Teachers say the digital age has had a good influence and a not-so-good influence on this generation of American teenagers. More than 2,000 high school teachers took an online survey.

    75 percent of the teachers said the Internet and digital search tools have had a “mostly positive” effect on  their students' research habits and skills. But 87 percent agreed that these technologies "make the students not have enough attention.” And 64 percent said the technologies “do more to distract students than to help them academically.”Many students think “doing research” now means just doing a quick search on Google.

    Judy Buchanan is a director of the National Writing Project. Ms. Buchanan says digital research tools are helping students learn more, and learn faster. Teachers really like these tools, because they are ways to make some of learning exciting. Young people enjoy using these tools. And the goal is to help them become creative students of meaningful work, and not just that kind of copyist.

    But one problem the survey found is that many students don't have a good understanding of how to use the digital knowledge well. In other words, they trust(信任) too much of the information. Judy Buchanan says these students have not developed the skills they need to tell whether the online information is good or bad.

    Another problem the survey found is something that might not seem like a problem, at all, being able to quickly find information online. Teachers say the ability of their students to work hard to find answers is becoming weaker. They say students depend too much on search engines (引擎) and do not make enough use of printed books or research, librarians.

    Besides, many teachers are also worried about the problem that the Internet makes it easy for students to copy work done by others, instead of using their own abilities.

    It's generally believed that people act the way they do because of their personalities and attitudes.They recycle their garbage because they care about the environment.They pay $5 for a caramel brulee latte because they like expensive coffee drinks.

    It's undeniable that behavior comes from our inner dispositions（性情）,but in many instances we also draw inferences about who we are,as suggested by the social psychologist Daryl Bern,by observing our own behavior.We can be strangers to ourselves.If we knew our own minds,why would we need to guess what our preferences are from our behavior?If our minds were an open book,we would know exactly how much we care about the environment or like lattes.Actually,we often need to look to our behavior to figure out who we are.

    Moreover,we don't just use our behavior to learn about our particular types of character—we infer characters that weren't there before.Our behavior is often shaped by little pressures around us,which we fail to recognize.Maybe we recycle because our wives and neighbors would disapprove if we didn't.Maybe we buy lattes in order to impress the people around us.We should not mistakenly believe that we always behave as a result of some inner disposition.

    Whatever pressures there can be or inferences one can make,people become what they do,though it may not be in compliance（符合）with their true desires.Therefore,we should all bear in mind Kurt Vonnegut's advice:"We are what we pretend to be,so we must be careful about what we pretend to be."

    Another thing an astronaut has to learn about is eating in space．Food is weightless, just as men are.

    Food for space has to be packed in special ways．Some of it goes into tubes that a man can squeeze into his mouth．Bite-sized cookies are packed in plastic.

    There is a good reason for covering each bite．The plastic keeps pieces of food from traveling in the spaceship．On the earth very small pieces of food would simply fall to the floor．But gravity doesn't pull them to the floor when they are out of the plastic in a spaceship．They move here and there and can get into a man's eyes or into the spaceship's instruments．If any of the instruments is blocked, the astronauts may have trouble getting safely home.

    As astronauts travel on longer space trips, they must take time to sleep．An astronaut can fit himself to his seat with a kind of seat belt. Or, if he wants to, he can sleep in a sleeping bag which is fixed in place under his seat．But be careful he must put his hands under the belt when he goes to sleep．This is because he is really afraid that he might touch one of controls that isn't supposed to be touched until later.

    A Canadian man is asking forgiveness for a birdbrained thing he did 17 years ago: inadvertently（无心地） encouraging seagulls to trash his hotel room.

    Back in 2001, Burchill checked into the Fairmont Empress Hotel in Victoria, B.C, for a business meeting. He brought a small suitcase full of Brothers Pepperoni from his hometown to share with former Navy buddies in the area. But his room had no fridge so he opened a window to keep it cool. And then he went for a long walk. That was when things got messy. Really messy. The result was such a housekeeping nightmare that the hotel permanently banned him.

