The most widespread fallacy (谬论)of all is that colds ire caused by cold. They are actually caused by viruses passing on from person to person. You catch a cold by coining into contact, directly or indirectly, with someone who already has one. If cold causes colds, it would be reasonable to expect the Eskimos to suffer from them forever. But they do not. And in the isolated Arctic Regions explorers have reported being free from colds until coming into contact again with infected people from the outside world by way of packages and mail dropped from airplanes.

    During the First World War soldiers who spent long periods in the trenches(战壕), cold and wet, showed no increased tendency to catch colds.

    In the Second World War prisoners at the Auschwitz concentration camp，naked and starving, were astonished to find that they seldom had colds. At the Common Cold Research Unit in England, volunteers took part in experiments in which they gave themselves to the discomforts of being cold and wet for long stretches of time. After taking hot baths, they put on bathing suits, allowed themselves to be with cold water, and then stood about dripping wet in drafty rooms. Some wore wet socks all day while others exercised in the rain until close to exhaustion. Not one of the volunteers came down with a cold unless a cold virus was actually dropped in his nose.

    If then, cold and wet have nothing to do with catching colds, why are they more frequent in the winter. Despite the most pains-taking research, no one has yet found the answer. One explanation offered by scientists is that people tend to stay together indoors more in cold weather than at other times, and this makes it easier for cold viruses to be passed on.

Zero Waste Awards

    Who should enter?

    Entries(参赛作品) are welcomed from anyone who processes waste. While we expect

    most entries to come from the UK, we welcome international entries, too. Entrants have been split into the following groups: private sector, public sector, community sector and partnerships.

    What are the categories?

    There're five categories which are based on the Waste Hierarchy(层级). We appreciate that companies will have different strengths within those categories as they work towards Zero Waste. The broad categories are: waste prevention, re-use, recycle/recover, energy recovery, general.

    How do I enter?

    Submitting an entry is really easy! Just follow these few simple steps:

    1) Carefully read through the category information;

    ). Write your entry--it should be a maximum of 1,500 words and a word document;

    3) Arrange your supporting material into a single document--maximum six pages long;

    4) Complete the simple online entry form.

    Important dates

    While entries are welcomed all year round, these are key dates—this is to give the judges plenty of time to read through all the entries! These are listed in entry deadlines column below. Don't worry if you have just missed one of the entry deadlines, your submission will be automatically entered into the next session.

    You can submit a maximum of two entries per year—six months apart.

    Awards

    We understand that working towards Zero Waste is an ongoing journey and as such the

    Zero Waste Awards scheme offers organizations a structure to celebrate their progress along the way. The four awards are: Gold (76-100), Silver (51-75), Bronze (26-50), Highly Commended(0-25).

    In the U. S., speaking more than one language fluently is not very common except in Los Angeles, California.

    The city has one of the largest population in the U. S. of young people between the ages of 18 and 34. This generation is often called millennials (新千年一代). More than half of millennials in Los Angeles are bilingual (双语的), which means they speak more than one language.

    Maria Elena Burgos is cooking a Mexican breakfast. She says making Mexican food is just one of the many traditions in her home. Another is speaking Spanish to her children.

    “We want them to be bilingual. We want to keep the Spanish somewhere in their learning too, not only at home.”

    When Ms Burgos first came to the United States from Mexico, she learned English. She knew her children would learn English quickly. So she wanted them to speak Spanish at home and study the language at school.

    She says being bilingual will give them more opportunities in the future. Knowing Spanish also means the children can talk with their relatives in Mexico.

“When we had our children, one of the decisions we as parents made was to name them with a name that was easily pronounced in English and Spanish.”

    Elizabeth wants to know her family's culture.” “The culture-to go back to our roots because that's part of who we are.”

    Monica wants to pass on the culture to her children.

    “It's nice to know our culture and then to be able to pass it onto our children and grand- children and everyone to let them know where we come from.”

    And, Monica says she does not speak only English and Spanish. She has even learned some Korean in school.

