Heads turned, tears dropped, and gossip-filled whispers went on and on from the hospital passages to the house windows. There was a problem: a daughter had been born. She wasn’t the first disappointment born to her family. Although my aunt didn’t care about giving birth to a girl, her mother-in-law constantly reminded her of the criticism she would have to face if she gave birth to a daughter. In India, most people held these views.

When I visited my relatives during the summer, one sentence managed to fill me with anger and start arguments with my so-called relatives. “You are a girl, stay within your limits.” They simply don’t know how different it is living in the US. Anyway, comparisons to my cousins led me to end the arguments for the moment and accept the way they lived their lives.

My words didn’t make sense to them so my mind was set on proving them wrong.

Although their words didn’t tear me apart, their actions managed to. The amount of sexism(性别歧视) in this culture, especially my hometown, made me feel bad. It was the 21st century, yet women had to eat after the men at family gatherings. They had to cook all the family meals and were asked to take jobs that required little skill or education. It was time to change these views.

As I was growing older, the same relatives repeatedly questioned me about my future: “What do you want to be?” And the answer was always the same：electrical engineer. I have a passion for electronics; as clichéd(陈词滥调的) as it sounds, I was born to do it. When I connect wires together to repair something, I can’t contain my excitement. But when I tried to explain this to my relatives, all of them, except for my parents and grandparents, would be shocked and laugh at me — laugh because they didn’t think I could live up to my goals, being a “girl and all”. It was time to change these views.

In my world, being a girl is not a problem. Rather, it is an opportunity to allow passion, not stereotypes(成见), to shape my future. I decided to channel my relatives’ views into positive energy. Rather than letting them bring me down, I let them be motivation to achieve my goal of becoming an engineer. I, a female, will become a successful engineer.

In recent years,American teens 【小题1】（earn） less than stellar（优秀的）scores on the national exam. A new analysis from the Center for American Progress argues for one simple step 【小题2】（help）raise these scores:Start school later in the day.

【小题3】（delay）start time by an hour across the country could improve students math scores up to eight 【小题4】（point）, the analysis says. That's almost one grade level of learning. The idea is that giving sleep-lacking teens more time to sleep 【小题5】 they hit the books will help them learn better.

In the previous study conducted in 2012 , middle school students 【小题6】 switched schedules to start school an hour later saw their test scores increase. And among them the low-performing students saw the 【小题7】（big）increase.

The Center for American Progress considered what would happen if those results 【小题8】（repeat） around the country.

“What we found is the impact 【小题9】 student achievement would be quite large,” Ulrich Boster, a senior fellow at the center, told The Huffington Post. “Starting school later could 【小题10】（significant）improve students' outcomes. ”

   Twenty-five years ago, most young Britons wanted a career in law, to be a doctor, or, if they were creative enough, to take up singing. But today, things stand different.

According to a survey by Tesco Mobile, a UK company, the "dream job" of young people aged between 16 and 25 in the UK is a video blogger, or "vlogger". The survey, carried out among 1,002 people, found that as many as 40 percent of them put vloggers as their number one choice on a list of ideal careers.

This change is undoubtedly as a result of the Internet and social media. They have made it so much easier to reach audience of the world, without having to enter a career in show business in the traditional way.

In the past, the biggest stars were trained by the Hollywood studios; now, anyone with a computer camera can become a star. Vloggers are the big stars of today because they are normal people interacting（交流）with their fans about everyday life.

However, what people see is only the bright side of being a vlogger and they fail to notice the fact that only those who are successful earn fame（名声）and fortune. For every success there are hundreds of others who never get off the starting line. There are the dreams that come true and the dreams that remain dreams forever.

Although being vloggers is popular, some young people choose to follow careers that don't necessarily earn them fame, but that allow them to make good use of the Internet to share their hobbies. Young Israeli David Leshaw, for example, runs a business called the

Finishers Club. It's an online platform for runners to keep a record of their races. His job allows him to express his enthusiasm, and is always a learning experience. And that's enough for him.

   The new study shows that we spend more time using the mobile Internet to read newspapers and magazines or do some other things. According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau（IAB），the average European spends 4.8 hours reading newspapers and magazines but 1.6 hours more using the mobile Internet per week.

The IAB questioned 15,000 people in 15 European countries, looking at how people were using the Internet and its influence on their everyday lives. It found that the mobile Internet is increasingly finding its way into the public awareness. Over 71 million Europeans now have Internet access on their mobile phones. In the UK, 10 million people now access the Internet through their mobile phones and spend 6.3 hours doing so per week averagely.

Unsurprisingly, young generations in the UK are leading the way, with nearly half of the country's 16-to 24-year-olds and a quarter of 25-to 34-year-olds using the Internet, spending 6.5 and 6.2 hours online each week.

Entertainment plays a main role in our mobile Internet lives，with one in five British people using their phones for online games，a third listening to the online radio and 39 percent watching films，TV or other videos at least once a week. One third of those using an Internet phone said they received videos，images or other multimedia on their mobile，and 61percent said they passed on the contents they had received.

From a communication point of view，80 percent of those questioned agreed that the Internet had made it easier for them to stay in touch with friends and family.

Alison Fennah，director of the IAB，said the use of the mobile Internet had come to the point that marketers should be looking to strategies（策略）that connect them with consumers more effectively. "Better tools as well as improved consumer motivation that start coming together in 2011 can make a great difference to extending the online experience，" Fennah said.

   New technology rules the whole world now. But I still remember when I was a child, I did not have a cell phone or a computer because it was not necessary at all in those days. The Internet was not popular and the touch screen technology was unknown.

At this time here in the US smartphones are really a need, especially for young and business people. There are many applications (应用软件) really useful like maps, dictionaries, e-mails and games.

For me, I use my smartphone to check the weather and to look for something on the Internet and of course to keep communicating through calls and texts. Besides, I like music applications, GPS and Facebook.

Many tests have discovered that cell phones cause damage to us because they send out radioactive (具有放射性的) waves to our bodies and this could cause cancer.

Psychologists say that these devices can affect behavior and I believe everyone knows it is harmful to the eyes if we are sitting for a long time in front of the computer. However, it seems to be difficult for us to give up, even if we know how bad it is for our health. The use of technology becomes more and more important in our lives.

I think the use of technology has brought us unimaginable things. If we use technology correctly, I am sure it would be possible to decrease the damage to our bodies.

Keep in mind that it is important not to focus only on technology, but to spend time with our families and people close to us.