One of the most important things in the world is friendship. In order to have friends, you have to be a friend. But how can you be a good friend at school?

    Listen — Listen when they are talking. Don't say anything unless they ask you a question. Sometimes it's not necessary for you to have anything to say; they just need someone to talk to about their feelings.

    Help them — If your friend is ever in need of something, be there to help them. You should try to put them first, but make sure you don't do everything they want you to do. Try to take an extra (额外的) pencil or pen with you to classes in case (以防) they forget one. Have a little extra money in your pocket in case they forget something they need.

    Be there for them — Try to make something for your friend to help make them feel better in hard times. Making cards and encouraging them are among the nicest things you can do for a friend. Marilyn Monroe, a famous U.S. actor, once said, “I often make mistakes. Sometimes I am out of control. But if you can't stay with me at my worst, you are sure not to deserve (值得) to be with me at my best.” Always remember this! If you don't want to stay with your friends when they're in hard times, then you don't deserve to be with them when they're having a good time!

    Try to make plans with your friends. Go shopping, go for ice cream, have a party, go to a movie and so on. Take time to know each other even better by doing something you both enjoy. By planning things together, you both can have a good time. And you'll remember these things when you're all old!

    Two friends have an argument that bleaks up their friendship forever, even though neither one can remember how the whole thing got started. Such sad events happen over and over in high schools across the country. In fact, according to an official report on youth violence, "In our country today, the greatest threat to the lives of children and adolescents is not disease or starvation or abandonment, but the terrible reality of violence". Given that this is the case, why aren't students taught to manage conflict the way they are taught to solve math problems, drive cars, or stay physically fit?

    First of all, students need to realize that conflict is unavoidable. A report on violence among middle school and high school students indicates that most violent incidents between students begin with a relatively minor insult (侮辱). For example, a fight could start over the fact that one student eats a peanut butter sandwich each lunchtime. Laughter over the sandwich can lead to insults, which in turn can lead to violence. The problem isn't in the sandwich, but in the way students deal with the conflict.

Once students recognize that conflict is unavoidable, they can practice the golden rule of conflict resolution—stay calm. Once the student feels calmer, he or she should choose words that will calm the other person down as well. Rude words, name-calling, and accusation only add fuel to the emotional fire. On the other hand, soft words spoken at a normal sound level can put out the fire before it explodes out of control.

    After both sides have calmed down, they can use another key strategy for conflict resolution: listening. Listening allows the two sides to understand each other. One person should describe his or her side, and the other person should listen without interrupting. Afterward, the listener can ask non-threatening questions to clarify the speaker's position. Then the two people should change roles.

    Finally, students need consider what they are hearing. This doesn't mean trying to figure out what's wrong with the other person. It means understanding what the real issue is and what both sides are trying to accomplish. For example, a shouting match over a peanut butter sandwich might happen because one person thinks the other person is unwilling to try new things. Students need to ask themselves questions such as these: How did this start? What do I really want? What am I afraid off? As the issue becomes clearer, the conflict often simply becomes smaller. Even if it doesn't, careful thought helps both sides figure out a mutual solution.

    There will always be conflict in schools, but that doesn't mean there needs to be violence. After students in Atlanta started a conflict resolution program, according to Educators for Social Responsibility, "64 percent of the teachers reported less physical violence in the classroom; 75 percent of the teachers reported an increase in student cooperation; and 92 percent of the students felt better about themselves". Learning to resolve conflicts can help students deal with friends, teachers, parents, bosses, and coworkers. In that way, conflict resolution is a basic life skill that should be taught in schools across the country.

    People are always looking for lost cities and occasionally one is found: Borobudur in Indonesia, for example. But perhaps some of the places people look for never existed — or did they? Here are just a few famous mythical (传说中的) cities.

