English playwright Arthur Wing Pinero said, “Where there’s tea, there’s hope.” Similarly, a Chinese saying goes that “Firewood, rice, cooking oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea are the seven necessities to begin a day.”

Tea is, without doubt, welcomed all over the world. According to Statista, a German website for statistics(数据), global tea production reached about: 5.8 million tons in 2018. It has become the most consumed beverage(饮品) in the world-after water, of course.

According to the UN, tea is much more than just a hot drink. It s a big part of many cultures around the world. You probably know that people in China use top-grade tea to show respect when receiving important guests. Meanwhile, the British tradition of afternoon tea is an important part of that country’s identity. Making Malaysia’s pulled tea has become a sort of art form, where drinker stake pride in its entertainment aspects.

Apart from its cultural significance(意义), tea is also a medicine, used from ancient times to modern day. “Tea is cold and lowers the fire,” Chinese Ming Dynasty herbalist Li Shizhen once said.

The health benefits of tea are still being discovered today: preventing heart disease, obesity and cancer have all been linked to drinking green tea, according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information in the US.

Hot or cold, bagged or loose-leaf, tea is more than a drink-it s a social custom and also a magic medicine, a link to the past and a way of life.

It happens every spring. Flowers come out everywhere on the same day. But how do plants “know” when to flower?

For years, it has been a difficult question for scientists. But a US research group may have finally answered it—the secret lies in a protein(蛋白质) called FKF1. This helps plants to know when the days become long and when they get short. Then they can tell the seasons(季节) are changing.

Researchers found the FKF1 protein when they were studying a plant called Arabidopsis. It is sensitive(敏感的) to sunlight, and can be made active by sunlight.

Plants produce this protein every day in the late afternoon all year. If there is no light at this time, for example, in winter when the sun goes down early, the protein won’t be active. But when spring comes and the days get longer, the FKF1 protein can be made active by day light and the plants “know” it is time to flower. “If there is light in the late afternoon, plants will know that the days are getting longer and that it is the best time for flowers to come out,” explained Takato Imaizumi, leader of study. But when conditions are poor for growing, such as during autumn or winter when the weather is cold and days are short, plants won’ t flower.

Although researchers have only studied how the FKF1 protein works in the Arabidopsis, they believe that it is the same with many other plants, including crops such as rice and wheat.

“If we can control when flowers come out, we might be able to increase crop production,” Imaizumi said.

Many people may enjoy travelling by air, but few like airline food. Airlines have always tried to improve the food quality and the taste in order to attract more travelers. 【小题1】 According to some recent scientific researches, a part of the reason is that at high altitude(海拔), we can’t actually taste things well as we do on the ground.

Scientists have found that even before a plane takes off, 【小题2】 As the plane climbs, the air pressure changes and our noses become more and more senseless. When the plane goes 35,000 feet high, 【小题3】 They help explain why the tomato juice on airplanes tastes far less sour in the air than it does down on the ground.【小题4】 Otherwise, the food would be tasteless. Astronauts also have to do with this problem on their journeys for similar reasons.【小题5】The studies are going on! We are looking forward to any improvements.