Sure, you talk to your parents, but what if you need to really talk? Maybe you have a problem you can't solve alone, or it could be that you want to feel closer to Mom and Dad.

    It's easy to say" Hi, Mom" or "Dad, can you pass the potatoes?", but it can be harder to start a discussion about tougher topics. When you were younger, it probably felt easy to tell your parents about your trouble. Even though you're older now, it's still perfectly OK to believe in your parents. In fact, it can help a lot.

    So why does it seem so uncomfortable at times? Why is it hard to bring up the important stuff? Sometimes kids don't speak up because they don't want to feel embarrassed. Let's face it—talking about personal stuff can make you feel embarrassed. But remember, your parents know you pretty well, and they were your age once, too! So don't let a little embarrassment stop you. It's OK to go ahead and share the personal stuff.

    Other times, kids might not want to make their parents anxious or upset. As you explain your problem, your mom might look sad or your dad might look worried. But that's OK. Your mom and dad can deal with knowing about your problem, big or small. That look on their face just means they care, and they feel for you. That's what families do—we feel for the people we love.

    Sometimes, kids don't bring up a problem because they just don't want to think about it. They hope it will just go away. When meeting a problem, they will likely choose not to face it or just keep it for themselves. But running away from a problem hardly ever solves it. And bottling up your feelings can make you feel stressed.

    Talking things over with a parent can help you feel less stressed. Together, you can think of ways to solve the problem and make you feel better. Just knowing your parent understands and cares about what you're going through can reduce your stress a lot.

    Energy goes from one plant or animal to another. A food chain shows how this energy moves. Each time an animal gets eaten, its energy is passed onto the animal that eats it. The food chain is very important because it keeps the balance of nature. If one part of the food chain disappears, it can affect all the other plants and animals. Any threat to the food chain is a threat to the environment's biodiversit(生物多样性). The food chain helps keep animal populations in balance. However, if something happens to increase or decrease one of the links in the food chain, that balance is broken. If one animal becomes endangered, it puts all the animals above it at risk.

    Some of the threats are natural, such as wildfires, hurricanes, tornados, floods and so on. But the biggest threats to the food chain come from you and me. These threats include overhunting, overfishing, logging, farming, development, pollution, etc. The food chain is endangered anywhere humans have had an effect on the natural environment.

    A recent study shows that the overfishing of large sharks is damaging the food chain along the US Atlantic coast. Canadian and American scientists say sharks are being killed in great numbers for their meat and fins(鳍). Now, not enough sharks are around to eat the cownose(牛鼻) ray. The ray's population has increased and they have eaten up the shellfish to the point where it has hurt commercial(商业的) fishing.

    Many of us disturb the natural environment in our own backyards. It's up to us to take care of the environment and try not to disrupt the natural food chain. If we don't act responsibly, animals will start disappearing.

You might think people all over the United States have Wi-Fi—wireless Internet service—and mobile phones. But there is no such service in Green Bank, West Virginia, a tiny town four hours from the U.S. capital, Washington D.C. Fewer than 150 people live in Green Bank, which has two churches, an elementary school and a public library. It is also home to the largest radio telescope in the world.

    There is a ban on Wi-Fi in Green Bank, along with anything else that can create electromagnetic(电磁的)waves. Officials say the waves could disturb the signals the telescope receives.

For many Americans, a visit to Green Bank is a little like returning to the 1950s. To get there, you must read road signs—because there is no GPS service in the town. People can connect with the Internet through telephones, but wireless service is not allowed.

    The observatory(天文台)is one of the largest employers in the area. The federal National Science Foundation(NSF) spends about ＄8.2 million a year to operate the observatory, telescope and educational center.

    Jonah Bauserman is a technician. If he supposes there is signal that is not allowed in the zone, he drives to the house where the signal is coming from and checks it. But once a week, when the device is cleaned, some banned devices are allowed near it.

    People in the town respect the work of the scientists. And they say they are happy to live without Wi-Fi and mobile phones. “You know, instead of sitting here on our phones and other devices we're out fishing and hunting and going to each other's houses.” Everyone knows each other and communication is almost always face-to-face.

