Some of the most famous universities in America are urging students to consider the idea of putting off college for a year. It's called a “gap year.” And while it's been common and popular in Australia and the U.K. for decades, the concept is now starting to gain significant steam here in America.

    Why? A growing number of high school seniors are tired of riding the academic conveyor belt from preschool all the way to university. They're burnt out. Or not quite ready. Or they want to explore a few interests before deciding what to study in college, they're volunteering in New Orleans or teaching in Thailand. They're starting the great American novel, or working for a short time to help figure out what they want to do with their lives.

    Understandably, that makes a lot of parents nervous. But a gap year does not mean that a student will remain degree-less forever. While there are no formal studies on the number of students who don't finally go to college after the gap year, evidence from admissions officers across the country says very few actually leave college without finishing their courses. Taking a gap year can actually make kids more focused and ready for future academic life. In fact, Harvard University believes so much in the gap year that it encourages every student it admits to consider a year off before matriculation (入学).

    The reason behind higher education's support of the gap year is clear: Better-prepared students mean higher completion rates. And it's completion that matters. Parents should remember that getting a kid into college is only half the battle. According to the College Board, three out of five students who enter a public four-year college don't manage to obtain a degree within five years. And nearly 30 percent of all students who enter college don't return after the gap year. Considering the fact that this year's average price at a four-year private college is about $ 23,712 per year, it's a pretty expensive place to play around.

    Small islands that bear the brunt of rising sea levels also face the greatest risk of diseases linked to a warmer planet, health leaders said on Saturday, as 13 million medical professionals added to the calls for a global climate pact.

    Hundreds of thousands more people will die every year from heat stroke and tropical illnesses unless negotiators in Paris can agree a strong global deal to decrease global warming the Global Climate and Health Alliance said.

    The Would Health Organization has warned that the effects of extreme weather on the fight against malnutrition, malaria and diarrhea alone will account for an extra 250,000 premature deaths a year by 2030.

    “In the case of small island states like Tuvalu, the health impacts of climate change are palpable,” said the island's health minister.

    “When we are talking about climate change, this is important for the future health of our people, and people everywhere.”

    John Usamate, health minister for Fiji, said the island was suffering from climate-related diseases such as dengue fever and chikungunya, a disease transmitted by mosquitoes and unknown in Fiji.

    “As the climate changes, we are seeing new infectious diseases and many other health impacts,” he said.

    The Global Climate and Health Alliance groups more than 1,700 health organizations and 8,200 hospitals and health facilities.

    It is said it had collected 13 million signatories（签字者） from its members wanting to come to a medical agreement on the need to fight against global warming.

    Even without the wider effects of climate change, air pollution from fossil fuels, especially from coal-fired electricity and vehicle emissions（排放）, is a major cause of early death.

    In the European Union, more than 400,000 early deaths a year are linked to air pollution that cause respiratory disease and some forms of cancer, the European Commission has found.

    It is a popular Internet thing to focus on the upside of being in your 30s, and it is nice to know how to do basic modern-human-being things like paying your taxes and cooking a simple meal. But it can be a less-encouraging story at work: People in their late 20s to early 40s tend to report lower levels of job satisfaction and higher levels of emotional exhaustion than other age groups, according to new research.

    There's an obvious reason: These tend to be the ages when people have young children at home, and the researchers did find that this group reported feeling increasingly crunched for time. But adding to that pressure, coworker support also tends to decline at this age. Some researchers interpret the findings:

    Support from co-workers probably decreases in midlife as peers compete for limited resources（promotion bottlenecks are often encountered during this career stage. Also, whereas younger co-workers are often hungry to make up new social networks, and older workers seek identity-affirming work experiences in their remaining tenure（任期）, mid lifers find it demanding enough just to maintain existing social networks. Meanwhile, time pressure likely increases as colleagues are all trying to enrich their own knowledge and experience.

    But the good news is that after about a decade of struggle, things start to pick back up again. Occupational psychologists say that happiness at work recovers when people reach their 40s, and that people in their 50s are more satisfied with their jobs than any other age group. Hang in there, 30-somethings-soon you will be older, but at least work will meet less frustration（挫折）!

    Sometimes it can be easy to become too satisfied when it comes to living sustainably. We may all have recycling bins in our kitchens, but here are some ways you can live more sustainably.

