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The largest ocean — the Pacific Ocean

Where: It stretches from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, and between Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.

How large: It covers more than 165 million square kilometers, which is larger than the total land area of the whole world.

What it is like: It has the deepest trench (海沟) on Earth — the Mariana Trench, which is about 11,000 meters deep. It is also home to thousands of kinds of sea animals and plants, many of which cannot be found in other oceans.

The highest waterfall — the Angel Falls

Where: It is in the rainforest of Venezuela, South America.

How high: It drops 979 meters from the top to the bottom, with a single drop of 807 meters. It is about 19 times as high as the Niagara Falls.

What it is like: The waterfall is hidden in the thick forest. Visitors usually need to take a plane or a boat to get a close look at its beauty. The water at the bottom turns into mist quickly because of the huge falling height.

The largest island — Greenland

Where: It lies between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, to the northeast of Canada.

How large: It has an area of about 2.16 million square kilometers.

What it is like: Most of the island is covered with a thick ice sheet (冰盖), which is up to 3 kilometers thick in some places. Only a small part of the island's coast is fit for people to live in. The ice sheet is getting thinner year by year because of global warming.

The longest river system — the Amazon River

Where: It runs through South America, passing through nine countries including Brazil and Peru.

How long: The main river is about 6,400 kilometers long, and the whole system has more than 1,000 tributaries (支流).

What it is like: It carries more water than any other river in the world — more than the next seven largest rivers combined. Its basin (流域) is the world's largest tropical rainforest, which is like "the lungs of the Earth" because it produces a large amount of oxygen.

If you put a buzzard in a pen six to eight feet square and open at the top, the bird will be a prisoner (囚徒) , though it can fly. The reason is that a buzzard always begins a flight from the ground with a run of ten to twelve feet. Without space to run, as its habit, it will not even try to fly, but remain a prisoner for life in its small prison with no top.

The bat that flies around at night can not take off from the ground. If it is placed on the ground, all it can do is to walk slowly about helplessly and no doubt, painfully. If it reaches a higher place, it will be able to throw itself into the air. Then it takes off immediately. But on flat (平的) ground, it will never fly.

A bee dropped into a cup will be there until it dies, unless it is taken out. It never sees the means of escape (逃脱) at the top but keeps trying to find some way out through the sides near the bottom. It will look for a way where none exists (存在) , until it completely destroys itself.

In many ways, there are lots of people like the buzzard, the bat and the bee. They are struggling about with all their problems and difficulties, not realizing that the answer is right there above them.