A rainforest is an area covered by tall trees with the total high rainfall spreading quite equally through the year and the temperature rarely dipping below 16℃. Rainforests have a great effect on the world environment because they can take in heat from the sun and adjust the climate. Without the forest cover，these areas would reflect more heat into the atmosphere, warming the rest of the world. Losing the rainforests may also influence wind and rainfall patterns，potentially causing certain natural disasters all over the world.

    In the past hundred years，humans have begun destroying rainforests in search of three major resources（资源）: land for crops，wood for paper and other products，land for raising farm animals. This action affects the environment as a whole. For example，a lot of carbon dioxide（二氧化碳）in the air comes from burning the rainforests. People obviously have a need for the resources we gain from cutting trees but we will suffer much more than we will benefit.

    There are two main reasons for this. Firstly，when people cut down trees，generally they can only use the land for a year or two. Secondly，cutting large sections of rainforests may provide a good supply of wood right now，but in the long run it actually reduces the world's wood supply.

    Rainforests are often called the world's drug store. More than 25％ of the medicines we use today come from plants in rainforests. However，fewer than 1％of rainforest plants have been examined for their medical value. It is extremely likely that our best chance to cure diseases lies somewhere in the world's shrinking (萎缩的) rainforests.

    Hundreds of villages in rural India are using clean energy powered by the sun.

    This month, 61 households in the village of Baripatha in eastern India were given two solar lamps. Villagers had been using kerosene lamps at night. Kerosene produces pollution and can lead to fires.

    The Indian government wants to increase the use of solar energy by 500 percent in the next seven years. If it is to reach that goal, 100 gigawatts of power must come from solar by 2022.Now,just 4 gigawatts of power created in the country come from the sun.

    Officials say they want to slow the amount of greenhouse gas emissions. India is now the third largest producer of this gas. The gas contributes to climate change.

    Arunabha Ghosh is the head of the Council on Energy, Environment and Water, a policy research group in New Delhi.

    He says“in terms of the share of electricity capacity that Germany achieved through renewables, that transition took about 22 years for Germany. In India's case, which is a much poorer economy, India is planning to have a similar shift towards renewable energy and non-fossil energy” within 15 years.

    India's goal may be helped by the decreased cost of developing solar energy. The government says it wants investors to spend $ 100 billion over seven years in solar power. It is reducing taxes for some solar-related investments. And it is permitting non-Indians to invest.

    This week, Germany said it would spend more than $ 2 billion on solar projects in India. SunEdison, an American renewable-energy company, says it wants to invest $ 15 billion. SoftBank, a Japanese company, has announced it will partner with companies in India and China to spend up to $20 billion on solar energy projects. Trina Solar, a Chinese company, plans to spend $500 million to make solar panels.

    Some people in India are worried that there is not enough land for some of these projects. Many of the projects need large plots of land.

    Inderpreet Wadhwa created a company called Azure Power. It was one of the earliest investors in solar projects. He said most of them are being built in dry areas of the country, on land that cannot be farmed.

    Before the 1830s most newspapers were sold through annual subscriptions in America, usually $8 to S10 a year. Today $8 or $10 seems a small amount of money, but at that time these amounts were forbidding to most citizens. Accordingly, newspapers were read almost only by rich people in politics or the trades. In addition, most newspapers had little in them that would appeal to a mass audience. They were dull and visually forbidding. But the revolution that was taking place in the 1830s would change all that.

    The trend, then, was toward the "penny paper" ­ a term referring to papers made widely available to the public. It meant any inexpensive newspaper; perhaps more importantly it meant newspapers that could be bought in single copies on the street.

      This development did not take place overnight. It had been possible (but not easy) to buy single copies of newspapers before 1830, but this usually meant the reader had to go down to the printer's office to purchase a copy. Street sales were almost unknown. However, within a few years, street sales of newspapers would be commonplace in eastern cities, At first the price of single copies was seldom a penny ­ usually two or three cents was charged ­ and some of the older well-known papers charged five or six cents. But the phrase "penny paper" caught the public's fancy, and soon there would be papers that did indeed sell for only a penny.

    This new trend of newspapers for "the man on the street" did not begin well. Some of the early ventures were immediate failures. Publishers already in business, people who were owners of successful papers, had little desire to change the tradition. It took a few youthful and daring businessmen to get the ball rolling.

    When she was ten years old, Isadora Duncan dropped out of school to teach people dance. If that job was left to any other ten-year-old, it would have turned out frustrating, difficult, and a little discouraging.

