We are surrounded by messages trying to get our attention. Advertisers, politicians and other groups all try to get us to agree with them. 【小题1】 Propaganda is not always a bad thing, but it often hides the truth about a topic. Its very similar to advertising, whose goal is to get people to buy something, while propaganda is to change what people believe.

Propaganda Techniques

To create propaganda, a common technique is name-calling. A politician might call someone a traitor or liar, which makes the other person look bad. Another is the trend technique. People want to be on the side in the favor. 【小题2】， Some propaganda is based on fear. It scares people into choosing a certain side or taking action, which might not be bad.     Anti—smoking campaigns are one example. They may scare people into thinking that if they smoke, they will get cancer.

【小题3】

Propaganda is used by many groups, such as businesses, politicians and the government .It is spread through posters, television and radio. The Internet makes it easy to send messages to the whole world.

Types of Propaganda

To see if propaganda is saying the truth, people need to do extra work. For example, ads might always sound like they're true. But before you believe them, try to think about who created and paid for them. Find out why they did it. 【小题5】

Road trip

Motorhome delivery offers great family holidays. For just $1 a day, you can hire a fully­equipped motorhome, which delivers you to a specific destination within some days and kilometers. You then hire another one to get home or take a bus or train. Your only other expense will be fuel and about $20 a day for parking fees. To learn more, visit apollocamper.com.

Plan ahead

For a comfortable break, flexibility with times, dates and places helps lower the cost. Find a few hotels you like, ask about their vacant rooms, then wait a few weeks and call again. If they still have rooms, you’re at an advantage to ask for a better price. Lots of last­minute deals are online. Watif (watif.com.au) has deals on hotels that have dropped their prices so low. You don’t know where you’re staying until it’s booked, but anywhere with four or five stars has to be fairly good.

Back to nature

Wild camping appeals to nature lovers and costs nothing. This is forbidden on beaches and parks in most urban areas, but you can turn up in more distant areas as long as nobody owns the land. You’ll need to take everything with you and may need to shop on eBay (ebay.com.au). If you’re a camping beginner, be aware of safety measures and get your questions answered on the Internet.

Swap meet

How about a home swap? For a $250 yearly joining cost, you can stay in someone’s home in an international place of your choice while they or someone else stays in yours. Find out more at familylink.com.au.

Many people stereotype(对……刻板印象)the college years as four years’ worth of partying. But that’s not true! Many students use their time to create things. Here are some of their amazingly smart inventions.

A Fire Extinguisher That Uses Sound

Created by Seth Robertson and Viet Tran, engineering students at George Mason University, this sonic fire extinguisher uses low-frequency sound waves to put out fire. At just the right frequency — between 30 and 60Hz，the movement of sound waves creates a vacuum (真空), cutting off the fire’s oxygen supply.

A Marker That Tells You When to Apply Sunscreen How many of you have gone to the beach and forgotten to reapply sunscreen? Two University of Waterloo students—Rachel Pautler and Derek Jouppi—invented Suncayr, a marker that tells you when it’s time to reapply your sunscreen. The ink turns color in the presence of UV light, so when you find a purple mark on your skin, you know it’s time to reapply it.

A Device That Turns a Flat Surface into a Computer

Thanks to Pranav Mistry and Liyan Chang, students at MIT, you may be able to wear a computer in the future. They developed a device called SixthSense. You keep a smartphone in your pocket and wear a little camera/projector around your neck. The smartphone and camera/projector work as a team to sense your finger movements, process information, and project information onto a surface—be it a wall, a table, or the palm of your hand.

A Universal Tape Dispenser

Ever find yourself with a roll of tape in your teeth, using your mouth to tear a piece while attempting not to break a tooth? Cooper Union students Deanna Kovalein and Jessica Marshall created a device called Snip It that fits any tape roll and cuts any type of tape. With the push of a button, the tape gets pressed against the sharp edge, which cuts it.