It seems that the great desire among the young is to be popular. The desire to be popular can force you into looking and acting like everyone else. You can lose yourself in a sea of identical hairstyles and thinking styles.

    I was forced to think about popularity not too long ago in a talk I had with my daughter. Margy had to change schools when my busy work schedule made it necessary for me to move houses. I suppose that, for a girl in her teens, entering a new school is like spending a season alone in the tropical jungles. At least that's how Margy found it at first. However, as the school year drew to a close, one student after another came to her. I told Margy that I would have been more concerned if she had been an instant social success in her new school. Nobody can please everyone. If you try to do so, you will find values as lasting as soap bubbles blown into the air.

    Some teenagers claim they want to dress as they please. But they all wear the same clothes. They set off in new directions in music. But somehow they all end up listening to the same record. Their reason for thinking or acting in a certain way is that the crowd is doing it. They have come out of their cocoon into a larger cocoon.

    I know that it has become harder for a young person to stand up against the popularity wave. Our way of life makes a young nonconformist stand out like a Martian. These days there's a great barrier for the young person who wants to find his or her own path. But the barrier is worth climbing over. You may want to listen to classical music instead of going to a party. Well, go to it. Be yourself. Popularity will come with the people who respect you for who you are. That's the only kind of popularity that really counts.

    No one knows how much money Dr. Lyle Tullis gave away to students. I was his colleague for nearly a decade and I never stopped being amazed at his generosity. Our college has a program of providing cross-cultural experiences for students. Lots of students take advantage of summer experience oversea. I discovered that no group left for overseas with some of its members receiving financial help from Dr. Tullis.

    It wasn't that he made a lot of money. For one thing, he taught in a church-run school. There, his salary was half of what those people earned in a tax-supported school.

    Other colleagues occasionally complained about the low pay. Not Lyle Tullis. Occasionally some professors would leave our campus for a better-paid position. They told me they did so because, with better pay, they could provide for their families.

    The size of Lyle Tullis' paycheck never seemed to be the most important thing to him. I realized that one day when I was thanking him for helping a student, his eyes shone as he said to me, “I've got so much money that I don't know what to do with it. So, I just give it away.”

    Most people wouldn't have thought that way. Dr. Tullis drove one of the oldest cars on campus. It was even older than almost any of the students' cars. His home, while comfortable, was not fancy at all. But Lyle Tullis lived with the feeling that he had so much money that he needed to give it away.

    He was one of the favorite on campus. Cynics(愤世嫉俗者) might say he bought fame. But they would misunderstand. Lyle wanted to devote his life, all of it, to helping others.

    This may be music to your ears.

    Researchers P. Jason Rentfrow and Samuel Gosling gave 3,500 people a personality quiz. “We found that the musical styles people like are closely linked to their personalities,” Gosling says.

    RAP/HIP-HOP

    Known for their quick speech, some rappers can say more than 700 syllables（音节）a minute!

    If you like rap/hip-hop, you are energetic（精力充沛的）and have a way with words. You put a fresh spin on things, whether it's new moves on the dance floor or your hip style.

    CLASSICAL

    In the 18th century, classical musicians were like rock stars. Beethoven and Mozart, for example, played in crowded concert halls.

If you like classical, you are open to new ideas and like debating with friends. Creative and imaginative, you can easily spend many hours scrapbooking, writing or painting.

    COUNTRY

    Country music came from the folk songs of English, Scottish, and Irish settlers of the southeastern United States.

    If you like country, you express your opinions well, which makes you the ideal class president or team captain. Traditional and loyal, you enjoy spending time with your family.

    POP

    Pop music is designed to attract almost everyone, and it does. Each year, the industry brings in about 30 billion dollars!

    If you like pop, you are attractive to your friends. You can make big things happen, like planning for a huge party or inspiring your team to victory.

ROCK/ALTERNATIVE

    In the 1950s, rock music created a brand-new culture. Teenagers, for the first time, had an identity separate from adults and children.

    If you like rock/alternative, you are a risk-taker who never accepts no for an answer. You rise to any challenge, like doing very well in a big exam or landing the lead in the school play.

    If these personality profiles（人格剖析）don't match you, that's OK. These are just for fun.

