Don't you hate it when someone snubs（冷落）you by looking at their phone instead of paying  attention? The word “Phubbing”, which comes from “phone” and “snub”, describes such behavior. With popularization of smart phones, we see a new "Phubbing" group everywhere in public places: in subway, restaurants, roads, people are checking the mobile phone, ignoring the people around completely. What is worrying us is that not only young people, but also the elderly and kids are getting addicted（上瘾）to Phubbing.

    On Dec 29th, a 28-year-old woman—a mother of two in Wenzhou, drowned after she fell into a river while looking at her mobile phone. A Pakistani man was killed on Dec 15th, 2015, after being hit by a fast moving train while trying to take a selfie (自拍)with it on the track. Last month, Justin, a college student was shot in subway in San Francisco, the U.S. The surveillance(监控)video showed that before Justin was killed, the killer pulled out the gun several times, and even wiped his nose with it. However, nobody noticed that. The surrounding passengers all focused on their cell phones.

    Phone is the tool for communication, but now it distances people and makes them separated from each other. Therefore, someone jokes “the furthest distance in the world is not the distance between life and death, but that you don't know I stand in front of you while you focus on the mobile.”

    Phubbing appears harmless; however, it does affect our life. 23-year-old Alex from Melbourne wrote in his blog: "I can no longer focus on what I am eating since I started twittering. My skill of food photography has improved very fast, while my interest in food drops a lot as a result."

Dear Li Hua,

    On behalf of the admissions committee, it is my honor and privilege to share with you that you have been admitted to the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development at New York University (NYU).

    Albert Gallatin, Treasury Secretary to U.S. Presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, rounded NYU in 1831. NYU has since grown to become the largest independent research university in America. I now have the pleasure of welcoming you to one of the most influential universities in the world. Congratulations!

    What Next?

    View your financial aid award (if applicable) and confirm your enrollment (注册) by January 8. Visit our website for very important instructions on how to view your financial aid estimate and confirm your enrollment.

    Withdraw (撤回) applications from other colleges or universities by January 8. As an Early Decision candidate, we expect that you will enroll at NYU if you are I financially able to do so. Once you confirm your enrollment, it is your duty to withdraw any applications you may have made to other colleges or universities. If finances prevent you from attending NYU, we will give up your space in our class on January 9.

    Keep performing. Your admission is contingent (取决于) on the successful completion of your existing academic program at the same performance level as the one presented in your application. Visit our website to review our expectations for admitted students.

    Connect with your classmates. Join the NYU Class of 2022 Facebook page to start connecting and communicating with your fellow NYU classmates.

    Your application was considered for any and all NYU programs and campuses for which you asked for consideration and it is our policy to only make a single offer of admission per student.

    Li Hua, you should be extremely proud of your achievements and I encourage you to celebrate with your family and friends who have supported you on your intellectual journey so far. We look forward to welcoming you to the NYU community.

Sincerely,

Shawn Abbott

Dean of Admissions

    Modern inventions have speeded up people's loves amazingly. Motor-cars cover a hundred miles in little more than an hour, aircraft cross the world inside a day, while computers operate at lightning speed. Indeed, this love of speed seems never-ending. Every year motor-cars are produced which go even faster and each new computer boasts of saving precious seconds in handling tasks.

    All this saves time, but at a price. When we lose or gain half a day in speeding across the world in an air plane, our bodies tell us so. We get the uncomfortable feeling known as jetlag; our bodies feel that they have left behind on another time zone. Again, spending too long at computers results in painful wrists and fingers. Mobile phones also have their dangers, according to some scientists, too much use may transmit harmful radiation into our brains, a consequence we do not like to think about.

    However, what do we do with the time we have saved? Certainly not relax, or so it seems. We are so accustomed to constant activity that we find it difficult to sit and do nothing, or even just one thing at a time. Perhaps the days are long gone when we might listen quietly to a story on the radio, letting imagination take us into another world.

    There was a time when some people's lives were devoted simply to the cultivation of the land or the care of cattle. No Multi-tasking there; their lives went on at a much gentler pace, and in a familiar pattern. There is much that we might envy about a way of life like this. Yet before we do so, we must think of the hard tasks our ancestors faced, they farmed with bare hands, often lived close to hunger, and had to fashion tools from wood and stone, Modern machinery has freed people from that primitive existence.

    Tomato Festival

    Started in 2005, the Tomato Festival has grown into a local tradition in Malta. In recent years, the festival has added amusement park-style rides and a yearly Creature Feature, which screens old horrible movies. There are also dance competitions, parades and pancake breakfast. Third weekend in August.