    “I remember walking down the long hall and opening the door to my room to find an entire flock of seagulls in my room. There must have been 40 of them and they had been eating pepperoni for a long time.” Burchill said.

    When he walked into the room, Burchill recalled he frightened the birds. They “immediately started flying around and crashing into things as they desperately tried to leave the room.” The result was a tornado of seagull feathers, pepperoni chunks and fairly large birds whipping around the room. The lamps were     falling. The curtains were trashed. The coffee tray was just disgusting.

    Eventually, Burchill called the front desk and requested help cleaning up the room. “I can still remember the look on the lady's face when she opened the door. ”said Burchill. A short time later, he received a note from the hotel saying he'd been banned for life.

    Recently, Burchill visited the hotel to apologize in person, in hope of making amends with the woman who had to clean the seagull-and-pepperoni-trashed room, but was told she was no longer there.

    “When I was talking to the people at the desk and the manager, they did say that they had heard this story from a long-term employee that works there,” said Burchill, “I was just kind of in and out. I didn't     want to overstay my welcome.” So he apologized and was forgiven. Burchill left them a present of about a pound of Brothers Pepperoni as a peace offering. It seemed to have worked.

    My grandfather died more than twenty-five years ago. I was fifteen then. He was kind, strong, fair, and very funny. When I was a young musician, he was my biggest fan. I played my violin for him when he visited, and he loved everything, but each time he had one request. “Could you play Amazing Grace%” he asked, full of hope and with a twinkle in his eye, because he knew my answer was always, “I don't know that one!” We went through this routine at every major holiday, and I always figured I'd have time to learn it for him later.

    About the time I entered high school and started guitar, Grandpa got cancer. The last time I saw him alive was Thanksgiving weekend in 1985. My mom warned us that Grandpa didn't look the same anymore and that we should prepare ourselves. For a moment I didn't recognize him. He looked so small among all the white sheets. We had all gathered in Ohio for the holiday, and I'm sure we all knew we were there to say good-bye. I can see now that Grandpa held on long enough to see us each one more time. I remember how we ate in the dining room and laughed and talked while Grandpa rested in his hospital bed. I wonder if it was sad for him to be alone with our voices and laughter. Knowing Grandpa, he was probably content.

    The next morning, I found my moment alone with him. I pulled out my guitar, tuned to his appreciative gaze, and finally played for him Amazing Grace. I had worked on it for weeks, knowing it never mattered whether I actually played it well and choosing not to believe as I played that it was my last concert for my biggest fan. The cancer had stolen his smile, but I saw joy in his eyes. He held my hand afterward, and I knew I had done something important.

    I argued with people all through college about my music major. I was told by strangers that music wouldn't make me any money and it wasn't useful like being a doctor. But I know first-hand that with music I was able to give my grandpa something at a point when no one else could.

    Everyone who has eaten instant noodles knows that it's very easy to cook them quickly. However, have you ever heard of the danger of eating them?

    When taking out the noodles from the packaging, you will notice that they are joined together nicely as a piece. Do you know that it needs some form of wax coating (蜡涂层) to make them joined together nicely? Many people don't really care much about it because this seems very normal. However, studies have shown that the wax coating is bad for our body.

    It is advisable to have a break of 2-3 days before we start to eat another packet of instant noodles because our body needs about 3 days to clear that wax coating away. Do you know the danger of having too much wax coating in our stomach? It will lead to cancer if it is in our body for so long.

    Luckily, there is a way of reducing the danger before we eat instant noodles. First, wash the noodles with warm water, stir (搅拌) them and pour away the water containing the wax coating. Then repeat the first step and try to stir them again to wash away the wax coating on the noodles before cooking them. The shop vendors (供应商) will often wash away the dangerous wax coating.

    It is very easy to cook instant noodles but we must pay attention to the wax coating if we eat too much. Imagine having too much of it in your stomach. Oh, my! Hope this article will help more people know about the hidden danger!