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As you know, camping has a lot of advantages. Here is a list of the most important reasons to send your kids to camp. At camp, children can do as many things as follows.

Make true friends

Camp is the place where kids make their very best friends. Free from the social expectations and stress at school, camp encourages kids to relax and make friends easily. All the amazing activities and endless fun at camp draw everyone together. Every day, friendships are created.

Learn social skills

Coming to camp means joining a community where everyone must agree to work together and respect each other. When they live in a small room with others, kids solve problems without the help of families, and understand the importance of open communication more deeply. Camp builds teamwork.

Grow more independent (独立)

Camp is the perfect place for kids to practice deciding to do something for themselves. Managing their daily choices in the safe, caring environment of camp, children welcome these as a chance to grow in new directions. Camp helps kids develop who they are.

Experience success and become more confident

Camp helps children build self-confidence. With its non-competitive activities and different chances to succeed, camp life really opens a new world for young people. There's achievement every day. Camp teaches kids what they can do.

Spend their day being physically (体力的) active

As children spend so much time these days inside and mostly sitting down, camp provides a wonderful chance to move. Running, swimming, jumping, climbing! Young bodies get fully exercised. Camp is action!

“Mermaids” (“美人鱼”) come together against water pollution

Water pollution is damaging the UK’s rivers. Environmentalists (环境保护主义者) believe the problem has been caused by water companies and weak regulation (监管). Some of them have come to river banks to make their voices heard.

Surfers Against Sewage (污水) is a charity of water lovers. On April 23, thousands of the group's members gathered on river banks across the country. Their marches attracted large numbers of people. The beach-loving public are calling for an end to the dumping of waste water into the UK’s bathing waters (浴场水城) by 2030.

In Manningtree and Essex, people went on a march by the River Stour. Many of the swimmers dressed up in mermaid costumes. One of the signs on the site said, “Don’t be mean (卑鄙的). Keep water clean.”

Anglian Water is a water company in the east of England. Last year, it poured raw sewage (未经处理的污水) into the River Stour 389 times. This happened over a period of time of more than 4,000 hours. The company said it was spending millions of pounds in order to deal with this problem.

Anna Baxter organized the Manningtree march. She said that the situation was “completely unacceptable”. According to data, water companies poured raw sewage into British rivers 372,533 times last year, for a total of more than 2.6 million hours. Also, every single one of England’s rivers failed a pollution test in 2020.

Hugh Tagholm, CEO of Surfers Against Sewage, said, “When I go for a surf, when my son goes for a swim, or when anyone takes the time to enjoy the UK’s blue spaces, we shouldn’t have to do this at the risk of getting sick from sewage”.

①Some well-known traditional music was played by the China National Traditional Orchestra (中央民族乐团) in their concert on January 4. Audiences (观众) enjoyed the beautiful sounds guzheng, the powerful tunes of suona, the tearful notes of erhu and so on. Each traditional Chinese musical instrument tells its own story.

②“I’ve fallen in love with the sounds of traditional instruments, especially pipa, a four-stringed (弦) instrument with a history of more than 2,000 years. It can produce different sounds, such as the sounds of falling snow and raindrops. Every time I listen to a pipa tune, I have a strong feeling of peace,” said Yang Tian, an audience of the concert

③However, a recent report suggests ___________. To wake up people’s love for traditional music, something creative has been done.

④In some traditional music concerts, VR (虚拟现实) technology is used to bring the star sky or the beautiful sandy view of Dunhuang to the music hall. It makes the experience like watching a 3-D movie.

⑤Li Xiaobing, a music teacher from Beijing, mixes traditional folk (民间) singing, opera and Chinese instruments through technology. People are surprised at his works and they love them!

⑧Some musicians try to add something new to traditional music. They bring modern music like pop and rap into traditional music. When the east meets the west, the new form of music wins the hearts of both the old and the young.

⑦Traditional music shows the beauty of our culture, and with some creativity, great things happen.

