America's holiday shopping season started on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving.

{#blank#}1{#/blank#}Shoppers make the most money this time of year, about 20 percent to 30 percent of all revenue all year. About 136 million people shopped during the Thanksgiving Holiday weekend.

{#blank#}2{#/blank#}In an era of instant information, shoppers can use their mobile phones to find deals. Nearly 80 percent of this year's holiday shoppers, or about 183.8 million people, shopped on Cyber Monday.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}Online spending on Black Friday rose 15 percent to hit $2.7 billion this year. Cyber Monday spending increased 12 percent to $3 billion. NBC News reported that for many, shopping online was a more comfortable alternative than crowded malls.

      The shift to online shopping has had a big impact on solid shopping malls. Since 2010, more than 24 shopping malls have closed and anadditional 60 are struggling. Fortune says the weakest of the malls have closed. However, the business in malls is thriving again, it adds.  According to a survey, 94.2percent of malls were full with shops by the end of 2014.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}

      The average American consumer will spend about $805 on gifts. That's about $630.5 billion between November and December – an increase of 3.7percent from last year.

{#blank#}5{#/blank#}That goes toChina's Singles' Day, celebrated on November 11, which posted record sales of$14.3 billion in 2015.

A．More and morepeople shop online nowadays.

B．That is thehighest level in 27 years.

C．It is thebusiest shopping day of the year.

D．One-in-fiveAmericans used a tablet or smart-phone.

E．Thetraditional mall industry can hardly survive.

F．Cyber Mondayfalls on the Monday after Thanksgiving and Black Friday.

G．Nonetheless,Cyber Monday is not the biggest online shopping day in the world.

    The Verizon Innovative App Challenge gives kids a chance to create apps that can solve problems in their community.

    Do you want to make a difference in your community? The Verizon Innovative App Challenge can get you started. The first step is to think of a problem in your community. The next step is to create an app that can solve the problem.

    Groups of five to seven students in middle school or high school, led by a teacher, can enter the contest. First, teams compete on a local level. Teams that make it to the next round receive $5,000 for their schools. Finalists present their app ideas to judges in a live webinar (网络研讨会)．

    Next, the judges pick national winners. The top eight teams receive an additional $15,000 for their schools, and each team member receives a Samsung tablet. Plus, the winning teams get the chance to bring their app to life.

    A group of six girls from Los Fresnos, Texas, won the second annual Verizon Innovative App Challenge. They came up with the Hello Navi app concept, short for “hello navigation”. The app was designed to help visually­impaired (视力受损的) students navigate their school by using an internal compass and voice­over technology. Read more about the team in September 19, 2016 issue of TIME For Kids: Edition 3－4.

    Do you have an app idea that could help solve a local issue? The deadline to register is November 24, 2016. Find more information and register your team at www. verizonfoundation. org/appchallenge.

    Here are some tips from the Verizon Foundation to get you started：

•Get your team together for a brainstorming meeting. Write out all the ideas that come to mind.

• Don't ignore challenges. Think of the problems that exist in your community.

•Ask family, friends, and people in your community to share their thoughts about problems that they want to see solved.

    One day an ant was drinking at a small stream and fell in. She made desperate efforts to reach the side, but made no progress at all. The poor ant almost exhausted was still bravely doing her best when a dove saw her. Moved with pity, the bird threw her a blade of grass, which supported her like a raft, and thus the ant reached the bank again. While she was resting and drying herself in the grass, she heard a man come near. He was walking along barefooted with a gun in his hand. As soon as he saw the dove, he wished to kill it. He would certainly have done so, but the ant bit him in the foot just as he raised his gun to fire. He stopped to see what had bit him, and the dove immediately flew away. It was an animal much weaker and smaller than herself that had saved her life.

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    During the cold winter days, there are some interesting festivals in the world. Look at the following ones.

Harbin Ice and Snow Festival

Place: China

Time: January 5 to February 5

People build incredible things out of ice and snow, decorating them with lights.

The Carnival of Venice

Place: Italy

Time: between February and March

One of the most beautiful festivals in the world, people wear masks and elaborate costumes to hide differences among classes, and there an, contests for the best costumes.

Holi Festival

Place: India

Time: late February/March, on, the last full moon day and Sikhs, in India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka celebrate the main day of this incredibly fun 16 -day festival by throwing colored powder and water at each other.

Sundance Film Festival

Place: Utah, the US

Time: end of February

The largest independent film festival in the US. Watch both feature films and shorts. You need to buy a ticket.

    Getting less sleep has become a bad habit for most American kids. According to a new survey by the National Sleep Foundation, 51% of kids aged 10 to 18 go to bed at 10 pm or later on school nights, even though they have to get up early. Last year the Foundation reported that nearly 60% of 7- to 12-year-olds said they felt tired during the day, and 15% said they had fallen asleep at school.

    How much sleep you need depends a lot on your age. Babies need a lot of rest: most of them sleep about 18 hours a day! Adults need about eight hours. For most school-age children, ten hours is ideal. But the new National Sleep Foundation survey found that 35% of 10- to 12-year-olds get only seven or eight hours. And guess what almost half of the surveyed kids said they do before bedtime? Watch TV.

    “More children are going to bed with TVs on, and there are more opportunities(机会) to stay awake, with more homework, the Internet and the phone,” says Dr. Mary Carskadon, a sleep researcher at Brown University Medical School. She says these activities at bedtime can get kids all excited and make it hard for them to calm down and sleep. Other experts say part of the problem is chemical. Changing levels of body chemicals called hormones not only make teenagers' bodies develop adult characteristics, but also make it hard for teenagers to fall asleep before 11 pm.

    Because sleepiness is such a problem for teenagers, some school districts have decided to start high school classes later than they used to. Three years ago, schools in Edina, Minnesota, changed the start time from 7:25 am to 8:30 am. Students, parents and teachers are pleased with the results.

    In early February 2019, 51-year-old Rainer Schimpf and his team set out to film South Africa's Sardine Run off the coast of Point Elizabeth Sardine Run, the annual migration(迁徙)of billions of sardines (a small sea fish), is a big draw for large predators, especially the dolphin and whale. Predators are animals that kill and eat other animals. In an attempt to obtain the best images of the incredible natural phenomenon, Rainer dived into the middle of a spinning ball of fish. Suddenly the sea moved around violently, and the experienced diver and his photographer Heinz Toperczer, who was filming from the boat, instantly realized something strange was going on. Suddenly dolphins shot out of the water, a white spray came out and then a whale appeared and grasped Rainer

    While Toperczer was filming the terrifying turn of events with his video camera, Rainer, who was trapped had first and engulfed(吞噬)in darkness inside the whales mouth, was trying to survive. Nothing can actually prepare you for the event when you end up inside the pure instinct(本能), "the diver told Barcroft TV. "Knowing in the whale's mouth, I tried to control my fear. But I was convinced that it was going to dive down and release me much deeper in the ocean."

    "The whale quickly realized he was no sardine! As the whale turned sideways, he opened his mouth slightly to release me, and I was washed out, together with what felt like tons of water, of his mouth," recalled Rainer. Though the entire incident lasted just 1.8 seconds, it felt like a year to Rainer.

    Still holding his underwater camera in his hand, the diver swam to his boat, where he was quickly rescued by the members of the team. The terrible adventure did not disturb Rainer for too long. After checking to ensure he had no injuries, the diver returned to the water to seek out more.