By the mid-nineteenth century, the term “icebox” had entered the American language, but ice was still only beginning to affect the diet of ordinary citizens in the United States. The ice trade grew with the growth of cities. Ice was used in hotels, pubs, and hospitals, and by some forward-looking city dealers in fresh meat, fresh fish, and butler. After the Civil War (1861-1865), as ice was used to refrigerate freight cars(货车), it also came into household use. Even before 1880, half the ice sold in New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, and one-third of that sold in Boston and Chicago, went to families for their own use. This had become possible because a new household convenience, the icebox, a precursor（前身）of the modem refrigerator, had been invented.

    Making an efficient icebox was not as easy as we might now suppose. In the early nineteenth century, the knowledge of the physics of heat, which was essential to a science of refrigeration, was undeveloped. The common belief that the best icebox was one that prevented the ice from melting was of course mistaken, for it was the melting of the ice that performed the cooling. Nevertheless, early efforts to economize ice included wrapping the ice in blankets, which kept the ice from doing its job. Not until near the end of the nineteenth century did inventors achieve the delicate balance of insulation(绝缘) and circulation needed for an efficient icebox.

    But as early as 1803, an intelligent Maryland farmer, Thomas Moore, had been on the right track. He owned a farm about twenty miles outside the city of Washington, for which the village of Georgetown was the market center. When he used an icebox of his own design to transport his butter to market, he found that customers would pass up the rapidly melting butter of his competitors to pay an extra price for his butter, still fresh and hard in neat, one-pound bricks. One advantage of his icebox, Moore explained, was that fanners would no longer have to travel to market at night in order to keep their produce cool.

    “How far is the next village？” the American asks a man standing by the edge of the road. In some countries, because the man realizes that the traveler is tired and eager to reach his destination (目的地), he will politely say “Just down the road.” He thinks this is more encouraging, gentler, and therefore the wanted answer. So the American drives through the night, getting more and more angry, feeling “being tricked”. He thinks the man on purpose lied to him, for obviously he must have known the distance quite well.

    Had conditions been reversed (颠倒过来), the American would have felt he was “cheating” the driver if he had said the next town was not too far, and if he would be sorry to the weary driver, he would say “You have a good way to go yet, it is at least fifteen miles.” The driver might be disappointed, but he would know what to expect.

    Whether to be accurate or polite leads to many misunderstandings between people of different cultures. If you know the situation in advance, it is sometimes easier to recognize the problem.

    Imagine putting a seed in a freezer, waiting 30,000 years, and then taking the seed out and planting it. Do you think a flower would grow?

    Amazingly, scientists have just managed to do something very similar. They found the fruit of an ancient plant that had been frozen underground in Siberia—a region covering central and eastern Russia—for about 31,800 years. Using pieces of the fruit, the scientists grew plants in a lab. The new blooms have delicate white petals. They are also the oldest flowering plants that researchers have ever revived from a deep freeze.

    “This is like regenerating a dinosaur from tissues of an ancient egg,'' said Jane Shen-Miller, a biologist of University of California, Los Angeles.

    The plant has a long history. Back when mammoths and woolly rhinoceroses walked on the land, an Arctic ground squirrel buried seeds and fruits in an underground chamber near the Kolyma River in northeastern Siberia. The ground became pennafrost, a layer of soil that stays frozen for a long time.

    Recently, Russian scientists dug out the old squirrel hole and found the plant remains 38 meters below the surface. Back at the lab, the team fed nutrients to tissue from three of the fruits to grow shoots. Then the scientists transferred the shoots to pots filled with soil. The plants produced seeds that could be used to grow even more of them.

    It's important for scientists to know that plant tissues can still be revived after being frozen for a long time. That's because many researchers are trying to preserve the seeds of modem plants by freezing them and then storing them in giant lockers at various spots around the globe. One such endeavor, an underground facility in Norway, is called the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. It stores hundreds of thousands of frozen seeds. If a plant ever goes extinct, scientists could bring it back by taking its seeds from the Svalbard or other storage lockers.

