Teenagers who spend hours in front of the television may have a poorer diet as young adults.

    A study, which included nearly 1,400 high school students, found those who watched TV for five hours or more per day had less healthy diets than peers(同龄人) five years later. Why does this happen? Should the parents take any measures?

    On the one hand, people who spend a lot of time in front of the TV, especially teenagers, may snack more, and that may affect their long-term diet quality.

    On the other hand, TV ads for fast food, sweets and snacks tempt teenagers to eat more of those foods. And TV time might also replace exercise time for some kids.

    Lead researcher Dr. Daheia J. Barr-Anderson, of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, told Reuters Health a clear correlation between TV time during high school and diet quality in young adulthood. While the heaviest TV viewers were eating the most junk food, those who'd watched less than two hours per day had the highest intake(吸收) of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and high-calcium food. In her opinion, parents should limit and monitor TV viewing.

    As far as I am concerned, children should watch no more than two hours of television per day. And parents should set a good example by eating right, being physically active and curbing their own TV time.

    Astronomy (天文学) is the oldest science known to man. Thousands of years ago man looked at the stars and wondered about heavens(天堂). But the six planets that he could see with his eyes alone limited man.

    The Greeks studied astronomy over 2,000 years ago. They could see the size, color, and brightness of a star. They could see its place in the sky. They watched the stars move as the seasons changed. But the Greeks had no tools to help themselves study the heavens.

    Each new tool added to the field of astronomy helped man reach out into space. Until there were telescopes(望远镜), man did not know much about the moon. He did not know that the planet called Saturn(土星) had rings around it. His sight was so limited that he could not see all the planets. In the early 1700s, people thought there were only six planets. Pluto (冥王星), the last of the nine planets to be discovered was seen until 1930.

    Before the spectroscopes (分光镜), man didn't know what kind of gas was in the sun or other stars, without radio telescopes(射电望远镜), we did not know that radio noise came from far in space.

    Today, astronomy is a growing science. We have learned more in the past fifty years than in the whole history of astronomy.

    Children moving from primary to secondary school are ill-equipped to deal with the impact of social media, as it is playing an increasingly important role in their lives and exposing them to significant emotional risk, according to a recent report by the Office of the Children's Commissioner for England.

    The report shows that many children in year 7 -- the first year of secondary school, when almost all students will have a phone and be active on social media -- feel under pressure to be constantly connected.

    They worry about their online image, particularly when they start to follow celebrities on Instagram and other platforms. They are also concerned about “sharenting” -- when parents post pictures of them on social media without their permission – and worry that their parents won't listen if they ask them to take pictures down.

    The report, which was created with data from focus group interviews with 8 to 12-year-olds, says that although most social media sites have an official age limit of 13, an estimated 75 percent of 10 to 12-year-olds have a social media account.

    Some children are almost addicted to “likes”, the report says. Aaron, an 11-year-old in year 7, told researchers, “If I got 150 likes, I'd be like, that's pretty cool, it means they like you.” Some children described feeling inferior(差的) to those they follow on social media. Aimee, also 11, said, “You might compare yourself because you're not very pretty compared to them.”

    Children's Commissioner for England Anne Longfield is calling on parents and teachers to do more to prepare children for the emotional impact of social media as they get older. She wants to see the introduction of compulsory digital literacy and online resilience (适应力) lessons for students in year 6 and 7.

    “It is also clear that social media companies are still not doing enough to stop under-13s using their platforms in the first place,” Longfield said.

    “Just because a child has learned the safety messages at primary school does not mean they are prepared for all the challenges that social media will present,” Longfield said.

    “It means a bigger role for schools in making sure children are prepared for the emotional demands of social media. And it means social media companies need to take more responsibility,” Longfield said.

    If you want to get the most out of the study of a language, you must also read for pleasure: novels, plays, travel books, and so on. And in reading books of this kind the important thing is to get on with reading; to try to grasp what the writer is going to tell you in the book as a whole. This is impossible if you stop and think over the meaning of every single word which happens to be unfamiliar. You can not enjoy a story if you stop half a dozen times on every page in order to look up words in the dictionary. You may even prevent yourself from understanding the story as a whole by doing this.

    When you are reading books of this kind, therefore, you will usually have to rely mainly on the context to help you. If you meet an unfamiliar word, do not let it take too much of your attention from the main thread(主线) of the story. In all probability you will meet the same word again a few pages later on in a slightly different context, and each time you see it that your understanding of it will become more exact.

    At the age of seven, while his friends were spending their allowances on candy and toys, Jose Adolfo Quisocola, from Peru, came up with the creative idea of an eco-bank, which allows kids of all ages to become economically independent and financially wise while also helping the environment.

    Established in 2012, The Bartselana Student Bank is the world's first cooperative bank for kids. Whoever wants to join has to bring in at least 5 kilograms(11 pounds)of solid waste(paper or plastic)and establish a savings goal. Once accepted, all bank "partners" are required to deposit at least one additional kilogram(2.2 pounds)of recyclables on a monthly basis and obey other requirements, such as attending financial education and environmental management workshops. The waste accumulated is sold to local recycling companies, who, thanks to some clever negotiation by Jose, pay a higher-than-market rate for everything brought in by Bartselana Student Bank members. The funds received are placed in the individual's account where they collect until his／her savings goal is reached. The account holder can then withdraw his／her money, or choose to leave it and continue to grow for a bigger target.

    "At the beginning, my teachers thought I was crazy or that a child could not undertake this type of project," Jose recalls." They did not understand that we are not the future of the country but its present. Luckily, I had the support of the school principal and an assistant in my classroom."

    The youngster's persistence paid off. Today, the eco-bank, which now has the support of several local institutions, has ten educational centers and begins accepting applications from kids all across Peru. On November 20, 2018, the young boy was awarded the famous Children's Climate Prize (CCP)."Jose's eco-bank is a brilliant way of linking economy and climate impact, both in thought and practice. The potential impact is amazing," a judge said.

    Hopefully, Jose's success will inspire more kids and adults to come up with new ideas that create value while helping the environment. As the boy says," Together we can change the world…we just need an opportune it."

    America is a mobile society. Friendships between Americans can be close and real, yet disappear soon if situations change. Neither side feels hurt by this. Both may exchange Christmas greetings for a year or two, perhaps a few letters for a while—then no more. If the same two people meet again by chance, even years later, they pick up the friendship. This can be quite difficult for us Chinese to understand, because friendships between us flower more slowly but then may become lifelong feelings, extending (延伸) sometimes deeply into both families.

    Americans are ready to receive us foreigners at their homes, share their holidays, and their home life. They will enjoy welcoming us and be pleased if we accept their hospitality (好客) easily, but truly can't manage the time to do a great deal with a visitor outside their daily routine. They will probably expect us to get ourselves from the airport to our own hotel by bus. And they expect that we will phone them from there. Once we arrive at their homes, the welcome will be full, warm and real. We will find ourselves treated hospitably.

    Another difficult point for us Chinese to understand Americans is that although they include us warmly in their personal everyday lives, they don't show their politeness to us if it requires a great deal of time. This is usually the opposite of the practice in our country where we may be generous with our time. Sometimes, we, as hosts, will appear at airports even in the middle of the night to meet a friend. We may take days off to act as guides to our foreign friends. The Americans, however, express their welcome usually at homes,

    For the Americans, it is often considered more friendly to invite a friend to their homes than to go to restaurants, except for pure business matters. So accept their hospitality at home!