Teachers in some secondary schools in Britain are worried that their job may become impossible shortly unless something can be done to restore discipline in the classrooms. In the problem schools, mostly in large cities, a small minority of teenage pupils disturb lesson to such an extent that the teacher can no longer teach their classes effectively.

    Some people consider that the permissive (随意) nature of modern society is responsible for such kind of behavior. Small children who are continuously encouraged to express themselves without reservation are naturally unwilling to accept school discipline when they grow older. Furthermore, modern teaching techniques) which appear to stress personal enjoyment at the expense of serious study work, might be teaching the child to put his own interests before his duties to the community in which he lives.

    Perhaps the problem can be solved by improving facilities for the moral guidance of these difficult children or by better cooperation between the schools and the parents—for the parents may be mainly responsible for the bad behavior of their youngsters. Violence at home, violence and crime on TV make some children turn violence themselves.

    But some of the teachers believe that there ought to be a return to more “old fashioned” methods. At present, in some school teachers are even not allowed to punish a child who does something bad and wrong. Physical punishment is not permitted now. People are too soft on children these days. It seems that children can do whatever they like at school while the teachers can't do anything to punish them. I don't know why the schools authority abandoned some of the effective punishments that worked well. Things like that didn't happen when we were at school because the teachers kept those problem students under control by using a stick.

    Nowadays, especially in China, everything seems to favor social intercourse, such as gatherings of friends, KTV, group travel, dining togethter, playing cards and Mahjong, plus the Chinese-style “street-crossing group.” Back home, discussions can still be boisterously carried on within the “circle of friends” of WeChat.

      However, these scenes cannot always ease a sense of loneliness. Zhu Ziqing, a well-known professor of Tsinghua University, signed with emotion: “My loneliness increases as scene becomes much busier.” One popular song today is also called “A lonely man in crowds.” Actually, engaging in social intercourse requires ability, while being alone involves the whole character.

    These days, it is not easy to calm down totally and return to one's true self. Willpower, intellect and discipline are required. Einstein said: “It is not your working time but your spare time that determines the possibility of whether you will be successful or not.” The “spare time” he referred to could be taken as “spending time by yourself.”

    Lonely life could be either dull, boring and tasteless or abundant, interesting and colorful, depending on one's quality, ambition and inspiration.

    Just as the body constantly requires energy, the mind and soul also demand unceasing inputs. However, information, to processed and integrated(融入)into knowledge, thoughts and feelings, instead of bustle(忙碌)seems to be the right condition. Successful careers in all walks of life worldwide have proved that “the soul grows in peace and talent is nurtured in loneliness”. In a sense, it may be reasonable to say that “Happiness tends to be shallow while loneliness involves profundity”.

    Man, in fact, needs loneliness more than happy time, and only abundant loneliness can produce quality happiness.

    Are you a social media addict? Are you always checking your smart phone to see how many "likes" you've received for your latest post? Maybe you feel comforted by the sound that someone has sent you a message?

    Don't worry, you're not alone. We check our phones an average of 150 times a day, and around 30% of the total time spent online is devoted to social media. Some experts now fear this habit could be damaging our mental health.

    This is something particularly bothering young adults, according to a study from the University of Pittsburgh. It found the more they used social media, the more likely they were to be depressed. In tests, those people who checked social media frequently were 2.7 times more likely to be depressed compared to those who spent most of their time generally surfing the Internet, who had just 1.7 times the risk.

    Some of us certainly feel sad when we're ignored on social media sites, or when we see someone else having a better time than us. But depression is a more serious condition and clinical psychologist, Abigael San, recently told the BBC that ,"It's a real issue, and it's been getting significantly worse over the last 5﹣6 years. You can get so hooked that it takes you away from your real relationships. "However, Abigael does admit that social media is more likely to worsen pre﹣existing issues than directly cause them.

    Other research by the University of Glasgow found that teenagers are affected by the 24﹣hour demands of their social media accounts. It found that those with higher levels of emotional investment in social media, and who use it at night, were more likely to feel depressed and anxious.

    Despite these warning signs, why do some of us continue to keep clicking? Well, I suppose we all want to be liked and we don't want to miss out on a conversation that's taking place online. But we need to know when to switch off our virtual online world and connect with the real world instead.

