A new research shows that in Britain more and more people are returning to the old tradition that the whole family has a meal at table. Worrying about the obesity(肥胖症) and breakdown of a family, people change their eating habits so greatly, according to analysis. They find the number of the family having a meal together increases by 5% from 2002 to 2004, and most people who have meals with their family come from the rich social class.

    The new discovery makes doctors and the people struggling against obesity extremely excited. Giving up the tradition that the whole family have a meal together is exactly one of the reasons for a series of problems including children's overweight. If a child has a meal in front of the television or the computer alone, he will often eat some fast food.

    Jason Collins is one of the persons returning to the old tradition. Collins is a manager of a bake house. He finds after he gets used to having a meal at home with his child, the child becomes much more obedient(听话的). Dr. Jin is a child psychologist, and she expresses welcome to this result of the study. She says it can make parents have a very good chance to chat with the child when the whole family have a meal together.

    Different people use different languages. We Chinese speak Chinese, and, most of us are learning a foreign language. But there is another kind of language we need to know — the language of the body.

    All over the world, people “talk with their hand, with their heads and with their eyes.” When Japanese people meet, they bow. When Indians meet, they put their hands together. What do American and British do? Americans are more informal (不拘小节的) than the British. They like to be friendly. They use first names, they ask questions and they talk easily about themselves. When they sit down, they like to relax in their chairs and make themselves comfortable. British people are more reserved (保守的). They take more time to make friends. They like to know you before they ask your name.

    When British or American people meet someone for the first time, they shake hands. They do not usually shake hands with people they know well. Women sometimes kiss their women friends, and men kiss women friends (on one cheek only). When a man meets a man, he just smiles, and says, “Hello.” Men do not kiss each other, or hold hands. Even fathers and sons do not often kiss each other.

    Several years ago, my parents, my wife, my son and I ate at one of those restaurants where the menu is written on a blackboard. After a wonderful dinner, the waiter set the check in the middle of the table. That's when it happened：my father did not reach for the check.

    Conversation continued. Finally I realized that I should pick up the check! After hundreds of restaurant meals with my parents, after a lifetime of thinking of my father as the one with dollars, it had all changed. I reached for the check, and my view of myself suddenly changed. I was an adult. I was no longer a kid (child).

Some people mark off (区分) their lives in years, I measure mine in small events. I didn't become a young man at a particular age, like 16, but rather when a kid who wandered in the streets called me "mister". These events in my life are called "milestones"(里程碑).

    There have been other milestones. The cops (policemen) of my youth always seemed big, even huge, and of course they were older than I was. Then one day they were suddenly neither. The day came when I suddenly realized that all the football players in the game I was watching were younger than I was. They were just big kids. With that milestone gone was the dream that someday, maybe I, too, could be a football player. Without ever having reached the hill, I was over it.

    I never thought that I would fall asleep in front of the TV set as my father did. Now it's what I do best. I never thought that I would go to the beach and not swim, yet I spent all of August at the shore and never once went into the ocean. I never thought that I would appreciate opera, but now the combination of voice and orchestra attracts me. I never thought that I would prefer to stay home in the evenings, but now I find myself passing up parties. I used to think that people who watched birds were strange, but this summer I found myself watching them, and maybe I'll get a book on the subject. I feel a strong desire for a religious belief that I never thought I'd want, feel close to my ancestors long gone, and echo my father in arguments with my son. I'll still lose….

    One day I bought a house. One day－What a day!－I became a father, and not too long after that I picked up the check for my own father. I thought then it was a milestone for me. One day, when I was a little older, I realized it was one for him too, another milestone．

    He looked like a pirate.

    With his handkerchief tied in a knot behind his little nine-year-old head, he looked like a pirate, a sad pirate. The first time little David came to our camp, he was hairless and worn out from medical treatments. He was also very angry.

    Paul Newman's camp counselors (指导老师) were hoping to fill David's days with fun and laughter. But David stayed inside himself, wanting to be alone, or in a corner of the cabin. At this camp for children with life-threatening illnesses, we had seen some pretty tough children worn out by cancer recover full of energy despite their illness. But we saw little progress in David no matter what we tried with him. Five days into the eight-day session saw a quiet, sad little pirate.

    Then something happened on that fifth night. Something at camp that we would call "huge". It was cabin night. That's the time when campers and counselors spend time together in each individual cabin instead of an all-camp activity. Campers love cabin nights because there's always a bedtime snack. On the cabin table that night were bags of potato chips.

