As the world around them is changing, teenagers continue to need guidance and support from both parents. Studies show that teens who have an active relationship with their fathers are less likely(可能的)to involve themselves in dangerous behaviors and more likely to succeed in school and develop higher self-worth, because their fathers go beyond social expectations to devote attention to them.

    Peer(同龄人)pressure has always been a big part of the teens' experience. Even the best father can't completely protect their kids from the growing influence of their peer group. However, studies show that teenagers whose fathers focus on their lives are more likely to resist (抵抗)the more bad effects of peer pressure, taking drugs, for example.

    Teens may not like to admit it, but they are watching their parents closely and often follow their example. An interesting finding explains just how important parents are, especially Dad. Swiss researchers discovered that if Dad attends church, even though Mom doesn't, 44 percent of the kids are still more likely to keep going to church as adults. But if Mom goes regularly and Dad never shows up, only 2 percent of the kids continue to attend.

    Teenagers face a lot of difficult choices, especially in their later teens. Fathers don't get to make those choices for them, but they can be influenced. For example, teenagers can learn a lot from their parents' concern on what to do when they finish high school. Should they go directly to college and, if so, where? Should they consider going to trade schools, joining the army or looking for a job? A father's guidance brings a long-term perspective that teens often lack to these important decisions.

    He's an old cobbler(修鞋匠) with a shop in the Marais, a historic area in Paris. When I took him my shoes, he at first told me: “I haven't time. Take them to the other fellow on the main street; he'll fix them for you right away.”

    But I'd had my eye on his shop for a long time. Just looking at his bench loaded with tools and pieces of leather, I knew he was a skilled craftsman(手艺人). “No,” I replied, “the other fellow can't do it well.”

    “The other fellow” was one of those shopkeepers who fix shoes and make keys “while-U-wait” — without knowing much about mending shoes or making keys. They work carelessly, and when they have finished sewing back a sandal strap(鞋带), you might as well just throw away the pair.

    My man saw I wouldn't give in, and he smiled. He looked at my shoes, had me write my name on one shoe with a piece of chalk and said, “Come back in a week.”

    I was about to leave when he took a pair of soft leather boots off a shelf.

    “See what I can do?” he said with pride. “Only three of us in Paris can do this kind of work.”

    When I got back out into the street, the world seemed brand-new to me. He was something out of an ancient legend, this old craftsman with his way of speaking familiarly, his very strange, dusty felt hat, his funny accent from who-knows-where and, above all, his pride in his craft.

    These are times when nothing is important but the bottom line, when you can do things any old way as long as it “pays”, when, in short, people look on work as a path to ever-increasing consumption(消费) rather than a way to realize their own abilities. In such a period it is a rare comfort to find a cobbler who gets his greatest satisfaction from pride in a job well done.

    Sometimes people call each other “scared-cat”. But have you ever thought about this expression? When a cat is frightened, its heart starts beating faster, its muscles get tense, and there are changes in the chemicals in its blood stream. Although the cat doesn't realize this, its body is getting ready for action. If the danger continues, the animal will do one of two things .It will protect itself, or it will run away as fast as it can.

    Something like this also happens to people. When we are excited, angry or seared by other feelings, our bodies go through many physical changes. Our hearts beat faster, and our muscles get tense. All of these changes make us more alert and ready to react. We, too, get ready to defend ourselves or run.

    Human beings, however, have a problem that animals never face. If we give way to our feelings and let them take over, we can get into trouble. Have you ever said something in anger or hit somebody and regretted it later? Have you ever shouted at a teacher, told someone you were lonely, or said you were in love, and then wished later you had kept your mouth shut? It isn't always clever to express your feelings freely.

    Does this mean that it's smarter always to hide our feelings? No! If you keep feelings of anger, sadness hidden away or bottled up inside, your body stays tense. Physical illnesses can develop, and you can feel disturbed badly inside. It can actually be bad for your health. It isn't good to keep pleasant feelings inside either; all feelings need to be expressed.

