Teachers say the digital age has had a good influence and a not-so-good influence on this generation of American teenagers. More than 2,000 high school teachers took an online survey.

    75 percent of the teachers said the Internet and digital search tools have had a “mostly positive” effect on  their students' research habits and skills. But 87 percent agreed that these technologies "make the students not have enough attention.” And 64 percent said the technologies “do more to distract students than to help them academically.”Many students think “doing research” now means just doing a quick search on Google.

    Judy Buchanan is a director of the National Writing Project. Ms. Buchanan says digital research tools are helping students learn more, and learn faster. Teachers really like these tools, because they are ways to make some of learning exciting. Young people enjoy using these tools. And the goal is to help them become creative students of meaningful work, and not just that kind of copyist.

    But one problem the survey found is that many students don't have a good understanding of how to use the digital knowledge well. In other words, they trust(信任) too much of the information. Judy Buchanan says these students have not developed the skills they need to tell whether the online information is good or bad.

    Another problem the survey found is something that might not seem like a problem, at all, being able to quickly find information online. Teachers say the ability of their students to work hard to find answers is becoming weaker. They say students depend too much on search engines (引擎) and do not make enough use of printed books or research, librarians.

    Besides, many teachers are also worried about the problem that the Internet makes it easy for students to copy work done by others, instead of using their own abilities.

    Do you often feel lonely? What do you do when you feel that way? Hide yourself away and spend your time reading, watching TV or walking around?

You might think that feeling lonely is just like feeling happy, sad or scared — that it's just one of your various moods. That is true. However, if you let yourself be lonely for too long without dealing with it, you could be making a serious mistake.

    Doctors have known for some time that feeling lonely is bad for the mind. It can lead to mental health problems such as depression, stress and reduce confidence. “Being lonely means not feeling connected or cared for, but it's not about being mentally alone,” Lisa Jaremka, scientist from Ohio State University, US, told Live Science in January. And there's growing evidence that not having friends is connected with physical illness as well.

    In 2006, for example, scientists studied 2,800 women who had cancer. They found that those who had few friends or family were five times more likely to die of their disease than women with many social contacts. Also, even healthy people had a better chance of falling ill if they felt left out by others, according to the BBC.

    The results have scientists thinking that loneliness might hurt the immune system(免疫系统), which protects the body from diseases.

    Hoping to prove this theory, Jaremka and her research team put volunteers(志愿者) through a stress test. During the test, volunteers were asked to make an unprepared speech in front of a group of stony-faced people. The researchers found that volunteers who said they were lonely in their daily lives felt more stress during the test. And their blood samples showed that all the stress had managed to cause harmful changes to their immune system.

     “Loneliness has been thought of in many ways as a chronic stressor(慢性增压器) — a socially painful situation that can last for quite a long time, ” explained Jaremka, who led the study.

    The number of people suffering from loneliness is increasing all over the world. However, solving the problem is easier said than done. It won't work to just “tell anyone to go out and find someone to love you”, said Jaremka. “We need to create support networks.”

    Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region is an important ecological screen for the north of China and even the whole country. Building a green great wall to ensure China's ecological security is one of the most important things of autonomous region.

The largest ecological function zone in the north of China, Inner Mongolia has a variety of landscapes, including forests, grasslands, wetlands, rivers and lakes. In recent years, the region's environment has improved, with its forest and grassland area having increased and desert reduced.

    However, it still faces a number of challenges in ecological preservation. For instance, the region faces severe water shortages with the number of lakes dropping from 427 in 1987 to 145 in 2010. In addition to a lack of rainfall, huge water consumption in agricultural and industrial production has worsened the water shortage. Too much use of fertilizers has damaged the soil and affected the growth of grass, accelerating the expansion of the desert, which results from a lack of water.

The local government encourages planting trees on grassland as they can get more pay for trees than by growing grass. However, the trees they plant often have a low survival rate as they have a high water consumption rate. Also, to treat wetlands, some areas have planted a large number of a single tree species. This practice may damage biodiversity (生物多样性) and endanger the survival of certain animals.

Experts suggest taking the region's water resources and weather conditions into consideration in future ecological projects.

    Once there were two mice. They were friends. One mouse lived in the country; the other mouse lived in the city. After many years the Country mouse saw the City mouse; he said, "Do come and see me at my house in the country." So the City mouse went. The City mouse said, "This food is not good, and your house is not good. Why do you live in a hole in the field? You should come and live in the city. You would live in a nice house made of stone. You would have nice food to eat. You must come and see me at my house in the city." The Country mouse went to the house of the City mouse. It was a very good house. Nice food was set ready for them to eat. But just as they began to eat they heard a great noise. The City mouse cried," Run! Run! The cat is coming!" They ran away quickly and hid. After some time they came out. When they came out, the Country mouse said. "I do not like living in the city. I like living in my hole in the field. For it is nicer to be poor and happy, than to be rich and afraid."

    Fourth-grader Alice Tapper was on a school field trip when she noticed that most of the girls quietly stayed at the back of the group, while the boys gathered at the front and raised their hands to answer questions. The 11-year-old then realized how often she and her female classmates didn't speak up in class for fears of getting an answer wrong and being embarrassed.

    She decided to change this and launched a campaign to encourage girls to have faith in themselves, even take risks and be leaders —— and support other girls in doing the same. With assistance from her Girl Scout troop (女童子军), she created a new Raise Your Hand program, and soon girls around the country were taking a pledge(承诺) to raise their hands in class.

    In my work as an administration coach I see many women (and some men) with habits that are holding them back. Women at work tend to hang back in meetings for fear they may not have the right answer. They will spend countless hours (and sometimes days) replaying the tapes in their head, while males in similar situations simply move on, until they are perfect when instead they should be establishing relationships. The truth is that after a year no one remembers your nice report. Forget perfect. It doesn't exist. Say what's on your mind and let things go.

    Similarly, women tend to talk more softly than men, which can be problematic, especially the higher up in the organization you go. To have an influence on business, it's not enough to have a seat at the table. You have to have a voice and people have to hear from you. Don't wait for an invitation. Raise your hand, say what you have to say, and when you see an opportunity, go for it!

It's normal to long for the taste of potato chips or a cheese-covered pizza. Even though they're full of calories, eating them occasionally won't do much harm. However, according to the new numbers, young people are becoming more gluttonous. The BBC's Good Food Nation Survey showed that on average, 16 to 20-year-olds ate fast food at least twice a day in the UK. So what's behind this fast food binge (狂热)?

WebMD, an online publisher of news and information of human health and well-being, surveyed nearly 600 teenagers and adults in the United States. They found that the most common reason was our busy lifestyle. More than 92.3 percent of respondents said they were too busy to cook. Many find it challenging to balance work and life, and the convenience of fast food meets their needs. Fast food is readily available in corner stores and vending machines (自动售货机). Remember those instant noodle cups from the supermarket? They're ready in minutes, and you can store them at home for a long time.

But many people think this trend does no good. Sarah Toule, head of health information at World Cancer Research Fund, told the BBC: "It's frightening that people, especially younger generations, are eating so much fast food loaded with fat, sugar and salt, but offers little nutritional value."

She added, "Especially high in calories, fast food leads to unhealthy weight gain — which in turn increases the risk of 11 cancers later in life."

So what is the right thing to do? Toule suggested that young people should prepare meals in advance and learn to include the different food groups in their diets.