Neither rain nor snow nor the dark of night can separate Tennessee postal carrier “Mailman Mike” from his 4-and-a-half-year-old friend Carter Lawson – or keep them from their appointments.

    For the past nine months, the two have teamed up every day in the preschooler's Knoxville neighborhood for a few minutes of delivering mail together and chatting with fellow neighbors. Lawson wants to be a mail carrier when he grows up, and in an inspiring story, his mom told us how mailman Mike Crenshaw has been a role model to her son. “Anyone could just be like 'Go away, kid', but Mike has really gone out of his way to talk with Carter,” said Cassie Lawson of the United States Postal Service carrier. Little Carter even got his own uniform to match Mike's. “It's been really cute. I just couldn't believe he got a full mailman's costume,” the postal service employee said.

    “Every letter carrier has stops he looks forward to and this is the one I look forward to every day,” said Mike. “He's the end of my day, and the best part of my day. Not because it's the end, but because he's such a cute little guy.”

    The man and the little boy's connection isn't a surprise to Fredric Rolando, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers. “Kids respond to mailmen because letter carriers are a friendly, uniformed part of the neighborhood who bring something to their house every day, and are someone they come to recognize and trust,” Rolando said. “It's the same for the elderly, but in addition, letter carriers may be the only person they communicate with all day.”

    Although environmental problems have existed for centuries, some people still care little about our environment. Problems like ice melting, electronic waste are lighting up news programs and becoming part of an ongoing dialogue about the environment.

    As a teenager, what do you think all the problems mean for your future and for the future of the planet? For our October 2016 writing contest, we want you to really consider what you think about environmental problems.

Use these questions to help focus your essay

● What environmental problem do you think should cause the greatest alarm and action?

● Do you think that you have a personal responsibility to help solve environmental problems or do you feel helpless against the struggle?

● What do you think could help a specific environmental problem?

Don't try to answer all these questions. Use one of them to make a personal essay.

The title of the essay

    When you hand in your essay, title it as: Environmental Problems: _______.

    Include the phrase “Environmental Problems” as the beginning of your essay title, but then make the rest of your story title unique. Examples:

● Environmental Problems: Trashy Behavior and the Plastic Bottle

● Environmental Problems: We Can't Exist If We Refuse to Change

Rules:

1) This is a non-fiction essay contest.

2) Essays are 500 words or less.

3) Essays must be your original work.

The deadline:

Midnight Oct. 30, 2016

Results:

    The winner will be posted on our writing contest website or on Teen Trend Report after Nov. 26, 2016.

    Since 2008, hunters have illegally killed more than 3000 rhinos in South Africa. The International Union for Conservation of Nature warns that rhinos may die out by 2026. People who hunt and kill illegally are called poachers. The most effective way to watch for and prevent illegal hunting is from the air. However, piloted flights are too costly. Fortunately, some Spanish college students have invented a drone (无人机) that can observe more places than a plane.

    Arnau Garcia is an aeronautical (航空学的) engineering student at the Polytechnic Institute of Catalonia, in Spain. He says observers from the air have trouble finding poachers when they hide under the trees. Mr. Garcia and other students have worked with the drone manufacturer HEMAV to help find the hidden poachers. They make it by using the thermal camera, which is especially sensitive to body heat. Even when the poachers keep still, it can also keep track of them.

    The drone can fly in the wind up to 55 kilometers per hour. It has an autopilot system, so it memorizes the flight path. The drone also has a microphone, a video camera and a GPS system. These permit it to report accurately where a picture is taken. After each flight, the drone can bring back detailed information about where rhinos are found, the conditions of water and plants in the area, and the positions of suspected poachers.

    Experts say the drone can fly as far as 70 kilometers from the base. It means that it could quickly observe large areas for poachers. However, the same search operation would take days for human observers. Thanks to the drone, many poachers have been caught and the number of rhinos is on the increase. In addition, HEMAV has received an increasing number of orders for the drone. Even South African national park officials attempt to fill the air with drones.

    Dust on furniture may be bad news for waistlines (腰围). But it's far too early to add dusting to a weight-loss plan. Dietary fats and other materials that make up indoor dust can send a signal to human fat cells, telling them to grow. That process, in turn, might slow the body's rate of burning energy. Such changes could add to any weight problems a person might have.

    “We don't know what that means to long-term health and certain diseases yet,” says Heather Stapleton, one of the study's authors. But she notes that her team's findings also raise a question of whether pollutants in dust might play some role in the growing, global problem of obesity (肥胖).

