Nowadays more and more people care about the exploration (开采) of the natural resources , such as oil. Though there are many kinds of resources, with the fast increase of population and appearance of many more factories, the more we use, the fewer there will be left for the future. Oil is getting less and less year after year. It’s said that oil can last for only 50 years. Natural gas perhaps will last about 38 years.

      Oil can be used in many ways and it’s difficult to imagine what the modern world will be like without oil. But oil isn’t easy to find and get out of the earth. Men must study the rocks. When they think the rocks in a certain place may have oil, a metal tower is built. A machine in the tower cuts a hole down into the ground. At the same time, a steel pipe is pushed down to stop the sides from falling in and to keep out water. At last if the men are right, usually the oil rushes up the sides with great force(力量) by the pressure（压力）of the gas in the top of the rock, and it rushes high into the air. If the oil catches a light, there will be a terrible fire. So a kind of cover is fixed on the top of the pipe, and the oil can run out through taps（活塞）.

      If we make a well near the middle of the oil field, we can also get gas. Such gas is sent through pipes to towns far away and used in houses and factories like coal gas.

      Today oil is under pressure as never before. The price of the oil keeps rising all the time. In many countries, the governments encourage people to save oil as much as possible.

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Do you know a language everyone in the world knows? Yes, I do. That is laughter. Any two people who don’t speak a word of other’s language still know what he or she means when the other person laughs.

So laughter is a world-wide language. But how much do you really know about laughter?

People think that in the old days laughter had more to do with fear (恐惧) than happiness. People in those days might laugh when they were in danger. For example, when a tiger passed by, nothing was funny about nearly becoming the tiger’s meal. Though the tiger might be away for long, laughing was there before they felt relaxed.

Many people believe that laughter is the best medicine. Norman Cousins, an actor, look for a common treatment(治疗法) for a bad illness, but didn’t feel better after trying many ways. Finally he made himself healthy by watching many funny movies and TV show. He said laughter helped him a lot.

What picture do you have of the future? Will life in the future be better, worse or the same as now? What do you hope about the future?

People predict that life will probably be very different in 2050. First of all, it seems that there won’t be TV channels (频道). At that time, people will pick up a program from a “menu” and a computer will send the program to the TV set at once. By 2050, music, films, programs, newspapers and books will come to us by computers.

In that time, water will become one of our most serious problems. In many places, farmers are in great need of water to grow fruit and vegetables.

In transportation, cars will run on new, clean fuels and they will go very fast. There won’t be any accidents because of robots. We will see robots everywhere. And space planes will take people around the world in two hours.

By 2050, we will be able to help blind and deaf people see again and hear again. At that time, people’s life will become better and better.

Although environmental problems have existed for centuries, some people still care little about our environment. Problems like ice melting, electronic waste are lighting up news programs and becoming part of an ongoing dialogue about the environment.

As a teenager, what do you think all the problems mean for your future and for the future of the planet? For our October 2016 writing contest, we want you to really consider what you think about environmental problems.

Use these questions to help focus your essay

  What environmental problem do you think should cause the greatest alarm and action?

  Do you think that you have a personal responsibility to help solve environmental              problems or do you feel helpless against the struggle?

  What do you think could help a specific environmental problem?

Don’t try to answer all these questions. Use one of them to make a personal essay.

The title of the essay

When you hand in your essay, title it as: Environmental Problems: _______.

Include the phrase “Environmental Problems” as the beginning of your essay title, but then make the rest of your story title unique. Examples:

  Environmental Problems: Trashy Behavior and the Plastic Bottle

 Environmental Problems: We Can’t Exist If We Refuse to Change

Rules:

(1) This is a non-fiction essay contest.

(2) Essays are 500 words or less.

(3) Essays must be your original work.

The deadline:

Midnight Oct. 30, 2016

Results:

The winner will be posted on our writing contest website or on Teen Trend Report after Nov. 26, 2016.

Pigs do it. Mice do it. Dogs also do it. Kangaroos? Not so much. Why do some animals shake? The short answer is because they are wet. But there’s actually more to it than that—a lot more.

In an article, Andrew Dickerson and others took a look at this strange problem. The scientists wrote down the shaking of 33 animals, of them are five kinds of dogs.

It shows that mammals（哺乳动物）can keep stronger by doing their cute little shakes. If they do not shake, animals would have to use up to 20 percent of their daily energy simply staying dry. And nearly all furry（有皮毛的）mammals shake to help themselves keep dry.

