Tourism can be both good and bad. Yes, it brings in money for the local economy and creates lots of jobs for locals, but it may also bring some problems.

One growing problem is tourists who want to prove that they have visited a destination. Tourists have used paint, rocks, or even keys to write on the Luxor Temple in Egypt, the Colosseum in Rome, Stonehenge in the UK, memorial stones at the bottom of Qomolangma, and many, many other places. Thousands of tourist sites are being destroyed by tourists who “love them to death”.

Another big problem in some places has been tourists disturbing (打扰) the local people and life. Some tourists wander around and take pictures of local people without asking for their permission. For example, Chiang Mai University in Thailand and Yonsei University in South Korea have great numbers of tourists visiting their campuses and walking through their libraries and other public areas, taking pictures of students and disturbing their studies. Another example is Sanlitun, a neighbourhood in Beijing. China. Some tourists love to party there late into the night, making it difficult for locals to sleep.

The number of problems from tourists is endless: walking in large groups without considering others who need to walk by, crossing roads without thinking of local traffic laws, and many more. The only way to solve the problem of the terrible tourist is to make sure that you are not one! Be the best, kindest, most polite tourist possible.

A couple，whom we shall call John and Mary, had a nice home and two lovely children. One day, John and Mary decided to go on a trip to another city, so they found a kind woman to look after the children and left.

Several days later, they returned home a little earlier than they had planned. As they drove back to their hometown, John and Mary noticed smoke and went to see what it was. They found a house was on fire.“Oh,well, it isn't our house. Let's go home,”Mary said.

But John drove closer and screamed in surprise，“That's Jordan's home. He works in a factory. He wouldn’t be off work yet. Maybe there is something we can do to help.”

“It has nothing to do with us,”cried Mary. “You have your good clothes on,so let's not get any closer.”

John didn't listen to Mary. He drove up and stopped. They were both shocked to see the whole house was on fire. A woman was crying in the yard, “The children! Get the children!”

John seized her by the shoulder and shouted to her, “Don't cry! Tell me where the children are!” “In the basement(地下室)，”cried the woman,“down the hall and to the left.”

John used water to get his clothes wet and put a wet towel on his head before rushing to the basement. The house was full of smoke and fire, and it was very difficult for him to find the children. But he made it. He held one under each arm. As he left，he could hear some more crying. He took the two kids out of the house and into the fresh air，and then asked the women how many more children were still down there.

Thewoman told him there were two more.

As he took them out,he felt something strangely familiar about the little bodies.

A new study warns that about thirty percent of the world’s people may not have enough water by the year 2025.

A private American organization called Population Action International (PAI) did the new study. It says more than 335 million people lack enough water now. The people live in 28 countries. Most of the countries are in Africa or the Middle East.

PAI researcher Robert Engelman says by the year 2025, about 3,000 million people may lack water. At least 18 more countries are expected to have severe water problems. The demand for water keeps increasing. Yet the amount of water on the Earth stays the same.

Mr Engelman says the population in countries that lack water is growing faster than in other parts of the world. He says population growth in these countries will continue to increase.

The report says lack of water in the future may result in several problems. It may increase health problems. Lack of water often means drinking water is not safe. Mr Engelman says there are problems all over the world because of diseases, such as cholera which are carried in water.

Lack of water may also result in more international conflict. Countries may have to compete for water in the future. Some countries now get sixty percent of their fresh water from other countries. And the report says lack of water would affect the ability to improve their economies. This is because new industries often need large amounts of water when they are beginning.

The Population Action International study gives several solutions to the water problem. One way, it says, is to find ways to use water for more than one purpose. Another way is to teach people to be careful not to waste water. A third way is to use less water for agriculture. The report also says long-term solutions to the water problem must include controls on population growth.

In our modern world, when something wears out, we throw it away and buy a new one. The problem is that countries around the world have growing mountains of rubbish because people are throwing out more rubbish than ever before, which, of course, raises the public’s concern of our living environment.

