I heard many parents complaining that their teenage children are rebelling(叛逆). I suggested they recall their own teenage years. At that age they would like to be growing away from parents. They preferred to stand on their own two feet. But take a good look at the present rebellion. It seems that teenagers are taking the same way of showing that they disagree with their parents. Instead of going out fighting bravely on their own, most of them are clutching (紧握) at one another’s hands for reassurance.

They declare they want to dress as they like. But they all wear the same clothes. They set off in new directions in music. But somehow they all end up gathering around listening to the same record. Their reason for thinking or acting in a similar way is that the crowd is doing it. They have come out of their cocoon (蚕茧) intoa larger cocoon.

It has become harder and harder for a teenager to stand up against the popularity wave and to go his or her own way. Industry has firmly carved out a teenage market. These days every teenager can learn from the advertisements what a teenager should have and be. And many of today’s parents have come to award high marks for the popularity of their children. All this create a great barrier for the teenager who wants to find his or her own path.  

But the barrier is worth climbing over. The path is worth following. You may want to listen to classical musicinstead of going to a party. You may want to collect rocks when everyone else is collecting records. You may have some thoughts that you don’t care to share at once with your classmates. Well, go for it. Find yourself. Be yourself. Popularity will come — with the people who respect you for who you are. That is the only kind of popularity that really matters.

This is the age of being busy. Many of us live in busy places and have busy lives. Even the roads are busy as we try to get from here to there. Adults are busy going to jobs and taking care of their families. Kids are busy, too, going to school and doing a lot of homework after school and on weekends.

　Being busy isn’t bad necessarily. If you are not busy enough you might be bored. But if you are too busy, you might break down. For example, if you have a soccer game that runs late on a school night and you haven’t eaten dinner or done your homework, that’s a not-so-fun kind of being busy. We wanted to know what kids thought, so we did a kids Poll about being busy with 882 girls and boys aged 9 to 13.

　 Almost all of them said they felt stressed because they were too busy. About half said they felt this way once in a while or some of the time. But 17% said they felt this way most of the time and 24% said they felt this all the time! Oh dear, that’s no fun.

　 Only 4% of kids said they wanted less free time and 18% said they already had just the right amount. But, no big surprise, 61% of kids wish they had a lot more free time. If they had more time, most would spend it hanging out or playing with friends.

　 Often, adults plan large parts of a kid ’s day, especially during the school year. Kids can’t tell their parents they’ll be skipping school(逃学) today to get more free time! But they can tell their parents they’d like to play a game or read a book during their free time instead of watching TV.

 You might think male models lead glamorous lives, filled with endless travel and invitations to socialize with the rich and beautiful. Almost everyone has formed an unrealistic picture of their lives, believing that they spend one afternoon beside the Mediterranean Sea sipping coffee and getting suntanned and the next moment they are on board flying to Rome. However, according to a 2016 documentary made by the pop culture news site Fusion, the financial reality of male models is not very pretty.

   The main subject of the documentary, titled Unglamorous, is a male model named Cameron Keesling who went to New York to start his career, hoping to make a fortune in the world of models. Keesling is not a supermodel but he has certainly made his name known in the industry. He was "working in the industry for about a year before landing the cover of Italian Vogue" in 2014．But "Keesling and his companions were paid nothing for the shoot", Fusion reporter Nikita Redkar wrote.

   Keesling also append at Paris Fashion Week and won lots of praise, while his compensation wouldn't even cover the cost of traveling to and from Paris.

   According to the documentary the most common way models get paid is by receiving free clothes, rather than money. In order to make ends meet, consequently, many of them have to take another job simply to make a living. Many of these models are in debt. Once they find an agency to represent them, a living income is provided by the agency to accommodate their rent, food, clothing and other expenses. Models are expected to pay off these costs once they find work, but many of the industry's jobs don't pay at all. Believe it or not, there is a pay gap between male models and female counterparts. Based on a survey conducted by Fortune. com, female models can make millions more than males, especially if you compare the top ten earners of each gender.

   Changes have been taking place in Philadelphia since 1984．One by one, graffiti-covered walls are being changed into outdoor art. So far, more than 1,800 murals (壁画) have been painted. Philadelphia now has more mural than any other American city.

   The walls that were once ugly with graffiti (涂鸦) are now covered with beautiful pictures of historical heroes and modern art, thanks to the Mural Arts Program (MAP). Its work makes schools and public places attractive, and its citizens very proud. The program began as part of Philadelphia's Anti-Graffiti Network. Jane Golden is the MAP's artistic director. "When people ask me what our program is about," she says, "I answer them with one word: hope." Each year, the MAP offers youth art programs and workshops. Some onetime graffiti writers even help paint MAP murals.

   The MAP's work, says Golden, is all about developing a sense of community.When a neighborhood requests a mural, the MAP works with the people there to develop a message.Some messages have been "Safe Streets," "Love and Care," and "Peace Walk".

   The MAP receives up to 50 requests for murals each week. Last year, the workers painted 140 murals.