Address: 833 Tinkham Rd, Fountain Park, Wilbraham, Massachusetts 01095 Phone：(413)599-0010

    Brat Days

Don't mistake this festival for a day filled with poorly behaved children. Begun in 1953, the gathering is the biggest festival in the city each year and features more than 50 stands (摊位) selling the sausage, as well as a contest to see who can quickly eat the most bratwurst (德国式小香肠) in ten minutes. Early August.

    Address: 17th and New Jersey sts, Kiwanis Park, Sheboygan, Wisconsin 53081

Phone: (920)457-9491

    Hope Watermelon Festival

    The festival dates back to the 1920s, when many trains went through this small town and local watermelon growers would sell their watermelon to parched travelers. These days, the festival sees a Watermelon Queen crowned(加冠的) and sometimes a world-record watermelon grown. There are also more than 300 stands selling arts and crafts from a six-state area, as well as a car show and the Watermelon Olympics. Early August.

Address: 108 W 3rd St, Hope, Arkansas 71801 Phone: (870) 777-3640

    Oyster Festival (牡蛎节)

Featuring appearances from tall ships and oyster boats, this festival has regularly drawn 60,000 visitors a year since it began in 1978.More than 3,000 volunteers make the festival possible each year. Norwalk is less than a two-hour drive from many of New England's larger cities, making it easy to attend the festival during a trip to New York or Hartford. Weekend after Labor Day.

Address: Sea view Ave, Veteran's Park, East Nor-walk, Connecticut 06855 Phone: (800) 866-7925

    On the night of August 24, 2001, everything changed when my friends car hit a wall with me inside. I lost most of my right leg, and I was left bleeding with several broken bones. At the hospital, although my body was weak, my mind was still very clear. I just kept telling myself to hold on. A week later, I made a deal with the doctors that once I could roll onto my side, I could leave.

    Two weeks later, I was allowed to go home. Although I left the hospital, the fight was far from over. My left knee was badly injured, which resulted in different surgeries (手术) over the next few years. And soon, more of my right leg had to be removed This made it harder to wear my false leg, so I donated it to a nurse who couldn't afford one for herself. The joy of being able to provide this gift to someone else was greater than the happiness I felt on any day I was able to wear it myself.

    People often tell me they're proud of me for staying strong. But in my mind, staying strong has always been my only choice. So, on the day I left the hospital, I made a promise to myself to always live life to the fullest.

    Now, I may not be able to do things the way everybody else does them, but still, I always find a way to do them. I soon settled into everyday life again, until one day I realized I wasn't living my life as fully as I wanted to.

    After 13 years of thinking that I was confident, I had an unfamiliar feeling sweep over me. For the first time in my life, I was not only confident but I wanted to help those around me. In 2014, I even started modeling. My dream is that one day a little girl will see me in a magazine and say, "Wow, she's beautiful, and she only has one leg. I could do that too someday, even though I have a disability."

We were on the way from Hutchinson to Chicago for a short spring break. For many years I had wanted to take my family on the train. We all went to Chicago four years ago, and the kids loved it. Chicago is one of my favorite cities, too, so the thought struck me again last fall to ride the train to Chicago. Of course, flying would have been faster. But I don't think flying is easier, especially these days, with all the security and waiting in lines at airports.

Though we were tired in the middle of the night, the kids got on the train with the exhilaration of this adventure. "We're moving," my son William shouted happily with big eyes as the train began to pull away from the Hutchinson station.

I removed my shoes and lay down to try to finish my night's sleep. The sleeper car would have better enabled that, but the ordinary train seats were not too bad. An airline flight is a more miserable experience for me：not enough room, two hours of pain with my knees almost touching my chin, the hard seatback in front cracking my kneecaps (膝盖) with every move of the body planted in front of me. On the train I could almost outstretch all of my 6­foot­2­plus body in the generous legroom.

The journey didn't feel at all as long as it was. We all found the train ride a joy. The car ride would have felt every minute of 13 hours. But on the train you are free to walk around, sit in the observation carriage for a while and enjoy the scenery out the windows, have a nice meal in the dining car, read a book, or play a board game.

In short, the train is all about enjoying the trip, which isn't something I do so much when travelling by airline or by car, when the trip seems more of a mission (任务) to get there than an experience to enjoy along the way.

Chicago offers much to do for a family. This time, getting there was half the fun.