Devon, 17, is used to paying her own cell phone and car expenses. But lately it's been harder. The family she baby-sits for hasn't been calling as much as usual and she couldn't find a job over the summer. Devon's dad said it's a sign of the tough economy. He told her he's feeling the pinch too and that he had to use her college fund to pay the loan(货款).

    This kind of money troubles isn't strange to common families these days. In fact, it's hard to avoid news about the economy on the screen of the TV or the computers recently. It can seem a bit worry and some families are hit really hard.

    For most people, the big problem is that things cost more at a time when they have less money to spend. But higher prices aren't the only problem. Many people are having a tough time making payments on some types of home loans.

    Therefore, some families are cutting back on what they spend.  For example, eating out less, staying home instead of going on vacation, moving to a less expensive house and so on.

    However, as discouraging as things may seem now, the good news is that the economy always gets back on track after a while. Jobs may be hard to find, but the slow economy can open up new opportunities. The couple Devon babysat for might cut back on evening's out, but they could be interested in hiring her for after-school care. Perhaps it's time to sell her old toys and baby gear (设备)in the basement(地下室) or help others sell these items online if she is good at it. She could charge them a fee to sell their old stuff(东西).

    It is easier to float in the ocean than it is to float in a swimming pool.Do you know why?

    Ocean water is full of salt--and salt water can hold up more weight than fresh water.See for yourself!

You will Need:

3 cups of warm water

Measuring cup(量杯)

Wide-mouthed jar

Salt

Spoon

Raw(生的)potato

You Will Do:

⒈Pour 1.5cups of warm water into the jar.

⒉Add 1/3 cup of salt.

⒊Stir(搅拌) until the salt is completely dissolved.

⒋Add another 1.5 cups of water.Pour it slowly over the back of the spoon into the jar so that the two liquids will not mix together.

⒌Gently place the potato into the jar.Do not drop it.

    What Will Happen:

    The potato will sink--but only halfway!

    Why?

    Salt water is heavier than fresh water,so it will stay on the bottom.The fresh water will remain on top.

    The potato is heavier than the fresh water,but it is lighter than the salt water.That is why the potato will sink halfway down.

    When was the last time someone unexpectedly did something nice for you? Not someone you knew, but a total stranger? It's happened to me a few times, but two instances really stand out.

    A few years ago, I was dining in a restaurant with a friend who kept talking about himself, completely not aware of the fact that I was sitting there in misery. It wasn't my friend's talks that made me suffer. I was recovering from a broken heart, and just sitting down to dinner reminded me of my last relationship. I could have burst into tears right there at the table.

    When we picked up the check, the waitress said, ―Your meal was already paid for.  My friend and I didn't have a clue how it happened. Then I remembered a man coming in out of the corner of my eye. He was dressed in mostly white, sat down at the bar, had a beer, and stayed for maybe ten minutes. The waitress said, ―Yes, the gentleman in white paid for you.  It felt like an angel was saying ―I see you, honey. It's going to be okay.

    Just last year, I was running a half-marathon. With just 1 mile to go, I was out of gas. Runners call it ―hitting the wall . I thought I couldn't move another inch. Out of nowhere, a stranger came up to me and said, ―What's your name, sweetie? Jennifer? Okay, Jennifer, let's go! Come on! It's just around the corner! You can do it!  And he ran with me until I picked up my pace. I found him at the finish line to thank him for the encouragement only to learn he wasn't even supposed to be in the race that day.

    I still shake my head when I think of these momentary angels that came to me at my point of need.

    Do you have any experiences like these?

    There are a couple different things that make ramen noodles an unhealthy choice. There's not much to these provision packets besides salt and carbohydrates. While those certainly get thrown around quite a bit as “bad-for-you” comments, you may not know how they actually harm your body. Firstly, there's the fact that most instant ramen servings contain over 1100 milligrams of sodium-that's approaching half of the maximum you should eat per day. When you take in that much sodium in a single sitting, your body overcompensates by holding more water. This can cause temporary water weight gain, leaving you feeling bloated(肿胀)and lacking in energy.

    But while you may feel bloated, chances are you won't feel full. Since the ramen contains lots of refined carbohydrates with virtually no protein or fiber, it's essentially the very definition of empty calories. And you've probably heard the song-and-dance about refined carbs; eating too much can lead your blood sugar to increase and then decrease, leaving you hungry and ready to eat again-which leads to weight gain.

