1 . Being a teenager can be hard, for you have to face a lot of difficult problems, but a new program called Nfusion is working hard to help teens with mental(精神的)health needs. Nfusion gives teenagers classes where they study or discuss some troubling subjects. Drugs and bullying(欺凌)are just a few of the topics discussed during the class on Saturday.

"I had a bad attitude, " said 17-year-old Titeana Davis. Davis went through the Nfusion Program last year. The teen, who once had trouble with her attitude towards others, says the program has changed her life. "They taught me a bad attitude is not going to get you anywhere, "said Davis.

Nfusion is a new program that meets teens mental health needs and provides help for their families. The program is designed to help teens aged 14—21 live through a difficult period.

"They're still growing, still developing and still there are a lot of things they don't know how to address. So this is a good program for them to be a part of, " said Lakicha Jemigan, who worked for the Nfusion Program.

Teens like Davis are just a few who have come through the program successfully. Now thanks to Nfusion, Davis says she's looking forward to a bright future. "After I graduate from college, I want to work at a primary school and I want to be a second grade teacher, " added Davis.

3 . Spanish artist Pablo Picasso (1881—1973 ) was one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. It was said that everything his brush touched turned to gold. But in truth, his works could be worth more than any precious metal. Picasso created more than 20,000 works in his life, including two of the world's 10 most expensive paintings.

Between 1907 and 1913, Picasso and his colleague Georges Braque started a revolution(革命) in painting. Before that, paintings were like windows—they were painted to look as if they had depth. You could tell which objects were "close" to you and which objects were "far away". But Picasso and Braque didn't want to paint like that any more. To them, a painting wasn't a window to the world; it was marks and lines on a flat surface. Why, they thought, should an object like a guitar be shown only from one angle (角度)? A guitar can look very different depending on which angle one looks at it from. Their answer was to show all the angles. They broke the guitar up into pieces. Their style of painting is called cubism (立体主义).

But why did they feel such a need to change things? Well, the world around them was changing, too. Science was turning people's ideas upside down. Albert Einstein's theory proved that what we knew about time and space was wrong. The world was becoming different; artists needed to start seeing and painting it differently.

The famous and terrifying painting Guernica (1937) shows a terrible scene during the Spanish Civil War. In the painting, you can actually see the sky falling. Picasso couldn't have painted it without the skills he learned during his cubist period. Breaking a guitar up into pieces was his preparation for showing the world being blown to pieces.

4 . If you use social media to chase away loneliness, a new study suggests that you’re going against the grain.

We may have heard a lot about the benefits of interacting with others online, but the findings of a study conducted by scientists from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine show a direct relationship between social media usage and feelings of isolation. In short, the more time you spend on social media, the lonelier you may feel.

With increasing usage of a large number of apps that allow for endless virtual connectivity, loneliness seems like the last problem social media users would face, but according to Brain A. Primack, the leader of the study, it has the exact opposite effect.

“Mental health problems and social isolation are widespread among young adults nowadays,” Primack said. “We are naturally social creatures, but modern life tends to separate us instead of bringing us together. While it may seem that social media provide opportunities to fill the social void, I think this study suggests that it may not be the solution people were hoping for.”

Primack and his team examined the social media habits of 1,787 U.S. adults aged between 19 and 32 via a questionnaire that asked about the usage frequency and the time they spent on the most popular social media platforms. Eventually, they determined that young adults who are constantly logging in social media are lonelier than those with less social media usage. Frequent exposure to unrealistic descriptions on social media instead of face-to-face social interactions may give people the impression that others are living more happily, and this may make users feel more isolated in comparison.

It was the middle of the day with the bright sun, blue sky, green grass, and a soft breeze (微风). It was a great day to play outside and the best day of my life because I got a new ball and a new bike as my sixth birthday presents, and I was visiting my cousin, Kristy, at her house.

“Here I go!” shouted David while kicking my new ball. David lived next door and was older than me. I thought he was a wild child, but he was actually very kind. The ball went flying as if it were going to space. “That was high!” Kristy said in surprise and we went after the ball. We all had a great time.

Later we had supper and the food my aunt made was good. While Kristy was helping do the dishes, David and I ran outside to play. We started taking turns riding my bike. David suggested that we ride it to the forest. And I agreed. David and I got on the bike and David started riding fast.

As we rode through the forest, I felt the wind brushing my face. It felt so great and free. Suddenly the bike hit a fallen branch and we went flying off the bike. Lying on the ground, I felt dizzy (眩晕的). I checked myself for injuries and saw some but they didn’t upset me.

