I came to study in the United States a year ago .Yet I did not know the real American society until I was injured in a car accident because after the accident I had to see a doctor and go to court.

    After the accident .my roommate called a doctor for me. I was very grateful and determined to repay him one day. But the next day, he asked me to pay him $200 for what he had done. I was astonished. He had good reason to charge me, he said. And if I wanted to collect money from the person who was responsible for my injury, I'd have to have a good lawyer. And only a good doctor can help me get a good lawyer. Now that he had helped me find a good doctor, it was only fair that I should pay him.

    But every day I went to see the doctor, I had to wait about 50 minutes. He would see two or three patients at the same time, and often stop treating one so as to see another. Yet he charged me $115 each time .The final examination report consisted of ten lines, and it cost me $215.

    My lawyer was all smiles the first time we met. But after that he avoided seeing me at all. He knew very well the other party was responsible for the accident, yet he hardly did anything. He simply waited to collect his money. He was so irresponsible that I decided to dismiss him. And he made me pay him $770.

    Now I had to act as my own lawyer. Due to my inexperience, I told the insurance company the date I was leaving America. Knowing that, they played for time…and I left without getting a cent.

    The bus was full of the sounds of laughing and yelling fifth graders. They were on their way to the zoo for a class trip. Mario was excited to see the zoo, but there was one problem. It was ten o'clock in the morning, but his stomach was already grumbling(咕咕叫). He reached down and grabbed his lunch bag. Opening it, he saw that it contained a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, an orange, and two cookies. Mario sighed. He always had peanut butter and jell.

    “Trade you lunches,” he said to the boy seated next to him on the bus．

    “Okay,” said Mark as he handed his brown bag to Mario．

    Mario opened it and was hit with the smell of tuna(金枪鱼). Mario wrinkled his nose and quickly closed the bag. He leaned forward and tapped the shoulder of the girl in front of him.” Swap lunches, Toni?” he asked．

    “Hmm, okay,” said Toni．

    Mario smiled. This was fun. But when he looked into the bag, he frowned. What a disappointment! A ham sandwich, but no cookies! He had to have cookies．

    Mario turned in his seat. “Want to trade lunches?” he asked Juana．

    “Definitely!” said Juana. She grabbed his lunch and tossed hers onto his lap．

    He opened the lunch bag. Pizza! He reached into the bag to grab it. Oh, no! The pizza was hard. He could hit a home run with pizza that hard.

    Mario twisted in his seat. One last try, he told himself. “Hey, Mona! Trade lunches?”

    Three rows behind him, Mona seemed hesitant: Finally, she nodded. She passed her lunch forward, and he passed his back．

    Mario took a deep breath and opened the bag. It was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, an orange, and two cookies. The sandwich was a little squashed(挤压), and one of the cookies was broken.

    Mario ate it anyway. And it was delicious.

    Families should reduce exposure to synthetic chemicals found in food colorings, preservatives and packaging materials as a growing body of research shows they may harm children's health, according to a policy statement and technical report from the American Academy of Pediastrics released online.

    The statement also suggests improvements to the food additives regulatory system, including updating the scientific foundation of the U.S. Food and Drug Administrations safety assessment retesting all previously approved chemicals.

    Leonard Trasande, the author of the policy statement, to tell us more about these concerns.

Q: What are the growing number of studies showing us?

A: Over the past two decades, an accumulating body of science suggests some food additives can interfere with a child's hormones, growth and development.

    Potentially harmful effects of food additives are of special concern for children because they are more sensitive to chemical exposures because they eat and drink more relative to body weight, than adults do and are still growing and developing. An early injury to their organ systems can have lifelong and permanent consequences.

Q: What additives does the statement highlight?

A: The additives of most concern, based on rising research evidence cited in the report, include:

    Bisphenols, such as BPA, used to harden plastic containers and line metal cans, can act like estrogen（雌激素）in the body which may potentially change the timing of puberty, decrease fertility, increase body fat and affect the nervous and immune systems. BPA is now banned in baby bottles.

    Phthalates, which make plastic and vinyl tubes used in industrial food production flexible, may affect male genital development increase childhood obesity and contribute to cardiovascular disease. In 2017, the Consumer Product Safety Commission banned the use or some phthalates in child-care products such as teething rings.

