Every people uses its own special word to show its ideas and feelings. Some of these expressions（表达，说法） are commonly used for many years. Others are popular for just a short time. One such American expression is “Where's the beef?” It is used when something is not as good as it is said to be. In the early 1980s “Where's the beef?” was one of the most popular expressions in the United States. It seemed as if everyone using it at the time.

    Beef, of course, is the meat from a cow, and food is more popular in America than a hamburger made from beef. In the 1960s a businessman named Ray began building small restaurants that sold hamburgers at a low price. Ray called this “McDonald's”. Ray became one of the richest businessmen at last in America.

    Other business people watched his success. Some of them opened their own hamburger restaurants. One company called “Wendy's” said its hamburgers were bigger than those sold by McDonald's or anyone else. The Wendy's Company began to use the expression “Where's the beef?” to make people know that Wendy's hamburgers were the biggest. The Wendy's television advertisement showed three old women eating hamburgers. The bread that covered the meat was very big, but inside there was only a bit of meat. One of the women said she would not eat a hamburger with such a little piece of beef. “Where's the beef?” she shouted in a funny way. The advertisement for Wendy's hamburger restaurants was success. As we said, it seemed everyone began using the expression “Where's the beef?”.

    China is a land of bicycles.At least it was back in 1992 when I traveled the country.Back then everyone seemed to be riding a bicycle.Cars were fare.Yet since my arrival in Beijing last year,I've found there are millions of cars. However,bicycles are still popular nowadays.People still use their bicycles to get around.For many,it's the most convenient and cheapest way to travel today.

    It's rush quickly through crossroads,move skillfully through traffic,and ride even on sidewalks（人行道）. Bicycles allow people the freedom to move about,which cars just can't provide.Eager to be part of this aspect of Chinese culture,I decided to buy a bicycle.Immediately I got my new bike I jumped up on the seat and started home.

    My first ride home was orderly（守秩序的）.To be safe, I stayed with a "pack" of bikers while cars on the streets came running swiftly out of nowhere at times.I didn't want to get hit.So I took the ride carefully.Crossing the streets was the biggest problem.It was a lot like crossing a major highway back in the United States.The streets here were wide,so crossing took time,skill and a little bit of luck.

    I finally made it home.The feeling on the bicycle was amazing.The air hitting my face and going through my hair was wonderful.I was sitting on top of the world as I passed by places and people.Biking made me feel alive.

    I left university with a good degree in English Literature, but no sense of what I wanted to do. Over the next six years, I was treading water, just trying to earn an income. I tried journalism, but I didn't think I was any good, then finance, which I hated. Finally, I got a job as a rights assistant at a famous publisher. I loved working with books, although the job that I did was dull.

    I had enough savings to take a year off work, and I decided to try to satisfy a deep-down wish to write a novel. Attending a Novel Writing MA course gave me the structure I needed to write my first 55,000 words.

    It takes confidence to make a new start — there's a dark period in-between where you're neither one thing nor the other. You're out for dinner and people ask what you do, and you're too ashamed to say, “Well, I'm writing a novel, but I'm not quite sure if I'm going to get there.” My confidence dived. Believing my novel could not be published, I put it aside.

    Then I met an agent（代理商）who said I should send my novel out to agents. So, I did and, to my surprise, got some wonderful feedback. I felt a little hope that I might actually become a published writer and, after signing with an agent, I finished the second half of the novel.

    The next problem was finding a publisher. After two-and-a-half years of no income, just waiting and wondering, a publisher offered me a book deal - that publisher turned out to be the one I once worked for.

    It feels like an unbelievable stroke of luck -of fate, really. When you set out to do something different, there's no end in sight, so to find myself in a position where I now have my own name on a contract（合同）of the publisher -to be a published writer - is unbelievably rewarding（有回报的）.

    Shyness May Be Partly Inherited(遗传)

    About 92 million Americans are shy, and according to recent research about half of them inherited the trait.

