Mrs. Turner's telephone number was 3463, and the number of the cinema in town was 3464. People often made mistakes and telephoned her when they actually wanted the cinema.

    One evening the telephone bell rang and Mrs. Turner answered it. A tired man's voice came over the telephone, “At what time does your last film begin?” “I'm sorry,” said Mrs. Turner, “but you have the wrong number. This is not the cinema.” “Oh, it began twenty minutes ago? ” said the man. “I'm sorry about that. Well, goodbye.” Mrs. Turner was very surprised, so she told her husband. He laughed and said, “No, that wasn't a mistake. The man's wife wanted to go to the cinema, but he was feeling tired, so he telephoned the cinema. His wife heard him, but she didn't hear you. Now they will stay at home this evening, and the husband will be happy!”

    I was asked in an e­mail about learning idioms in a foreign language. Maybe I am different from most people，but I do not bother with them. To me they are kind of dessert of language learning. They come at the end of a meal. Once you have filled up with the key words and phrases that are used in a variety of situations，then you can add a few idioms. And by that time, you will be able to pick them up naturally anyway.

    I find that many learners have trouble with idioms，as if repeating some very colloquial expressions is going to upgrade how they sound in a language. In fact, it is the opposite. Idioms are difficult to use correctly.

    Yes，occasionally you hear idioms and do not understand. But，in my experience，there are always situations where you do not understand. It is best to focus on the most important words，what they mean and how they are used. Certainly，it is best for a non­native speaker to stick to standard speech.

    Some teachers even try to teach the “real language”．Then you hear non­native speakers saying things like “I goanna”, “You wane” etc.

    You will learn all the idioms you need just by exposing yourself to the language. In general，you can save any phrase that you find interesting，and if that includes idioms，go to it. But I would not make any special effort to go after idioms. I，in fact，avoid them. If I come across something in Russian that strikes me as a particularly idiomatic use of words，I just leave it aside; do not even bother trying to learn it. If it keeps on appearing，then I will learn it.

    The discussion on renewable energy has been going on for at least a decade and people have relied on fossil fuels almost entirely for more than a century. However, the situation when fossil fuels were the most efficient and the cheapest source of energy has been left far in the past. Many countries such as Germany and Sweden have already made significant efforts to fix this situation, employing numerous power plants working on the renewable resources of energy. The most effective among these resources is geothermal（地热的）energy.

    Geothermal energy does not depend on the world's economic and political situation as strongly as fossil fuels do. Besides, extracting（提炼）fossil fuels adds to the price of energy produced from them. Therefore, geothermal energy is much cheaper than traditional ones, saving up to 80% of the costs over fossil fuels.

    Being a renewable resource, geothermal energy produces less waste and pollution than traditional energy sources. In geothermal systems, carbon dioxide makes up about 10% of air produced. Overall, in order to produce the electricity that can be used for one hour, the geothermal systems produce 0.1 pound of carbon dioxide and other harmful gases. For a comparison, a power plant producing from gas produces up to 2 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and those power plants that work on coal（煤）produce an astonishing 3.6 pounds of greenhouse gases.

    Low costs is another reason why using geothermal power plants should be the first choice for many countries. Geothermal heat systems require 25% to 50% less energy for work compared with the traditional systems for heating or cooling. Besides, geothermal equipment is less big: due to the very nature of geothermal energy, geothermal power plants have only a few moving parts, all of which can be easily sheltered inside a relatively small building. What's more, the life span of geothermal equipment is rather long. All these make geothermal power stations easy to build and keep.

    You may know about “junk food” like French fries. But do you know about “junk sleep”?

    Recently, a British survey found that electronic(电子的) products in teenagers bedrooms are affecting(影响)their sleep.

    The survey was done among 1,000 British kids from 12 to 16. It found that 30 percent of them got just 4 to 7 hours sleep every day. But doctors say they need 8 to 9 hours.

    Almost a quarter of the kids said they fell asleep more than once a week while watching TV, listening to music or using other electronic products.

