In the latest beauty craze(狂热)sweeping social media in China，women--and even some men--are boasting that they are paper thin，by posting photographs of their waists behind a vertical(垂直)piece of A4 paper．To qualify，the waist must be entirely hidden by the paper．A piece of A4 paper is 8.3 by ll.7 inches，roughly the size of a sheet of American letter paper．

    With the A4 Waist，the trend is attracting hundreds of photographs and thousands of comments on Weibo and other social media networks like Weixin or WeChat．Being abnormally thin is a widespread standard of beauty for women，one that has been criticized as an unhealthy ideal of female attractiveness．

    The tiny waist has a long tradition in China，going back at least to King Ling of Chu，who ruled from 540 to 529 B．C．Many in China know the passage from the Book of Han，the history of the Western Han Dynasty：“The King of Chu loved a narrow waist．Many people at court starved to death．

    Several commentators have found the A4 trend disturbing．In a telephone interview，He Xiaobin，senior fashion features editor at the Chinese edition of GQ magazine，said，“I find it completely stupid．Everybody has a different frame and body shape．Using a single size to define all human beings and thinking you have created a new standard is foolish．''The A4 waist challenge annoyed him，saying that it allows certain people to gain bragging rights，while leaving others in depression．

    Luckily，some who do not qualify are turning to humor for comfort．Can they substitute a different paper size，such as A3，which is 11.7 inches across Or measure a body part besides the waist?

    On Sept. 15, TripAdvisor, one of the world's largest travel review websites, named the world's top 25 museums in its Travelers' Choice Award according to the reviews and opinions of travelers worldwide. Now let's take a look at the top four museums which are ranked as follows by the popularity around the world.

    Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City

    It is the largest museum in the Western Hemisphere, with a collection of 2 million items from more than 5,000 years of world culture. The iconic museum includes important collections from ancient Egypt and medieval Europe as well as ancient Greece and Rome. Here, visitors can get lost in different centuries: They can see the Temple of Dendur from early Egypt, Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh's Wheatfield With Cypresses an US pop Andy Warhol's Souper Dress, all in one place.

    Muse d'Orsay, Paris

    Located in the center of Paris on the bank of the River Seine, the Musee d'Orsay houses the world's most amazing collections of impressionist and post-impressionist art. It offers the chance to view major works from greats like Van Gogh and Claude Monet. The museum is famous for being home to Starry Night over the Rhone, an oil painting by Van Gogh that is often praised along with his masterpiece Starry Night.

    Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois

    It was named the world's best museum in 2014. The world-famous Windy City museum houses nearly 300,000 works, including one of the largest collections of modern art, including pieces such as Spanish painter Pablo Picasso's The Old Guitarist, US artist Georgia O'Keeffe's Black Cross and French artist Henri Matisse's Bathers by a River. A TripAdvisor reviewer commented, “No matter how many times I visit, it never gets old. Paintings from every era, works from every great artist.”

    Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid

    Nowhere is able to present the entire history of Spanish art like the Museo Nacional del Prado.

    Here, visitors can enjoy a detailed view of the Spanish school of the Modem Age. Outstanding masterpieces by artists such as Diego Velazquez, Francisco Goya and Joaquiin Sorolla make up an internationally-famous collection. The Italian school is another highlight of the museum's collection, as it includes the 15^th century masterpieces such as The Annunciation by Fra Angelico, The Death of the Virgin by Andrea Mantegna and The Dead Christ Supported by Angels by Antonello da Messina.

    Almost every night for more than 10 years, Kirk Alexander, 48, ordered a late dinner from his local restaurant Domino's Pizza. But for the past two weeks, he hasn't called for even once.

    “A few of my staff mentioned that we hadn't seen his order in a while. Then I found that it had been 12 days since he last ordered, which is not like him,” Domino's general manager Sarah Fuller said, feeling she could no longer ignore Kirk's recent absence.

    Sarah has known Kirk since 2009, when she started working at the Domino's Pizza as a deliver driver and often made the short trip to Kirk's home about six minutes away. She knew Kirk worked from home, and neighbors said he seldom left. She also knew that he had some health problems in the past. Something, Sarah worried, was wrong.

    Around 1 a.m. on May 8, Sarah sent delivery driver Sean Hamblen to visit Kirk's home. Sean arrived at Kirk's home and knocked on the front door several times. There was no answer. He later noticed that the lights and the TV in the home were on. When he called Kirk's phone, it went straight to voice mail.

