When people ask me to name typical British dishes,I have,however,struggled to think of an answer.Yes,we do have our own national dishes.We do have fish and chips,and we have other dishes like roast dinner and shepherd's pie.But how much do we actually eat them?

    Fish and chips,is made up of battered（绞碎的）fish and chips,which is often accompanied by a thick paste（酱）. The majority of British people really do love this dish but it is not something that we would eat,say,on a weekly basis.It's also not usually something that we would cook at home.The British people associate this dish with the seaside and it's something that will usually be eaten on a day trip there,bought from a takeaway fish and chip shop.

    Another favourite British dish is roast dinner.This is made up of roast meat,usually chicken or beef, accompanied by roast vegetables and a meat sauce called gravy（肉汁）.It is usually eaten on a Sunday,perhaps for a special family dinner.It can either be cooked at home or eaten in a traditional pub.We also eat a more elaborate version of this for our Christmas dinner.

    Although we do have our traditional dishes,our diet has been greatly influenced by other countries.You can find a wide range of international foods in the supermarket or varieties of different restaurants on our high streets.A famous saying amongst British people is that our national dish is now chicken tikka masala,a dish which is heavily influenced by Indian cuisine.

    Don't expect to be served a traditional dish if you ever get invited for dinner at a British family's home!

    Imagine you went to a restaurant with a date, had a burger, paid with a credit card, and left. The next time you go there, the waiter or waitress, armed with your profile data, greets you with, "Hey Joe, how are you? Mary is over there in the seat you sat in last time. Would you like to join her for dinner again?" Then you find out that your burger has been cooked and your drink is on the table. Forget the fact that you are with another date and are on a diet that doesn't include burgers. Sound a little odd? To some, it is the same with the Internet. The Nets ability to profile you through your visits to and interactions at websites provides marketers with an enormous amount of data on you--some of which you may not want them to have.

    Are you aware that almost every time you access a website you get a "cookie"? Unfortunately, it's not the Mrs.

    Reid's type. A cookie on the Internet is a computer code sent by the site to your computer--usually without your knowledge. During the entire period of time that you are at the site, the cookie is collecting information about your interaction, including where you visit, how long you stay there. How frequently you return to certain pages, and even your electronic address. Fill out a survey to collect free information or samples, and marketers know even more about you--like your name, address, and any other information you provide. While this may sound scary enough, cookies aren't even the latest in technology. A new system called I-librarian Alexa--named for the legendary third century.

    B. C. library in Alexandria, Egypt--does even more. While cookies track what you are doing at one site, Alexa collects data on all your Web activity, such as which sites you visit next, how long you stay there, whether you click on ads, etc. All this information is available to marketers, who use it to market more effectively to you. Not only do you not get paid for providing the information, you probably don't even know that you are giving it.

    “Has anyone seen Charge?” I asked, only half expecting a reply. The kids were running around the house, each doing their own thing, and my husband was watching the football game. Since she had only been out of sight for a few hours, I wasn't overly concerned. I thought she must be under one of the kids' beds, hiding from all the mess that was normal for a Sunday afternoon in our home.

    ①

    Charge was not good-looking, to put it kindly. It wasn't her fault; she was simply gifted with the worst appearance traits（特征）in her background.

    My husband had found Charge wandering along the freeway one day on his way home from work. She looked as though she hadn't eaten in weeks, so he stopped and fed her with bits of his leftover lunch. Not knowing what to do, he brought her home with the hope of finding her owners or at least a loving family that would take her. However, once she was in the house, the kids were determined not to let her go. After a day or two of begging, we unwillingly gave in and told them we could keep her.

    After observing her actions for days, I found she was extremely distrustful and afraid of everyone. In time, though, she came to love the kids and slept on their beds every night. I wondered if what she had experienced had conditioned her to be protective of those who were hurting. Every time the kids cried, Charge would run to them and gently offer her comforting paw（爪子）. Unlike our cat, who had recently given birth to five kittens, Charge would have been a great mother.

    ②

    When I was finally able to get everyone's attention at the dinner table, I asked again if anyone had seen Charge. After a unanimous（异口同声的）“No”, I decided to take a look around the neighborhood.

    ③

    “Charge!” I cried, because there she was in the closet! She looked up at me from inside the little cats' box as if to say,“ Shhh, I just got them to sleep!”

    We usually kept the closet door open a bit so our mamma cat could go in and feed her kittens, but she always left as soon as she finished nursing. Obviously, Charge knew they needed more mamma time and was more than willing to help out.

