In a Station of the Metro

    The apparition of these faces in the crowd;Petals on a wet, black bough.

    This is the only Ezra Pound poem that many people will read in their lives. Why? One obvious reason is that it's just two lines long. The poem, which can be understood as “A man sees a bunch of faces in the subway and thinks they look like flowers on a tree branch,” is an exercise in shortness. Pound wrote it after having a spiritual experience in a Paris metro (subway) station.

    In 1916, the US poet originally thought he could best describe his vision in a painting. Unfortunately, he wasn't a painter. So he wrote a thirty-line poem, which he didn't like. He dropped the long version in the waste bin. Six months later, he wrote a shorter poem, but didn't like that one either. Finally, a full year after the experience, he had been reading short Japanese poems called haikus, and he figured he would try this style. The result, which was published in 1913, is one of the most famous and influential works in modern poetry.

    This poem is one of the monuments (纪念物) of the 20th-century artistic movement known as “Imagism”. Basically, Pound and his friends thought that images (意象) weren't just decoration: they were the highest form of speech. By finding the right image, the poet can express the true, spiritual reality of a thing, which is more important than using a bunch of adjectives to describe its physical appearance. Thus, “In a Station of the Metro” is a poem that consists of one image expressed with absolute (绝对的) exactness and nothing else.

    To the imagists, the best way to describe an experience is not to use more and more words; the best way is to find exactly the right words. Have you ever told a beloved one that “words can't express” how much you love them? Well, Pound would say that you're just being lazy. In his view, words can express anything, even if it takes an entire year to find the right ones.

    With more and more cars on the road, traffic jams are inevitable(不可避免的）. Traffic jams can lead to increased accidents as there are more cars. It's impossible to avoid traffic jams altogether.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    Check for traffic jams before you leave.

    You can listen to the radio for traffic news, or check on the Internet to get up-to-minute information on traffic. If the route you want to take is heavy with traffic, you can choose another.

    Look for a different route all the time.

    Most traffic jams happen on busy roads.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}Although the distance you may have to travel is further, it can work out quicker.

    Set your car radio to receive traffic bulletins.

    Many new car stereo systems (汽车音响系统) are equipped with a radio system by which you can hear the traffic channel.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    Most traffic jams usually occur during rush hour, so try to avoid this time period if possible. Some jobs offer flexible working hours so that you can travel to work outside of rush hour. Some jobs even allow you to work at home so as to avoid moving altogether. Ask your manager to see what you can do if traffic is a problem for you.

    Use public transport alternatives where available.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}Not only will you avoid traffic jams but you will most likely be saving money as the cost of motoring rises.

A. Try traveling at different time.

B. What should we do to prevent traffic accidents?

C. The easiest way to avoid traffic jams is to take buses or the underground instead of driving your own car.

D. Public transport is so important in our life that we should use it at any time.

E. This way you can get the latest traffic information and change your journey if necessary.

F. Using country roads could let you avoid a lot of traffic.

G. There are some tips you can follow to reduce the amount of time on the road.

    When we were very small, we realized that having friends was important. Some of us even had imaginary（想象中的）friends. The need for friends continued as we grew into our teens. Friends played a big part in forming our personalities（性格）. As adults, it is still important for us to have friends.

    True friends are people who like us though we made mistakes and who listen to us and tell us the truth. Friends support our decisions and tell us when we're foolish. They laugh with us and share our sadness. They are our partners and share interests with us. They stimulate us when we are feeling down. They are people we aren't afraid of telling our secret wishes to or what is really on our minds.

    Friends are our supporters. When you can depend on friends, you feel safe and warm. Friends offer acceptance and emotional（情感的） support. At times, they also help with our everyday lives, cooking a meal, doing chores, or giving us a lift when we need one. Friends also are there to offer advice, an ear to listen, or a shoulder to cry on.

    Friends also help us reduce stress. Not only do they listen to us when we feel stressed, but they also discuss what is stressing us. Sharing interests and doing activities with friends help us forget about problems at work or at home. For a short time, we can lose ourselves in a pleasant activity and perhaps laugh and breathe more easily.

    What is the single most effective way to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions? Go vegetarian (素食)？ Replant the Amazon? Cycle to work? None of the above. The answer is: make air-conditioners better. On one calculation, replacing refrigerants (制冷剂) damaging the atmosphere would reduce total greenhouse gases equaling 90bn tonnes of CO₂ by 2050. Making the units more energy-efficient could double that. By contrast, if half the world's population gave up meat, it would save 66bn tonnes. Replanting two-thirds of tropical forests would save 61 bn tonnes. A one-third increase in global bicycle journeys, just 2.3bn tonnes.

