Is beauty something always positive? Almost everyone thinks attractive people are happier and healthier, have better marriages and have more respectable jobs. Personal advisors give them better advice for finding jobs. Even judges are softer on attractive defendants. But in the executive（主管的） circle, beauty can become a disadvantage.

    While attractiveness is a positive factor for a man on his way up the executive ladder, it is harmful to a woman. Handsome male executives were considered having more honesty than plainer men; effort and ability were thought to lead to their success. Attractive female executives were considered to have less honesty than unattractive ones; their success was connected not with ability but with factors such as luck.

    All unattractive women executives were thought to have more honesty and to be more capable than the attractive female executives. Why are attractive women not thought to be able? An attractive woman has an advantage in traditionally female jobs, but an attractive woman in a traditionally manly position appears to lack the manly qualities required.

    This is true even in politics, “When the only clue is how he or she looks, people treat men and women differently, ” says Anne Bowman, who recently published a study on the effects of attractiveness on political candidates（候选人）. She asked 125 college students to rank two groups of photographs, one of men and one of women, in order of attractiveness. The students were told the photographs were of candidates for political offices. They were asked to rank them again, in the order they would vote for them.

    The results showed that attractive males completely defeated unattractive men, but the women who had ranked most attractive unchangeably received the fewest votes.

    A survey has shown that what you do on a plane can be determined by which nationality is listed on your passport.

    According to the results of an international passenger survey, Australians are the biggest drinkers on board with 36 percent choosing to down the hatch, compared to 35 percent of Americans and 33 percent of Brits.

    The Airline Passenger Experience Association(APEX) spoke to around 1,500 people, aged 18 and older, who have traveled by plane at least once during the last three months and were living in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, China, Singapore, Australia and Brazil.

The results found Chinese travelers are most likely to nod off once the seat-belt sign switches off. They are also the first to take out their credit card for some in-flight shopping and the biggest fans of gaming. Americans on the other hand like to use their time in the air more productively—- when not drinking—- choosing to work while flying at 35,000 feet.

Meanwhile, Brits and Germans are the best at making chat with random strangers—-spending 50 percent more time than any other nationality. Comparatively, Brazilians conduct their conversations online via email, messaging apps or social media.

    Despite plane food having a bad reputation, seven out of ten interviewees said they were happy to eat up on the selection of in-flight snacks and meals. In-flight magazines were also popular with four out of five passengers.

    The international flyers did however express their desire for better in-flight entertainment. “The industry has greatly improved the comfort, entertainment and onboard service, and passengers are accepting those improvements” said Russell Lemieux, APEX executive director. “At the same time, passengers are demanding more from their air travel experiences which will drive more improvements touching all aspects of the journey.” he added.

    People love cellphones, which is why nine in ten Americans own one. But does heavy use of cellphones pose a risk of cancer? This question has caused controversy for many years. A new study in rats now augments those concerns. Its data linked long-term, intense exposure to radiation from cellphones with an increased risk of cancer in the heart or brain. The results have yet to be confirmed, the authors note.

    Indeed, although the rat study found a link between cellphone radiation and cancer, it offers no clues to why such a link might exist, notes Jonathan Samet. He teaches preventative medicine and directs the Institute for Global Health at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Still, he calls the new study's findings “significant”.They could lead to studies researching how cellphone radiation might cause cancer, he says.

    Phone signals are relayed between cell towers and cellphones via radio waves. This radio frequency—or RF—radiation is a type known as non-ionizing (非电离的).Unlike X-rays, non-ionizing radiation does not deposit enough energy into cells to release electrons from atoms or molecules, producing ions. So it tends to be far less harmful than ionizing radiation, such as X-rays. But that does not mean radio waves might not cause harm.

    In very large doses (量) this radiation will heat the body and cause tissue damage. But it's not yet known what much lower RF levels might do, such as those from cellphone use. Five years ago, the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer, or IARC, concluded that cellphone use “is possibly carcinogenic (致癌的)”.

    Its conclusion was based on what little research data was available at that time. But notice that IARC was not certain. It said only that phone use might “possibly” cause cancer. So scientists at the National Toxicology Program, or NTP, investigated further.