“David!” I shouted out anxiously.

“Hey,” said a voice. I turned my head and it was David, who was standing behind me, holding my broken bike. At the sight of my disabled bike, I was so sad that I couldn’t hold back my tears. It took David some time to calm me down.

When we realized it was time to walk home, we found ourselves lost.

It was completely dark when we saw fireworks (烟花) being set off in the distance.

Yours,

Li Hua

8 . The idea of using a public bathroom with see through walls may sound like the stuff of nightmares. But a famous Japanese is hoping to change that view, using new technology to make restrooms in Tokyo parks more inviting.

“There are two things we worry about when entering a public restroom, especially those cated at a park,” according to architect Shigeru Ban’s firm. “The first is cleanliness, and the second is whether anyone is inside.”

The newly-invented transparent walls can turn off both of those worries, Ban says, by showing people what awaits them inside. After users enter the restroom and lock the door, the room’s walls turn a powdery paste) shade and are no longer see-through.

Ban’s are sure to make for great conversation among visitors to the park-and they’ll stand out even more after dark. “At night, the facility lights up the park like a beautiful lantern,” the architect’s website says.

The group is behind the Tokyo Toilet project, world-famous architects to create toilets “like you’ve never seen. The project’s eye catching toilets are part of a plan to put people ar ease when isiting a public bathroom. The project may seem silly, but the 16 architects who are reimagining public toilets are some of the brightest names in Japanese architecture. The list includes four Pritzker Prize winners-Ban, Toyo Ito, Tadao Ando and Fumihiko Maki-along with international stars such as Kengo Kuma and Sou Fujimoto. The fashion designer Nigo is also contributing.

Ban’s colorful public bathrooms opened to the public this month in two parks: Yoyogi Fukamachi Mini Park and Haru-no-Ogawa Community Park. Other bespoke commodes will be opening in coming months.

9 . “If music is the medicine of the soul, let it play on,” said a famous person. I think he said so probably because he had got some help from music. Music has some strange functions. Medical scientists have found that a person who feels stressed can actually listen to a certain kind of music and become relaxed.

Researchers said that since stress comes as a result of some events in life such as starting a new family, starting a new business and starting a new job, one can actually listen to good music and feel good because good music touches humans in a positive way. Music helps you forget these events that make you worried and remember the important events that once happened in your life.

Depression(抑郁症) is a disease caused by stress, smoking, social problems, etc. Depression is also caused by difficulties such as failure in business. Depression may bring us weakness, headaches and loss of concentration. Good music makes one remember happy moments or days. If you play music about love, it makes you feel like falling in love again though you may have had several upset experiences. And such good feelings make you healthy.

Anxiety is another health problem that can be controlled by music. Anxiety is one of the side effects of some major health problems such as liver cancer and breast cancer. Good music makes you feel relaxed and relieves the pain caused by these diseases and you will feel better. Good music also makes you sleep better, and you need to know that sleep puts your body in a healthy condition. Good sleep takes away the effects of stress, depression and anxiety from a person.

10 . Every week in China, millions of people will sit in front of their TVs watching teenagers compete for the title Character Hero, which is a Chinese-style spelling bee. In this challenge, young competitors must write Chinese characters by hand. To prepare for the competition, the competitors usually spend months studying dictionaries.

Perhaps the show’s popularity should not be a surprise. Along with gunpowder and paper, many Chinese people consider the creation of Chinese calligraphy(书法) to be one of their primary contributions to civilization. Unfortunately, all over the country, Chinese people are forgetting how to write their own language without computerized help. Software on smart phones and computers allows users to type in the basic sound of the word using the Latin alphabet. The correct character is chosen from a list. The result? It’s possible to recognize characters without remembering how to write them.

But there’s still hope for the paint brush. China’s Education Ministry wants children to spend more time learning how to write.

In one Beijing primary school we visited, students practice calligraphy every day inside a specially decorated classroom with traditional Chinese paintings hanging on the walls. Soft music plays as a group of six-year-olds dip brush pens into black ink. They look up at the blackboard often to study their teacher’s examples before carefully attempting to reproduce those characters on thin rice paper. “If adults can survive without using handwriting, why bother to teach it now?” we ask the calligraphy teacher, Shen Bin. “The ability to write characters is part of Chinese tradition and culture,” she reasons. “Students must learn now so they don’t forget when they grow up.” says the teacher.