Singles' Day — the Chinese opposite of Valentine's Day has turned into a massive online shopping event. It is a day when single people are supposed to buy themselves presents. But there are sociological reasons behind China's “celebration” of single life. And the imbalance could have big consequences for the country.

    There were 34 million more men than women in China in 2011. Part of that is natural – usually there are 105 boys born for every 100 girls. But the Chinese gender ratio (性别比例) at birth is much more obvious. It was 116 boys to 100 girls in 2012. The one child policy is largely to blame. Brought in to limit population expansion, the policy allows only one child per family. But because male children are seen as more valuable, as well as more likely to support their parents in old age, some parents choose to have a son over a daughter. The result is that large numbers of men will likely never get married. In fact, one study has predicted that by 2030, 1 in 5 Chinese men in their 30s will never have married, while another states that 94% of unmarried people in China are men.

    Traditionally, China has seen high levels of marriage, usually among the young. Besides, the increased education and career opportunities for women have meant that marriages are happening later. It is also traditional that women often marry men of a higher socioeconomic status than themselves. So women at the top and men at the bottom find themselves alone. One study has even suggested a link between an imbalanced gender ratio and growth in violent crime in the country.

    Singles' Day can't solve all the problems China's singles face. Indeed, it is possible that it is causing even more problems, as men resort to(诉诸于) increasingly risky lines of work to increase their chances of gaining money and thus a wife. I am worried that as money starts to overcome romance, there is evidence that China's marriage market is increasingly materialistic.

    You get on an almost-empty bus, but the next passenger decides to ignore all the empty seats to sit right next to you. While you are waiting in line at the supermarket, the next customer stands just behind you shouting into his phone.

    These are attacks of the personal space invaders(侵略者). Though preferences for personal space differ from culture to culture, we Britons do love our independence and personal space.

    As the British customs website Debrett has said, as a British person, somebody standing too close may make you “focus less on what somebody is saying than on how close they are to you”. Simple acts like putting an arm around someone you don't know that well may seem friendly in China, but they can make us very uncomfortable. The ediplomat.com website explains: “The British are not back slappers (拍打者) or touchers and generally do not show affection (喜欢) in public.”

    Being a British person around people from other countries can therefore be full of problems. People from many European countries such as France and Spain kiss each other on the cheek when they meet, yet to us this seems too friendly and “touchy-feely”.

    Simple matters like how close others stand can be problems to Britons who want to keep their own personal space. Giving advice on how to behave around a British person, Debrett's says that “if you can feel the warmth of their worried breath upon your face, then you're standing too close”.

    So, are British people unfriendly? No. The ediplomat.com website explains that we are not as “indifferent” as we may seem, but “very friendly and helpful to foreigners”. However, we do have different ideas about our own space to many people from other countries. Just let us know if you're going to come any closer than arm's length, and you'll be fine!

    Basketball Statistician Help Wanted

    The Athletic Department is looking for students to help assist staff during the Fall 2016, Winter 2016-17 and Spring 2017 semesters. Students in this position will be keeping live statistics during basketball games. Students must meet all of the following requirements:

    Good computer skills

    Available evenings and weekends

    Knowing basketball rules and statistics

    Students interested in working for the Athletic Department should contact the Athletic Coordinator at their respective campuses.

    TP/SS Athletic Coordinator, Michael Simone, 240-567-1308

    Rockville Athletic Coordinator, Jorge Zuniga, 240-567-7589

    Springfield Athletic Coordinator, Gary Miller, 240-567-2273

    Germantown Athletic Coordinator, Gauri Chavan, 240-567-6915

    Kids are natural scientists. That may be why they ask so many questions.

    Younger kids take up science and math with amazing enthusiasm, yet as they get older they often lose their excitement. Children look on scientific exploration as play, but as they get older they start to connect it with big heavy books, long worksheets and a lot of really confusing words.

    What a tragedy! We had their attention, they were listening, they were participating, they were learning and then we lost it to boredom.

    We need our kids to play more. More play brings up basic scientific concepts(概念). Being familiar with basic scientific concepts brings about exploration which leads to research. Once they are researching, they are completely into the learning.

    My boys built a small 9­hole golf course next to our driveway one day. It was a great product of science. They dug out the holes and channels to guide the golf ball. They played with architecture(建筑学)with a series of pipes they had found in the garage. They tested speed and momentum(动量)by creating one of the holes across the driveway. They experienced biology when deciding which front yard plants could be used as a part of the course and which needed to be pulled up.

    If I had sent them out to the yard to build a 9­hole golf course, it would have never happened. It was because it was their idea that it worked. I try to tell them some of the concepts after the fact. When they ask about something, I try to relate it back to something they have built, experienced, or felt. I try to give them a vocabulary around what they already know.

    An afternoon can change the way kids look at the world. Not bad for a day of play.

    The Independent Project at the Monument Mountain Regional High School in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, is attracting huge interest in the education field. The program is a new concept that has developed a wide variety of students' abilities and excited their interest in education and self-directed learning. They are a group of students that, instead of being educated through the normal school courses, have created their own subjects and project-based interactive learning.

    The students are almost completely independent. They choose a goal that they want to accomplish and work on for the whole year. These goals have included some impressive attempts such as writing a novel, writing a play, learning the piano and more. Along with these larger attempts, the students meet every day to ask questions about other subjects like natural sciences, social sciences, etc. Although most of them say that they don't like math, they did eventually develop an interest in math through this independent learning technique.

    The education program, which has attracted a huge variety of students, allows the students to learn and develop research skills and questioning techniques and allows them to truly be interested in the subjects they are diving into. They also teach each other what they have learned, which allows them to develop different way of presenting and gathering material that they have researched.

    I wish that I could have participated in such a project during my high school career, like writing a novel. I am currently studying English as well as education to pursue a teaching degree. I would love to adapt independent driven projects into a classroom in the future.

    This project also raises some crucial questions. Do we need to rethink the structure of the education system itself? Are too many students being simply fed through a conveyor belt(传送带) that we blindly see as working toward their education? I think that the education system needs some improvements, and different learning styles need to be addressed immediately.

    Individual differences in learning are huge keys to the functioning of a classroom. This project takes the idea to a whole new level. This is an extremely important event in the development of the American education system and I think everyone needs to keep an eye out for more programs like this.

    Charles Darwin lived an unusually quiet life. In 1842, Darwin and his wife Emma moved from London to Kent in southern England to have as little disturbance (烦扰) as possible. They already had two children then, and would go on to have eight more in the country.

    Darwin had very regular (有规律的) habits. He rose early and went for a walk. After breakfast he worked in his study until 9：30 am, his most productive time of the day, and then read his letters lying on the sofa before returning to work.

    At midday he would go for another walk with his dog, stopping at his greenhouse to inspect (查看) his experiments. Then he would go for another walk around an area of woodland. While walking on his "thinking path", Darwin would consider his unsolved scientific problems.

    After lunch he read the newspaper and wrote letters. His network of friends provided information from all corners of the world.

    The Darwins were not very strict parents and the children were always seen running wild. Their father worked patiently to a background of playful shouts and little footsteps walking past his study door.

After dinner Darwin played backgammon (a game for two people to play) with his wife. He once wrote, "Now the result with my wife in backgammon stands like this: she... has won only 2,490 games, while I have won, hurrah (a cheer of joy or victory), hurrah, 2,795 games!"

    Although he had poor health, Darwin continued to publish (出版)a lot of creative works until his final book in 1881. He died the following year, aged 73.

    Rather than a quiet space in the local churchyard, which he called "the sweetest place on Earth", Darwin was given a state funeral (国葬) in London's Westminster Abbey.