    Sean drove back to the restaurant to tell Sarah and they decided to call 911. Soon, officers arrived at Kirk's home. So did Sarah and Sean. They heard a man calling for help from inside. Officers broke down the door and found Kirk on the floor in need of medical attention at once after suffering from a heart attack. One day later, they might have been too late.

    So is keeping an eye on regular customers part of Domino's business plan? Not really. “Kirk is part of our family here and we feel like we need to do something.” Sarah said.

Dear Alcohol,

    You've been around forever. I can remember all the pain you've caused for me.

    Do you remember the night when you almost took my father's life? I do. He loves you. Sometimes I think he loves you more than he loves me. He's addicted to you, to the way you promise to rid him of his problems only to cause more of them. You just sat back and laughed as his car went spinning through the street, crashing into two other cars. He wasn't the only one hurt by you that night.

    Do you remember the night of my first high school party? You were there. My friends were intrigued by you. They treated you as if they were never going to see you again, drinking all of you that they could. I spent two hours that night helping my friends who had fallen completely. “I'm so embarrassed,” they said as I patted them on the back so that they could vomit(呕吐). “I'm sorry,” they said when I called taxies for them, walking them out and paying the drivers in advance. “This won't happen again,” they said as they were sent to the hospital to have their stomachs pumped. Two 15-year-old girls slept in hospital beds that night thanks to you.

    Do you remember the night when you took advantage of my 17-year-old neighbor who had to drive to pick up his sister from her dance lessons? Do you know how we all felt when he hit another car and killed the two people in the other car? He died the next morning too. His sister walked home from her dance lesson, and passed police cars and a crowd of people gathering on the sidewalk just two blocks away from the dance studio. She didn't realize her brother was in the midst of it at all. She never saw him again. And it's all your fault.

    I wish you'd walk out of my life forever. I don't want anything to do with you. Look at all the pain you've caused. Sure, you've made people happy too from time to time. But the damage you've caused in the lives of millions is inexcusable. Stop luring(引诱) the people I love. Stop hurting me, please!

Sincerely,

Anonymous

    In an unmanned supermarket, a customer waits to pay. With the use of advanced digital payment technology, including biological recognition and in-depth learning, the man leaves in a minute. There's no cashier in the store. At a large university, students use a hand-scanning machine that authorizes their entry into the gym. Those people are using "smart machines" which identify people by their physical characteristics. These new devices use fingers, hands, faces, eyes and voices. Some machines may even use smells. This new technology, called biometrics, gets information from parts of the body.

    In the past, biometric machines were used mainly in government agencies or in prisons. But now that the cost of the technology is lower, these machines are starting to be used everywhere, from border services to schools.

    Some people, however, are concerned that these machines will mean the destruction of personal privacy. They worry that the machines will get personal information about them, know it seems like these machines are invading our privacy, but actually, biometric machines help to protect it," says Jay Tarkett, who works at a company that develops the machines, "They can be used instead of passwords on a computer, for example. They can also identify criminals at airports. So, really, they help to promote public safety, and all the information stored is kept confidential by the machine itself."

    Some people don't like the idea of using fingerprints because they associate them with criminals, and feel like they are being accused of something, In addition, they don't work for some people, such as bricklayers, who wear down their fingerprints. Yet, face recognition does work well because the subject doesn't really have to do anything, To cash a check at a bank, for example, the customer has to do nothing more than look at a machine similar to an automatic teller. If the face matches the picture kept on file, the customer gets the money with no problems, The need to carry identification with you from place to place, then, would all but cease. It has been found that the hand scan works well ill the college gym. Before this machine was used, students at the college entered the gym using cards similar to credit cards. The problem was that students often lost or forgot their cards. With the hand-scanning machine, however, the problem was solved right away.

    But the machines are still new, and there can be problems. For example, voice recognition works on the phone, but it is not precise, and can be tricked. Another constraint(限制)we notice；, with machines that use face recognition in particular, is that they can be fooled if people color their hair or gain a lot of weight. However, this particular problem may be solved by a new type of technology that scans a person's iris, the colored part of the eye. It can even identify the person from a few feet away, recognizing a customer as he or she approaches the ATM.

My Favorite Sweater

By Bonnie Highsmith Taylor