    David slowly walked over to the table, leaving his comer to join the rest of us. He took one of the bags of the potato chips and started smashing(弄碎) it with his little fists, as all the other campers looked on in disbelief, I wondered what the cabin counselor would do.

    The college-age volunteer counselor positioned a bag of chips on die table in front of himself, and he, too, started smashing it with his fist. The campers went crazy as everyone ran to the table to get in on the fun of smashing potato chips with their fists.

    Somehow everyone knew, everyone sensed, that anger within him was now being released.

    For the last couple days of the session, David was a different kid. He was a little nine-year-old boy again, trying to fill the hours of each remaining day at camp with as much fun as could be possible.

    Several days after the session, David came back again. This time, there wasn't anything he wouldn't try to fit in to his day. He sure was having a great time at camp. David asked me if I needed an altar(祭坛)boy when I celebrated Mass in the woods. Sure enough, he was my altar boy. I remembered how carefully he listened to me when I talked about death. I said it's only a doorway. You walk through the door and there's the Lord God and behind God a whole line of people waiting to hug you.

    After Mass, he said to me, "Hey Fatha, a door, huh?"

    A couple more days of fun passed and tonight was the talent show. The tradition is that campers and counselors dress up in costumes, and everyone gets a standing applause for singing and dancing or simply just acting like fools on stage.

    The show had begun: lights, camera, action.

    Unfortunately, the only action taking place in our row of seats was little David making his way from counselor to counselor to say an early good-bye to camp. He had become quite ill and had to go to the hospital because of this new crisis.

    When this little nine-year-old pirate stood in front of me, he gave me a hug and a big wet kiss on my cheek. I was crying. He was crying. A whole row of counselors was in tears. After the hug and kiss, he put his hands on my shoulders, and tears still in his eyes, said: "See you on the other side of the door, Fatha."

    Houses have been getting progressively "smarter" for decades, but the next generation of smart homes may offer what two Case Western Reserve University scientists are calling an "Internet of Ears."

    Today's smart home features appliances, entertainment systems, security cameras and lighting, heating and cooling systems that are connected to each other and the Internet. They can be accessed and controlled remotely by computer or smartphone apps.

    But a group of electrical engineering and computer science professors in the Case School of Engineering have been experimenting with a new suite of sensors (传感器). This system would read not only the vibrations (震动), sounds and even other movements associated with people and animals in a building, but also any slight changes in the existing electrical field.

    While there still maybe a decade or so away, the home of the future could be a building that adjusts to your activity with only a few small, hidden sensors in the walls and floor with-out the need for monitoring cameras.

    "We are trying to make a building that is able t0 61isten' to the humans inside," said Ming-Chun Huang, an assistant professor in electrical engineering and computer science. "We are using principles similar to those of the human ear, where vibrations are picked up and our algorithms (计算程序) recognize them to determine your specific movements. That's why we call it the 61nternet of Ears'. "

    “There is actually a constant 60 Hz electrical field all around us, and because people are somewhat conductive, they short out the field just a little," Huang said. "So, by measuring the disturbance in that field, we are able to determine their presence, or even their breathing, even when there are no vibrations associated with sound.”

    Huang said they have used as few as four small sensors in the walls and floor of a room.

    As for privacy concerns, the system would not be able to identify individuals, although it could recognize people's different ways of walking.

    When the telephone rings late at night, most women guess it must be one of only four or five people calling. A sister? Maybe. An emergency? Possibly. A mother? Probably not at that time of night. Much more probably it is a close female friend calling to tell you that she is heartbroken because she has split up with her boyfriend again or perhaps simply that a good movie has just started on TV.

    At a time when families are spread far and wide and marriages often end in divorce, friendships are becoming more and more important. Erika, a 32-year-old lawyer, is strengthened by her ten year friendship with her married friend Jane. "I was very sick one night, so I called Jane at about 3：00 a. m. to talk about it," she says. "She was very supportive and even came over to take me to the doctor's."

    As American TV shows like Friends have become more popular, many of us are beginning to see the value of such friendships.TV shows like this tell us that our romantic relationships may not last, but we need to keep in touch with our close friends if we want to survive.

    With Erika's family 200 miles away, it is Jane who keeps a spare set of keys to Erika's apartment and waters her plants whenever she is away. "Having Jane around gives me a certain amount of freedom. It is not the kind of thing that you could ask anyone to do, but she knows I would do the same for her. "Jane, who may move to a different city soon, is worried about leaving such a support system of friends. "My friends have more to do with my life than my parents and, therefore, I don't have to spend a lot of time explaining things to them. Friends are more up to date with what is happening."