London's newest skyscraper (摩天大楼)is called the Shard and it cost about 430 million pounds to build. At a height of almost 310 metres, it is the tallest building in Europe. The Shard has completely changed the appearance of London. However, not everyone thinks that it is a change for the better.

    The Shard was designed by the famous Italian architect Renzo Piano. When he began designing the Shard for London, Piano wanted a very tall building that looked like a spire (尖顶)• He wanted the glass surfaces to reflect the sky and the city. The sides of the building aren't regular. So the building has an unusual shape. It looks like a very thin，sharp piece of broken glass. And that is how the building got the name: the Shard. Piano says that the spire shape of the Shard is part of a great London tradition. The shape reminds him of the spires of the churches of London or the tall masts (桅杆）of the ships that were once on the river Thames.

    The Shard has 87 floors. At the top, there is an observatory. At the moment the building is empty, but eventually there will be a five-star hotel. There will also be top quality restaurants, apartments and offices.

    Before building work began, a lot of people didn't want the Shard though the plans were approved. Now they are still unhappy about the Shard. Some critics say that such a tall skyscraper might be good in a city like New York, but not in London. They say that the best thing about the Shard is its spire shape. But that is the only thing. There is no decoration, only flat surfaces. The Egyptians did that 4,500 years ago. They also think the Shard is too big for London. It destroys the beauty of the city.

    Other critics don't like what the Shard seems to represent. They say that the Shard shows how London is becoming more unequal. Only very rich people can afford to buy the expensive private apartments and stay in the hotel. But the people who live near the Shard are among the poorest in London. So the Shard seems a symbol of the division in society between the very rich and the poor.

    The Shard now dominates the London skyline. It is not certain, however, that ordinary London citizens will ever accept it as a valuable addition to the city.

    It was another frustrating day. I came home from school, changed my clothes and got ready for work. I worked at a local restaurant in town.

    I went to work feeling down. It's the same thing over and over again, dealing with customers who complain about their food—how the piece of pie that they are served is too big or too small. Three elderly ladies walked in and sat by the windows. I was working since 5:00 pm. and we were quite busy. But these elderly women were watching me as I was working really hard to make sure every table was clean and ready for the next customers.

    When they were finished with their meals, I took their plates back to the kitchen. They talked to me for a while about school, how I was doing, which grade I was in and what I planned to do in the future.

    As they were leaving, they walked past me and one of them said to me in a confident and gentle voice, "You are going places." They left the restaurant and I was pretty much in awe. I had tears in my eyes, because they gave me a reason to believe in myself. They picked my spirits up from being down and out and gave me a reason to keep on working hard and to give it my all.

    Born and raised in a digital age, today's young people are generally tech savvy (技术娴熟的). But when it comes to basic life skills, they're less capable than the older generation.

    According to a recent study, 69 percent of 18 to 24-year-olds in the UK have no idea how to bleed a radiator(暖气片换水). About 35 percent of them don't know how to sew on a button, while about 11 percent don't understand how to change a light bulb or iron clothes.

    It appears young people are losing the skills older generations took for granted. In fact, the problem is shared by young people in the United States. According to a report by Forbes in 2014, most millennial (千禧一代) drivers don't know how to check their tire pressure. Cooking is another basic life skill that has been dropped, as millennials are much more likely to order food deliveries than previous generations.

    Technology may be to blame for this generational gap. Skills at using phones and computers are the ones valued these days, and the practical skills are now seen as functions that can be easily outsourced (外包). Indeed, improvements in technology have made young people unfamiliar with many basic life skills. For example, with GPS always at hand, young people have had no need to learn how to read physical maps.

    However, this change has raised concerns among many people. “If you have your master's degree and you can't live within your means or go home from your job and feed yourself a nutritious (有营养的) meal, you're not a complete graduate,” Chris Moore, a professor from Brigham Young University, US, told Huff Post.

    That's why there's an increasing call for the return of “home ec” in the US, short for home economics, which teaches basic life skills like cooking and how to do laundry. It was very popular in the early 20th century, but was later taken out of schools and universities because of budget(预算) cuts. But recently, home ec was reintroduced in a small number of schools and universities.

    “The educational system would work better if every academic class had a practical course that applied the theory to do something regular people do in real life,” Robert Frost, instructor and flight controller at NASA, wrote on Quora, according to Huff post.

    There are about 5,000 different kinds of ladybugs(瓢虫)in the world. They are also known as lady beetles or ladybird beetles. They come in many different colors and patterns, but the best-known in North America is the seven-spotted ladybug, with its shiny, red-and-black body.

