People around the world are superstitious about numbers; even those ancient Greeks believed that all numbers and their multiples had some mystical significance.

    Those numbers between 1 and 13 were in particular to have a powerful influence over the affairs of men.

    For example, it is commonly said that luck, good or bad, comes in threes; if an accident happens, two more of the same kind may be expected soon afterwards. The arrival of a letter will be followed by two others within a certain period.

    Another belief involving the number three has it that it is unlucky to light three cigarettes from the one match. If this happens, the bad luck that goes with the deed falls upon the person whose cigarette was the last to be lit. The ill-men linked to the lighting of three things from one match or candle goes back to at least the 17th century and probably earlier. It was believed that three candles alight at the same time would be sure to bring bad luck; one, two, or four, were permissible, but never just three.

    Seven was another significant number, usually regarded as a bringer of good luck. The ancient astrologers believed that the universe was governed by seven planets; students of Shakespeare will recall that the life of man was divided into seven ages. Seven horseshoes nailed to a house will protect it from all evil.

    Nine is usually thought of as a lucky number because it is the product of three times three. It was much used by the Anglo Saxons in their charms for healing.

    Another belief was that great changes occurred every 7th and 9th of a man's life. Consequently, the age of 63 (the product of nine and seven) was thought to be a very perilous time for him. If he survived his 63rd year he might hope to live to a ripe old age.

    Thirteen, as we well know, is regarded with great awe and fear. The common belief is that this derives from the fact that there were 13 people at Christ's Last Supper. This being the eve of his betrayal, it is not difficult to understand the significance given to the number by the early Christians.

    In more modern times 13 is an especially unlucky number of a dinner party, for example. Hotels will avoid numbering a floor the 13th; the progression is from 12 to 14, and no room is given the number 13. Many home owners will use 12 1/2 instead of 13 as their house number.

    Yet oddly enough, to be born on the 13th of the month is not regarded with any fear at all, which just shows how irrational we are in our superstitious beliefs.

C

    Languages have been coming and going for thousands of years, but in recent times there has been less coming and a lot more going. When the world was still populated by hunter-gatherers, small, tightly knit(联系) groups developed their own patterns of speech independent of each other. Some language experts believe that 10,000 years ago, when the world had just five to ten million people, they spoke perhaps 12,000 languages between them.   

    Soon afterwards, many of those people started settling down to become farmers, and their languages too became more settled and fewer in number. In recent centuries, trade, industrialisation, the development of the nation-state and the spread of universal compulsory education, especially globalisation and better communications in the past few decades, all have caused many languages to disappear, and dominant languages such as English, Spanish and Chinese are increasingly taking over.

    At present, the world has about 6,800 languages. The distribution of these languages is hugely uneven. The general rule is that mild zones have relatively few languages, often spoken by many people, while hot, wet zones have lots, often spoken by small numbers. Europe has only around 200 languages; the Americas about 1,000; Africa 2,400; and Asia and the Pacific perhaps 3,200, of which Papua New Guinea alone accounts for well over 800. The median number （中位数）of speakers is a mere 6,000, which means that half the world's languages are spoken by fewer people than that.

   Already well over 400 of the total of 6,800 languages are close to extinction (消亡), with only a few elderly speakers left. Pick, at random, Busuu in Cameroon (eight remaining speakers), Chiapaneco in Mexico (150), Lipan Apache in the United States (two or three) or Wadjigu in Australia (one, with a question-mark): none of these seems to have much chance of survival.

    With golden sunshine and a gentle breeze（微风）, autumn is the most beautiful seasons in the year. This is a great time to go outside and have fun. Go to a valley to see red maple trees, go and pick fruit in an orchard or find an open field to fly your kite in.

    However, for many high school students, these great activities may be just a dream. With plenty of work to do, they spend all their hours indoors, struggling for a high mark in their exams. Of course, study is one of the most important things for teenagers. But life is definitely much more than that.

    Sometimes we spend so much time studying that we forget how to make life wonderful. In doing so, we lose the real purpose of life —to be a valuable and happy person. To enjoy just how great it is to be alive, we have to put down our books and pens and look around us. Students, take some exercise to improve your health, talk with your parents and friends for understanding and walk around outside to refresh（振作）our body and mind.

    Going out and enjoying the beautiful countryside often helps our creativity in our work. Chinese craftsman, Lu Ban created a saw to help woodworkers. But if he hadn't walked outside, he would not have been inspired by a kind of toothed（锯齿状的）grass. We could also suppose if Newton hadn't rested under that apple tree, then he wouldn't have been hit by an apple, and his classic（经典的）theories would not have come out.

