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    I read somewhere that we spend a full third of our lives waiting. But where are we doing all of this waiting, and what does it mean to an impatient society like ours? To understand the issue, let's take a look at three types of “waits”.

    The very purest form of waiting is the Watched-Pot Wait. It is without doubt the most annoying of all. Take filling up the kitchen sink(洗碗池) as an example. There is absolutely nothing you can do while this is going on but keep both eyes fixed on the sink until it's full. During these waits, the brain slips away from the body and wanders about until the water runs over the edge of the counter and onto your socks. This kind of wait makes the waiter helpless and mindless.

    A cousin to the Watched-Pot Wait is the Forced Wait. This one requires a bit of discipline. Properly preparing packaged noodle soup requires a Forced Wait. Directions are very specific. “Bring three cups of water to boil, add mix, simmer three minutes, remove from heat, let stand five minutes.”I have my doubts that anyone has actually followed the procedures strictly. After all, Forced Waiting requires patience.

    Perhaps the most powerful type of waiting is the Lucky-Break Wait. This type of wait is unusual in that it is for the most part voluntary. Unlike the Forced Wait, which is also voluntary, waiting for your lucky break does not necessarily mean that it will happen.

    Turning one's life into a waiting game requires faith and hope, and is strictly for the optimists among us. On the surface it seems as ridiculous as following the directions on soup mixes, but the Lucky-Break Wait well serves those who are willing to do it. As long as one doesn't come to rely on it, wishing for a few good things to happen never hurts anybody.

    We certainly do spend a good deal of our time waiting. The next time you're standing at the sink waiting for it to fill while cooking noodle soup that you'll have to eat until a large bag of cash falls out of the sky, don't be desperate. You're probably just as busy as the next guy.

    A man walked into a small Irish pub and ordered three beers. Bartender was surprised, but he served that man three beers. One hour later the man ordered three beers again. The very next day that man ordered three beers again and drank quietly at a table. This repeated several times and shortly after the people of the town were whispering about the man, who was ordering three beers at once.

    A couple of weeks later, the bartender decided to clear this out and inquired: “I do not want to pry, but could you explain, why do you order three beers all the time?” The man replied: “It seems strange, isn't it? You see, my two brothers live abroad at the moment, one – in France and another – in Italy. We have made an agreement, that every time we go to pub each of us will order extra two beers and it will help keeping up the family bond”.

    Soon all the town have heard about the man's answer and liked it a lot. The man became a local celebrity. Residents of the town were telling this story to newcomers or tourists and even invited them to that pub to look at Three Beer Man.

    However, one day the man came to pub and ordered only two beers, not three as usual. The bartender served him with bad feeling. All that evening the man ordered and drank only two beers. The very next day all the town was talking about this news, some people pray for the soul of one of the brothers, others quietly grieve.

    When the man came to pub the next time and ordered two beers again, the bartender asked him: “I would like to offer condolences to you, due to the death of your dear brother”. The man considered this for a moment and then replied: “Oh, you are probably surprised that I order only two beers now? Well, my two brothers are alive and well. It's just because of my decision. I promised myself to give up drinking.”

    Have you ever found yourself in this situation: You hear a song you used to sing when you were a child — a bit of nostalgia (怀旧) or “blast from the past,” as we say. But it is not a distant childhood memory. The words come back to you as clearly as when you sang them all those years ago.

    Researchers at the University of Edinburgh studied the relationship between music and remembering a foreign language. They found that remembering words in a song was the best way to remember even one of the most difficult languages.

    Here is what they did. Researchers took 60 adults and randomly divided them into three groups of 20. Then they gave the groups three different types of “listen-and-repeat” learning conditions. Researchers had one group simply speak the words. They had the second group speak the words to a rhythm, or beat. And they asked the third group to sing the words.

    All three groups studied words from the Hungarian language for 15 minutes. Then they took part in a series of language tests to see what they remembered.

    Why Hungarian, you ask? Researchers said they chose Hungarian because not many people know the language. It does not share any roots with Germanic or Romance languages, such as Italian or Spanish. After the tests were over, the singers came out on top. The people who learned these new Hungarian words by singing them showed a higher overall performance. They did the best in four out of five of the tests. They also performed two times better than those who simply learned the words by speaking them.

    Dr. Katie Overy says singing could lead to new ways to learn a foreign language. The brain likes to remember things when they are contained in a catchy or memorable tune.

