What is it that makes people laugh? More than two thousand years ago the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle defined (定义) jokes as the pleasure that results from a feeling of triumph(胜利) by showing we're better than someone else in a certain way. According to Aristotle and many other philosophers，all jokes depend mainly on showing inferiority in another person or group of persons—that is，putting it clearly，on showing that they are worse off than ourselves. Jokes raise our good opinion of ourselves at someone else's expense.

Showing how much better than other people we are is only one reason we like jokes. Someone may also use a joke to express their anger or their cruelty or any other kind of action that is not acceptable to us. We feel free to laugh when we hear about someone sliding on a banana skin. The joke lets us express those attitudes which are usually unacceptable to society. This is probably the reason why some of the jokes，especially those involving cruelty，are so popular with certain people.

    Besides，all jokes depend on our enjoyment of laughing at something that is strange and out of place because it's different from things which are happening around it. The same situation can be either sad or pleasant，depending entirely on how strange and out of place it is. If a girl in a bathing suit falls into a swimming pool，we don't laugh because nothing unusual has happened. But if a man in a smart suit falls in，the situation is at once unusual in a pleasant way and we laugh. A good joke-teller will always try to build up a situation in which one thing is expected until something unexpected suddenly happens，and so we laugh.

    The Independent Project at the Monument Mountain Regional High School in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, is attracting huge interest in the education field. The program is a new concept that has developed a wide variety of students' abilities and excited their interest in education and self-directed learning. They are a group of students that, instead of being educated through the normal school courses, have created their own subjects and project-based interactive learning.

    The students are almost completely independent. They choose a goal that they want to accomplish and work on for the whole year. These goals have included some impressive attempts such as writing a novel, writing a play, learning the piano and more. Along with these larger attempts, the students meet every day to ask questions about other subjects like natural sciences, social sciences, etc. Although most of them say that they don't like math, they did eventually develop an interest in math through this independent learning technique.

    The education program, which has attracted a huge variety of students, allows the students to learn and develop research skills and questioning techniques and allows them to truly be interested in the subjects they are diving into. They also teach each other what they have learned, which allows them to develop different way of presenting and gathering material that they have researched.

    I wish that I could have participated in such a project during my high school career, like writing a novel. I am currently studying English as well as education to pursue a teaching degree. I would love to adapt independent driven projects into a classroom in the future.

    This project also raises some crucial questions. Do we need to rethink the structure of the education system itself? Are too many students being simply fed through a conveyor belt(传送带) that we blindly see as working toward their education? I think that the education system needs some improvements, and different learning styles need to be addressed immediately.

    Individual differences in learning are huge keys to the functioning of a classroom. This project takes the idea to a whole new level. This is an extremely important event in the development of the American education system and I think everyone needs to keep an eye out for more programs like this.

    For thousands of years, people thought of glass as something beautiful to look at. Only in large glass windows. Glass bottles and jars that hold food and drink allow us to see the contents. Glass is used to make eyeglasses, microscopes, telescopes, and many other extremely useful and necessary things.

    Until the Second World War, most of the glass used for optical (光学的) instruments was imported from Europe. However, during the war Americans could not get European glass, and they were forced to make their own. Therefore, new kinds of glass were developed that had been previously unknown. These new effects were achieved by mixing other chemical elements with the sand. Some of the new glass is very strong and can resist many kinds of shocks. Legend (传说) has it that a kind of very hard glass was invented by a Roman who showed his discovery to the Emperor. When the Emperor saw the glass he feared that it would become more valuable than gold and sliver, making his treasure worthless. Therefore, he had the glass-maker killed, and the secret was not discovered again for hundreds of years.

    In the present century, safety glass was invented for use in modem cars and planes. Safety glass is made by placing a layer of plastic between two layers of plate glass. When the outside layer of glass is broken, the pieces do not scatter (散开) and injure people. Some glass of the type is strong enough to resist bullets (子弹).

    Although nowadays plastics have replaced glass under conditions where glass might be easily broken, there are new uses being developed, for the greatest advantage of glass is that its component (组成的) parts are inexpensive and can be found all over the world.