    Going out is not only a break from hard work, but a chance to add to life experience. So come on, give your brain a good rest. Step out of the books and get your bag ready for an autumn outing. We are sure you will get much more than knowledge from the exciting journey.

    We interviewed two people, one who went from the country to the city and one who did the opposite.

    Janet Lincoln is a salesgirl who moved to St. Louis five years ago. Here's what Janet told us:

    "Five years ago I used to live in a small town called Lemon Falls. I grew up and went to high school there. After I graduated I worked in a supermarket. Lemon Falls had a population of about 800 people, and I knew every single one of them. They all knew everything about me, too. You couldn't do anything without everyone in town knowing about it. The first chance I got I moved to St. Louis and I love it. I don't know as many people now as I used to, but that's OK.I have a few good friends, and I see them when I want to. I kind of like being anonymous. I'd never go back to Lemon Falls."

    Troy Henson had the opposite experience. He and his wife, Darla, and their two children moved from St. Louis to Bloomfield three years ago. Here's what Troy told us:

    "The best thing we ever did was get out of St. Louis. Don't get me wrong; St. Louis is as good a place as any other city, I suppose—if you like cities, that is. We don't. Both Darla and I grew up in St. Louis. We met at college and got married. Then the kids came along and life got difficult. We didn't know any of our neighbors. We both had good jobs, but it always seemed like there was never enough money. That all changed when we moved to Bloomfield. I don't make as much money as I used to, but then we don't have as many expenses as we did. We know our neighbors. Life is good. We'd never leave Bloomfield."

Are You a Morning Person?

    Mornings are not for everyone. Knowing that our own bodies may be wired to prefer a certain time of day is certainly a relief. But many of us still have to wake up and function during those first daylight hours. So what can you do?

    We tapped a variety of experts—from sleep experts to nutritionists to life organizational pros—to share their tricks on how to make morning less stressful and more pleasant (for) even the most after-hours of night owls.

    ①Night waking

    Poor sleep quality can explain why we sometimes wake up from eight hours of snoozing and feel like we only clocked in at four. "It's normal to have one or two awakenings, but more than that leaves us feeling groggy in the morning because of the fragmented sleep," [explains Shelby Harris, director of the behavioral sleep medicine program at Montefiore Medical Center.]

    ②The Science of snoozing

    The snooze button does more harm than good. Nodding off again sends you into a light and fragmented sleep! Multiple snoozes can leave you feeling groggier than just getting out of bed the first time.

    Instead, be honest about the time you intend to get up and then enjoy every last minute of shuteye, so you can wake up alert and ready to go.

    ③Don't ease into your workday

    It can be tempting to plow through the easy things early on-checking e-mail, scanning the headlines—but it's wise to tackle the bigger stuff first. "Getting to work on the most important tasks not only ups the chances that they actually get done, but it also leaves you with a burst of accomplishment to take with you the rest of the day," says Jason Selk, coauthor of Organize Tomorrow Today.

    ④Save social media for later

    Schedule a social media block later in the afternoon to check in when you're likely to need a break anyway, and save the morning for the important stuff.

Vocabulary Focus

    tap(v) [tæp] to get or make use of something

    groggy (adj) ['gragi] weak and unable to think clearly or walk correctly, usually because of tiredness or illness

    shuteye (n) ['ʃʌtai] sleep

    plow through (something) (phr v) to finish reading, eating or dealing with something with difficulty

    English is a very interesting language. It has borrowed words from many other languages. Immigrants (移民) coming into the United States have contributed many words to the language, which have kept their original pronunciation. "Coolie" and "kowtow" were taken from the Chinese language, "kamikaze" from the Japanese, "shampoo" from India, "blitz" from German, "amigo" and "Los Angeles" from Spanish and so on.

    Many students have studied English for years, some as many as eight. However, some students still have difficulty in speaking fluent English. Some know many words, but are unable to discern them when native speakers use them. In our oral English classes we will focus on speaking and listening to native English speakers. For this reason, because we are trying to train your ears to hear English and your mouths to speak intelligible (易理解的) English, we will have a rule that ONLY ENGLISH will be spoken in our English classes. Anyone speaking Chinese in class will be required to pay a fine (罚款) in order to encourage the speaking and understanding of English. If teachers enter a classroom and discover that anyone is speaking Chinese, they will require everyone in the room to pay the fine. It is everyone's job to enforce the English­Only rule. It is for your benefit. It is because we want to accustom (使习惯于) your ears to hearing English.

    Other subjects may be learned only from books but the only way to learn a foreign language is to SPEAK IT! Students are often nervous about speaking in class at first but we hope to make the classes fun, so you will forget your nervousness and learn to speak out. Enjoy your classes.