Nowadays it is common that people are buying more products and services than ever before through the Internet, so do Americans. And experts say the popularity of online sales is likely to spread to other countries. Online sales now represent as much as 10% of all retail sales in the United States. This has led traditional stores to seek new ways to keep their customers loyal.

Taking Lynne for example, she made good use of the Internet. She used the Internet to buy everything she needed for her Wedding and holiday gifts for her husband and daughter. Other than food, 90% of her purchases were made on her home computer. "I find that, by being able to go online, choose the things that I need, and have them delivered to me right at my doorstep, I eliminate all the driving, all the crowds, all the noise of that, and I usually get a better selection."

    There are a lot of people like her. Experts say American online shopping hit records in both November and December.57% of Americans have bought something electronically. Store owners worry that this growing amount of online sales will hurt their business. Cornell University marketing professor Ed Melaughlin says they can keep their customers by selling goods like clothing, which buyers may want to see and try on before purchasing. The stores could also offer things that are difficult to ship. Besides, some stores can please customers by offering to repair electronic products.

Bill Martin is the founder of Shopper Trak. His business helps stores learn about their customers. He said, "There is still a lot of emotion in the buying decision, you know, that takes place. Often you need that last sense of "Boy, this is exactly what I want before you are ready to part with money, and you can't always get that online. It's a rather cold process."

    While e-commerce worries some business owners, the only worry for delivery services is keeping up with the number of packages. UPS manager Dana Kline says her company is very busy at this time of the year.

    UPS is so busy that it has filled 55,000 temporary work positions during the holiday season.

    Are you looking for some new and exciting places to take your kids to? Try some of these  places:

    Head to a natural history museum. This is where kids can discover the past from Dinosaur (恐龙) models to rock collections and pictures of stars in the sky. Also, ask what kind of workshops and educational programs are prepared for kids and any special events that are coming up.

    Go to a Youtheater. Look for one in your area offering plays for child and family visitors. Pre-show play shops are conducted by area artists and educators where kids can discover the secret about performing arts. Puppet (木偶) making and stage make-up are just a couple of the special offerings you might find.

    Visit art museums. They offer all kinds of activities to excite your kids' interest. Many offer workshops for making hand-made pieces, traveling exhibits, book signings( 签名) by children's favorite writers, and even musical performances and other arts.

    Try hands-on science. Visit one of the many hands-on science museums around the country. These science play-lands are great fun for kids and grown-ups alike. They'll keep your child mentally and physically active the whole day through while pushing buttons, experimenting, and building. When everyone is tired, enjoy a fun family science show, commonly found in these museums.

    You want to run across the street to catch the bus which is leaving soon? But wait! You'd better not. If a policeman sees you, you'll have to pay a fine. New traffic laws say that if people cross the street when the light is red, they can be fined as much as 50 yuan.

    Traffic accidents killed more than 100,000 people in China one year. Chinese cities have more cars than ever. Drivers and pedestrians must work together to make the streets safer.

    The law has new rules for drivers and pedestrians. Drivers have to slow down when they are close to crosswalks. If people are in a crosswalk, cars must stop to let them pass. There are rules for bus drivers, too. If bus drivers, smoke, drink or make phone calls while driving, they can be fined. Buses that carry too many people are also against the law.

    Pedestrians will have to walk more safely under the new law. They must cross streets at crosswalks. Also, they shouldn't climb over the fences (栅栏) along streets.

    Do you bike to school? It's not a good idea to carry classmates on the back. You could be fined 50 yuan. And stay in the bike lane (车道), when you' re riding. The big roads are for cars and buses.

    Do you like to ride your uncle's motorbike? When you put on your helmet (头盔), ask him to put one on, too. People on motorbikes must wear helmets, the new law says. If they don't, they'll have to pay 200 yuan.

    Do you ride in cars often? Don't forget to put on your seat belt (安全带), even if you're going for a short taxi ride. It could save your life.

    If you see a hit-and-run(肇事逃逸), tell the police. They may give you a reward (奖赏).And don't be afraid to help people to the hospital if they are hurt in an accident. Don't worry about money. The new law says that doctors must take care of them even if they can't pay right away.

    From now, if all goes well, a high-tech spacecraft will land in the South Pole of the moon. There, it will drill 66 feet down into the surface(表面) and collect samples of the mantle(地幔样本) to bring back to the earth.

    But before it leaves, it will have a two-part time capsule(时光胶囊): a public part, full of the Earth's history, and a private part, full of digital(数码的) memory boxes created by individuals(个人). These memory boxes can hold digital files — records of family trees, videos or actual DNA in the form of human hair. Not everyone can have a digital memory box, though. The boxes are only delivered for the people who donate the money to the project.

