When the sun sets in Hong Kong, the city skyline comes alive. Billboard（广告牌）lights flash, and light up the crowded streets. The colorful lights from the tall buildings are one of the city's main attractions.

    “Oh, my god. The lights are so amazing. We love it. It's so nice.” said one visitor.

    But this appreciation is not shared by everyone in Hong Kong. Lat year then government reported a record number of complaints. The curtains may be drawn. But residents argue the bright light outside is hard to escape. “We receive some complaints about the light pollution. They find it very hard to sleep or they have disturbance from the light outside.”

    Scientists at the University of Hong Kong spent 18 months studying levels of light pollution and collecting more than 5 million measurements. They found Hong Kong one of the world's worst “victims”. The lights pollution condition in Hong Kong was extremely severe. Particular in cities, the night sky brightness, as well as the lights, is a few hundred times over the level of that of a night sky without light pollution. In cities such as Seoul, London, Shanghai and Paris, billboard lighting is under control. And there are punishments for people who go against the law.

    But in Hong Kong, there are no laws. A volunteer regulation called Charter of External Light（户外灯光约章）encourages visitors to switch off between 11 p.m. and 7 p.m. The critics say it's not enough to make a difference. The government says 4800 businessmen have signed up to the Charter so far. And it's satisfied that it's working.

    But not everyone is convinced and some residents are taking upon themselves to act. Zoe Chow led a campaign to have a commercial building switch off their midnight. She won but she believes the lights will eventually turn back on. “I know that the building has signed the Charter of External Light. But it is voluntary, not mandatory（强制的）.

    Japanese students work very hard but many are unhappy. They feel heavy pressures from their parents. Most students are always told by their parents to study harder and better so that they can have a wonderful life in the future. Though this may be a good idea for those very bright students, it can have terrible results for many students who are not gifted(有天赋的) enough. Many of them have tried very hard at school but have failed in the exams and have their parents lose hope. Such students felt that they are hated by everyone else they meet and they don't want to go to school any longer. They become dropouts.

    It is surprising that though most Japanese parents are worried about their children, they do not help them in any way. Many parents feel that they are not able to help their children and that it is the teachers' work to help their children. To make matters worse, a lot of parents send their children to those schools opening in the evenings and on weekends — they only help the students to pass the exams and never teach them any real sense of the world.

    Many Japanese schools usually have rules about everything from the students' hair to their clothes and things in their school bags. Child psychologists(心理学家) now think that such strict rules are harmful to the feelings of the students. Almost 40% of the students said that no one had taught them how to get on with others, how to tell right from wrong and how to show love and care for others, even for their parents.

    In 2018 to which we've just said goodbye, we've seen excellent movies such as Black Panther, Crazy Rich Asians and A Star Is Born. In 2019 there will be returns to classic movie characters and stories. Here are movies not to miss.

    Spider-Man-.Far H0- July 5, US

    Tom Holland, the actor of 2017's Spider-Man: Homecoming, returns to play Peter Parker, a high school student who gains superpowers after being bitten by a spider(蜘蛛). When we see him again in theaters, Spider – Man will have a new red - and – black suit. The movie will take Peter on a global adventure outside of the US. According to Marved Studios President Kevin Feige, Spider - Man will try a return to his "normal" self; he will try to find his old powers on his new journey.

    Hobbs and Shaw, July 26, US

    To most people the Fast and Furious series is all about crazy drivers racing in sports car. But in Hobbs and Shaw, humor is added to the action - packed thrills. The new film will hit US theaters on July 26. Famous English actor Jason Statham will star alongside Dwayne Johnson, "The Rock", as Deckaid Shaw and Luke Hobbs respectively, as in their previous appearances in Fast and Furious 8. The action and chemistry really thrill their audience. But the new action scenes between an MI6 agent Hobbs and the killer Shaw will have to be good to beat their stand - off in the 2017 movie.

    The Lion King, July 19, US

    This is a brand - new version of the classic children's film. The story of wide - eyed young lion Simba still remains in hearts of world audiences even after 25 years. In this re-telling, Simba again begins the difficult journey to become the King of the Pride Lands，a vast African prairie(大草原).The favorite part of the story for many has always been the friendship between Simba, Timon and Punibaa. The last two sacrifice all they have to help Simba to become the king. How will the new movie re-imagine their famous relationship?