    Air-conditioning is one of the world's great overlooked industries. Automobiles and air-conditioners were invented at roughly the same time, and both have had a huge impact on where people live and Work. Unlike cars, though， air-conditioners have drawn little criticism for their social impact, emissions or energy efficiency. Most hot countries do not have rules to govern their energy use. There is not even a common English word for “coolth” (the opposite of warmth).

    Yet air-conditioning has done more than most things to benefit humankind. Lee Kuan Yew, the first prime minister of Singapore, called it “perhaps one of the signal inventions of history”. It has transformed productivity in the tropics(热带地区)and helped turn southern China into the workshop of the World. In Europe, its spread has pushed down heat-related deaths to 10% since 2003, Men 70,000 people than usual, most of them elderly, died in a heatwave. For children, air-conditioned classrooms are associated with better grades at school.

    Environmentalists who call air-conditioning “a luxury we cannot afford” have half a point, however. In the next ten years, as many air-conditioners will be installed(安装)around the world as were put in between 1902(invention time)and 2005.Unless energy can be produced without carbon emissions, these extra machines will warm the world. At the moment, therefore, air-conditioners create a vicious cycle. The more the Earth warms, the more people need them. But the more there are, the warmer the world will be.

    Cutting the impact of cooling requires three things. First, air-conditioners must become much more efficient. The most energy-efficient models on the market today consume only about one-third as much electricity as average ones, Minimum energy-performance standards need to be raised raised, orintroduced in countries that lack them altogether, to push the average unit's performance closer to the standard of the best.

    Next, manufacturers should stop using damaging refrigerants. One type called hydrofluoro-carbons, is over 1,000 times worse than carbon dioxide when it comes to trapping heat in the atmosphere. An international agreement to knock out these pollutants will come into force in 2019.

    Last, more could be done to design offices, malls and even cities so they do not need as many air-conditioners in the first place. More buildings should be built with overhanging roofs or balconies for shade, or with natural ventilation (自然通风).Simply painting roofs white can help keep temperatures down. Providing indoor air-conditioned comfort need not come at the expense of an overheating world.

How to Prevent Dehydration

    When the weather's warm, you need to make sure you drink enough water. But did you know that you lose your sense of thirst as you get older? This means you5re more likely to become dehydrated, making you more prone to (有倾向) falls, heart disease, urinary-tract infections, kidney stones and confusion. A study from Loughborough University in the UK has shown that drivers who had only a little water an hour made twice as many mistakes as motorists who were properly hydrated. In fact, they made a similar number of errors to what you'd expect from someone over the drink-drive limit.

    So how do you know when you're dehydrated? Warning signs include:

    Feeling tired

    Dry mouth and dry skin

    Dark urine

    Reduced appetite (食欲)

    Reduced concentration

    Headache

    Constipation.

    But you might not notice any symptoms (症状)at all，so to make sure you stay hydrated:

    Keep a glass of water by your side when you're at home, and drink it regularly.

    Form a new drinking habit—for example, when watching TV, always reach for the water glass during an ad break.

    Take a small bottle of water with you when you go out.

    Always drink a large glass of water with a meal.

    Eat fruit and vegetables with high water content.

    Draw up a weekly water card—a bit like a coffee loyalty card—with a target of eight glasses of water a day. Mark it every time you have a glass of water. Award yourself a prize when ifs full at the end of the week.

    Drink water before, during and after you take any exercise.

    Are you interested in hi-tech products? Here are some that you might find at the market now.

    CX-1

    Tired of dragging your bag through busy airports? Then you might want to consider CX-1. The smart suitcase uses facial recognizing software to follow its owner as he/she is checking in or heading to the gate. Though CX-1 can only move at a speed of up to seven miles per hour, a tiny tool enables owners to keep track of the suitcase's location. Happily, it has been sold on the market.

    Aibo

    Sony's latest version of the Aibo robotic dog is almost as fun as the real thing — but much less work. The pet dog can recognize its owner, obey several commands, and even recall the behavior that pleases its master the most. Aibo can also learn new tricks, take photographs, and over time, develop its own unique personality.

    Forpheus

    Forpheus, an "athletic" robot developed by Japanese technology company Omron. It teaches users how to play ping-pong. The 10-feet-tall machine uses a camera and artificial intelligence to track the ball's speed and can predict the ball's direction correctly. The smart Forpheus can also quickly test its player's abilities and adjust the playing level, making the game fun.

    Black Box VR

    Though many people determine to go to the gym once a week, few reach their goal. Black Box VR wants to change that by turning hard exercise into fun video games. Using it, gym users will find themselves fighting enemies, including big creatures — all while getting exercise.