Larry was on another of his underwater expeditions(探险)but this time, it was different. He decided to take his daughter along with him. She was only ten years old. This would be her first trip with her father on what he had always been famous for.

    Larry first began diving when he was his daughter's age. Similarly, his father had taken him along on one of his expeditions. Since then, he had never looked back. Larry started out by renting diving suits from the small diving shop just along the shore. He had hated them. They were either too big or too small. Then, there was the instructor. He gave him a short lesson before allowing him into the water with his father. He had made an exception. Larry would never have been able to go down without at least five hours of theory and another similar number of hours on practical lessons with a guide. Children his age were not even allowed to dive.

    After the first expedition, Larry's later diving adventures only got better and better. There was never a dull moment. In his black and blue suit and with an oxygen tank fastened on his back, Larry dived from boats into the middle of the ocean. Dangerous areas did not prevent him from continuing his search. Sometimes, he was limited to a cage underwater but that did not bother him. At least, he was still able to take photographs of the underwater creatures.

    Larry's first expedition without his father was in the Cayman Islands. There were numerous diving spots in the area and Larry was determined to visit all of them. Fortunately for him, a man offered to take him around the different Spots for free. Larry didn't even know what the time was, how many spots he dived into or how many photographs he had taken. The diving spots afforded such a wide array of fish and sea creatures that Larry saw more than thirty varieties of creatures.

    Larry looked at his daughter. She looked as excited as he had been when he was her age. He hoped she would be able to continue the family tradition. Already, she looked like she was much braver than had been then. This was the key to a successful underwater expedition.

    Time management is the greatest challenge for me in high school．I have to take good care of my subjects, activities, social life and rest．I was often angry with my family members just because I didn't plan my time well．For example, I might shout at them for troubling me when I was working．And sometimes I might say something bad to them when I missed deadlines, even if it was actually my fault for cramming everything in (把所有的事情堆积起来) at the last minute．

    As time goes by, I realize that time management is very important in our everyday life．The best advice to deal with time management is “break it into bits”．It's really important for you to learn how to break a big project into small, manageable tasks．Then you can work progressively and have a sense of achievement whenever you've done with a small part．

    Another piece of advice is to plan a timetable for yourself．It doesn't have to be the one that you follow completely．It's just there to serve as a guide．You can compare your actual timetable with the planned one to see how well you actually use your time．The final suggestion is to always set deadlines for yourself．

Dear Graham,

    My partner and I have recently lost a pet quite suddenly. Normal life is continuing with so much sadness for my pet meant so much to me. Lots of people won't understand my feeling this way about the death of an animal. This obviously isn't the first time someone in my life has passed away: when I was younger we lost elderly relatives who I loved very much, and naturally much-loved family pets died occasionally too. But this has hit me so much harder. I put so much love into the relationship and I'm just finding it hard to get my head around the fact that it's gone.

    Thank you for taking the time to read this.

ANON, VIA EMAIL

Dear Anon,

    Something you loved deeply has gone from your life, so of course you are sad. We love our pets differently from family members or friends and part of that is because we know they will probably die before us. Our time with our dogs or cats is precious precisely because we understand it is limited.

    As humans, we go through most of life understanding we would die one day. But animals don't. We are the keeper of the secret. Of course, living a life unencumbered(不受妨碍) by thoughts of death means that our pets, in general, lead very simple, happy lives. It's one of the reasons why they are such a joy to be round. You are, of course, correct when you say that many people don't understand your grief, so don't talk to them. Share your feelings with like-minded souls. I'm sure a simple search online will reveal many practical advice for moving on.

    And when you are ready, you can welcome another animal into your life and then you will enjoy happiness again.

GRAHAM, VIA EMAIL

    David Cameron is urging today's youngsters to abandon French to concentrate on the tongue of the future—Mandarin(普通话)。

    Cameron said: "I want Britain linked up to the world's fast-growing economies. And that includes our young people learning the languages to seal tomorrow's business deals.”

