Enjoyable Family Picnics

    Going for a picnic is great at any age. It can either be a simple lunch in the park or family barbecue at the beach. Whether with little kids or just as a romantic afternoon date, picnics can be fun and relaxing. Just remember to prepare.

    Check the weather forecast. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Prcnics are never much fun when it gets too hot or starts to rain. If it is likely to rain, but you still make up your mind to go, think about bringing umbrellas.

    Pick a location suitable for your family's needs. Different locations are for different types of picnics. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Choose one with a playground for them, and perhaps some bathrooms nearby. Do you want a quiet afternoon to read, or a park with a big field to play soccer on?

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Food is the most important part of a picnic, so don't forget it! Remember to bring any utensils(器皿)you might need, as well as napkins and a garbage bag to clean up afterwards. Bring some books, balls or anything else that could be fun. Finally, don't forget your camera.

    Other ideas. If it gets hot in the afternoon, why not try a morning picnic to enjoy the songs of the birds in the fresh morning air? {#blank#}4{#/blank#} It can be fun to have a picnic in your backyard. If you're going on a hike, pack a lunch and turn it into a picnic. But remember to bring extra water!

    Remember to prepare, and you'll soon be enjoying picnics wherever you are. But keep in mind that not everything always go as planned. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

A. It may seem obvious but it's often forgotten.

B. Do you have little kids?

C.Just lean to laugh and enjoy outside

D. Not everybody likes eating outside

E. Another idea is to stay at home

F. What to bring

G. Do you need big trees to keep the heat off on a sunny day?

    New Zealand will create one of the largest marine protected areas in the world, spanning an area of 620,000 sq km.

    The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary (保护区) will be one of the world's most significant fully protected ecosystems, the prime minister of New Zealand, John Key, told the UN General Assembly in New York.

    The sanctuary is in the South Pacific Ocean, about 1,000 km north-east of New Zealand, and expands a marine reserve that surrounds some small islands. The area is considered important in terms of biodiversity, featuring nearly 35 species of whales and dolphins, 150 types of fish and three of the world's seven sea turtle species. It is also geologically significant, including the world's longest chain of underwater volcanoes and the second deepest ocean trench, into 10 km underwater — deeper than Mount Everest's height. The scale of the sanctuary will dwarf (矮化) any previous New Zealand's protected area, spanning twice the size of the country's mainland. It will cover 15% of New Zealand's economic zone.

    Commercial and recreational fishing will be completely banned, as will oil, gas and mineral prospecting (勘探), exploration and mining. Key's government aims to pass legislation establishing the sanctuary next year.

    "The sanctuary is a world-class, unspoiled marine environment and New Zealand is proud to protect it for future generations,"Key said."New Zealanders value our coasts and oceans, which are an important part of our culture, economy and environment and we are committed to managing them sustainably. Creating protected areas will support not only our own fisheries, but those of our Pacific neighbors, adding to New Zealand's efforts to help grow Pacific economies through the responsible management of their ocean resources."

    Nick Smith, New Zealand's environment minister, said the sanctuary might impose a cost upon the mining industry but that it is important to protect the ocean before exploration takes place."New Zealand needs to use its vast ocean resources for jobs and exports in industries like fishing, aquaculture, minerals and energy, but we also need to set aside special areas where nature comes first and marine life is fully protected,"Smith said.

    New Zealand will monitor the area via its navy and satellite technology. The Kermadec region will join three other key areas in the Pacific protected by the US, the UK and Australia.

    Matt Rand, director of the Pew Charitable Trusts' Global Ocean Legacy (遗产) campaign, welcomed Key's announcement."New Zealand will create the gold standard of conservation areas in the sanctuary, preserving one of the few ly unspoiled areas of ocean on Earth,"he said."This commitment is an exciting step toward meeting global goals to safeguard at least 30% of the ocean through fully protected marine reserves."

    Neuroscientists have explained the risky, aggressive or just plain baffling behavior of teenagers as the product of a brain that is somehow compromised. Groundbreaking research in the past 10 years, however, shows that this view is wrong. The teen brain is not defective. It is not a half-baked adult brain, either. It has been forged by evolution to function differently from that of a child or an adult.

    The most important of the teen brain's features is its ability to change in response to the environment by modifying the communication networks that connect brain regions. It allows teenagers to make enormous progress in thinking and socialization. But the change also makes them sensitive to dangerous behavior and serious mental disorders.

