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According to the Wall Street Journal, Chinese authorities are hitting manufacturers with restrictions on electricity usage that they say will continue in coming months, as low river levels and high coal prices threaten the country's worst seasonal power shortages in several years.

今天媒体扫描一开始,我们先来听听华尔街日报的一篇报道.在未来几个月内中国将继续对生产商限电.河流水位较低和煤炭价格高企是导致限电的主要原因.

China's mighty Yangtze River is running so low that hydropower production is slowing, shipping traffic has been curtailed and agricultural output has been reduced. Across central China, dry conditions that have persisted for months are now being described in shrill terms in state media and government reports.

Power shortages lead to factory shutdowns most years and drought warnings are common in China this time of year, often to be replaced by flood worries a few months later. But the tone of officials underscores how the impact is being felt earlier in the year and raises the possibility it will become a more widespread problem for the country's manufacturing sector, a key driver of China's growth.

Manufacturers say they are feeling the pinch as local authorities mandate tougher limits on electricity use. Analysts say Beijing may soon encourage power-plant operators to produce more electricity with the first electricity tariff increase since 2009, allowing them to pass rising coal prices onto consumers.

According to the Time Magazine, a Pew Research Center report titled "Is College Worth It?" shows a majority of Americans think colleges fail to deliver enough bang for their buck.

花费4年的宝贵青春,交上高昂的4年学费,上大学到底值不值呢?根据一项最新的调查显示,多数美国人认为上大学不值!

Of 2,142 adults surveyed, 57% said the higher education system in the U.S. fails to provide students with good value for the money they and their families spend. An even larger group, 75% of the respondents said college is too expensive for most Americans to afford.

While the price tag may be high still, an overwhelming majority (86%) report college was a good investment for them personally.

Part of that reasoning seems to stem from perceived earnings. Adults who graduated from a four-year college believe as a result they are earning

$20,000 more a year on average. Similarly, the survey has found adults who did not attend college believe they are earning $20,000 less per year. Those estimates are very close to the 2010 U.S. Census findings that show the median gap in earnings between high school and college grads is $19,550.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, new food scandal has occurred in China as fields of watermelons are being destroyed after farmers mistakenly applied growth accelerator.

我们下面再来关注发生在江苏丹阳市"西瓜爆炸"事件.西瓜"爆炸"很可能与农民使用的生长调节剂有关,这次事件也再次暴露出食品安全监管漏洞.

The flying pips, shattered shells and wet shrapnel still haunt farmer Liu Mingsuo after an effort to chemically boost his fruit crop went spectacularly wrong.

Fields of watermelons exploded when he and other agricultural workers in eastern China mistakenly applied forchlorfenuron, a growth accelerator. The incident has become a focus of a Chinese media drive to expose the lax farming practices, shortcuts and excessive use of fertiliser behind a rash of food safety scandals.

It follows discoveries of the heavy metal cadmium in rice, toxic melamine in milk, arsenic in soy sauce, bleach in mushrooms, and the detergent borax in pork, added to make it resemble beef.

According to the South China Morning Post, all 60,000 Hong Kong retailers should join an expanded plastic bag levy scheme that would also cover bags without handles, such as those provided in supermarkets to pack food.

香港从2009年7月开始对每个塑料袋征税5角钱.最近,香港政府正在研究建议把塑料购物袋环保征费计划的范围扩展至所有零售商.除了塑料袋,其他的购物袋也要被纳入的征税范畴.

But instead of paying the 50 cents- a-bag levy to the government - which netted the government HK$25 million last year - the retailers should keep the money. These are the key features of a proposal by the Environmental Protection Department being put forward for public consultation.

The 3,000 outlets presently covered by the scheme introduced in July 2009 are mostly big chains, including supermarkets, convenience stores and drugstores.

But under the revised scheme, all retailers, including small ones without sophisticated accounting systems, would have to collect the levy. Officials say this is why it is proposed they should keep the money. According to the Independent, the US-based National Public Radio's (NPR) website reported that most teenagers are coming up short on their required nine hours of sleep a night.

前段时间我们曾经报道普华永道的女硕士过劳死事件,其实缺乏休息睡眠的不止这些白领们.美国国家公共电台报道,美国大多数青少年睡眠时间低于9小时的标准.

Experts say early classes, after-school activities, part-time jobs, and homework cut into teenagers' sleep time, with most 17- to 18-year-olds in the US getting less than seven hours of sleep on school nights.

Every parent of a teenager knows that if you try to get them up in the morning on the weekends, they're tired, grouchy, irritable and not the charming individuals that they're capable of being, because they're so exhausted.

What's the recommended amount of sleep for teenagers? Studies suggest 9.25 hours a night, mostly due to the brain's need for rest due to

post-pubescent growth spurts, as well as hormonal fluctuations. The problem is, because of hormones, many teens don't feel sleepy until later at night, which makes sticking to an early-to-bed schedule difficult.