    "No one knows how long they are able to live for, but freezing is basically the format for many plant conservation attempts nowadays," Jane Shen-Miller said. It's a good thing that at least some plants are tough enough to survive in the experience.

    The obsession(痴迷) with perfection among young people has risen by more than 30 percent over the last three decades, a study has found.

    Many of them believe that their environment is extremely demanding and that others judge them strictly, according to analysis of data from more than 40，000 British, Canadian and American university students from 1989 to 2017.

    The research, carried out by the University of Bath and York St John University, found that the degree to which young people attach an unreasonable importance to being perfect, hold unrealistic expectations of themselves and are highly self­critical has increased by 10 percent when compared to previous generations. The authors suggested their findings point to the influence of three decades of neoliberalism(新自由主义) forcing young people to compete against one another.

    Lead author Dr Thomas Curran from the University of Bath's Department for Health said he hoped organisations responsible for safeguarding the welfare of young people, such as schools, universities, and policymakers who shape the environments in which these organisations operate, would “resist the promotion of competitiveness at the expense of young people's psychological health”.

    He said, “Rising rates of perfectionism highlighted in this study is in line with three decades of neoliberalism, which has forced young people to compete against each other within increasingly demanding social and economic aspects.”

    The researches defined perfectionism as a combination of extremely high personal standards and overly strict self­criticism, leading to psychological difficulties.

    Co­author Dr Andrew Hill of York St John University added, “The increase in mental health difficulties among young people makes for a convincing background for our findings. The higher level of perfectionism may be a key contributing aspect to such difficulties. Young people are trying to find ways to deal with increasing demands being placed on them and they are responding by becoming more perfectionistic towards themselves and others.”

    Being highly successful in any field is pretty rare. It takes a combination of natural talent, luck, determination, and plenty of outside support for someone to make it big in sports, entertainment, or business. But what if competing is all that matters to you, whether you are likely to succeed or not? This was the goal of Michael Eddie the Eagle Edwards, and that he reached that goal was an amazing achievement.

    Born in the U.K. in 1963, Michael was an enthusiastic downhill skier whose dream was to compete for Britain in world-class competitions. He would have liked to represent his country in the 1984 Winter Olympics, but there were a large number of downhill competitors, and Edwards didn't qualify. Seeing his chance elsewhere, he switched to ski jumping. Ski jumping didn't cost nearly as much, and there was almost no competition for a place on the Britain team.

    But number of hurdles (障碍)could have meant the end of Edwards' dream. He weighed more than most competitors, which put him at a disadvantage. He had no financial support for his training. Poor eyesight meant that he had to wear glasses under his goggles (护目镜)- not a good thing when they steamed up at high altitudes. But he couldn't let any of this discourage him. He saw himself as a true lover of the sport who simply wanted the chance to compete. Winning wasn't the point. Having the opportunity to try was all he cared about. And nothing could stop him from trying.

    In the end, Edwards took 55th place in the 1987 World Championships. He then went on to the Calgary Olympics in 1988, where he finished last in both of his events. Many athletes would have been embarrassed by this result, but he is proud of his achievement to this day. His determination to fight against all the odds made him a global hero, and in 2016, the inspiring film Eddie the Eagle was made about his life.

    We are the CEOs. We are the head designers. We are the top engineers. We are the senior creators. We are the inventors. We are the only maker of our own happiness.

    However, we still have learned that people's views on happiness often change with many outside things. Some people smile happily beside their new cars and homes. Students feel excited when they get better grades. Babies laugh loudly when they get new toys. Maybe true happiness has been lost in these things.

    How could we have allowed ourselves to be cheated for so long? Something outside may give us happiness, but what directs us to real happiness is inner (内在的) spirit.

    Our spirit is so easily broken, yet it is the single strongest thing we own. Why do people with terrible diseases still smile? Why do those with a broken heart still find joy? The inner spirit is powerful, and it is the only thing on earth that can be broken into pieces but can perfectly mend itself with time. Think about those who suffer a lot but still feel happy. Their inner spirit is very strong.

    Our inner spirit will be the greatest gift that we give ourselves. It is our compass (指南针) to happiness, but we are the tour guides.