    But Duncan was different. Not only was she already talented enough to earn money even at that age, but she also had a rare kind of confidence that helped her treat troubles as fuel —something to elevate the fire that is already burning inside of her.

    It's no surprise, then, that when she moved to New York to join a theatre company, she found herself restricted. The existing dancing style, their way of operating—all of this seemed to her the work of a misguided past. Duncan was very direct about what she wanted, confidently telling people she had a different vision of dance that she was going to spread in the world. This, naturally, led to ridicule and laughs early on, but as she built up her work, these instances became less frequent. Today, she is remembered as "The Mother of Dance," with much of the modern art owing its expressive style to her influence. Inspired by the ancient Greeks, she brought the style to life.

    In her autobiography (自传), one of the things Duncan frequently refers to as the basis of her expressive spirit is the fact that she had a childhood where she wasn't constantly watched. The expectations of her mother (who raised her) were open-ended. It was the freedom of this lifestyle that drove her to see what she could do.

    Growing up, before she left school, she was told one of two things: that she was either completely useless or that she was a genius. There was nothing in between. Even when she started working, people either bowed to her or they basically ignored her. But there wasn't one moment Duncan doubted her own genius.

    There is an old quotation "if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid." And it captures an important truth. At school, Isadora Duncan was a failure. In the dance hall, she gave form to brilliance.

The new garbage sorting regulation has taken effect in Shanghai starting July 1. Many citizens are still confused about the classification of the four different types of trash. Thankfully, authorities have released an official guideline to clarify the new rules.

The guideline, published by the Shanghai Greenery and Public Sanitation Bureau, provides a rather clear definition on the four kinds of waste: recyclable waste, hazardous (有害的) waste, household food waste and residual (剩余的) waste.

Hazardous waste, as the name suggests, includes assorted poisonous materials like used batteries, light bulbs, out-of-date medicines, paint and pesticides.

Household food waste, which is translated to "wet trash" in Chinese, refers to food leftovers, rotten food, pet food, fruit peels, remains of TCM herbs (中药) and flowers.

Paper, plastic, glass, metal and textiles (纺织品) are counted as recyclable waste.

The definition of residual waste is a little confusing. Anything that is not listed above belongs in this category.

As specific as the new guideline is, residents still have a hard time sorting trash correctly and are finding it challenging to memorize them all. For instance, both plastic bottles and bubble tea or coffee cups are plastic materials. However, the former falls to the category of recyclable waste and the latter belongs to residual waste. To save the hassle, some netizens have come up with their own ways to sort trash.

"We should do this from a pig's angle," commented one netizen. "Those edible (可食用的) for pigs are household food waste. Those even pigs don't want to eat are residual waste. If a pig consumes something and dies of it, then something must be hazardous waste. Those which can be sold and the money we gain can be used to purchase pigs are recyclable waste." The new regulation has gone into effect on July 1. Those who do not sort their trash properly will be fined RMB200.

When Juni Stefanus Santoso from Indonesia rode a camel in a desert in Dunhuang, Gansu Province — an important cultural center on the Silk Road {#blank#}1{#/blank#} cultures from the East and the West met and mixed hundreds of years ago — he felt like he was "stepping into another world" that was foreign, and very different from his previous {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (impress) of China. 

On a four-day trip to Dunhuang in late April, Santoso, together with other foreign students, mostly from nations along the Silk Road, {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (be ) on a cultural journey to explore the desert landscape, to visit the local museum, the Mogao Caves and craftsmen, {#blank#}4{#/blank#} to communicate with students from the Dunhuang College of Northwest Normal University. All of these activities offered the 23-year-old Indonesian an impressive experience, {#blank#}5{#/blank#} which he could learn the culture of ancient China. 

"It was so {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (amaze). It's like another side of the country," says Santoso. Before he came to China, he thought it was a country full of technology-related companies — an impression that was supported by the fast and convenient technology- {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (drive) services that came to be a part of his daily life when he moved to Tianjin. 

"I was impressed by China's science and technologies before coming to China. You can do everything on your phone," says Santoso, {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (refer) to services like electronic payment and online shopping. 

The cultural trip, however, showed Santoso a view of China {#blank#}9{#/blank#} art and goods were transported along the Silk Road more than a thousand years ago. The young man said he {#blank#}10{#/blank#} (teach) a little bit about the Silk Road in his middle school history class.