1 . Our local Community Youth Club is a very popular organization with young people in my town. I have been a member for four years now and I’ve taken part in a lot of interesting projects. These include fun activities such as holiday camps and discos. We have organized sports competitions and we even made a video.

But it isn’t all just enjoyment, we have also started doing social work to help people in our neighbourhood. We have organized activities for small children during the holidays. We have also formed a social support group to help young people stop smoking.

We are particularly proud of the most recent group we have created. It organizes regular visits to the local old people’s home. This idea came from a school visit to an old people’s home. My class spent an afternoon at a home and everyone found the visit very rewarding.

The old people at the home were very excited by our visit. They were very talkative and they told us their personal stories. During our visit, the home was filled with the sound of laughter. We sang songs and played games with the old people and had tea together. But we realized that life wasn’t always easy. Some of them were in poor health and were very unhappy. They couldn’t go outside and the visits by children brought some sunshine into their lives.

Many young people like me do not live with our grandparents and we have very little contact with elderly people. As a result, many young people don’t know what they are like and we have a lot of wrong ideas about them. We have little or no idea of the kind of lives they lead in their homes. After this visit, my friends and I decided we should do something to help improve the quality of their lives.

Since the creation of our visiting group, over twenty volunteers have joined us. Up to now, we have organized three group evenings and a concert.But it is the individual (单独的) visits which are the most important. Club members regularly visit old people and everyone finds the experience rich and rewarding.

2 . Every country has its heroes. The heroes are the people the nation and especially the young people admire. If you get a list of the heroes of a nation, it will tell you the potential of that nation.

If today in America, you ask the high school students to list their heroes, their choice would probably fall into three groups. The first group of heroes would be the rock stars—the people connected with rock music. There is no doubt that such people do have talent but one wonders if one should hold up rock stars as a model. The rock stars too often are involved with drugs and their personal life is not all that good. The rock stars are rich and wear the latest fashion styles. However, one should seek more in a hero than such things as money and good clothes.

A second type of hero for the American youth is the sports star. Again you have a person who has a great ability in one area—SPORTS. However, too often the personal life of the sports star is a bit of a mess. Too frequently drugs and drinking are a part of life of the sports star.

A third type of hero is the TV or movie star. This person may have lots of acting talent and is quite handsome. However, the personal life of too many actors is quite sad and they should not be held up as a model for young people.

Today, the rock star, the athlete and the actor all have become the models of the youth in America. Really, do you hear a young person say that his hero is a doctor, a teacher, or a scientist? These people are not rich and do not wear fashionable clothes. However, they are talented people who work hard to make the world a better place for everyone.

What is really sad is that the young try to imitate their heroes. They like to wear the same clothes and follow their styles. If the heroes of today for the American youngsters are limited only to rock stars, athletes and actors, the future does not look too bright.

3 . Every culture has a recognized (公认的) point when a child becomes an adult, when rules must be followed and tests passed.

In China,   although teenagers can get their ID cards at 16, many only see themselves as an adult when they are 18. In the US, where everyone drives, the main step to the freedom of adult life is learning to drive. At 16, American teens take their driving test. When they have their license (执照), they drive into the grown­-up world.

“Nobody wants to ride the cheese bus to school,” said Eleanor Fulham. 17. “It’s like you’re not cool if you don’t have a car,”   she said.

According to a recent research, 41% of 16 to 19 ­year-olds in the US own cars, up from 23% in 1985. Although, most of these cars are bought by parents, some teens get part­-time jobs to help pay.

Not all families can afford cars for their children. In cities with undergrounds and limited (有限的) parking, some teenagers don’t want them. But in rich areas outside the city, if there are no undergrounds, and bicycles are more for fun than cars, it is strange for a teenager not to have a car.

But police say 16­-year­ olds have almost three times more accidents than 18 and 19 ­year-olds. This has made many parents stop before letting their kids drive. They need to wait until they are more experienced.

Julie Susiana, of Virginia, decided that her son Chad, 15, will wait until he is 17 to apply for his learner’s permit (许可).

Chad said he has accepted his parents’ decision, although it has caused some laughing from his friends. “They say that I am unlucky,” he said. “But I’d rather be alive than driving, and I don’t really trust my friends on the road either.”

