Before going outside in the morning, many of us check a window thermometer (温度计) for the temperature. This helps us decide what to wear.

    {#blank#}1{#/blank#}. We want our food to be a certain coldness in the refrigerator. We want it a certain hotness in the oven. If we don't feel well, we use a thermometer to see if we have a fever. We keep our rooms a certain warmth in the winter and a certain coolness in the summer.

    Not all the thermometers use the same system to measure temperature. We use a system called the Fahrenheit scale. But most other countries use the Centigrade scale. Both systems use the freezing and boiling points of water as their guide. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}.

    The most common kind of thermometer is made with mercury inside a clear glass tube. As mercury (or any other liquid) becomes hot, it expands. As it gets colder, it contracts. That is why on hot days the mercury line is high in the glass tube. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}.

    First, take a clear glass juice bottle that has a cap; fill the bottle with colored water. Tap a hole in the center of the cap using a hammer and thick nail. Put the cap on the jar. Then stick a plastic straw through the nail hole.

{#blank#}4{#/blank#}.

    Finally, place a white card on the outside of the bottle and behind the straw. Now you can see the water lever easily.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}. As the temperature goes down, the water will contract, and the lever in the straw will come down. Perhaps you will want to keep a record of the water lever in the straw each morning for a week.

Letter One

Dear Editor,

    After I finish my homework, I often go online and chat with my friends. Sometimes I play Internet games. But my parents hate to see me playing games on the computer. Maybe they have heard too much news about how QQ and Internet games harm children. Once I went to a net bar to play games after school. But after that I told my parents that I was playing basketball at school. I said so because I didn't want to make them unhappy. I feel bad about it. However, I need to rest for a while by playing computer games after studying for a long time. I really want my parents to understand that. Do foreign parents do the same to their children? Please help me.

Li Ping, Nantong

Letter Two

Dear Li Ping,

    I think it's not strange for parents to keep their children away from anything bad. Foreign parents will do the same as your parents! They may not let their children watch TV for too long a time, or like your parents, they don't want their children to play computer games.

    Talk to your parents and be honest to them, I think. Tell them what you are doing and why you are doing so to make them understand you. It's never good to do things behind your parents' backs. They aren't fools as you think sometimes! Our parents seem to know what is the best for us. Remember: to be honest is the best way.

Good luck,

Rebecca

    Phyllis Ramberg,85,lives alone in Hyattsville,Maryland,in the same house for many decades.“Children keep asking me,‘When are you going to move to one of those retirement villages?'I say,‘No,no.My friends are here, my church is close,'”Ramberg said."I've got everything I need,right in this neighborhood."A year ago,Ramberg was able to take care of her backyard.This year,she just can't do it herself."When illnesses happen,you just don't have the capability that you thought you had before,"she said.

    That's where "Aging in Place",a non-profit organization,comes in.Founder Lisa Walker says she and her friends are among the seven percent of Hyattsville residents who are 65 or older."A number of my neighbors are also around my age,"Walker said."We started talking about some of the concerns we had.Several of us had had issues with parents that were getting older and they were far away from them and didn't know how to take care of them or get support."

    Seniors can call Walker's organization with a request,for example,asking for someone to shop for groceries,do small chores around the house or drive them to the doctor.Then a volunteer is assigned to provide the help.Most of the calls are for rides to the doctor."They take me to all my medical appointments,"said Louise Battiste,who is almost 90.

    Aging in Place volunteer Sally Middlebrooks says that a review of new volunteers' background,such as driving records and any criminal history is just as important as the training they receive.“We want the seniors,people we call neighbors,to be assured that they are with safe,reliable people who are also caring people,”Middlebrooks said.

    The volunteers also gain some benefits."I've learned how to stay connected to people,your family and friends," Walker said."Do I stay close to them?Do I try to keep myself devoted to the community,relating to people younger than I am?"Middlebrooks said."I'm learning a lot about this whole process of aging,and I'm learning,to my alarm,that it's very difficult.But I'm also meeting people who amaze me with their flexibility and their sense of humor and their ability to stay very much alive despite aches and pains."

    Not all volunteers are retired.Courtney Wattai,24,is a graduate student at American University in Washington who studies care giving and plans to have a career working with seniors."That's kind of what I want to do because I want to make sure I'm able to improve their lives,"Wattai said.“I want to be involved in their lives,not just sitting at a desk doing things.I thought this would be a good way to give tribute to my grandparents and what they had done for me and my brother."

    It makes Walker happy to see the younger generation stepping up.She hopes that's how residents in her neighborhood will always care for each other.

