Britain's pub landlords (酒吧店主) are looking with a worried eye to the UK Chancellor's budget for fear that the annual tax gathering round will strike another blow to a traditional industry already reeling (蹒跚). Thousands of pubs have closed since the financial crash in 2007.

    The Plough, which was once a coaching house for travelers, has been serving Britain's famous warm beer since the days of Shakespeare. Now it is under threat too. "Yeah. So many pubs have been closed over the last few years even in this area," said Derek O'Neil, the manager of The Plough Pub.

    Many reasons are the cause—a ban on smoking in public, severe laws against drinking and driving and high taxes have all combined to kill off nearly 10,000 pubs in the last seven years, according to the British Beer and Pub Association. With the closures, pubs are being redeveloped. Many have turned into supermarkets, where the beer is sometimes cheaper.

      Britain's pubs continue to play an important part in the UK economy, selling thousands of different beers and employing more than a million people. The reality, though, is pubs are suffering something of a hangover (遗留物). In the last 15 years the amount of beer sold in pubs has fallen by eight million barrels to just under 36 million a year. Pub landlords want tax breaks (税务减免).

    "People have less money in their pockets, so they can't go out and spend it and habits are changing—so much alcohol is nowadays drunk at home," said Brigid Simmonds, Chief Executive of the British Beer and Pub Association. "Yeah, I miss the pubs where there's a lot of character, especially 30 years ago. You know there was great fun in them."

While pubs are still much loved, they're discovering that love isn't enough to survive 21st century economics.

    Shan Tianfang, died at 83 on Sept. 11, 2018 in Beijing because of multiple organ failure. His energetic oral interpretations of classical Chinese novels and historical events pushed the ancient pingshu tradition forward into the modern age for generations of Chinese.

    Mr. Shan tried for many years to avoid becoming a performer of pingshu, the Song dynasty-era storytelling tradition. Growing up in the1950s in a family of folk art performers, he had seen struggle firsthand. It was a life of constant financial troubles and low social status. So it was with great unwillingness when, out of financial necessity, he became an apprentice(徒弟) to a family friend who was a master of pingshu. He made his first public appearance in 1956.

    In the pingshu tradition, the performer wears a traditional gown and sits behind a desk equipped with a folding fan and a wooden block. The storyteller tells a legend — typically a classical Chinese epic — from memory, using different voices and exaggerated gestures as well as adding occasional background detail and commentary.

    Mr. Shan grew to love the storytelling form, which is popular across northern China. It is a demanding profession that combines acting, oration, writing, historical research and literary criticism and requires countless hours of memorization. In teahouses around the northeastern region, he became famous for his fresh takes on the classics.

    In 1976, many Chinese were hungry for some new forms of entertainment, and it was against this background that he grasped the opportunity to record a pingshu radio broadcast. He soon discovered that performing on radio was vastly different from doing so in teahouses. There were no props(道具), no reactions from the audience to guide him — just Mr. Shan and the microphone in a recording studio. So for his first radio performance, a shortened version of the historical novel. The Romance of Sui and Tang Dynasties, Mr. Shan used the studio's three recording technicians as his audience and adjusted his performance based on their reactions.

    The performance had its first appearance in 1980 on Chinese New Year, and more than 100 million Chinese were estimated to have tuned in during the 56 hours over which it was broadcast. It was the beginning of a dramatic second act both for Mr. Shan and for pingshu in the People's Republic of China. He was soon a household name across the country.

    Over six decades, Mr. Shan recorded more than 110 stories for radio and television totaling about 12,000 episodes and lasting 6,000 hours. His best-known works include his interpretations of Chinese classics like 'White-Eyebrow Hero' and 'Sanxia Wuyi' and his dramatizations of historical figures like Zhuge Liang and Lin Zexu.

    Even today, hop into a Beijing taxi and the driver may be listening to one of Mr. Shan's recordings. "For my generation, Shan Tianfang was a master," said Zhao Fuwei, 48, a Beijing taxi driver. If back then there was such thing as a viral star, then Shan Tianfang was definitely the hottest viral star.

    "Listening to his stories has made it easier to kill time in bad traffic," Mr. Zhao added. "He was so good at making complicated historical stories simple and interesting". You feel like you could empathize with the characters in his stories, even though they lived a long time ago.

    But in recent years many of the great pingshu performers have died, and the tradition is fading. By the time Mr. Shan retired in 2007, interest in pingshu among Chinese had all but been replaced by mobile phones and gaming. Nevertheless, even after retiring, Mr. Shan worked tirelessly to promote pingshu among young Chinese, instructing apprentices and starting a school dedicated to the folk arts.

    Ever willing to adapt to new technologies, he posted a message to his Sina Weibo microblog account on Sept. 6, five days before his death. It was an announcement about a new live-streamed(直播) lecture series about pingshu.

    I have never been a fan of the phrase, "No pains, no gains." I prefer the alternative version, "No pains, no pains!" When it comes to exercise, for example, I learned years ago that pushing through pain was more likely to lay me up with an aching back than to leave me feeling strong and healthy.

    But there are times when stressful situations actually do lead to greater happiness. A new study published in the Journal of Happiness Studies found that people who pursue (追求) goals that are tough to achieve feel more stress in the moment, but greater happiness in the aftermath particularly if they feel connected to others along the way.

    The researchers concluded that happiness increases when people develop greater competence in something and greater competence only comes when people keep on working through the stress-inducing phase of trying, fighting, and trying again to learn and grow. If the psychological needs to be autonomous or self-directed, and to be connected to others are met, the momentary stresses will be less acute, and the resulting happiness will be more lasting.

