A girl with blue eyes is a blue-eyed girl. A man with long legs is a long-legged man. A woman with white hair is a white-haired woman. Children who have good looks are good-looking children. What do you do when you want to buy clothes? You go to a shop. If you can find clothes that are the right size for you, and if they are ready to wear, you will probably buy them. They are called ready-made clothes. If you can not find clothes that are the right size, you will go to a tailor's shop. A tailor is a man who makes clothes. He will measure you carefully and will then make clothes for you. Such clothes are called tailor-made clothes.

    What do we call a man who is dressed badly? We call him a badly-dressed man. A woman who is dressed well is called a well-dressed woman.

    What do you wear when it rains heavily? You wear a coat that will keep the rain out. Such a coat is called a raincoat. It is made of waterproof cloth-cloth that does not let water pass through. We have a lot of rain in England. If you come to England, bring a raincoat and an umbrella. You will find them useful.

    If the floor, walls and ceiling of a room are made so that sound cannot pass through the wall, we say that the room is sound-proof. There are sound-proof rooms in all broadcasting stations.

    To develop one's taste in English, the most effective way is to read English books extensively. However, one may be at a loss to choose the suitable books, especially as a beginner. I would like to share some of my experience.

    My first English novel was Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, recommended (推荐) by many English teachers and professors as an ideal book for English learners. But I had great difficulty in understanding the novel, let alone enjoying it. It's not the vocabulary that troubled me, but rather the way Austen constructs sentences, and her way of thinking, which seemed too remote to me at that time. My fading enthusiasm was much recovered after reading Hemingway's novel Farewell to Arms. I particularly liked his brief and lively style. So my first suggestion is, as a beginner, you'd better choose contemporary (现代的) novels instead of classical ones.

    However, reading novels is not the only way to improve your English. English essays (散文) can at once inform you, entertain you, and improve your taste in English. The best example is Bertrand Russell's work. Its language is plain, yet you cannot help feeling the elegance and the unique sense of humor. His simple language enables his philosophy (哲理) within the reach of ordinary people. Here comes my second suggestion—essays are indispensable.

    Never follow other's opinions blindly, however famous or influential the person might be. As a saying goes, one man's meat is another man's poison. With that in mind, we are sure to find out our favorite writers through reading and develop our fine taste in English.

A Teenage Inventor

    The world could be one step closer to quick and inexpensive Ebola detection thanks to a teenager from Connecticut.

    Olivia Hallisey, a junior at Greenwich High School, was awarded $50,000 in the Google Science Fair for her new method that detects Ebola, a virus that causes bleeding from different parts of the body and usually causes death. Olivia's method is to ask patients to put their saliva (唾液) onto a testing card. The card changes color if the person is catching Ebloa. Present Ebloa tests take up to 12 hours and cost $1,000. Olivia's method, however, can be done just in 30 minutes for about $25. Besides, the sample (样本) doesn't have to be put in a refrigerator thanks to the silk material Olivia uses to produce the testing cards.

    Olivia was inspired to deal with this global problem after watching the news that more than 10,000 people died from Ebola in West Africa. She was particularly worried about the fact that, while the acts of involvement can improve survival rates, present detection methods are costly, time-consuming and require complex tools. Olivia got help from her science research teacher. She drew out directions from past research, and figured out detection systems that have proven to work with other diseases, including Lyme disease and yellow fever.

    "What affects one country affects everyone," Olivia told CNBC. "We have to work together to find answers to the huge challenges which cause harm to the global health." The Connecticut's teen, who hopes to become a doctor one day, was named the Google Science Fair winner in the competition of 20 competitors from across the globe. The fair is open to young people between the ages of 13 and 18 in most countries.

    Olivia hopes her success will inspire other girls interested in science and computers. "I would just encourage girls to try it in the beginning, and remind them that they don't have to feel naturally drawn or feel like they have a special talent for maths or science," she told CNBC, "but just really look at something they are interested in and then think how to improve something or make it more enjoyable or relate it to their interests."

    Being a parent is tough. Prejudice against parents in the workplace only makes it harder.