In China as more families get cars, more 18 ­year­-olds learn to drive. Will this become a big step to becoming an adult?

Many teenagers feel lonely as if no one understands them and the changes they are going through.     1     Day by day, everything seems different, yet the same. Life never seems to be going fast enough; yet, in other ways, like a race car, life seems to be rushing too fast and even going out of control.     2    别的人也有过同感吗?

These feelings are a common part of adolescence the time of life between child and adult. And,     3     though it may sometimes be difficult to believe, you are not alone —every adult has gone through adolescence, and     4    你的朋友和你一样正经历着这个阶段。It is common for teenagers to feel lonely and misunderstood.     5     These feelings can be thought of as growing pains —the difficulties that teenagers face as they grow to adults.

6 . Acupuncture (针灸) is a traditional Chinese medical practice of treating various physical and mental (心理的) conditions. It won respect and interest in the United States after New York Times reporter James Reston visited China with President Nixon and needed an operation. Chinese doctors used acupuncture on James after surgery (外科手术) to reduce his pain, and his recovery was quick. Curious about this, James was allowed to watch surgery on patients who received acupuncture for anesthesia (麻醉). Patients talked with their doctors during the operation and then walked back to their rooms on their own.

The effectiveness of acupuncture left James such a deep impression that he wrote a front- page article in New York Times about his operation upon returning to the United States. “A leading medical expert sent by Premier Chou En-lai removed my appendix (阑尾). I was awake in the whole process. ”

The National Institutes of Health began to organize some of their top doctors to visit China to investigate acupuncture and its possible functions in western medicine. With years going by, acupuncture has become popular across the world with magical effect.

9 . As globalization continues to make the world a smaller place, and goods become more accessible across borders, concerns about food safety in the Asia­Pacific region have steadily risen over the years. An APEC forum is being held in Beijing, to find ways to better address the problem.

156 participants from 19 APEC economies and 4 non­APEC members attended the APEC Food Safety Cooperation Forum, which has been actively looking for ways to strengthen food safety standard in the region, without affecting trade.

“As consumers are faced with more varieties of food, the potential food safety risk also becomes bigger.This forum has helped APEC economies to cooperate in supervision(监督), exchange information, and improve the overall food safety standard in the Asia­Pacific region,” said director of China’s General Administration of Quality Supervision Wu Qinghai.

For the first time the forum has brought together high­level regulators, academics, and industry stakeholders to talk about their respective roles in safety supervision.They say governments alone cannot shoulder this heavy duty.

In China, the continuous food safety problems have greatly hurt consumers’ confidence in domestic products; therefore more turned to imports. However, problems related to quality of those imported goods also began to show. In July this year, more than 400 batches (批) of food imported from 35 countries and regions were found substandard by the country’s top quality supervisor.

Governments and industries have been brought closer by this forum.As food moves more freely beyond borders, this forum is hoped to promote safety control cooperation, so APEC members can better benefit from the economic integration(经济一体化).

10 . Although many online personality tests are fun, only a few will really give you insight into who you are and what you are supposed to be doing with your life.

At CareerPlanner.com we believe that each individual (个人)，regardless of (不管)race or religion, has a purpose in life, and until you discover what your purpose is, you will not find true happiness, nor true job satisfaction.

This doesn't mean you won't be successful.It just means you won't be happy until you are moving towards your true purpose.

Unfortunately, our school system does very little to help students discover their true career.This is where online personality tests and career tests can help.

Online personality tests and career tests can help you better understand what type of work you should be doing to achieve job satisfaction, happiness, and success.

Personality tests are most useful in giving you insight into “how” your personality compares to others and “how” you like to work.

In particular, if you frequently experience difficulty working with others, or getting their support and cooperation, a really good personality test would show you how to get along better.

While personality tests are very useful at showing you how you like to work and how you like your work environment, they are not really designed to show you “what” type of work is right for you.

That is where Career Interest Tests come in.Online Career Tests, such as the CareerPlanner.com offers will help you discover what your true interests are, and what type of work you will be passionate about.

But back to personality tests.The most well­established personality tests are the Myers­Briggs Type Indicator R, and the Enneagram.