    Stapleton and her colleagues collected dust from homes and offices. Studies found that some materials in the dust could turn on a protein (蛋白质) called PPAR-gamma 1. It's found in many human tissues. Turning this protein on can cause fat cells to grow. Researchers think this protein may be involved in obesity. But a second study now finds evidence that certain fats are mostly to blame. Cooking oils may send out some of these fats into the air, where they eventually find their way into house dust. Or, the authors say, the fats might enter house dust as part of the hair or skin cells shed (脱落) by people or pets.

    “While the findings are amazing,” says Mitchell Lazar, another study author, “these findings need to be taken as very limited.” Indeed, he adds several cautions about how the findings should be understood. “For one thing, people eat these fats in foods all of the time. That is likely to be a lot more than would be consumed from indoor dust,” he said.

    My father was a highly educated, intelligent gentleman. He could debate or discuss for hours on almost any topic and hold your 1 in the process. I thought there was nothing he wasn't 2 to do.

    A few days before my younger brother's 7th birthday, Dad planned to assemble（装配）a new  3 as a special birthday surprise. After nearly an hour of  4 the instructions, Dad was still unable to 5 the new bike together. Later he 6 the paper of instructions, 7 up his tool box, and decided to take the bike back to the local toy store and pay extra 8 to have it correctly assembled there. 9 an idea came to him, as he called out to Lovett, the quiet little man who cut our grassland.

    “Lovett, have you ever assembled a boy's bicycle?”

    As Lovett walked towards the bike, Dad handed him the 10 . Lovett handed it back to him, saying, “No, thanks. I can't read. When you can't read, you have to 11 .” Less than 15 minutes later, the new bicycle was 12  assembled, with no 13  parts remaining. Dad shook Lovett's hand, patted him on the back, thanked him, and hid the bike.

    On the night after my brother received his shiny new gift, Dad announced at the family dinner table what had happened several days earlier. He took great 14  in telling it over and over again — he used it as an example of thinking.

    He did not refer to illiteracy（文盲）, but strongly taught us to use our  15  . The joke was on my father,  16  he was able to turn it into a learning tool, and I liked him even more after that incident. I also gained a new  17  for Lovett. To me he had  18  been the old yard man who didn't 19  much, but after that day, he seemed to smile 20  , even walk taller. It's amazing what a real nod of approval can do to lift people up.

—She______.I have already borrowed one.

—Only ______.

    Not all children want to listen to their parents. However, parents have been around for at least two decades or so longer than their kids.  Here are four ways in which they might be right.

     People should want to grow and change with time in a good way. People who hang around with those who are not as smart as they are will stagnate (停滞). So try to surround yourself with people who are worth learning from.

    The more you learn, the less you really know. People tend to believe that they are right about everything before they've really learned anything about the world. This is largely due to contrast: people will realize how ignorant (无知) they were in the past after they've learned certain things, making them realize how much they've left to learn.

    Growing up too fast is truly bad. However, these are the years when you are going to be more protected from the cruel realities of adulthood. You should try to appreciate this aspect of this life stage without being concerned with pushing your development too hard.

    It is better to try and fail than fail to try. Children have to learn that failure is part of life. However, the sting (刺痛) of failure disappears gradually, and the regret about missed opportunities is going to sting far more for many adults. So don't stop going for certain goals because of a fear of failure.

A. Parents are wiser than you think.

B. It's hard enough for adults to accept.

C. Being around people who don't challenge you is a bad idea.

D. Your childhood years may not be the best years of your life.

E. They have some life experience, and it makes sense to listen to them.

F. People who bring out the best in others will reach their personal best.

G.  By the time they have, they'll realize how complicated (复杂) the world can be.

    Do you like travelling? Staying  (health) while travelling can help to ensure your trip is a happy and enjoyable one. you travel abroad, here are the tips you need to make your trip much (easy):

    Make sure you have got a (sign) passport(护照) and visa. Also, before you go, fill in the emergency information page of your passport! Make two copies of your passport identification page. This will help a lot if your passport 65． (steal). Leave one copy at home with friends or relatives. Carry the other you in a separate place from your passport.

    Read the Public Announcements or Travel Warnings for the countries you plan to visit. Get yourself familiar with local laws and customs of the countries to you are travelling.

    Leave a copy of your itinerary(旅行日程) with family or friends at home so that you can be contacted in case of an emergency.

    Do not accept packages from strangers. Do not carry too much money or (necessary) credit cards. If you make enough (prepare), you will succeed. Havegood time!

1） 比赛地点：广州歌剧院 ( the Guangzhou Opera House )

2） 报名方式：网上报名

3） 根据你对她才艺了解，动员她参赛

4） 凡参加者都有意外惊喜

报名：sign up

注意：

1） 词数100左右；

2） 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯的；

3） 开头语和结束语已为你写好。

Dear Lucy,

    ……

    I'm looking forward to seeing your wonderful performance.

Yours,

Li Hua