A new rubbish sorting system (垃圾分类系统) has been put into use in Fangchengyuan Community in Beijing. Local people not only sort their rubbish, but also put QR codes (二维码) on it.

    "When the rubbish is collected and the codes are seen, I will get reward points to exchange for small gifts and even some money," one of the local people told reporters. "It's really creative and encouraging."

    This smart system has been carried out in 350 communities in Beijing. The capital of China has joined a list of cities in the country that take action to support rubbish sorting. For example, Shenzhen and Shanghai have made laws to punish people and organizations for not sorting rubbish correctly.

    China produces quite a lot of rubbish every year. Much of the rubbish is buried (填埋) in soil or burned without being sorted. Landfills (填埋场) take up a lot of land and have a risk of polluting the soil and water nearby. And burning rubbish can produce harmful gases. Through rubbish sorting, we can reduce the use of landfills and air pollution.

    What's more, rubbish sorting saves resources, which could bring economic benefits (经济利益). For example, a ton of waste paper can be reused to make about 850 kg of paper, saving 17 trees and 50 percent of water. Because of the benefits, some countries have developed successful sorting systems.

    Japan has a strict and detailed system. When people throw away a water bottle, the cap, the wrapper (包装纸) and the bottle itself have to go into three different bins. Every year, families receive special rubbish sorting timetables and directions from their local governments. They are advised to follow the timetables and directions when they throw away rubbish.

    In Australia, every family is provided with three rubbish bins—the red lid (盖子) bin for "general waste" like food and plastic bags, the yellow lid bin for "recycling" like steel and glass, and the green lid bin for "green waste" such as grass and leaves. On the streets, the bins are printed with pictures of the things that are allowed inside. It makes recycling quite easy.

Comic strips(连环漫画) are popular cartoons found in newspapers and magazines around the world. If you can think up funny dialogues, you are well on your way to becoming a successful comic strip writer. If you're also good at drawing, it will be much better!

Develop your characters(角色). Develop your characters and practise drawing them in different situations. Make sure that each has its personality, so that it's easy to tell who is who.

Make a quick sketch(素描) of your strip. When you have decided what is going to happen, work out how many panels you will need, and exactly what will be described in each panel. Stop in where the text will go, and what the characters will be doing. Use a ruler and a pencil to draw the squares. Use the pencil to draw in your images. Draw the speech bubbles, characters and any background of the scenes. Correct until you are pleased with your drawings.

Add the text. Many cartoonists just do this with a pen, but you might want to start with a pencil until you feel confident in your lettering abilities(能力).Make sure your text is very easy to read.

Ink (给……上墨) over the final lines of your squares, text and images. Be careful not to use the wet ink. When the ink is completely dry, run an eraser over your comic to clean up the paper and remove any remaining pencil marks.

This is Bob's shopping receipt(收据).

My parents usually celebrate a special day by enjoying a special kind of wine called Canadian ice wine.

My mother once told me the story of ice wine. To make it, people must freeze grapes on the vine. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Sometimes, a great new product is invented by accident. And that's exactly how we got ice wine.

In the 1700s in Germany, a man was away from his farm in autumn. The weather suddenly turned cold and his grapes froze when he came back. How terrible! Anyway, the man tasted the grapes. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}Then, he decided to use these grapes to make some wine. Guess what? {#blank#}3{#/blank#}for two centuries, Germany was the only place where ice wine was made.

Then, a Canadian got the idea that this kind of wine could be produced in Canada, After all, the winters are cold in

Canada, and that's the main requirement for making ice wine. After hard work, some grape farmers found the best process. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

The story of ice wine got me thinking. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} It's really hard to imagine the world without penicillin and the microwave. Penicillin has saved millions of lives. And the microwave has certainly changed the way we cook.

Life is sometimes like that. When we look for one thing, something even better comes along…… if we keep our eyes and minds open.

When shopping for clothes, my mother and I have always disagreed on what fits me well. To me, if it zips, it fits. My mom, however, usually tells me I need a bigger size.

When I was a teenager, I wanted to dress like my friends, but my body size made it impossible. When mom told me something didn't suit me, or I needed a bigger size, all I heard was that my body was wrong.

To avoid arguments, we stopped going shopping together. This continued until I got engaged(订婚) last year and needed to buy some clothes. When I tried on a blouse, my mother looked at me, and I knew what was coming. "You need a bigger size," she said.

There was no bigger size. I tried to hold back my tears. Maybe I could buy it alone, of course, but my mom is my favorite person to hang out with. The idea of looking for a wedding dress without her seemed just as scary as taking her with me.

And so the day came. As I tried on a simple white dress, I saw tears in my mom's eyes. "You look beautiful! " she told me. Nothing could have shocked me more.

This one didn't zip up at the back and I did actually need a bigger size, but my mother didn't say that. She just told me how beautiful I looked. In that moment, all the arguments in the past ended. We didn't buy a dress that day.

We decided to see more, which I would never have predicted.

A few weeks later, we found the perfect dress. We both loved it as soon as I put it on. And during those few weeks, mom and I also found the perfect fit for our shopping relationship.

How do people from all over the world spend their free time? Let's have a look.