Americans like to travel on their yearly holiday. Today, more and more travelers in the United States are spending nights at small houses or inns(客栈) instead of hotels. They get a room with breakfast the next morning.

    Rooms for the night in private(私人的) homes with breakfast have been popular with travelers in Europe for many years. In the past five or ten years, these bed and breakfast places have become popular in the United States. Many of these American's bed-and-breakfast inns are old historic buildings. Some bed-and-breakfast inns have only a few rooms, while others are much larger. Some inns do not provide telephones or televisions in the rooms, but others do.

    Staying at a bed-and-breakfast inn is much different from staying at a hotel. Usually the cost is much less. Staying at an inn is almost like visiting someone's home. The owners are glad to tell about the areas and the interesting places to visit. Many vacationers say that they enjoy the chance to meet local families.

    A MENTORING (导师制) program is giving life changing opportunities to Banbury youth.

    Young Inspirations was founded two years ago to provide mentoring sessions for students and unemployed young adults aged 11 to 21.

    Alex Goldberg, the program's founder, said; "We set up Young Inspirations because we wanted to give young people experiences which will potentially be life changing and broaden their outlook.

    "We try to create work experience opportunities that will really make a difference to our youth. For example, we've secured internships (实习) with world-famous firms such as Honda.

    "At a time of funding cutbacks where schools are finding it more and more difficult to offer this kind of mentoring, it is extremely important that these opportunities are available both to help youth with their school work and grades and to give them opportunities which may help shape their futures. " Kieran Hepburn, 14, is one of a group of Banbury youth who has benefited from the program so far. In October the Banbury School pupil was accompanied by Young Inspirations staff to Paris where he was an observer at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's (UNESCO) International Youth Forum (论坛).

    The event was held for young people from around the world, to seek their views on how the future of youth and education should look. Kieran joined several hundred observers mostly in their 20s and was the only UK school pupil to attend the event. Kieran thinks the trip was a life changing experience. " Before we left I didn't quite know what to make of it but when we got there we didn't stop, it was amazing," he said, " We went to three or four hours of debates each day and then did something cultural each afternoon. "

    The main theme of the forum was how youth can drive change in political and public life. It dealt with issues (问题) such as drug abuse, violence and unemployment.

    Kieran said: " It has really helped me to improve my confidence and social skills as well as my school grades and I was voted most improved pupil at school in August. "

    The Young Inspirations mentoring sessions take place each Friday in Banbury. For details visit www.younginspirations.com.

    Some people will do just about anything to save money. And I am one of them. Take my family's last vacation. It was my six-year-old son's winter break form school, and we were heading home from Fort Lauderdale after a week-long trip. The flight was overbooked, and Delta, the airline, offered us $400 per person in credits to give up our seats and leave the next day. I had meetings in New York, so I had to get back. But that didn't mean my husband and my son couldn't stay. I took my nine-month-old and took off for home.

    The next day, my husband and son were offered more credits to take an even later flight. Yes, I encouraged—okay, ordered—them to wait it out at the airport, to "earn" more Delta Dollars. Our total take: $1,600. Not bad, huh?

    Now some people may think I'm a bad mother and not such a great wife either. But as a big-time bargain hunter, I know the value of a dollar. And these days, a good deal is something few of us can afford to pass up.

    I've made a living looking for the best deals and exposing （揭露） the worst tricks. I have been the consumer reporter of NBC's Today show for over a decade. I have written a couple of books including one titled Tricks of the Trade: A Consumer Survival Guide. And I really do what I believe in.

    I tell you this because there is no shame in getting your money's worth. I'm also tightfisted when it comes to shoes, clothes for my children, and expensive restaurants. But I wouldn't hesitate to spend on a good haircut. It keeps its shape longer, and it's the first thing people notice. And I will also spend on a classic piece of furniture. Quality lasts.

    BEIJING, China —Pollution in China remains very serious as the country's rapid economic growth brings new environmental problems, a minister said Saturday.

    Vice Environment Minister Zhang Lijun said China has made progress on environmental protection, but admitted that its rapid economic growth over the past decade has had a negative effect on the environment.

    "Our rapid economic development has continuously brought our country new environmental problems, particularly dangerous chemicals, electronic waste and so on. These environmental pollutants (污染物) bring new problems and affect human health," Zhang told a news conference.

    He said that emissions(排放)of traditional pollutants remain high and some areas have failed to meet government standards.

China has pledged to continue reducing emissions this year of three key air pollutants— ammonia nitrogen, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide. The government has also promised to bring down demand for chemical oxygen—a measure of water pollution by l.5 percent from the 2010 levels.

    In the last five years, there were 912 "environmental emergencies" involving heavy metal pollution, including several well-publicized instances of mass contamination, Zhang said. Thousands of children were affected by lead poisoning in several provinces in 2009 and 2010 because they lived near metal smelters or battery factories.