    The most recent studies indicate that the riskiest behaviors arise from a mismatch between the maturation of networks in the limbic system(边缘系统), which drives emotions at adolescence, and the maturation of networks in the prefrontal cortex（前额皮质）, which occurs later and promotes sound judgment and the control of impulses. Indeed, we now know that one's prefrontal cortex continues to change noticeably until his 20s. And yet adolescence seems to be starting earlier, extending the “mismatch years.”

    The plasticity of networks linking brain regions—and not the growth of those regions, as previously thought—is key to eventually behaving like an adult. Understanding that, and knowing that a widening gap between the development of emotional and judgment networks is happening in young people today, can help parents, teachers, counselors and teenagers themselves. People will better see that behavior such as risk-taking and turning away from parents and toward peers are not signs of cognitive or emotional problems. They are a natural result of brain development, a normal part of adolescents learning how to negotiate with a complex world.

    The same understanding can also help adults decide when to intervene. A 15-year-old girl's departure from her parents' tastes in clothing, music or politics may be a source of anxiety for Mom and Dad but does not indicate mental illness. A 16-year-old boy's tendency to skateboard without a helmet or to accept risky dares from friends is not unimportant but is more likely a sign of short-range thinking and peer pressure than a desire to hurt himself. Knowing more about the unique teen brain will help all of us learn how to separate unusual behavior that is age-appropriate from that which might indicate illness. Such awareness could help society reduce the rates of teen addiction, motor vehicle accidents and depression.

    Surfing the Internet for fun will make you a better employee, according to an Australian study.

    The University of Melbourne study shows that people who use the Internet for their own reasons at work are about 9 percent more productive(具有创造性的) than those who do not. Study author Brent Coker said, “Surfing the Internet at times helps increase workers' attention.”

    “People need to relax for a bit to get back their attention,” Coker said on the university's website. “Having a short break, such as a quick surfing of the Internet, helps the mind to rest itself, leading to a higher total Internet attention for a day's work, and as a result, increases productivity (生产效率),” he said.

    According to the study of 300 workers, 70 percent of people who use the Internet at work surf the Internet for their own reasons during office hours. Among the most popular surfing activities are searching for information about products, reading online news, playing online games and watching videos. “Firms spend a lot of money on software to block their workers from watching videos, using social networking sites or shopping online,” said Coker. “That's not always a good idea.”

    However, Coker said the study looked at people who surfed the Internet in moderation(适度), or were on the Internet for less than 20 percent of their total time in the office. “Those who spend too much time surfing the Internet will have a lower productivity than those without.” he said.

    In 1947 a group of famous people from the art world headed by an Austrian conductor decided to hold an international festival of music, dance and theatre in Edinburgh. The idea was to reunite Europe after the Second World War.

    At the same time, the Fringe appeared as a challenge to the official festival. Eight theatre groups turned up uninvited in 1947, in the belief that everyone should have the right to perform, and they did so in a public house disused for years.

    Soon, groups of students firstly from Edinburgh University, and later from the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, Durham and Birmingham were making the journey to the Scottish capital each summer to perform theatre by little-known writers of plays in small church halls to the people of Edinburgh.

    Today the Fringe, once less recognized, has far out grown the festival with around 1,500 performances of theatre, music and dance on every one of the 21 days it lasts. And yet as early as 1959, with only 19theatre groups performing, some said it was getting too big.

    A paid administrator was first employed only in 1971, and today there are eight administrators working all year round and the number rises to 150 during August itself. In2004 there were 200 places housing 1,695 shows by over 600 different groups from 50 different countries. More than 1.25 million tickets were sold.

    High school biology teacher Kelly Chavis knew smart phones were a problem in her class. But not even the students realized how much of a problem the devices were until Chavis did an in­class experiment.

    For one class period, students used a whiteboard to count every Snapchat, Instagram, text, call that appeared on their phones. Chavis is among a growing number of teachers, parents and health experts who believe that smart phones are now partly to blame for increasing the levels of student anxiety. "One girl, just during the one hour, got close to 150 Snapchat notifications. 150!" she said.

    Jean Twenge, a psychology professor at San Diego State University in California, said it is not a coincidence that youth mental health issues have risen with the number of phones. "This use of phones has led to a loss of sleep and face­to­face interactions necessary for their growth," she said.

    Researchers are still not sure whether phones cause student depression or depression causes phone use. But nearly 60 percent of parents said they worry about the influence of social media on their child's physical and mental health.

    Both schools and parents are starting to take steps to deal with the problem. Many public schools pay outside companies to watch students' social media activity for signs of anxiety. Other schools invite in yoga teachers and comfort dogs to help calm students.