Last weekend my classmates and I took part a voluntary activity in the community, which is actually organized by our school. As planned, they met at 9 on the Saturday morning at the school gate. When we arrived, we first went to the old people home in which we told stories but put on a talent show. What’s more, we visited some sick kid and gave them some gifts, what I thought could encourage them a lot. Finally, we helped to cleaning up the city parks so that people could have a clean and beautiful environment. How meaningfully it was!

4 . Family Travel: On the Road Again

The classic road trip is more popular than ever. Here are few places to visit.

Colo Roads

The Colorado Tourism Office has made it easy for road-trippers to explore the state’s 24 Scenic &Historic Byways. A new microsite includes an interactive map that lets travelers explore options by region, interest or season. Travelers seeking inspiration can also get trip suggestions within more than 150 Colo-Road Trip plans. The plans offer suggestions for historic attractions, active adventures and cultural opportunities.

The Beartooth Highway

Visitors who travel his amazing road experience the beautiful scenery (风景) of Montana, Wyoming and Yellowstone Park, home to the Absaroka and Beartooth mountains. The 68-mile highway introduces road explorers to one of the most different ecosystems reachable by car. Extremely beautiful, the road shows wide plateaus (高原) painted with blue icy lakes, forested valleys, waterfalls and wildlife.

California Dreaming

For impressive coastal scenery and seaside breezes, drive the car for a trip up or down our western shore. Begin in Santa Monica, California, and wind your way past the Hearst Castle. Other road trip options include a tour which features the best surf spots, or uncover the strange attractions you’ll find in the California desert.

The Lighthouse Trail

Travel the 375 miles between Kittery and Calais, Maine, visit lighthouses along the way, and learn about the dangers that sea-going ships and seamen experienced along the Northeastern coast. Hear stories of the difficult and lonely life led by those who kept the lights burning brightly. If possible, visit the Maine Lighthouse Museum, where hands-on exhibits for children provide a good break.

5 . Most polar bears could disappear by the end of the century, scientists say. Global warming is to blame. According to a study published this month in Nature Climate Change, most polar bear populations will be in serious decline by 2080. The cause is melting sea ice.       

Polar bears hunt seals on the ice. Without ice, the bears must wander on the shore, where they are spending more and more time away from their main food source. That means the animals could starve.

“There’s not enough food on land to sustain a polar bear population,” Péter K. Molnár told the New York Times. He is the study’s lead author.

Lack of food leads to another problem: Mother bears may not be fat enough to produce milk for their cubs. Some bear populations could stop having babies, leading to a rapid decline in numbers.

Arctic sea ice usually melts in the spring and summer, then grows in the winter. But now, the ice is taking longer to grow back. Weather statistics say the Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet. Ice in the region has declined 13% every 10 years since the 1970s.

The Arctic is home to roughly 25,000 polar bears. Scientists have long known that the animals are in danger. This study, which looked at 13 of the world’s 19 polar bear populations, is the first to identify when they could disappear.

But the study also notes that it is still possible to slow Arctic melting. The world can reduce the burning of fossil fuels and lower the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change. It would have to be a drastic reduction. Bringing emissions to only a moderate level will still mean the loss of some polar bears.

Saving the bears is up to us, Holland says. “I believe that there is hope,” she says. “But humans need to act quickly to turn that hope into a reality.”

In the past, people only printed books and magazine to read. However, in recent years, the way to reading has been changed greatly. Some paper books have replaced by e-books. More and more people prefer to read e-books in the computer.

In my opinion, reading e-books can bring great benefits. First of all, comparing with paper books, e-books are many more convenient to read. We can read e-books whenever we are freely and wherever we are. It is especially good for those that are always on the go. Second, reading e-books is the good way to protect the environment because we need not to cut down trees to produce paper any more.

7 . The future of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, which will open on Tuesday, has been doubted by some experts due to their low expectations as to its logistic(后勤的) functions. But instead, the bridge will play an important role in promoting the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

According to research made by the One Country Two Systems Research Institute, the grand bridge connecting Hong Kong, Macao and Zhuhai will have limited effects on freightage(货运) but it will have a meaningful influence on passenger traffic.

Under the economic environment of the Bay Area, particularly the western part, the bridge's transport function will focus on passenger traffic.

