It was once common to regard Britain as a society with class distinction. Each class had unique characteristics.

    In recent years, many writers have begun to speak of the 'decline of class ' and 'classless society ' in Britain. And in modern day consumer society everyone is considered to be middle class.

    But pronouncing the death of class is too early. A recent wide-ranging study of pubic opinion found 90 percent of people still placing themselves in a particular class; 73 percent agreeed that class was still a vital part of British society.; and 52 percent thought there were still sharp class differences. Thus, class may not be culturally and politically obvious, yet it remains an imprtant part of British society. Britain seems to have a love of stratification.

    One unchanging aspect of a British person's class position is accent. The words a person speaks tell her or his class. A study of British accents during the 1970s found that a voice sounding like a BBC newsreader was viewed as the most attractive voice. Most people said this accent sounds 'educated ' and 'soft '. The accents placed at the bottom in this study, on the other hand, were regional(地区的) city accents. These accents were seen as 'common ' and 'ugly '. However, a similar study of British accents in the US turned these results upside down and placed some regional accents as the most attractive and BBC English as the least. This suggests that British attitudes towards accent have deep roots and are based on class prejudice.

    In recent years, however, young upper midder-class people in London, have begun to adopt some regional accents, in order to hide their class origins. This is an indication of class becoming unnoticed. However, the 1995 pop song ' Common People ' puts forward the view that though a middle-class person may ' want to live like common people ' they can never appreciate the reality of a working class life.

    The values of artistic works, according to cultural relativism(相对主义), are simply reflections of local social and economic conditions. Such a view, however, fails to explain the ability of some works of art to excite the human mind across cultures and through centuries.

    History has witnessed the endless productions of Shakespearean plays in every major language of the world. It is never rare to find that Mozart packs Japanese concert halls, as Japanese painter Hiroshige does Paris galleries, Unique works of this kind are different from today's popular art, even if they began as works of popular art. They have set themselves apart in their timeless appeal and will probably be enjoyed for centuries into the future.

    In a 1757 essay, the philosopher David Hume argued that because“the general principles of taste are uniform(不变的) in human nature,”the value of some works of art might be essentially permanent. He observed that Homer was still admired after two thousand years. Works of this type, he believed, spoke to deep and unvarying features of human nature and could continue to exist over centuries.

    Now researchers are applying scientific methods to the study of the universality of art. For example, evolutionary psychology is being used by literary scholars to explain the long-lasting themes and plot devices in fiction. The structures of musical pieces are now open to experimental analysis as never before. Research findings seem to indicate that the creation by a great artist is as permanent an achievement as the discovery by a great scientist.

    Electric devices can seem like a “third party” in Some relationships because some partners spent more time on them than with each other.

    When Amanda Gao, a 26-year-old white collar worker in Beijing, went to a hotpot restaurant with her boyfriend on Friday night several weeks ago, she expected that they would have a good time together. To her disappointment, however, it did not turn out that later. As soon as they were led to their seats and she began to order dishes, he buried himself in his mobile phone.

    “It seemed that his phone was making its way between us. A date that should have belonged to us turned into one where my boyfriend dated a third party and I felt left out.” Gao said. Some people, like her, have found electronics have been sabotaging(破坏) their romantic relationships.

    A study, published in the journal Psych010kY of Popular Media Culture, in April, 2017, questioned nearly 200 college aged adults who were in committed(真诚的) relationships to report on their and their partner's smartphone dependency. The results showed people who were more dependent on their phones were less sure about their relationships, and people considered their partners excessively(过度地) dependent on their devices were less satisfied in their relationship.

    Lin Yuan, a relationship advisor in Beijing, noted that as more and more electronics come out and spice up people's lives, they are at the same time becoming a third party in relationships, especially for young people.

    Lin said she knew of some people who suggest that electronics should be kept out of bedrooms, which she considered challenging and hard to be put into practice for most couples. She recommended that if people are feeling neglected in their relationship, they need to respectfully let their partners know their feeling. “Communication is always the best and the most efficient way.” she said.

    An idea that started in Seattle's public library has spread throughout America. The concept is simple: help to build a sense of community (社区) in a city by getting everyone to read the same book at the same time.