    Across Europe, where visitors can outnumber residents in the summer months, the complaints have started. Last week, in Barcelona, an open-top bus was spray-painted across its windscreen with the words “Tourism Kills Neighbourhoods”. The message is clear: such cities are under pressure. In tourists and residents' battle for shared spaces, local authorities are uncomfortably in the middle. The tourism is one of the largest employers in the world, with one new job created for every 30 new visitors to a destination—but at what cost to locals' quality of life?

    More people are travelling than ever before, and lower barriers to entry and falling costs mean they are doing so for shorter periods. The rise of “city breaks”—48-hour bursts of foreign cultures—has increased tourist numbers. “Too many people do the same thing at the exact same time,” says Xavier Font, a professor at the University of Surrey, “For locals, the city no longer belongs to them.”

    Compounding the problem is Airbnb, which has made tourists more casual in their approach to international travel, but added to residents' headaches. Those permanent citizens who share their apartment blocks with Airbnb hosts have lost their patience, “No longer do we have to share the streets with tourists, we have to share our own buildings!” To ease the congestion around the main attractions, many cities are taking immediate action. Venice is proposing a new concept of “detourism”: sustainable travel tips and alternative routes for exploring a different Venice. A greater variety of guidance for future visitors—ideas for what to do in off-peak seasons, for example, —can guide them from overcrowded landmarks. Repeat visitors have a better sense of the culture and it is much easier to integrate their behaviour with residents of the cities.

    “But the locals should learn to take tourists as a part of urban life. Tourists do not have to be considered passive players, but rather as visitors with rights and duties,” says Font, “Everyone has a part to play in promoting that change.”

    Nine years ago, a few days before Christmas, I was a director at a company in San Francisco, and I was called into a meeting that was already in progress. That meeting turned out to be my exit interview. I was 64 years old at the time. It wasn't completely unexpected. I signed a pile of papers and left the company.

    So, 40 plus years of employment was over. I had a good reputation and background. Retirement was not a choice for me. I wanted to do something. And then an idea came into my mind, born from my concern for our environment. I wanted to build my own business, designing and producing biodegradable(可生物降解的)packaging from waste. This is called clean technology, and it was really meaningful to me. It could help reduce billions of pounds of single-use plastic packaging wasted each year.

    Five years later, I'm delighted and proud to share with you that our income has doubled every year and we have no debt. Meanwhile, I have a wonderful partner, and we've won more than 20 awards for the work that we've done.

    And I am doing the most rewarding and meaningful work of my life right now. But what I really long for is to find other first-time entrepreneurs(企业家)who are my age. I want to connect with them.

    So I want to do something about that in a few years. I want us to start talking more about people who don't become entrepreneurs until they are seniors. And then connecting all of them across industries, regions and countries—building a community.

If New Year's Eve had an official song, it would be Auld Lang Syne. Every year, just after the clock strikes midnight, many people around the world will sing this beloved song. Why is Auld Lang Syne a New Year's tradition? From its beginning as an 18th-century Scottish poem {#blank#}1{#/blank#} its popularity today, Auld Lang Syne always          {#blank#}2{#/blank#}（carry）the spirit of the holiday. The song is actually a poem written by Robert Burns in 1788. Traditionally {#blank#}3{#/blank#}（consider）Scotland's national poet, Burns raised the country's national awareness by writing it in the dying-out Scots language. In English, "auld lang syne" {#blank#}4{#/blank#}（rough）means "times long past". The song tells of old friends meeting after time apart. 

Although Burns' version is the only one we know today, there were also some earlier {#blank#}5{#/blank#} （version）of the poem, {#blank#}6{#/blank#} （include）Allan Ramsay's from 1724. Burns' version {#blank#}7{#/blank#} （inspire）by an old man's singing. 

Burns was not satisfied with his version of the poem's {#blank#}8{#/blank#} （origin） tune and dismissed it. So between 1799 and 1801, George Thomson composed {#blank#}9{#/blank#} different tune for the song. It's the one we sing today. 

With its emphasis on friendship and parting, Auld Lang Syne expresses the spirit of New Year's Eve, {#blank#}10{#/blank#} is saying goodbye to one year so that another can begin.