Traffic problems are an everyday concern in many cities，including Washington，DC．A growing number of Washingtonians are turning to bicycles to get to and from work．In fact，the number of commuters who use bicycles has doubled in the city since 2007．

    Ralph Buehler teaches urban planning at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University，popularly known as Virginia Tech．He has written a book about urban biking，calledCity Cyclin . g．He says there is a reason why urban bike tiding is now becoming more popular．

    “Over the last 60 to 70 years，cities in America have adapted to the automobile．”

    “Most cities took advantage of the money coming for the interstate highway system，from the federal government，  starting in 1956．There was a 90 percent federal match(补贴)so the cities only had to put up 10％．It was very tempting．”

    In the years after World War Two，many Americans moved to suburban communities，just outside major cities．They decided to travel great distances to and from work in exchange for a home in the suburbs．Their cars became a symbol of freedom．

    But today，many people believe they can save money by living in the city．

    Greg Billing is with the Washington Area Bicyclist Association．“When a person makes a change from using a car to using a bike，he／she is saving anywhere between 8 or $9，000 a year．”

    Ralph Buehler says governments save money when people use bicycles．“Building bicycling facilities is much cheaper than building and maintaining road facilities or public transport．”

    Washington，DC has also taken steps to protect bike riders．It approved a safe passing law and created areas on the road between cars and bikes．

    The United States Census Bureau says 4％of the city's workers ride to work by bike．The only city on the East Coast with more bike commuters is New York．

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    Founded in 1764 by French traders, St. Louis today is the fifteenth largest urban area in the United States. There are many attractive destinations for tourists.

American Kennel Club Museum of the Dog

    Dog lovers who visit St. Louis won't want to miss this 14,000-square-foot museum. Inside are over 500 paintings, prints, watercolors, and a variety of other dog art objects.

    The Museum is open year round, Tuesday through Saturday 10 AM to 4 PM, and Sunday 1 PM to 5 PM. Admission is $ 5 for adults, $ 2.50 for seniors, and $1 for children up to 14.

Anheuser Busch Brewery

    The Anheuser Buxch Brewery tour is not just for beer lovers. The tour includes the historic Brew House. Then the tour continues to the modern Bevo Packaging Plant. The best will be the Budweiser Clydesdale stables. The tours are always free.

Gateway Arch

    Designed by Eero Sarinen and Hannskari Bandel, it took over two years and 900 tons of stainless steel to build. It is the tallest of the country's National Monuments. The Arch is part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. About one milion people per year come to the top of the Arch, where there is an observation platform providing a great view of the city.

St. Louis Zoo

    First version of the St. Louis Zoo opened in 1904 at the St. Louis World's Fair, but in the century since it has grown into one of the chief zoos in the world. The passenger train takes visitors around the Zoo, which contains over 9,000 animals of over 800 species.

    The Zoo is open every day but Christmas and New Year, with summer hours of 8 AM to 7 PM, and hours the rest of the year of 9 AM to 5 PM. Admission to the Zoo is free.

    Amazon is breaking into physical retail(零售) in a new way. The online retail giant revealed a new kind of physical store concept in a video published on Monday.

    The store, called Amazon Go, doesn't work like a typical Walmart or supermarket. Instead, it's designed so that shoppers will use an app, also called Amazon Go, to automatically add the products that they plan to buy to a digital shopping cart by scanning a QR code. They can then walk out of the building without waiting in a checkout line because Amazon will charge their Amazon account and send them a receipt(收据).

    The first Amazon Go store is located in Seattle, where Amazon is headquartered. For years, there have been rumors the e­commerce company would expand its dominance(主导地位) from digital to physical shopping. Amazon began experimenting with physical bookstores a year ago, but Amazon Go may mark its boldest(大胆的) bet on physical ones yet. By removing much of the staff needed to operate a store, Amazon keeps costs lower than traditional competitors. It's also in a strong position to bring together data on its customers' shopping habits online and offline to make better suggestions in all situations.

    However, the company could be thought of as being a threat to some of the 3.4 million Americans who work as cashiers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And Donald Trump repeatedly criticized Amazon and its founder Jeff Bezos, “He's using the Washington Post for power so that the politicians in Washington don't tax Amazon like they should be taxed.”

