A vegetarian (素食者) is someone who does not eat meat. Being a vegetarian has become a popular choice. In fact, 1 in every 200 kids in the US is a vegetarian. Most people choose to be vegetarians for many reasons.

First, they believe that a vegetarian diet is good for health. It usually has less fat than a diet that includes meat. Vegetarians eat a low-fat diet to stay fit and healthy. A vegetarian diet also provides many vitamins that people can’t get from meat. These vitamins protect people from some diseases.

Second, many vegetarians are worried about how animals are raised and killed for food. They hope animals can be better treated.

Finally, they think being a vegetarian can help save the earth. People use more energy, water and land to raise animals for food than to grow fruit and vegetables. Also animals put greenhouse gases (温室气体) into the air. These gases cause global warming (全球变暖).

Vegetarians advise people to have just a few vegetarian meals a week to make the world a better place.

Meaningful Movements

Tai chi is not just a way to exercise — it’s a way to live.

XU WENBO/VCG

Tai chi has always been a symbol of Chinese culture and is becoming popular around the world. According to Xinhua, it is practiced by over 100 million people in more than 150 countries. It was recently added to UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage List (非物质文化遗产名录). One thing that makes tai chi popular is its health benefits. As you move, you breathe deeply and natutally, focusing your attention — just as in some kinds of meditation (冥想) — on your body. This helps you relax and find peace.

According to Harvard Health, tai chi is suitable for almost anyone because its movements are never forced — it is all gain (好处) and no pain.

What makes tai chi even more interesting might be the ideas behind it. The term “tai chi” comes from Taoism, which means that inaction (无为), as opposite to action, is the solution to problems. That’s why tai chi movements are slow and soft. It is not used to fight an enemy. It is used to protect yourself. That doesn’t mean it is weak though. Tai chi is to use softness to beat hardness.

Many movements in tai chi have names that are related to animals. This suggests that people came up with them by studying how animals move. Tai chi shows how ancient Chinese people saw the world. After a dark night, the sun will rise. Leaves fall in autumn but grow in spring. Everything keeps changing — that’s how we should see the world.

—TEENS (Dec.28, 2020)

When we talk about the space, we know the universe means the earth, the sun, the moon, the stars and the space between them. Many of the stars are so far away that we cannot see them.

Through our geography lessons, we know the earth goes around the sun, and the moon goes around the earth.

We have day and night because the earth keeps turning all the time. Just because the moon is closer to the earth than the sun, it looks much bigger than the sun. The sun is bright enough to give out very strong light. The moon can’t give any light at all, but it looks quite bright too. Why? In fact, the light from the moon comes from the sun. But in fact the stars are much bigger and brighter than the moon.

There are many other planets in the universe. But of all these planets, only on the earth there are living things. People on the earth have been studying space all the time. They’ve sent spaceships into space many times. On November 3rd and 14th, 2011, Chinese scientists let Shenzhou Ⅷ successfully dock with（对接）the Tiangong I twice. This is one of the greatest events in the history of China’s space.