On Aug 29, 1988, the University of Wisconsin-Madison juniors Tim Keck and Christopher Johnson published the first-ever issue of The Onion. The two founders claimed it was the “finest news source” in the US. 25 years later, the news has become one of the most established media presences in the US. But don't expect accuracy and timeliness from it, because The Onion only publishes fake news or news satire (讽刺). Its aim is to make readers laugh and see things from a different angle.

    Will Tracy, The Onion's editor-in-chief, told the NPR in an interview. “The stories are presented in that sort of news voice which improves the news to a certain level of importance. The news isn't actually understandable but it has an ability to elegantly locate a problem with concise and plain words.” For example, when George W. Bush became the US president in 2001, The Onion published a satire piece predicting massive debt and a huge growth in military spending. The headline said it all—Bush: “Our long national nightmare of peace and prosperity is finally over”.

    Traditional media outlets are cautious when reporting sensitive topics such as religion and race. Tracy says/‘Nothing is off limits for The Onion, no matter how uncomfortable they may make some readers.” But editors at The Onion do stand a fine line, as Tracy explains: “What you have to be really careful about is what the target of the joke is. If the target of the joke is wrong, then it doesn't feel right and it also doesn't feel funny.” The Onion made the public outrageous when earlier this year, it tried to make fun of a 9-year-old Oscar-nominated (奥斯卡提名的) actress by using highly impolite language. It later apologized.

    What is language for? Some people seem to think it's for practicing grammar rules and learning lists of words—the longer the lists, the better. That's wrong. Language is for the exchange of ideas and information. It's meaningless knowing all about a language if you can't use it freely. Many students I have met know hundreds of grammar rules, but they can't speak correctly or fluently（流利地）. They are afraid of making mistakes. One shouldn't be afraid of making mistakes when speaking a foreign language. Native speakers make mistakes and break rules, too. Bernard Shaw once wrote,  “Foreigners often speak English too correctly. ” But the mistakes that native speakers make are different from those that Chinese students make. They're English mistakes in the English language. And if enough native speakers break a rule, it is no longer a rule. What used to be wrong becomes right. People not only make history, they make language. But a people can only make its own language. It can't make another people's language. So Chinese students of English should pay attention to grammar, but they shouldn't overdo it. They should put communication first.

    When I was three years old, I couldn't speak. It was a strange reality that none of the doctors I visited could understand.

    One day, I was shadowing my mother. She found herself looking in a mirror, and through it our eyes met. She began to speak to me through the reflection, and I slowly began to mimic(模仿)her mouth's movements until I formed a word.

    It turned out I'm deaf in my left ear, and have a slight problem in my right. Being hard of hearing has been difficult, but I've never lived in a state of self-hating sorrow. Imagine being able to shut out all sound as you lay your head down to sleep by simply rolling over onto one side. That's my reality when I sleep on my "good ear", and it makes me feel like a superhero sometimes.

    People call my deaf side my "bad ear", but when I wear my hearing aid, I have access to a range of features that some other deaf people don't. In cinemas, for example, with one click of a button I can enjoy a whole film as though it were whispered to me from the mouths of the actors.

    Owning a hearing aid hasn't always felt good, however. On the first day I got my aid, when I was eight, I took it to school for show-and-tell. As I explained how it worked to my classmates, a boy yelled out, "Aren't those for old men?" At that moment, I felt different. It took a long time for me to get over that sense of being so unlike my peers.

    But it's not just school kids who can make us deaf and hard-of-hearing people feel like burdens. Every video on social media that lacks subtitles(字幕), for example, means an entire community of deaf people is unable to enjoy it. Completely deaf people are excluded from enjoying many movies too, as subtitles in cinemas are almost impossible to find.

    And with hearing aids costing around $2,500 each, it can be hard for many people to afford to be able to listen to the things that others take for granted. As for me, I can listen to music, enjoy films, and catch conversations - I'm lucky. I'm deaf, but I can still hear everything. I've been blessed with wonderful life experiences, and I am human. And when it comes to sleeping, I'm even superhuman.

Dear Coach,

    I have been out of work for almost six months now and things are starting to get very tough for me. I am practically living out of my savings. I have been looking for a job, but things are really bad and I cannot find a single person who wants to hire me. I know that the main problem is that I do not have a degree. I want to go back to school and get my degree, but I also need a job now. I owe money to some people who have been helping me. Because I am out of work, I cannot pay them back. What do you think I should do? I need to find a job as quickly as possible, and want to know what else to do to get people to give me a chance to work for them.

The Unemployed

Dear Unemployed,

    Before you get yourself in a really bad situation, you need to stop borrowing money from people. If you continue doing that, you will be deep in debts and the situation will get even worse for you. The next thing you need to do is look for a job depending on your abilities, skills, and experience. By doing that, you will be increasing your chances of finding a job that suits you best. And the last thing I will suggest is that you should stop feeling sorry for yourself and continue working hard to get a job that you need. Borrowing money, complaining, and feeling bad for your situation will do no good to you. Stay strong and get out there and start showing the world what you can offer. I promise if you work hard and never give up, you will soon find the job that you are looking for. And while you are doing it, thing about getting your degree as well because it will help you to become more challenging. Try those tips.

The Coach

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.