    “Four years ago we asked ourselves: what if we could create a shopping experience with no lines and no checkout? Could we push the boundaries of computer vision and machine learning to create a store where customers could simply take what they want and go?” The company says on an informational page about Amazon Go. For now, Amazon is starting slow. The Amazon Go is only open to Amazon employees in our Beta program, and is scheduled to open to the public in 2017.

    One of the most firmly established idea of manliness(男子汉) is that a real man doesn't cry. Although he might cry a bit at a funeral, he is expected to quickly regain control. Crying openly is for girls. One study found that women cry significantly more than men do—five times as often, on average, and almost twice as long per period.

    Historically, however, men usually cried, and no one saw it as shameful. For example, in the Middle Ages, knights(骑士) cried only because they missed their girlfriends. In The Knight of the Cart, no less a hero than Lancelot cries at a brief separation from Guinevere. There's no mention of the men in these stories trying to hold back or hide their tears. They cry in a crowded hall with their heads held high. Nor do other people make fun of this public crying; it's universally regarded as an expression of feeling to show love.

    So where did all the male tears go? The most obvious possibility is that this is the result of changes as we moved from an agricultural(农业的) society to one that was urban(城市的)and industrial(工业的). In the Middle Ages, most people spent their lives among those they had known since birth. If men cried, they did so with people who would sympathize(同情). But from the 18^th to 20^th centuries, the population became increasingly urbanize, and people were living in the midst of thousands of strangers. Furthermore, changes in the economy required men to work together in factories and offices where expressions of feelings and even personal conversations were discouraged as time wasting.

    Yet human beings weren't designed to hide their feelings, and there's reason to believe that restraining tears can be harmful to your well-being. Research from the 1980s has suggested a relationship between stress-related illnesses and not enough crying. Crying is also, somewhat related with happiness and wealth. Countries where people cry the most tend to be richer and more confident.

    It had been a long winter. Bitter cold, snowy days had hit us again and again. On the warmer days there had been little sunshine, but only cold, icy rain. The sun had become such a rare sight that I had to look at a picture of it on my wall calendar from time to time to remember what it looked like. The grass had remained brown and dormant（潜伏的）in the grassland. My own backyard had turned into a muddy mess that tried to steal the shoes right off my feet as I walked on it. My heart ached and longed for spring, and my own good cheer had trouble rising up against the continuous, cold, gray days.

    The rain poured down on me as I walked my dogs, holding their leashes in my icy fingers. I looked up at the sky hoping to see the sun smiling down with its warm, golden face. But it was no use. It was then, however, that I saw it. It wasn't the smiling face of the sun in the sky but a little, yellow face peeking（微露出） through the mud. It was a tiny flower, and it filled my heart with hope and joy. I smiled and thanked God for this little sign that winter would soon be over and that spring would arrive. I felt my good cheer rising up at last and I promised God that I would share it with everyone I could.

    One day that tiny flower's seeds will fill the grassland with little, yellow faces smiling up from the ground. Its work will make this world a better and more beautiful place. May we all do the same. May we all shine our light and share our love even on the coldest and grayest days. May we all help to share a bit of spring in winter. May we all work to make this world better and brighter even when it is at its darkest.

    In many developed countries, people who have high degrees begin to work longer than those who don't. About 65% of American men aged 62－74 with a professional degree are in the workforce (劳动人口), compared with 32% of men who only finish high school. This gap is part of a deepening divide between the well-educated wealthy and the unskilled poor. Rapid technological advance has raised the incomes of the highly skilled while squeezing those of the unskilled. The consequences, for individuals and society, are profound (意义深远的).

    The world is facing an astonishing rise in the number of old people, and they will live longer than ever before. Over the next 20 years the global population of those aged 65 or more will almost double, from 600 million to 1.1 billion. The experience of the 20th century, when greater longevity (长寿) translated into more years in retirement rather than more years at work, has persuaded many observers that this shift (变化) will lead to slower economic growth, while the swelling (渐增的) ranks of pensioners will create government budget problems.

    Policies are partly responsible. Many European governments have abandoned policies that used to encourage people to retire early. Even the better-off must work longer to have a comfortable retirement. But the changing nature of work also plays a big role. Pay has risen sharply for the highly educated, and those people continue to reap (获得) rich rewards into old age because these days the educated elderly are more productive than the preceding (先前的) generation. Technological change may well reinforce (强化) that shift: the skills that complement (补充) computers, from management know-how to creativity, do not necessarily decline with age.