Cosmetic surgery (整容手术) is not something to be entered into lightly. Unfortunately, in this modern world, we have become confused by very narrow standards of beauty. Images of stars who never seem to age are seen everywhere these days. We forget the fact that most of these images are the result of super photo manipulation (处理), driven by the extremely powerful beauty industry. We are all different — why should we all look the same? Isn't there more to life than having surgery in order to have the same boring face that everybody else wants to have?

—Dr Elisabeth McKenna, Psychologist

    Yes, it's not real! That's what I told my friends when they started asking me about my nose job. I'd always been sensitive to my nose, but it took me a long time before I decided to go for cosmetic surgery. I took advice from several doctors and after careful consideration I finally decided to have it done. I had been saving money from my part-time job and my parents helped me out with the rest. It was quite expensive but I don't regret a penny of it. In fact I wish I'd had it done a few years ago. I' m sure I wouldn't have been laughed at so much at school.

—Debbie Caron, Student

    It makes me really angry to think of the millions of people who spend much money on cosmetic surgery. Surgery should be carried out for medical purposes, not vanity (虚荣心). I would rather all the money spent on cosmetic surgery was used to treat people around the world who are in need but can't get proper medical treatment. Furthermore, there are thousands of under-qualified doctors out there who only care about getting as rich as possible as quickly as possible. They don't care about the psychological and physical damage they do. The whole industry makes me sick. We should do something to stop it.

—Danny Glass, Student

    Banker Chip Paillex had never planted so much until he moved to the countryside in Pittstown, New Jersey, seven years ago. Surrounded by working farms, he quickly became interested in the grow-it-yourself idea and rented a piece of 30-by-30-foot land. He planted tomatoes, eggplants and other vegetable—enough to feed his family of four for the summer. He ended up with so much produce; he couldn't give it away. He found a local food factory and donated 120 pounds of fresh vegetables.

    The following year, with a handful of volunteers and a memorable name—America's Grow-a-Row, Paillex harvested 1, 500 pounds of fresh vegetables, all of which he donated to area food banks--places that give food to poor people. Soon Paillex had a hundred volunteers and needed more land. He visited Meredith and Jeremy Compton, who farm Peaceful Valley Orchards in Pittstown. Could he work their land?

    “I guess we were feeling honored, " says Meredith. Not only do the Comptons welcome Grow-a-Row volunteers, they also work on the land.

    What began with a few empty fields has turned into a large local farm. This year, Grow-a-Row will deliver about 250, 000 pounds of fresh produce to food banks. Their secret for getting all of this done? Family power. " Each week, a couple of families 'own' the garden, " says Paillex." They water, pick, and deliver, and then hand it off on Sunday night to the next group of families."

    Paillex also welcomed local school kids. On a Friday morning in May, some kids worked on a field. "We' re growing food, " one fifth grader said proudly.

    "The program shows kids that there are people in need, " says Paillex. “When these kids become tomorrow's leaders, they'll be much more likely to encourage their co-workers or employees to get involved in something like this. “

    "Chip makes people want to help, " says Colleen Duerr, a mother of two. "And families love this. Chip has given us a way to raise our kids with a giving heart. "

    Doctors in Britain are worried because British teenagers eat lots of fried potatoes, sweets and fat food. Most teenagers don't have enough fruit or vegetables and more than one million British school children are overweight.

    Some teenagers say that they don't have time to eat good food, but kids who have a poor diet often have health problems when they are older.

    Americans have been with fast food for a long time, and it was born there. American fast food is now a part of life far beyond the stores of the United States. McDonald's, Pizza Hut, and KFC have restaurants all over the world.

    No one can say no to the fact that fast food at a fair price has its place around the world. It is popular now, and it is giving a hand to a country's economy (经济).

    A diet of hamburgers, fries and soda may seem happy, but it won't give your body things you need to stay healthy. Fast food has little of many important things our bodies need.

    Some parents are saying no to the fast food restaurants where people eat junk food and doctors are giving young people books and games about a good diet. Having a healthy and well-balanced diet can help you feel better and live longer.

