LakeLander                                                                                                                    2 hours ago

                Today, a man talked very loud on his phone on a train between Malvern and Reading, making many passengers upset. I wonder how he would react if I were to read my newspaper out loud on the train, I have never had the courage to do it, though.

Pak50                                                                                                                        ···     ·57 minutes ago

     Why not give it a try? Perhaps you should take lessons on a musical instrument. The late musician Dennis Brian is said to have

asked a fellow train passenger to turn off his radio. When his request was refused, he took out his French horn(号) and started

                   to practice.

Angie O'Edema ·42 minutes ago

I don't see how musical instruments can help improve manners in public. Don't do to others what you wouldn't like to be done to yourself. Once, a passenger next to me talked out loud on his mobile phone. I left my seat quietly, giving him some privacy to finish his conversation. He realized this and apologised to me. When his phone rang again later, heleft his seat to answer it. You see, a bit of respect and cooperation can do the job better.

Taodas                                                                                                                                    ·29 minutes ago

                  I did read my newspaper out loud on a train, and it turned out well. The guy took it in good part, and we chatted happily all the way to Edinburgh.

Sophie 76                                                                                                                                 ·13minutes ago

                 I have not tried reading my newspaper out loud on a train, but ,several years ago, I read some chapters from Harry Porter to my bored and noisy children. Several passengers seemed to appreciate what I did.

    Modern smart phones are fast becomingthe must-have item. But what's in store for the next generation of smart phones?

    Tired of carrying around that heavy wallet? Soon you won't need to! The next generation of smart phones will have NFC technology, which lets you pay for things with your smart phones. All youdo is enter your credit card information into your phone. Then, when you are ina shop that allows NFC payments, you just wave your phone over a special instrument at the checkout. The purchase is instantly charged to your creditcard.

    Ever seen someone wearing something and wished you knew where to get it? Soon it will be easy with PicCommerce, new technology that uses image-recognition software. Here's how it works. If yousee something you like, simply take a photo of it with your smart phone. Then, your phone will send the image to a special server, which will respond with information about where you can buy it and how much it will cost.

    Sick of your smart phone battery going flat? With so many applications draining (消耗) the battery, the latest phones need tobe charged every day. But next generation smart phones will come with built-inchips that can connect to an antenna (天线) in your home. And as long as your phone is within range of the antenna, you will be able to charge your smart phone wirelessly, even if it is in your pocket.

    Worried about getting your smart phoneswet in the rain? A company called Hz0 has invented Water Block, new technologythat makes your phone completely water proof. And it's so effective that your phone will even work under water.

    Fed up with carrying a heavy phone around? Soon, you will be able to get a Paper Phone! “Flexible phones are the future,” said scientist Roel Vertegaal. So, what are the benefits of flexible phones? Well, it means that instead of carrying your phone in your pocket, you could wear it wrapped around your wrist, for example.

    Of course, there is just the problem: with so much new smart phone technology around, you will soon need to buy a newphone!

    On a rainy night three years ago my dear mom went to accompany her Lord. She did it her way.

    I got the call at work, and l headed home quickly. Mom and Dad lived on a small farm that they had owned since I was seven. I hated going there every weekend. There was nothing for a young girl to do but watch the one station on the old TV set, if the weather allowed reception.

    My mom, on the other hand, loved the peace and quiet of the land. The place was rural, with no indoor plumbing or heat. We had a big wood stove in the kitchen that did its best to heat the little farmhouse, but it always seemed cold and too quiet to me.

    In the evenings, my mom and I would sit for hours singing in the little kitchen. I sang the melody and Mom harmonized. Her favorite song was “Moon River” and we sang it over and over. Mom told me stories about how when I was a little girl I could sing before I could talk.

    As time passed, I had my own children and went to visit them every week or two. The kids loved the farm and the tractor rides with my dad. Me, well, I still hated the silence of the farm. While my mom loved to sit at her kitchen table and look out at her garden and flowers and retell all the old stories, I missed the hustle and bustle of my life at home. But I sat there listening quietly as she reminisced.

    Now, I sat back in the silence and the silence was deathly so I finally leaned over to turn on an old radio. Music always comforted me. My heart skipped a beat. “Moon River” was playing on the radio. I sat there wordless, with a tear running down my cheek, as I listened to every familiar note.

