Have you ever been around when the water bill arrives at your house? Perhaps you’ve heard someone say, “Stop wasting water! The water bill is sky high!” Water costs a lot of money. You might be wondering why water is so expensive. After all, water hardly seems scarce. It covers the majority of Earth. However, most of Earth’s water is in salty oceans. Only a small amount of it is drinkable.

All living things need water to survive, so water is one of our most important natural resources. With a little effort, you can save water and also help keep down the water bill. You will be surprised at how easy it is to save water. Read the tips below to learn how.

From the time you wake up until you go to bed, pay attention to how much water you use. Do you wash your hands before you eat breakfast? If you do, turn off the water while you use the soap. Then when you finish washing your hands, make sure you turn the tap off. Also remember to turn it off when you put toothpaste on your toothbrush and while brushing your teeth.

Maybe you take a shower in the morning. Try to keep your time in the shower to less than ten minutes. Installing a low-flow showerhead, which reduces the amount of water you use, will help, too. If you let the water in the shower heat up before you get in, don’t let it go down the drain (排水孔). Instead, catch the water in buckets and use it to water houseplants. Usually, you use much less water in a shower than in a bath. A shower is more refreshing, too. However, if you decide to take a bath, be sure to close the drain before you turn on the water.

There are so many ways to save water. For fun, try to do at least one thing every day to save water. Every drop of water counts!

Millions of youngsters across Europe could suffer permanent hearing loss if they listen to MP3 players at too high a volume for more than five hours a week, EU scientists warned Monday.

The scientists’ study, requested by the European Commission, argued against the concept of “leisure noise,” saying children and teenagers should be protected from increasingly high sound levels. “There has been increasing concern about exposure from the new generation of personal music players which can reproduce sounds at very high volumes without loss of quality,” the Commission, the EU’s executive department, said in a statement.

Risk for hearing damage depends on sound level and exposure time. However, more and more young people have been exposed to the significant threat that leisure noise posed(造成) to hearing in the past decade. Commission experts estimate that between 50 and 100 million people listen to portable (便携式的) music players on a daily basis. If they listened for only five hours a week at more than 89 decibels (分贝), they would already go beyond EU limits for noise allowed in the workplace, they said. But if they listened for longer periods, they would risk permanent hearing loss after five years.

The scientists calculated the number of people in that risk category at between 5 and 10 percent of listeners, meaning up to 10 million people in the European Union. Sales of personal music players have increased in EU countries in recent years, particularly of MP3 players. Commission experts estimate unit sales between 184 and 246 million for all portable audio devices just over the last four years, of which MP3 players range between 124 and 165 million.

Loud mobile phones also came under fire. “I am concerned that so many young people who are frequent users of personal music players and mobile phones at high volume levels, may be unknowingly damaging their hearing,” said Meglena Kuneva, the EU’s consumer affairs official in her statement.

As we enter into adulthood and continue to navigate everything that comes with it—work, kids, mortgage, you know—our childhood starts to feel further and further away.

Research shows that major issues in adulthood—from addiction and anxiety to compulsive overeating and relationship issues—can be better understood, and resolved, by looking back toward our childhood.

For anyone who experienced trauma (创伤) in their early years, those feelings can resurface later in life, explains Diane Young, a senior mental doctor at South Pacific Private.

“Many of us who see ourselves as ‘successful’ adults don’t relate our current behaviors and values to childhood experiences, until something becomes problematic and a professional connects it back—this can often be a light-bulb moment. Childhood is where we learn how to relate, where we develop our sense of self-worth and our interpersonal skills, so even minor forms of trauma, abuse or neglect can have an outsize influence later on in life,” Young says.

Want to know about how childhood experiences can affect your adult relationships? Here, Young helps us connect the dots between our past and our present.

How is childhood trauma defined?

“It is any experience that has a negative impact and is overwhelming to the child. It includes abandonment, neglect, divorce, death, being raised in a family with addicted parents or parents suffering with mental health issues. Some families can look perfect on the outside, but may be common with painful and destructive relational patterns that have long-lasting consequences.”

How can you recognize that you have a problem and that it’s linked to past events?

“When the behavior, substance or emotions seem to have control of you, rather than you having control of them—that’s a key sign that you have a problem. When thinking about the past, you will do everything to not feel the pain, fear or shame of those experiences. Other signs include feeling on ‘high alert’ all the time, having flashbacks, experiencing high levels of anxiety, codependent relationships and low self-esteem.”

How can someone break the habit of repeating past negative behaviors?

“Reach out for help—usually this is from a partner, friend or family member. And make the call to a mental health professional—a therapist, or an adviser. There is help available if you reach out.”