    ⒈Put an end to plastic water bottles and one-off coffee cups

    The only way this is going to work is that if you have reusable options you really love, invest in a great water bottle. This is an advance payment, but it will save you money in the long run. A 750ml bottle of Evian costs 90p in Tesco, meaning if you buy one every two days you could save £10 within three weeks by filling up a reusable bottle at home.

    ⒉_______________________________________

    The high street is problematic on so many different levels. Not only are you buying items with questionable supply chains, but the carbon footprint of each product is shocking as well. Online shopping is even worse, with overpackaging for each item and the emissions from delivery trucks. The answer is to stick to reach-me-down or previously owned items as much as possible. Not only will this save you money, but there's also a sense of satisfaction in finding a hidden treasure from the flea market where you find outstanding bargains or something used, which you simply can't get from shopping in Wal-Mart or on Amazon.

    ⒊Think hard about your transportation

    Even if your car is supposedly a low-emissions model, it's still going to be a huge contribution to your carbon footprint. There are times when getting in a car can't be avoided, but if you can substitute just one flight a year with a train, one car journey a week with a bus, and one bus a month with a bike ride, you'll find that making more mindful transport decisions can easily make your day-to-day life more environmentally friendly with little effort.

    ⒋Try to buy local, seasonal produce

    You may think buying strawberries in December or courgettes in spring is no big deal, but the chemicals and fuel used to artificially copy the right environment for them to grow create harmful gas emissions. Similarly, the environmental impact of transporting produce from another country is huge. Buying from local farmers also means you can often ignore the huge amounts of packaging the supermarkets use.

About 50 feet from shore, two brothers were fighting for their lives, their mouths barely able to stay above the water. Thick fog made it difficult for beach goers to see the guys, but the screams were unmistakable and every second counted. The brothers, aged 15 and 20, were wearing shorts and T-shirts, unsuitable for a November day, let alone the 50-degree water. Keven Harder, a supervising ranger, told the North Coast Journal that swimming in such a temperature "will take the fight right out of you."

Luckily, four surfers in wet suits were nearby. Narayan Weibel, Spenser Stratton, and Adrian York, all 16, along with Taj Ortiz-beck, 15, were on their surf boards riding on waves when they heard the cries. They turned and saw two bobbing heads and four flailing arms. "We looked at each other and knew they were about to drown, " Weibel said.

Weibel, Stratton, and Ortiz-beck paddled toward the distressed swimmers while York headed to shore to call 911. As the surfers drew close, the brothers were struggling. "It was pretty stressful, but there wasn't any time to think about it," Ortiz-beck said. He pulled up alongside the younger brother. Grabbing him under his arms, he raised him up onto the board. Stratton and Weibel, meanwhile, were straining(竭力)to help the elder brother. He was large, about 250 pounds, and panicked. Fortunately, York arrived in time to help get the elder brother atop the second board. The surfers then paddled several minutes through rough water to the medical help waiting onshore. The brothers were scared but fine.

"When we get a call like this one, it's usually too late by the time we get there, " said Dillon Ceavenger, the first responder. "I can't say enough about what these boys did. They were willing and prepared to risk their lives."

If you were told to stop from breathing through your nose, could you do it? Journalist Nestor made it for about 10 days,{#blank#}1{#/blank#} (plug) up his nose and breathing only through his mouth as part of an experiment at Stanford University. The effects were systemic—sleeping troubles, high blood pressure and, of course, discomfort.

Breathing is so automatic an activity that most of {#blank#}2{#/blank#}(we) never think about doing it. But as Nestor shows through his own experiences and conversations with dozens of {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (expert), the way we breathe makes {#blank#}4{#/blank#} difference to the body's overall health.{#blank#}5{#/blank#} (base) on the results of the experiment, he published a book Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art, where he explores everything from the role our noses play in hormone regulation（激素调节） and digestion, to {#blank#}6{#/blank#} some athletes build up the lung capacity（肺活量） to run marathons in extreme conditions or div e into icy water for more than an hour at a time. The topic is {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (seeming) simple—an entire book about breathing. But actually every chapter {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (reveal) new details about how body and breath work together at the same time.

Nestor's daring attitude and curiosity were infectious: I not only noticed myself paying attention to my own breathing every time I sat down to read,{#blank#}9{#/blank#} my new-found comfort with my own lungs even {#blank#}10{#/blank#} (inspire) me to go for my first jog in years.