In 1996, John Tierney suggested in the New York Times Magazine article that “recycling is garbage.” He wrote, “The money spent on recycling programs should have been spent on real social and environmental problems. Recycling programs not only increase energy use and pollution, but also cost more money than the disposal (处理) of plain old garbage. Recycling may be the most wasteful activity in modern America.”

Environmental groups were quick to express their disagreement. They wrote reports on how recycling programs in cities can reduce pollution and cost less than regular garbage pickup and disposal. Michael Shapiro, an official of the US Environmental Protection Agency(EPA), said that “recycling can be good value for money, although there's still room for improvements.”

But in 2002, New York City, a pioneer of recycling, found that its recycling program was losing money, so it stopped glass and plastic recycling. Other major cities watched closely to see how New York was dealing with its remaining program (the city never stopped paper recycling). But then it closed its last landfill (垃圾填埋地), and private companies out of New York raised prices due to the increased workload of carrying away and disposing New York's garbage. As a result, glass and plastic recycling became profitable for the city again, and New York brought the program back. According to Cecil Adams of The Chicago Reader, the lessons learned by New York are relevant everywhere. He believes that, if managed correctly, recycling programs should cost cities less than garbage disposal.

    Even though the benefits of recycling over disposal are many, keep in mind that it better serves the environment to “reduce and reuse” before recycling is even considered as a choice.

    China, org. cn selected its top 10 people who moved China in 2012. These heroes included a jet engineer, a businessman, a teacher, as well as nurses and migrant workers. Here are the accounts of the exemplary deeds of Zhang Lili, a teacher. Zhang Lili is a teacher at the No. 19 Middle School in Jiamusi, Heilongjiang Province. She suffered from serious injuries after saving two students from being hit by an oncoming bus on May 8.

    Zhang and her students were crossing the road just outside the school gate when suddenly a runaway school bus changed direction towards the students. Zhang managed to push both students out of the vehicle's destructive (破坏的，毁灭性的）path, but she herself did get run over. Her legs were crushed and later had to be cut off above the knee.

    Bom on Jan. 19, 1984，in Jiamusi, Zhang was a 168cm-tall lively and cheerful young woman who had devoted herself entirely to her job. She got married in 2009. The couple planned on having a baby after the graduation of her class.

    Zhang's act of heroism has moved a large number of people. She was even named “the most beautiful teacher” by netizens. She was awarded the “May I Labor Medal” and given the title of “Female Pace-setter” by authorities. She became a Party member in July.

    Two Chinese sisters have landed a dream trip to Buckingham Palace and the Peppa Pig World theme park in the UK. Lately, their mother helped them express their wish online to meet Queen Elizabeth II, which not only caught millions of social media users' attention but also the attention of the British ambassador (大使) to China.

    Five-year-old twins Mi Ai and Mi Ni, who live in Beijing, appeared in a video on social media platform Weibo last week, where they spoke of their love of British cartoon Peppa Pig and their keen interest to visit the Buckingham Palace. Mi Ni said she and her sister wanted to visit the gardens at Buckingham Palace, just like Peppa Pig and her friends did in the cartoon program.

    The British Ambassador answered their call with her own video, inviting the twins to her house in Beijing. "Hello Mi Ni and Mi Ai," she said. "I'm the British ambassador. I'd like you to come and visit me in my house in Beijing and we can perhaps have tea and cookies in a British style." The twins accepted the ambassador's invitation and joined her for a traditional afternoon tea on Monday, when they ate cake and drew pictures of their favorite characters from Peppa Pig.

    The ambassador has made arrangements for the girls and their parents to tour the UK. They are going to tour the studios where Peppa Pig is made, take a trip to Peppa Pig World in Hampshire and visit Buckingham Palace. The queen has not yet said if she will have time to welcome the girls.

    The Peppa Pig series, introduced in the mid-2000s in China, has become extremely popular among Chinese children and adults. As this year is the Year of the Pig according to Chinese tradition, the country has set to mark the Chinese New Year with a film starring Peppa Pig, where audiences can see a number of Chinese cultural elements (元素).

    October 15^this the Global Handwashing Day. Activities are planned in more than 20 countries to get millions of people in the developing world to wash their hands with soap. For example, donors(捐赠者) will give 150,000 bars of soap to schools in Ethiopia.

