The popular TV program Readers has prompted more people in China to practice reading aloud in booths(亭) set up in big cities across the country．

    As the latest TV show to help people's love for literature recover, CCTV program Readers invites people from all walks of life to read aloud their favorite poems，essays and books，or even personal letters they wrote to their loved ones．Just as the weekly show has been well-received，its reading booths, equipped with professional recording devices and cameras，have become instant hits．

    A crowd of more than 200 people were pictured lining up outside the Shanghai Library at 11 a.m. on March 4 — the first day of the booth's opening to the public in Shanghai. The deadline for registrations was brought forward to 2 p.m. instead of the scheduled 5:30 p.m., as the number of waiting readers continued to grow. Some waited more than nine hours for a try-out in the booth, according to library management．

     “There is an old photo in the late 1970s capturing people lining up outside the Shanghai Library before it opens. If that was a spring of reading in Shanghai, now I think another spring has arrived again.” library manager Zhou Deming, told the Shanghai-based The Paper．

    The reading booth is the only one of its kind in the city of economic center at the moment, but more are expected to be put into use in the coming months, according to the library's website．

    The Readers program has also led to booths in other cities including Beijing, Hangzhou, Guangzhou and Xi'an to appeal to more people to read and share their life stories．

    With the recent boom of culture-themed TV shows such as Readers and Chinese Poetry Competition，some are optimistic that this will help the country love literature and reading again in general．

    Someone had given our name and phone number to a charity, and its staff were bringing us Christmas presents.

    I made sure the house was as spotless as it could be with four children living in it, as the due time drew near, I sat on the edge of the couch. Each time I heard a car, I jumped up to see if they were here. Each time it wasn't them, I was relieved, yet disappointed.

    Finally a huge car pulled into the driveway, and four people got out. Now I was embarrassed as well as grateful, excited and nervous. I greeted them with a smile. They made several trips and soon my living room was full of boxes and bags.

    I tried to say “thank you” but my throat suddenly closed up and tears welled up in my eyes.

    I watched through the window as they drove away, wondering what they thought of me. I had always donated, but not received. We weren't always like this. My husband had been out of work, and we were struggling. I'd wanted to say this to them, but the words wouldn't come out.

    I quickly put away the gifts before the school-aged children came home. I hid them in closets and under beds as quickly as I could. On Christmas morning I felt a little guilty as our four children tore open the boxes and bags with pleasure, thinking they were from us.

    My nine-year-old son opened a game box and taped inside the lid was an envelope. I opened it and read aloud: May the joy of Christmas be with you all through the year. At the bottom of the card, written in small, neat letters was a sentence, it said: Although the sea gets rough, no storm lasts forever.

    I was suddenly ashamed of being ashamed. I finally understood.

C

Plastic-Eating Worms

    Humans produce more than 300 million tons of plastic every year. Almost half of that winds up in landfills(垃圾填埋场), and up to 12 million tons pollute the oceans. So far there is no effective way to get rid of it, but a new study suggests an answer may lie in the stomachs of some hungry worms.

    Researchers in Spain and England recently found that the worms of the greater wax moth can break down polyethylene, which accounts for 40% of plastics. The team left 100 wax worms on a commercial polyethylene shopping bag for 12 hours, and the worms consumed and broke down about 92 milligrams, or almost 3% of it. To confirm that the worms' chewing alone was not responsible for the polyethylene breakdown, the researchers made some worms into paste(糊状物) and applied it to plastic films. 14 hours later the films had lost 13% of their mass — apparently broken down by enzymes (酶) from the worms' stomachs. Their findings were published in Current Biology in 2017.

    Federica Bertocchini, co-author of the study, says the worms' ability to break down their everyday food — beeswax — also allows them to break down plastic. ＂Wax is a complex mixture, but the basic bond in polyethylene, the carbon-carbon bond, is there as well, ＂she explains, ＂The wax worm evolved a method or system to break this bond. ＂

    Jennifer DeBruyn, a microbiologist at the University of Tennessee, who was not involved in the study, says it is not surprising that such worms can break down polyethylene. But compared with previous studies, she finds the speed of breaking down in this one exciting. The next step, DeBruyn says, will be to identify the cause of the breakdown. Is it an enzyme produced by the worm itself or by its gut microbes(肠道微生物)?

    Bertocchini agrees and hopes her team's findings might one day help employ the enzyme to break down plastics in landfills. But she expects using the chemical in some kind of industrial process — not simply ＂millions of worms thrown on top of the plastic.＂

    Everyone should choose the right hair dryer for fine hair, because an unsuitable hair dryer can damage our hair. You can buy hair dryers from a recognized discount store or from online discount stores. If not, it is always better to buy it from a reliable and well-known beauty store in your area. Here are some of the top products.

