The iPhone, the iPad: each of Apple's products sounds cool and has become a fad(一时的风尚). Apple has cleverly taken advantage of the power of the letter “i” --and many other brands are following suit. The BBC's iPlayer--which allows Web users to watch TV programs on the Internet--used the title in 2008. A lovely bear--popular in the US and UK--that plays music and video is called “iTeddy”. A slimmed-down version(简装本) of London's Independent newspaper was started last week under the name “i”.

    In general, single-letter prefixes(前缀) have been popular since the 1990s, when terms such as e-mail and e-commerce(电子商务) first came into use.

    Most “I” products are targeted at(针对) young people and considering the major readers of Independent's “I”, it's no surprise that they've selected this fashionable name.

    But it's hard to see what's so special about the letter “i”. Why not use “a”, “b”, or “c” instead? According to Tony Thorne, head of the Language Center at King's College, London, “i” works because its meaning has become ambiguous. When Apple uses “i”, no one knows whether it means Internet, information, individual or interactive, Thorne told BBC Magazines. “Even when Apple created the iPod, it seems it didn't have one clear definition(定义),” he says.

    “However, thanks to Apple, the term is now connected with portability (轻便).” adds Thorne.

    Clearly the letter “i” also agrees with the idea that the Western World is centered on the individual. Each person believes they have their own needs, and we love personalized products for this reason.

    Along with “Google” and “blog”, readers of BBC Magazines voted “I” as one of the top 20 words that have come to define the last decade(十年).

    But as history shows, people grow tired of fads. From the 1900s to 1990s, products with “2000” in their names became fashionable as the year was connected with all things advanced and modern. However, as we entered the new century, the fashion disappeared.

    On the first day of my new high school, I almost had a nervous breakdown. Everything about the school seemed so difficult. When I got home, my parents said, “You're nervous and that's okay. Everyone is afraid of high school. ”I denied it. I wanted to be strong, so I refused to let anyone know about my fear, even my closest friends.

    On the first day I was late for every class and was constantly lost. The school seemed like a puzzle that I couldn't figure out. Was this how the whole year was going to be？ I didn't think I could rise to this challenge, especially carrying a huge backpack that I could hardly lift. It was so big that I could knock someone out with it！The schoolmates seemed to regard me as a fool, and they were probably right.

    Despite my fears, after the first week I finally had my schedule figured out.

    With the exception of falling up and down the stairs a couple of times and getting laughed at, high school was turning out to be not so bad.  It was actually much better than middle school and much more challenging.

    Since then, I've been elected vice president of my class, which wasn't much of a victory since only three people ran for the four positions.

    It is normal to be scared about a new school. Take a deep breath and relax. High school is something that any student can overcome. Make sure you participate in some out-of-class activities because you'll find it easier to make friends. Try to do your best, even if it isn't straight A's.

    Most important of all, be who you are , whether you're a “fool”, an athlete, or a lower grader. Don't try to pretend to be someone you're not. Now you know the true secrets of high school.

    When we see well, we do not think about our eyes very often. It is only when we cannot see perfectly that we realize how important our eyes are.

    People who are near-sighted can only see things that are very close to their eyes. Everything else seems ­­blurry. Many people who do a lot of work, such as writing, reading and sewing become near-sighted. People who are far-sighted suffer from just the opposite problem. They can see things that are far away, but they have difficulty in reading a book unless they hold it at arm's length. If they want to do much reading, they must get glasses, too.

    Other people do not see clearly because their eyes are not exactly the right shape. They have what is called astigmatism (散光). This, too, can be corrected by glasses. Some people's eyes become cloudy because of cataracts (白内障). Long ago these people often became blind. Now, however, it is possible to operate on the cataracts and remove them.

    Having two good eyes is important for judging distances. Each eye sees things from a slightly different angle. To prove this to yourself, look at an object out of one eye; then look at the same object out of your other eye. You will find the object's relation to the background and other things around it has changed. The difference between these two different eye views helps us to judge how far away an object is. People who have only one eye cannot judge distances as people with two eyes.

    Boomerang children who return to live with their parents after university can be good for families, leading to closer, more supportive relationships and increased contact between the generations, a study has found.

