The nervous-looking young man had waited for a few moments—outside the jeweler's before he got enough courage to enter. He was warmly greeted by a young assistant. James felt a rush of blood to his face as he explained he would be bringing in his future wife to choose a birthday present. The assistant listened carefully and told him he'd better buy a necklace. He wasn't used to buying jewellery and was a little worried about over-spending. After some discussion as to a reasonable price and the type, the assistant showed him dozens of necklaces and helped him to choose. At last James chose one and left the shop promising to return at five o'clock. When, half an hour later than planned, James did return to the shop with his future wife, Laura, the assistant acted as if she had never seen him before. When she was asked to show them some necklaces, she first brought out some inexpensive ones for them to choose, and then gave them the one she had prepared. A choice was soon made and they went away satisfied. James would certainly come back to buy what he wanted.

    You're in a department store and you see a couple of attractive young women looking at a sweater．You listen to their conversation：

    “I can't believe it－Lorenzo Bertolla! They are almost impossible to find．Isn't it beautiful? And it's a lot cheaper than the one Sara bought in Rome．”

    They leave and you go over to see this incredible sweater．It's nice and the price is right．You've never heard of Lorenzo Bertolla, but those girls looked really stylish．They must know．So, you buy it．You never realize that those young women are employees of an advertising agency．They are actually paid to go from store to store, talking loudly about Lorenzo Bertolla clothes．

    Every day we notice what people are wearing, driving and eating．If the person looks cool, the product seems cool, too．This is the secret of undercover marketing．Companies from Ford to Nike are starting to use it．

    Undercover marketing is important because it reaches people that don't pay attention to traditional advertising．This is particularly true of the MTV generation－consumers between the age of 18 and （3）It's a golden group．They have a lot of money to spend, but they don't trust ads．

    So advertising agencies hire young actors to “perform” in bars and other places where young adults go．Some people might call this practice misleading, but marketing executive Jonathan Ressler calls it creative．“Look at traditional advertising．Its effectiveness is decreasing．”It is true, because everyone knows an ad is trying to persuade you to buy something．However, you don't know when a conversation you overhear is just a performance．

    Ammie Reddick was only 18 months old when she had the accident that had scarred（留下创伤） her for life. The curious child reached up to grab the wire of a hot kettle in the family kitchen and poured boiling water over her tiny infant frame.

    Her mother Ruby turned round and, seeing Ammie horribly burnt, called an ambulance which rushed her daughter to a nearby hospital. Twenty percent of Ammie's body had been burned and all of her burns were third-degree. There, using tissue taken from unburned areas of Ammie's body, doctors performed complex skin transplants to close her wounds and control her injuries. Over the next 16 years, Ammie underwent 12 more operations to repair her body.

    When she started school at Maxwelton Primary at age 4, other pupils made cruel comments or simply wouldn't play with her. “I was the only burned child in the street, the class and the school,” she recalled, “some children refused to become friends because of that.”

    Today, aged 17, Ammie can only ever remember being a burned person with scars; pain is a everlasting part of her body. Yet she is a confident, outgoing teenager who offers inspiration and hope to other young burns victims.

    She is a member of the Scottish Burned Children's Club, a charity set up last year. This month, Ammie will be joining the younger children at the Graffham Water Center in Cambridgeshire for the charity's first summer camp. “I'll show them how to get rid of unkind stares from others,” she says. Ammie loves wearing fashionable sleeveless tops, and she plans to show the youngsters at the summer camp that they can too. “I do not go to great lengths to hide my burns scars,” she says, “I gave up wondering how other people would react years ago.”

    Parents complain that children outgrow their clothes so fast that it costs a fortune（￡12, 000 on average per year）, going through seven different sizes in the space of their first two years. There could now be a solution：a new high－tech fabric（织物）that expands as the wearer grows.

    Ryan Yasin, who is studying for a master's degree at the London Royal College of Art, came up with the idea after purchasing clothes for his newborn nephew, only to find the baby had outgrown them by the time they arrived. In addition to the expense Yasin was also concerned about the environmental influence. The process of making and distributing just l kilogram, or 2. 2 pounds, of new fabric results in an average of 23 kg, or 50 pounds of greenhouse gases. To make matters worse, the “fast fashion” trend worldwide has caused garment production to double since 2000, with more than half of the clothing ending up in landfills annually!