    From childhood, Moira loved to write. Throughout school she enjoyed writing, but pursuing it professionally was never a possibility. Her father was a doctor, her mother a nurse. “Medicine was a fairly safe choice,” Moira says, “and writing was a career where it wasn't a certainty that you'd have high income.”

    She became a doctor but still wanted to write something. However, being a doctor was so demanding that she didn't take up writing until her thirties. She produced a novel—a fictionalized version of her travel in China after university. She got excellent reviews. Moira sent it off to as many agents as she could find, and found one who wanted to represent her. Suddenly, it seemed she was on her way as an author.

    “I had one lengthy phone call with the agent where we went through all possible areas that she thought needed polishing. I worked on those and sent it back to her but didn't hear anything.” It wasn't long before Moira found another agent who was interested if she was willing to rewrite it from the first person to the third person. She did the hard work and sent it off again. “I got back a really brief letter: 'Thank you, I'm no longer interested.' It was really disappointing.”

    A decade went by, and Moira found herself eager to write again, this time purely for her own enjoyment. She set herself the challenge of creating a thriller and chose Western Australia as her setting.

    As she was writing just for herself, something surprising began to happen. “The characters took on a life of their own; they started doing things I hadn't thought about. It just flew.” One day, an agent called from Australia. Three weeks later, Moira had a publication deal. Her novel, Cicada, was published in March.

    “Even if it hadn't been published I still gained so much from the process,” says Moira.

    The cost of living in countries like the U.S., Britain, Australia or France has skyrocketed (飞涨) in recent years. However, if you are willing to leave your country and explore life in other areas, there are many countries boasting an extremely cheap and low cost of living. Check out the following countries when planning your next move.

    Ecuador

    Ecuador is similar to the United States in many ways, and as a result has become a popular American getaway. They even use the U.S. dollar for their currency. In this country, it is cheaper to eat out every day than cook for yourself on a budget in the U.S. You can even buy a property for around $50,000 and hire someone to tend to it while you are away.

    Mexico

    Although the country is known for its poverty-ridden streets, there are many wealthier areas that provide every facility you might need. You can live off a mere $700 to $800 a month in Mexico, and this includes rent for a nice place, facilities, food, and any sightseeing.

    Argentina

    Argentina has been a popular tourist destination for many years. It has great restaurants, a rich history, and many places to explore. Not to mention, it is not very expensive to live there. A decent sized home can cost around $139,000, which is relatively cheap in relation to homes in the United States.

    Vietnam

    Vietnam has also become a popular tourist destination in recent years. There are many million dollar luxury homes by the beach, but you can find a modest flat or small home for around $25,000 to $50,000 if you search in the right areas.

After nearly two months of relative silence among new waves ofCOVID-19 pandemic infection in Japan, organizers of Tokyo Olympics on Wednesday released the first of playbooks that will instruct athletes, officials and members of the news media on the procedures they must follow at the rescheduled Games.

Already delayed by a year, the opening ceremony is now a little more than 120 days away. Organizers must find a way to accommodate and ensure the safety of more than 10,000 athletes who view this summer as the result of years of sacrifice and training.

For now, the best that organizers could offer were the outlines of a plan. Athletes and other attendees will not be required to be vaccinated (接种疫苗) or to quarantine (隔离) on arrival in Japan, but they will be subject to severe restrictions on movement and socializing. All athletes will be required to test negative for COVID-19 within 72 hours of their departure for Japan and give in to another test on arrival.

The organizers said the documents were not an end. They would wait until spring to decide if audiences will be permitted to travel to Tokyo. If fans are eventually allowed to attend, the documents suggest they be asked to express support for athletes only in the form of clapping, rather than singing or chanting. To track outbreaks, visitors from abroad will have to file a list of everyone they have close contact with during that initial 14-day period.

Olympic officials see some reason for optimism. In many parts of the world, professional sporting events have been held for months, though often with very few or no spectators at all, and nothing as large as the Summer Games.