First Lady Michelle Obama is a big fan of volunteering. Volunteering means working for free to help someone else. Mrs. Obama says volunteering is very important. “It should be part of everyone's life,” she says.

    Many teens agree. They say that helping others feels great and makes a difference. These days, more teens volunteer than work for pay. Teens clean up parks, walk dogs at animal shelters, visit the elderly and more.

    Some cities —including Seattle, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. —require high school students to volunteer. Students must volunteer in order to graduate. The student volunteers learn new skills and help their communities.

    Many parents are in favor of the idea —they say volunteering helps teens build job skills. But most teens don't want to be forced to volunteer. They say they are busy. And they say volunteering is only fun if it's a choice.

Read both sides of the debate and decide.

YES

Volunteering can help teens get into college or get a job.

Many cities and towns need help. Volunteers can help keep important programs going.

Not all teens will volunteer if it isn' t required. Schools should require students to do all they can to get ready for adult life.

NO

Most teens are already very busy with classes, homework, jobs and sports. Forcing them to do more isn't fair.

It should be up to each person. Helping out doesn't feel as good if you have to do it.

Finding a volunteer job isn't always easy. Students shouldn't be kept from graduating because of something they can't control.

     Scientists have found living organisms trapped in crystals(晶体) that could be 50,000 years old.

     The organisms were found in a hot, but beautiful cave system in Naica, Mexico. These ancient life forms can be seen only with a microscope. Penelope Boston, who leads the Astrobiology Institute at NASA, the space agency of the United States, says the ancient microbes(微生物) were able to live by eating minerals such as iron.

     She spoke about the discovery recently at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. If the findings are confirmed, they will show how microbes can survive in extreme conditions. Forty different kinds of microbes and some viruses were found in the underground area. The genetic structures of these organisms are 10 percent different from those of their nearest relatives.

     The caves in Naica are 800 kilometers deep. They were once used for mining lead. Before the miners began working in the caves, the area was separated from the surface and the outside world. Some of the caves are as big as the large religious centers built during Europe's Middle Ages. There are crystals covering the walls. The caves are so hot that scientists must wear special clothing to keep cool. The clothing keeps the crystals safe from human germs（病菌）or other damage. Boston said the researchers could only work for about 20 minutes at a time before they had to go to a room that was 38 degrees Celsius to cool down.

     NASA officials would not let Boston share her findings with scientific experts before last week's announcement. So scientists could not say much about the findings. But Norine Noonan, a biologist with the University of South Florida, said she believed them. "Why are we surprised?" Noonan asked. "As a biologist, I would say life on Earth is extremely tough and extremely colorful."

     Boston is also studying microbes commonly found inside caves in other countries, such as Ukraine and the United States. These microbes appear to be impossible to kill. Boston said they show how difficult life on Earth can be.

    One of the hardest parts of living abroad is being away from your loved ones, especially your family. While my friends are so important to me, I've personally found it more difficult being away from family.

    However, I was fortunate that my mum and sister recently found the time to see me. Both my sister and I have major birthdays this year as she's tuming 18 and I'll be 21. My sister is a very big music fan and this year, I created my status as the best older sister by keeping an eye out for music concerts in Paris. In our home town of Leicester, we don't regularly get many well-known artists playing in our city. But in Paris, I managed to get the best 18th birthday present of all: tickets for all three of us to see my sister's favorite American rapper, Angel Haze.

    I will try to visit for my sister's actual birthday in June, the chance for my sister and my mum to visit became a birthday treat. The experience of finding our way together to the concert or getting to show them around the Paris sites such as the Eiffel Tower,the Arc du Triomphe and even my favorite ice cream place,Amorino, was an amazing memory for us all !Despite the fact that I felt the slight pressure to make sure the weekend went smoothly,even the heavy rain failed to dampen our mood.

    Therefore, while it can be difficult being away from home and potentially missing big family moments,there are ways to avoid the sadness and find a way to make the best of your situation to create an unforgettable memory. Just like the continuing rain while we went up the Eiffel tower, every cloud has a silver lining, because then we got the funniest photos ever!

    According to a new US study, couples who expect their children to help care for them in old age should hope they have daughters because they are likely to be twice as attentive overall.

