A cab company in one of Japan's major cities is introducing silent taxi drivers. Miyako Taxi, which is based in Kyoto, shows the new idea in March. The business is currently operating five “Silence Taxis” across the city.

    The cars look like any ordinary taxi，but a notice written on the back of the passenger seat  inform passengers that they have entered one of the new silent fleet. Drivers will offer a greeting when their passenger enters the car, and aside from confirming the route they will not engage in small talk. The drivers can indulge in conversation, only if they are spoken to first, and they are also allowed to communicate in emergency situations.

    Announcing the idea, Miyako Taxi said: “This service is currently in a trial stage, with the goal of creating an in-car atmosphere that provides the most comfortable ride for passengers through limiting the driver's speaking.” According to Japan Today, they made the move after hearing reports from passengers that they were fed up being forced to chat with their drivers.

    The company will assess the popularity of the trial before deciding whether to expand it and roll it out across more of their drivers.

    Language and speaking is at the heart of another issue facing Uber drivers, after lost a High Court Battle to block written tests in London. Drivers applying for a minicab license in the capital will now have to pass the written exam following Uber's failed challenge against Transport for London (TfL). The company argued it could see up to 33,000 existing drivers lose their licences under the new rule.

    The company's London head, Tom Elvidge: vowed to challenge the rule and said, “We've always supported spoken English skills, but writing an essay has nothing to do with communicating with passengers or getting them safely from A to B.”

    Traffic Light Reading is one of students' favorites! And it's so simple. Here's what to do: Take three pens in different colors, most suitably red, orange and green. But it's not too important as long as teachers and students are both clear on the colour code they're going to use.

    Students read a text, not worrying too much about how much they understand. Teachers can ask them to re-read when students are paying attention to vocabulary. Start by underlining the words that they understand completely (including names, numbers etc) in green.

    Then students re-read the text and underline the words that look familiar-they maybe know them but aren't too sure about them. You guessed it: in orange.

    Finally, students read the text a third time underlining the words they clearly don't understand in red. Sometimes teachers might want to set students a limit for how many red words they underline, telling them only to underline the words that they believe are seriously blocking their understanding of the text as a whole. Generally, however, students are pleasantly surprised by how few words are red and how many are green. Seeing their ability laid out in a visual way really helps to increase confidence.

    Once the whole text is underlined, teachers can give students a limit of 5, 10 or 15 words, depending on the length of the text, and tell them they're only allowed to look these words up in a dictionary. This helps them to recognize words that are actually getting in the way of their understanding of the text and words that they don't know but actually don't impact their whole understanding of the text.

    This is a useful activity that can be done with a printed text, in a Google Doc, on RealtimeBoard, or set as a homework task for some independent study.

    Shree Bose is one of the most impressive kids graduating from Fort Worth Country Day High School this year. Bose has a large circle of friends, and there's one who you may have heard of: President Obama. He has twice publicly recognized her achievements in cancer research and spoken with her in the Oval Office.

    If that isn't enough, Bose recently gave a TED Talk about her work with the cancer drug Cisplatin, which also won her first prize at the Google Science Fair and recognition as one of Glamour magazine's Young Amazing Women of the Year.

    After watching her grandfather struggle with liver cancer, Bose was determined to help out in any way she could. As a high school student though, her scientific choices were limited. She reached out to various hospitals and research centers, but doctors turned down her requests because they felt she was too inexperienced medically.

    Only the North Texas Science Health Center respected her determination and chose to guide her. The results were amazing.

    Bose chose to study a protein (蛋白质) and its reaction with the cancer drug Cisplatin. She noticed that when she prevented this protein from growing, Cisplatin was allowed to begin destroying cancer cells once again.

    “My project not only contributes to the understanding of the relationship between the protein and Cisplatin, but also suggests a newer, more effective treatment for patients who resist Cisplatin,” Bose said.

    Bose's achievements aren't limited to the lab, though. She was also captain of her swim team and editor-in-chief of her school paper.

    Bose is currently getting practical experience at the National Institute of Health and she'll be attending Harvard in the fall. She plans to study molecular biology and go to medical school. Eventually, she would like to be a doctor.

    It was a quiet village in which there was a military camp(军营). It was far from the towns and cities and there were some high mountains around. Of course it was a good place for training the new soldiers. But it was difficult for the young men to go outside. Mr White, an officer of forty, was strict with them and he hardly let them leave the camp.

