Airports are dull places where bored passengers kill time eating rubbish food they don't want and buying stuff they'll never need. Right?

    Wrong! Many of today's terminals（航站楼）around the world offer great entertainment, dining and shopping. With so much to offer, you're almost attracted to miss your flight.

    ⒈Changi Airport, Singapore

    It's the only one in the world with its own butterfly garden, and each of the three terminals has its own indoor playground and video game area.

    If you have a long wait you could always watch the latest movies at the free cinema, go to sunflower gardens or take a dip in the rooftop swimming pool.

    ⒉Incheon Airport, Seoul, South Korea

    A five-minute free shuttle bus ride will take you to the SKY72 Golf Club, with three courses and a driving range.

    There are seven gardens inside the terminal, an ice rink, a spa and the Museum of Korean Culture. There is even a casino（赌场）.

    ⒊Dubai Airport, UAE

    It has its own health club with a Jacuzzi, gym and swimming pool, or you can wander in the Zen Garden. The weary can take a rest in a sound-proofed pod with a bed for a while.

    ⒋Hong Kong Airport

    Not only does it have its own IMAX cinema, the airport is home to Green Live AIR, a hi-tech space offering both nine and 18-hole golf simulations（模拟）.

    For kids, there's the Dream Come True Education Park, where they take part in role-playing jobs, or the Aviation Discovery Centre, with themed exhibits and graphics, and the Sky Deck runway viewing platform.

    ⒌Munich Airport, Germany

    Go to the outdoor Visitor's Park to check out the historic aircraft, watch the planes from the viewing hill or browse in the souvenir shop. For kids, there's Kinderland, a fun paradise with a big “adventure plane”, films, games, arts and crafts, and a waiting room for their tired parents to relax in.

    And, of course, since we're in Bavaria there's a beer garden!

    My senior year of high school was a very hectic one, to say the least. If I wasn't studying or worrying about my grades, I was working on after-class activities. It seemed as if my life had turned into one crazy cloud of confusion and I hoped to find some sort of direction.

    Finally, I got a part-time job at the local coffee shop. I had thought it would be easy and, for the most part, stress-free. I pictured myself pouring coffee and becoming close friends with my customers.

    What I hadn't expected was the people with so many orders. There were moments when I was very angry simply because I couldn't seem to please anyone. There was always too much sugar, too little ice, or not enough skim milk. However, I kept at it.

    One day, one of my customers came in, depressed. Before he left, I handed him a bag along with his iced coffee. He looked at me questioningly because he hadn't ordered anything but the coffee. He opened the bag and saw his favorite doughnut (甜甜圈) I had given him. He smiled and thanked me before heading out into the rain.

    The next evening, he came. Instead of ordering something, he handed me a single pink rose and a note.

    “Thanks for being so sweet and thoughtful yesterday. It is so nice to meet someone who's warm and unselfish. Please don't change your ways because I truly believe that you will do better. Have a great day!”

    As time went on, I did come across some customers really particular. But anytime I felt depressed, I thought of that man and his kindness. Then I would smile, hold my head up high, clear my throat and ask politely, “How can I help you?”

    If conditions get bad enough, almost any kind of weather can become a storm.

Stormy weather can cause people to cancel their plans. It can cause major events to be postponed. And severe stormy weather can be dangerous to people, fortune and anima1.

    If you weather the storm, or ride out the storm, you survive and move on without harm or injury. For example, 1et's talk about Tornado Alley, the name for part of the central United States. During springtime, this area often has a large number of powerful tornadoes. People who live there are taught to shelter in the safest place they can find and wait for the storm to pass. People who live in Tornado Alley are used to weathering many storms!

    You can also weather a storm, but it doesn't involve actual weather. “To weather the storm” can also mean to make it through a difficult experience or trying times. So, if the stock market(股市)crashes, you might have to weather a financial storm.

    Often before a big storm, conditions are calm. The calm before the storm can happen anytime. It is the time before something bad happens. For example, at the beginning of a family reunion, the adults were all talking happily. But the older children knew it was just the calm before the storm. They've seen it happen before. The adults talk happily for about an hour. Then they start arguing about events from the past—things that should really stay buried!

    But after the storm begins and you find yourself in the middle of it, you are in the eye of the storm. In the world of weather, the eye of the storm is the calmest part, in the center of a hurricane, for example. However, in the English language, if you are in the eye of the storm, you are in the most intense part of a conflict. For example, she had no idea that walking into the meeting would put her in the eye of the storm.

    However, a brainstorm does not exist in the world of weather. To brainstorm means to try to solve a problem by talking with other people. And don't worry. If we have trouble thinking of an idea for the next program, we can always brainstorm with you!

