A beach town in the US state of New Jersey recently passed a ban on trousers, jeans and shorts that hang less than 3 inches below the hips(臀部) for an excuse of being unfriendly to others' eyes. But besides those low-hanging pants, here are some other items of popular travel clothing that may also need to be banned.

    Thai Fisherman Pants: These lightweight cotton pants, wide in the waist and originally designed for Thai fishermen, are popular among men and women due to their comfort, ability to last long and relative ease of wearing. But the bad news is that wearing these pants isn't the way to be respected in Bangkok.

    “Wearing them to wander around the town is considered 'low class' (even if we don't say it out loudly),” wrote a local Bangkok woman, who called herself “Beebah” on line. “It's better to dress ‘respectable' if you want to be treated well. Even a T-shirt and shorts are better than fisherman pants and tight sleeveless shirts. If you really love them, wear them at home.”

T-shirts with slogans: Wearing T-shirts with slogans in the local language on them may seem cool to some young tourists who are swept up in the excitement of being in a foreign country for the first time. But be careful as they could be some meaningless words and make you look really stupid. What's worse, some slogan T-shirts are political--you might get yourself into trouble without even knowing about it.

    Croce(洞洞鞋): Comfortable and easy to slip on and off, Crocs have been go-to-beach shoes for many tourists. But we must admit that these holey plastic shoes are deadly ugly in every way. “Supporters would hold that the comfort of the Crocs is over their looks, but Babyclothes are comfortable, too. Your don't feel the need to walk around in them, do you?” said a friend of mine.

    Teenagers who spend hours in front of the television may have a poorer diet as young adults.

    A study, which included nearly 1,400 high school students, found those who watched TV for five hours or more per day had less healthy diets than peers(同龄人) five years later. Why does this happen? Should the parents take any measures?

    On the one hand, people who spend a lot of time in front of the TV, especially teenagers, may snack more, and that may affect their long-term diet quality.

    On the other hand, TV ads for fast food, sweets and snacks tempt teenagers to eat more of those foods. And TV time might also replace exercise time for some kids.

    Lead researcher Dr. Daheia J. Barr-Anderson, of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, told Reuters Health a clear correlation between TV time during high school and diet quality in young adulthood. While the heaviest TV viewers were eating the most junk food, those who'd watched less than two hours per day had the highest intake(吸收) of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and high-calcium food. In her opinion, parents should limit and monitor TV viewing.

    As far as I am concerned, children should watch no more than two hours of television per day. And parents should set a good example by eating right, being physically active and curbing their own TV time.

    Despite their popularity, only three of Jin Yong's martial arts novels have been translated into English. But fans will soon get more from the writer as his most popular trilogy, named after the first of the three books, Legends of the Condor Heroes, is scheduled to hit bookstores in February.

    Jin Yong is the pen name of Louis Cha. And the author, who lives in Hong Kong, is one of the best-selling Chinese authors alive. With regard to Jin Yong's works this latest translation project is the most ambitious. The trilogy, written by Jin Yong in the 1950s and 60s, covers the Song Dynasty and the early Ming Dynasty, and features hundreds of characters.

    According to the publishing house, Maclehose Press, the translated work will come in 12 volumes, including Legends of the Condor Heroes; Divine Condor, Errant Knight; and Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre.

    Speaking of the project which she took up in 2012, Holmwood, a self-employed translator focusing on Chinese-English literary translations, says in an email interview: “It had to be Jin Yong then. It was the obvious place to start, not only because of the quality of his writing, but also because of his standing and reputation in Asia.”

    Having studied history at the University of Oxford, Holmwood was determined to learn Chinese due to her previous trip to China. She then went to Taiwan Normal University for language training in 2,009. In a bookshop there, she saw a whole shelf dedicated to Jin Yong. She bought a copy of Jin Yong's work—Lu Ding Ji (The Deer and the Cauldron), the longest of his novels. “What is a bigger challenge for the translator is making the original pace and excitement into English. It's all about whether the English reader will be lured by the emotions and characters.”

    It took five years for Holmwood to finish the translation of the first volume. As for why his works need to be translated, she says: “Many have considered Jin Yong's world too foreign, too Chinese for an English-speaking readership.Impossible to translate.” “And yet this story of love, loyalty, honor and the power of the individual against successive corrupt (腐败的) governments and invading forces is as universal as any story could hope to be.” “The greatest loss that can occur in translation can only come from not translating it at all.”

    Writer Liu fang's first novel, about the life of a teacher at a rural school in the mountainous province of Guizhou in the 1990s , is greatly similar to her own early years-before she lost her sight and struggled to find a full life in the darkness.