The bridge will give a big improvement to cross-boundary passenger traffic as using it will not only be less time-consuming than the currently used circuitous(迂回的) land routes, it will also be more economical than travel by sea. Demand for cross-boundary passenger transport is expected to increase greatly.

And prospects(前景) for the bridge's traffic volumes have received a improvement from two policies. The first is that the bridge charge for vehicles will be driver-friendly — between 60 yuan ($8.66) and 300 yuan per trip.

The second policy is connected with private car drivers. Hong Kong drivers without a mainland license can apply for a permit online and drive around Guangdong for a short period after entering the province through designated(指定的) ports.

Along with other favorable policies, which have already been carried out, the operation of the bridge is likely to strength regional unity.

Greater cooperation between Hong Kong and the western Pearl River Delta is a major value of the bridge.

8 . A

I am a student and part-time waitress in Chicago. Growing up, I was used to words such as “Don’t talk to strangers”. As a result, I don’t talk to unknown people at work except taking orders.

One night, a little old man, probably in his eighties, came in. I took his order and went on my way. But I noticed that he came in week after week. Slowly, I began having short conversations with my new guest, whose name was Mr Rodgers, but he insisted that I call him Don. I learned that he and his wife had gone to dinner and a movie every Saturday. Since she had died, he carried on the tradition alone. I began looking forward to him coming in and telling me his movie reviews.

As the weeks went on I began to sit and really talk with Don. We talked about his wife, his days and his son. Eventually, we began to talk about my dreams and studies.

Since meeting Don, I have learned that strangers can become friends and that life can be much more enjoyable if I make friendly conversations. After all, I became more than just his waitress. I became his friend, too.

9 . Coolest Bookstores in the World

Where did you buy your last book? Chances are that you bought it on the Internet. But if you did, you missed the remarkable experience of browsing in a real bookstore. These days bookstores offer lots of great books and plenty more.

Time magazine once named Eslite Dunnan Store in Taiwan province, China "Asia's best bookstore". One visit to the store tells you why. The store, spread across five floors, offers a combination of restaurants, music and over 200,000 books. With its comfortable reading spots, visitors sometimes say it's like a library. Others have called it the "7-Eleven of bookstores" because it's open 24 hours a day.

The world's biggest bookstore is Tehran, Iran's Book Garden with 700,000 square feet of space. In addition to restaurants and a theater, the Book Garden features a park on the roof. Visitors can pick up one of 1,000 free books to read while enjoying the fresh air and sunshine from the Book Garden's rooftop park.

Rio de Janeiro's Saraiva Bookstore might be the world's most colorful bookstore. The visible upper level is lined with books arranged by their colors. This rainbow effect provides a color welcoming for shoppers as they arrive. A rainbow path also leads young readers into the children's section.

Venice, Italy, is a city surrounded with water. Its books are displayed in all things related to water such as boats, bathtubs to protect them when the shop floods during high tide. It overlooks one of Venice's many canals, and the smell of old books fills the air.

There may be a slight chill(寒冷) in the air, with temperatures staying around 15℃ in March, but Spain’s handsome capital is slowly starting to warm up. Even more attractive are the cultural events.

A new exhibition on the living and working spaces of Spain’s greatest artist, Picasso, has just opened in the studio at the Fundación Mapfre at Paseo de Recoletos 23. It runs until 11 May with rarely seen pieces borrowed from his family.

Later this summer, the 400th anniversary of the death of the Renaissance(文艺复兴) painter El Greco will be marked with an exciting exhibition at the Museo del Prado at Paseo del Prado from 24June to 5 October.

The widest range of flights is offered by EasyJet—from Bristol, Edinburgh, Gatwick, Liverpool and Luton. British Airways and its sister airline Iberia combine forces from Heathrow and London City. Ryanair flies from Manchester and Stansted; Air Europa flies from Gatwick.

Barajas airport is 13km north-east of the city centre and is served by frequent trains on Metro line 8, but the shortest underground journey is a bit complex with at least one change at Nuevos Ministerios station and takes about 30 minutes. The fare to any station in the city centre is ∈4.50. The airport express bus runs every 15 to 35 minutes around the clock; ∈5 one way. It takes 40 minutes to reach the city centre. A taxi takes half the time. A flat rate of ∈30 covers most of central Madrid.