Are young people interested in news? How do they get news? In order to get the answers, a survey was carried out by the US. The survey covered 6,000 Americans. They were between the ages of 16 and 40.

The survey also asked the young people about their favourite types of news. Entertainment (娱乐) and music, at 49%, topped the list. Food and cooking followed closely behind them at 48%. News about the environment and education is also popular among young people.

Alena is just like any other 13-year-olds, she enjoys singing, going to the movies and hanging out with her friends. But unlike other teenagers, she is now studying biological sciences at university. She is the youngest black student to be accepted into medical university in the US.

Alena has had a strong interest in STEM—science, technology, engineering and math—from an early age. She is always thirsty for knowledge. When she was in fifth grade, the girl started to attend high school-level course online after school. Taking extra classes, Alena said, was more of a pleasure than a pain. Learning new skills seemed to be a walk in the park for her.

But if you think Alena is just a bookworm (书呆子), you are totally wrong. Besides excellent grades at school, the girl has created the “Brown STEM GIRLS” program, hoping that it can offer girls of colour a chance to receive education in STEM.

As one of Alena’s teachers said, what really makes the girl different from the other teenagers is not her brain but her heart. Alena always wants to help and to lift others up. As a medical student, she hopes that she can use her knowledge and skills to help people in need.

Alena hopes to serve as an example to others. She wants to prove (证明) that someone’s age should never stand in the way of his or her success. “What is age?” she said. “You’re not too young to do anything. You can achieve anything as long as you put your heart and mind into it. You can do it. Don’t let anybody tell you no.”

Scientists who study happiness have evidence (证据) to show that being kind to others can result in happiness. Acts as simple as buying a cup of coffee for someone can lift a person’s mood, for example.

In studies, behavioral scientist Nicholas Epley and I examined a possible explanation: people who do kind acts underestimate (低估) how much the ones receiving kindness value their behavior.

In the experiments, about 1,000 people were asked to do some actions to make someone else feel good. We asked both the person performing the kind act and the one receiving it to answer some questions. The performers were asked to report their own experience and to guess how the receivers might feel. We wanted to understand how valuable people considered these acts to be, so both the performer and receiver had to rate how “big” the act seemed. In all cases, we compared the performer’s expectations of the receiver’s mood with the receiver’s actual experience.

For one, both performers and receivers experienced more positive moods. For another, the receivers felt much better than the kind performers expected. The receivers also rated these acts “bigger” than the people performing them did.

At first, we studied acts of the kindness done for familiar people, such as friends, classmates or family. But we found that performers underestimated their positive influences on strangers as well. In one experiment, performers in a public park gave away hot chocolate on a cold winter’s day to people that just happened to be nearby. Again, the kind act brought more happiness than the performers expected.

These findings suggest that what might seem small could matter a great deal to the person we do it for. Considering these warm actions can improve our own mood and brighter the day of another person, why not choose kindness when we can?

People can travel without much money by staying in other people’s house. Sometimes the travelers may sleep for a few nights on other people’s couch (沙发) for free. This way of travelling is called couch surfing.

Couch Surfing, org is an organization that connects travelers all around the world. Members of it can find a place to stay when they travel or share their homes and hometowns with travelers from other places. In this way strangers can help strangers in order to make the world a better place.

The organization has millions of members in 238 different countries and it has changed the way of travel forever. Jamie from Australia has traveled in this way all over the world. “When I travelled before, I used to find a cheap hotel to save money, now I stay in really nice houses and apartments. But the best thing isn’t the free-living condition, it’s the people you meet. A couch surfing host will usually cook you a meal which helps break the ice. Then they’ll often introduce you to their friends and take you to the places they enjoy. Couch surfing allows you to experience a country and its culture.”

________ Delphine, an experienced host from Paris, has an answer. “They say that money makes the world go round but I try to help people go round the world without much money!” she says with a smile. So far she has received more than 100 travelers. “I enjoy meeting people from different cultures and I’ve made friends from all over the world,” says Delphine, who is also a professional cook. “And of course, I like sharing French food with them. Usually, my guests love trying it but I’ve had problems sometimes. Once I cooked roast lamb for a guest but unluckily, when she got here, she told me she Was only used to eating vegetables!”

The idea of travelling the world for free has even been made into a TV series. Alex and Zsolt from the US set out with no money at all. They depended on social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter to ask for help. They say, “wherever we went we were always provided with food. All over the world, food is a common bond (纽带).” They travelled sixteen different countries and the results were turned into the TV show Around the World for Free.

If you find yourself often feeling like there’s not enough time, you’re not alone—    21     The key is getting good at managing time. When you get the skill, you can finish your studies on time and still have space for fun activities. Here are some suggestions to help you find that balance (平衡).

    22    

Work out how much time you need for each subject. Plan your study time according to the difficulty level of each subject. For example, spend about one hour on the easy subjects, 1-2 hours on the ones in the middle, and 2-3 hours on the more difficult ones.

Use time wisely

If you don’t have enough time for studying, think about spending less time on things like playing or watching TV.     23     That way, you can make sure you have time for both studying and having fun.

Learn to Prioritize (优先处理)

Working out what to do and when to do is a key part of managing your time.     24     For example, if there’s a science test coming up, you should spend more time on science instead of other subjects.

Learn to say NO

Having fun is great, but it’s important to know when to say no to fun things. For example, if someone invites you to play but your homework isn’t done, it’s okay to say no.     25     It helps you avoid going out with friends for no good reason or watching TV too much.

In a word, being good at managing time isn’t just helpful for school; it’s a key to success in life.

Hi! I’m Bingbing, your future self! I know that you are really     46     (worry) about your future career, so I want to write this letter     47     (put) your mind at rest.

I’m sorry to say that you won’t be     48     pilot as you wanted. In the future, large passenger airplanes     49     (fly) themselves and won’t need pilots. But there is a big problem in the future that you don’t have now: no one uses cars anymore—they use     50     (person) jet packs (喷气背包). As you can imagine, the skies over the city get pretty busy! Someone needs to control all these people so they don’t have accidents. And that’s     51     you do: you’re a jet pack air traffic controller.

One really good point about your job is that you don’t have to leave home.     52    , you’ll use a virtual reality headset and microphone to do your job while you     53     (sit) on the sofa drinking tea. But you will have to work on your people skills, as you will be talking to people all day. The bad point? Too many jet packs in the sky! Sometimes it can be kind of tense, and some people don’t like to follow the     54     (rule) or be told what to do.

All in all, I think you’ll be happy with this job. But of course you will, because you’re me! Stop worrying! Your future is going to be great. Trust     55     (I).

Best regards,

future Bingbing

61. 汉语在国际交往中发挥着越来越重要的作用，学习和研究汉语的人也越来越多。你的英国朋友Anna的学校即将开设特色选修课程，她在考虑是否选修汉语，来信询问你的建议。假设你是李华，请你根据以下提示给她写封回信。

I’m so glad to hear from you._____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I hope my advice can help you.

Yours,

Li Hua