The Futian Railway Station in Shenzhen has been finished．It will be Asia's largest underground high-speed railway station．Shenzhen is a very important city in south China's Guangdong Province．It links（连接）Hongkong and Guangzhou．When people go between the two places，they have to go through Shenzhen．The station is expected to be put into operation by the end of the year，said the Guangzhou Railway Group on November 15，2015．By the time，people will save much time when they are traveling from Shenzhen to Hongkong and Guangzhou．

    The Futian Railway Station，the Hong Kong-Shenzhen-Guangzhou high-speed railway link，will enable a 33-minute ride from Guangzhou to Shenzhen．And after the section of that link of Futian to Hong Kong is finished，it will only take 45 minutes to go from Shenzhen to Kowloon district（九龙区）in Hong Kong．

    The station covers an area of 147，000 square metres，and it has three storeys（层）．It is as large as 21 football fields．It is also the world's second largest underground railway station，only after the Grand Central Station in New York City，the United States．

A

    At the beginning of the new term，freshmen(大学一年级新生)of Ningbo Institute of Technology at Zhejiang University received a letter from the school saying that parents should give their children 600 yuan each month to cover basic expenses．But freshmen don’t think it is a good idea．

    “I know universities want to encourage us to save money．But 600 yuan is far from enough，”said Ma Yuhan，a freshman at Hubei University of Medicine．The 21-year-old spends 1，500 to 2，000 yuan every month，of which more than 1,000 yuan is spent on food．“I may starve(饥饿) to death if my parents only give me 600 yuan，”he said．

    Basic expenses

    According to Ying Zhongyuan，Secretary(秘书) of the Youth League Committee at Ningbo Institute of Technology，a student’s basic expenses are made up of four parts：food，communication，electricity and water bills，and things for daily use．

    “The standard we set is based on our university’s specific situation and food plays big role．The average(平均) cost for three meals is 15 yuan，so that’s about 450 yuan per month．The remaining 150 yuan should be enough to cover all other expenses considering that everything is quite cheap on campus(大学校园)，”Ying said．

    Social cost

    Shen Jiawei，21，is another freshman at Hangzhou Normal University．He spends all of his pocket money on meals．He said socializing causes high expenses．Before Shen went to university，his parents told him that they would give him 1，000 yuan each month．But after the first semester，Shen found that 1,000 yuan is not enough．

    “I made many friends and we hang out together a lot．It costs 700 yuan to eat in the cafeteria each month，but much more if eating out，”he said．“Now my monthly expenses are about 1,500 yuan，”he said．

    Wu Luping，a member of the China Youth ＆ Children Research Association，believes that such an expense is reasonable．When interviewed by Beijing Morning Post，he said，“There are three layers(层次) of expenses，basic needs，development，and entertainment．”Apart from basic costs，students want to spend money on interpersonal(人际的) relationships and entertainment．“There’s no need to avoid such expenses，”he said．

                 C

  We can’t remember clearly since when we started to take our mobiles to a dinner table. This happens a lot, especially when we eat out. Once a dish comes, instead of lifting our chopsticks, we take out our mobiles and click. Later , we post the photos onto Weibo or WeChat, waiting to be “liked”. Then we check our mobiles from time to time during the meal, to see whether we get “liked” or not. We just cannot leave our mobiles for simply a meal.

  Does that sound familiar to you? Do you do that often? If not, how do you feel when others do that when having dinner with you?

  A recent study suggests that what we are used to doing is not that good. Spending time taking photos of food makes the food less pleasant. To test this, some researchers did an experiment. Some people were asked to take photos before they could enjoy the food. It turned out that the more photos they took, ____. So, why not stop taking photos and just enjoy the food ahead of you?

  Besides the scientific result, there are also some other bad influences of taking photos of food before meals. After posting the photos onto the Internet, one will be unable to control himself and check his mobile many times. “ Does everyone accept my photo? I hope a lot of people like it!” It seems like your mobile secretly calls your name all the time, even when you are with real people.

  So next time you go out to have dinner with your family or friends, how about not taking photos of food? Let the food be delicious as it is and share your life with people around you. Trust me, it will be a wonderful time.

    A weak and slow old man went to live in his son's family. The family ate together at the table. But the old man's weak hands and bad eyesight made eating difficult. Beans fell off his spoon onto the floor. While he was taking the beans the milk was poured on the table.

