I stand outside waving at the car pulling slowly out of our driveway. I force a smile, hoping it will cover up my tearing eyes, but I know it's not working. I run into the house, slam the door behind me, and begin crying. It's just occurred to me that I can't see my elder sister, Monsura, in the next four months.

    I ask myself why it is that I'm crying when I know she's doing something good for herself. I feel selfish for thinking about it but I'd be lying if I said I was happy for her choosing to study in a university in Boston. When my brother, Shafat, left for college, it was different. I still had one sibling at home to call me the stupidest person on a daily basis.

    I am reminded of the things we did together as kids. In our old two-bed-room apartment, our parents gave in to our constant begging and traded rooms with us for one night. It was like being part of the amusement park, using our parents' big bed as a trampoline (蹦床).It was during the first night that I witnessed a full moon. My sister and I believed my brother. He said that the moon was yellow because it was made from cheese. We made plans to visit the moon so we could melt a part of it and make cheese dip. But now I laugh at myself for being so innocent.

    Sitting in front of my computer, I listen to songs that remind me of my two best friends. I come to terms with the fact that there's no longer anyone here to laugh uncontrollably with me or to turn to at night when I have a nightmare.

    I'm shaken into reality by the sound of my cell phone ringing. Shafat is calling. I pick up and he immediately says “Thank you for such a great childhood.'' Those few words mean the world to me. We three-way call Monsura and spend the next hour reliving memory after memory, and by the end, I forget that I'm alone at home.

    Planning a visit to the UK? Here we help with ways to cut your costs.

    AVOID BIG EVENTS  Big sporting events, concerts and exhibitions can increase the cost of accommodation and make it harder to find a room. A standard double room at the Thistle Brighton on the final Friday of the Brighton Comedy Festival (19 Oct.) cost £169.15 at Booking.com. A week later, the same room cost £118.15.

    If you can be flexible and want to know dates to avoid—or you're looking for a big event to pass your time—check out sites such as Whatsonwhen.com, which allow you to search for events in the UK by city, date and category.

    STAYAWAY FROM THE STATION If traveling to your destination by train, you may want to find a good base close to the station, but you could end up paying more for the sake of convenience at the start of your holiday.

    Don't be too choosy about the part of town you stay in. Booking two months in advance, the cheapest room at Travelodge's Central Euston hotel in London for Saturday 22 September was £95.95. A room just a tube journey away at its Covent Garden hotel was £75.75. And at Farringdon, a double room cost just £62.95.

    LOOK AFTER YOURSELF Really central hotels in cities such as London, Edinburgh and Cardiff can cost a fortune, especially at weekends and during big events. As an alternative consider checking into a self-catering flat with its own kitchen. Often these flats are hidden away on the top floors of city centre buildings. A great example is the historic O'Neill Flat on Edinburgh's Royal Mile, available for £420 for five days in late September, with room for four adults.

    GET ON A BIKE London's ‘Boris bikes' have attracted the most attention, but other cities also have similar programmes that let you rent a bicycle and explore at your own pace, saving you on public transport or car parking costs.

    Among the smaller cities with their own programmes are Newcastle (casual members pay around £1.50 for two hours) and Cardiff (free for up to 30 minutes, or £5 per day).  (358 words)

    Most Americans are worried about new technology. They are concerned that machines, including robots, will take over work now done by humans. These findings come from a new report by the Pew Research Center of Washington D. C.

    About 75 percent of Americans questioned by Pew said automation will increase income inequality between the rich and the middle class and poor. And 64 percent of people expect automation to be so common in America that people will face difficulty finding things to do with their lives.

    Some of the concerns about technology come from a distrust about whether machines will always make the right decision. Many Americans believe humans have better judgement in dealing with. complex matters. One example is selecting a person for a job. Three-quarters of Americans said they would not want to apply for a job that uses a computer program to choose the most qualified person.

    “Most Americans want the government to limit automation. For example, 87 percent support a requirement that all driverless vehicles have a human in the driver's seat who can take control when an emergency occurs. And 85 percent want to limit machines to mostly doing jobs that are dangerous or unhealthy for humans. And only 25 percent expect more jobs to come from automation,” Pew said.

    Mark Zuckerberg, the co-founder of Facebook, spoke last May to graduating seniors from Harvard University in Massachusetts. His talk centered on the uncertain future facing young people. “Our generation will have to deal with tens of millions of jobs replaced by automation like self-driving cars and trucks.” Zuckerherg told the graduates.

