It is hardly surprising that clothing manufacturers (生产商) follow certain uniform standards for various features (特征) of clothes. What seems strange, however, is that the standard adopted for women is the opposite of the one for men. Take a look at the way your clothes button. Men's clothes tend to button from the right, and women's from the left. Considering most of the world's population—men and women—are right-handed, the men's standard would appear to make more sense for women. So why do women's clothes button from the left?

    History really seems to matter here. Buttons first appeared only on the clothes of the rich in the 17th century, when rich women were dressed by servants. For the mostly right-handed servants, having women's shirts button from the left would be easier. On the other hand, having men's shirts button from the right made sense, too. Most men dressed themselves, and a sword drawn from the left with the right hand would be less likely to get caught in the shirt.

    Today women are seldom dressed by servants, but buttoning from the left is still the standard f0r them. Is it interesting? Actually, a standard, once set, resists change. At a time when all Women's shirts buttoned from the left, it would have been risky for any single manufacturer to offer women's shirts that buttoned from the right. After all, women had grown so used to shirts which buttoned from the left and would have to develop new habits and skills to switch. Besides, some women might have found it socially awkward to appear in public wearing shirts that buttoned from the right, since anyone who noticed that would believe they were wearing men's shirts.

My Favourite Travel Books

    The Old Patagonian Express by Paul Theroux

    Choosing my favorite Paul Theroux book is like picking my favorite place in the world: It's impossible to settle on just one. But The Old Patagonian Express, which is about a train journey Theroux made from Boston, USA to southern Argentina, is right up there at the top of my list. Theroux has a wicked sense of humor. He brings so much wisdom and experience to his travels.

    Walden by Henry David Thoreau

    If he were alive today, Thoreau would probably frown if he heard someone refer to Walden as a travel book. But I regard it as a travel-writing masterpiece. I went into the woods, he writes, because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. That's the same spirit of discovery that defines so many great contemporary travel records.

    The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac

    Like so many people, I fell in love with Kerouac's novels in my late teens and early 20s. On the Road gets all the press, but I always love The Dharma Bums. Kerouac beautifully captures the romance of California trains, Berkeley, and backpacking in the Sierras. It's hard to read this book without wanting to leave for the mountains to brainstorm bad haikus on the trail and cook canned macaroni and cheese over a crackling campfire.

    Confucius Lives Next Door by T. R. Reid

    This is sort of A Year in Provence in Japan, only the cross-cultural differences are much greater. Reid and his family moved to Tokyo when he became the chief for The Washington Post, enabling him to uncover truths about the country. Among the highlights are his observations about Japanese schools, including Yodobashi No. 6 Elementary School, where his daughters were greeted by the whole school staff.

    Water is very important to living things. Without water there can be no life on the earth. All animals and plants need water. Man also needs water. We need water to drink, to cook our food and to clean ourselves. Water is needed in offices, factories and schools. Water is needed everywhere.

    There is water in seas, rivers and lakes. Water is found almost everywhere. Even in the desert part of the world, there is some water in the air. You can't see or feel it when it is a part of the air. The water in the seas, rivers and lakes is a liquid, the water in the air is a gas, and we call it water vapor (蒸汽).

    Clouds are made of water. They may be made of very small drops of water. They may also be made of snow crystals(结晶体). Snow crystals are very small crystals of ice. Ice is frozen water. It is a solid. There can be snow and ice everywhere in winter.

    Water may be a solid or a liquid or a gas. When it is a solid, it may be as hard as a stone. When it is a liquid, you can drink it. When it is a gas, you can not see or feel it.

    Bees in a colony work with each other to gather food, and they try to find the most nectar (花蜜)in the least amount of time possible. A small number of bees work as searchers, but when a good flower patch (花丛) is found, how do they tell other bees where to find it?

    Bees communicate flower location using special dances inside the hive, where bees live. One bee dances while the other bees watch. The dancing bee smells like the flower patch, and also gives the watching bees a taste of the nectar she has gathered. Smell and taste helps other bees find the correct flower patch. Bees use two different kinds of dances to communicate information: the waggle (摇摆) dance and the circle dance.