    The son and his wife became angry with the old man. They said,“We must do something for Grandfather. We've had enough of his sprinkled（洒）milk, noisy eating, and food on the floor.”So they put a small table at the corner. There, Grandfather ate alone while the rest of the family were enjoying dinner. Since Grandfather had broken a dish or two, his food was served in a wooden bowl. Sometimes he had tears in his eyes as he sat alone. Still, the only words the son had for him were shouting at him when he dropped a spoon or poured food. The four- year- old grandson watched that all in silence.

    One evening, the father noticed his four- year- old son playing with some wood pieces on the floor. He asked his child,“What are you making?”The boy answered,“Oh, I'm making little bowls for you and Mum to eat your food when you get old.” Then, the for- year- old son smiled and went on with his work. When the parents heard this, they said nothing. Then tears started to show up on their faces. Though no words were spoken, they both knew what must be done.

    That evening the father and the mother took Grandfather's hands and let him go back to the family table.

（C）

     Japanese students work very hard but many are unhappy. They feel heavy pressures from their parents. Most students are always told by their parents to study harder and better so that they can have a wonderful life in the future. Though this may be a good idea for those very bright students, it can have terrible results for those who are not gifted enough. Many of them have their parents lose hope. Such students feel that they are hated by everyone else they meet and they don’t want to go to school any longer. They become dropouts(辍学生).

     It is surprising that though most Japanese parents are worried about their children, they do not help them in any way. Many parents feel that they are not able to help their children and that it is the teacher’s work to help children. To make matters worse, a lot of parents send their children to those schools opening in the evenings and on weekends - they only help the students to pass the exams and never teach them any sense of the world.

     Many Japanese schools usually have rules about everything from the students’ hair to their clothes and things in their school bags. Child psychologists(心理学家) now think that such strict rules are harmful to the feelings of the students. Almost 40% of the students said that no one had taught them how to get on with others, how to tell right from wrong and how to show love and care for others, even for their parents.

C

 Nowadays, the food that you buy comes from many different countries. Have a look in your fridge, cupboard, and fruit bowl and check the origins(来源) of the food. Perhaps there are apples from California, lamb from New Zealand, or potatoes from Egypt? You will probably be surprised how far food travels to get to your plate. This journey, from “field to plate”，is called “food miles”. A food mile is the distance that food travels from the farmer's field to the person who buys the food. Nowadays, food often travels thousands of miles to get to the consumer(消费者). Why is this, and what is the influence of these long distances?

Traditionally, farmers sold their food in the local market, so the food didn't have to travel very far. The consumers also did not travel very far because they went to their local market to buy the food. This was a good system for farmers and consumers. However, there were some disadvantages. For example, consumers could only buy food that farmers produced locally. Besides, they could only get food that was in season. Now, because of modern technology, food comes from all over the world. We do not have to wait for spring or summer to buy strawberries or tomatoes. They are available in winter if we want.

Some countries have to import(进口) most of their food. This is because they have difficult climates. The United Arab Emirates (UAE), for example, gets 85% of its food from other countries. Even food made in the UAE often uses imported materials.

What's wrong with “food miles”？ Is this not a good way of increasing international trade? I believe these miles are worrying for a number of reasons. First of all, because food travels such long distances, we need more planes, lorries, and ships to move the food. This means we use more oil or petrol, so there is more pollution and more global(全球的) warming. In addition, food that travels a long way is not fresh and usually not very tasty. Tomatoes, for example, are picked early and stored for their long journeys. For this reason, they are usually tasteless when they get to the consumer. Local food has a better taste, and it also reduces the amount of global pollution. We need to buy more local food.

​

Do your parents ever say, “Act like a lady” or “be a gentleman” to you? But in the eyes of today’s teenagers, what qualities should a lady or a gentleman have? Let’s take a look.

