Dictionaries are not closed books. There is still plenty of room for more words in these great vocabulary authorities.

    Dictionaries are not closed books. There is still plenty of room for more words in these great vocabulary authorities. New words are continually being created and added to our language. And many of today's word experts can credit a famous mathematician with the creation of the method by which they develop many new words. The mathematician was an Englishman named Charles L. Dodgson. In addition to working with figures, Dodgson wrote books. His imaginative stories and poems have made Dodgson beloved to generations of readers. We know him, however, not by the name of Dodgson but by his pen name, Lewis Carroll.

    Lewis Carroll has delighted countless readers, young and old, with Alice in Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass, and numerous poems. In these works, Carroll developed dozens of nonsensical words such as "chortle" and "galumph". Many of these words are combined naturally with more common words in the English language. Carroll referred to his made-up words as "portmanteau" words, named after a kind of leather suitcase that opens into two compartments. The name was well suited, because most of Carroll's words had two compartments. Rather than being entirely fabricated（虚构）, they were usually made from the combined parts of two different words. A "snark", for example, clearly came from a snake and a shark.

    Although Carroll died long ago, his technique continues to be used today. We clearly see his influence in such words as smog, brunch, and guesstimate.

    Scientists have been interested for years in the observation that ratios(比率）of finger lengths differ in men and women. In men, the ring (fourth) finger is usually longer than the index (second); their so-called 2D :4D ratio is lower than 1. In females, the two fingers are more likely to be the same length. Because of this sex differences, some scientists believe that a low ratio could be a marker for higher prenatal hormone(产前激素）levels, although it's not clear how the hormone might influence finger development. The 2D : 4D ratio has also been fingered in connection with brain-related characteristics—most often in males--such as depression, left-handedness, musical ability, and homosexuality.

    In the latest such study, psychologist Mark Brosnan and colleagues at the University of Bath in the United Kingdom photocopied the hands of 74 boys and girls aged 6 and 7.They compared the measurements of the second and fourth fingers with the children's scores on a standard UK test of math and literacy. In boys, the lower the ratio, the better their math score, the team reports in the May issue of the British Journal of Psychology, The boys with the lowest ratios also were the ones whose abilities were most skewed in the direction of math rather than literacy. These differences are small but significant, says Brosnan. With the girls, there was no correlation between finger ration and numeracy, but those with higher ratios—probably indicating low hormone levels—had better scores on verbal abilities.

    These sex-specific correlations show how tricky it is to define the roles of sex hormones, says psychologist S .Marc Breedlove of Michigan State University in East Lansing. The range of normal levels of the hormone is different in males and females, so comparable levels would have very different meanings depending on the sex of the individual. And the timing of hormone surges is as important as levels.

    Nevertheless, Brosnan believes finger measurements might be useful for predicting cognitive abilities—although he acknowledges that “we are not suggesting that finger length measurements could replace SAT tests”. Others are more cautious, pointing out that scientists still have not confirmed that finger ratio is a reliable marker for prenatal hormone levels.

    It seems that the great desire among the young is to be popular. The desire to be popular can force you into looking and acting like everyone else. You can lose yourself in a sea of identical hairstyles and thinking styles.

    I was forced to think about popularity not too long ago in a talk I had with my daughter. Margy had to change schools when my busy work schedule made it necessary for me to move houses. I suppose that，for a girl in her teens，entering a new school is like spending a season alone in the tropical jungles. At least that's how Margy found it at first. However，as the school year drew to a close，one student after another came to her.I told Margy that I would have been more concerned if she had been an instant social success in her new school. Nobody can please everyone. If you try to do so，you will find values as lasting as soap bubbles blown into the air.

    Some teenagers claim they want to dress as they please. But they all wear the same clothes. They set off in new directions in music. But somehow they all end up listening to the same record. Their reason for thinking or acting in a certain way is that the crowd is doing it. They have come out of their cocoon into a larger cocoon.

    I know that it has become harder for a young person to stand up against the popularity wave. Our way of life makes a young nonconformist stand out like a Martian. These days there's a great barrier for the young person who wants to find his or her own path. But the barrier is worth climbing over. You may want to listen to classical music instead of going to a party. Well，go to it. Be yourself .Popularity will come with the people who respect you for who you are. That's the only kind of popularity that really counts.

    It took place at the Biltmore Hotel. My grandmother, my mother, and I were having lunch after a morning spent shopping. I gladly ordered a Salisbury steak. When brought to the table, it was accompanied by a plate of peas. I do not like peas now. I did not like peas then. I have always hated peas.

    “Eat your peas,” my grandmother said.

    “Mother,” said my mother in her warning voice. “He doesn't like peas. Leave him alone.”

    My grandmother did not reply, but leaned in my direction, looked me in the eye, and spoke out the fateful words that changed my life, “I'll pay you five dollars if you eat those peas.”

    I only knew that five dollars was a huge, nearly unimaginable amount of money, and awful as peas were, only one plate of them stood between me and the possession of that five dollars. I began to force them down my throat.

    My mother looked livid (铁青色的). My grandmother had a self-satisfied look and said, “I can do what I want, Ellen, and you can't stop me.” My mother glared at her mother. She glared at me. No one can glare like my mother. If there were a glaring Olympics, she would undoubtedly win the gold medal.

    I, of course, kept shoving peas down my throat, and every single pea made me want to throw up, but the magical image of the five dollars floated before me, and I finally swallowed every last one of them. My grandmother handed me the five dollars with satisfaction. My mother continued to glare in silence.

    That night, at dinner, my mother served two of my all-time favorite foods, meatloaf and mashed potatoes. Along with them came a big, steaming bowl of peas. She offered me some peas, and of course I declined. My mother fixed me with a cold eye as she heaped（堆积) a huge pile of peas onto my plate. Then came the words that were to haunt (萦绕) me for years. “You ate them for money,” she said, “You can eat them for love.”

Over the years, electronic commerce or e-commerce has grown rapidly. The rise of e-commerce large enterprises such as Amazon and Alibaba in the mid-90s changed the face of the retail (零售) industry. E-commerce may be thought of as an open, global marketplace or a digital version of mail-order catalogue (目录). Nearly every imaginable product and service is available through e-commerce dealings these days.

Many young entrepreneurs have dived into the e-commerce world, ambitious and hoping to succeed. Some, like Mitchell Zvagelskiy. Zvagelskiy is the co-founder of Scale Online, a fast-growing startup in California and runs several e-commerce stores. Zvagelskiy and his business partner began opening online stores and building a team to grow them, allowing the stores to earn as much as $100.000＋ in monthly revenue. Zvagelskiy owes his success to teamwork and his willingness to seize opportunity.

"Being able to do this all by the age of 20 is something I didn't expect and would not be able to do if I constantly listened to other people and just went the typical college then job route," he said. "Life can change fast if you change fast."

Thanks to the rapid success of his YouTube channel, Mitchell has been able to not only make great profit from his companies, but help others in starting and growing their own e-commerce stores too. "My meaning of success arises from my relationships with other people," he said. "By focusing on building strong relationships with others, I'm able to partner up and work with like-minded individuals in finding market opportunities and solving whatever problems people are facing."