How do the society become a throwaway one? First of all, it is now easier to replace an object than to spend time and money repairing it. Thanks to modern technology, companies are able to produce products quickly and inexpensively. Products are plentiful and cheap, and it’s more convenient to get them delivered nowadays.

Another course is our love of disposable (一次性的) products. As busy people, we are always looking for ways to save time and make our lives easier. Companies produce thousands of different kinds of disposable products: paper plates, plastic cups and cameras, to name a few. It seems that disposable products have become a common part of our life.

Longing for new products also leads to the problem. We are used to buying new things and are always talked into buying something we don’t need. Advertisements persuade us that newer is better and that we will be happier with the latest products. The result is that we throw away useful belongings to make room for new ones. To decrease the amount of rubbish and to protect the environment, more governments are requiring people to recycle materials. However, this is not enough to solve our problem. Maybe there is another way out. We need to repair our belongings instead of throwing them away, we also need to rethink our attitudes towards spending. Repairing our belongings and changing our spending habits may be the best way to reduce the amount of rubbish and take care of our environment.

Why do we have deserts today? Deserts have not always been here. Most deserts that we have today were once green lands full of plant life. One of today’s biggest deserts is in North Africa. However, in the 1st century BC farms in North Africa grew corn and wheat to make bread for the whole city of Rome. How did this area become desert?

Both weather and people can help form a desert. Hot weather or very little rain makes the land so dry that nothing can grow. While in some regions, the increase in desert areas is occurring largely as a result of a trend toward drier climatic conditions.

Continued gradual global warming has produced an increase in aridity (干旱) for some areas over the past few thousand years. The process may be sped up in the following decades if global warming resulting from air pollution seriously increases.

The primary reason for desert formation is human activities, though. If people cut down or burn trees and plants to make land clear for farming, the wind can blow the soil away and turn the dry land into sand. Another big problem is farming on land that is not very good. This poor land can very quickly turn into desert, if it is farmed too much. One of the biggest causes, however, is when people take their animals to the same fields to feed over and over, and the fields finally lose all their nutrition. Because of these problems, deserts are slowly taking over green land in many parts of the world, including China.

However, we can fight the growing deserts! In some parts of China people are working to prevent desert from expanding. In Xinjiang, for example, some farmers are trying new scientific farming methods. These methods make it possible to use less land for crops, so farmers then can plant trees on the rest of their land!

One Xinjiang farmer used only HALF of his fields to grow the SAME amount of crops as last year. On the other half of his land, he planted fruit trees. The work of people like this is helping to fight the world’s growing deserts.

Not all education can and should happen within the classroom. Sometimes, traveling is the best form of education, as students can get a number of personal and educational benefits from travel. From learning about other cultures first-hand to seeing where historical events took place with their own eyes, educational travel gives students the opportunity to deepen their understanding of art, science, history, and culture in many ways.

Educational becomes a whole new experience when students can see lots of tools and equipment for themselves by traveling to different places. The tools and equipment could be used by scientists decades or even centuries ago to make discoveries that make our modern world possible. Educational travel brings the materials off the pages and into reality, allowing students to connect themselves with them in a more meaningful way.

No matter where students go, it’s almost guaranteed that they’ll find some kind of food that is unique to that place or done better than anywhere else. If someone gets Chicago-style pizza in Chicago, they’re going to have a different tasting experience than they would if they were getting the same type of thing in, say, Texas. At the same time, getting chili in Texas would be a whole different experience from getting chili in New York or Chicago. Students can learn a lot about a culture by what they eat on a daily basis and what they consider a special meal, so it’s good to take a taste of the local food and learn through all of the senses.

Being away from family, home, and familiar ground is a courageous and independent adventure in its own right. Educational travel provides that opportunity to allow students to open their minds regarding how they choose to live life, which can be extraordinarily helpful in preparing students for college and adulthood. Traveling – with the combined social skills and perspectives(视角) it teaches – really allows students to better understand how they can operate on their own.