    Once Mr White was ill in bed. He couldn't work and a young officer, Mr Hunt, began to train the new soldiers instead of him. He knew the young men well and let nine soldiers go to the nearest town to have a holiday. But night fell and none came back to the camp. He was worried about it and stood at the gate. It was five to twelve when Mr Hunt decided to go to the town and see what was happening to the young men. He started the car quickly and set off. At that moment the nine soldiers came back. It seemed they drank wine. Of course they found the officer was angry.

    "I'm sorry, sir," said the first soldier. "I left the town on time. But something was wrong with my bus on my way here. I had to buy a horse and made it run fast. Bad luck! It died and I had to run back."

    And the other seven soldiers said they were late for the same reasons. It was the last soldier's turn. He said, "I'm sorry, sir. I got on a bus on time, but……"

    Having heard this, the officer became even angrier and stopped him at once. He called out, "If you say something was wrong with your bus, I'll punish you at once!"

    "No, no, sir," said the young man. "My bus was all right, but the dead horses were in its way!"

    No matter which place you decide to visit in Spain, you'll find a beautiful beach waiting just for you. These popular beaches can meet the needs of people from all walks of life.

    Cala de Algaiarens, Minorea

    With soft golden sand and clear water, this beach is perfect for snorkeling (浅滩潜水) and visiting underwater caves. The beach belongs to a local man, so tourists have to pay a small entry fee. The waves here can sometimes be huge so the beach isn't safe for kids.

    Cala Tarida, Ibiza

    Besides the big music festivals and the exciting nightlife, Ibiza is home to some of the most beautiful beaches; one of them is Cala Tarida. Just relax on the white sand or go swimming in clear water. It is an ideal location to spend a sunny day if you are in Ibiza.

    Beach of La Concha, San Sebastian

    It has been called the best city beach not just in Spain, but also in Europe. It's so popular during the holidays that tourists have to struggle to get some space. Even though the beach is a 10- minute walk from the city, the white sand and the amzing clear waters do make the city a new world.

    Sotavento, Canary Islands

    As an ideal choice for travelers, Sotavento offers 17 miles of white sandy beach. It is blessed with strong water and winds, making it a paradise (天堂) for surfers and kite flyers. The beach also hosts the popular World Kite Surf Championship every August.

Unhealthy health care bills, long emergency-room waits and inability to find a primary care physician just scratch the surface of the problems that patients face daily.

Primary care should be the backbone of any health care system. Countries with appropriate primary care resources score highly when it comes to health outcomes and costs. The U.S. takes the opposite approach by emphasizing the specialists rather than the primary care physician.

A recent study analyzed the providers who treat Medicare Beneficiaries(老年医保受惠人). The startling finding was that the average Medicare patient saw a total of seven doctors — two primary care physicians and five specialists — in a given year. Contrary to popular belief, the more physicians taking care of you don't guarantee better care. Actually increasing breakup of care results in a corresponding rise in costs and medical errors.

How did we let primary care slip so far? The key is how doctors are paid. Most physicians are paid whenever they perform a medical service. The more a physician does, regardless of quality or outcome, the better he's reimbursed (返还费用). Moreover, the amount of a physician receives leans heavily toward medical or surgical procedures. A specialist who performs a procedure in a 30-minute visit can be paid three times more than a primary care physician using that same 30 minutes to discuss a patient's disease. Combine this fact with annual government threats to indiscriminately cut reimbursements, physicians are faced with no choice but to increase quantity to boost income.

Primary care physicians who refuse to compromise quality are either driven out of business or to cash-only practices, further contributing to the decline of primary care.

Medical students are not blind to this scenario. They see how heavily the reimbursement deck is stacked against primary care. The recent numbers show that since 1997, newly graduated U.S. medical students who choose primary care as a career have declined by 50%. This trend results in emergency rooms being overwhelmed with patients without regular doctors.

How do we fix this problem?

It starts with reforming the physician reimbursement system. Remove the pressure for primary care physicians to squeeze in more patients per hour, and reward them for optimally managing their diseases and practicing evidence-based medicine. Make primary care more attractive food to medical students by forgiving students loans for those who choose primary care as a career and harmonizing the marked difference between specialist and primary care physician salaries.

We're at the point where primary care is needed more than ever. Within a few years, the first wave of 76 million Baby Boomers will become qualified for Medicare. Patients older than 85, who need chronic care most, will rise by 50% this decade.

Who will be there to treat  them？