My mother once was a follower of traditional methods when it came to anything. She cooked traditional food, liked dressing up traditionally and thus was fond of traditional way of shopping. She loved going to the market and going from one shop to another to find out what suited her best. She could walk miles when it came to shopping along with her friends. She was familiar with all the local markets and shops and by now knows very well where she can get best discounts and material.

    However, now she begins to feel her age and gets tired when she goes out in the market. So one day I decided to introduce a new shop to her, a shop that is much bigger than her usual markets and where she gets better discounts. Yes, I am talking about the online gift stores. She has basic knowledge of computers and can operate a laptop. Initially (起初) she was doubtful about shopping from these online gift shops and wasn't too sure about the quality of the products.

    One fine day I decided to get some branded things for her first so that she could build trust in these shops. I ordered a Timex watch for her along with a Sisley handbag. She never bought things online but when they were delivered as a gift, she jumped for joy. She could not believe that I had ordered these gifts for her despite her being not very positive about online shops. However, after she saw both the products, she believed that these online gift shops would send the promised brand and products. She loved her new watch and the handbag.

    After this incident she ordered a gift for her friend's wedding anniversary. She chose a gift basket that could be made to her requirements. They sent a beautifully decorated basket with fine wines and chocolates. The basket was so carefully decorated that it immediately became her friend's favorite gift. Since then my mother has been often shopping online.

    When someone says, “Well, I guess I'll have to go to face the music,” it does not mean he is planning to go to a concert. It is something far less pleasant, like being called in by your boss to explain why you did this or that, and why you did not do this or that. Sour music, indeed, but it has to be faced.

    The phrase “to face the music” is familiar to every American, young and old. It is at least 100 years old.

    The first information comes from the American writer James Fennimore Cooper. He said—in 1851—that the expression was first used by actors while waiting in the wings to go on stage. After they got their cue to go on, they often said, “It's time to go to face the music.” And that is exactly what they did-face the orchestra which was just below the stage.

    An actor might be frightened or nervous as he moved on to the stage in front of the audience that might be friendly or perhaps unfriendly, especially if he forgot his lines. But he had to go out. So, “to face the music” came to mean having to go through something, no matter how unpleasant the experience might be, because you knew you had no choice.

    The other explanation comes from the army. Men had to face inspection by their leader. The soldiers worried about how well they looked. Was their equipment clean—shiny enough to pass inspection? Still, the men had to go out, and face the music of the band, as well as the inspection. What else could they do?

    The full moon climbs over the eastern horizon (地平线) and hangs like a huge orange globe in the sky. A few hours later, the moon is overhead but seems to have changed. The huge orange globe has become a small silver disk. What has happened? Why has the orange color disappeared? Why does the moon seem so much smaller and farther away now that it is overhead?

    The moon appears orange on the horizon because we view it through the dust of the atmosphere. The overhead moon does not really shrink (缩小) as it moves away from the horizon. Our eyes inform us that the overhead moon is farther away. But in this position the moon is actually closer to our eyes than when it is near the horizon.

    The change in size is a trick our eyes and minds play on us. When the moon is low in the sky, we can compare its size with familiar objects. It is easy to see that the moon is much larger than trees or buildings, for example. When the moon is high in the sky, however, it is hard to compare it with objects on earth. Compared to the vastness of the sky, the moon seems small.

    There is another reason why the moon seems to shrink. We are used to staring at objects straight ahead of us. When an object is difficult to see, our eyes have to try to focus on it. When we move our heads back to look up, we will try hard again. Looking at something from an unaccustomed position can fool you into believing an object is smaller or farther away than it is. However, scientists do not yet understand completely why the moon seems to shrink as it rises in the sky.

    There is always no lack of ordinary people taking action for extraordinary change. Aghan Oscar is just among them. Thirteen years ago, Aghan bothered by the ever-increasing quantity of plastic waste in this low-income suburb of Nairobi, decided to find a way to recycle it.