    And, perhaps most upsetting of all, this quick-and-easy meal may stay with you much longer than you realize. Massachusetts General Hospital's Dr. Braden Kuo used a pill-sized camera to record the digestive tracts of volunteers who ate processed ramen noodles as well as fresh ones. With a video, Dr. Kuo was able to show that, after two hours when the fresh noodles were long gone, the ramen noodles were still there in the intestines.

    Doctors do know that years of eating the instant packets are linked to poor health. Another study, this one by the Harvard School of Public Health, assessed the long-term consequences of ramen consumption in South Korea, where it's a major course. They found that subjects, women in particular, who ate instant noodles at least twice a week had a 68 percent higher risk of diabetes and heart disease-than subjects who ate a more consistently natural diet.

    In short, eating ramen once in a while won't damage your health-as is true with most processed foods. But it's not something you should make a habit of-for your stomach and heart's sake.

    If you're encouraged by the tiny house movement and think 160 square feet is just enough for your needs, you may want to contact the Academy of Construction and Design (ACAD) at IDEA Public Charter School in northeast Washington．

    Students in the program built a micro house with a kitchen, a bathroom, a sleeping loft with space for a queen-size bed and a storage loft, all set on a trailer for mobility. The exterior (外部) of the house was part of a continuous living exhibit in 2015and was moved to the IDEA campus so students could work with builders to complete the interior earlier this year.

    McMahon said the D.C. government's approval to push companies to hire District residents (居民) was at odds with the school system not preparing students for careers in construction, exploring or electrical work. McMahon gathered industry and community leaders to establish ACAD in 2005 and he said 100 percent of the companies he contacted responded positively to the idea, including major firms such as JBG, Clark Construction, Hines Construction and Boston Properties.

    “When students make the connection between what they are learning a potential career, their academics improve dramatically,” said Carol Randolph, chief operating officer of the D.C. Students Construction Trades Foundation. “Some of them who didn't think college was an choice now have a better chance because their classes have become relevant to a job.”

    “We teach them life skills and explain that even if you start as a laborer, there are opportunities to move up quickly,” he said. “We rewrite the story for them and explain that they can work for a few years, make good money, get promoted, and start their own business or go to school with less debts.”

    “Parents and school advisors can be the biggest obstacles because of the negative idea of construction as a blue-collar career,” Karriem said. “I get middle-school advisors on board to talk about the opportunities this education provides. These kids are learning lifelong skills that can help them in other fields, provide them with income and allow them to take care of their homes.”

In 1998, people in Na Doi, a quiet village in northwest Thailand, noticed that their fish catches in the nearby Ngao River were declining. The fish they did manage to net were also getting smaller. Together, Na Doi's 75 households decided to try a new solution: they would set aside a small stretch of river to be strictly off-limits to fishing.

The rules are usually simple: no fishing of any kind in an agreed-upon area marked by flags or signs. While freshwater reserves won't solve everything, in places where fish populations are under pressure, they can give species much-needed breathing room to rebuild their numbers, ultimately making them better able to weather other environmental problems.

Na Doi was the second village in the Ngao River valley to adopt this pioneering approach to freshwater fisheries management. Since the late 1990s, at least 50 other villages there have done the same. As a whole, the entirely grassroots-led reserves have been surprisingly successful, according to findings recently published in Nature. Most importantly, the Thailand case provides probably the best real-world proof that fisheries reserves can benefit not just oceans, but freshwater, too

In 2012. Aaron Koning, then a doctoral student at the University of Wisconsin, began investigating the Ngao River valley reserves to see how widespread and successful they truly were. Koning found, not surprisingly, that older and bigger reserves were more successful, because they offered more time and space—including more kinds of habitat—in which to rebuild fish populations and re-establish rare species. But even reserves established in the last couple of years showed clear benefits from being spared intense fishing pressure. "Reserves that were located closer to a village tended to have an advantage," Koning says, "probably because villagers were better able to enforce the rules."

By comparing different systems and approaches around the world, Koning and his colleagues hope to identify common factors for success that could be tailored to diverse rivers and lakes.