    The United States will introduce a new and comprehensive(综合的) exam for students who seek to study in American and other English-speaking countries, Xinhua News Agency reported from New York.

    The exam, which stands for a great change from the current English level test, was disclosed by Theresa Chang Wei Jen, associate director of the International Service of the US College Board, America's leading educational organization.

    The Advanced Placement International English Language (APIEL) will be offered for the first time throughout the world on May 10, 2002, said Jen.

    However, the APIEL is a strange title to most Chinese students, and it is unlikely to soon gain the similarity of other already existing exams, such as the TOEFL(Test of English as a Foreign Language), the GRE(Graduate Record Examination), or the IELTS(International English Language Testing System).

    "I have never heard of such a test and I would prefer the IELTS if I need another exam," said Xu Jingyan, a graduating student from Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, who wants to study in England and has already taken the TOEFL.

    Most of Xu's classmates have never heard of the APIEL. "The APIEL is designed for international students who wish to get university studies in English-speaking countries, including the United States, Britain, Canada, and Australia." said Jen.

    The APIEL has been adopted, said Jen, because the TOEFL can no longer accurately reflect the abilities of students of using the English language comprehensively in an academic environment. Xinhua reported that a fairly large number of foreign students who earned high scores in TOEFL exam turned out to be very ordinary educational performers after admission.

    Compared with the TOEFL, the APIEL measures a student's ability to read, write, speak and understand English through testing his or her skills in listening comprehension, speaking with accuracy(精确) and resourcefulness, and writing with clarity(清晰) and fluency, Jen said.

One of the tallest wooden buildings in Europe, a 98m timber mixture skyscraper, is to rise in Berlin.

The 29-storey WoHo Tower, to be designed by a firm of Norwegian architects, is intended to be a "light-house project" for low-carbon construction, towering over Potsdamer Platz and the Landwehr Canal.

Its core, including lifts and a staircase, is to be built around a steel-reinforced concrete structure but the rest of the building, including flats, offices, cafes and a kindergarten, will be fashioned down wooden beams and panels.

"As Norwegians, we are used to working a lot with timber," Nicolai Riise, CEO of the Mad Architects' Practice said.

"The thing about timber is that it demonstrates sustainability from top to bottom. The carbon footprint is close to zero and it's a fantastic material to build with. If you look at this in a broader way, it's one of the ways we are going to be able to beat the climate crisis."

Wooden skyscrapers, once regarded as an unprofitable pipe dream, have become a realistic prospect with the coming of cross-laminated building techniques and more flexible planning laws. Because these structures' parts are fit with care, they can be far lighter than their concrete equivalents and are thought to be relatively resistant to fire. A cubic meter of wood can also take an estimated ton of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.

Larger wooden structures are planned elsewhere. London is examining blueprints for the 300-meter Oakwood Tower. A project in Tokyo could rise to 350m.

The journey to discover myself，care for myself and love myself has been a long one.But，it's been a journey that has finally saved my life.

I remember throwing up for the first time when I was 8 years old.Somehow I had developed the belief that being thin was the only way to be accepted and loved.This way of thinking intensified（加剧） as I got older and bulimia（神经性贪食）became more and more deeply rooted in my life.

When I was 15 years old my family said goodbye to everything we had ever known and boarded the plane for New Zealand.I felt alone and scared in a world that was completely different to anything I had ever known.Eating helped numb（麻木）my pain and throwing up helped keep me thin.

By the time I went to university I was throwing up over 15 times a day.I was so ashamed of what I had become.

Although my bulimia had completely turned my life upside down，I knew one thing for sure that I loved my family more than anything in the world.This belief eventually made me pick up the phone and book my first appointment with a therapist（治疗专家）.

The first session I had with my therapist，Amanda，was amazing.I walked out of her office feeling like I had finally done something positive for myself Amanda made me realize that I wasn't alone in my suffering and there were thousands upon thousands of girls just like me.

I met regularly with Amanda for the best part of a year，over which time I learnt how to treat myself kindly，respect myself and love myself.I said goodbye to bulimia after over a decade of suffering.

Just turn to face the direction of self﹣discovery，self﹣love and self﹣acceptance and keep walking until you get there.It will be the journey of a lifetime.