    In 1800, only three percent of the world's population lived in cities. Only one city — Beijing — had a population of over a million. Most people lived in rural areas, and never saw a city in their lives. In 1900, just a hundred years later, roughly 150 million people lived in cities, and the world's ten largest cities all had populations exceeding one million. By 2000, the number of city dwellers exceeded three billion; and in 2008, the world's population crossed a tipping point — more than half of the people on Earth lived in cities. By 2050, that could increase to over two-thirds. Clearly, humans have become an urban species.

    In the 19th and early 20th centuries, many people viewed cities negatively — crowded, dirty environments full of disease and crime. They feared that as cities got bigger, living conditions would worsen. In recent decades, however, attitudes have changed. Many experts now think urbanization (城市化) is good news, offering solutions to the problems of Earth's growing population.

    Harvard economist Edward Glaeser, author of The Victory of the Cir, is one such person. Glaeser argues that cities are very productive because "the absence of space between people" reduces the cost of transporting goods, people, and ideas. While the flow of goods has always been important to cities, what is most important today is the flow of ideas. Successful cities enable people to learn from each other easily, and attract and reward smart people with higher wages.

    Another urbanization supporter is environmentalist Stewart Brand. Brand believes cities help the environment because they allow haft of the world's population to live on about four percent of the land. This leaves more space for open country, such as farmland. City dwellers also have less impact per person on the environment than people in the countryside. Their roads, sewers, and power lines need fewer resources to build and operate. City apartments require less energy to heat, cool, and light. Most importantly, people in cities drive less so they produce fewer greenhouse gases per person.

    So it's a mistake to see urbanization as evil; it's a natural part of development  The challenge is how to manage the growth.

A storm hit Houston, Texas, on Tuesday. It brought heavy rains and rising flood-waters. By Tuesday night, some parts of the city had received 10 inches of rain. Police and firefighters helped people move to safe places. They also saved people from cars and buses that were stuck on roads.

Certain areas around Houston were hit really hard. In just four hours, more than seven inches of rain fell in Sugar Land in the southwest of Houston. Cars could not pass through any of the areas main roadways. On Twitter, Sugar Land city officials asked people to get to high ground.

Tuesday's rain hit parts of Texas that Hurricane Harvey had already damaged almost two years ago. Hurricane Harvey in August, 2017 was the second most costly hurricane in US history. It caused $125 billion worth of damage in Texas. In the Houston area, 36 people died and about 150, 000 homes were flooded.

A spokesman for the Harris County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management spoke with the Houston Chronicle. The spokesman said that this week's rain is "not in any way a Harvey-level event."

But the worst may not be over yet. People will have a break from the heavy rain on Wednesday. According to the National Weather Service, the Texas Gulf Coast will continue to experience heavy rain later in the week. "Today should be our quietest over the next few days for rainfall," said Don Oettinger, a National Weather Service meteorologist (气象学家).

Houston Fire Chief Samuel Peia warned, "As there is too much water on the ground, these are perfect conditions for flash floods, so we hope people are careful of what they're doing and encourage them to stay home. There's no sense in putting yourself, firefighters or anybody in danger needlessly."

I traveled to Hawaii several months ago, in part to cover a story on invasive plants and animals and their impact on the state. As I worked on this story, I kept thinking about the fact that some plants and animals become uncontrollably invasive when they're brought into a new ecosystem, while others don't. For example, over the past two hundred years or so, there have been approximately 20, 000 non-native plant species either intentionally or accidentally brought into Hawaii alone. But only a small part of those plants — 200 species or so — have become invasive, threatening the environment, the economy, or human health. 

An example from Hawaii's forests: the invasive plant strawberry guava thrives as it gives off a chemical that prevents all other plants from growing nearby, and it also absorbs more water than native species. What makes these particular species so successful? Most of the reasons involve how a particular species interacts with its new environment. First, invasive species may be highly adaptable to a variety of climates. Second, they are usually quite fecund (多产的), which ensures that they can multiply rapidly. Third, they are usually threatening when it comes to resources like nutrients and space, easily crowding out their native counterparts (对应的物种). And finally, invasive species thrive when there are no natural enemies or pests in their new space.

How can we eradicate invasive species once they're in place? Unfortunately, it's nearly impossible to do that — conservationists would have to notice that the species is a problem before its population has established and grown to an uncontrollable size. Instead, most conservationists battling invasive species aim for control in key ecological pockets.

It is a constant battle, though, and humans are always playing catch-up. If you're thinking of planting unusual plants in your garden or keeping a foreign pet, perhaps reconsider and go for a native one. You never know when they might escape and tip over an ecosystem.