    The best-known example of external( 外部的)influence causing language change is the "Americanization" of world culture, which has caused English words to appear in city streets all over the world. The effect is most noticeable in pop music. Foreign groups often record in English, and the words are picked up and repeated in the same language everywhere, even by children who otherwise have little or no command of the language. I once met a Brazilian child of about ten who could count 'one, two, three', but only by adding the words 'o'clock, four o'clock rock 'at the end.

Some people are often strongly critical of the influence of English on their language — especially when an English word replaces a traditional word. In 1977, France passed a law banning the use of English words in official situations if an equivalent( 意义相同的)French expression existed — but the law seemed to be honored more in the breaking than in the observing. Some other countries have considered introducing a similar law despite the evidence that such laws have very little effect, and that the arrival of loan words( 外来词) can greatly enrich a language (as indeed in the case of English itself, which has a long history of welcoming foreign words).

    However, not everyone is critical. In particular, commercial firms and advertisers are well aware of the potential selling power that the use of English vocabulary can bring. In Japan, English is even used in television commercials, despite the fact that the majority of viewers would not understand exactly what was being said: the excellence implied by the mere use of English is apparently enough to command the strategy to the advertisers.

    Most of the influence of English is upon the vocabulary of foreign languages, but surveys are slowly bringing to light several cases where word order or word structure has been affected. Sentences of the type “The book sells well”, using an active construction for a passive meaning, have begun to appear in Danish (Bogen soelger godt). Several languages keep the English plural ending when they make use of a loan word, and do not translate it into the native form, e.g. drinks. There are many other such cases.

    A disastrous fire surrounded Notre Dame(巴黎圣母院)completely and destroyed large parts of the Gothic(哥特式的) architecture on Monday.

    "Notre Dame is our history, our literature; part of our spirit, the place of all our great events, our wars, our liberations, the center of our lives" French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters in front of the still burning Paris landmark and promised to rebuild Notre Dame Cathedral.

    "Notre Dame is burning, and know the sadness and this tremble felt by so many fellow French people. But tonight, I'd like to speak of hope too, "he said, announcing the launch of a fundraising campaign.

    "Let's be proud, because we built this cathedral more than 800 years ago, we've built it and, throughout the centuries, let it grow and improve it. So I gravely say tonight: we will rebuild it together, "he added.

    The disastrous fire engulfed(吞没) the upper reaches of Paris' towering Notre Dame Cathedral as it was undergoing renovations(翻新).

    Tourists and Parisians looked on horrified from the streets below. France's Interior Ministry said firefighters might not be able to save the structure.

    The fire collapsed the cathedrals' spire(尖顶) and spread to one of its landmark towers "Everything is burning; nothing will remain from the frame, "Notre Dame spokesman Andre Finot told French media. The 12th-century cathedral is home to incalculable works of art and is one of the world's most famous tourist attractions, immortalized by Victor Hugo's 1831 novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

    The cause of the fire was not known, but French media quoted the Paris fire brigade(消防队) as saying the fire is "potentially linked" to a 6 million—euro($6. 88 million)renovation project on the church's spire and its 250 tons of lead. Officials opened an investigation as Paris police said there were no reported deaths. Some 400 firefighters were battling the fire well into the night.

    You don't need to get in a time-traveling machine to see how technology will reshape our lives, such as the way we shop. Several new technologies that are to change your buying habits already exist. Let's see what's waiting for your future shopping.

    Try it on, virtually(虚拟的). Want to shop online for a new pair of eyeglasses? You don't need to guess which pair looks best on you. Go and see the eBay Fashion iPhone app to try a pair of eyewear you're checking out on a picture of your face. But what if you want to buy something bigger? Thanks to Microsoft Kinect's motion tracking camera, you can cover clothes on your screen body. You can even choose the background of your virtual fitting room to enrich your shopping experience.

    Get a perfect, custom fit. Everyone's body is shaped differently. To get a perfect fit, you sometimes have to get your clothes changed. But by using 3D scanning(扫描) technology, all the clothes you buy will fit your body perfectly. Some companies scan your body using High-tech to get the most exact sizes, so they can make special clothes just for you.

    Experience high-tech shopping carts and checkout counters. High-tech shopping carts could, in time, be a common sight in malls and supermarkets. Microsoft Kinect-enabled carts are under test at present. The cart can follow you along the aisles (通道), controlled only by your movement and your voice. In China, a supermarket chain(连锁超市) introduced tablet-equipped carts that guide shoppers around the stores' aisles.

    In the United States, several supermarkets use a device(装置) called Scan It that gives buyers the freedom to scan goods on their own while they shop. While it's great not having to line up at a checkout counter, we wouldn't mind it if the store used Toshiba's new Object Recognition Scanner. The machine identifies(辨认) a product as soon as it's placed in front of a camera just by its shape and color, even if it has no bar code(条形码).