The U. S. Postal Service (USPS) is losing billions of dollars a year. The government company that delivers "small mail" is losing out to email and other types of electronic communication. First-class mail amount fell from a high point of 104 million pieces in 2000 to just 64 million pieces by 2014.

    Congress permits the 600.000-empIoyee USPS to hold a monopoly (垄断) over first-class and standard mail. The company pays no federal, state or local taxes; pays no vehicle fees; and is free from many regulations on other businesses. Despite these advantages, the USPS has lost $52 billion since 2007, and will continue losing money without major reforms.

    The problem is that Congress is preventing the USPS from reducing costs as its sales decline, and is blocking efforts to end Saturday service and close unneeded post office locations. USPS also has a costly union-dominated workforce that slows the introduction of new ideas or methods down. USPS workers earn significantly higher payment than comparable private-sector workers. The answer is to privatize the USPS and open postal markets to competition. With the rise of the Internet, the argument that mail is a natural monopoly that needs government protection is weaker than ever.

    Other countries facing declining letter amounts have made reforms Germany and the Netherlands privatized their national postal companies over a decade ago, and other European countries have followed suit. Britain floated shares of the Royal Mail on its stock exchange in 2013. Some countries, such us Sweden and New Zealand, have not privatized their national postal companies, but they have opened them up to competition.

    These reforms have driven efficiency improvements in all of these countries. Additional number of workers have been reduced, productivity has risen and consumers have benefited. Also, note that cost-cutting measures—such as closing tone post offices—are good for both the economy and the environment.

    Privatization and competition also encourage new changes. When the USPS monopoly over "extremely urgent" mail was stopped in 1979, we saw an explosion in efficient overnight private delivery by firms such as FedEx.

    The government needs to wake up to changing technology, study postal reforms abroad and let businessmen reinvent our out-of-date postal system.

    Kids seem to spend endless hours on smartphones, computers and tablets these days. The best thing parents can do to prevent it is to encourage youngsters to spend more time outdoors in the sunlight.

    There has been a massive rise around the globe in short-sightedness—or myopia as it's officially known—over recent decades. Myopia or short-sightedness is becoming more common. Lack of natural light seems to be the key issue. “The main factor seems to be a lack of exposure to direct sunlight, because children who study a lot and who use computers or smartphones or tablet computers a lot have less opportunity to run around outside and are less exposed to sunshine and because of that children seem to be at more risk of developing shortsightedness.”

    Professor Hammond says, “It may be there's no coincidence that in East Asian countries, the most myopic ones all relate may to be the that maths league tables(排名表). These kids are being pushed with very intensive education from a very young age and spend a lot of time indoors studying close up. Therefore the concern is that all close work—like playing with the iPhone—carries the potential that it could make them more shortsighted.”

    The best thing to do, say the experts, is to get children playing outside as much as possible. “In a perfect world, probably on average across the week and the weekend, two hours a day outdoors is protective of becoming short-sighted in children. Healthy diet is really also important—in terms of getting oily fish, green vegetables, green leafy vegetables as much as possible.

    “What we need to look at is ways of modifying the impact that these activities have on their visual development.” Professor Hammond said, “There are eye drops and other treatments to slow myopia progression. But in terms of preventing myopia itself, there isn't any data out there at the moment in terms of the question, 'Could the drops we use slow progression or stop myopia developing at all? ' ”

Londoners are great readers. They buy vast numbers of newspapers and magazines and of books — especially paperbacks, which are still comparatively cheap in spite of ever-increasing rises in the costs of printing. They still continue to buy "proper" books, too, printed on good paper and bound（装订）between hard covers.

    There are many streets in London containing shops which specialize in book-selling. Perhaps the best known of these is Charring Cross Road in the very heart of London. Here bookshops of all sorts and sizes are to be found, from the celebrated one which boasts of being "the biggest bookshop in the world" to the tiny, dusty little places which seem to have been left over from Dickens' time. Some of these shops stock, or will obtain, any kind of book, but many of them specialize in second-hand books, in art books, in foreign books, in books on philosophy, politics or any other of the countless subjects about which books may be written. One shop in this area specializes only in books about ballet!