    Nou his company. Continental Renewable Energy Co.Ltd(COREC) produces poles for use in construction, farming and road signs. So far he's sold 96,000, and he says his potential or growth is limited only by the considerable expense of setting up plastic recycling plants.

    Most of Aghan's customers are farmers and developers who once used wooden fence poles. Customers say they have other benefits as well. "I have fenced my piece of land three times using wood posts, but most of the time the fence was vandalized(故意破坏)by villagers who used the posts as firewood." said Caleb Kapten. Now plastic posts have stopped the problem, he said.

    The Kenya National Highways Authority is one of COREC s biggest customers. It approached the company after road signs were vandalized by criminals who sold the metal poles to steel manufacturing companies. Aghan reckons (估计)that COREC's products have saved the government millions of shillings, besides preventing road accidents. And he also points out that COREC has been able to conserve large numbers of trees by producing plastic poles.

    When Aghan started this recycling business in 2003, most of his employees were his family members due to financial constraint(限制).Now he employs 250 young people to collect plastic waste. Fifty more youths work on the production line, where the waste is sorted according to quality before being crushed and washed, melted and cast into different shapes. The poles arc then arranged by shape and size for sale in the yard of the recycling plant.

    Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is gaining global popularity. According to a government white paper, TCM has been introduced in 183 countries and regions around the world.

    Westerners' understanding of TCM, however, may be limited to acupundure，cupping and massage (针灸，拔罐和按摩). For instance, the purple, injury-like marks left on US.swimmer Michael Phelps' back from cupping for the purpose of relaxing his muscles and reducing pain became the center of attention during the Rio Olympics in 2016.

    As a matter of fact, Chinese herbs play a more important role in getting rid of diseases and keeping the body in good condition in the TCM treatment system than physical treatment. It is therefore disheartening to know that-while 103 World Health Organization member countries have given approval to the practice of acupuncture，not many recognize Chinese herbal medicine TCM falls far behind Western medicine owing partly to the slow development of Chinese herbs.

    Herbs, are made into pills, powder and soup, and the kind of herbs uscd1 their quality and quantity, and the processing of the ingredients jointly determine the effectiveness of the prescription. Compared with Western medicine, which has standardized drug production processes and treatment methods, TCM lacks standardization, with the chemical composition and functions of its medicines being unclear and their effects being unstable. Fortunately, standardization has improved in recent decades, with an increasing number of factories producing patented TCM drugs.

    Another factor that has prevented the development of TCM prescription drugs is the lack of creativity, While Western medicine-making companies come up with new products every year, TCM drug producers tend to make medicines according to prescriptions handed down from the past. Chinese chemist Tu You your's winning the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for her research into malaria(疟疾）treatment may drive creativity to some extent in China's TCM industry. However, the current state of affairs cannot be changed within a short time.

How do you kill your time on your way to work? Most of us stare at our cell phones, and refuse to make eye contact with others. We just read, chat with others online or play games online. Or maybe we're using the time between stops to do our makeup, catch up on emails, or read a few chapters of a book. However, Dina Alfasi takes a very different approach.

Each day she has to travel hours on buses and trains to get to her engineering job at a hospital in Israel. Rather than look at her cell phone in silence, she uses one very special way to have connection with strangers. It is portraits of the people she meets on public transport every day that she is taking. The paintings catch those quiet and personal moments of people readying themselves for the day ahead. Some people lean their head against the window and go to sleep, some stare into space and have a daydream, and others sit quietly to read their documents or books. Each picture catches one tiny moment in people's lives, ripe with potential for your imagination. It is wonderful for her to look at someone's commute (上下班) and make up an entire story about the rest of their daily existence, from the father travelling with a baby to the woman welcoming a change.

"What inspires me very much are the little moments that happen every day," Dina told My Modern Met. "My work is to tell stories through a single portrait, and it proves that all you need is just to look around and find those magic moments."