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A traveler was walking across a desert (沙漠) alone, planning to do it in one month. More than twenty days passed, and the journey had been going on _______. “Soon I’ll be able to walk out of this desert,” he thought gladly.

But the desert was never friendly _______ travelers. In a short time, there came a strong sandstorm. He hurriedly _______ his head with the clothes, prostrate (卧倒的) on the sand. After about ten minutes, the sandstorm _______. He shook the clothes and stood up. At that moment, he found himself in a hopeless situation—the backpack with food and water was swept away by the _______.

As we know, it seems _______ to leave the desert without food and water. _______, he had a pear left. He held it in his hands tightly. “Not too bad, at least I have a pear. I _______ I can walk out of the desert.”

Days and nights went by quickly, but the desert still looked endless. Besides, hunger, thirst and fear of _______ were always around him like ghosts. ________, each time he was close to losing hope, he forced himself to stare at the pear that he had been ________. “Not too bad, at least I have a pear.”

A small pear became the ________ for his survival (生存). Three days later, ________ he saw a village not far away, he laughed with excitement. He felt completely relaxed—the “pear” brought him back to ________.

To keep hope is the best weapon (武器) for victory, so never tell you “________ left” because only if you try to search, you can always find a “pear” to pull you out of trouble.

Does Music Make You Smarter?

What interests many parents is that musical training improves the development of the brain — that “music makes us smarter”. According to a study published by the UK’s largest music education body, 7 out of every 10 children say they presently play a musical instrument. Whether this figure (数字) shows that most parents do believe the statement, or whether the potential benefits of music are hard to ignore (忽视). Ongoing research looks for suggestive evidence proving that musical training may actually strengthen the so-called “smart skills”.

The relationship between music and memory has long been the subject of research. In the 2003 study by The Chinese University of Hong Kong were 90 boys between the ages of 6 and 15, half of whom had 1 to 5 years of musical training and half of whom had none at all. Each of them had a memory test, with the musically trained students recalling more words, and being able to memorize more words after 30 minutes. One year later, a follow-up study showed that those students who had continued training, as well as novices who had recently begun musical training, both showed improvement in retention. However, students who had stopped music practice fewer than three months after the first study showed no further improvement. These results suggest that music training might improve memory function.

There is also increasing evidence that musical training may result in structural changes to the brain. Noticeable differences have been found between the brains of musicians and non-musicians. The size of those areas of the musician’s brain connected with hearing and visuospatial abilities is larger. A 2014 study found that the part of the cortex (大脑皮层) was thicker in children who had taken musical training.

However, like many scientific studies, research into the benefits of music remains ongoing, with many different opinions. Some deny (否认) that music makes people smarter. Others think that people who are naturally gifted in the cognitive (认知的) functions are simply more likely to play musical instruments. It would therefore be premature (草率的) to state without any doubt that music makes people smarter. Whatever the truth behind the statement that “music makes us smarter”, it should eventually come second only to the fact that music is one of life’s greatest pleasures.

On 20 July 1969, the world celebrated an important moment in history when American astronaut, Neil Armstrong, became the first man to walk on the moon, making a giant leap for humanity. For more than 50 years, human beings have tried many times to understand the space environment. These efforts have paid off. Today, we are in a better position to understand our universe in which we live, thanks to space exploration.

Space exploration has triggered advances in science and technology which have benefitted humans and improved the quality of life on Earth. These benefits are related to space technology such as satellite communications, global positioning system(GPS) and weather forecasting. The development of satellite technology, for instance, makes telecommunications possible, connecting people from different parts of the world through satellite television, phones, radio and Internet access. Today, space technology also enables us to have virtual (虚拟的) meetings and lessons, making work and study from home possible during the Covid-19 pandemic.

With the excitement and curiosity generated (产生), space exploration is attracting young people to careers in engineering, science, technology and mathematics, which creates innovations (创新) in science and technology. In countries such as America, Canada and Europe, space exploration has also generated jobs in fields related to engineering, technology and science. Even if interested youngsters do not end up in a job in these areas, space technology enriches their imagination about the possibility of life beyond Earth and space travel. To this end, space exploration continues to encourage human imagination, inspiring (激励) people to write stories and create movies, photographs and songs about space exploration.