    Although it may be the most convenient place for Londoners to buy books, Charring Cross Road is not the cheapest. For the really cheap second-hand books, the collector must venture off the beaten track, to Farringdon Road, for example, in the East Central district of London. Here there is nothing so impressive as bookshops. The booksellers come along each morning and pour out their sacks of books onto small hand carts. And the collectors, some professionals and some amateurs, have been waiting for them. In places like this they can still, occasionally, pick up for a few pence an old one that may be worth many pounds.

    If you want to fully enjoy your vacation, you'd better check the Durban City Tours! This is actually one of the best choices in South Africa today.

    There is nothing more relaxing than to think about that there is a place to go and relax, right? City life is strained（紧张的）, but you can escape this situation and be in the place where there is nothing but relaxation. Here in Durban you will get to see all the amazing tourist attractions（吸引人的地方）. If you love animals and want to see some elephants wandering around the streets, then Durban is the place to go. You can even get to ride one if you want!

    Here you will also get to taste all the delicious South African food. You can choose from Italian cooking to its native dishes. Durban is a great place to tour with your friends and family. You will learn a lot about its history through the landmarks（地标） you will see down the streets. Tourists and even the local villagers just can't get enough of these treats!

    However, it is important that you make the necessary arrangements安排. There are actually lots of tour guides that will help you as you make your journey along the streets of Durban. But if you prefer the best tour guides here in Durban, then you'd better choose the Street Scene Tours. Their staff（员工） are all well­trained and professional（专业的）. They will certainly make your stay here an unforgettable one. No wonder tourists prefer the Street Scene Tours when it comes to Durban City Tours.

    Angus, Doris, Gabriel and Kamil are some of the 21 names that have been chosen to be given to storms in the UK in the 2016/17 season.

    The Met Office, the UK's national weather service, decided to give storms boys' and girls' names in 2015 in the same way as they did in America.

    The Met Office hopes that naming big storms will mean people are more aware (意识到) of them and how dangerous they can be. Derrick Ryall, from the Met Office, said, "We have seen how naming storms elsewhere in the world raises people's awareness of storms before they break."

    In the past, the same UK storm could be given different names by different organisations. "We noticed that many organisations during the last couple of winters, when we have had bad storms, started giving names to them. Think back to the St Jude's Day storm in 2013, and the so­called Hurricane Bawbag in Scotland in 2011. But it led to confusion (混乱)," a Met Office spokeswoman said.

    According to the Met Office, there is a name for each letter of the whole alphabet (字母表), except for Q, U, X, Y and Z. That is the same as the naming tradition used in America. And not all storms will be big enough to get names — only those expected to cause great damage.

    If there are more than 21 storms in a year, the Met Office will start again with another name beginning with "A". However, according to Met Office spokeswoman Lindsay Mears, "It's unlikely we would get through the whole alphabet in one season. We had 14 storms in the very bad winter of 2013/14, and if the naming system had been in operation then we wouldn't have used the whole alphabet."

Hamlet, the prince of Denmark, has come back from university to find that his father, the old king, is dead. His mother has married his father's brother, Claudius, who is now king of Denmark. Hamlet is shocked that his mother has married so soon after his father's death, and angry that she has married Claudius.

Soon, a ghost (幽灵) is seen walking on the castle walls. The ghost looks like Hamlet's father, the dead king. When Hamlet sees the ghost, he is told that it is the ghost of his father. "I am your father's spirit," the ghost tells Hamlet. It tells him that Hamlet's father did not die naturally, but was murdered by his brother Claudius. As the king slept, Claudius put poison into his ear, causing the king a painful death. The ghost tells Hamlet to take revenge on Claudius for murdering his father.

Hamlet can't believe his mother would marry the man who murdered her husband. He becomes depressed, and he thinks about killing himself: "To be or not to be, that is the question. " Hamlet decides to pretend he is mad while he tries to find out if King Claudius really killed his father. Claudius soon notices that Hamlet is acting strangely, so he asks Polonius, his adviser, to discover if it is true…