    Feelings that you keep all bottled up inside, don't just go away. It's as if you bought some bananas and put them in a cupboard. You might not be able to see them, but before you'd smell them. And if you opened the cupboard, chances are that you'd see little fruit flies flying all over them. They are bad.

    You can try to treat feelings as if they were bananas in the cupboard. You can hide them and you can pretend they don't exist, but they'll still be around. And at last you'll have to deal with them, just like those bananas.

    The Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

    The Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, on the island of Hawaii, has two active volcanoes: Mauna Loa, which last erupted (喷发) in 1984, is 13,677 feet (4.17 km) above sea level; Kilauea is next to Mauna Loa and it has been erupting since January 3rd, 1983. It is 4,190 feet (1.23 km) above sea level.

    When to visit

    The park is open 24 hours a day all year round. There are no plants or trees on the lava (火山岩) fields and no protection from the sun, so you must bring sunscreen (防晒霜).

    How to get there

    The best way to get to the park is to take Highway 11. From the airport at Hilo, Highway 11 will take you southward across the eastern part of the island.

    Things to see

    If you want to know more about the park, the Kilauea Visitor Center is surely a stop to make. It is a quarter of a mile (402 m) from the park entrance. There, you can see a great movie about real lava and learn about the island's natural and cultural history. The center is open from 7:45 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. There are also many guided walks and hikes around the park. You must check weather conditions and volcanic activity before hiking alone. If possible, you may drive down Chain of Craters Road to see lava flowing into the ocean.

    Tickets

    Entrance to the park is $10.00 for each vehicle, $5.00 for those who travel on foot or ride a bicycle. Children under the age of 15 are free.

    Feeding a crowd of hundreds doesn't make Kenny Seals-Nutt nervous.

    In fact, he loves being in the kitchen.

    By the time Kenny, 16, reached his third year of high school in Charlotte, US, he had become vice president of his school's cooking club.

    Kenny said he developed his love of cooking by watching his grandmother, who owned a business.

    And at the age of 5, he cooked his first dish. Taking it to school for lunch, he warmed it up in the school's microwave, while the other kids ate their sandwiches.

    "I love to eat, and it started to become more fun to cook than to have food prepared for me," he said.

    Cooking came easy to Kenny, and he enjoyed adding new ingredients (原料) into common dishes. "It started with a passion (热情) and I wanted to know more," he said.

    Last summer, Kenny put his skills to the test by working with his grandmother to cater his uncle's wedding. Kenny added new changes to the traditional (传统的) dishes that his grandma had prepared.

    Chef Frederick Mookie Hicks, owner of a catering business, said Kenny's success comes from his ability (能力) to multitask (多任务) in the kitchen.

    "He's so enthusiastic (热情的) about cooking that he doesn't let anything stop him," Hicks said.

    Columbus made four voyages to the west between 1492 and 1504 in his vain（徒劳的）search for a sea route to Asia. The mystery of why he failed to find it haunted（萦绕心头的,耿耿于怀的） him and filled him with sadness.

    Wherever he went to Cuba（古巴）,Puerto Rico（波多黎各）,Jamaica（牙买加）,South America, Panama（巴拿马）,down the coast of Central America—it was always the same story. Instead of golden palaces, there were grass huts and palm-leaf tents. Instead of silk-robed merchant princes, he found "Indians" who did not have so much as a shirt on their backs.

    When Columbus explored the West Indies in 1493,he heard tales of a fierce Indian tribe（凶狠的印第安部落） who literally devoured（吞食） its defeated enemies after a battle. These people were called by many names in the area, including Calina, Canima, Carib, and Caniba. Columbus recorded the name of the American natives as Canibales in Spanish, a word which came to refer, within a few years, to any eater of human flesh（食人部落,食人族）.In the similar fashion, the word Caribbean, a title for the sea as well as for the region, came into English.

    At times Columbus knew that this new land was not China, not Japan, not the Spice Islands. He seemed to accept it as a part of the earth that the geographers of Europe had never heard of before. It was another world—and he called it exactly that—but Columbus also insisted until he died that land he had reached was an unknown part of Asia.