Nowadays it is common that people are buying more products and services than ever before through the Internet, so do Americans. And experts say the popularity of online sales is likely to spread to other countries. Online sales now represent as much as 10% of all retail sales in the United States. This has led traditional stores to seek new ways to keep their customers loyal.

Taking Lynne for example, she made good use of the Internet. She used the Internet to buy everything she needed for her Wedding and holiday gifts for her husband and daughter. Other than food, 90% of her purchases were made on her home computer. "I find that, by being able to go online, choose the things that I need, and have them delivered to me right at my doorstep, I eliminate all the driving, all the crowds, all the noise of that, and I usually get a better selection."

    There are a lot of people like her. Experts say American online shopping hit records in both November and December.57% of Americans have bought something electronically. Store owners worry that this growing amount of online sales will hurt their business. Cornell University marketing professor Ed Melaughlin says they can keep their customers by selling goods like clothing, which buyers may want to see and try on before purchasing. The stores could also offer things that are difficult to ship. Besides, some stores can please customers by offering to repair electronic products.

Bill Martin is the founder of Shopper Trak. His business helps stores learn about their customers. He said, "There is still a lot of emotion in the buying decision, you know, that takes place. Often you need that last sense of "Boy, this is exactly what I want before you are ready to part with money, and you can't always get that online. It's a rather cold process."

    While e-commerce worries some business owners, the only worry for delivery services is keeping up with the number of packages. UPS manager Dana Kline says her company is very busy at this time of the year.

    UPS is so busy that it has filled 55,000 temporary work positions during the holiday season.

    Hi, everybody! Welcome to our newly-opened Richards Cinema Bookstore!

    Now let me introduce to you some of the new film books in our store.

    Are you Chinese film fans? OK, here comes the latest 25 New Takes about Chinese films. It is a collection of 25 fresh readings of different Chinese films from the 1930s to the present. In recent years, Chinese films are very popular in the States, such as Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon, Hero, and Flowers of Shanghai.

    Do you like French films? Well, here is The French Cinema Book. It covers French films from the 1890s to the beginning of the 21st century. It is written for all lovers of French cinema: students and teachers, specialists and fans, and so on.

    Maybe you are Indian film fans and star-chasers. Then here is Encyclopedia (百科全书) of Indian Cinema. The book is a complete introduction to all the best Indian films. It also offers a full list of names of the famous and successful film stars in the past ten years. You know, the Indian film industry is the largest in the world after our Hollywood.

    If you like British films, we have The British Cinema Book. It is a good review of British cinema. This book contains a good many nice pictures.

    In our bookstore, you can also find books about Mexican, Japanese, Australian, German and Italian films.

    Well, please help yourselves to some coffee or tea, and have a good time here!

    Professional athletes in most sports start to slow down after the age of 35. Some retire (退役). Jamaican Olympic runner Usain Bolt has talked about retiring, for example. He is only 30 years old. But on Thursday, Serena Williams earned a spot in the Australian Open finals. She will face her older sister, Venus, who won her semifinal (半决赛) match a day earlier. It is the first time that the Williams sisters will play in a Grand Slam final since 2009. Venus is 36. Serena is 35. One of them will win the championship (冠军) at last.

    One older champion will play in the men's final, too. Roger Federer qualified for the final by defeating Stan Wawrinka. Federer, like Serena Williams, is 35 years old It will be one of the sport's oldest finals in a long time.

    Ken Rosewall of Australia is the oldest winner of a Grand Slam. He was 37 when he won the Australian Open in 1972.

    Serena Williams is already the oldest winner of a women's Grand Slam match. She won Wimbledon last year at the age of 34.

    Many people are impressed that three of the finalists are 35 or older. All of the players have recently had injuries (受伤). Federer missed six months due to back and knee injuries.

    He told the crowd that he did not think he would be able to make it back to a Grand Slam final.

    The Williams sisters have had difficulties, too. Earlier this month, Venus won a match in New Zealand but withdrew (退出) from the final after hurting her arm. She also learned in 2011 she had the immune system disorder. The disorder kept her from practicing and staying in good physical condition for a number of years.

    Serena took time off to recover from knee and shoulder injuries after losing in the semifinals of the U. S. Open last September. It is the ninth time that the sisters will face each other in a major final. Serena has defeated her sister six of those times. If she wins, Serena will beat Steffi Graff's record for the most Grand Slam titles ever in women's tennis.

    My three-year-old granddaughter, Tegan, went with her parents to a family gathering at the home of her other grandparents. Everyone was having a wonderful time visiting and catching up on all the latest family news.