    Dr. Ludke said the findings could help those who struggle to learn foreign languages. On the University of Edinburgh's website Dr. Ludke writes, “This study provides the first experimental evidence that a listen-and-repeat singing method can support foreign language learning, and opens the door for future research in this area.”

    Planning a visit to the UK? Here we help with ways to cut your costs.

    AVOID BIG EVENTS     Big sporting events, concerts and exhibitions can increase the cost of accommodation and make it harder to find a room. A standard double room at the Thistle Brighton the final Friday of the Brighton Comedy Festival (19 Oct.) cost ￡169.15 at Booking.com. A week later, the same room cost ￡118.15.

    If you can be flexible and want to know dates to avoid -or you're looking for a big event to pass your time—check out sites such as Whatsonwhen.com, which allow you to search for events in the UK by city, date and category.

    STAY AWAY FROM THE STATION     If traveling to your destination by train, you may want to find a good base close to the station, but you could end up paying more for the sake of convenience at the start of your holiday.

    Don't be too choosy about the part of town you stay in. Booking two months in advance, the cheapest room at Travelodge's Central Euston hotel in London for Saturday 22 September was ￡95.95. A room just a tube journey away at its Covent Garden hotel was ￡75.75.And at Farringdon, a double room cost just ￡f62.95.

    LOOK AFTER YOURSELF     Really central hotels in cities such as London, Edinburgh and Cardiff can cost a fortune, especially at weekends and during big events. As an alternative consider checking into a self-catering flat with its own kitchen. Often these flats are hidden away on the top floors of city centre buildings. A great example is the historic O'Neill Flat on Edinburgh's Royal Mile, available for ￡420 for five days in late September, with room for four adults.

Chinese delivery driver, Gao Zhixiao, was featured on the cover of Time magazine in March because of his sense of commitment. Alongside five others, he was picked by the magazine as one of heroes among the novel coronavirus outbreak.

Ever since COVID-19 broke out, many restaurants shut down or switched to takeout-only services. Millions of people have been staying at home to avoid getting infected. "People choose to order food online or buy fruit and vegetables to cook at home," Gao told Time. As a result, delivery orders dramatically increased, placing a huge burden on delivery company.

Born into a poor family in the Ningxia Hui autonomous region, Gao started to make a living in Beijing at age 16. After the novel coronavirus broke out, Gao hesitated for a second to continue working, but then picked up orders because he thought customers might be in need.

Due to the danger of person-to-person transmission, Gao must take care to avoid spreading viruses during his route around Beijing, including taking a regular health test and spending 20 minutes disinfecting his motorcycle and clothes each morning. Besides delivering goods, Gao once willingly cooked for an elderly customer who was living alone at her home.

It is the commitment of ordinary people like Gao that has made the biggest contributions in the fight against COVID-19.

A good story. That's what influences our choice to buy a book the most. Right? Some of the biggest-selling novels of all time just so happened to be attached to major publishers. Indeed, any reading lover will be familiar with the countless publishing houses that have brought brilliant works to the market. So in theory, perhaps a publisher does matter. 

Every time you read a book that you enjoy, you likely look at the publisher attached to it. That name is a signal that they will produce other content that fits with that same style. It makes a lot of sense to continue to purchase texts from a company that is telling the kinds of stories that you enjoy the most. Consumer habits are thus based on trust that a publisher will be consistent in the books they deliver and that investing time in them is more reliable than an untested source.

The strength of the author themselves can also play into that. After all, well-liked authors are often signed to a book deal with a select few publishers, strengthening the brand further. 

Of course, a publisher would be nothing without its logo, which is a major call-to-arms for all fans of the brand. The top publishers in the world instantly recognizable imagery, which catch the attention while summing up the name of a brand in an instant. That thus builds our association with a given name. The fun penguin shape of Penguin Random House is so iconic, for example, that it could not be confused with any other publishing business.

There might be a place for those indie (独立经营的) book companies, with occasional stories breaking through and forcing people to take notice. In truth that's far less common than you expect. Expert Cassandra Davis, however, provides a hopeful insight. "Indie bookshops are more likely to stock an indie publisher's books, especially if the author is local to the bookshop." She says. Therefore, supporting local bookshops is a vital way to keep the indie industry alive and change these trends.