Texting while walking is something that most of us are guilty of. We can't help replying to that message we just received. However, while it's fun to keep up with the latest gossip, we may actually be putting ourselves in danger.

    A team of researchers from two UK universities recently found that people who use their phones while on the move walk differently than usual.

    “Recently, a person in front of me was walking very slowly and weaving (迂回行进), and I thought, 'Is this person drunk?'” Matthew Timmis, co-author of the study, told the Guardian.

    It turned out that the person was just texting. Inspired by this, Timmis and his team set out to discover the effects of phone use on how we navigate streets.

    A group of 21 volunteers were asked to walk around a simulated (模拟的) street, complete with obstacles such as a step. The participants traveled the course a total of 12 times each, either writing or reading a message, making a call, or with no phone at all.

    It took the volunteers 118 percent longer to complete the course when using a phone. They also focused on the step obstacle 60 percent more and paid attention to the travel path 51 percent more when they weren't using a phone.

    Although there were no accidents, Timmis believes we should still be aware of what's going on around us.

    “The big risk here is suddenly-appearing hazards (危险), like a pedestrian (行人) suddenly walking in front of you,” he told the Guardian. “You are not going to be able to respond to that as efficiently, which increases the risk of injury.”

    To bring attention to the dangers of “text walking”, a temporary “texting lane” was set up in Antwerp, Belgium in 2015. And earlier this year, a special crosswalk featuring flashing red lights on the ground to get the attention of texters was set up in Wuhan, Hubei province.

    “Texting while walking can lead to collisions with poles or other pedestrians. You could even be endangering your own life when you cross the street without looking up,” a spokesperson for the company that made the Antwerp texting lane told Yahoo News.

    Tenzing left his home when he was ten to work and help his mother, who was looking after their 2-acre ancestral farm after his father's death. He did temporary jobs for the first few years and then joined a Malaysian construction firm, where he learnt to drive, repair machines, work on the Internet and even speak English fluently.

    “In those 13 years, I learnt everything—driving, mechanic work, and how to set up a small factory. This made me gain much confidence to do almost all jobs,” says Tenzing.

    However, as his mother was getting older, on December 12, 2006, Tenzing returned to his hometown in Assam. Having visited several farms, he came to know that tea could be easily exported and many tea companies were buying tea; so he also decided to grow tea on his farm. But as his family had never grown tea, he had no idea how to do it.

    Being a green hand in this field, Tenzing went to meet with many tea experts and followed their instructions. But whenever he sprayed pesticide (农药)on his farm, he'd get a headache and feel indisposed. So he started looking for alternatives. Tenzing did his research online and finally in 2007, he connected with people from a Canadian non-governmental organization and invited them to his farm, where they trained him. Thus, Tenzing started growing tea organically.

    Today Tenzing has 25 acres of land, of which 7.5 acres is used for tea planting, and he grows almost all types of fruits and vegetables. His success inspired many, and farmers from other parts of the country also started coming to his farm to learn organic farming. He has trained about 30,000 farmers so far. Every year almost 100 tourists visit his farm from various parts of the world like the UK, Australia, Germany, etc.

    Podcasts (播客)

    The B S. Report

    Designed for the sports fan with a sense of humor, the B.S. Report is hosted by the sportswriter Bill Simmons. Simmons show is in very loose and free form and it's not uncommon for him to go almost a whole show without even mentioning sports.

    Wait, Wait…… Don't Tell Me

    One of the most popular Programs on National Public Radio, Wait. Wait... Don't Tell Me is now available as a podcast. The show is a news program in the form of a game show. Each week a group of humorists and writers join host Peter Sagal in Chicago, where they are quizzed on the weeks most important and funny news stories. Listeners also get to call in to play different news-related games for a prize

    The Moth

    The Moth is a weekly podcast run by a nonprofit art organization. The show is made up of recordings of “true stories told before a live audience without notes”. Each week, the group releases short 10-20 minute tales told by people from all walks of life. Past Presenters have included writers, comedians, scientists, and even New York City police officers.

    Film spotting

    Film spotting is a weekly podcast and is a must-listen for any movie fan. The show is focused on movie reviews, but hosts Adam Kempenaar and Matty Robinson do more than just tell their listeners which new movie is worth seeing. They also discuss and examine the film as an art form. The how doesn't just focus on current movies, either, as the hosts frequently discuss old films as part of theme marathons.

    Do you suppose Darwin, one of the greatest scientists of all time, really did foolish experiments? Or did he do experiments that were so simple and basic that other people just thought they were foolish?

    Sometimes, people think they already know the answer to a question or the solution to a problem. Sometimes, they really do know an answer or a solution, but without thinking they are important.

    Charles Darwin didn't settle for(满足于) just thinking he knew something. And, he believed all things could be important however simple they seemed to be.

    Suppose you drop sheets of paper that are of exactly the same size and shape. If you drop them at the same time in the same place, they will fall in the same way. Now make one of the sheets of paper into a tight little ball and let it drop along with the other sheets. What happens? You have done an experiment that is so simple that you might think it couldn't be worth anything.

    But this simple experiment is important. It explains part of our present-day understandings of physics, ideas that were worked out long ago by Galileo and Newton. And these understandings set aside some of ancient Greek physics.

    Scientists sometimes stop to look at very simple things and to think very hard about them. Even the simplest idea, which we might think is foolish, can shake the foundations of science.

    Imagine someone who has spent the majority of their life sitting with a sign on the side of the road and that very person giving someone their last 20 dollars. That's exactly what Marine Corps veteran (退伍军人) Johnny Bobbitt, 34, did in October in Philadelphia.

    Bobbitt served in the U.S. Marine Corps and worked as a paramedic (医务辅助人员) in Vance County, N. C. before he became homeless. Nobody knew how he got to where he was because he was discreet about that.

    One night in October, Bobbitt was sitting roadside with a sign in Philadelphia as usual, when Kate McClure of Florence Township, N. J. was driving home down Interstate 95 and ran out of gas. Scared and nervous, she got out of the car to head to the nearest gas station. As McClure was heading to the nearest gas station, she ran into Bobbitt and he told her to get back in the vehicle and lock the door. Minutes later, he appeared with a red gas can. He'd used his last $20 to buy her gas.

    After that unexpected meeting, McClure and her boyfriend, Mark D'Amico, who both live in New Jersey, visited Bobbitt several times to deliver gift cards, cash, snacks and toiletries. They then decided to create a fund raising page so he wouldn't have to spend the holidays sleeping on the street.

    McClure started the GoFundMe page on November 10. With the page, the couple hoped to raise $10,000, enough money for his rent, a reliable vehicle and up to six months' expenses. Bobbitt's story ran in a local paper. By November 15，more than 10,000 local people had made donations through the GoFundMe page and more than $300,000 had been raised.

    On Thanksgiving, Bobbitt was resting in a hotel, his feet up on the bed, drawing up a grand plan for his new life, thanks to several thousand dollars raised to repay him for a good deed.

Dear editor(编辑),

    Can't your newspaper do something about the custom (习惯) of hitchhiking?

    A short time ago, on a car travel I counted at least 50 people standing beside the road, asking for rides. Many of them were young women.

    Don't they understand how dangerous it is to get into the car driven by a stranger? How much do they know about the driver? Is he a good driver or not? They know nothing!

    Many of these young hitchhikers may come from good families. Don't their parents teach them anything about the world? I always taught my children not to talk to strangers. I never let them take rides from people they didn't know.

    Isn't there enough crime (犯罪) today without asking for trouble by hitchhiking? On the other hand, hitchhiking may bring some traffic trouble. Don't you think what I said is true?

    A Worried Grandfather