Many animals hide to stay alive. They hide in many ways. Some animals hide in leaves; some animals hide in snow. Usually their colors or shapes help protect them. It's hard to see an Arctic bear in snow. Its white fur helps protect it. Chameleons(变色龙) can hide by changing colors. Their skin turns the same color as what is around them. Some chameleons can change colors in five minutes.

    Many animals try to look bigger than they are to stay alive. Some animals can make other animals think they are very big. If they look very big, animals that are looking for food will run away. Bears can walk on two legs. They look very, very scary. Some animals will run away from them.

Many animals try to stay around other animals. This helps them stay alive. Zebras stay close together so that they can help each other look out of danger. Seeing many stripes at once can also confuse animals that want to eat them. Some birds stay in a circle, each toward a different direction. In this way they can also help each other stay alive by looking around for animals that many want to eat one of them.

    Today some people call Amsterdam the "City of Bicycles" because it is a city which is flat and convenient（方便）for bicycles.

    In the 1960s, a group of cycling fans1an idea . They believed that it would be better for everybody if only bicycles were allowed in the city centre. They were2that this would help to save energy, reduce pollution and provide free public transport. The group painted hundreds of bicycles3and placed them in public places around Amsterdam for people to use.4was allowed to take them and use them for short journeys, whether he was a local or a foreigner, Wherever someone finished a journey, they would5the bike there for someone else to use. The problem was that it didn't work-thieves took all the bicycles6 weeks!

    7,more than thirty years later, the "white bike" is back in town-this time with a computer chip(芯片)to8 its every move! To take a bicycle, you have to put a special card inside. The new "White bike" is not white any more but is an unusual9with bright colours. The bikes are parked at special parking places and people who want to use them have to take them to another place that has enough room.

    There is already less traffic in central Amsterdam, 10 both locals and tourists have been using the white bikes. Thanks to the good ideas of lots of people, like the cycling fans in the 1960s, many people around the world have been enjoying city centre streets without cars for many years.

Dear sir,

    I am doing a project(课题) at school about animals in danger. I think the situation all over the world is really terrible.

    Firstly, I feel so sorry for the giant panda. Pandas mainly live on bamboo. A panda can eat about half its body's weight(重量) of bamboo in 24 hours！That's a lot of bamboo. I think we should try to do more to stop cutting down their forests. We would be so sad if they disappear.

    Secondly, what we should try to protect more is the Chinese alligators(短吻鳄) . They live in some parts of eastern China. They live in freshwater rivers and lakes but the water in some places isn't clean enough for them to live in. It's really dirty in fact. The government should stop factories from polluting the lakes and rivers.

    If we protect these beautiful animals in China, more people may come to China to visit our beautiful country, especially to see the quieter areas in the country. Now most visitors just see the cities.

    I hope you will encourage(鼓励) more people to think about such an important subject.

Yours,

Huang Jing

    The Wandering Earth(流浪地球), China's first successful movie whose background is space, as shown on February 5. It is based on(基于)a short story of the same name by Liu Cixin, China's top  science—fiction writer.

    ⒈Capsule(太空舱)—a core(核心)element(要素)

    The space capsule used in the film has made the audience(观众)interested. "This was the first time anything like that was done, "said Wang Hong, the producer(制片人)of the movie. At first, the production(制作)team planned to use a small space capsule that had appeared in an earlier film, but found that it could not meet their needs for filming.

    ⒉Giant vehicles(巨大的车辆)—key to the film

    Giant vehicles are the key element in the film. Famous actors, Ng Man—tat and Wu Jing, said they could not even imagine what these vehicles would be like before filming, because the idea was far ahead of our time.

    The production team made about 10, 000 props(道具)to show the space better, including the giant vehicles.

    ⒊Saving planet itself

    In the film, the earth itself is pushed forward by 10, 000 giant

thrusters(推进器). It carries 3.5 billion people about 4.2 light years

through space in order to avoid destruction(破坏)by the dying sun.

In Liu's story, each thruster is 11, 000 meters in height.

    ⒋Amazing opening

    At the beginning of the film, it shows the environment and life in an

underground city—a big tree growing upside down, busy bookstores and snack bars and so on. There are also many snow scenes (片段)throughout the whole film.