    "By the time the children born today leave school, China is to be the world's largest economy. So it's time to look beyond the traditional focus on French and German and get many more children learning Mandarin.” To strengthen his message , he quoted Nelson Mandela—the former president of South Africa who said "If you talk to a man in a language he understands that goes to his head; if you talk to him in his own language that goes to his heart.”

    Cameron said that a partnership between the British Council (英国文化协会) and Hanban will double the number of Chinese language assistants in the UK by 2016 and provide increased funding to schools of offering Mandarin as a language choice. In a development of the UK—China School Partnership programme , funding will also be provided for 60 headteachers to make study visits to China in 2014.

    In recent research the British Council found only 1% of the adult population speaks Mandarin to a level that allows them to conduct a basic conversation. Just 3,000 pupils in England, Wales and Northern Ireland entered for Chinese languages GCSEs in 2013, putting it far behind the traditional choices of French with 177,000, Spanish with 91,000 and German with 62,000 entrants(加入者), as well as Urdu, Polish and Arabic.

    Professor Dame Helen Wallace, the British Academy's foreign secretary, said, " a lack of qualified teachers could be a barrier to improve its popularity.”

    Laura Chan, one of the co—founders of a bilingual Mandarin—English primary school, said the prime minister's announcement was good news for the status of Mandarin. She said, "It's a great help. It will increase people's awareness of Mandarin as a language they can learn.”

    Age has never been a problem for 16­year­old Thessalonika Arzu­Embry. After all, she's already got her master's degree.

    The North Chicago­area teen started homeschooling at the age of 4. She began having an influence on others soon after. When she was 6 years old, she was an inspirational speaker at an organization called Tabitha House Community Service, a shelter for people who were forced to leave their homes due to the situations such as earthquake, flood and other natural disasters.

    At the age of 11, she graduated from high school and then earned her bachelor's degree in psychology in 2013. She completed those classes online as she was traveling for church events and leadership meetings.

    She doesn't stop there, though. The teen plans to focus on aviation psychology(航空心理学) for her further study, a decision inspired by her father who is a pilot. She grew up around airplanes and took fights all the time. Her goal is to use it to determine whether pilots are dealing with problems that could have deadly results once the plane takes off­a topic that has been in the news lately. For her, it's a mix of two of her interests.

    In her free time, Thessalonika enjoys playing tennis, swimming and being active in her youth group at church. She also has three self­published books, which are on her site. Jump the Education Barrier is written to help students finish college, and in the future aims to help business owners with trends. Her third book The Genius Race, has a wider appeal. It is designed to help people to be geniuses in various areas of life.

One of the tallest wooden buildings in Europe, a 98m timber mixture skyscraper, is to rise in Berlin.

The 29-storey WoHo Tower, to be designed by a firm of Norwegian architects, is intended to be a "light-house project" for low-carbon construction, towering over Potsdamer Platz and the Landwehr Canal.

Its core, including lifts and a staircase, is to be built around a steel-reinforced concrete structure but the rest of the building, including flats, offices, cafes and a kindergarten, will be fashioned down wooden beams and panels.

"As Norwegians, we are used to working a lot with timber," Nicolai Riise, CEO of the Mad Architects' Practice said.

"The thing about timber is that it demonstrates sustainability from top to bottom. The carbon footprint is close to zero and it's a fantastic material to build with. If you look at this in a broader way, it's one of the ways we are going to be able to beat the climate crisis."

Wooden skyscrapers, once regarded as an unprofitable pipe dream, have become a realistic prospect with the coming of cross-laminated building techniques and more flexible planning laws. Because these structures' parts are fit with care, they can be far lighter than their concrete equivalents and are thought to be relatively resistant to fire. A cubic meter of wood can also take an estimated ton of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.

Larger wooden structures are planned elsewhere. London is examining blueprints for the 300-meter Oakwood Tower. A project in Tokyo could rise to 350m.