    In addition to encouraging reading as a pursuit (追求) to be enjoyed by all, the program allows strangers to communicate by discussing the book on the bus, as well as encouraging reading as an experience to be shared in families and schools. The idea came from Seattle librarian Nancy Pearl who launched the “If All of Seattle Read the Same Book” project in 1998. Her original program used author visits, study guides and book discussion groups to bring people together with a book, but the idea has since expanded to many other American cities, and even to Hong Kong.

    In Chicago, the mayor (市长) appeared on television to announce the choice of To Kill a Mockingbird as the first book in the “One Book, One Chicago” program. As a result, reading clubs and neighborhood groups sprang up around the city. Across the US, stories emerged of parents and children reading to each other at night and strangers chatting away on the bus about plot and character.

    The only problem arose in New York, where local readers could not decide on one book to represent the huge and diverse population. This may show that the idea works best in medium-sized cities or large towns, where a greater sense of unity (一致) can be achieved. Or it may show that New Yorkers rather missed the point, putting all their energy and passion into the choice of the book rather than discussion about a book itself.

    Ultimately, as Nancy points out, the level of success is not measured by how many people read a book, but by how many people are enriched by the process, or have enjoyed speaking to someone with whom they would not otherwise have shared a word.

    Drug companies have spent billions of dollars searching for therapies to reverse or significantly slow Alzheimer's disease, but in vain. Some researchers argue that the best way to make progress is to create better animal models for research, and several teams are now developing mice that more closely imitate how the disease destroys people's brains.

    The US National Institutes of Health (NIH), the UK Dementia Research Institute and Jackson Laboratory (JAX) - one of the world's biggest suppliers of lab mice - are among the groups trying to genetically design more suitable mice. Scientists are also exploring the complex web of mutations(突变) that influences neurological (神经学的) decline in mice and people.

    "We appreciate that the models we had were insufficient. I think it's sort of at a critical moment right now." says Bruce Lamb, a neuro-scientist at Indiana University ~ho directs the NIH-funded programme.

    Alzheimer's is marked by cognitive impairment(认知损伤) and the build-up of amyloid-protein plaques (淀粉样蛋白块) in the brains of people, but the disease does not occur naturally in mice. Scientists get around this by studying mice that have been genetically modified to produce high levels of human amyloid protein. These mice develop plaques in their brains, but they still do not display the memory problems seen in people.

    Many experimental drugs that have successfully removed plaques from mouse brains have not lessened the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease in people. One focused stumble came last month, when three companies reported that their Alzheimer's drugs had failed in large, late-stage clinical trials. Although the drugs successfully blocked the accumulation of amyloid protein in mice, they seemed to worsen cognitive decline and brain shrinkage in people.

    The drive for better mouse models comes as genomics studies are linking the most common form of Alzheimer's to dozens of different genes. This diversity suggests that each case of the disease is caused by a different combination of genetic and environmental factors. "There is no single Alzheimer's disease," says Gareth Howell, a neuro-scientist at Jackson Laboratory (JAX) in Bar Harbor, Maine.

    Howell argues that scientists' reliance on lab mice with only a few genetically engineered mutations might have limited research. His own work suggests that in mice, just as in people, genetic diversity plays a part in determining how Alzheimer's develops.

Instagram(图片分享社交应用程序)is about to take its biggest step toward removing likes from its platform. After months of testing an option to hide likes in select international markets, Instagram, which is owned by Facebook(FB), has already been testing hiding likes in seven other countries, including Canada, Ireland and Australia. For years, likes have been central to how celebrities, brands, politicians and everyday users experience Instagram and Facebook. It's a way of measuring popularity(名气) and success. But in recent months, Instagram has been rethinking how likes contribute to making its platform more toxic. Now it's considering a change.

The total number of likes on posts — which appear as hearts on the app—will disappear from Instagram's main feed, profile pages and permalink(永久链接)pages. The owner of the account can still see their own likes, but their followers won't know the count.

CNN Business previously spoke with users in countries with the test. The majority felt this move would improve well-being on the app. Instagram is the most harmful social networking app for young people's mental health, such as negatively influencing body image, according to one study.

But other users and psychologists said hiding likes won't fix everything. The test doesn't address some of the key ways that activity on Instagram can influence the well-being of users, including bullying(欺凌), feeling left out and thinking other people's lives are better than their own.

Renee Engeln, a psychology professor at Northwestern University, voiced his opinion that the biggest impact of Instagram is the content and the exposure to this constant stream of perfected images is what seems to hurt psychologically. Plus, users can still see their own likes—and feel badly if their posts don't perform well.