    The findings contradict research published earlier this year showing that returning adult children trigger a significant decline in their parents' quality of life and wellbeing.

    The young adults taking part in the study were “more positive than might have been expected” about moving back home – the shame is reduced as so many of their peers are in the same position, and they acknowledged the benefits of their parents' financial and emotional support. Daughters were happier than sons, often slipping back easily into teenage patterns of behaviour, the study found.

    Parents on the whole were more uncertain, expressing concern about the likely duration of the arrangement and how to manage it. But they acknowledged that things were different for graduates today, who leave university with huge debts and fewer job opportunities.

    The families featured in the study were middle-class and tended to view the achievement of adult independence for their children as a “family project”. Parents accepted that their children required support as university students and then as graduates returning home, as they tried to find jobs paying enough to enable them to move out and get on the housing ladder.

    “However,” the study says, “day-to-day tensions about the prospects of achieving different dimensions of independence, which in a few extreme cases came close to conflict, characterised the experience of a majority of parents and a little over half the graduates”.

    Areas of disagreement included chores, money and social life. While parents were keen to help, they also wanted different relationships from those they had with their own parents, and continuing to support their adult children allowed them to remain close.

    Tablets(平板电脑) are useful devices, but their big screens always make them as a burden to carry around without a bag. Wouldn't it be great if there were a phone with the powers of a tablet that could be folded up and fit neatly into the hand? Now something like a tablet-shaped but foldable(可折叠的) phone is about to become available. In February, Samsung and Huawei both introduced foldable phones, the Galaxy Fold and Huawei Mate X separately, to the public for the first time. Mobile phone use has entered the "foldable future", the Verge noted.

    The technology could change our lives in significant ways. These devices, due to their bendable screens, give us the larger screens we want but still fit easily into the pocket. The technology could change other devices too. For example, we could make TVs that stick to walls like posters, or fold up easily to hide away in drawers, which could help increase available space to the maximum. In a keynote address, Justin Denison, Samsung's senior vice president, called the foldable screen "the basis for the smartphone of tomorrow". "It's a blank canvas (画布) for us to do something beautiful together," he said.

    So is there nothing to stand in the way of the foldable future? According to tech news website Android Authority, the necessary displays were difficult to produce. In 2012, nine out of ten foldable screens produced were defective or unusable. Today, that 10 percent rate has been improved to almost 90 percent. However, at present these foldable devices are expensive. For example, the price of Huawei Mate X is 17, 500 RMB. That's a price that few people will be able to afford.

    But if the foldable device isn't going to change the world overnight, there is no doubt that it is coming. Patrick Moorhead, an industry expert told The Verge, "Few are debating if foldable mobile displays are the future of smartphones; the only question is when and by whom."

    At first, Michael Surrell didn't see the black smoke or flames shooting from the windows of his neighbors' home. He and his wife had just parked around the corner from their own house, when they got a call from one of his daughters: "The house next door is on fire!" He went to investigate. That's when he saw two women and a girl panic-stricken on their doorway.

    "The baby's in there!" one of the women cried. Though the fire department had been called, Surrell, then 64, instinctively ran inside. "The baby" was 8-year-old Tiara, the woman's granddaughter.

    Entering the burning house was like "running into a bucket of black paint," Surrell says. The thick smoke caused him to struggle blindly around, burned his eyes, and made it impossible to breathe. The conditions would have been risky for anyone, but for Surrell, who has lung disease, they were life-threatening. After a few minutes in the smoke-filled house, he withdrew outside to catch his breath.

    "Where is Tiara?" he asked desperately. "The second floor," The woman shouted back. Taking a deep breath, he went in a second time. The darkness was overwhelming. Yet because the house had a similar design to his, Surrell found the stairs and made it to the second floor. He was already out of breath. Then a soft but distinct moan appeared. He crawled toward the sound, feeling around for any sign of the girl. Finally, he touched something. A shoe, then an ankle. He pulled Tiara into his arms. Turning, he fought through the smoke and ran blindly into the blackness. The next thing he knew, he was at the front door, then outside.

    Surrell woke up in the hospital a couple of days later, having suffered severe burns. Tiara was released from the hospital after a few days. "It's a small price to pay," Surrell says. "I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Wouldn't give it a second thought."