Who taught you to speak English? Your parents, while you were a young child? Your teachers at school ? Perhaps even the BBC as a grown-up. Whoever it was, somehow you have developed an understanding of what is rapidly becoming a truly global language.

    There are now about 376 million people who speak English as their first language and about the same number who have learnt it besides their mother tongue. It is said there are one billion people learning English now and about 80% of the information on the Internet is in English.

    Is this a good thing, or a bad thing? Should we celebrate the fact that more and more of us can communicate, using a common language, across countries and cultures? Or should we worry about the dangers of “mono-culturalism", a world in which we all speak the same language, eat the same food and listen to the same music?

    Does it matter if an increasing number of people speak the same language? On the contrary (相反),I would have thought——although I have never accepted the argument that if only we all understood each other better, there would be fewer wars. Ask the people of India (where many of them speak at least some English) and Pakistan (the same situation with India)…

    If we all speak English, will we then all start eating McDonald's burgers? Surely not. If English becomes more dominant (占主导地位的), it will kill other languages? I doubt it. When I travel in Africa or Asia, I am always surprised by how many people can speak not only their own language but also one or more other related languages, as well as English and perhaps some French or German as well.

    When we discussed this on Talking Point a couple of years ago, we received a wonderfully poetic email from a listener in Ireland. "The English language is a beautiful language. Maybe it's like a rose," he said. "But who would ever want their garden just full of roses?"

    Well, I love roses, and I think they make a beautiful addition to any garden. But the way I see it, just by planting a few roses, you don't necessarily need to pull out everything else. If more and more people want to plant English roses, that's fine by me.

    Animals have been used, and sometimes abused(虐待), in movie-making since the early days of the industry. However, the American Humane Association has worked for many years to protect animals in films. And, the digital age might make animal actors unnecessary.

    The new film “Dolphin Tale” tells about a dolphin that loses her tail because of an injury from a crab-trap. A doctor provides her with an artificial tail that saves her life. The film is based on a real event. And the star of the film, Winter, is a real dolphin that lost her tail. The American Humane Society worked with the movie's makers to make sure Winter stayed safe and healthy during filming. The animal protection group does this for all animal actors in America.

    A thick book of rules and guidelines tells Hollywood moviemakers how to treat animals. Karen Rosa leads the American Humane Society's film and television group. He said, “Everything from the smallest insect to the largest mammal shall be protected. We believe that for the sake of entertainment, everybody should go home alive.

    This was not always the policy in the early days of film. In 1939, a horse was forced off a mountain, falling to his death, in the movie “Jesse James.” The next year, guidelines were established to guarantee safe and healthy conditions for animals in movies.

    A new film “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” tells about the creation of super intelligent apes through science. However, no real animals were among the performers. Computer generated imagery provided the chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans that movie goers see. Clare Richardson is the president of the Diane Fossey Gorilla Fund. She says computer generated imagery should decrease the use of animals in the film industry. She praises movie makers for the use of computer-made animals.

    Many people believe high heels(E)make women look good. It seems that the organisers of the Cannes Film Festival reportedly stopped women in low-heeled shoes from walking the red carpet. But all this charm comes at a cost, wearing heels over 10em high can damage your feel.

    A study by Hanseo University in South Korea suggests that continuous wearing makes women run the risk of getting hurt, and makes them easy to lose their balance, A total of 40 women who wear high heels at least three times a week took part in the study, The strength of their feet was measured regularly, researchers found that two of the four main muscles became stronger after a period of between one and three years, This created an imbalance in their feet, Dr Yong Seok Jee from Hanseo University says that the habit of wearing heels can result in feet out of shape, back pain and unhealthy walking patterns He suggests that women limit the use of these kinds of shoes and exercise their foot muscles properly.

    High heels are considered by some people to be female, but in fact the fashion started with men's feet. These shoes were a form of riding footwear, and were seen on the feet of 17th century Persian soldiers, Elizabeth Semmelhack of the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto says: “When the soldier stood up in his stirrups (马镫), the heel helped him keep balance so that he could shoot more effectively.

    Before becoming a main part of modern women's clothing, high heels were used by Louis XIV of France. These shoes were status (身份) symbols Lets face it-nothing shows off status like uncomfortable, expensive and impractical clothing. They say the wearer doesn't have to work in fields or walk very far.

    Never before have Chinese Internet users so openly liked and supported a Japanese athlete as they have loved table tennis star Ai Fukuhara (福原爱), better known by her Japanese nickname “Ai-Chan”.

    But they may now feel heartbroken, as the 29-year-old said on Oct.21 that she would retire (退役) from the sport. I've found the answers within myself that I have been searching for. From the standpoint ( 立场) of an athlete, I'm drawing the line here," Fukuhara wrote on her blog.

    After she started playing table tennis at 3 years old, Fukuhara was seen as a child gifted at the sport. Being trained in China at a very young age, Fukuhara can speak fluent Mandarin, with a northeastern accent.

    If her deep-rooted connection with China is one thing that has won the hearts of Chinese fans, her character is another. She always shows her real self to the public without hiding her feelings. She laughs in games when she wins, and cries when she loses. The fact that she often cries when she gets upset has earned her the nickname “Crybaby Ai-Chan” in China.

    Although she was beaten by a long line of Chinese players, Fukuhara always tries her best when playing her favorite sport. Yet, she also knows that now is the best time to close the curtain on her successful career. It's hard to say goodbye to a long journey but as Fukuhara once said on a reality TV show, “Life is not all about table tennis. Instead, it is just part of life.”

    As for her future plans, Fukuhara wrote that she would like to help more people around the world get to know the beauty of the sport.

    Being able to land safely is a critically important skill for all flying animals. Whereas terrestrial animals face no particular challenge when they need to stop running or crawling, flying animals move at much higher speeds, and they must be careful about how they land. Hitting the ground, or even water, at full flight speed would be quite dangerous. Before touching down, they must decrease their speed in order to land safely. Both bats and birds have mastered the skill of landing, but these two types of flyers go about it quite differently.

    In the past it was believed that, in terms of flying mechanics, there was little difference between bats and birds. This belief was based only on assumption, however, because for years nobody had actually studied in detail how bats move their wings. In recent years, though, researchers have discovered a number of interesting facts about bat flight. Bats are built differently from birds, and their wings incorporate(结合) both their front and hind limbs (后肢). This makes their limbs working together more difficult for bats and, as a result, they are not very good at flying over longer distances. However, a bat can quickly change its direction of flight or completely reverse it, something a bird cannot easily do.

    Another interesting characteristic of bat flight is the way in which bats land—upside down! Unlike birds, which touch down on the ground or on tree branches, bats can be observed flying around and then suddenly hanging upside down from an object overhead. How do they do it? A group of researchers recently used video cameras to film bats landing on nets suspended from the ceiling of their laboratory and studied the recordings in slow motion. They painted spots on the bats' wings to see in detail what happens to the wings in flight and during touchdown. It turns out that the bats flew in a straight line up to the net and then quickly flipped over and attached themselves to it upside down. One disadvantage to this landing routine is that the bats often slam into their landing spot with some force, which probably causes pain. However, not all bats hit their landing spots with the same speed and force; these will vary depending on the area where a bat species makes its home. For example, a cave bat, which regularly rests on a hard stone ceiling, is more careful about its landing preparation than a bat more accustomed to landing in leafy treetops.