    In many cultures, ladybugs are thought to be good luck. Most people like them because they are pretty, lovely and do no harm to human beings. But farmers love them because they eat aphids and other plant-eating pests. One ladybug can eat up 5,000 insects in its lifetime!

    Most ladybugs have dome-shaped bodies with six short legs. Depending on the kind, they can have spots, stripes, or nothing at all. Seven-spotted ladybugs are red or orange with three spots on each side and one in the middle. They have a black head. Ladybugs are colorful for a reason. They tell the enemy: "Eat something else! I taste terrible." When threatened, they may play dead. Birds are ladybugs' main predators(天敌), but they are also eaten by frogs, spiders, and dragonflies.

    Ladybugs are happy in many different places, including grasslands, forests, cities, suburbs, and along rivers. Seven-spotted ladybugs are native to Europe but were brought to North America in the mid-1900s.

    Ladybugs are most active from spring until fall. When the weather turns cold, they look for a warm place to hibernate, such as in rotting logs, under rocks, or even inside houses. These hibernating places can have thousands of ladybugs.

    The name "ladybug" was given by European farmers who prayed to the Virgin Mary when pests began eating their crops. After ladybugs came and wiped out the invading insects, the farmers named them "beetle of Our Lady". This later was shortened to "lady beetle" and "ladybug".

    Living and dealing with kids can be a tough job these days, but living and dealing with parents can be even tougher.

    If I have learned anything in my 16 years, it is that communication is very important, both when you disagree and when you get along. With any relationship, you need to let other person know how you are feeling. If you are not able to communicate, you drift apart()疏远). When you are mad at your parents, or anyone else, not talking to them doesn't solve anything.

Communication begins with the concerns of another. It means that you can't just come home from school, go up to your room and ignore everyone. Even if you just say "Hi", and see how their day was for five minutes, it is better than nothing.

If you looked up the word "communication" in a dictionary, it would say "the exchange of ideas, the conveyance（表达）of information, correspondence （通信）, means of communication: a letter or a message". To maintain (保持) a good relationship, you must keep communication strong. Let people know how you feel, even if it's just by writing a note.

    When dealing with parents, you always have to make them feel good about how they are doing as a parent. If you are trying to make them see something as you see it, tell them that you'll listen to what they have to say, but ask them politely to listen to you. Yelling or walking away only makes the situation worse.

    This is an example: one night, Sophie went to a street party with her friends. She knew she had to be home by midnight after the fireworks, but she didn't feel she could just ask to go home. That would be rude. After all, they had been nice enough to take her along with them. Needless to say, she was late getting home. Her parents were mad at first, but when Sophie explained why she was late, they weren't as mad and let the incident go. Communication is the key factor here. If Sophie's parents had not been willing to listen, Sophie would have been in a lot of trouble.

    Communication isn't a one-way deal: it goes both ways. Just remember: if you get into a situation like Sophie's, telling the other person how you feel and listening is the key factor to communication.

On paper, hydrogen (H2) looks like a dream fuel. Coal, oil, and natural gas produce carbon dioxide, which warms the earth when burned, Hydrogen produces pure water. Hydrogen packs more energy into less space than a battery (but certainly less than petrol) . Also, empty tanks (燃料箱) can be refilled with hydrogen much faster than refilling empty batteries with electricity.

While in practice, things are trickier. Storing a meaningful amount of hydrogen gas requires pressing it several hundred-fold. Changing it into the liquid form is another option, but it should be cooled to-253C. Both processes require a heavy and strong tank. While a 700 bar tank is acceptable for a city bus or a truck, adapting it for use in small vehicles is very difficult because the pressure during refilling would be too great.

The solution? Powerpaste.

A German team of researchers, led by Marcus Vogt, have come up with an interesting "powerpaste", which can store hydrogen energy at atmospheric pressure, ready for release when needed. It is so named because it comes in tubes and looks like toothpaste (牙膏) , not in its traditional form of gas.

The main ingredient (原料) of the paste is magnesium hydride, a substance that reacts with water to form hydrogen. The escaped hydrogen can then be directed into a fuel cell, where it reacts with oxygen from the air to produce electric power.

Refueling is very simple, as instead of going to a filling station, drivers and riders can simply replace an empty tube with a new one and refill the water tank.

Given that powerpaste only begins to break down at temperatures of around 250℃ it remains safe even when a vehicle stands in the baking sun for hours.

However, we will have to be patient. Just because researchers have succeeded in developing a new fueling way does not mean that we can expect to see such vehicles on the road anytime soon. It will indeed be several years before this concept is turned into reality.