    In business, there's a speed difference: It's the difference between how important a firm's leaders say speed is to their competitive strategy and how fast the company actually moves. The difference is important regardless of industry and company size. Companies fearful of losing their competitive advantage spend much time and money looking for ways to pick up the speed.

In our study of 343 businesses, the companies that chose to go, go, go to try to gain an edge ended up with lower sales and operating incomes than those that paused at key moments to make sure they were on the right track. What's more, the firms that “slowed down to speed up” improved their top and bottom lines, averaging 40% higher sales and 52% higher operating incomes over a three-year period.

    How did they disobey the laws of business physics, taking more time than competitors yet performing better? They thought differently about what “slower” and “faster” mean. Firms sometimes fail to understand the difference between operational speed (moving quickly) and strategic speed (reducing the time it takes to deliver value). Simply increasing the speed of production, for example, may be one way to try to reduce the speed difference. But that often leads to reduced value over time, in the form of lower-quality products and services.

    In our study, higher-companies with strategic speed always made changes when necessary. They became more open to ideas and discussion. They encouraged new ways of thinking. And they allowed time to look back and learn. By contrast, performance suffered at firms that moved fast all the time, paid too much attention to improving efficiency, stuck to tested methods, didn't develop team spirit among their employees, and had little time thinking about changes.

    Strategic speed serves as a kind of leadership. Teams that regularly take time to get things right, rather than plough ahead full bore, are more successful in meeting their business goals. That kind of strategy must come from the top.

    Here's a list of books I'm looking forward to this fall season. Not all of them will rise to the level of the advertisement, but it's an abundant crop.

    "Home After Dark" by David Small (Liveright, Sept.11)

    In 2009, Small published a celebrated graphic memoir (回忆录) called "Stitches". Now the Caldecott Medal winner is back with a graphic novel about a motherless 13-year-old boy brought up in an unhappy home in California. This is a tale told in few words and many striking images. On Sept. 11 at 3p.m. . Small will be at Amazonbooks at Union Market. More information at www.amazon.com/graph-tale.

    "Waiting for Eden" by Elliot Ackerman (Knopf, Sept. 25)

    This brief novel is related by a dead soldier who is watching over a horribly burned partner in a Texas hospital. That sounds embarrassingly emotional, but Ackerman, who served in a Navy in Iraq and Afghanistan, is one of the best soldier-writers of his generation. More information at www.amazon.com/military-essay.

    "All You Can Ever Know" by Nicole Chung (Catapult, Oct. 2)

    Chung, the editor of the literary magazine Catapult, was adopted as a baby by a white family in Oregon. In this memoir, she writes about her childhood, her Asian American identity and her search for the Korean parents who gave her up. More information at www.amazon.com/politics-prose.

    "Unsheltered" by Barbara Kingsolver (Harper, Oct. 16)

    Alternating between past and present, this novel tells the story of a woman investigating a late-19th-century science teacher who was caught up in the controversy over Darwinism. Like her other novels, this one promises to explore social and scientific problems. Visit www. amazon.com/tech-science for more information.

    Camping is a good way to spend time along with your kids and to show them how wonderful nature can be. Through camping, children can discover new things about nature, such as flowers, birds, and other small animals. Camping gives kids time to get away from all the electronics (电子) of today's culture. So it is necessary to plan exciting and enjoyable family camping trips with your children while they are young.

    When planning your family camping trip, consider the activities your kids like: games, hiking, swimming, boating, bicycling, etc. Select a camping place that has some of the activities the kids are interested in. Meal planning is an important part of your camping trip. Plan the meals together, and kids love to choose what they want to eat.

    When starting to pack for your trip, let the kids pack their own items (物品) . Each person should have his/her own sleeping bag with a luggage (行李) bag to put it in. Personal items should be packed with their sleeping bags. Encourage the kids to put their items in a certain place and always return it when they have finished using it.

    When you have arrived at your campsite, make all the camping activities a family activity, which will help children to realize how important team-work is. Everyone can have his/her own job sitting up the campsite. Meal time can be a fun time. So let the older ones help with the cooking on your outdoor camping stove while the younger ones get the picnic table ready.