    To find a solution, Yasin used his previous experience designing satellites to invent a way to fold synthetic（合成的）material such that it stretches in all directions.

    The first design, a pair of tiny pants, not only fit his baby nephew, but also his 2－year-old niece! After spending a lot of time perfecting the process and testing the design, Yasin is now awaiting a patent for his design and seeking investors（投资者）to bring the clothing to market.

    For his new line of Petit Pli, the designer plans to produce outerwear that is both waterproof（防水的）and windproof. The clothing will be machine washable and fold small enough to fit in a jacket or pant pocket. Yasin plans to establish a take－back system so that worn－out Petit Pli clothing can be recycled into new fabric.

    The designer does not expect parents to dress their children only in his expandable clothing, particularly since the current designs use synthetic materials. But he plans to soon produce the wear in “a wider variety of garments” and hopes that Petit Pli will be able to have an “influence on over-consumption. ”We surely hope he succeeds!

    Nearly everyone has bad habits. That's because, try as we might, bad habits are hard to break. On the other side, good habits, such as eating more healthfully or exercising regularly, never seem to stick. As a result, most people throw up their hands and surrender.

    But now a new book, Better Than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives by best-selling author Gretchen Rubin, offers some useful solutions.

    Rubin, who became interested in habits during her research on happiness, which resulted in two popular books, The Happiness Project (2009) and Happier at Home (2012), found that our inability to master unwanted behaviors was a major downer (令人沮丧的因素). So, after guiding millions of readers down the path of true contentedness, Rubin turned her investigative skills toward habits.

    Her most important find? Change is possible if we do some soul searching and identify how we respond to expectations. And, just about everybody falls into one of four personality categories: Questioners, Obligers, Rebels and Upholders.

    Rubin believes herself to be a classic Upholder, someone who forms habits relatively easily because she responds well to both other people's deadlines and her own. As to the other types, Questioners will only form a habit if it makes sense to them; Obligers work hard to meet other people's expectations but often let themselves down. And Rebels resent (反感) habits.

    "Think about the habit that you want to form and then think: "What's everything I could do to set myself up for success?" says Rubin. For example, if you want to exercise more and you're an Obliger, call your friend who lives across the street and meet at 6：30 every morning for a walk.

    One common pitfall (陷阱), says Rubin, especially when it comes to changing your diet, is lack of clarity (清楚). "You can't make a habit out of eating more healthfully, "she says. Instead, your habit should be something like: "I'm going to pack a lunch every day and bring it to work instead of eating out."

    As for exercise, Rubin recommends a strategy called pairing—coupling two activities, one that you need or want to do and one that you don't particularly want to do. Rubin, for example, only allows herself to read magazines while on fitness equipment at the gym.

Whizzfizzing Festival

    One of the "Home Counties" to the north and west of London, Buckinghamshire is known for the rolling Chiltern Hills, its pretty villages, and the much-loved children's author Roald Dahl.

    The writer who penned Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Witches, Matilda and The Big Friendly Giant is the i9nspiration for the Whizzfizzing Festival – which will transform the market-town of Aylesbury into all kinds of music, colour and fun on Saturday, 1 July.

    Formerly known as The Roald Dahl Festival, this year's event will celebrate a broad range of children's films and bring to life some of its best-loved characters – from Alice in Wonderland and the Gruffala to The Big Friendly Giant and Harry Potter.

    Things to see and do

    The fun and festivals start at 11 a.m. with a colourful children's parade. More than 650 local school children and teachers, many in fancy dress, will march through the town carrying giant carnival puppets(木偶), with thousands of audiences lining the streets to watch.

    The parade will be followed with a range of child-friendly activities and workshops held in venues across the town.

    Don't be late for the Mad Hatters Tea Party in the Bucks County Museum, catch a splendid screening of a Roald Dahl movie in the Old Court House, and watch leading children's authors, including Julian Clary, give readings in the Market Square.

    CBeebies' children's chef Katy Ashworth will once again be cooking up a storm with her inter-active

    Concoction Kitchen, located outside Hale Leys Shopping Centre. Little chefs will have lots of opportunities to get involved with preparing, cooking – and best of all, tasting – Katy's fabulous recipes.

    With hands-on arts and crafts workshops, storytelling sessions, live music, a fancy dress competition, street theatre and more, there is something for everyone.

    For more information, visit: http://www.aylesburyvaledc.gov.uk/cylesbury-whizzfizzing- festival-inspired- roald-dahl