    The studies were discussed at the American Psychological Convention.

    One study, by Harvard University, was of babies 21- 48 months old. It concluded that these babies had a high heart rate when shown unfamiliar people or different toys.

    Although shyness is not new, it has only recently become of interest to researchers. The first study on the genetic connection was in 1979.

    According to Warren Jones of the University of Tulsa, social relations these days are more complex. "With less ritual(仪式) and more complex situations," he said, "shyness is a national concern."

    Not all shy people are anxious and fearful, according to another study. Evidence shows that only half of shy people are tense, worried, and fearful in social situations.

    Many men use shyness as an excuse for failing in social situations, according to C.R. Snyder of the University of Kansas. "This is not true of females. Perhaps,

    American men are pressured to be assertive(自信的) and successful. So they would rather say they're shy than admit they're incompetent."

    Shy people may do very well socially after the first meeting with someone. In fact, shy people tend to be more stable.

    The psychologists said shyness seems to be cultural. Japan has the highest rating. China and Israel have the lowest rating. The United States rated in the middle.

    Without proper planning, tourism can cause problems. For example, too many tourists can crowd public places that are also enjoyed by the inhabitants of a country. If tourists create too much traffic, the inhabitants become annoyed and unhappy. They began to dislike tourists and to treat them impolitely. They forget how much tourism can help the country's economy. It is important to think about the people of a destination country and how tourism affects them. Tourism should help a country keep the customs and beauty that attract tourists. Tourism should also advance the wealth and happiness of local inhabitants.

    Too much tourism can be a problem. If tourism grows too quickly, people must leave other jobs to work in the tourism industry. This means that other parts of the country's economy can suffer.

    On the other hand, if there is not enough tourism, people can lose jobs. Business can also lose money. It costs a great deal of money to build large hotels, airports, air terminals, first­class roads, and other support facilities needed by tourist attractions. For example, a major international class tourism hotel can cost as much as 50 thousand dollars per room to build. If this room is not used most of the time, the owner of the hotel lose money.

    Building a hotel is just a beginning. There must be many support facilities as well, including roads to get to the hotel, electricity, sewers to handle waste, and water. All of these support facilities cost money. If they are not used because there are not enough tourists, jobs and money are lost.

    Imagine you are opening your own company and want to hire a manager. You have two candidates and they are both capable and experienced, so who would you rather hire: Julia Watson or Shobha Bhattacharva? Chances are that you would prefer Watson, right? But why?

    "Easy names are evaluated as more familiar, less risky and less dangerous," Eryn Newman, a scientist at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, told Scientific American. As a result, people with easier names are often assumed to be more trustworthy. This is what Newman and her teammates have found in their recent study.

    In the experiment, they picked 18 different foreign names, including difficult-to-pronounce ones like Yevgeni Dherzhinsky and easy names like Bodo Wallmeyer. They then attached each name with a statement such as "turtles are deaf" and "giraffes are the only mammals that cannot jump" and asked volunteers whether they thought the claims were true.

    The results showed that claims connected to easier names were more often ranked as believable than those attributed to difficult names, regardless of what the truth really was. In fact, previous studies have already found that our judgments about products can be affected by their names. For example, we tend to think of a food additive (添加剂) with an easier name as safer and a stock with an easier name as more lucrative (利润丰厚的)，according to Medical Daily.

    But researchers pointed out that this effect can change depending on where someone comes from. For example, a native British man may find "Yevgeni Dherzhinsky" hard to pronounce while Russian people could say it without effort. Newman hopes that this finding can make us better see our biases (偏见). It's not just unfair to people that we make judgments based on gut feelings (直觉) rather than facts, and it can sometimes have serious consequences.

    For example, we may choose to believe certain eyewitnesses in court simply because their names sound more trustworthy even if they are actually lying. Or, we may let go of qualified job candidates due to their "difficult" names.

    Now, if you could make that decision again, would you still prefer Julia Watson to Shobha Bhattacharva?