    Liu, 44 , was a Chinese language teacher at No 3 Middle School in the Baiyun district of Guiyang until 2006 , when she could no longer see the characters printed in the textbooks .

    Diagnosed with incurable eye disease , in 1996 , Liu was told she would gradually lose her eyesight over 10 years.That it took her 20 years to walk into darkness makes her have the ability to tell you the difference between the two worlds .She spent the first 10 years gradually accepting the reality , and the second facing it with smiles.

    Fortunately , Liu had many people on her side.Her family and friends helped her overcome the most difficult period of her life. And her own kindness served her well . Liu praised the school's headmaster , who gave her a new post as a psychological consultant(心理咨询师) for students, and planned for professional training for her new role.

    Liu's office is a comfortable place decorated with hand-drawn student pictures , one where children can thoughtfully talk about their problems . Liu takes her job seriously.She donated 5,000 yuan (＄760) from her income to five poor students.After she became famous, all she wanted to do was help for the “left-behind”children.

    Yang Hui , a student who often quarrelled with her parents , said Liu feels like a mother to the student. Yang said She would listen to me patiently , and Liu helped her find the reason she couldn't get along well with her parents .

Liu said , her blindness is an asset . “I guess they trust me because I cannot see them , and they feel I am more concentrated and careful than others while listening to them.”

    Why Black Friday Shoppers Still Crowd Stores

    To many of us, the ideas of rushing out to a superstore the day after Thanksgiving is appealing. Why would anyone race to crowded stores when they could stay in with family, or watch college football? We can't say we know the answer for sure. But we do feel amazed at those who pour into stores looking for Black Friday bargains. Seemingly, nothing can stop them. Not the weather. Not the crowds. And not the fact that hurrying to a store in the age of instant e-commerce seems so…last century.

    To be sure, holiday shopping habits do appear to be shifting. The National Retail (零售) Federation has stopped breaking up its holiday sales numbers by whether they come from e-tail purchases or from physical stores. It's a pretty good sign that retailers don't want to bring further attention to the declining fortunes of brick-and-mortar stores.

    But there is no denying that people still love going to stores. Actual shopping in actual places remains an important part of the holiday ceremony for millions of Americans. To many, it's the difference between playing a sport and playing a video game. As commercial as stores may be, they are still places where actual human beings interact. In a store, the “courageous” shopper performs the approving act of finding a present. That item might be heavily promoted by the store, but it doesn't drop into one's cart. It is picked up and examined before a decision is made. Maybe it gets put back on the shelf when the shopper changes his or her mind. Maybe there is a conversation with a sales clerk. The process is not that different than it would have been decades ago.

    Online, the shopper has barely logged in before being faced with disturbing algorithmic (大数据的) suggestions based on earlier purchases. This hardly qualifies as shopping. This hardly qualifies as thinking.

    Perhaps we are reading too much into the Black Friday phenomenon. But we suspect one reason Black Friday remains is that it involves an act of resistance against the Internet age. That would hardly be unreasonable. There aren't many studies showing that time spent in stores is bad for one's health, while there are quite a few drawing a link between time spent online and depression. Perhaps the people crowding into stores aren't the crazy ones after all.

    British chemist David Evans has become an overnight celebrity on Chinese social media. His chemistry experiments have attracted over 2 million followers in just a few months. Evans is a chemistry professor at the Beijing University of Chemical Technology. The 60-year-old always wears a white lab coat, a pair of safety goggles (护目镜), and smiles often. Some web users say he looks just like the “grandpa of KFC”.

    Evans has posted videos of various experiments. His most popular experiments have attracted millions of hits on video-sharing apps. Excited children's cheers and shouts can be heard in his videos. “I hope my experiments can arouse people's interest in science,” he says.

    Evans has been interested in China since childhood. In the early 1970s, before the reform and opening-up, he viewed it as a “country full of mysteries”. He first visited the Chinese mainland in 1987 to attend a chemistry conference in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province. He quit his job in the United Kingdom and moved to Beijing in 1996. Many of his friends thought he was crazy. But Evans says they just saw China's challenges but not its potential.

    Since 2011, Evans has turned to the Internet to popularize science. He learned short-video apps are also popular in small cities and rural areas. And he realized this enables him to reach more students, who lack opportunities to perform fun experiments. But even a one-minute video requires a considerable amount of work. Still, he thinks it's worth it to fulfill his responsibility to popularize science.

    His experiments always fill schools' lecture halls with laughter. Some viewers call him “a Harry Potter-like magician”, but he disagrees. “A magician never tells the secrets behind his tricks, but a scientist always gives an explanation.” He sees himself as a teacher. He performs experiments to spread knowledge, inspire thinking, remove misunderstandings and show that science can create change. Evans says he looks forward to more “chemical reactions” with China.