So, you're going on a summer holiday and your mum says you have to pack your bag yourself! What now? Here are a few tips for packing that I've learned the hard way!
● First, find out how much you can take - if you are going on a long flight, you can sometimes take more but not always, so it's important to check. Make sure your bag is a strong one of good (1) __________.
● Find out what you're going to do and what the weather will be like at your destination. Then make a list of all the clothes you plan (2) __________. And then divide that in half.
● Do you hate that feeling when you can't find what you're (3) _________ in your bag? Me too! Placing smaller bags inside the bigger bag is the best solution. Also, if you're travelling by plane, don't forget that any liquids have to be in a (4) __________.
● Don't leave packing until the last moment. Make a list of everything you need about two weeks before. Then (5) _________ everything ready. You can also pop it in your bag a (6) __________ of days before - just check it all fits!
(Adapted from Prepare)

Choose your future career carefully - experts are predicting big changes in the jobs we'll do in the next ten or twenty years.
The Internet will have a big effect. People already choose to do a lot of their shopping online, so there won't be as many shops, and there won't be (7) _________ jobs for shop assistants. Another job that might disappear because of technology is photo processors - the people (8) _________ photos. This is because most of us keep our photos on our computers now and never print them.
So which jobs are (9) _________ demand?
• Computer programmers - a hundred years ago there were none, but now there are lots of them and there will be even more in future (10) __________ almost all jobs will need computers.
• Environment protection officer - a lot of new 'green' jobs will (11) _________ as environmental problems get more serious.
• Online education manager - many students will take online courses. There will be jobs for people to create and organise the courses.
And of course, we will still need actors and musicians to keep us (12) _________, lawyers to argue and politicians to make the big decisions.
(Adapted from Empower)

Research has shown that, on the whole, we are optimistic by nature and have a positive view of ourselves. In fact, we are much more optimistic than realistic and frequently imagine things will turn out better than they actually do. Most people don't expect their marriages to end in divorce. Many people who fail exams, for example, (18) __________. Or people (19) __________ often say that it was really positive because it made them appreciate life more. We really are very good at 'looking on the bright side'.
This certainty that our future is bound to be better than our past and present is known as the 'Optimism Bias'. Of course, the Optimism Bias can lead us to make some very bad decisions. Often, people don't take out travel insurance because they're sure everything will be all right, or they smoke cigarettes in spite of the health warnings on the packet because they believe 'it won't happen to me'. Or on a global scale, we carry on polluting the planet, because (20) __________.
But researchers believe that the Optimism Bias is actually good for us. People who expect the best are generally likely to be ambitious and adventurous, whereas people who expect the worst are likely to be more cautious. Optimists are also healthier because they feel less stress – (21) __________. Not only that, but the Optimism Bias may also have played an important part in our evolution as human beings. Hoping for the best, (22) __________ such as hunting down dangerous animals and travelling across the sea to find new places to live and this is why we became so successful as a species. Even if our optimism is unrealistic and leads us to take risks, without it we might all still be living in caves, too afraid to go outside and explore the world in case we get eaten by wild animals.
(Adapted from Empower)

Alison Wright has an exciting job. She's a photojournalist with National Geographic. She's been taking photos all over the world for many years, and she loves travelling. In fact, she was named a 2013 National Geographic Traveller of the Year.
Travelling is exciting, but sometimes it can be tough. Several years ago, Alison was in a horrible bus accident in Laos. A truck hit the bus and it caught fire. She was rescued by two tourists who pulled her out of the bus and took her to a nearby village. The people in the village took care of her as much as they could, but there weren't any doctors and there was no medicine, and she needed to get to a hospital. She was badly hurt. She had broken a lot of bones, so she couldn't walk.
Fortunately, a stranger offered to help her. Alison hadn't met him before, but he drove her for eight hours to a hospital in Thailand where she was able to receive the treatment she needed. Slowly, she started to recover.
Alison had a frightening experience and she almost didn't survive. She had a goal, and this goal helped her to get better. Her goal was to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, and just a few years after her accident, she did it! Alison has never forgotten the kindness of the strangers who helped her. She says she's alive today because of the kindness of strangers.
(Adapted from Look)

Every day, hundreds of millions of photos, videos, social media posts, and articles are uploaded to the internet. Many of these will contain false information, sometimes called fake news. These might be incorrect or invented facts, wrongly labelled photos, and increasingly, ‘deepfakes’ - computer-generated videos that appear to show people saying or doing something that they didn't do.
Why do people upload or share incorrect information? Often, they do it without realising that it’s false; they really believe it, or they write something that's incorrect by mistake, which is then shared. But others spread fake information on purpose in order to influence people’s opinions. This can be a problem for journalists and news reporters, as it makes it more difficult to report a story quickly and accurately.
[I] The BBC recently sent a reporter to visit a class of teenage students in Wales. [II] First, the reporter asked the students where they got their news and whether they knew how to spot fake information. Then he asked them to play a game to test their skills. In the game, they were a journalist working on the BBC website. [III] Their job was to post updates on a major breaking news story: a virus that was crashing social media websites. [IV] They had to analyse information such as photos, videos, social media posts, opinions from ‘experts,’ and updates on other websites, and decide if the source and the information were reliable. Their ‘colleagues’ told them to post news updates as quickly as possible. However, the reporter told the students not to believe everything and asked them not to post something if they weren’t sure that the information was accurate.
The students performed well in the game. They identified a lot of fake information, although at times they were too vigilant and didn’t believe information that was actually true. This isn’t surprising. Their teacher explained that young people were better than older generations at spotting fake information and that they often educated their parents about the importance of checking sources.
(Adapted from Harmonise)