What is a gentleman? The girls have their say:
Huang Xiaoyu of Guizhou: A gentleman is not a strong, stupid guy. He doesn’t get angry. He cares about others’ feelings. He’s always ready to help. There is a boy in my class I think is a gentleman. I didn’t do well in the mid-term English exam. He comforted（安慰）me by saying I would do better next time. His words made me feel happier.
Chen Tingting of Shenzhen: A gentleman always says, “ladies first”. When it comes to cleaning up the classroom, he does the heavy work. He lets girls go into rooms first. There aren’t any gentlemen in my class. When there are snacks, the boys in my class are always the first to grab them!
    Boys tell us what they think a lady is:
Wu Yifan of Dalian, Liaoning: A ladylike girl is gentle and quiet. But she’s not shy; she’s not afraid of expressing herself. She is kind and beautiful. To me, actress Dong Jie is a lady. She is pretty and gentle. She also has a kind heart. She does a lot for charity.
Wang Lichao of Tianjin: A lady is not just pretty-looking but wise too. She never says rude words. She is not noisy. She is always calm and at ease. I don’t think there are any real ladies in my class. Most of the girls are of a style I call “wild beauties”.

When you’re not at home, many worries may start to crowd your mind. Did I turn the coffee maker off? Did I lock the door? Are the kids doing their homework or watching television? With a smart home, you can quiet all of these worries.

A smart home is a home with a communication network. This network connects devices(装置), such as lights and TV sets, and allows them to be controlled from far away through electrical wiring(线路), mobile phone communication or WiFi over the internet.

More and more people may start to consider owning a smart home, because it makes life much easier. It can help keep your room at a certain temperature. It can record what happens inside the home and send the video to your phone. When you are on vacation abroad, you can use a smart home controller to turn on or off the electricity when necessary. Some smart homes can receive a visitor, allowing him to come in and offering him a drink. They can even feed the cat and water the plants.

Besides, smart homes are easy to fix. Most smart home technology and devices are wireless and can be set up with a small tool(工具), using only the guiding information. When a problem appears, you can deal with it yourself without paying a professional worker.

However, for home-users, the smart home technology is far from perfect. It can be rather expensive to own the technology and the devices. Also, because the smart home system allow its owner to get home information from anywhere, it leaves the home easy to be attacked by hackers, who may secretly use or change the information in the system.

Now, many scientists are excited at the future of smart home technology. Imagine being able to get fashion advice from your mirror, or receive food shopping suggestions from your refrigerator. While there are others who worry that those smart devices will make people lazier and lonelier. Whatever it is, one thing is for sure---smart home technology will change the way we live and work.

TV binge－watching (追剧) will lead to loneliness and sadness， a study has shown. Those who spend hours on their favorite TV series really are likely to be sad， according to the findings.

US scientists at the University of Texas， Austin， asked 316 young people aged 18 to 29 how often they binged in TV and if they felt lonely or sad. They found that the more lonely or unhappy the people were， the more likely they were to binge－watch in order to avoid this kind of bad feeling. The results， presented at the International Communication Association's meeting， also showed that people without the ability to control themselves will become binge－watchers.

Study leader Yoon Hi Sung said， "Even though some people think that binge－watching is harmless， findings from our study suggest that binge－watching should no longer be viewed this way." Physical problems such as fat problem and other health problems have business with binge－watching and people need to pay close attention. When binge－watching becomes serious， binge－watchers may start to neglect their work and their relationships with others. Even though people know they should not， they have difficulty refusing the wish to watch TV.

Young people need to stop and have enough time to breathe， work and make friends in real life. Our best friends should be the ones we see every so often for years.

My husband just bought the latest video game for our little son，but our little son wasn’t happy with that. He wanted more! So an argument broke out.

My husband said, “I do everything to make him happy and he never seems thankful.” Well, that’s the problem. We shouldn’t try to make our kids happy all the time!By always trying to keep them smiling, are we setting them up for a bad future?

Our children get used to everyone around them making them happy. When they have a bad day at school we want to make them happy. When they suffer（苦于）their first heart break we do everything to heal(治愈) them. We are failing to teach them how to become independent (独立的) grown-ups.

We need to learn to let our children fail. We need to allow them to fall and teach them how to pick themselves up. They need to learn life is hard. By learning these difficult lessons they will grow up. When they have an argument with a friend, let them deal with it on their own. When they do not get the first, tell them that a person can’t always be first. When their football team loses the big game, help them to remember a person can’t win every game.

In the end we gave in and let our son keep the video game. We did make him wait a whole 24 hours before playing it though. My husband tried to explain to our son why he was angry. I hope our son could understand our feelings.