    Emma and Ryan, a married couple, were driving to a friend's house when Emma turned to Ryan and asked, “Would you like to stop for lunch?”

    Ryan replied. “No, I'm not hungry yet,” and continued driving. Meanwhile, Emma sat quietly fuming (十分恼火)in the passenger seat. Ryan could not understand why Emma was unhappy. He had thought she was asking if he was hungry, but in reality, Emma was telling him that she was hungry and wanted to stop for lunch.

    Misunderstandings like this often occur between men and women, even among people from the same culture. Deborah Tannen, professor of linguistics at Georgetown University in the United States, has studied conversational rules.

    In Emma and Ryan's situation, Emma was making a request in the form of a question. Her style of talking is common for women. She needed Ryan to agree they were both hungry. So, Emma asked Ryan what he wanted. She was really telling Ryan what she wanted; however, Ryan did not understand this. If he had been hungry, he would have said something more direct, such as, “I'm hungry. Let's have lunch.”

    Tannen believes that most women grow up in a world where talk is used to express feelings. However, most men are raised differently and they tend to keep their feelings to themselves.

    Tannen says, for men, talk is often used as a situation used outside the home to gain respect, to entertain and get attention , or to exchange information. This is why men communicate by making each other laugh, or talking about sport and work. These men do not always feel it is necessary to talk to feel close or to express their feelings. Women, on the other hand, are encouraged to speak about their feelings since this is a way to build relationships.

    I start every summer with the best of intentions: to attack one big book from the past, a classic that I was supposed to have read when young and ambitious. Often the pairings of books and settings have been purely unthinking: "Moby Dick" on a three-day cross-country train trip: “The Magic Mountain” in a New England beachside cottage with no locks on the doors, no telephones or televisions in the rooms, and little to do beyond row on the salt pond. Attempting "The Man Without Qualities" on a return to Hawaii, my hometown, however, was less fruitful: I made it through one and a quarter volumes (册), then decided that I'd got the point and went swimming instead.

    But this summer I find myself at a loss. I'm not quite interested in Balzac, say, or “Tristram Shandy.” There's always War and Peace, which I've covered some distance several times, only to get bogged down in the "War" part, set it aside for a while, and realize that I have to start over from the beginning again, having forgotten everyone's name and social rank. How appealing to simply fall back on a favorite once more into “The Waves” or “Justine,” which feels almost like cheating, too exciting and too much fun to properly belong in serious literature.

    And then there's Stendhal's “The Red and the Black,” which happens to be the name of my favorite cocktail of the summer, created by Michael Cecconi at Savoy and BackForty. It is easy to drink, and knocking back three or four seems like such a delightful idea. Cecconi's theory: "I take whatever's fresh at the green market and turn it into liquid." The result is a pure shot of afternoon in the park, making one feel cheerful and peaceful all at once, lying on uncut grass with eyes shut, sun beating through the lids…

    Thirteen hours later we just arrived in Paris after many dramas (戏剧性事件).

    I rented a car, filled it up and moved ahead to Bristol airport that morning. We set off at 8:00 a.m. and all was going well until we got to the turn for Bristol airport. The airport sign (指示牌) suggested we went out from the M5, but Suri asked me to continue going straight ahead, so against my better judgment, I let the airport turn pass us by.

    Next we left for South Wales, the car was back and we had a plane to Paris to catch in a couple of hours. It was about then that I realized we were heading for Wales on a six­road highway. I felt very bad. We turned off the highway and turned into a country road, as directed by Suri and there was a sign saying that the road to the airport was closed. I saw a lady watering her garden and asked her about the best way to the airport. She said we were at least 30 minutes from the airport, but she couldn't help us with the right directions (方向).

    I was so worried as we really were out in the country without any guidance. All I could think of was to turn Suri off and follow the signs myself.

    Then finally after many butterflies in the stomach and feeling like my heart was going to burst (爆裂) out of my chest, there was a proper green sign to the airport and we followed it with so much joy.

    Driving from the airport into Paris was a shock, Lots of homeless people were sleeping under the highways with rubbish everywhere.

Anyway we're now in Paris. The experience of getting lost is now almost laughable. In another 24 hours will be my 50th birthday. I have a big party planned for myself in Paris.