    In areas like the Central United States that get lots of tornadoes, there^'s a common piece of celestial （天上的）fortune-telling that green skies mean a tornado is on its way. Research has shown that it isn^'t quite as simple as that, but scientists have found that if you see a green sky, you should probably go inside. As far as most scientists can tell, the green skies around powerful thunderstorms are usually a combination of red sunsets and water droplets.

    Daytime skies are blue because blue shorter wavelengths of visible light tend to bounce off （反射）air molecules better than red longer wavelength light. So the blue light gets bounced all over the sky and looks like it's coming from everywhere. Meanwhile, around sunset sunlight travels through so much atmosphere that just about all the blue is bounced away from the horizon, leaving all those reds and oranges behind. The sunset might look exclusively （独有的）red and orange, but there's still some green and even blue light hidden in there, just far less than the other colors. But for us to notice the remaining green light, it needs to hit something that reflects green light much better than red. That's where water comes in.

    Big tall threatening storm clouds are made of water droplets, and even though water is best at reflecting blue light, it can still reflect green pretty well, much better than reds and oranges, so under just the right conditions, the water in and around a cloud can bounce the green light hidden in the sunset right into our eyes making the sky look green.

    Still, none of the conditions that can turn skies green are unique to the clouds that produce tornadoes. Sometimes they just lead to lots of rain, and maybe some hail. So if you see huge storm clouds rolling in and a green tint （色调）in the sky, it doesn't necessarily mean there^'s about to be a tornado, but it does mean you should probably head indoors.

Tips for Writing Short Stories

    I was reading an article with David Vann's top tips for writing short stories -- he is a published writer, his most famous book being, "Legends of a Suicide." First of all he stats that there are no rules, but if he were forced to create rules for short stores, then they would be something like the following.

    He says there is no room for anything that is not related to the protagonist -- the main character of the story -- or indeed the problem of the protagonist. He makes it clear that the protagonist must have a problem, and this problem must divide the protagonist: he doesn't know what he is going to do to solve the problem. There is no point, then, in having a short story about a man who says he is hungry and then just goes to the shops to buy food. Nothing exciting happens. But if the man is hungry and he has a child who is hungry, then he has a problem; who does he give the food to?

    There should also be an antagonist, that is, somebody who works against the protagonist. The antagonist should ideally have the same problem as the protagonist but will have a totally different way of looking at it. This presents the possibility of having battles in the short story.

    Furthermore, the antagonist and the protagonist must know each other. But because they are viewing the same problem from different angles, they will probably drive each other crazy.

    Finally, the short story has to acknowledge a change in the protagonist. We must then, as a reader, see how the character will continue their life differently as a result of the events of the story. There is no point in going back to the beginning; the short story is a waste of time if nothing actually happens that is significant.

    It is very hard to create a character whom a reader cares about and a plot that a reader is interested in with just a few hundred words. But it is possible: Edgar Allen Poe, Anton Chekhov, and JG Ballard -- amongst many others -- have proved repeatedly that short stores can be little pieces of perfection. The best don't just see the protagonist change; they see the reader change, too.

A new study examines possible harm caused by microscopic pieces of plastic that end up inside people's bodies. These materials -known as microplastics and nanoplastics - can enter the body through the air or in food or drinks.

One new study suggests the buildup of such plastics inside the body can increase the risk of a stroke, heart attack or death. But the researchers noted the evidence presented cannot prove a direct link between tiny plastic materials and heart problems.

The study involved 257 people who had medical operations to clear blocked blood vessels （血管） in their necks. Italian researchers examined the fatty buildup the doctors removed from the carotid arteries, which supply blood and oxygen to the brain. Using two methods, they found evidence of plastics-mostly nanoplastics that cannot be seen-in the artery plaque（动脉斑块）of 150 patients. No evidence of plastics was seen in 107 patients.

The team followed these people for three years. During that time, 30 individuals, or 20 percent of the group with plastics, had a heart attack, stroke, or died from any cause. These rates dropped to about eight percent among those with no evidence of plastics. Research results were recently published in a study in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The researchers admitted their study was very small. For example, it only looked at people with narrowed arteries who were already at risk for heart attacks and stroke.

Steve Nissen is a heart expert at the Cleveland Clinic in the state of Ohio who was not part of the study. He told the Associated Press he thinks the team's estimate that the risk of heart attack, stroke or death was four times greater seems too high. "It would mean that these microplastics are the most important cause of coronary heart disease （冠心病） yet discovered. And I just don't think that's likely to be right," Nissen said. "Maybe, it's just a wake-up call that perhaps we need to take the problem of microplastics more seriously." Nissen added.