    The minister noted that rapid development in the next five years would increase the need for China to improve environmental protection and shift to a more sustainable(可持续的) model of economic development from its dependence on industries which consume huge quantities of energy.

    China is focusing on clean energy, including solar, wind and nuclear power, as one way to reduce its dependence on coal, which generates three-quarters of its electricity and is also used for winter heating in northern cities. China also hopes the strategy will reduce its demand for oil and gas and increase economic growth and jobs.

    Zhang told reporters there was no plan to adjust China's overall strategy for nuclear development but he said Beijing will learn lessons from Japan after a violent earthquake resulted in a radioactive leak(放射能泄露).

    "Some lessons we learn from Japan will be considered in the making of China's nuclear power plans," he said. "But China will not change its determination and plan for developing nuclear power."

    Recent summer temperatures in parts of Australia were high enough to melt asphalt. As global warming speeds up the heat and climatic events increase, many plants may be unable to cope. But at least one species of eucalyptus tree can resist extreme heat by continuing to “sweat” when other essential processes stop, a new study finds.

    As plants change sunlight into food, or photosynthesize (光合作用), they absorb carbon dioxide through pores on their leaves. These pores also release water via transpiration(蒸腾), which circulates nutrients through the plant and helps cool it by evaporation(蒸发). But exceptionally high temperatures are known to greatly reduce photosynthesis—and most existing plant models suggest this should also decrease transpiration, leaving trees in danger of fatally overheating. Because it is difficult for scientists to control and vary trees' conditions in their natural environment, little is known about how individual species handle this situation.

    Ecologist John Drake of the S.U.N.Y. College of Environmental Science and Forestry and his colleagues grew a dozen Parramatta red gum (Eucalyptus parramattensis) trees in large, climate-controlled plastic pods that separated the trees from the surrounding forest for a year in Richmond, Australia. Six of the trees were grown at surrounding air temperatures and six at temperatures three degrees Celsius higher. The researchers withheld (扣留) water from the surface soil of all 12 trees for a month to imitate a mild dry spell, then induced a four-day “extreme” heat wave: They raised the maximum temperatures in half of the pods（three with surrounding temperatures and three of the warmer ones）— to 44 degrees ℃.

    Photosynthesis ground to a near halt in the trees facing the artificial heat wave. But to the researchers' surprise, these trees continued to transpire at close-to-normal levels, effectively cooling themselves and their surroundings. The trees grown in warmer conditions coped just as well as the others, and photosynthesis rates bounced back to normal after the heat wave passed, Drake and his colleagues reported online in Global Change Biology.

    The researchers think the Parramatta red gums were able to effectively sweat — even without photosynthesis — because they are particularly good at tapping into water deep in the soil. But if a heat wave and a severe drought (干旱) were to hit at the same time and the groundwater was exhausted, the trees may not be so lucky, Drake says.

    Other scientists call the finding encouraging. “It's definitely good news,” says Trevor Keenan, an ecologist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, who was not part of the study. “It would be very interesting to know how this translates to other species,” he adds. Drake hopes to conduct similar experiments with trees common in North America.

    Flat Holm, a small island in Britain's Bristol Channel, has no permanent residents and minimal infrastructure（设施）. The pretty land mass is now, however, becoming increasingly popular with tourists wishing to explore the rural landscape and view the island's seabird colonies.

    Though this is welcome news, meeting the island's growing energy needs without ruining its environment poses a challenge. Flat Holm team leader Natalie Taylor says, “As we promote the island more and we get more visitors here, there's going to be a lot more demand for electricity so it's really important that we've got a really high functioning system that can provide for those people. From an environmental point of view, we want to reduce the use of diesel（柴油）generators so that we can have as small ecological footprints as possible.”

    While the Cardiff Council, which oversees the island, considered traditional solar and hydroelectricity, it was reluctant to carry out either, due to their high cost and permanent nature. According to energy and sustainability manager Gareth Harcombe, the officials were seeking a portable option that could be moved if the site was needed for another purpose.

    Fortunately, the UK-based company Renovagen had the perfect solution. A small panel can provide 11kW of power within two minutes. A more extensive version, unrolled from a shipping container, can yield 300kW of electricity in less than an hour.

    The solar panel “carpets”, laid on the island in early October, are being used to provide electricity to its sole pub and lighthouse. The Cardiff Council also plans to use them to charge two Nissan e-NV200 electric vehicles in the future.

    In addition to providing power to remote islands like Flat Holm, Hingley hopes the Rapid Roll technology will be useful in areas affected by natural disasters. A good example is Puerto Rico, where most residents have been without electricity since Hurricane Maria destroyed the power lines in late September.