    “This is very worrying.” said Dr Chris Idzikowski, a British expert, “We call it 'junk sleep', it means you don't get enough sleep and the quality of the sleep is bad, too. If you don't get good rest, you don't perform well in school the next day.”

    The survey found that 40 percent of the kids felt tired each day, with girls between 13 and 16 feeling the worst. Nearly all the teenagers have a phone, Mp4 or TV in their bedroom. And many of them have all three.

    For years, there has been a prejudice against science among clinical psychologists (临床心理学家). In a two-year analysis to be published in November in Perspectives on Psychological Science, psychologists charge that many clinical psychologists fail to “provide the treatments which are given the strongest evidence of effectiveness” and “give more weight to their personal experiences than to science.” As a result, patients have no guarantee that their “treatment will be informed by science.” Walter Mischel of Columbia University is even crueler in his judgment. “The disconnect between what clinical psychologists do and what science has discovered is an extreme embarrassment,” he told me, and “there is a widening gap between clinical practice and science.”

    The “widening” reflects the great progress that psychological research has made in identifying the most effective treatments. Thanks to strict clinical trials, we now know that teaching patients to think about their thoughts in new, healthier ways and to act on those new ways of thinking are effective against depression, panic disorder and other problems, with multiple trials showing that these treatments the tools of psychology bring more lasting benefits than drugs.

    You wouldn't know this if you sought help from a typical clinical psychologist. Although many treatments are effective, relatively few psychologists learn or practice them.

    Why in the world not? For one thing, says Baker from the University of Wisconsin, clinical psychologists are “very doubtful about the role of science” and “lack solid science training”. Also, one third of patients get better no matter what treatment (if any) they have, “and psychologists remember these successes, believing, wrongly, that they are the result of the treatment.”

    When faced with evidence that treatments they offer are not supported by science, clinical psychologists argue that they know better than some study that works. A 2008 study of 591 psychologists in private practice(诊所) found that they rely more on their own and colleagues' experience than on science when deciding how to treat a patient. If they keep on this path despite the fact that insurance companies demand evidence-based medicine, warns Mischel, psychology will “discredit itself.”

    Over the years, cheerleading has taken two primary forms: game-time cheerleading and competitive cheerleading. Game-time cheerleaders' main goal is to entertain the crowd and lead them with team cheers, which should not be considered a sport. However, competitive cheerleading is more than a form of entertainment. It is really a competitive sport.

    Competitive cheerleading includes lots of physical activity. The majority of the teams require a certain level of tumbling (翻腾) ability. It's a very common thing for gymnasts, so it's easy for them to go into competitive cheerleading. Usually these cheerleaders integrate lots of their gymnastics experience including their jumps, tumbling, and overall energy. They also perform lifts and throws. This is where the "fliers" are thrown in the air, held by "bases" in different positions that require strength and working with other teammates.

    Competitive cheerleading is also an activity that is governed by rules under which a winner can be declared. It is awarded points for technique, creativity and sharpness. Usually the more difficult the action is, the better the score is. That's why cheerleaders are trying to experience great difficulty in their performance.

    Besides, there is also a strict rule of time. The whole performance has to be completed in less than three minutes and fifteen seconds, during which the cheerleaders are required to stay within a certain area. Any performance beyond the limit of time is invalid.

    Another reason for the fact that competitive cheerleading is one of the hardest sports is that it has more reported injuries. According to some research, competitive cheerleading is the number one cause of serious sports injuries to women. Emergency room visits for it are five times the number than for any other sport, partially because cheerleaders don't use protective equipment. Smiling cheerleaders are thrown into the air and move down into the arms of the teammates, which may easily cause injuries. Generally, these injuries affect all areas of the body, including wrists, shoulders, ankles, head, and neck.

    There can be no doubt that competitive cheerleading is a sport with professional skills. Hopefully, it will appear in the Olympics since cheerleaders are just as athletic and physically fit as those involved in the more accepted sports. It should be noted that it is a team sport and even the smallest mistake made by one teammate can bring the score of the entire team down. So without working together to achieve the goal, first place is out of reach.