Earlier this year, the social media website Facebook announced that it would work with several news organizations — including The New York Times, The Guardian, and the BBC — to place news stories directly into users' personal Facebook webpage.  Stories published using Facebook Instant will load more quickly and keep the style of the original publisher, who will keep all the advertising income the stories earn — at least for now. The deal shows how important social media has become to news organizations, and is a clear sign of how the world of news is changing — and has been for a while.

    When Google News began in 2002, many saw it as the death of the newspaper. It had no human editor. Instead Google used, and still uses, a secret computer program that selects and displays news stories according to the reader's personal interests. More recently, Associated Press and Yahoo! have been publishing computer-written articles. Both use special software to automatically produce stories about company financial results and sports reports — areas where the quality of writing is felt to be of secondary importance to the accuracy of the data.

    Should we be worried about such developments? I think we should. One concern is that facebook, Google and other social media websites see journalism as a sideline, a way of putting people in front of advertisements. It isn't their primary function — so if it stops making them lots of money, they're likely to stop doing it.

    There's also a concern that computer-written articles are not actually journalism at all, because what a human news team produces is actually quite complex. A well-written news story puts information in context, offers a voice to each side of an argument and brings the public new knowledge.

    Though economics and speed of delivery mean readers will probably choose a computer-written story over a carefully shaped article — at least for daily news — I don't think the computers will be writing any in-depth articles for a while yet.

    You might think that “global warming” means nothing more than a rise in the world's temperature. But, rising sea levels caused by it have resulted in the first evacuation (撤离) of an island nation — the citizens of Tuvalu will have to leave their homeland.

    During the 20th century, sea level has risen 8～12 inches. As a result, Tuvalu has experienced lowland flooding of salt water which has polluted the country's drinking water.

    Paani Laupepa, a Tuvaluan government official, reported to the Earth Policy Institute that the nation suffered an unusually high number of fierce storms in the past ten years. Many scientists connect higher surface water temperatures resulting from global warming to greater and more damaging storms.

    Laupepa expressed dissatisfaction with the United States for refusing to sign the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement calling for industrialized nations to reduce their green house gas emissions (排放), which are a main cause of global warming.“By refusing to sign the agreement, the US has effectively taken away the freedom of future generations of Tuvaluans to live where their forefathers have lived for thousands of years,” Laupepa told the BBC.

    Tuvalu has asked Australia and New Zealand to allow the gradual move of its people to both countries.

    Tuvalu is not the only country that is vulnerable (易受影响的) to rising sea levels. Maumoon Gayoon, president of the Maldives, told the United Nations that global warming has made his country of 311 000 an“endangered nation”.

    Recently, American President Trump announced his budget. One of the budgets would cut all funding to the Institute of Museum and Library services and libraries across the United States. However, as far as I'm concerned, we need to save our libraries.

    Libraries provide books and after-school programs for children. They encourage literacy (识字）with summer programs. They help inspire a life-time love of learning and reading in children of all ages. Without them, where will kids with no Internet at home do their homework? Where will kids have a place to study or borrow books after school? Therefore, we need libraries for our kids. We need them so that kids can grow up with a place, other than school, where learning and exploration is encouraged. For adults, libraries serve as a place where they can use the Internet to apply for jobs, get job training, early voting centers as well as book clubs to help make new friends. It can also serve as a place to pick up a book and learn something new. What's more，they can also borrow a book and get away from it all.

    Libraries save our information for the next generation. When we live in an age of alternative (选择性的）facts, where science is ignored in favor of personal feelings, we need libraries now more than ever. We need them to educate ourselves on the facts and hold the government responsible for them. We need them to have strong public participation(参与).

    If you agree with me，you shouldn't be silent on this issue. You can write or call directly to tell the president to save our libraries. You can also write to both your state Senators (参议员）and your district representative. If you do not know who they are, you can find out here. Let them know this is a beneficial issue because all people use public libraries in their daily life.

