A 17-year-old boy, caught sending text messages in class, was recently sent to the vice principal's office at Millwood High School in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The vice principal, Steve Gallagher, told the boy he needed to focus on the teacher, not his cellphone. The boy listened politely and nodded, and that's when Mr. Gallagher noticed the student's fingers moving on his lap. He was texting while being scolded for texting. “It was a subconscious act,” says Mr. Gallagher, who took the phone away. “Young people today are connected socially from the moment they open their eyes in the morning until they close their eyes at night. It's compulsive.”

    A study this year by psychology students at Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Ga., found that the more time young people spend on Facebook, the more likely they are to have lower grades and weaker study habits. Heavy Facebook users show signs of being more sociable, but they are also more likely to be anxious, hostile or depressed. (Doctors, meanwhile, are now blaming addictions to 'night texting' for disturbing the sleep patterns of teens.)

    Almost a quarter of today's teens check Facebook more than 10 times a day, according to a 2009 survey by Common Sense Media, a nonprofit group that monitors media's impact on families. Will these young people get rid of this habit once they enter the work force, or will employers come to see texting and 'social-network checking' as accepted parts of the workday?

    Think back. When today's older workers were in their 20s, they might have taken a break on the job to call friends and make after-work plans. In those earlier eras, companies discouraged non-business-related calls, and someone who made personal calls all day risked being fired. It was impossible to imagine the constant back-and-forth texting that defines interactions among young people today.

    Educators are also being asked by parents, students and educational strategists to reconsider their rules. “In past generations, students got in trouble for passing notes in class. Now students are skilled at texting with their phones still in their pockets,” says 40-year-old Mr. Gallagher, the vice principal, “and they're able to communicate with someone one floor down and three rows over. Students are just fundamentally different today. They will take suspensions rather than give up their phones.”

The idea of being able to walk on water has long interested humans greatly. Sadly, biological facts prevent us ever accomplishing such a thing without artificial aid—we simply weigh too much, and all our mass pushes down through our relatively small feet, resulting in a lot of pressure that makes us sink.

    However, several types of animals can walk on water. One of the most interesting is the common basilisk Basilicus basilicus, a lizard (蜥蜴)native to Central and South America. It can run across water for a distance of several meters, avoiding getting wet by rapidly hitting the water's surface with its feet. The lizard will take as many as 20 steps per second to keep moving forward. For humans to do this, we，d need huge feet that we could bring up to our ears in order to create adequate w hitting. ''

    But fortunately there is an alternative : cornflour. By adding enough of this common thickening agent to water (and it does take a lot), you can create a “non-Newtonian” liquid that doesn't behave like normal water. Now, if the surface of the water is hit hard enough, particles(粒子）in the water group together for a moment to make the surface hard. Move quickly enough and put enough force into each step, and you really can walk across the surface of an adequately thick Liquid of cornflour.

    Fun though all this may sound, it's still rather messy and better read about in theory than carried out in practice. If you must do it, then keep the water wings handy in case you start to sink--and take a shower afterward!

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    Living and dealing with kids can be a difficult job these days, but living and dealing with parents can be even more complex.

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

    Communication begins with the concerns of others. It means that you can't just come home from school, go up to your room and ignore everyone. To keep a good relationship, you must keep communication, 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. She was late getting home. Her parents were mad at first, not giving Sophie a chance to explain why she was late. Later, they kept calm and listened to her. 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.

    Volunteering abroad is a great way to help others, improve your skills and become a more confident, independent person. If you are interested in volunteering abroad, here are some places to go.

    Australia

    If you seek a life on the beach, in a great climate with friendly people, Australia might be your best bet. With thousands of volunteers already signing up to leave for Australia during the holidays, it will be a very popular option.

    Brazil

    This vast country has some great opportunities on offer and is especially popular this year. A lot of volunteer work is available in Brazil centers on conservation and ecological projects. With the world's largest rainforest in Brazil, of which huge part is in danger, there are lots of different jobs you can do.

    Kenya

    Kenya is the destination for those seeking an African experience. Generally volunteers in Kenya work in orphanages(孤儿院)or with local children living in slums(贫民窟). There is a great demand for volunteers in Africa because many people live in poverty, so if you truly feel like making a difference to a community, Kenya should be at the top of your list.

    Costa Rica

    Golden sandy beaches, clear coastlines and beautiful cities are what Costa Rica is all about. Because of its small size, you can see a lot of the country in just a short time. You can really make the most of your time as a volunteer. A lot of work is needed with wildlife and ecological work, so if you want to look after turtles on the beach, Costa Rica could be just the place for you

    There lived in South Carolina a young woman named Eliza Lucas. Her father was governor of one of the islands of the West Indies. Miss Lucas often got seeds from her father, and then she planted them in South Carolina.

    Once, her father sent her some seeds of the indigo (靛蓝) plant. She planted some of them in March, but a frost (霜冻) came and killed all her plants. However, she decided to plant some more seeds in April. These grew very well until a cutworm found them and ate her plants. Once more Miss Lucas planted some of the seeds. This time the plants grew very well. She wrote to her father about it. He sent her a man who knew how to get the indigo out of the plant.

    However, the man tried not to show Miss Lucas how to make the indigo. He did not want the people in South Carolina to learn how to make it. He was afraid his own people would not get so much money for their indigo if other people made it as well. So he destroyed the indigo on purpose. But Miss Lucas watched him closely. She worked out how the indigo could be made. Some of her father's land in South Carolina was now planted with the indigo plant.

    Then Miss Lucas got married, and became Mrs. Pinckney. Her father gave her all the indigo growing on his land in South Carolina. It was all saved for seeds. Mrs Pinckney gave some of the seeds to her friends while her husband sowed others. They all grew and were made into the blue dye(染料) that we call indigo. In a few years, South Carolina was producing more than a million pounds of indigo every year. All the people were grateful to her.

    Humans are social animals. They live in groups all over the world. As these groups of people live apart from other groups, over the years and centuries they develop their own habits and ideas, which are different from other cultures. One important particular side of every culture is how its people deal with time.

    Time is not very important in nonindustrial societies. The Nuer people of East Africa, for example, do not even have a word TIME that is in agreement with the abstract thing we call time. The daily lives of the people of such nonindustrial societies are likely to be patterned around their physical needs and natural events rather than around a time schedule(时间表)based on the clock. They cook and eat when they are hungry and sleep when the sun goes down. They plant crops during the growing seasons and harvest them when the crops are ripe. They measure time not by a clock or calendar(日历), but by saying that an event takes place before or after some other event Frequently such a society measures days in terms of "sleeps" or longer periods in terms of "moons." Some cultures, such as the Eskimos of Greenland measure seasons according to the migration of certain animals.

    Some cultures which do not have a written language or keep written records have developed interesting ways of "telling time". For example, when several Australian aborigines want to plan an event for a future time, one of them places a stone on a cliff or in a tree. Each day the angle of the sun changes slightly. In a few days, the rays of the sun strike the stone in a certain way. When this happens, the people see that the agreed-upon time has arrived and the event can take place.

    In contrast(成对比), exactly correct measurement of time is very important in modern, industrialized societies. This is because industrialized societies require the helpful efforts of many people in order to work. For a factory to work efficiently(well, quickly and without waste), for example, all of the workers must work at the same time. Therefore, they must know what time to start work in the morning and what time they may go home in the afternoon. Passengers must know the exact time that an airplane will arrive or depart. Students and teachers need to know when a class starts and ends. Stores must open on time in order to serve their customers. Complicated(复杂的)societies need clocks and calendars. Thus, we can see that if each person worked according to his or her own schedule, a complicated society could hardly work at all.