When did you last see a polar bear(北极熊）? On a trip to a zoo, perhaps? If you had attended a winter activity in New York a few years ago, you would have seen a whole polar bear club. These "Polar Bears" are people who meet frequently in the winter to swim in freezing cold water. That day, the air temperature was 3℃,and the water temperature was a little higher. The members of the Polar Bear Club at Coney Island, New York are usually about the age of 60.Members must satisfy two requirements. First, they must get along well with everyone else in the group; this is very important because there are so many different kinds of people in the club. Polar Bears must also agree to swim outdoors at least twice a month from November through February.

    Doctors don't agree about the medical effects of cold-winter swimming. Some are worried about the dangers of a condition in which the body's temperature drops so low that finally the heart stops. Other doctors, however, point out that there is more danger of a heart attack during summer swimming because the difference between the air temperature and water temperature is much greater in summer than in winter.

    The Polar Bears themselves are satisfied with the benefits of cold-water swimming. They say that their favorite form of exercise is very good for the circulatory system(循环系统）because it forces the blood to move fast to keep the body warm. Cold-water swimmers usually turn bright red after a few minutes in the water. A person who turns blue probably has a very poor circulatory system and should not try cold-water swimming.

    The main benefits of cold-water swimming are probably mental. The Polar Bears love to swim all year round; they find it fun and relaxing. As one 70-year-old woman says," When I go into water, I pour my troubles into the ocean and let them float away."

    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．

    Traffic jam and cities, it seems go hand in hand. Everyone complains about being stuck in traffic, but, like the weather, no one seems to do anything about it. In particular, traffic engineers, transportation planners, and public officials responsible for transportation systems in large cities are frequently criticized for failing to solve traffic jam.

    But is traffic jam a sign of failure? Long lines at restaurants or theater's box offices are seen as signs of success. Should transportation systems be viewed any differently? I think we should recognize that traffic jam is an unpreventable by-product of successful cities and view the “traffic problem” in a different light.

    Traffic jam occurs where there are lots of people but limited spaces. Culturally and economically successful cities have the worst traffic problems, while decaying cities don't have much traffic. New York and Los Angeles are America's most crowded cities. But if you want access to major brokerage houses（经济行）, you will find them easier to reach in crowded New York than in any other large cities. And if your company needs access to post-production film editors or satellite-guidance engineers, you will reach them more quickly through the crowded freeways of LA than through less crowded roads elsewhere.

    Despite traffic jam, a larger number and wider variety of social communications and economic dealings can be made perfect in large, crowded cities than elsewhere. Seen in this light, traffic jam is an unfortunate result of success, not a cause of economic decline and urban decay.

    So while we can consider traffic jam as increasing costs on the areas of big cities, the costs of inaccessibility in uncrowded places are almost certainly greater.

    There is no doubt that traffic jam brings the terrible economic and environmental damage in places like Bangkok, Jakarta, and Lagos. But mobility（移动性）is far higher and traffic jam levels are far lower here in the US, even in our most crowded cities. That's why, for now, we don't see people and capital streaming out of San Francisco and Chicago, heading for other cities in California, and Illinois.

    Buying new clothes isn't an easy matter for everyone, here are some tips(建议) for you .When you want to go shopping, decide how much money you can spend on new clothes. Think about the kind of clothes you really need. Then look for those clothes you really need. Then look for those clothes on sale.

    There are labels(标签) inside all new clothes. The labels tell you how to take care of your clothes. The label for a shirt may tell you to wash it in warm water. A sweater label may tell you to wash in cold water. The label on a coat may say "dry clean only", for washing may ruin this coat. If you do as the directions(说明)on the label, you can keep your clothes looking their best for a long time.

    Many clothes today must be dry cleaned. Dry cleaning is expensive. When buying new clothes, check to see if they will need to be dry cleaned. You will save money if you buy clothes that can be washed.

    You can save money if you buy clothes that are well-made. Well-made clothes last longer. They look good even after they have been washed many times. Clothes that cost more money are not necessarily better made. They do not always fit better. Sometimes less expensive clothes look and fit better than more expensive clothes.

    Dreams are expressions of thoughts, feelings and events that pass through our minds while we are sleeping. People dream about one to two hours each night. We may have four to seven dreams in one night. Everybody dreams. But only some people can remember their dreams.

    The word “dream” comes from an old word in English that means “joy” and “music”. We dream in color. Our dreams often include all the senses—smells, sounds, sights, tastes and things we touch. Sometimes we dream the same dream over and over again. These repeated dreams are often unpleasant. They are bad dreams that sometimes frighten us.

    Artists, writers and scientists sometimes say they get ideas from dreams. For example, the singer Paul McCartney of the Beatles said he awakened one day with the music for the song Yesterday in his head. The writer Mary Shelley said she had a very strong dream about a scientist using a machine to make an animal come alive. When she woke up, she began to write her book about a scientist named Frankenstein who made a frightening monster(妖怪).

    In China, people believed that dreams were a way to visit with family members who had died. Some native American tribes(部落) and Mexican civilizations believe dreams are a different world we visit when we sleep.

    The following ads come from UW(University of Washington)newspaper called The Daily.