    It is generally acknowledged that young people from poorer socio-economic backgrounds tend to do fess well in the education system. In an attempt to help the children of poor families, a nationwide program called "Headstart" was started in the US in 1965. A lot of money was poured into it. It Look children into pre-school institutions at the age of three and was supposed to help them succeed in school. But the results have been disappointing because the program began too late. Many children who entered it at three were already behind their peers in language and intelligence and the parents were not involved in the process. At the end of each day, "Headstart" children returned to the same disadvantaged home environment.

    To improve the results, another program was started in Missouri that concentrated on parents as the child's first teachers. This program was based on research showing that working with the family is the most effective way of helping children get the best possible start in life. The four-year study included 380 families who were about to have their first child and represented different socio-economic status, age and family structure. The program involved trained educators visiting and working with the parent or parents and the child. The program also gave the parents some guidance, and useful skills on child development.

    At three, the children involved in the "Missouri" program were evaluated with the children selected from the same socio-economic backgrounds and family situations. The results were obvious. The children in the program were more advanced in language development, problem solving and other intellectual skills than their peers. They performed equally well regardless of socio-economic backgrounds or family structure. The one factor that was found to affect the child's development was the poor quality of parent-child interaction. That interaction was not necessarily bad in poorer families.

    The "Missouri" program compares quite distinctly with the "Headstart" program. Without a similar focus of parent education and on the vital importance of the first three years, some evidence indicates that it will not be enough to overcome education unfairness.

    For many creatures, the ocean is a terrifying place. Several marine animals have declined as a result of overfishing and pollution. But cephalopods(头足动物) — a type of invertebrate(无脊椎动物) that includes octopuses, cuttlefish, and squid, have seen a dramatic increase in their numbers over the past 60 years.

    Zoe Doubleday, a scientist at the University of Adelaide, in Australia, conducted a study of cephalopods recently. She points out that their population rise is due to the animals' unique traits.

    The creatures can change their color and body shape. They are fast-growing and live for only one or two years. "This allows them to adapt to changing environmental conditions more quickly than other marine species," Doubleday says.

    "Rising sea temperatures may be speeding up the animals' life cycle. They may be growing faster and producing more young."

    Cephalopods live in all of the world's oceans. They can be found in waters from the freezing polar regions to the warm tropic regions. Because they adapt so easily to their environment, the animals are called "the weed of the sea".

    Will octopuses, cuttlefish, and squid take over the world one day? Some people may wonder. According to Doubleday, that is unlikely. The rise in cephalopod populations could slow down if the animals run out of prey(被捕食的动物) and start feeding on one another. Overfishing could also have an impact on their numbers.

    For now, the cephalopod population boom is good news for them and some other sea creatures. "Increases in cephalopod populations could benefit predators(捕食性动物) such as marine mammals and seabirds, which rely on cephalopods for food," Doubleday says.

Dear Coach,

    I have been out of work for almost six months now and things are starting to get very tough for me. I am practically living out of my savings. I have been looking for a job, but things are really bad and I cannot find a single person who wants to hire me. I know that the main problem is that I do not have a degree. I want to go back to school and get my degree, but I also need a job now. I owe money to some people who have been helping me. Because I am out of work, I cannot pay them back. What do you think I should do? I need to find a job as quickly as possible, and want to know what else to do to get people to give me a chance to work for them.

The Unemployed

Dear Unemployed,

    Before you get yourself in a really bad situation, you need to stop borrowing money from people. If you continue doing that, you will be deep in debts and the situation will get even worse for you. The next thing you need to do is look for a job depending on your abilities, skills, and experience. By doing that, you will be increasing your chances of finding a job that suits you best. And the last thing I will suggest is that you should stop feeling sorry for yourself and continue working hard to get a job that you need. Borrowing money, complaining, and feeling bad for your situation will do no good to you. Stay strong and get out there and start showing the world what you can offer. I promise if you work hard and never give up, you will soon find the job that you are looking for. And while you are doing it, thing about getting your degree as well because it will help you to become more challenging. Try those tips.

The Coach