the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. "We need to reduce stress from overfishing, coastal development, pollution and tourism."

    "I'm a generation of scientists watching them disappear. It's very depressing," Obura said. "Above 1.5℃, in about 50 years, they will be a treasure of historic movies and pictures, but very little to see in real life. Children born today may be the last generation to see coral reefs in all their glory."

    Have you ever considered all the English expressions that include words about clothes? Let's have a look.

    People wear pants to cover the lower part of their bodies. We sometimes say that people who are nervous have ants (蚂蚁) in their pants. Sometimes, people may get caught with their pants down. They are found doing something they should not be doing. And, in every family, one person takes control. Sometimes a wife tells her husband what to do. Then we say she wears the pants in the family.

    Pants usually have pockets to hold things. Money that is likely to be spent quickly can burn a hole in your pocket. Sometimes you need a belt to hold up your pants. If you have less money than usual, you may have to tighten your belt.

    I always praise people who can save their money and not spend too much. I really take my hat off to them. Yet, when it comes to my own money, I spend it at the drop of a hat, which means I instantly spend it.

    Boots are a heavy or strong kind of shoes. People who are too big for their boots think they are more important than they really are. I dislike such people. My father is an important person. He runs a big company. He wears a suit and tie, and a shirt with sleeves (衣袖) that cover his arms. Some people who do not know him well think he is too serious and never shows his feelings openly. But I know that my father wears his heart on his sleeve.

    Credit card debts, loans and overdrawn (透支) accounts — these are costly mistakes you don't want your children to make when they grow up. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} According to Mylene Lopa, a chief marketing officer of Sun Life Financial, you should teach your kids about money as early as possible. Start simple and expose them to the following basic concepts.

    Spending

    Giving your children some pocket money is a good way to teach them how to be responsible. "The money should just be enough to buy them a treat, like a juice or a biscuit. It's for practice more than anything," Mylene says. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Tell your kid he will get a reward if he saves some of that money.

    Saving

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} They are always cute and colorful, making saving a fun and positive activity for kids. Encourage your children further by bringing them to the bank and showing them how to manage their savings themselves. It makes them feel more grown-up and they love it," says Mylene.

    Earning

    For children, earning usually comes in the form of gifts they receive for good grades or behavior. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} "Material rewards should be saved for even greater achievements," Mylene advises, "like if they top the class or they really go beyond the call of duty to help." This may let your children know making money is not so easy.

    Along with these basic concepts, another way to teach kids about money is being a good example. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} It's hard to teach kids about saving if they see you splurging (挥霍) and borrowing all the time.

A. Be careful when giving them.

B. Buy your children moneyboxes.

C. Make it clear what items the money is for.

D. Set up a fund for your children when they get older.

E. Tell your children to pay a visit to the bank frequently.

F. Teaching your children about money will help them form good habits in life.

G. Avoid borrowing money from other people and use your credit card responsibly.

You know that eating healthy, staying active, and solving a few brain games can help keep your memory. But the following lesser-known habits work wonders too.

⒈{#blank#}1{#/blank#}

When we sit with our shoulders bent forward, this defeated position actually causes us to feel anxious or depressed — which makes it harder to think clearly and remember things. Conversely (反过来), straight upright posture apparently improves memory because it boosts blood and oxygen flow to the brain.

⒉ Exercise — Once

Having trouble remembering faces? {#blank#}2{#/blank#} In a study, pictures of faces were shown to

older folks after they pedal a stationary (静止的) bike at an intense pace or simply sit on a self-pedaling bike. On average, people remembered the faces better after the intense exercise. What's more, the memory gains after a single workout were similar to the gains after 3 months of regular exercise.

⒊ Limit TV

Every parent and grandparent has heard that too much screen time can hurt a child's cognitive development. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} According to a study, people (aged 50 or older) who watched more than 3. 5 hours of TV a day for 6 years experienced a greater drop in verbal memory test scores than those who watched less.

⒋ Draw aimlessly

A research shows those who drew the words remembered the most when recalling words. That's because while some parts of the brain about getting memory back become worse as people grow older, the picture processing regions usually don't.  {#blank#}4{#/blank#}    

⒌ Walk Backward

{#blank#}5{#/blank#}Walk back! Backward motion — whether real, imagined, or watched — helps people remember the information better than sitting still and, in most cases, better than forward motion. It may be that moving backward in space mentally helps us move back in time to the moment we learned something.

A. Sit Tall.

B. Stand Straight.

C. Start more workouts.

D. Sweat for physical training.

E. Thus sketching can help adults keep their memory sharp.

F. But what about those at the other end of their life span?

G. Next time you're trying to recall something, don't just think back.