2 . Is there a link between social media and depression?     1     It’s complicated.

Sometimes, looking through Instagram just makes you feel bad. You try not to envy your friends, but they always seem to be traveling somewhere cool, eating something fancy, or looking cute in perfect just- rolled- out- of- bed hair.     2     Clearly, social media isn’t all bad.

    3     Things like cyberbullying (网上欺凌), screen addiction, and being exposed to endless filtered images (美颜) that make it impossible not to make comparisons between yourself and others often make the news. In July, a big study came out in the journal JAMA titled “Association of Screen Time and Depression in Adolescence.” This big headline seems to confirm what a lot of people have been saying —     4    

The study followed over 3,800 adolescents over four years as part of a drug and alcohol prevention program. Part of what the investigators measured was the teens’ amount of screen time, including time spent on social media, as well as their levels of depression symptoms.     5     That was true both when the researches compared between people and compared each person against their own mental health over time.

I was pushed into writing the “top ten problems the young face” after I attended a school programme, where I had the opportunity to interact with many     1     (teenage). Each conversation was only adding one more item     2     the list of problems.

About two     3     (three) of girls in year nine to year twelve “worry about their     4     (appear)”.     5     there were no gender (性别) differences in worries about school, girls are    6     (anxiety) about getting along with parents and what to do when they are older.

Girls are proven to worry more about personal problems and romantic relationship, and are more     7     (concern) about their own images in peer group. In fact, the only thing     8     boys worry about more than girls is succeeding in their physical activities.

    9     parents need to do is to look at ways to help teens and take responsibility for what we are exposing our teens to right now. We cannot afford     10     (ignore) the parental duties of bringing them up well from the time they are young.

Televisions, computers and other gadgets that they spend most of the time with cannot give them a bright future.

7 . Virtual reality is quickly becoming the new technological frontier. Tech companies everywhere seem to be racing to get their foot in the VR door. However, virtual reality has a set of challenges and hurdles that it must overcome in order to work well. It should be noted that VR is heavily dependent on being very fast, very accurate and very good-looking. If it isn’t, the viewer will feel motion sick or disconnected from the world that VR is trying to create.

Now that we can actually build VR headsets that begin to meet these requirements, we are seeing a rising interest in VR. As it rises, so does the interest in creating new media to be experienced in using virtual reality. Journalism is a medium built on relevance. Journalists should always be finding new ways to tell stories and deliver content. It is a goldmine for storytelling. What better ways to tell a story to someone than to put them right in the center of it?

Virtual reality is a powerful tool for journalists. The consumer isn’t just reading or watching something play out; they’re experiencing it. The immersive nature of VR allows for people to connect with the subject matter on a much deeper level than just reading about it. The experience is emotional, speaking more to our instinct than our intellect. The possibilities for storytelling here are legion, and any storyteller wanting to do something more interesting than their peers should surely be considering the sheer power of VR.

The question of virtual reality, though, is not how powerful it is. That is immediately apparent. The question of VR is one of viability and availability. Telling stories must be easy to do, and access to those stories must be readily available. This is the biggest challenge that VR faces. If the tools to tell a story with VR aren’t easy to pick up and learn, VR will fail. If VR technology isn’t both top-of-the-line and affordable, VR will fail.

Accessibility was one concern for Thomas Hallaq, assistant professor of journalism and mass communications, who said that current VR technology, is pretty exclusive right now. Despite that, he said he doesn’t think the exclusivity of this technology will be a problem in the long run.

“I think it’s very promising,” Hallaq said. “We’re seeing more technology become accessible, and more people having access to that technology. Just look at smartphones.” Like radio, TV and the Internet before it, virtual reality will change the way we tell stories.

8 . A report from the UN warns that countries’ current commitments would reduce carbon by only about 7.5% by 2030, far less than the 45% cut, which scientists say is needed to limit global temperature rises to 1.5℃, the aim of the COP26 summit (峰会).

Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary-general, described the findings as a “thundering wake-up call” to world leaders, while experts called for action against fossil fuel companies.

Although more than 100 countries have promised to reach net zero emissions (净零排放) around mid-century, this would not be enough to avoid climate disasters, according to the UN emissions report, which examines the shortfall (差额) between countries’ intentions and actions needed on the climate. Many of the net zero commitments were found to be unclear, and unless accompanied by strict cuts in emissions this decade would allow global heating of a potentially disastrous extent.

Gutierrez said: “The heat is on, and as the contents of the report show, the leadership we need is off. Far off. Countries are wasting a massive opportunity to invest Covid-19 finance and recovery resources in sustainable, cost-saving, planet-saving ways. As world leaders prepare for COP26, that is another thundering wake-up call. How many do we need?”

Inger Andersen, the director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said: “Climate change is no longer a future problem. It is a now problem. To stand a chance of limiting global warming to 1.5℃, we have 8 years to almost halve greenhouse gas emissions: 8 years to make the plans, put in place the policies, carry them out and deliver the cuts. The clock is ticking loudly.”

Emissions fell by about 5.4% last year during Covid lockdowns, the report found, but only about one-fifth of the economic recovery spending goes towards reducing carbon emissions. This failure to “build back better”, despite promises by governments around the world, cast doubt on the world’s willingness to make the economic shift necessary to settle the climate crisis, the UN said.

In the run-up (前期) to COP26, countries were supposed to submit (递交) national plans to cut emissions—called nationally determined contributions (NDCs) —for the next decade, a requirement under the 2015 Paris climate agreement. But the UNEP report found only half of countries had submitted new NDCs, and some governments had presented weak plans.

Recently a new survey indicates young people in China much prefer     1     (make) fresh food rather than buy prepared food. Mei Lin, for example, a 22-year-old college graduate from Anhui,     2     (stop) ordering take-away food for nearly 3 years. She often goes jogging in the evening as well as playing tennis at the weekend     3     (keep) her fit, in addition to     4     (exercise) for a marathon to be held in Xiamen in the next spring. She believes her fresh food choices help her stay fit and active.

But the trend isn’t one     5     only women are taking up. Su Bo, a 26-year-old employee, has a demanding job in Shenzhen. He says that he has given up eating packaged meals except when he’s travelling for work. As a computer programmer, Su Bo thinks that it’s a matter of wanting to be healthy and     6     (energy). For him having a sharp mind and strong body meant cooking his own vegetables, eating less meat, and carrying fruit to work for lunch. Like Mei Lin, Su Bo recommended that eating healthy food     7     (be) helpful to our fitness routine.

When     8     (ask) whether their eating habits are common among their age group, both Mei Lin and Su Bo say they are.     9    , it’s not clear whether this food trend will     10     (adopt) by other young Chinese people. Are Mei Lin and Su Bo unique or are they setting a new trend? It’s too early to say.