3 . Have you heard of the term “tweenager”? It’s a slang (俚语) word used in the UK to describe children between about ten and twelve years old. They are between being a junior and a teenager. Why do the press and media refer to kids in this way?

Well, more and more companies now create products and services for tweenagers. They seem to tell us that tweenagers must have more money, freedom and influence upon their parents than they’ve ever had before.

Most children in the UK today get more pocket money than kids did a decade ago. Despite problems happening fairly often and regularly in the economy, parents generally have more money to give than before, since they are having fewer children on average than in the past. In addition, a higher divorce (离婚) rate in the UK makes parents try to compensate by buying presents for their children. It’s a bad habit for both parents and children to get into, but parents are under constant pressure from commercial marketing and the requests of their children.

You may wonder how tweenagers have more freedom than previous generations. Well, UK children today are very media- and computer-literate. They have access to much more information about life and the world. They may have experienced a lot in life as well. With such sophistication (老于世故) at such a young age, it’s no wonder tweenagers are able to influence their parents.

Now UK tweenagers are also very fashion-conscious and concerned about their images. In a world of television programs that promise immediate success and fame at a young age, some people think it’s extremely important to look fashionable.

So what does tweenage fashion look like? It’s lots of brightly colored materials, particularly pink, and usually plain, not patterned. There are plenty of bows, necklaces and bracelets, too.

But can it really be healthy for us to encourage kids to be like adults at a young age? Are we stealing childhoods in return for a bit of profit? Well, the UK government is certainly concerned, and for that reason has strict laws preventing companies from clearly and openly marketing their products and services to children.

4 . Chinese culture values family bonds (纽带) very much. Family members don’t just gather during the holidays, in fact they often live under one roof all year round.

Different cultures have different family values.     1    

In most East Asian cultures, extended families (大家庭) are common.     2     According to the Atlantic, 90 percent of children in Shanghai and 70 percent of children in Beijing were cared for by their grandparents. Chinese people believe that “a grandparent is a treasure to their family”.

In many Western countries, most families are nuclear families (小家庭). These are only made up of children and their parents.

Additionally, the duties parents have toward their children can also differ.

    3     It’s normal for parents to pay for their children’s college, help them find a job, or buy them an apartment. Chinese adults also follow their parents’ opinions when making major life decisions, more often than not.

In most Western countries, however, kids usually move out of the house after they turn 18.     4     Also, if they choose to keep living with their parents after becoming an adult, it can be seen by some as a failure on their part.

While the East cares more about close family bonds, the West values privacy and independence.     5     Families will always be a source of love, warmth, and care for people around the world.

5 . Housing officials say that lately they are noticing something different: students seem to lack the will, and the skill, to deal with ordinary conflicts. “We have students who are mad at each other and they text each other in the same room,” says a teacher. “So many of our conflicts are because kids don’t know how to solve a problem by formal discussion.”

And as any pop psychologist will tell you, bottled emotions lead to silent discontent (不满) that can boil over into frustration and anger. At the University of Florida, emotional conflicts occur about once a week, the university’s director of housing education says, “Over the past five years, roommate conflicts have increased. The students don’t have the person-to-person discussions and they don’t know how to handle them.” The problem is most dramatic among freshmen; housing professionals say they see improvement as students move toward graduation, but some never seem to improve, and they worry about how such students will deal with conflicts after college.

Administrators guess that reliance on cell phones and the Internet may have made it easier for young people to avoid uncomfortable encounters. Why express anger in person when you can vent (发泄) in a text? “Things are posted on someone’s wall on Facebook like: Oh, my roommate kept me up all night studying,” says Dana Pysz, an assistant director at the University of California, Los Angeles. “It’s a different way to express their conflict to each other, consequently creating even more conflicts as complaints go public.” In recent focus groups at North Carolina State University, dorm residents said they would not even deal with noisy neighbors on their floor.

Administrators point to parents who have fixed their children’s problems in their entire lives. Now in college, the children lack the skills to attend to even modest conflicts. Some parents continue to interfere (干涉) on campus.

7 . Even though one out of three American children live within a mile of their schools, almost not half of those students often bike or walk to class, scientists report. Children who live in the South, in country areas, or who have college-educated parents, are among those least likely to bike or walk to school, which is reported in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Sarah Martin and her workmates at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) studied materials from more than 7,000 children between 9 and 15 years of age. They found that almost 35 percent of the children lived within one mile of their schools. Children between 11 and 13 years old were more likely to walk or bike than 9-year-olds. Children whose parents had a high school education were more likely to ride a bike or walk than children with college-educated parents.

“The majority of children are missing an opportunity to increase daily physical activity,” Martin said in a prepared statement. According to the CDC, nearly one in five (18.8 percent) children between 6 and 11 years old are overweight. Increased daily physical activity is one of the methods the CDC gives to help deal with the problem among children.

According to Martin, there are all kinds of reasons why children in city areas might be more likely to bike or walk to school. They pointed out the fact that if schools are in places where there are fewer safe sidewalks, the students will be less likely to ride or walk to school. The students should try to ride or walk to school as much as possible and parents are advised to pay great attention to their children’s health.

8 . Shake Shack is a new kind of restaurant becoming more popular in the U.S. The restaurants are not “fast food.” They are known as “fast casual”.

Observers say Americans want more choices and fresh food when choosing where and what to eat. This trend is one reason why the fast food restaurant McDonald's has struggled financially.

McDonald's is one of the best-known restaurants in the U.S. and even around the world. Their ads say “I’m loving it.” But in the last quarter of 2014, McDonald's net income dropped by about $300 million. Worldwide sales dropped for the eighth month and even more than expected.

Bonnie Riggs is a restaurant expert. She says one reason Americans like fast casual food is because it's new. They are creative, they are innovative, they are something different and we like to try new things.

Ms. Riggs says Americans made 61 billion visits to restaurants last year. Three out of four visits were to fast food restaurants, like McDonald's. Fast casual is still a small percentage of restaurant visits. She says it's “growing quickly” because they meet consumers' needs.

“They know it’s being prepared while they wait, it's fresh, uh, fresh ingredients, quality food, good tasting food at reasonable and affordable prices.”

Many Americans still like their fast food, Ms. Riggs says, they just are not going as often. And, she says, some people buy prepared foods at stores and take them home to eat. Others like to cook at home.

9 . If you’re taking a high school chemistry class, you’re likely to spend some time in your school’s science laboratory. Although the lab work is fun, you have to observe the safety rules if you don’t want to hurt yourself or your lab partner.

The first rule is to become familiar with your lab assignment(任务) before you start working with it. This means reading everything the teacher has written down and asking questions if you don’t understand an instruction.

Do not try to work alone. If your partner is absent, let you teacher know so he can assign another student to work with you. And don’t do any other experiments other than what you have been assigned. Keep your hands away from your skin, face, eyes and mouth when you have been working with dangerous chemicals.

You will be working with fire in the lab with an alcohol lamp(酒精灯). Use gloves when handling hot lab equipment. If you have long hair, pull it back in a ponytail and roll up long sleeves. Don’t put paper, chemicals, lab equipment or any part of your body in the flame.

When you use a sharp instrument, treat it with care. Do not point it at yourself or any of your fellow classmates during the experiment.