About 30 years ago, I left Cuba for the United States with my son. After getting settled finally in Brunswick, New Jersey, I enrolled(注册) my son in kindergarten. Several weeks later, my son's teacher asked me to meet him at his office.

In the teacher's office, and exchange of greetings was followed by his questions: “Is your son mentally retarded(弱智的)？Does he suffer from any kind of mental disability?”

Was he talking about my wonderful Scola? NO, no, it can't be. What a helpless, lonely moment! I told him that Scola was a quiet, sweet little boy, instead. I asked him why he was asking me all these questions.

My son could not follow the teacher's directions, he told me, and thus, Scola was disrupting the class, Didn't he know my son did not speak English yet?

He was angry; “Why hasn't your son been taught to speak English? Don't you speak English at home?”

No, I didn't speak English at home, I replied. I was sure my son would learn English in a couple of months, and I didn't want him to forget his native language. Well, wrong answer! What kind of person would not speak in English to her son at home and at all time? “Are you one of those people who come to this country to save dollars and send them back to their country, never wanting to be a part of this society?”

    Needless to say, I tried to tell him I was not one of “those people.” Then he told me the meeting was over, and I left.

    As I had expected, my son learned to speak English fluently before the school year was over. He went on to graduate from college and got a job, earning close to six figures. He travels widely and leads a well-adjusted, contented life. And he has benefited from being bilingual(双语的)。

    Speaking more than one language allows people to communicate with others; it teaches people about other cultures and other places—something very basic and obviously lacking in the “educator” I met in New Jersey.

    Starbucks will stop using plastic straws from its stores globally by 2020, in a nod to the growing push for businesses to be more environmentally friendly. The Seattle-based company said on Monday it will instead use straws made from other materials, and lids designed not to need straws. McDonald's also recently said it would switch to paper straws in the UK and Ireland by next year, and test alternatives to plastic straws in some US locations. In February, Dunkin' Donuts said that it would refuse polystyrene foam (塑料泡沫) cups from its stores by 2020.

    Environmental activists have been pressuring businesses to ditch plastic straws because they can end up in the ocean and hurt marine life. The push gained great support after a video in 2015 showed rescuers removing a straw from a sea turtle's nose in great detail. Local governments have also been looking at the issue. Last week, Seattle's ban on single-use plastic straws and utensils in food service outlets took effect, and Starbucks says it already offers alternative straws there. Similar proposals are being considered elsewhere, including New York and San Francisco.

    While straws have become a highly-concerned issue, they make up only about 4% of the plastic trash by number of pieces, and far less by weight. Straws add up to only about 2,000 tons of the nearly 9m tons of plastic waste that hits waters each year.

    It's Friday night. You're looking through your Instagram (a photo-sharing app) feed when you see it: a photo of your friends hanging out without you.

    Why didn't anyone invite you? What are they doing later? Should you text them? What if no one responds (回应)?

    Sounds like a typical case of FOMO.

    FOMO, or "fear of missing out", is a form of anxiety that causes people to feel like they're missing out on something. The word was added to The Oxford English Dictionary last year. But just how serious is FOMO?

    According to a study by a US research organization, JWTIntelligence, 47 percent of teen millennials (those who are 13-17 years old now) feel upset or nervous when they learn that their friends are doing something they're not. And 41 percent said they spread themselves too thin, trying to do too many things at one time to avoid FOMO.

    Today's technology is a big cause of FOMO, according to Jonathan Pochyly, an adolescent psychiatrist (青少年精神病学专家) at Lurie Children's Hospital in Chicago.

    "Technology is one of the things that makes life special for adolescents these days," he explained.  

    "There's a lot of focus on what everyone else is doing. It became a trend, so there's pressure to keep up with it."

    As social media (社交媒体) feeds are always updating us with our friends' activities, it's easier than ever to feel left out. So what can we do?

    To fight against FOMO, Jones freshman Emmy Brewer just calls people and talks to them.

    "I'd be upset for a bit, but then I'd realize that I should be reaching out to them," she said.