    El Dorado

    El Dorado is a story that began in 1537, when Spanish explorers found the Muisca people in the mountains of what is now Colombia. They heard the story of a man who covered himself with gold and dived into a lake. Then people began to talk of El Dorado — 'the golden man'. Soon people started to think of El Dorado as a place, too — a city of gold and amazing riches. Nowadays, the name 'El Dorado' is still used to mean 'a place where you can get rich quickly'.

    Atlantis

    There was once an island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. It was the mythical island of Atlantis. The people of the island were very rich, thanks to the natural resources (资源) on their island. For hundreds of years, they lived simple lives. But slowly they began to change. They started to want power. So the gods decided to destroy Atlantis. Suddenly, the island and its people were swallowed (淹没) by the sea and were never seen again.

    Shambhala

    In Tibetan Buddhist tradition, Shambhala is a mystical (神秘的) country that is hidden somewhere behind the Himalayas. Shambhala is a word from an old language that means 'place of peace' or 'place of happiness'. It is said that there is no war in Shambhala, and in the future, when the world is full of war, a huge army will come out of Shambhala, destroy the world's bad rulers, and start a new Golden Age. Some people say this will happen in 2424.

    ORLANDO, Fla. — Florida's busiest airport is becoming the first in the nation to require a face scan of passengers on all arriving and departing international flights, including US citizens, according to officials there. The expected announcement Thursday at Orlando International Airport alarms some privacy supporters. They say there are no formal rules in place for handling data collected from the scans, nor formal guidelines on what should happen if a passenger is wrongly prevented from boarding.

    Airports in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Las Vegas, Miami, New York and Washington D.C. already use face scans for some departing international flights, but they don't involve all international travelers at the airports like the program's expansion in Orlando would. The image(图像) from the face scan is compared to a Department of Homeland Security database that has images of people who should be on the flight, in order to check the traveler's identity.

    US citizens at these airports can refuse to be scanned, but the agency “doesn't seem to be doing an adequate job letting Americans know they can,” said Harrison Rudolph, an expert at the Center on Privacy & Technology at the Georgetown University Law Center.

    US citizens at the Orlando airport will be able to refuse face scans just like at the other airports if they don't want to provide their photograph, Jennifer Gabris, a spokeswoman for the US Customs and Border Protection said in an email. However, a notice about a possible rule change for the program states that “US citizens may be required to provide photographs upon entering or departing the United States.”

    “We're not talking about one gate,” Rudolph said. “We're talking about every international departure gate, which is a huge expansion of the number of people who will be scanned. Errors tend to go up as uses go up.”

    Two US senators（参议员） last month sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security, urging that formal rules be carried out before the program is expanded. “It will also ensure a full test of this potentially sweeping program that could influence every American leaving the country by airport,” said the letter from the senators.

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    When I was about twelve, I headed to a restaurant for dinner with my family. It was winter, and on that night, the wind was really blowing hard.

    As my mom and I headed to the restaurant from our car, a girl about my age and her mother came up to us. They asked if we had any spare change (零钱). My mom right away asked where they lived. They pointed to an old car in a parking lot across the street. The girl said there were six of them living in that car. My mom said she had something to do after handing the people a few dollars. She sent me inside the restaurant with my dad and my three siblings (兄弟姐妹). But she didn't come. Later, I found out she had gone home and put all the food in our cupboards (食橱) into a few bags. Then, she brought that food over to the car and handed the bags to the family. I wasn't there when that happened, but I can only imagine the joy it brought to those people.

    A few days later, when I actually found out about what she had done, I asked her why she helped those people. She told me that they were not lucky. I remember the face of that girl who had asked us for change. She was the same age as me, yet we looked so different.

    Here I stood, dressed in almost new clothes, headed to eat in a restaurant and then back home to the bedroom I shared with my younger sister. I remember thinking that the other girl didn't have any food to eat and she was heading back to a cold car shared with five other people.

    After painting this picture in my mind, I understood why my mom had done what she did. I will never forget what she did that night, and how she taught me one of the best lessons I ever learned.