    Asking for flexible schedule is not unique to working parents only. I've worked with people in their twenties that requested to work a four-day schedule so they could go back to school part time. I've seen older adults in the workplace change their schedules so that they can spend more time at home. Almost everyone has to cut out of the office every now and again for a doctor's appointment or other personal matters. Flexible schedules seem to be synonymous(代名词) with working parents, but in reality, they are not.

    Parents aren't devoted to their jobs. This is really surprising because it's quite the contrary. There is actually strong evidence that parents are more devoted to their jobs than many other employees. They are some of the most focused employees out there. Parents are less likely to change jobs than other employees. Stability(稳定) is key when raising a family.

    Parents aren't good team members. Since it is parents that need to leave the office at 5 or aren't able to come in before 9, most people think that the singletons on the team need to make up for it. In today's technology world, this is hardly the case. While many parents do limit their physical "in office" hours, most spend time on weekends, early mornings, and after work working. Besides, parents may be more likely to take vacations during major holidays due to children's school schedules.

    Parents are at work only out of financial needs. Why would anyone want to leave their children behind and come to the workplace if they didn't have to? Actually, a lot of people do. Caring for children is a wonderful experience, but everyone needs a break. Many parents may still be interested in their field of work, finding work interesting. Money is nice, but it's certainly not the only reason that parents are there.

    Grown-ups are often surprised by how well they remember something they learned as children but have never practiced ever since. A man who has not had a chance to go swimming for years can still swim as well as ever when he gets back in the water. He can get on a bicycle after many years and still ride away. He can play, catch and hit a ball as well as his son. A mother who has not thought about the words for years can teach her daughter the poem that begins "Twinkle, twinkle, little star" or remember the story of Cinderella or Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

    One explanation is the law of overlearning, which can be stated as follows: Once we have learned something, extra learning trials (尝试) increase the length of time we will remember it.

    In childhood we usually continue to practice such skills as swimming, bicycle riding, and playing baseball long after we have learned them. We continue to listen to and remind ourselves of words such as "Twinkle, twinkle, little star" and childhood tales such as Cinderella and Goldilocks. We not only learn but overlearn.

    The multiplication tables (乘法口诀表) are an exception (例外) to the general rule that we forget rather quickly the things that we learn in school, because they are another of the things we overlearn in childhood.

The law of overlearning explains why cramming (突击学习) for an examination, though it may result in a passing grade, is not a satisfactory way to learn a college course. By cramming, a student may learn the subject well enough to get by on the examination, but he is likely soon to forget almost everything he learned. A little overlearning, on the other hand, is really necessary for one's future development.

    When your pen is broken, the batteries (电池) in your toys run out, or you have some leftover food, what will you do with these things? You will probably throw them all into one bin. But actually, all of these pieces of rubbish need to be sorted (分类) separately.

    Rubbish sorting is a big problem worldwide. In recent years, some Chinese cities have been working hard on it. Shanghai has worked with Alipay to create a "green account (账户)" service. Account owners get points by correctly sorting their rubbish. Through the Alipay app, they can exchange the points for milk, phone cards or other products. The city is asking all people living there to sort their rubbish into four groups: wet, recyclable, harmful and dry.

    Wet waste is something you don't want but that pigs can eat. Plastics, glass, paper and other things that can be reused are recyclable waste. Harmful waste includes things like medicine, batteries and bulbs. Finally, any waste that's not wet, recyclable or harmful will go in the "dry waste" bin.

    Many other Chinese cities are also sorting their rubbish in this way. For example, Shenzhen has been doing this since 2012. Students there also receive waste-sorting guidebooks that they must study.

    In fact, there are still many workers specially working for sorting rubbish by hand in China. There is still a long way to go. But it's never too late for every Chinese to learn how to sort rubbish properly and protect the environment.

    If you don't sort your rubbish, all of it will go to a landfill (垃圾填埋场) and be buried together.

    These landfills can take up much ground that could be used for planting. The electronic waste you throw away, such as batteries or used mobile phones, can cause pollution. Other pieces of rubbish, like the metal part of a pen, can be used to make other things if they are properly recycled.