    The project, called Lunar Mission One, has already raised more than half of its ￡600,000 goal since its launch(启动) just a few days ago. The founders thought that it would succeed because of the attraction of both exploring the moon surface and leaving a time capsule behind. The mission was a technical action, but it was also an emotional one, bringing the excitement of knowing that something humans built on the Earth reached somewhere else in space.

    Still, it does seem risky(冒险的) for a person to donate￡60 to keep a digital memory box for a project that won't come true until 2024. What if the project never takes off? What if the technology isn't good enough? What if those digital memory boxes break on the moon's surface? And how will anybody ever even know if that happens? Ian Crawford, a professor at Birkbeck College in London and scientific advisor to the mission, says it is not necessary to worry about these. The plan to leave a time capsule on the moon isn't really about physically leaving something on the moon — it's more an opportunity to encourage people's interest in space.

Life in the Clear

    Transparent animals let light pass through their bodies the same way light passes through a window. These animals typically live between the surface of the ocean and a depth of about 3,300 feet — as far as most light can reach. Most of them are extremely delicate and can be damaged by a simple touch. Sonke Johnsen, a scientist in biology, says, "These animals live through their life alone. They never touch anything unless they're eating it, or unless something is eating them."

    And they are as clear as glass. How does an animal become see­through? It's trickier than you might think.

    The objects around you are visible because they interact with light.  Light typically travels in a straight line. But some materials slow and scatter (散射) light, bouncing it away from its original path. Others absorb light, stopping it dead in its tracks.  Both scattering and absorption make an object look different from other objects around it, so you can see it easily.

    But a transparent object doesn't absorb or scatter light, at least not very much. Light can pass through it without bending or stopping. That means a transparent object doesn't look very different from the surrounding air or water. You don't see it — you see the things behind it.

    To become transparent, an animal needs to keep its body from absorbing or scattering light. Living materials can stop light because they contain pigments (色素) that absorb specific colors of light. But a transparent animal doesn't have pigments, so its tissues won't absorb light. According to Johnsen, avoiding absorption is actually easy. The real challenge is preventing light from scattering.

    Animals are built of many different materials — skin, fat, and more — and light moves through each at a different speed. Every time light moves into a material with a new speed, it bends and scatters. Transparent animals use different tricks to fight scattering. Some animals are simply very small or extremely flat.  Without much tissue to scatter light, it is easier to be see­through. Others build a large, clear mass of non­living jelly­lie (果冻状的) material and spread themselves over it.

    Larger transparent animals have the biggest challenge, because they have to make all the different tissues in their bodies slow down light exactly as much as water does. They need to look uniform. But how they're doing it is still unknown. One thing is clear for these larger animals, staying transparent is an active process.  When they die, they turn a non­transparent milky white.

Grandma celebrated her fifty-third birthday just weeks before grandpa died of cancer in 1965. Although his passing was very difficult for her, I think their shared struggle to make his life longer taught grandma that good health was not to be taken for granted, and she made up her mind to live her rest of her own life as fully and as long as she could. One day, when she announced to attend lessons at the Fred Astaire Dance Studio in Portland, Oregon, where she lived, we rolled our eyes in embarrassment and helplessly wished she would just stay home and bake cookies as normal grandmothers did. Many years filled with countless dance lessons passed before we learned to appreciate the wonder of having a dancing grandma.

I suppose grandma's primary motivation for wanting to learn to dance was social. She had been a shy girl, always very tall and heavy, and had married into grandpa's quiet lifestyle before developing any elegance or confidence in her personal appearance. Dancing, on the other hand, filled her life with flash lights, wonderful parties, beautiful dresses, handsome young dance instructors, and the challenge of learning. Although the weekly dance lessons did not change her ample, two-hundred-pound figure, grandma surprised everyone with energetic performances on the dance floor, which soon gave her as much elegance and confidence as any Miss American competitor.

Having taken weekly dance lessons for years, my grandma learned various dances easily and was soon participating in dancing matches all over the Northwest. When I was fourteen, grandma proudly invited me to watch her compete in one of these matches to be held in the grand ballroom of the Red Lion Inn. My attitude was still unenthusiastic at that point, but to make her happy, my mother and I attended the match. As if to prove me wrong, grandma made a wonderful showing in every event she entered. I thought she was truly the queen of the ball during the dance, and my thoughts were shared by the judges a short time later when she was awarded a gold cup for her outstanding performance.