Coral reefs are,in fact,a necessary part of our ecosystem and provide opportunities for human beings to gain a better understanding of the ocean.Unfortunately,they're also disappearing faster than ever.

    According to a warning by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration(NOAA) on Oct.8,the world is in its third recorded global coral bleaching（白化）since 1998 and 2010.This means no place with coral has been spared,as coral reefs are coming into contact with increasingly warm seas,which is leading to them dying off in large numbers.

    Coral bleaching is like human cancer.It happens when corals are under stress from changes in light,nutrients,or temperature.This causes the coral to drive away the symbiotic algae（共生藻类）,living within their tissues（组织）, which play an important role in providing food for coral while making it colorful.Without the algae,coral reefs become pale and weak.In some cases they are not able to recover and eventually die off.

    The current coral bleaching event started back in late 2014 and continued into this year with no signs of stopping.The BBC reports that 35% of coral reefs in the world will likely be affected,and an estimated 4,633 square miles (about 120,000 square kilometers) of coral reefs could die.

    The loss of coral reefs is no small matter.Although they only take up 0.1% of the ocean floor,coral is home to about 25% of marine life.This isn't just a problem for divers and fish,as Eakin pointed out.Coral reefs are important globally,he added,as they protect shorelines,produce money in tourism,and help provide food for 500 million people worldwide.So people cannot overlook the environmental,economic and social effects of the loss.

    The NOAA warning about coral bleaching came just about two months before a global climate summit（峰会）in Paris,where hundreds of world leaders will attempt to work out a plan to fight climate change.

    Oceans will be a key subject during the summit,and Eakin says there's an "absolutely urgent need" for action.

    Friendship Day is celebrated every year on the first Sunday in the month of August. People give their loved ones or friends friendship bracelets (手镯) and other gifts to celebrate their friendship. The culture of friendship bracelets is as old as even thousands of years.

    After the World WarⅡ, the paracord(伞绳) bracelets became very popular. These were also known as survival bracelets. One of the main reasons is that it was often used for a rescue purpose. Paracord, used in the parachute(降落伞), does not wear away(磨损) easily and is strong and durable. Because of its light weight, people could carry it along easily. If required, it could be made a very long rope and be used as a rescue rope. Hunters used it to find their way that they could return without getting lost.

    Today there are all kinds of paracord bracelets, made of coloured strings. Girls like thinner and colourful bracelets. Many choose to make the bracelets by themselves for their dear friends. This not only appeals more to the feelings of people but also makes them know how much their friends mean to them. People keep the bracelets given by their friends long. Many people choose coloured strings keeping the depth of their friendship in mind. White, yellow, orange and red show the different levels of friendship. Pure friendship is shown in white; the red colour means love. An orange friendship bracelet is given to show strong friendship and yellow as simple friendship. Today, not only do the young people sport(显示) these friendship bracelets, but even the old do.

    Does friendship have an age? Yes. Friendship is like the wine, and the older you get, the older and stronger your friendship is.

    Meeting people from another culture can be difficult. From the beginning, people may send the wrong signal. Or they may pay no attention to signals from another person who is trying to develop a relationship.

    Different cultures emphasize the importance of relationship building to a greater or lesser degree. For example, business in some countries is not possible until there is a relationship of trust. Even with people at work, it is necessary to spend a lot of time in "small talk", usually over a glass of tea, before they do any job. In many European countries, like the UK or France, people find it easier to build up a lasting working relationship at restaurants or cafe rather than at the office.

    Talk and silence may also be different in some cultures. I once made a speech in Thailand. I had expected my speech to be a success and start a lively discussion, instead there was an uncomfortable silence. The people present just stared at me and smiled. After getting to know their ways better, I realized that they thought I was talking too much. In my own culture, we express meaning mainly through words, but people there sometimes feel too many words are unnecessary.

    Even within Northern Europe, cultural differences can cause serious problems. Certainly, English and German cultures share similar values, however, Germans prefer to get down to business more quickly. We think that they are rude. In fact, this is just because one culture starts discussions and makes decisions more quickly.

    People from different parts of the world have different values, and sometimes these values are quite against each other. However, if we can understand them better, a multicultural environment will offer a wonderful chance for us to learn from each other.

    People from East Asia tend to have more difficulty than those from Europe in distinguishing facial expressions — and a new report published online in Current Biology explains why.

    Rachael Jack from University of Glasgow, said that rather than scanning evenly across a face as Westerners do, Easterners fix their attention on the eyes.

    "We show that Easterners and Westerners look at different face features to read facial expressions," Jack said. "Westerners look at the eyes and the mouth in equal measure, while Easterners favor the eyes and ignore the mouth."

    According to Jack and his colleagues, the discovery shows that communication of human emotions is more complex than previously believed. As a result, facial expressions that had been considered universally recognizable cannot be used reliably to convey emotions in cross­cultural situations.

    The researchers studied cultural differences in the recognition of facial expressions by recording the facial movements of 13 Western people and 13 Eastern people while they observed pictures of expressive faces and put them into categories: happy, sad, surprised, fearful, disgusted, or angry. They compared how accurately participants read those facial expressions using their particular eye movement strategies.

    It turned out that Easterners focused much greater attention on the eyes and made significantly more errors than Westerners did. "The cultural difference in eye movements that they show is probably a reflection of cultural difference in facial expressions," Jack said. "Our data suggests that while Westerners use the whole face to convey emotions, Easterners use the eyes more and the mouth less."

    In short, the data shows that facial expressions are not universal signals of human emotions. From here on, examining how cultural factors have diversified these basic social skills will help our understanding of human emotions. Otherwise, when it comes to communicating emotions across cultures, Easterners and Westerners will find themselves lost in translation.

    Skeptics are a strange lot. Some of them refuse to admit the serious threat of human activities to the environment, and they are tired of people who disagree with them. Those people, say skeptics, spread nothing but bad news about the environment. The “eco-guilt” brought on by the discouraging news about our planet gives rise to the popularity of skeptics as people search for more comforting worldviews.

    Perhaps that explains why a new book by Bjorn Lomborg received so much popularity. That book, The Skeptic Environmentalist, declares that it measures the “real state of the world” as fine. Of course, another explanation is the deep pockets of some big businesses with special interests. Indeed, Mr. Lomborg's views are similar to those of some Industry-funded organizations, which start huge activities through the media to confuse the public about issues like global warming.

    So it was strange to see Mr. Lomborg's book go largely unchallenged in the media though his beliefs were contrary to most scientific opinions. One national newspaper in Canada ran a number of articles and reviews full of words of praise, even with the conclusion that “After Lomborg, the environmental movement will begin to die down.”

    Such one-sided views should have immediately been challenged. But only a different review appeared in Nature, a respected science magazine with specific readership. The review remarked that Mr. Lomborg's “preference for unexamined materials is incredible(不可信的)”.

    A critical (批判的)eye is valuable, and the media should present information in such a way that could allow people to make informed decisions. Unfortunately, that is often inaccessible as blocked by the desire to be shocking or to defend some special interests. People might become half-blinded before a world partially exhibited by the media. That's a shame, because matters concerning the health of the planet are far too important to be treated lightly.