    Conair iSeries Infiniti Hair Dryer

    It is designed with the technology which is quite useful for less curly and more manageable hair. Some other features of this hair dryer include 3 heat and 2 speed settings, a foldable handle and removable filter(过滤器). It also comes with 2 years' guarantee. The average cost of it is around $38.

    Click here for more information.

    Sedu Revolution Pro 6000i Dryer

    This is the latest model of dryers from Sedu, and comes with powerful air flow.

    It is one of the most popular professional dryers in the market. It comes with 6 heat settings, a long-lasting AC motor and the instant cold shot button. This dryer has 2 years' guarantee and is available at $160.

    Click here for more information.

    CHI Nano Dual Air Flow Hair Dryer

    It is lightweight hair dryer that comes with infrared(红外线的)technology indicator lights and a noise-free speed motor. This hair dryer also comes with a year's guarantee. The average cost of it is around $255.

    Click here for more information.

    BabylissPro Carrera 2 Hair Dryer

    If you want a hair dryer which helps achieve smooth and curly-free hair, then BabylissPro Carrera 2 Hair Dryer is a good choice. It has compact(简洁的)design and various powerful styling features. This dryer is available at $100.

    Click here for more information.

    To protect your hair, remove the excess (过多的)water with a towel before using the dryer. Work on the lowest setting, as more heat can cause damage to the hair. Whenever drying your hair, you should keep moving the hair dryer.

    Mark Elliot Zuckerberg was born on May the 14th, 1984. He is the creator of the social media site Facebook. He was a star student at school, winning prizes in astronomy, maths and physics. He was also good at Classical studies. He studied Psychology and Computer Science at Harvard University, which is where he created Facebook. His invention led to his becoming Time magazine's Person Of the Year for 2010.

    Zuckerberg excelled in everything he did in his youth. He was captain of the school fencing team, spoke many languages and was a highly skilled computer programmer. While other kids played computer games, he designed them. He created his first network while in high school to connect all of the computers - in his father's dental surgery. He also built a media player which attracted the interest of Microsoft and AOL.

    Zuckerberg started at Harvard in September 2002. In his first year, he created Facemash, a Facebook predecessor (前身), which let students select the college's best looking people from a selection of photos.

    He launched Facebook from his Harvard room in February 2004. It was the start of a rollercoaster ride that would connect half a billion people worldwide and make him the world's youngest billionaire.

    Mark Zuckerberg is now one of the most influential people on the planet. He has dined with the president of the USA and regularly attends global economic summits and technology conferences. He stated: "The thing I really care about is the mission, making the world open." In 2010, Zuckerberg signed a promise, in which he promised to donate at least half of his life wealth to charity.

    Most Americans see their pets as family members, surveys show. Those with dogs are more likely to call themselves pet "parents" than pet "owners". There are more of these parents than ever. In big cities such as San Francisco and Seattle,(owned) dogs outnumber children.

    The ways in which companies are profiting from the trend are also becoming various. Kinds of dog food and various pet mattresses (垫子) are always in hot sale. And it is not surprising that, for pets, Americans spent more than $400 million only on Halloween costumes this year. Overall, annual spending on pet food and products in America has risen by around 40% over the past ten years.

    Now a pack of startups have sensed a fresh opportunity.

    Much as Airbnb has offered travelers another choice instead of staying in a hotel, two firms, Recover and DogVacay, want to give pet owners an alternative to kennels (养狗场) when away from home. The cost is around $30 a night, with the majority of that going to the sitter, who takes care of the dog, and around a fifth to the company﹣much less than you would spend to check your dog into a kennel.

    The other big sellingpoint is that pets will receive better treatment. There are ways, apparently, to vet (审查) dog hosts to the real pet lovers: only around 15% of those who apply to serve as sitters are passed. Besides offering more attention and room, Rover has launched a feature that helps customers to see how far their dog has been walked via the GPS in the host's phone. Like Airbnb, both DogVacay and Recover insure stays against accidents.

    Another advantage of the model is that consumers often use dog-sitting services many times a year, and they tend to be loyal. That has helped DogVacay and Recover attract a lot of money﹣around $140 million between them.

    But firms that connect pets with hosts will face great competition as they try to go global. Companies offering homestays for dog rapidly appear in many different countries, including Australia, Brazil and Britain. And unlike Airbnb, which pulls in customers thanks to its presence in lots of markets that people want to travel to, the network effect for services like DogVacay is local.

    Despite having predicted the trend early, such firms may never achieve the same scale as an Airbnb. But then no one ever said it was easy to be top dog.