    ④

    The kids smiled upon seeing the dog with the kittens. My husband shook his head and said, “Only you, Charge. Only you!”

    Charge continued to mother the kittens until they were placed in their new homes. Charge may not have been an attractive dog, but she truly had her inner beauty.

    Carrie Gracie is knowledgeable about China and its affairs. She also has a reputation as a generous colleague. She has resigned from her job as China editor because her employers will not pay her at the same rate as they pay the handful of men who do a similarly challenging and important job.

    She has resigned because she refused to go on colluding (共谋) with the BBC's dishonesty about its failure to give women and men equal pay for equal work.

    Gracie was recruited to the job, because she had all the talent and skills the BBC needed to cover the difficult international and domestic story of the rise of China. One of the conditions she set for taking it was equal pay with the BBC's other international editors, familiar names including Jon Sopel in Washington and Jeremy Bowen in the Middle East.

    Last summer, the government forced the BBC to publish which of the familiar names on radio and TV earned over ￡150, 000. The results exposed an astonishing pay gap. They also showed Gracie that her employers had misled her.

    Gracie sets out all her efforts to get her bosses to do what they had originally promised her, but they fail to respond adequately. Instead, they prevaricate (搪塞) and offer her a pay rise that still would not have delivered equality. They thought they could buy her off; they thought that the reputational hazard she was running would scare her away from the fight.

    The BBC is wrong this time! Gracie has chosen to resign rather than give in because she thinks that it is her responsibility to stop the BBC doing something stupid. She is fighting for women's legal rights.

    Gracie said she hoped she wouldn't be remembered as the woman who complained about money, but as a great journalist. She is proving that they are two sides of the same invaluable coin.

    Carrie Gracie's dispute with the BBC isn't about money—it's about dignity!

    Fish have different personalities which change as they experience life's highs and lows, according to British biologists.

    Researchers identified different "personalities" in their fish by observing the boldness(大胆) or shyness of individuals, according to The Nature. Like people, some fish are very confident in the face of novelty or conflict, while others are silent and fearful.

    The scientists selected particularly bold and shy rainbow trout(虹鳟鱼), and tested whether they changed their outlook depending on what life threw at them. They arranged some fish to fight and others to watch to see how both the participants and observers responded to victories and defeats. Winning or losing a fight, or even watching fellow fish overcome the difficulties influenced the future behavior of the creatures studied in the lab.

    The researchers made fish compete with much larger or smaller opponents(对手), to ensure that they would win or lose their fights. These bold fish that won their fights tended to be even bolder when later presented with a novel food item; losing their fight caused them to be much more cautious.

    Fish also learn by watching others. Bold fish watching a shy fish exploring a mystery object were much more nervous when later given a novel item for themselves.

    Predictably, shy fish that won a fight also gained more confidence, but surprisingly, shy fish that lost their fights also grew bolder when exploring strange new food, Sneddon said, adding that this could be due to what she calls a "desperado effect"(亡命徒效应).

    The new research suggests that animals can gradually adapt(使适应) their personalities. The results agree with the effects that life experience can have on humans.

    "You know, the soft subjects," says the boy in maths. "The easy ones: the stupid girls at the bottom take them. Like dance. It shouldn't even be a subject." We're choosing subjects for our A-level taster day at school. I see the raised eyebrows (眉毛) when I explain two of my GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) choices are dance and drama(戏剧).

    I was told by advisers that dance and drama wouldn't help me to get a suitable career. My friends told me I'd get bored of dance and switch to science within the first month.

    But taking GCSE dance was the best decision I ever made. Dance gives me something to pour my head and heart into. It gives me a feeling of belonging, creativity, security and freedom.

    The education secretary Nicky Morgan has put emphasis on (强调) science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM), saying that students who focus on the arts risk their careers. Stopping young people from expressing themselves at such a young age is not doing them any favours. Perhaps Nicky Morgan has forgotten to open the door of having a drive to study that subject day in, day out. It shouldn't matter what that subject is.

    I don't doubt the influence that STEM subjects can have on the people that love them. But to force children into one field is cruel. As much as I try, I'm not good at and don't love physics, biology or maths. I don't want a career in these areas.

    There has been a decrease in the number of state schools offering arts subjects taught by specialist teachers. I can't even imagine how it feels to be told that you don't teach a "real subject" by an 8-year-old boy.

    To the teachers, the parents, the government I say: Let children make their own decisions. Let them live in the present. Let them have a real, unlimited education.