    Today, I felt upset, I decided to take a walk even though I didn't know where I would go. The most extraordinary thing happened when I was out on this walk. I saw an old man sitting on a chair. He was a seller of second-hand shoes. He seemed so tired and nobody was buying his shoes.

    I wanted to give him something but I had not brought anything with me. Then, a little girl came toward him. I heard the child say, ''Grandfather, may I polish your shoes?" That old man took pity on her, smiled and he gave her a shoe to polish. The girl said, I polish the shoe because I need money to buy my brother a new school uniform. The old man answered, "Oh, little girl. Just stop doing this. Come with me and I will buy you a uniform.”

    Then they walked to a market (I followed behind) and he bought her a uniform. The girl was so happy. She said, Thank you so much for doing this." Then she left, leaving the old man smiling. He walked away from the market, but I stopped him.

    I whispered in his ear, "You are a hero! Thank you for your kindness!” As I walked away, I glanced back and I could see him still smiling. I was blown away by the kindness I had just seen. Someone who had so little himself was able to show such incredible generosity! Amazing!

    My own sadness had completely disappeared, chased away by the light of this kind act. I began realizing that I have a lot to be thankful for.

    My sister Alice and I have been trying to get people to stop dropping cigarette (香烟)butts(烟头)for seven years. One day, we were walking in our hometown and saw hundreds of cigarette butts on the ground. They made the town look so ugly that we decided to start a group to make people dropping butts. We called it "No Butts About It".

    At first, we drew pictures with "The Earth is not your ashtray(烟灰缸)"written on them. We put the pictures around our hometown—in parks, by beaches, and along roads. We wanted to make people understand that dropping butts hurts the environment. Most smokers don't think that dropping butts hurts the Earth. But it does, and all rubbish does!

    Later, we wrote to companies and asked them for money to help us. We used the money to buy ashtrays to give to smokers. We wanted smokers to carry the ashtrays with them so they didn't have to drop butts.

    At the moment, we are trying to get cigarette companies to put an ashtray in each pack of cigarettes. Some companies want to do it. Many people have started to join our group since it began. Today there are 45 other "No Butts About It" groups in America.

    Now there even groups in England, Australia, and India! Many newspapers have written about my sister and me over the last seven years. And we have won many prizes for what we do. But we are not interested in prizes. We just want to make the Earth a better and cleaner place for animals, plants and people.

    One day, it will be.

Tropical cyclones (热带气旋), including hurricanes and typhoons, are now moving at a slower speed than they did decades ago, new research shows.

While having a cyclone travel with less speed may seem like a good thing, it's actually just the opposite. Wind speeds within the storm remain high, but the whole system itself moves slower, allowing punishing rains to stay longer over communities. "Nothing, good comes out of a slowing storm," says James Kossin, author of the paper. "It can increase the amount of time that buildings suffered from strong wind. And it increases rainfall."

In his paper, Kossin showed that from 1949 to 2016, tropical cyclones across the globe slowed their movement by 10 percent on average. In some regions (地区), the speed of those storms slowed even more as they hit land. In the western North Pacific, the decrease was much more manifest ― almost a third. That means a storm that may already hold more moisture (水分) will have time to drop more of it in each spot.

Kossin's work was based on details of almost 70 years' worth of storms, but he didn't try to determine what was causing the slowdown. Still, the change is exactly what he and other cyclone experts said, which would be expected from climate change. With the polar regions warming fester than other parts of the globe, that is changing the pressure and reducing the winds that push these storms.

Christina Patricola, a scientist, called Kossin9s work important and new and said she found it reliable. "I was not surprised by his findings," she says. "But I was surprised by the speed of the slowdown."

Kossin hopes that scientists will begin building models that show which places are likely to face the most risk. Given that storms in some regions are moving towards polar regions and already increasing in intensity (强度), cyclones causing unusually powerful rain may threaten places not normally in their paths. Scientists must take action to make those places suffer less from the disasters.