Persuasion is the art of convincing someone to agree with you. According to the ancient Greeks, there are three basic tools of persuasion : ethos, pathos, and logos.

    Ethos is a speaker's way of convincing the audience that she is trustworthy, honest and reliable. One common way a speaker can develop ethos is by explaining how much experience or education she has in the field. After all, you're more likely to listen to advise about how to take care of your teeth from a dentist than a fireman. A speaker can also create ethos by convincing the audience that she is a good person. If an audience cannot trust you, you will not be able to persuade them.

    Pathos is a speaker's way of connecting with an audience's emotions. For example, a politician who is trying to convince an audience to vote for him might say that he alone can save the country from a terrible war. These words are intended to fill the audience with fear, thus making them support him. Similarly, an animal charity might show an audience pictures of injured dogs and cats, to make the viewers feel pity. If the audience feels bad for the animals, they will be more likely to donate money.

    Logos is the use of facts, statistics, or other evidence to support your argument. An audience will be more likely to believe you if you have convincing data to back up your claims. Presenting this evidence is much more persuasive than simply saying “believe me”.

    Although ethos, pathos, and logos all have their strengths, they are often most effective when used together. Indeed, most speakers use a combination of ethos, pathos, and logos to persuade their audiences. So, the next time you listen to a speech, watch a commercial, or listen to a friend try to convince you to lend him some money, be on the lookout for these ancient Greek tools of persuasion.

    The single, decisive factor that made it possible for mankind to settle in lasting communities（社区，聚居地）was agriculture. After farming was developed in the Middle East in about 6500 BC, people living in family units did not have to be on the move continually searching for food or hunting their animals. Once people could control the production of food and be assured of a reliable supply of it, their lives changed completely.

    Farming was a revolutionary discovery. It not only made settlements possible and later the building of cities but it also made available a reliable food supply. With more food available, more people could be fed. Population therefore increased. The growing number of people available for more kinds of work led to the development of new social formations. With more and more food, a community could support a variety of workers who were not farmers.

Farming in the world over has always relied upon a dependable water supply. For the earliest societies this meant rivers and streams or regular rainfall. The first great civilizations grew up along rivers. Later communities were able to develop by taking advantage of the rainy seasons.

    All of the ancient civilizations probably developed in much the same way, in spite of a few differences. As villages grew, the production of more numerous goods became possible. Cloth could be woven from wool. Houses made of wood, brick, and stone could be put up.

    The science of mathematics was an early outcome of agriculture. People studied the movements of the moon, the sun, and the planets to work out seasons, By doing so they created the first calendars（日历）. With a calendar it was possible to find out the arrival of each growing season. Measurement of land areas was necessary if field was to be divided accurately. Measurement of amounts, for example, of seeds or grains was also a factor in farming and housekeeping. Later measures of value as money exchange became common.

    All of the major ancient civilizations in Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus Valley, and China appeared in the 4th millennium（千年）BC. Historians still argue over which one came into being first. It may well have been the Middle East. This place reaches out from the Nile River in Egypt northward along the coast of former Palestine, then eastward into Asia to include Mesopotamia. In this area people settled along the riverbanks and practiced field agriculture. This kind of farming depended on the reproduction of seed, normally from grain crops.

    “Clothes Swapping”has become an increasingly popular activity for women in the United States. The women can give away unwanted clothing at a clothes swap event and get something different in return.

    Recently about 300 women went to a clothes swap at a high school in Springfield, Virginia. It was the largest crowd ever for the area's popular clothing-swapping group.

    Daphne Steinberg was having a good day.“For anyone who knows Ann Taylor LOFT, Ann Taylor is a really nice women's designer and I will totally wear this to work. So I love that, I love that I can equip myself for work, have a good time in doing it, not totally bankrupt myself.”

Sandy Van Dusen likes the idea that clothes are finding new homes instead of being thrown away. “Because it helps to keep the Earth green. There's no point in my opinion in continuing to buy new clothes when we can reuse what's already here. Give it a new home— let somebody else love what you used to love and no longer love.”

