A new generation addiction is quickly spreading all over the world. Web holism, a twentieth century disease, affects people from different ages. They surf the net, use e-mail and speak in chat rooms. They spend many hours on the computer, and it becomes a compulsive （强迫的，强制的） habit. They cannot stop, and it affects their lives.

    Ten years ago, no one thought that using computers could become compulsive behavior that could affect the social and physical life of computer users. This obsessional behavior has affected teenagers and college students. They are likely to log on computers and spend long hours at different websites.

    They become hooked on computers and gradually their social and school life is affected by this situation. They spend all free time surfing and don't concentrate on homework, so this addiction influences their grades and success at school. Because they can find everything on the websites, they hang out there. Moreover, this addiction to websites influences their social life.

    They spend more time in front of computers than with their friends. The relation with their friends changes. The virtual life becomes more important than their real life. They have a new language that they speak in the chat rooms and it causes cultural changes in society.

    Because of the change in their behavior, they begin to keep themselves apart from the society and live with their virtual friends. They share their emotions and feelings with friends who they have never met in their life. Although they feel confident on the computer, they are not confident with real live friends they have known all their life. It is a problem for the future. This addictive behavior is beginning to affect all the world.

    The Children's Book-Show Competition is a chance for young readers to be writers.

    Reading, it seems, is coming back in fashion, if a survey by the famous National Literacy Trust (the NLT) is true. It shows that the percentage of children who admit enjoying reading has grown for the first time in the past 8 years.

    So it's a good time to launch a competition that includes a shed-load of new books for schools as prizes. The Children's Book-show Competition, backed by The Independent, is taking to the roads again from the start of next term, with a nation-wide tour of 15 big cities, featuring a line-up of a dozen children's writers and illustrators (插图画家) aiming to persuade pupils to follow their footsteps.

    The competition, launched by the children's writer and illustrator Jessica Souhami, has two categories: the under-nine's and nine to 13-year-olds.

    Children are asked to choose their favorite fairy or folk tale and set it in an extraordinary place.

    Then they are to retell it with the aid of drawings and writings—whether it is set at sea, on a distant planet, in the future or in the past. The closing date for the competition is 30th November.

    “Tell your tale in pictures and in words, ”say the organizers of the competition. “It can be in a picture book or comic-book format.”

    The winner of each competition will receive a signed copy of a book by each of the 12 authors involved in this year's tour, plus £150 worth of books for their school. The runners-up will receive a signed copy of Souhami's new book.

    In 1947 a group of famous people from the art world headed by an Austrian conductor decided to hold an international festival of music, dance and theatre in Edinburgh. The idea was to reunite Europe after the Second World War.

    At the same time, the Fringe appeared as a challenge to the official festival. Eight theatre groups turned up uninvited in 1947, in the belief that everyone should have the right to perform, and they did so in a public house disused for years.

    Soon, groups of students firstly from Edinburgh University, and later from the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, Durham and Birmingham were making the journey to the Scottish capital each summer to perform theatre by little-known writers of plays in small church halls to the people of Edinburgh.

    Today the Fringe, once less recognized, has far out grown the festival with around 1,500 performances of theatre, music and dance on every one of the 21 days it lasts. And yet as early as 1959, with only 19theatre groups performing, some said it was getting too big.

    A paid administrator was first employed only in 1971, and today there are eight administrators working all year round and the number rises to 150 during August itself. In2004 there were 200 places housing 1,695 shows by over 600 different groups from 50 different countries. More than 1.25 million tickets were sold.

    I was born in England, but I am an American. Americans like to travel on their yearly holiday. Today, more and more travelers in the United States are spending nights at small houses or inns (客栈) instead of hotels. They get a room for the night and the breakfast the next morning.

    Rooms for the night in private homes with breakfast have been popular with travelers in Europe for many years. In the past five to ten years, these bed­and­breakfast places have become popular in the United States. Many of these America's bed­and­breakfast inns are old historic buildings. Some bed­and­breakfast inns have only a few rooms; others are much larger. Some inns do not provide telephones or televisions in the rooms; others do.

    Staying at a bed­and­breakfast inn is much different from staying at a hotel. Usually the cost is much less. Staying at an inn is almost like visiting someone's home. The owners are glad to tell about the areas and the interesting places to visit. Many vacationers say they enjoy the chance to meet local families.

    Basketball Statistician Help Wanted

    The Athletic Department is looking for students to assist staff during the Fall 2016, Winter 2016-17 and Spring 2017 semesters. Students in this position will be keeping live statistics during basketball games. Students must meet all of the following requirements:

    Good computer skills

    Available evenings and weekends

    Knowing basketball rules and statistics

    Students interested in working for the Athletic Department should contact the Athletic Coordinator at their respective(各自的) campuses.

    TP/SS Athletic Coordinator, Michael Simone,240-567-1308

    Rockville Athletic Coordinator, Jorge Zuniga,240-567-7589

    Springfield Athletic coordinator, Gary Miller,240-567-2273

    Germantown Athletic Coordinator, GavriChavan, 240-567-6915

    There is always no lack of ordinary people taking action for extraordinary change. Aghan Oscar is just among them. Thirteen years ago, Aghan bothered by the ever-increasing quantity of plastic waste in this low-income suburb of Nairobi, decided to find a way to recycle it.

    Nou his company. Continental Renewable Energy Co.Ltd(COREC) produces poles for use in construction, farming and road signs. So far he's sold 96,000, and he says his potential or growth is limited only by the considerable expense of setting up plastic recycling plants.

    Most of Aghan's customers are farmers and developers who once used wooden fence poles. Customers say they have other benefits as well. "I have fenced my piece of land three times using wood posts, but most of the time the fence was vandalized(故意破坏)by villagers who used the posts as firewood." said Caleb Kapten. Now plastic posts have stopped the problem, he said.

    The Kenya National Highways Authority is one of COREC s biggest customers. It approached the company after road signs were vandalized by criminals who sold the metal poles to steel manufacturing companies. Aghan reckons (估计)that COREC's products have saved the government millions of shillings, besides preventing road accidents. And he also points out that COREC has been able to conserve large numbers of trees by producing plastic poles.

    When Aghan started this recycling business in 2003, most of his employees were his family members due to financial constraint(限制).Now he employs 250 young people to collect plastic waste. Fifty more youths work on the production line, where the waste is sorted according to quality before being crushed and washed, melted and cast into different shapes. The poles arc then arranged by shape and size for sale in the yard of the recycling plant.