    Waggle dance

    The waggle dance tells the watching bees two things about a flower patch's location: the distance and the direction away from the hive.

A. Distance

    The dancing bee waggles back and forth as she moves forward in a straight line, then circlesaround to repeat the dance. The length of the middle line, called the waggle run, shows roughly how far it is to the flower patch.

B. Direction

    Bees know which way is up and which way is down inside their hive, and they use this to show direction. How? Bees dance with the waggle run at a specific angle away from straight up. Outside the hive, bees look at the position of the sun, and fly at the same angle away from the sun.

    Circle dance

    The circle dance tells the watching bees only one thing about the flower patch's location: that it is somewhere close to the hive.

    In this dance, the bee walks in a circle, turns around, then walks the same circle in the opposite direction. Sometimes, the bee includes a little waggle as she's turning around. The duration of this waggle is thought to indicate the quality of the flower patch.

    It was New Year's Night. An aged man was standing at a window. He raised his mournful (悲哀的) eyes towards the deep blue sky, where the stars were floating like white lilies (百合花) on the surface of a clear calm lake. He had already passed sixty and brought from his journey nothing but errors (错误) and regrets. Now his health was poor, his mind vacant and his heart sorrowful (悲伤的).

    The days of his youth appeared like dreams before him, and he recalled the serious moment when his father placed him at the entrance of the two roads—one leading to a peaceful, sunny place, covered with flowers, fruits and filled with soft, sweet songs; the other leading to a deep, dark cave, which was endless, where poison flowed instead of water and devils and poisonous snake hissed (发撕嘶声) and crawled (爬行).

    He saw the lights flowing away in the darkness. These were the days of his wasted life; he saw a star fall from the sky and disappeared, and this was the symbol (象征) of himself. His regret like a sharp arrow (箭) struck deeply into his heart. Then he remembered his friends in his childhood. But they had made their way to success and were now honoured and happy on this night.

    The high church clock struck and the sound made him remember his parents' early love for him. They had taught him and prayed for his good. But he chose the wrong way. With shame and grief he dared no longer look towards that heaven. His darkened eyes were full of tears, and with a despairing (绝望的) effort, he burst out a cry: "Come back, my early days!"

    His youth did return, for all this was only a dream which he had on New Year Night. He was still young though his faults were real; he had not yet entered the deep, dark cave, and he was still free to walk on the road which leads to the peaceful and sunny land.

    Those who still wander (徘徊) on the entrance of life, hesitating (犹豫) to choose the bright road, remember that when years are passed and your feet stumble (绊脚) on the dark mountains, you will cry bitterly, but in vain (徒劳): "Oh youth, return! Oh give me back my early days!"

    With more and more people swimming at beaches every year, the problem of sharks (鲨鱼) takes on new importance. There are people who still insist that sharks never attack human beings unless they are bleeding or wounded, but this belief has not been clearly proved. In the past few years, on both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, there have been cases of shark attacks which resulted in death. And just how many of the swimmers who have disappeared were victims of shark attacks will never be known. Clearly, these violent fish can be dangerous. Several species are known to attack human beings, and it is believed by some experts that certain sharks, once having tasted human blood, develop a taste for it.

    The chances that one will come across a shark are small, but certain precautions should be taken by everyone. (A precaution is something you do in order to prevent something dangerous or unpleasant from happening.) Putting hands or legs over the side of a boat in warm waters is to be avoided. Swimming far out from beaches is inviting trouble. No swimmer should go great distances from shore alone, or go into the water when nobody else is about. Skin divers, particularly those who go deep down in the water or among rocks and ledges (暗礁) that serve as hiding places for sharks, are taking unnecessary risks.

    If one is in a boat that is rubbed against by a shark, he should remember the creature is not trying to upset his boat; it is probably trying to rub off sea lice (海虱). A blow, especially on the nose, will drive it off. If a swimmer comes across a shark, he should swim away as quietly as possible, trying to avoid making it angry. He should also head for shore (岸) as quickly as possible.