    "Make way, good people, make way, in the King's name! "cried he. "Open a text; and, I promise you, Mistress Prynne shall be set where man, woman, and child, may have a fair sight of her brave clothing, from this time till an hour past noon. A blessing on the moral Colony of the Massachusetts, where immorality is dragged out into the sunshine! Come along, Madam Hester, and show your scarlet （鲜红色的；罪孽深重的）letter in the market-place!

    A lane was at once opened through the crowd. Led by the beadle （狱吏），and attended by an irregular procession of serious-looking men and unkind-looking women, Hester Prynne set forth towards the place appointed for her punishment. A crowd of eager and curious schoolboys, understanding little of the matter in hand, except that it gave them a half-holiday, ran before her progress, turning their heads continually to stare into her face, and at the winking baby in her arms, and at the shameful letter on her breast.

    It was no great distance, in those days, from the prison-door to the market-place. Measured by the prisoner's experience, however, it might be considered to be a rather long journey; for, though her manner was proud, she perhaps underwent an extreme pain from every footstep of those who thronged to see her, as if her heart had been thrown into the street for them all to step upon. In our nature, however, there is a condition that the sufferer should never know the intensity of what he endures by its present suffering, but chiefly by the pain that rankles （使痛心）after it. With almost a calm manner, therefore, Hester Prynne passed through this portion of her suffering, and came to a sort of scaffold （刑台），at the western end of the market-place. It stood nearly beneath the eaves of Boston's earliest church, and appeared to be a fixture there.

New archaeological discovers suggest that trade between Europe and Asia along the Silk Road probably began in some form many centuries earlier than once thought. The findings, coupled with a widening range of scientific and historical research, could add a fascinating new page to the epic of the Silk Road.

The latest and most surprising discovery is pieces of silk found in the hair of an Egyptian mummy from about 1000 BC, long before regular traffic on the Silk Road and at least one thousand years before silk was previously thought to be used in Egypt. Other research may extend human activity along this route back even further, perhaps a million years to the migration of human ancestors into eastern Asia.

The official origin of East-West commerce along the road is usually placed in the late 2^nd century BC when an agent of the Chinese Emperor Wu-di returned from a dangerous secret mission across the western desert into the remote high country of Central Asia. The agent, Zhang Qian, travelled as far as Afghanistan and brought back knowledge of even more distant lands such as Persia, Syria and a place known as Lijien, perhaps Rome. Historians have called this one of the most important journeys in ancient times. His journey opened the way for what have been thought to be the first indirect contacts between the ancient world's two superpowers, China and Rome. Chinese silk, first traded to central Asian tribes for war horses and to the Parthians of old Persia in exchange for acrobats and ostrich eggs, was soon finding its way through a network of merchants to the luxury markets of Rome.

But the new discoveries show that Chinese silk was apparently present in the West long before the Han emperor started organized trade over the Silk Road. The research could change thinking about the early history of world trade and provide insights into the mystery of just how and when Europe and the Mediterranean lands first became aware of the glorious culture at the other end of Eurasia.

    Recently, as the British doctor Robert Winston took a train from London to Manchester, he found himself having to listen to a loud conversation of a fellow passenger woman. Boiling with anger, Winston took her picture and sent it to his more than 40,000 followers on the Tweet. By the time the train reached the station in Manchester, some journalists were waiting for the woman. And when they showed her the doctor's messages, she used just one word to describe Winston's actions: rude.

    Winston's tale is a good example of increasing rudeness, fueled by social media in our age. Studies show that rudeness spreads quickly and virally, almost like the common cold. Just witnessing rudeness makes it far more likely that we, in turn, will be rude later on. Once infected, we are more aggressive, less creative and worse at our jobs. The only way out is to make a conscious decision to do so. We must have the courage to call it out, face to face. We must say, "Just stop." For Winston, that would have meant approaching the woman, telling her that her conversation was frustrating other passengers and politely asking her to speak more quietly or make the call at another time.

    The anger we feel at the rude behavior of a stranger can drive us to do out-of-place things. Research discovered that the acts of revenge (报复) people had taken ranged from the ridiculous to the disturbing. Winston did shine a spotlight on the woman's behavior—but in a way that shamed her.

    When we see rudeness occur in public places, we must step up and say something. And we can do it with grace, by handling it without a bit of aggression and without being rude ourselves. Because once rude people can see their actions through the eyes of others, they are far more likely to end the rudeness themselves. As this wave of rudeness rises, civilization needs civility (举止文明).