4 . Crazy fans will hold on to their admiration for their idols, no matter what. Some even trace their idols' Facebook accounts or follow them on Instagram, or YouTube constantly. However, is all the news definitely true? In the world of social media, it is challenging to distinguish fake news from real news.     1     They need to learn to be able to filter (过滤) before trusting what they hear, see and read about their favorite idols.

Everyone knows that the media can be controlled.     2     People have constantly been complaining about prejudice and lies in the media. So how can we be smart online? Here are some tips and tools:

1. Check the domain. Many fake news stories use similar URLs and domain names, but rather than using a “.com”, they use “.com.co” endings.     3    

2. Visit a fact-checking website. There are many reliable ones such as FactCheck org, International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), or Snopes.com.     4     Check that the article contains references and links to other news stories, articles and authors. Good news stories are supported by evidence, dates and other data.

3.     5     — are there noticeable grammatical errors? Know this — reputable sources have high proofreading and grammatical standards! Is the story of the celebrity current or recycled? Make sure an older story has not been taken out of context.

Remember, false news travels faster online than real news. Next time you read an article, hear an opinion, or see a picture, consider the flip sides of the story.

6 . When my great-grandmother died in the mid-90s, we found a number of questionable collections in her house, including a paper bag filled cleaned-out egg shells and a very poisonous jar of mercury (水银). In short: She was totally a hoarder (囤积者). Had she lived to see the age of reality television, we could have put her on A&E’s Hoarders, which tracks the lives of people who can’t stop thinking about collecting something and can’t bring themselves to throw things away.

Though it’s not yet considered an official problem, somewhere around 5 percent of Americans, or 15 million people, struggle with non-stopping collecting behaviors. After years of being considered as a OCD (强迫症), in May, hoarding will officially be recognized as its own clear Sickness In DSM, the standard book of sicknesses used by mental health professionals to classify mental health issues.

Though the research is still early, studies have shown hoarding is related to thinking-related differences in processes like decision-making, sorting and separating and labeling. In studies of people with hoarding problems, the areas of the brain connected with decision making lit up more when making choices about material objects, showing more emotional engagement with items than usual. Another study found that hoarders find it more difficult to make decisions about their own possessions than someone else’s.

“There is no doubt that the continuous getting stuff is the most important part of American culture.” said Sandra Stark, one member of the Hoarding Response Team. In San Francisco, nearly $6.5 million is spent by landlords and service agencies each year on hoarding-related issues, which include the removal of children or the elderly due to health and safety concerns. Hoarding has been identified as a direct contributor to up to six percent of all deaths by house fire.

7 . Unimportant though it may seem, sand is a critical ingredient of our lives. It is the primary raw material modern cities are made from. The concrete used to construct shopping malls, offices, and apartment blocks, along with the material we use to build roads connecting them, are largely just sand gravel glued together. The glass in every window and smartphone screen is made of melted-down sand. And even the silicon chips inside our phones and computers—along with almost every other piece of electronic equipment in your home—are made from sand.

And what is the problem with that? Our planet is covered with it. Huge deserts from the Sahara to Arizona have numerous dunes(沙丘) of the stuff. Beaches of coastlines around the world are lined with sand. But believe it or not, the world is facing a shortage of sand. How can we possibly be running low on a substance that seems essentially limitless?

Sand, however, is the most-consumed natural resource on the planet besides water. People use some 50 billion tons of aggregate—the industry term for sand and gravel, which tend to be found together—every year. That’s more than enough to blanket the entire United Kingdom. The problem lies in the type of sand we are using. Desert sand is largely useless to us. The overwhelming mass of the sand we harvest goes to make concrete, and for that purpose, desert sand grains are the wrong form. Shaped by wind rather than water, they are too smooth and round to lock together to form stable concrete.

The sand we need is the more angular(棱角分明的) stuff found in the beds of rivers, lakes and the seashore. The demand for that material is so great that around the world, riverbeds and beaches are being laid bare, and farmlands and forests are torn up to get the precious grains.

After graduating from university, I decided to become a pilot and fly commercially. I chose a flying school which had a good reputation, enrolled and joined a class of six other trainees. We completed our ground school, where we were taught all the information we would need to fly an aircraft safely. The basics included the controls of the aircraft, its instruments and the rules we would have to obey while in the air.

Our instructors were all professional pilots and were very knowledgeable but also very strict. It was difficult for them to accept inaccuracy, so we were required to get Straight-A’s in each test. It was explained to us that we could not afford to make an error as it could cost lives, so, to get my license, I doubled my efforts, learning the meaning of the word “thorough”.

Later we had 10 hours of hands-on lessons in an exact model aircraft, a “simulator”. My instructor sat next to me, watching my every move, always with a serious look. Sometimes I thought he over-reacted to my small mistakes.

The time arrived for us to take to the air for the first time. My instructor was an experienced pilot having flown big jets but was nearing retirement. As we went to take off, he pointed out the control tower and told me there was always a person on duty there for emergencies. I nodded firmly, but I never thought there was a chance I would have to call him on the radio.

We were away from our airfield and practising basic turns at about 6, 000 feet. Everything was going smoothly. Suddenly, my instructor started to shake and he put in his hand on his chest with his head falling forward. Thankfully, in control of the aircraft at that time, I steadied the aircraft and turned to look at him anxiously. He seemed to be unconscious. Our lives were in danger, and I had to put aside my uneasiness. It flashed into my mind that situations like this had been covered in ground school.

Armed with what I had learned, I quickly became much calmer.

Lying on the bed in the hospital, my instructor opened his eyes and saw me sitting beside him.

10 . Google made waves recently by announcing its new program, “Google Career Certificates,” a collection of courses designed to help participants get qualifications in high-paying, high-growth job fields without attending university. The courses take about six months to complete and will cost much less, compared to a traditional college education.

The response was huge. The article has been shared thousands of times and has caused thousands of comments. Most of the feedback has been extremely positive. Those who commented included professionals, employers and especially students who were happy to see an alternative to what many consider a broken educational system — one leaving many burdened with student debt for years while unprepared for the real world. With less time, the program can better equip graduates for the jobs they are seeking with practical and necessary skills.

What Google is offering isn’t exactly new. In some ways, the alternative resembles other traditional types of training like professional education or apprenticeship (学徒制) programs. The difference since Google is a household name, its certificate can be easily recognized and accepted across companies and industries - much like a degree from a major university.

Not all the feedback I received was in praise of Google’s initiative. Many readers expressed concern that not enough employers would value Google’s certificate program. One even described it as money racket (敲诈). So to ensure other companies to follow its lead, Google has established an association for employers to tap into the program and is currently inviting more to join. But still some readers leveled the criticism that there are certain lessons taught in higher education that you simply can’t get in other places.

In the end, I don’t think Google’s program will completely replace college education. But I do think it’s a step in the right direction — a separate path for students who are looking for something different than traditional higher education.