   "The making of a mural enters people's collective memory as an extraordinary, pleasant moment in neighborhood history." says Golden, who began as a muralist in Los Angeles.

      There is growing concern about food insecurity in the developing world. Rising food prices, weather emergencies and political problems are deepening the struggle for families in many countries.

  Three UN agencies have published a report recently, saying high prices are likely to continue. Gregory Barrow, who is with the World         Food Program in Rome, says, “If you look at the places where the World Food Program works, particularly in developing countries, you see people who might be spending more than 60 percent of their salary in purchasing food for their families.”

   East Africais suffering its worst drought in years. In Kenya, at least three and a half million people are going hungry, mostly in the north. Yet food is going to waste in central Kenya. Now, farmers there want the government to buy their food and give it to those in need. Farmers say bad roads and lack of transportation make it difficult for them to get their produce to the market.

  Mr. Barrow says, “It needs the government to make some arrangements such as pro viding transport. They can buy it at a good price, then give it to those people instead of asking for food from overseas, which is very bad. When we are throwing away food, they are asking for food from overseas.”

  Economists say that imports reduce local food prices, decrease productivity(生产效率) and increase the dependency on other countries. Farmers in Kenya hope the government can pay higher prices for their crops so that they can feed more Kenyans.

Millions of people nowadays use Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat to converse with their friends. They use Skype to bridge long distances and Twitter to interact with public figures. But as more of our lives move online, are Internet-based interactions sufficient for a fulfilling life?

There have been considerable warnings about the drawbacks of online interactions. Some scholars have realized that our devotion to the screens is detracting from face-to-face conversations. For instance, a study showed that children who had been spending time with televisions and computers for a long period of time were significantly worse at recognizing nonverbal(非语言的) psychological suggestions in a conversation than those who had just five days without screens.

But there is another side to the argument: A 2015 Pew Foundation report found that teenagers use online interactions to strengthen their friendships. Plus, 57% of teenagers reported that they’d made friends online. Amori Mikami, a psychology professor at the University of British Columbia, has conducted several studies on online interactions and tells that the nature of online communication is changing as young people treat social networks in an entirely different way.

Too much research tends to lump all online interactions together, she says, instead of distinguishing between positive, meaningful conversations and more superficial(肤浅的)，negative exchanges. According to her, online communities can be especially useful for people who have an unusual concern and live in isolated areas, and so are unlikely to meet people with similar concerns in person.

“The major good aspect of online interactions compared to in-person ones is that social networks allow users to interact with so many people at once. Whether or not that’s positive or negative depends on the type of friends you have. It’s possible to get the same level of achievement from online interactions as it is from in-person friends,” says Mikami. “This might be hard for older adults to believe and it might not be possible for them, because they might not feel comfortable having those kinds of deep online conversations. To them, the online world will always be more superficial. But young people really see it differently.”

As the nature of online interactions continually evolve, it’s difficult to definitively establish whether or not social media friendships alone are sufficient. But for those who don’t have strong in-person support groups, the value of online communities shouldn’t be dismissed.

Enough “meaningless drivel（胡言）”. That’s the message from a group of members of the UK government who have been examining how social media firms like LinkedIn gather and use social media data.

The House of Commons Science and Technology Committee’s report, released last week, has blamed firms for making people sign up to long incomprehensible(费解的) legal contracts and calls for an international standard or kitemark to identify sites that have clear terms and conditions.

“The term and conditions statement that we all carelessly agree to is meaningless drivel to anyone,” says Andrew Miller, the chair of the committee. Instead, he says, firms should provide a plain-English version of their terms. The simplified version would be checked by a third party and awarded a kitemark if it is an accurate reflection of the original.

It is not yet clear who would administer the scheme(方案), but the UK government is looking at introducing it on a voluntary basis. “We need to think through how we make that work in practice.” says Miller.

Would we pay any more attention to a kitemark? “I think if you went and did the survey, people would like to think they would.” says Nigel Shadbolt at the University of Southampton, UK, who studies open data. “We do know people worry a lot about the inappropriate use of their information.” But what would happen in practice is another matter, he says.

Other organizations such as banks ask customers to sign long contracts they may not read or understand, but Miller believes social media requires special attention because it is so new. “We still don’t know how significant the long-term impact is going to be of unwise things that kids put on social media that come back and bite them in 20 years’ time.” he says.

Shadbolt, who gave evidence to the committee, says the problem is that we don’t know how companies will use our data because their business models and uses of data are still evolving. Large collections of personal information have become valuable only recently, he says.

The shock and anger when a social media firm does something with data that people don’t expect, even if users apparently have permission, show that the current situation isn’t working. If properly administered, a kitemark on terms and conditions could help people know what exactly they are signing up to. Although they would still have to actually read them.

"My dear Mr. Bennet," said his lady to him one day, "have you heard that Netherfield Park is rented at last?"

Mr. Bennet replied that he had not.