    Experts say people around the world wash their hands every day, but very few use soap at so-called important moments. These include after using the toilet, after cleaning a baby and before touching food.

    Global Handwashing Day is the idea of the Public-Private Partnership for Handwashing with Soap. Partners include the United Nations Children's Fund, American government agencies, the World Bank and soap makers Unlever and Procter and Gamble. The organizers say all soaps are equally effective at removing disease-causing germ(细菌). They say the correct way to wash is to wet your hands with a small amount of water and cover them with soap. Rub(揉搓) it into all areas, including under the fingernails(指甲). Rub for at least twenty seconds. Then rinse well under running water. Finally, dry your hands with a clean cloth or wave them in the air.

    The Partnership for Handwashing says soap is important because it increases the time that people spend in washing hands. Soap also helps to break up the dirt that holds most of the germs. And it usually leaves a pleasant smell. The Partnership for Handwashing also says washing with soap before eating or after using the toilet could save more lives than any vaccine(疫苗)or medicine. Hand washing could also prevent the spread of other diseases. When people get germs on their hands, they can infect(感染)themselves by touching their eyes, noses or mouths. Then they can infect others.

    Every year in America, high-school students who want to go to college take a national examination called the Scholastic Aptitude Test, or SAT in a shortened way. Their score is an important factor in determining which colleges will admit them or whether any will be admitted at all. The Scholastic Aptitude Test measures one's mathematical ability and use of the English language. Traditionally, the English portion (部分) involved grammatical questions and paragraphs that test reading comprehension.

    But the SAT folks have added a single question, to be answered in an essay, hand-written on the spot. That's an interesting way to test writing ability, put content aside, have you ever seen young people's handwriting lately? Or anyone's for that matter, in this age of computer keyboards? Students write numbers and sign their names on bank checks.

    They scribble class notes in what can generously be described as the written word. And they hand-write, or more often print, a word or two of identification on luggage and lunch bags. Otherwise penmanship (书法) - once taught so morally and easefully by second-grade teachers, has gone the way of the dodo bird which has died out.

    Yet today's kids are asked to write, thoughtfully and legibly (字迹清楚地),for several minutes on this SAT Test. Good luck to the text scorers who must work out difficultly the scrawl of young people who've been typing on computers since the age of three! Teachers insist that good handwriting can not only help one's score on the SAT, but also, later on in life, impress potential employers and earn bigger tax refunds (退税) because the tax inspectors can actually read the computations (计算结果). And don't forget, we all have to turn to handwriting from time to time, as computers go down when power goes out.

    Then how to improve the handwriting? Well, with a few simple steps you can improve your handwriting.

    PositiQn the pen. You should hold the pen between the forefinger and the thumb, then rest it near the first knuckle(指节)of the middle finger. The rest of your fingers should be curled(卷曲)under your hand and your hand should remain relaxed.

    Evaluate your writing. Make changes to your letters till you like how they look. Take your time. Speed is bound to make your writing messy-looking.

    Practice. Practice it a lot; it's not enough to do it once and hope for the best. It has to be something you work at to make great improvements.

    What a day! I started at my new school this morning and had the best time. I made lots of new friends and really liked my teachers. I was nervous the night before, but I had no reason to be. Everyone was so friendly and polite. They made me feel at ease. It was like I'd been at the school for a hundred years!

    The day started very early at 7∶00 a.m. had my breakfast downstairs with my mom. She could tell that I was very nervous. Mom kept asking me what was wrong. She told me I had nothing to worry about and that everyone was going to love me. If they didn't love me, Mom said to send them her way for a good talking to. I couldn't stop laughing.

    My mom dropped me off at the school gates about five minutes before the bell. A little blonde(金发的) girl got dropped off at the same time and started waving(招手) at me. She ran over and told me her name was Abigail. She was very nice and we became close straight away. We spent all morning together and began to talk to another girl called Stacey. The three of us sat together in class all day and we even made our way home together! It went so quickly. Our teacher told us that tomorrow we would really start learning and developing new skills.

    I cannot wait until tomorrow and feel as though I am really going to enjoy my time at my new school. I only hope that my new friends feel the same way too.