Those animals that are similar to kangaroos shake only part of their body. They usually live in dry places where keeping dry isn’t very hard. But not all animal shake in the same way. Also some shake less often than others.

Smaller animals seem to shake more quickly,30 shakes per second for a mouse, while bears, tigers and big dogs only about four.

In an interesting finding, Dickerson and his team have shown that these animals do the job as well as possible. In each example, the animals shake off about 70 percent of water in a few seconds. This should all be great to people. It takes us not seconds but minutes to dry our hair.

Many people like to search the Interact. Searching the Interact is one of the most important activities of a day. The Internet makes the outside world closer to people's homes. Some people say the world is smaller than before because of the Interact.

   What's going on in other countries? How do people live in places far away? Is there a good sports game somewhere? What's the life like in the deepest part of the sea? If you want to answer all these questions, just come to the Interact. Of course, people can also learn through reading or listening to the radio. But with the Interact they can learn better and more easily. A lot of information can be collected at a great speed.

   Can we go shopping without leaving home? Can we see a doctor without going to a hospital? Can we study without going to school? Can we draw money without going to the bank? All these things seemed to be impossible, but now they have become quite possible.

   The Interact helps us open our eyes and our minds. The internet often gives us new ideas. In a word, it helps us in many ways. Great changes have taken place in our life since the appearance of the Interact.

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B

As science and technology develop, our life is getting better and better. We are lucky that we can have many things. However, most of us usually   (1)   some things.

Electricity is one thing that we waste most. Lights, TVs,  _57_  and other things are often kept on even when no one is using them. We should turn them off when we do not need them. It __58 _ less than a second to do it. Anyhow, not wasting electricity saves money, because we do not have to   (2)   the electricity we do not use.

The second thing that we often waste is water. Fresh water is precious（珍贵的）, _ 60   it shouldn’t be wasted. It is only a simple matter of turning off a tap. I am sure _ 61_  can do this easily if he wants to.

  (3)   big waste is food. My mother   (4)   cook so much food that much of it was thrown away. I told her we had wasted so much food. She thought I was right and now cooks only what we can eat.

It is not   (5)   to be wasteful. I find there is a simple way of not wasting things. That is to use only what we   (6)  . In this way we can stop being wasteful.

  Many middle school students like watching TV very much. But   41 Monday   42 Friday, they must go to school. So on Saturday and Sunday, they   43 at home and watch TV from morning to night. They don’t know it’s bad for their eyes. Usually children like to eat fish, meat and chicken, but they don’t like vegetables  44 fruit. They don’t know   45 more vegetables and fruit is   46 than eating meat.

  At school, children only do a few minutes of sports or   47 do any sports. The teachers must know itisn’t good for   48 health.

  We always think of ways to keep   49 . We must eat   50 vegetables and fruit, and do a lot of sports every day. And we should watch TV and relax in right ways.

Everyone needs healthy foods. The foods should have some fat, some fiber(纤维), a little salt and so on.

The Chinese diet is considered to be the healthiest in the world. It contains a lot of fruit and green vegetables. It is   (1)      in fiber and low in sugar and fat. The Chinese eat   (2)  sugar than many other countries in the world. That is   (3)  lots of people in China have white teeth.

People in the Western world eat too much fat and sugar and don’t take enough exercise. Because of this, they  (4)  very easily. In order to   (5)  with the quick step of their life and work, they eat a lot of fast food. The result is that many of them become fat.  

Even though we have more choice of what to eat than forty years ago, the average diet of the average British is  (1)  . In fact, according to recent research, British pets, eating  (2)  tinned food, have a healthier diet than most of their owners.

Health ministers were shocked at recent figures which  (3)  that Britain has the third worst  (4)  in Europe for heart disease: Cancer is also a  (5)  cause of illness and death. This has  (6)  the government a movement to encourage healthier eating  (7)   Health ministers believe we should  (8)  a lesson from America,   (9)  death rates from heart disease have  (10)  .

The American public is now  (11)  the link between diet and good health. The movement will encourage the   (12)  of less animals fat, salt and sugar that are eaten  (13)  . It will show the goodness of eating more fresh fruit and vegetables.

The Health Department is going to publish a book which will give help on what food to eat and what not to.

Discussions are being  (14)  between the government and food makers. Following these talks, food will be labelled  (15)  users can clearly see how much fat, sugar there is in the food products they buy.