    Zuckerberg said young people had better launch(发起)projects that will bring both jobs and direct benefits to the people of the world. He said in his speech that 30000 people worked to put a man on the moon, and millions of people built the Hoover Dam as well as other great projects over the last 100 years.

    Eating is best when it's a social activity. Think of the meal a family enjoys in the evening when everyone's together after work or school, or the big get-togethers over food at Spring Festival. But now, in the age of the Internet and social media, anyone with an Internet connection can enjoy a social eating event.

    Mukbang-a South Korean phrase meaning “eating broadcast”-is an unusual food fanaticism that's sweeping the country. This is a meal where only one person gets to eat, while many viewers watch live shows of hosts eating large quantities of food. They leave comments on the dishes the host is taking, and the host responds to them live.

    So why have people taken to this unusual new food trend(趋势)? Jeff Yang, an Asian-American cultural critic, thinks that it's down to “the loneliness of unmarried or uncoupled South Koreans”. He believes that eating on your own can be hard in a country like South Korea, where social eating is such a long tradition. However, Mukbang gives people the feeling that they are part of something larger, it seems.

    Millions of people have trouble with food. Either they eat too much of it, or too little. Some say that the popularity of Mukbang helps people with these disorders. Those who always eat too much and put on weight can watch Mukbang live shows to satisfy their appetite (胃口). And those who don't eat enough can build their appetite by watching delicious food being eaten.

    Even though Mukbang is a South Korean phenomenon, it's also taken off in the US. But unlike South Koreans who sit down to enjoy noodles and kimchi (泡菜), Americans enjoy their own native dishes. This means that viewers of US Mukbang live shows will see locals stuffing themselves with hamburgers, fries and ice cream.

    Christmas is a great time with family and friends. One of the best ways to bond with (团结)one another is through games. So why not play some great Christmas party games?

    Present pickup is a great game for both young and young at heart. It can be played inside or outside. To prepare for the game, you will need to have some small boxes and some small gift bags. This is a great way to use the paper from last year. There should be as many presents as players. You'll also need four or more candy canes(甘蔗). Two large boxes can be used to drop the presents in.

    Two ropes will be needed. Take one rope and make a starting line. The other rope will mark the finish line. Place the large boxes at the finish line. Equally divide the presents into two groups. It's best to have an equal number of boxes and bags on each side to make it fair.

    The first player on each team will take two candy canes. When it's time to start, they'll pick up the presents only using the candy canes. Each player must run his present to the box or finish line and drop it in. If it's dropped on the way, the player starts over. After they drop their presents, the players will run the candy canes to the next players. This continues until all the presents have been picked up. The first team to finish wins.

    To play kids against adults, you may want to put easier presents in a group for the kids and more difficult ones for the adults. There are many variations to the game, so have some fun and come up with your own.

    E-Sports, short for electronic sports, is one of the growing industries in the world, with prizes totaling around $25 million up for grabs in some tournaments. E-Sports are professional multiplayer video game competitions. Any video game with a strong competitive element is considered e-Sports. The competition models itself after traditional professional sports in several ways: it uses corresponding tournament formats, involves player contracts, and is governed by regulations. The athletes who compete in e-Sports competitions are gamers．

    The history of e-Sports dates back to 1972 when some Stanford University students competed in the Intergalactic Space War Olympics for the opportunity to win a one-year subscription to the Rolling Stone Magazine. E-Sports pretty much continued on the rather quiet path until the 80s when competitions like the Space Invaders Championship shot them to the spotlight. 2002 marked the beginning of a new era for the sport and laid the foundation for what e-Sports would become thanks to the release of the Xbox live, which brought online play to consoles. Halo Ⅱ became the first game to be shown on national television for Major League Gaming in 2004, paving the way for e-Sports to become a global phenomenon.

    Today, e-Sports are growing at a rapid pace thanks to advance in technology and the arrival of streaming services like Twitch which have exposed video game competitions to a new audience due to their extensive reach.

    To understand how much impact Twitch has made, data from gaming analyst group Newzoo show that e-Sports global audience increased 43 percent from 204 million to 292 million between 2014 and 2016. Interestingly, this coincides (一致) with Amazon's acquisition of Twitch in 2014 and its effort to make the competition a spectator sport.