Although there are many benefits, space exploration has often been criticized (批评)for its high cost. According to the University of Florida, it costs about $500 million to launch (发射) a space shuttle and many argue that this money could be better spent on solving the problems on Earth such as hunger, pollution, diseases and climate change. Although space exploration cannot directly provide immediate solutions to these problems, it generates many useful technologies and new knowledge in sciences necessary to improve the conditions of human life on Earth.

Every year, about a thousand innovations in the space programmes find their way into earthly technology that leads to better farming; better medical instruments; and more energy-efficient vehicles(交通工具). As a result, the money spent on space exploration does finally benefit human beings.

There is no doubt that space exploration has produced many benefits for humanity. It has also encouraged many to understand Earth and the universe in a deeper way. In the coming decade, we can continue to expect more exciting discoveries. We may eventually even find another planet where humans can live.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), along with Chinese kung fu and Peking Opera, is one of China’s cultural symbols recognized worldwide. It is a priceless treasure of Chinese civilization (文明), and it has also made great contributions to world civilization by improving people’s health and promoting social progress.

There used to be a debate in China about whether TCM or Western medicine was better, and arguments can still be heard today. But actually, TCM and Western medicine are two different medical theoretical systems that cannot replace each other. In some aspects, such as surgery, Western medicine is better than TCM, but in other areas, such as recovery after surgery and treatment of chronic (慢性的) diseases, TCM is more effective. This is why some Chinese hospitals provide both TCM and Western medicine treatments. A combination of both has been accepted by many Chinese people as the most effective treatment.

Today, promoting and innovating (创新) TCM has become a consensus (共识) in Chinese society. The Chinese government has formulated policies (政策) to support the development and innovation of TCM, with the purpose of establishing a Chinese healthcare development model which pays equal attention to both.

The supportive policies of the Chinese Government will focus on three aspects. The first is the strengthening of TCM services in medical institutions. The second is to apply Internet technology to ICM management, including setting up a database (数据库) containing TCM electronic medical records and prescriptions (处方). The third is to give better play to the advantages of TCM, especially acupuncture (针灸) and naprapathy (推拿). The function of TCM in disease prevention and recovery will also be enhanced.

As long as TCM keeps its core strengths and respects the rules of development and innovation, it will surely be able to maintain its vitality (活力) and bring more benefits (优点) to people in China and the world.

We all know there is a problem with plastic pollution. Five trillion plastic bags are used every year. One million plastic drinking bottles are bought every minute.

What if we could use plastic waste to build roads? This is exactly what Toby McCartney has done.

In 2019, McCartney’s UK-based company, MacRebur, built the world’s first plastic road in Elgin town, Scotland. The plastic waste was made into grains and then mixed with biturnen (沥青). The road looks just like any other road. But it has improved strength and is more stretchy (有弹性的) thanks to the plastic.

“Our technology can not only help solve the problem of plastic waste but also produce roads that deal better with changes in the weather, reducing cracks and holes on the roads,” McCartney told the BBC.

McCartney’s idea came from a trip to India. “I saw people in India would put plastic waste into the holes on the roads and burn it. The plastic would melt down and cover the hole,” said McCartney.

“I knew that there must be some similarities between the plastic and biturnen, which both come from oil. That’s how I started to think about mixing them,” he said.

After lots of testing, McCartney found the perfect recipe. And now his company has built many plastic roads around the world, from Australia to Europe. A one-kilometer stretch of roads uses about 684,000 plastic bottles or 1.8 million plastic bags. The road itself can be recycled at the end of its lifetime. The materials can be reused to build new roads.

“We’re just a small part of ending the plastic problems, but it’s nice to be part of it,” McCartney said. “I just don’t want my daughters to live in a world where there are more plastics in our oceans than fish.”