    Have you ever wondered why birds sing? Maybe you thought that they were just happy. After all, you probably sing or whistle when you are happy.

    Some scientists believe that birds do sing some of the time just because they are happy. However, they sing most of the time for a very different reason. Their singing is actually a warning to other birds to stay out of their territory.

    Do you know what a "territory" is? A territory is an area that an animal ,usually the male, claims(声称)as its own .Only he and his family are welcome there. No other families of the same species(物种)are welcome. Your yard and house are your territory where only your family and friends are welcome. If a stranger should enter your territory and threaten you, you might shout. Probably this would be enough to frighten him away.

    If so, you have actually scared the stranger away without having to fight him. A bird does the same thing. But he expects an outsider almost any time ,especially at nesting(筑巢)season. So he is screaming all the time, whether he can see an outsider or not. This screaming is what we call a bird's song, and it is usually enough to keep an outsider away.

    Birds sing loudest in the spring when they are trying to attract a mate and warn others not to enter the territory of theirs.

    You can see that birds have a language of their own. Most of it has to do with attracting mates and setting up territories.

    The idea of progress started to flower in the 17th century. At that time, many wise thinkers believed that man liberated（解放） by reason would rise to greater heights of achievement. The many expressions of human nature would be the engines of progress: language, business, science, and moral sensibility （道德感）. Unfortunately, most of those engines have failed to bring the desired human progress.

    The modern age has belonged to material progress and its main source has been science. Science gives people huge power to change the world. But can people be trusted to use it always for good? Think of biotechnology and information technology. And it is not just that scientific progress does not deliver the emotional good. People also fear that mankind is failing to manage science properly. The forests are disappearing; the ice is melting; privacy is leaking; life is becoming a depressing march in an ugly world.

    The point is not that science is harmful, but that scientific progress needs to be mapped tidily onto human progress. That relies on moral sensibility in its widest sense. This liberal force offers hope for a better future. The very idea of moral sensibility probably sounds out-of-date. Bur researchers find that people desire a sense of moral purpose which would give life dignity （尊严）. People want to determine how the world works, not always to be determined by it. Moral sensibility is why people will suffer from their beliefs, and why acts of noble self﹣sacrifice are so powerful.

    It is admitted that our moral ideals will never be realized completely. But sometimes, however imperfectly, we can make progress. Human dignity requires the love of ideals for their own sake, but nothing requires that the love be returned.

Human progress is neither guaranteed nor hopeless. Instead, it is up to us.

    The hemlock(铁杉) trees along the Wappinger Creek, New York, look healthy. However, scientist Gary Lovett says the white balls which provide protection for the bugs are created by a tiny insect. It's hard to believe the tiny bug could kill a tree. However, trees can end up with millions and millions of the pests. When there are that many, it ends up killing the tree.

    The bug from East Asia is slowly killing trees across the USA. The trouble－making bug is just one of many invasive(入侵的) pests that have slipped into the United States. They can hurt other living things in their new home.

    Many invasive pests arrive on wooden pallets piled inside shipping containers. They support and separate goods, and keep them from sliding around. Invasive pests often tunnel into the pallets.  How can we stop pests from riding on pallets? Lovett says new rules are needed. The companies that make pallets don't want more rules. Congress has added an amendment(修正案) in the 2018 Farm Bill to try and prevent this problem. However, Lovett is not hopeful it will make much of a difference. Pallets are checked by inspectors. Many are sprayed with bug－killing pesticide. "I believe in the system，" said Brent McClendon, president of The National Wooden Pallet and Container Association. He also said shipping containers are checked very carefully.

    Still, each year 13 million containers are shipped to the U.S. Each is full of wooden pallets. Lovett says: "Inspectors can't possibly check everything. All it takes are a few bad pallets; we should get rid of wooden pallets." He believes pallets should be made of plastic or eco－composite wood. Eco－composite wood is a mix of wood fiber and plastic. Insects cannot hide into it. One problem is that these choices cost more. They may be worth the extra money, though. Invasive pests cost the U.S. $5 billion a year. Trees don't just die in forests. They also die in cities and our yards. Then, they need to be replaced. That costs money, too.