If you need glasses to read this, you are among the majority of Chinese students. That's because most students in China are short-sighted which means they can only see things close up and distant things will be blurry. Four-fifths of high school students wear glasses and now more and more children in primary school need glasses, too.

    This epidemic of poor eyesight has two very simple causes: too much time spent indoors studying and too little time spent outdoors playing. Reading and writing for hours and hours, sometimes in poorly lighted rooms, causes eyesight to weaken. But students have to do this because there is so much pressure on them to succeed in school. And because they spend so much time indoors at school and at home, they have less time to spend outdoors enjoying the sun.

    The sun, as a consequence, is important in developing good eyesight. Exposure to daylight releases a chemical in the eyes that prevents, or at least delays, short-sightedness. According to a study by Ian Morgan of Australian National University, Australian children and Chinese children have the same level of eyesight before they start school, but once they enter primary school, Chinese children only spend about an hour a day outside, while Australian children spend three to four hours each day in the sunshine. The result is that while about 40 percent of Chinese primary school students need glasses, only three percent of Australian children do.

    Wearing glasses may not seem like a big deal. For some, wearing glasses can even be an opportunity to make a fashion statement. But poor eyesight at a young age can have serious long term consequences. As you get older, your eyesight can worsen and lead to things like macular degeneration(黄斑变性), a condition of the eyes for which there is no cure and which can eventually lead to blindness.

    With all that in mind, don't you think it's time to give your eyes a break? Try spending a little less time inside and go for a walk in the park, instead. It's the healthy thing to do and your eyes will thank you for it.

How to teach a child to respect

    As a child grows out of being an infant and begins to notice and react to the world around him, you may find yourself wondering how you possibly impart all of the things that he needs to become a responsible, respectful adult.{#blank#}1{#/blank#} A child who learns to respect all he meets not only receives respect from others, but also learns to respect himself as well.

●Show your child respect. This is perhaps the best way to teach your child how to respect others. Listen to your child by giving him your full attention and he will learn to listen to you, understanding how important this is in communication.

●{#blank#}2{#/blank#} The more you say “please” and “thank you” to your child, the more likely he will learn to use them with you and others. Politeness then becomes a normal part of any conversation.

●Agree to disagree.{#blank#}3{#/blank#} Explain your decision so that he will understand your reasoning and expect respectful responses. Disagreeing with you doesn't equate to disobedience.

●Control your impulse to overact. When a situation arises between you and your child that requires calmness, keep in mind that you are supposed to be modeling correct behavior. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

●Praise, praise, praise! So much is focused on what a child does wrong and how to correct it that the accomplishments are not celebrated enough.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}

A．Teach manners by using polite requests and responses.

B．Try to remember that a child won't always agree with you.

C．Respect is necessary for a meaningful and successful life.

D．If he sees you lose temper, he is more likely to respond that way in future.

E．A child may act like he pleases, but will respect being given limits.

F．When you see your child exhibit respectful behavior, make sure he knows just how proud you are of him.

G．Setting a good example is the best way to start a child on the path to respect.

    A Samoan airline says that it is the world's first carrier to charge passengers by their weight. Samoa Air, which opened in 2012, asks passengers to give their personal weight during booking, which is then charged according to the length of a flight. The customers will also be weighed just before they board the plane.

    "It is believed that all people throughout the world are the same size," Samoa Air CEO Chris Langton said. "Airplanes always run on weight, not seats."

    "There is no doubt in my mind that this is the concept of the future. This is the fairest way of your travelling with your family or yourself."

    Though the airline introduced the plan last November, it caught people's attention last week when the carrier began international flights to neighboring American Samoa.

    Almost at the same time, a Norwegian economist, Bharat Bhatta, published a report suggesting that airlines should charge obese passengers more.

    The Pacific Islands contain some of the world's most common countries for obesity, many ranking in the top 10, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Samoa is ranked number four, with 59.6 percent of the population considered obese, said the most recent WHO report.

    According to Samoa Air's latest schedule, the airline charges up to $0.57 per kg for flights in Samoa and $1.03 per kg for its only international flight to American Samoa, around 250 miles.

    Children under 12 are charged 75 percent of the adult rate, with fares also based on weight. Any overweight baggage is calculated at the same rate as the passenger's personal weight.

    The plan could actually prove cheaper in some cases, such as for families travelling with small children, and Langton said customer reaction has mainly been "amazingly positive".

    The idea of charging passengers by weight has been hotly discussed before, and in the US some airlines require those who do not fit into a seat comfortably to buy a second seat.

    My motivation for starting our family tradition of reading in the car was purely selfish: I could not bear listening to A Sesame Street Christmas for another 10 hours. My three children had been addicted to this cassette（磁带）on our previous summer road trips.

    As I began to prepare for our next 500-mile car trip, I came across a book—Jim Trelease's—The Read Aloud Handbook. This could be the answer to my problem. I thought. So I put Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach into my bag. When I began to read aloud the tale of the boy who escapes the bad guys by hiding inside a giant peach, my three kids argued and fought with each other in their seats. But after several lines, they were attracted into the rhythm of the words and began to listen.

    We soon learned that the simple pleasure of listening to a well-written book makes the long miles pas more quickly. Sometimes reading became the most interesting part of the trip. I read Wilson Rawls's Summer of the Monkeys as we spent two days driving to the beach. We arrived just behind the power crews restoring（恢复）electricity after a tropical storm. The rain continued most of the week, and the beach was covered with oil washed up by the storm. When we returned home, I asked my son what he liked about the trip. He answered without hesitation “The book you read in the car.”

    Road trips still offer challenges, even though my children now are teenagers. But we continue to read as we roll across the country. And I'm beginning to see that reading aloud has done more than help pass the time. For at least a little while, we are not shut in our own electronic worlds. And maybe we've started something that will pass on to the next generation.

    Check out our tsunami (海啸) facts and lean some interesting information related to these great walls of water that can cause so much destruction. Find out what causes tsunamis and read about some notable recent examples of tsunamis that have occurred around the globe.

    Tsunamis are huge waves of water that are usually caused by earthquakes or volcanic eruptions.

    As a tsunami approaches the shore, water may move back from the coast. If it is shallow enough, the water may be pulled back hundreds of meters. If you are in the area, observing this is a good indication that a tsunami is on the way.

    Regions in tsunami danger zones often have warning systems in place to give people as much time to evacuate (撤离) as possible.

    When tsunamis hit shallow water (often near the coast), they slow down but increase in height.

    An earthquake in the Indian Ocean off Indonesia in December 2004 caused a tsunami that killed over 200, 000 people in 14 countries.

    In March 2011, the Tohoku earthquake off the eastern coast of Japan caused a tsunami that was a major factor in the death of over 15, 000 people.

    The tsunami waves created by the Tohoku earthquake reached heights of over 40 metres (131feet) in mine areas, wiping out coastal towns and causing a number of nuclear accidents.

    The Japanese word "tsunami" literally means "harbour wave".

    Tsunamis are sometimes referred to as tidal waves but this term has fallen out of favour because tsunamis are not related to tides.