    Oak Park and River Forest High School senior James Cullinane said he fights off FOMO by living in the now.

    "If I'm hanging out with my friends, or just sitting at home on my couch, I think it's best to stay off social media and focus on what I'm doing in the moment," Cullinane said.

    While FOMO will continue to affect (影响) teenagers in the future, Pochyly said that he believes these feelings are just side effects of growing up.

    "These types of interactions (交往) with people are … a function (功能) of kids being more independent, looking for connections with other people, moving away from just being a child in a home, and moving toward adulthood," he said.

    Since the first Earth Day in 1970, Americans have gotten a lot “greener” toward the environment. “We didn't know at that time there even was an environment, let alone that there was a problem with it,” says Bruce Anderson, president of Earth Day USA.

    But what began as nothing important in public affairs has grown into a social movement .Business people, political leaders, university professors, and especially millions of grass-roots Americans are taking part in the movement. “The understanding has increased many, many times,” says Gaylord Nelson, the former governor from Wisconsin, who thought up the first. According to US government reports, emissions (排放)from cars and trucks have dropped from 10.3 million tons a year to 5.5 tons .The number of cities producing CO beyond the standard has been reduced from 40 to 9. Although serious problems still remain and need to be dealt with, the world is a safer and healthier place. A kind of “Green thinking” has become part of practices.

    Great improvement has been achieved. In 1988 there were only 600 recycling programs; today in 1995 there are about 6,600. Advanced lights, motors, and building designs have helped save a lot of energy and therefore prevented pollution.

    Twenty –five years ago, there were hardly any education programs for environment. Today, it's hard to find a public school, university, or law school that does not have such a kind of program. “Until we do that, nothing else will change!” say Bruce Anderson.

    We are the CEOs. We are the head designers. We are the top engineers. We are the senior creators. We are the inventors. We are the only maker of our own happiness.

    However, we still have learned that people's views on happiness often change with many outside things. Some people smile happily beside their new cars and homes. Students feel excited when they get better grades. Babies laugh loudly when they get new toys. Maybe true happiness has been lost in these things.

    How could we have allowed ourselves to be cheated for so long? Something outside may give us happiness, but what directs us to real happiness is inner (内在的) spirit.

    Our spirit is so easily broken, yet it is the single strongest thing we own. Why do people with terrible diseases still smile? Why do those with a broken heart still find joy? The inner spirit is powerful, and it is the only thing on earth that can be broken into pieces but can perfectly mend itself with time. Think about those who suffer a lot but still feel happy. Their inner spirit is very strong.

    Our inner spirit will be the greatest gift that we give ourselves. It is our compass (指南针) to happiness, but we are the tour guides.

    Scientists in Britain have managed to teach bees to pull strings (线) to get to food and then pass on what they have learned to others in their colony (群体) — showing a high level of intelligence despite their tiny brains.

    Researchers at Queen Mary University of London said the experiments, often used to test the intelligence of apes (猿) and birds, showed for the first time that some insects are up to the task, and can also pass skills on through several generations.

    The findings add to the evidence suggesting the ability for "culture spread"— the ability to learn and pass on knowledge and skills — may not be exclusive to humans.

    In the research, published in the journal PLOS Biology on Tuesday, the scientists were able to train 23 out of a group of 40 bees to pull strings with their legs and feet.

    The strings were attached to discs — or artificial "flowers"— containing food at their center but placed under a transparent (透明的) screen. The bees, spotting the food beneath the screen, learned to pull the "flowers" out by pulling the string with their legs and feet to be able to get to it.

    From another group of bees given the chance to solve the task without any training, only two of 110 were successful.

    Another group of bees was then allowed to observe the trained bees pulling the strings, and 60 percent of them successfully learned the skill. Finally, trained bees were put in colonies, and the scientists found the technique spread successfully to a majority of the colony's worker bees.

    Lars Chittka, a Queen Mary University professor who guided the project, said the team is interested in figuring out the brain processes behind the bees' learning and teaching skills.