    Like most children, Tegan was having a good time playing with all the toys that were different from her own and that were kept for children to play with at her grandparents' house. In particular, Tegan had found a little tea set and had begun pretending that she was having a tea party. She set up all the place settings and arranged her table with the great care and elegance that only a three-year-old can create. Meanwhile, her Daddy concentrated on conversation, and as he continued to chat with his family, Tegan would hand him a cup of "tea". Her Daddy, who always tries to participate in her games, would pause for a few seconds from his conversation, and say all the proper words and gestures for her tea party which would thrill Tegan. He would request two lumps of sugar. He would tell her how wonderful her tea tasted, and then he would continue his adult conversation with his family.

    After going through this routine several times, her Daddy suddenly awoke to reality as he had a flash of concern in his mind: "She is only three years old, where is she getting this 'tea' that I've been dutifully drinking?" He quietly followed her, without her knowing, and his fears were growing stronger as he saw her turn and go through the bathroom door. Sure enough, there she was stretching up on her tippy toes reaching up to get her 'tea' water out of the container of water that grandpa used to soak (浸泡)his false teeth!

    When I was a boy there were no smart phones. Computers were something you saw on STAR TREK(星际航行), and our television only got one channel clearly. Still, I was never bored. The fields, hills, and woodlands around my house were the nature ready-made playgrounds.

    I can remember once hiking to a nearby lake and slowly walking around it. At the backside of it I was amazed to find an old, one-lane, dirt road that I had never seen before. I immediately set out to travel it. It was full of holes and muddy tracks and deep woods bordered it on both sides, but exploring it still seemed like a fine adventure.

    I walked on and on for what seemed like hours. I was sure my guardian angel was whispering in my ear to turn around and head back home but I was stubborn and even a bit stupid, so I walked on.

    The dirt road give way to a rock one and then a paved one, yet there was still neither a car nor a house in sight. My legs were getting tired. I noticed that the sun was starting to go down and I grew scared. I didn't want to end up trapped on this road in the dark of night, but I was sure it would be dark before I could make my way back to the lake again.

    I was almost in tears when I turned one last curve(弯曲处) and saw something in the distance. It was a house that I recognized. My heart leapt up! I jumped up and down and laughed out loud. I knew the way home! It was still over a mile away but my legs felt like feathers and I hurried back to my house in no time. I walked in with a big smile on my face just in time for dinner.

    I remembered this recently when I saw a sign that said, “All roads lead Home.” This is true. In this life all roads no matter what their twists(弯曲) and turns are can lead us home again. They can lead us to our homes here on Earth. They can lead us to our homes in our heart, if we can insist.

    Humans are social animals. They live in groups all over the world. As these groups of people live apart from other groups, over the years and centuries they develop their own habits and ideas, which are different from other cultures. One important particular side of every culture is how its people deal with time.

    Time is not very important in nonindustrial societies. The Nuer people of East Africa, for example, do not even have a word TIME that is in agreement with the abstract thing we call time. The daily lives of the people of such nonindustrial societies are likely to be patterned around their physical needs and natural events rather than around a time schedule(时间表)based on the clock. They cook and eat when they are hungry and sleep when the sun goes down. They plant crops during the growing seasons and harvest them when the crops are ripe. They measure time not by a clock or calendar(日历), but by saying that an event takes place before or after some other event Frequently such a society measures days in terms of "sleeps" or longer periods in terms of "moons." Some cultures, such as the Eskimos of Greenland measure seasons according to the migration of certain animals.

    Some cultures which do not have a written language or keep written records have developed interesting ways of "telling time". For example, when several Australian aborigines want to plan an event for a future time, one of them places a stone on a cliff or in a tree. Each day the angle of the sun changes slightly. In a few days, the rays of the sun strike the stone in a certain way. When this happens, the people see that the agreed-upon time has arrived and the event can take place.

    In contrast(成对比), exactly correct measurement of time is very important in modern, industrialized societies. This is because industrialized societies require the helpful efforts of many people in order to work. For a factory to work efficiently(well, quickly and without waste), for example, all of the workers must work at the same time. Therefore, they must know what time to start work in the morning and what time they may go home in the afternoon. Passengers must know the exact time that an airplane will arrive or depart. Students and teachers need to know when a class starts and ends. Stores must open on time in order to serve their customers. Complicated(复杂的)societies need clocks and calendars. Thus, we can see that if each person worked according to his or her own schedule, a complicated society could hardly work at all.