"But it is," returned she, "for Mrs. Long has just been here, and she told me all about it."

Mr. Bennet made no answer.

"Don’t you want to know who has taken it?" cried his wife impatiently.

"You want to tell me, and I have no objection to hearing it."

This was invitation enough.

"Why, my dear, you must know, Mrs. Long says that Netherfield is taken by a young man of large fortune from the north of England, that he came down on Monday to see the place, and was so much delighted with it that he agreed immediately with Mr. Morris, the owner of Netherfield, and some of his servants are to be in the house by the end of next week."

"What is his name?"

"Bingley."

"Is he married or single?"

"Oh! Single, my dear, to be sure! A single man of large fortune; four or five thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls!"

"How so? How can it affect them?"

"My dear Mr. Bennet," replied his wife, "how can you be so tiresome! You must know that I am thinking of his marrying one of them."

"Is that his design in living here?"

"Design! Nonsense, how can you talk so! But it is very likely that he may fall in love with one of them, and therefore you must visit him as soon as he comes."

"I see no occasion forthat. You and the girls may go, or you may send them by themselves, which perhaps will be still better; for, as you are as handsome as any of them, Mr. Bingley might like you the best of the party." said Mr. Bennet.

"My dear, you flatter（过分夸奖）me. I certainly have had my share of beauty, but I do not pretend to be anything extraordinary now. When a woman has five grown up daughters, she ought to give over thinking of her own beauty."

"In such cases, a woman has not often much beauty to think of."

"But, my dear, you must indeed go and see Mr. Bingley when he comes into the neighbourhood."

"It is more than I engage for, I assure you."

"But consider your daughters. Only think what an establishment it would be for one of them. Sir William and Lady Lucas are determined to go, merely on that account, for in general, you know they visit no new comers. Indeed you must go, for it will be impossible for us to visit him, if you do not."

                                             —— Selected from Pride and Prejudice

Syrian immigrants have been making their home in Allentown,Pa., for more than a century. They began settling there in the late 1800s, first to work as peddlers（小贩）and later to work in factories.

Today the town is home to one of the largest Syrian populations in the U.S. It’s also a destination for newer arrivals — refugees fleeing the ongoing crisis in Syria. But Allentown residents don’t agree on whether the town should welcome more of them.

______________________

The first stop for many Syrians arriving in Allentown is a neighborhood of flat-fronted row homes called the 6th Ward, which is home to Syrian restaurants and grocery stores.

That’s where Radwan Jarrouj landed in 1962. He’s active in local Syrian groups, and he tried to persuade Allentown to accept the refugees. However, he says he remembers Sept. 11 andempathizes withpoliticians who have grown anxious over welcoming more refugees.

“Proceed with caution,” Jarrouj suggests.

Most of the old Syrian families in Allentown are from the Christian minority and support Syrian President Bashar Assad, while some of the people arriving now have fled the violence under his power.

An Emphasis On Screening

The checking process for refugees takes an average of two years and involves investigating applicants’ stories and cross-checking whether any physical evidence ties them to terrorist groups.

But after the Paris attacks, some local politicians, including Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey, say it needs to get even tougher. Todd Long, another Pennsylvanian, says he doesn’t know much about the background checks, but he doesn’t see any upside to accepting Syrian refugees. “If we were to find out tomorrow that 1,000 people are coming into theLehigh Valleynext week, people are going to think, ‘Well, what if one of them was anISISterrorist who got through the cracks?’ ” he says.

Since 2012, Allentown has resettled 138 Syrian refugees. And while there has been a national push to slow the pace of arrivals, Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski, and Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf both say they trust the checking process and will welcome more refugees.

 The world is filled with smart, talented and gifted people．We meet them every day．A few days ago, my car was not running well. I pulled it into a garage, and the young mechanic had it fixed within just a few minutes. He knew what was wrong by simply listening to the engine. I was amazed. The sad truth is that only great talent is not enough．

    I am often shocked at how little talented people earn. I heard the other day that less than 5 percent of Americans earn more than $100,000 ayear. A business consultant (顾问) who specializes in the medical trade was telling me how many doctors and dentists struggle with money. It was this business consultant that gave me the phase, “They are one skill away from great wealth”.

    There is an old saying that goes，“Job means ‘just over broke(破产）’”．And unfortunately，I would say that the saying applies to millions of people. Because school does not think financial(财务的）intelligence is intelligence, most workers “live within their means”. They work and they pay the bills. Instead I recommend to young people to seek work for what they will learn, more than what they will earn．

    When I ask the classes I teach, “How many of you can cook a better hamburger than McDonald’s?” almost all the students raise their hands．I then ask, “So if most of you can cook a better hamburger, how come McDonald’s makes more money than you?” The answer is obvious: McDonald’s is excellent at business systems. The reason why so many talented people are poor is that they focus on building a better hamburger and know little or nothing about business systems. The world is filled with talented poor people. They focus on perfecting their skills at building a better hamburger rather than the skills of selling and delivering the hamburger．