Ongoing conflicts across the Middle East have prevented more than 13 million children from attending school, according to a report published by UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund.

    The report states that 40% of all children across the region are currently not receiving an education, which is a result of two consequences of violence: structural damage to schools and the displacement (转移) of populations, also called “forced migration.” Both issues result from the violence that has crossed the region in recent years. The report examines nine countries where a state of war has become the ordinary state. Across these countries, violence has made 8,500 schools unusable. In certain cases, communities have relied on school buildings to function as shelters for the displaced, with up to nine families living in a single classroom in former schools across Iraq.

    The report pays particularly close attention to Syria, where a bloody civil war has displaced at least nine million people since the war began in 2011. With the crisis (危机) now in its fifth year, basic public services, including education, inside Syria have been stretched (竭尽所能) to breaking point. Within the country, the quality and availability of education depends on whether a particular region is suffering violence.

    The report concludes with an earnest request to international policymakers to offer money and other resources to help ease the regional crisis. With more than 13 million children already driven from classrooms by conflict, the educational future of a generation of children are in the balance. This is destroying the future for an entire region.

    Time management is the greatest challenge for me in high school．I have to take good care of my subjects, activities, social life and rest．I was often angry with my family members just because I didn't plan my time well．For example, I might shout at them for troubling me when I was working．And sometimes I might say something bad to them when I missed deadlines, even if it was actually my fault for cramming everything in (把所有的事情堆积起来) at the last minute．

    As time goes by, I realize that time management is very important in our everyday life．The best advice to deal with time management is “break it into bits”．It's really important for you to learn how to break a big project into small, manageable tasks．Then you can work progressively and have a sense of achievement whenever you've done with a small part．

    Another piece of advice is to plan a timetable for yourself．It doesn't have to be the one that you follow completely．It's just there to serve as a guide．You can compare your actual timetable with the planned one to see how well you actually use your time．The final suggestion is to always set deadlines for yourself．

    It was one of those days when there was way too much to do. I had fallen behind in most of my household chores.

    After breakfast, I sat down at the computer to write an article. My youngest daughter, Julia, walked toward me. "But, Mommy, I thought we were going to do something fun today," she said. "Since it's our day off from school." "I know it's your day off, but it's not Mommy's day off," I explained.

    "Can you play a game with me?" she begged. "Like Candy Land? Or beauty shop?" I sighed. I really didn't have time to play. I desperately needed to get some work done. But then I had an idea. "Can we play beauty shop while I work?" So I got my article done, and my toenails(脚趾甲) painted at the same time. My oldest, Austin, volunteered to fix lunch so I could keep working. Shortly after lunch, we went to the grocery store and I got what I needed. Back at home, the kids decided to play "grocery store". For the remainder of the afternoon, I cleaned house, folded laundry, and started dinner. The kids continued with their game until my husband, Eric, walked through the door.

    He saw me and smiled. "So how was the kids' big day off today?" I began to explain that we hadn't done anything special. But my two middle kids, Jordan and Lea interrupted me. They told their dad, "We had such a special day today, Dad! It was a blast!" I looked at my children's faces. They were lit up with excitement.

    I nodded, realizing how right he was. Happiness is far more about our attitude than our circumstances. I hugged my kids and thanked them for reminding me to look for happiness in the little things. Julia smiled and said, "And the little things that make you the happiest are us, right, Mommy?" Wow, my kids sure are smart.

    A survey has shown that what you do on a plane can be determined by which nationality is listed on your passport.

    According to the results of an international passenger survey, Australians are the biggest drinkers on board with 36 percent choosing to down the hatch, compared to 35 percent of Americans and 33 percent of Brits.

    The Airline Passenger Experience Association ( APEX) spoke to around 1500 people, aged 18 and older, who have travelled by plane at least once during the last three months and were living in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, China, Singapore, Australia or Brazil.

The results found Chinese travelers are most likely to nod off once the sea-belt sign switches off. They are also the first to reach for their credit card for some in-flight shopping and the biggest fans of gaming. Americans on the other hand like to use their time in the air more productively —when not drinking —choosing to work while flying a 350000 feet.

Meanwhile, Brits and Germans are the best at making chat with random strangers — spending 50 percent more time than any other nationality. Comparatively, Brazilians conduct their conversations online via e-mail, messaging apps or social media.

    Despite plane food having a bad reputation, seven out of ten interviewees said they were happy to eat up on the selection in-flight snacks and meals. In-flight magazines were also popular with four out of five passengers claiming to read them.

    The international flyers did however express their desire for better in-flight entertainment. “The industry has greatly improved the comfort, entertainment and onboard service, and passengers are accepting those improvements,” said Russell Lemieux, APEX executive director. “At the same time, passengers are demanding more from their air travel experiences which will drive more improvements touching all aspects of the journey,” he added.

    Dr Dian Fossey, one of the world's leading women scientists, had a remarkable career. The work she devoted her life to protecting and studying the mountain gorillas (大猩猩) of Africa—has proved highly effective and has resulted in the steady (平稳的) increase of this most endangered great apes.

    Fossey made her first trip to Africa in 1963. Three years later, she returned to Africa to begin a long term study of the mountain gorillas. She set up camp in the Democratic Republic of Congo but moved to Rwanda because of political reasons in 1967. She established her "Karisoke" Research Centre camp on September 24, 1967.

    Fossey's aims were to study gorilla ecology (生态学) and social organization. She found that in order to achieve this, she needed to recognize individual gorillas, which required that the gorillas get used to her presence (出现). By copying gorillas' behaviour and sounds, Fossey began to gain their trust, and in 1970 an adult male gorilla she had named "Peanuts" reached out to touch her hand.

    Close observations over thousands of hours enabled Fossey to gain the gorillas' trust and bring forth new knowledge about their behaviour. Stories and photographs of her work were published in National Geographic Magazine and elsewhere.

    In 1977, one of Fossey's favorite gorillas, Digit, was killed by poachers and she established the Digit Fund to help raise money for gorilla protection efforts in the same year.

    On December 26, 1985, Fossey was murdered while going back to her house in Karisoke. Her body was discovered near the research centre. Most probably? Dian Fossey had been killed by the poachers she'd fought against. On her tombstone (墓碑): "No one loved gorillas more..."

    In 1988, the life and the work of Fossey were made into a movie based on her book.

    One family, which moved from Japan and settled at the turn of the century near San Francisco, had built a business in which they grew roses and trucked them into San Francisco three mornings a week.

    The other family also marketed roses. For almost four decades the two families were neighbors, and the sons took over the farms, but then on December 7, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. Although the rest of the family members were American, the father of the Japanese family had never been naturalized. As they planned to leave the country, his neighbor made it clear that, if necessary, he would look after his friend's nursery (花圃). It was something each family had learned in church-Love the neighbor as themselves. "You would do the same for us," he told his Japanese friend.

    It was not long before the Japanese family was transported to a poor landscape in Canada. A full year went by. Then two. Then three. While the Japanese neighbors were in Canada, their friends worked in the greenhouses. Sometimes the father's work could stretch to 16 and 17 hours. And then one day, when the war in Europe had ended, the Japanese family packed up and boarded a train. They were going home.

    What would they find? The family was met at the train station by their neighbors, and when they got to their home, the whole Japanese family were shocked. There was the nursery, complete, clean and shining in the sunlight, neat, prosperous and healthy. And the house was just as clean and welcoming as the nursery. And there on the dining room ground was one perfect red (玫瑰花蕾), just waiting to unfold-the gift of one neighbor to another.