    The research by Angelina Grigoryeva, a sociologist at Princeton University, found that, while women provide as much care for their elderly parents as they can manage, men do as little as they can get away with and often leave it to female family members.Her analysis of the family networks of 26,000 older Americans concluded that gender(性别) is the most important predictor(预示物) of whether or not people will actively care for elderly parents.

    In a paper being presented at the annual conference of the American Sociological Association in San Francisco, she concludes that simply having a sister makes men statistically likely provide less care.

    Using data from the University of Michigan Health and Retirement Study, a study which has been tracking a cross-section of over-50s for the last decade, she calculated that women provide an average of 12.3 hours a month of care for elderly parents while men offer only 5.6 hours.

    “Whereas the amount of elderly parent care daughters provide is associated with limitations they face, such as employment or childcare, sons' caregiving is associated only with the presence or absence of other helpers, such as sisters or a parent's spouse(配偶),” she explained.

    “Sons reduce their relative caregiving efforts when they have a sister, while daughters increase theirs when they have a brother.”

    “This suggests that sons pass on parent caregiving responsibilities to their sisters.”

    In the UK, the 2011 census(人口普查) showed that there are now around 6.5 million people with caring responsibilities – a figure which has risen by a tenth in a decade.

    But many are doing so at the risk of their own health. The census showed that those who provide 50 hours or more of care a week while trying to hold down a full- time job are three times more likely to be struggling with ill health than their working counterparts(相对应的人) who are not carers.

    The family of a 6-year-old adopted Chinese girl who badly needs a bone marrow transplant (骨髓移植) believes they have found a match in China.

    Kailee Wells suffers from a serious aplastic anemia (再生障碍性贫血), which prevents bone marrow from producing new blood cells. She has taken courses of treatment but has shown little sign of recovery.

The best help for such patients is a transplant of healthy marrow or blood cells from a suitable donor. Certain tissue of the patient and the donor must match.

    Kailee's mother, Linda Wells, made her second trip to China earlier this month to find a donor. Her husband, Owen Wells, said that his wife believed doctors there had found a match.

     “For these last 22 months, we've been living in fear that Kailee would take a turn for the worse and there would be nothing we could do about it,” he said. “Now we have something we can use and save our little girl. We are just about ready to start jumping up and down and rejoicing.”

    Wells said a Chinese girl who is about a year old has a blood sample that matches Kailee's perfectly. The next step, he said, would be to make sure the sample is safely harvested and protected for transplant, the details of which have yet to be worked out.

    Linda Wells first traveled to China in February to try to locate the girl's birth mother, who is likely to be a match. But she found no relatives and decided to try again this month.

    “This gives us so much encouragement because now we found what we thought we would never be able to find for Kailee,” Owen Wells said. “We're going to continue our blood donor drive to try to continue to help as many people as we possibly can. We're just so happy.”

    Living and dealing with kids can be a tough job these days, but living and dealing with parents can be even tougher.

    If I have learned anything in my 16 years, it is that communication is very important, both when you disagree and when you get along. With any relationship, you need to let other person know how you are feeling. If you are not able to communicate, you drift apart. When you are mad at your parents, or anyone else, not talking to them doesn't solve anything.

    Communication begins with the concerns (关心) of another. It means that you can't just come home from school, go up to your room and ignore (不理睬) everyone. Even if you just say "Hi", and see how their day was for five minutes, it is better than nothing.

    If you looked up the word "communication" in a dictionary, it would say "the exchange of ideas, the conveyance (表达) of information, correspondence (通信), means of communication: a letter or a message". To maintain (保持) a good relationship, you must keep communication strong. Let people know how you feel, even if it's just by writing a note.

    When dealing with parents, you always have to make them feel good about how they are doing as a parent. If you are trying to make them see something as you see it, tell them that you'll listen to what they have to say, but ask them politely to listen to you. Yelling or walking away only makes the situation worse.

    This is an example: one night, Sophie went to a street party with her friends. She knew she had to be home by midnight after the fireworks, but she didn't feel she could just ask to go home. That would be rude. After all, they had been nice enough to take her along with them. Needless to say, she was late getting home. Her parents were mad at first, not when Sophie explained why she was late, they weren't as mad and let the incident go. Communication is the key factor here. If Sophie's parents had not been willing to listen, Sophie would have been in a lot of trouble.

    Communication isn't a one-way deal: it goes both ways. Just remember: if you get into a situation like Sophie's, telling the other person how you feel-listening is the key factor to communication.