    This idea reminds me of another often quoted phrase, which I have heard in reference to challenging tasks, such as exercise —"Fill-in-the-blank-stressful-task is the worst thing to do, but the greatest thing to have done." In other words, suffering from the stress of an exercise class that leaves us feeling sweat-drenched shouldn't lead us to walk away from exercising. And if we can pass those stressful moments with a friend, colleague or family member who is trustworthy and supportive, all will be better.

    As I travel my positive path, I'm certainly not seeking out stress. But life will offer me plenty of it, whether I ask for it or not. My task is to choose wisely when and how to face it head-on, knowing that happiness awaits on the other side.

We are what we eat. That is an old expression, but one worth knowing. A recent look at diets around the world shows that people who eat healthy food—and not too much of it—live longer. But which areas of the world have the best diets？Researchers found that foods in some of the healthiest diets—Mediterranean, New Nordic, Japanese and French—may be very different, but they are all heavy on local, seasonal and limit processed foods, which are high in vegetables and seafood and low in red meat.

Mediterranean diet contains lots of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and olive oil. The diet has proper amounts of fish and poultry (禽肉). Red meat and foods high in sugar and salt are not big parts of this diet.

New Nordic diet has whole grains like oats and rye, vegetables such as carrots, broccoli and eggs, seafood, fruits, oil, low­fat milk and cheese. Very sugary desserts are not common in this diet.

Japanese people are some of the longest­living people on the planet, with women up to 87 years old and men up to 80. The Japanese diet is the reason for such lengths of life. The diet has many foods that are low in calories and high in nutrients. Japanese people eat a lot of seaweed, tofu, rice, vegetables and fish. The tradition there is to stop eating when your stomach feels 80 percent full.

However, French people eat fatty foods but do not get fat. And they live a long time. This phenomenon is called the "French Paradox". The reason why the French eat fatty foods without getting fat may be simple. They eat less. Serving sizes in French restaurants and in products sold in stores are smaller than those in most countries. And generally speaking, most French people do not snack. This means they do not eat food between meals.

About two weeks ago I saw a very sad, blue eyed, homeless man sitting outside my local coffee house. I said, "Hi! How are you doing today?"

He seemed shocked that I was talking to him. "Not very well, " he replied. He began to tell me how he had been hit by a car while riding his bike. He had been in the hospital for a month and s rest home for another month. During that time the person that paid for his SSI checks （社保费） died of a hear attack and his wallet was stolen with all his IDs. He had several checks waiting for him but had no ID and therefore no access to his money. 

I decided that if this was all true I'd like to help him get a copy of his birth certificate and social security card. I asked him to meet me at the Department of Vital Statistics at 11: 00 p. m. The next morning I didn't see him so I started filling out the paperwork. I explained to the receptionist, "I'm trying to help a homeless friend get his ID hack. " "Bob?" she inquired. "Yes, Bob, " I responded, surprised that she knew his name. "He was here at 9: 30 and he just left, she said, "But he told us you were coming. " I paid the fee and walked out with Bob's Birth Certificate. 

As I was driving home I saw Bob riding back on the old bike someone had given him. I pulled over and jumped out of my car shouting, "Bob! Bob! I got it!" He saw me and rode over. "I got it, Bob! Look, here it is!" He got tears in his eyes and told me I was his guardian angel. 

A few days later I needed him to meet me at the Social Security Office. It took me a half hour to get there by car and at least two hours by bike. But there he was sitting on the sidewalk waiting for me! We were in the Social Security Office for two hours. We got everything straightened out and by next week he will have received his back pay, which is a substantial sum. 

Yes, one person can make a difference in this world. And the interesting thing is that I am getting as much, if not more, from this experience than Bob. I am deeply touched by Bob's sensitivity, his gratitude, his stories, his heart. 

Home is where the heart is, even for the homeless!

Humans have sailed the oceans' surfaces for millennia（千年）, but their depths remain effectively uncharted. Only about a quarter of the seafloor has been mapped at high resolution. Maps of most regions display only approximate depths and often miss entire underwater mountains or canyons（峡谷）.

So a group of researchers has recruited some deep-diving experts: Elephant Seals and Weddell Seals. Scientists have been placing trackers on these blubbery marine mammals around Antarctica for years, gathering data on ocean temperature and salinity. For a new study, the researchers compared these dives' location and depth data with some of the less detailed seafloor maps. They spotted places where the seals dove deeper than should have been possible according to the maps--meaning the existing depth estimates were inaccurate.

In eastern Antarctica's Vincennes Bay, the diving seals helped the scientists find a large, hidden underwater canyon. An Australian research ship called the RSV Nuyina later measured the canyon's exact depth using sonar, and the researchers have proposed naming their find the Mirounga-Nuyina Canyon—honoring both the ship and the involved Elephant Seals, genus（动植物的属）Mirounga.

But seals can't map the entire ocean floor. The trackers used in the study could pinpoint a seal's geographical location only within about 

1.5miles. Plus, because the seals don't always dive to the bottom of the ocean, they can reveal only where the bottom is deeper than in existing maps—not shallower. McMahon notes that scientists could improve on these data by using more precise GPS trackers and analyzing the seals' diving patterns to determine whether they have reached the seafloor or simply stopped descending.

The current seal-dive data can still be valuable for an important task, says Anna Wåhlin, an oceanographer. The deep ocean around Antarctica is warmer than the frigid waters at the surface, and seafloor canyons can allow that warmer water to flow to the ice along the continent's coast, Wåhlin explains. To predict how Antarctica's ice will melt, scientists will need to know where those canyons are and how deep they go.