Australia is the smallest continent in the world. It is a little smaller than China. It is on the Southern Hemisphere of the earth. Australia is big, but its population is small. The population of Australia is nearly as large as that of Shanghai.

    Enough laws have been made to fight against pollution. The cities in Australia have little air or water pollution. The sky is blue and the water is clean. You can clearly see fish in the rivers. Plants grow very well.

    Last month we visited Perth, the biggest city in Western Australia, and went to a wild flower exhibition. There we saw large numbers of wild flowers on show, most of which we had never seen before. We had a wonderful time. Perth is famous for its beautiful wild flowers. Every year in spring Perth has a wild flower exhibition. After visiting Perth, we spent a day in the countryside. We sat down and had a rest near a path at the foot of a hill. It was quiet and we enjoyed ourselves very much. When we heard bells ringing at the top of the hills, we looked up, but what we saw made us pick up all our things and run back to our car as quickly as we could. There were about three hundred sheep coming towards us along the path.

    Australia is famous for its sheep and kangaroos. After a short drive from any town, you will find yourself among the white sheep. Sheep, sheep, everywhere you can see sheep.

    Have you ever wondered why people drive on a different side of the road? It might seem bizarre that U. K. drivers stay on the left, but they're not the only ones. Around 35 percent of the world population do the same, including people in Ireland, Japan, and some Caribbean islands.

    Originally, almost everybody traveled on the left side of the road. However their way of transport was quite different from today: Think about four legs instead of four wheels. For Medieval swordsmen on horseback, it made sense to keep to the left to have their right arms closer to their enemies. Getting on or off was also easier from the left side of the horse, and safer done by the side of the road than in the center.

    So why did people stop traveling on the left? Things changed in the late 1700s when large wagons (货车) pulled by several pairs of horses were used to transport farm products in France and the United States. The wagon driver sat behind the left horse, with his right arm free to use his whip to keep the horses moving. Since he was sitting on the left position, he wanted other wagons to pass on his left, so he kept to the right side of the road.

    The British Government refused to give up their left-hand driving ways, and in 1773 introduced the General Highways Act, which encouraged driving on the left. This was later made law thanks to The Highway Act of 1835.

    When Henry Ford showed his Model T in 1908, the driver's seat was on the left, meaning that cars would have to drive on the right hand side of the road to allow front and back passengers to exit the car onto the roadside. However, British drivers remain on the left, and this is highly unlikely to change.

    Mom noticed that something was wrong when I started getting so thirsty. I'd have a lot to drink before bed, which was unusual for me. One time, I opened a big container of apple juice and kept refilling my glass. Before I knew it, I'd drunk the entire container! My mom called my doctor. I then had a few blood tests, and the results were certain — I had diabetes (糖尿病), which meant that the amount of sugar in my blood was very high. That can be dangerous, so I had to learn how to control my blood-sugar level.

    My eating habits had to change in a big way. With diabetes, I can't eat a lot of sugar or carbohydrates (碳水化合物). I have to figure out exactly how much sugar I plan to eat, and then I get an injection of insulin (注射胰岛素) before the meal to help my body process the food. Also, I test my blood-sugar level often. I'm always trying to keep my blood sugar at a healthy level. The level can drop when I exercise, but that doesn't keep me out of gym class or off the basketball court — I just keep some juice boxes around to boost my blood sugar if I need to.

    It's a lot of work and not a lot of fun to keep track of everything, but I've gotten used to my new habits. I was a little scared at first because I wasn't sure how my life would change. Once I knew what I needed to do, though, it wasn't a big deal. My life is different now from what it was before, but it has become completely regular to me.

    Feifei, an 11-year-old boy from Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, suffered from a sudden acute eye disease which has almost led to blindness. The disease was caused when he overused his eyes during the winter vacation, during which he played computer games for continuous 10 days and nights.

    Many youngsters in China nowadays are increasingly addicted to computer games and other electronic products. This is followed by a series of health problems, with the most typical case being myopia, or nearsightedness.