    Kim Pratt organized the clothing-swapping event in Springfield. She also organized a money-raising activity for the high school's debate team. It is one of several ways that her group gives to charitable causes. Another is by donating all of the“un-swapped” clothing to shelters for victims of domestic violence.

    “I started doing this four years ago, and we've been doing it for four years, getting bigger and bigger each time we have a swap.”

    She used the social media website meetup.com to help publicize the events. The website has helped her group grow from 30 members to 1,300. Mrs.Pratt says most of the members respect the clothing swap rules. But she say competition for desirable fashion can be strong.

    “We have to tell people sometimes not to hover over the new people coming in with their clothing. As they put it out, some people tend to grab the stuff right out of their hands and it becomes like a free-for-all. We try to avoid that as much as possible.”

    Elizabeth Blackwell was born in England in 1821, and moved to New York City when she was ten years old. One day she decided that she wanted to become a doctor. That was nearly impossible for a woman in the middle of the nineteenth century. After writing many letters asking for admission(录取) to medical schools, she was finally accepted by a doctor in Philadelphia. She was so determined that she taught school and gave music lessons to get money for the cost of schooling.

    In 1849, after graduation from medical school. She decided to further her education in Paris. She wanted to be a surgeon(外科医师) , but a serious eye problem forced her to give up the idea.

    Upon returning to the United States, she found it difficult to start her own practice because she was a woman. By 1857 Elizabeth and her sister, also a doctor, along with another woman doctor, managed to open a new hospital, the first for women and children Besides being the first woman physician and founding her own hospital , she also set up the first medical school for women.

    Four of the World's Best Futurists(未来学家)

    Kevin Kelly

    Kevin Kelly is an author. His 1994 publication, Out of Control, discusses a future where machines and systems are so complex as to be indistinguished(难区分的) from living things.

    His latest book What Technology Wants suggests that technology is not just a mixture of wires and metals but a living thing that has its own need. The book looks out through the eyes of this global technological system to discover what it wants.

    Dr Michio Kaku

    Dr Michio Kaku is a professor of theoretical physics at the City of New York and author of The Future of the Mind and Physics of the Future.

    In The Future of the Mind , he explores the frontier of neuroscience. He predicts that one day we will be able to upload the human brain into a computer. In Physics of the Future, he predicts that glasses and contact lenses will be connected to the Internet and cars will become driverless with the power of the GPS system.

    David Brin

    Science fiction author and scientist, David Brin has received awards. In 1998, he won the Freedom of Speech Award for The Transparence Society. The book concerns threats to personal affairs and openness in the information age. In a world where the police monitor public places 24 hours a day with cameras and some credit companies can sell people's financial details to anyone willing to pay, Brin warns that surveillance(监控) technology will be used by too few people in the future. He argues that the tables should be turned and the public should have access to information like who is buying financial details from credit companies.

    Dr Ray Kurzweil

    Dr Ray Kurzweil is the main inventor of the first print-to-speech reading machine for the blind. He is the director of artificial intelligence development at Google.

    Over the past 25 years, a number of his predictions have come true. In 1990, he predicted a computer would defeat a human at chess by 1998.He predicts that by the 2020s, most diseases will go away and self-driving cars begin to take over the roads.

    Have you ever awakened and felt like you couldn't move? If so, it probably scared you. You may have thought something terrible had happened to you. Actually, many people have this experience on a regular basis. It is called sleep paralysis. Although it sounds scary, it is normal.

    Sleep paralysis happens when a person is falling asleep or waking up. As the person falls asleep, his or her body slowly relaxes. Usually the person's mind relaxes at the same time, but occasionally the mind stays awake longer than the body. As a result, the person can be conscious, or aware, but have trouble moving or speaking. Sleep paralysis can also occur as you wake up. Fortunately, the condition rarely lasts for more than a few seconds. Movement and speech soon return to normal.

    Some people report unusual experiences during sleep paralysis. They may hear, see, or feel things that don't exist. At one time, people thought that ghosts or monsters had entered the room and were holding them down, keeping them from moving. Science has helped us understand that such visions are actually a part of sleep paralysis. Now we know that getting too little sleep, taking certain medications, and changing your sleep schedule can cause sleep paralysis. This condition can be scary if you, but it's just a trick that your mind is playing on your body.