    There is no doubt e-commerce is growing, and it will continue to grow. However, physical stores would not die as a result of the rise of e-commerce, at least not in the near future. The idea that e-commerce is taking over physical stores has already misguided many people. Physical stores are far from vanishing (消逝), and there are some solid reasons for it.

    The projections for online spending is optimistic with 150 billion expected to be spent in the coming three years, yet we are also expecting 300 billion in spending at physical stores in the same duration. Do you still think that physical-store shopping is too small to sustain (支撑) the e-commerce blow?

    Even though consumers are staying away from physical stores that follow older concepts, yet we are seeing the rise of fresh concept stores all around the US. We are seeing innovative and attractive success stories of physical stores, ranging from clothes stores to restaurants to health spas. It would be easy to assume that this trend will continue.

    Indeed, many shopping malls are dying, yet there are still some shopping centers that are performing well. You can see this for yourself by visiting shopping malls near you. What I want to emphasize here is that not all shopping centers are made equal, just like not all e-commerce retailers (零售商) are made equal. Both shopping malls and e-commerce sites can lose business if they fail to maintain productivity through improvements and innovations. When you visit shopping centers that are serious about their business, you would see their shops and parking lots packed.

    On the other hand, even e-tailers like Amazon have experimented with pop-up shopping concepts. It is important to bear in mind that consumers prefer face-to-face interactions instead of online interactions during shopping, meaning that physical stores are going to stay there.

    Still, e-commerce retailers are seeing all of their excitement disappear as they settle the sales tax problem associated with e-tailing. As of now, five states of America have already imposed sales tax on purchases through e-commerce sites, and e-tailers in those states have already witnessed 6 to 12 percent decrease in sales.

    This reinforces the fact that physical stores are here to stay, and if you are still undervaluing their growth, you are omitting (省略) a huge chunk of the retail representation.

    In 2013, Gabby Frost founded Buddy Project when she was 15. At that time her best friend had been diagnosed(诊断)with a mental health condition, and that was the first time she was made aware of what mental illness was. She wanted to learn more and develop a good support system for her.

    Mental illness affects tens of millions of people in the United States each year, yet only half receive treatment, according to the National Institutes of Mental Health. Buddy Project's website says the service is not a substitute for therapy( 治疗)or other types of mental health care, and it directs people to resources for further help.

    Since founding the organization as a high school student, Frost has helped more than 200, 000 participants find a new friend. On the day when Buddy Project was launched, she used her powerful social media presence to attract nearly 3, 000 participants. "This was around the time when teens really began talking about mental health and found a supportive community online to talk about it,"she said.

    One of the biggest social barriers she had to jump over was that people didn't view her seriously because she was a 15-year-old girl, and even now, she's still a young woman. "Sometimes it's frustrating because people don't think what I do is needed or they don't think I'm professional" she said. "Most people are blown away that a 20-year-old girl is running this and that it's one person doing this but not a whole team. I'm just lucky that I've found a support system that has been able to help my mom and me with the project.

Hearing aids usually bring to mind images of ugly, ineffective devices mainly worn by the elderly. But this ill repute (恶名) is quickly changing, as they've recently taken a turn thanks to two innovators, Dr. Marco Vietor and Paul Crusius, who now lead the fastest-growing hearing aid company in the world-hear. com.

Hear. com's years of research led to the development of two game-changing hearing aids-the Silk and Styletto. These impressive devices pack cutting-edge (尖端的) technology in designs that are practically invisible. They also use a unique way that has been clinically (临床地) proven to deliver better-than-normal hearing so you can clearly understand speech in any environment. With additional features like Bluetooth and rechargeability, today's hearing aids are attracting even younger customers skilled in tech.

But hear. com knows it's not just about tech and design. They've put an enormous effort into the entire experience to make hearing care more accessible and more affordable. "Everyone should be able to hear well to live well," Crusius says. "And it's very individual. Each person's hearing loss is different and requires a personalized approach to find the best solution."

"We hear with our brains, not our ears. And it takes at least 30 days for our brain to adjust and relearn how to hear again with new hearing aids," Dr. Vietor says. "To guarantee your best outcome with hearing aids, we developed the industry's first 30-day program, Hearing Success Program, so customers have that extra level of care and knowledge to succeed."

And it's working. Hear. com has now helped more than 100,000 customers improve their hearing. Their A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau and 5-star rating on the customer review platform, Trustpilot, speaks for itself.

Hear. com's "customer first" approach also helps drive the company's success, encouraging employees to act like owners and put customers first. "We're investing heavily in shaping our company culture," Crusius says. "Individuals who work at hear. com say they are here to do more than a job. They're helping change lives all around the world."