    According to the latest research report released by the World Health Organization (WHO),the myopia rate among Chinese teenagers ranks first in the world—70 percent of high school and college students. The rate is nearly 40 percent in primary school students, while it is only 10 percent for their peers in the United States.

    There are at least 10 million people in China with severe myopia, and they are likely to get pathological myopia（病理性的近视） in middle age. Pathological myopia can't be treated with glasses or surgery, and it is one of the biggest factors that lead to blindness, Xu Xun, an expert at Shanghai General Hospital, pointed out.

    Experts explain that two major factors lead to the high rate of myopia among Chinese people. One is high academic pressure, and the other one is excessive use of electronic devices over a long period of time. Genetics, on the other hand, are not the main reason, as only 20 percent of Chinese people had myopia in the 1960s.

    "Teenagers are now faced with severe academic pressure, which means they often study without natural light. This increases their risk of becoming nearsighted," Xu said. Experts suggest that youngsters maintain a proper balance between study and rest so as to protect their eyesight, and parents should play an active role in the process.

    Alison Malmon was ending her freshman year at the University of Pennsylvania. US, when she got the news: Her older brother Brian, a student at Columbia University; was suffering from mental illness.

    Inspired by this, Malmon formed a group at her university to organize students to talk openly about mental health. It soon blossomed into a national organization that today has more than 450 campus chapters. Leaders with the organization spend their time talking with college students about the pressure that today's young people face.

    "What you hear often is just a need to be perfect," said Malmon, "and a need to present oneself as perfect." A new study in the UK proved that this need for perfectionism is simply part of today's society. In the study, two researchers studied more than 40,000 students from the US, Canada, and the UK. They found that what they called "socially-prescribed (社会定向型的) perfectionism" increased by a third between 1989 and 2016.

    Lead researcher Thomas Curran said that while so many of today's young people try to present a perfect appearance online, social media isn't the only reason behind this trend. Instead, he said, it may be driven by competition in modem society, meaning young people can't avoid being sorted and ranked in both education and employment. That comes from new normal situation like greater numbers of college students, national examination and parenting that increasingly emphasizes success in education.

    For example, in 1976, half of high school seniors expected to get a college degree of some kind. By 2008, more than 80 percent expected the same. The researchers also said changes in parenting styles over the last two decades might have had an impact. As parents feel increased pressure to raise successful children, they in turn pass their "achievement anxieties" onto their kids through "too much participation in their child's activities or emotions

    Those in the mental health community like Malmon say they're concerned about the impact the culture of perfectionism has on mental health on campuses. "Mental health has truly become this generation's social justice (公正)issue," she said. "It's our job to equip them with the tools and to let people know that it's not their fault."

Where am I? What am I doing? If you're one of my 500 friends online, you'll always be the first to know. My phone and laptop are never out of touching distance, so I'm endlessly checking through all my social networking apps - whether I'm having a coffee, on my way to school, watching TV. . even when I'm in the shower. I have a never - ending flow of messages and updates from all the people I associate with online. Yet the truth of the matter is: I feel lonely

I'm not the only person who feels this way. According to research, over two-thirds of young people find it easier to make friends online than it is "in real life". I'm a shy person, but I'm wired up (上线) every day, like most of my friends. On the surface, phones bring us closer together. But in reality, my mind is always a million miles away.

I often feel depressed, dissatisfied and alone. Since I spend so much time socializing online, I even become a procrastinator (拖延者). I keep postponing things that are important in my real life: homework, tasks, connecting with my friends and family members in a meaningful way. It's funny that my friends and I chatter away online so much, but we end up having nothing to say when we meet.

What is rally worrying is that no one I know, including myself. could go cold turkey. I can't even imagine going without social networking for a week - think of all the important appointments, invitations and news updates you would miss! Alcoholics (酗酒者) who want to quit drinking can avoid drinks, but how do we give up our phones? After all, I need it for my studies because my teachers and classmates need to contact me at any time. So, that's the problem with social networking. We're hard-wired in, but we're more disconnected than ever.