Don't talk to me; I'm busy with my iPhone

    Riding a London subway, a person from China will notice one major difference: in London, people do not look at each other. In fact, eye contact is avoided at all times. That's not rudeness—people are just too busy to bother looking.

    Busy doing what, you ask? Well, they're certainly not using the time for a moment of quiet reflection, nor are they reading a book. New technology has replaced quiet habits. Today the only acceptable form of book on the London underground is an e-book.

Apple company must earn a fortune from London commuters. Since the iPhone was put on market in 2007, over 40,000 — yes, that's 40,000 “apps” (programs downloaded for the iPhone) have been designed.

    Commuters love them because they are the perfect time-fillers. One “app”, called iShoot, is a game that features tanks. Another one, Tube Exits, tells passengers where to sit on the train to be closest to the exit of their destination. ISteam clouds the iPhone screen when you breathe into the microphone. You can then write in the “steam” on your phone screen.

For those without an iPhone, another Apple product, the iPod, may be another choice. It's not just teenagers who “plug in” to their music — iPods are a popular way to pass the time for all ages.

    And if games, e-books and music aren't enough to keep you occupied. Then perhaps you would prefer a film. The development of palm DVD technology means many commuters watch their favorite TV show or film on the way to work. With all this entertainments, it's amazing that people still remember to get off the train.

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    Is beauty something always positive? Almost everyone thinks attractive people are happier and healthier, have better marriages and have more respectable jobs. Personal advisors give them better advice for finding jobs. Even judges are softer on attractive defendants. But in the executive（主管的） circle, beauty can become a disadvantage.

    While attractiveness is a positive factor for a man on his way up the executive ladder, it is harmful to a woman. Handsome male executives were considered having more honesty than plainer men; effort and ability were thought to lead to their success. Attractive female executives were considered to have less honesty than unattractive ones; their success was connected not with ability but with factors such as luck.

    All unattractive women executives were thought to have more honesty and to be more capable than the attractive female executives. Why are attractive women not thought to be able? An attractive woman has an advantage in traditionally female jobs, but an attractive woman in a traditionally manly position appears to lack the manly qualities required.

    This is true even in politics, “When the only clue is how he or she looks, people treat men and women differently, ” says Anne Bowman, who recently published a study on the effects of attractiveness on political candidates（候选人）. She asked 125 college students to rank two groups of photographs, one of men and one of women, in order of attractiveness. The students were told the photographs were of candidates for political offices. They were asked to rank them again, in the order they would vote for them.

    The results showed that attractive males completely defeated unattractive men, but the women who had ranked most attractive unchangeably received the fewest votes.

    My mother once was a follower of traditional methods when it came to anything. She cooked traditional food, liked dressing up traditionally and thus was fond of traditional way of shopping. She loved going to the market and going from one shop to another to find out what suited her best. She could walk miles when it came to shopping along with her friends. She was familiar with all the local markets and shops and by now knows very well where she can get best discounts and material.

    However, now she begins to feel her age and gets tired when she goes out in the market. So one day I decided to introduce a new shop to her, a shop that is much bigger than her usual markets and where she gets better discounts. Yes, I am talking about the online gift stores. She has basic knowledge of computers and can operate a laptop. Initially (起初) she was doubtful about shopping from these online gift shops and wasn't too sure about the quality of the products.

    One fine day I decided to get some branded things for her first so that she could build trust in these shops. I ordered a Timex watch for her along with a Sisley handbag. She never bought things online but when they were delivered as a gift, she jumped for joy. She could not believe that I had ordered these gifts for her despite her being not very positive about online shops. However, after she saw both the products, she believed that these online gift shops would send the promised brand and products. She loved her new watch and the handbag.

    After this incident she ordered a gift for her friend's wedding anniversary. She chose a gift basket that could be made to her requirements. They sent a beautifully decorated basket with fine wines and chocolates. The basket was so carefully decorated that it immediately became her friend's favorite gift. Since then my mother has been often shopping online.

    Are you a different person when you speak a foreign language? That's just one of the questions the New Yorker's writer and native North Carolinian Lauren Collins explores in her autobiography, about her tough efforts to master French after marrying a Frenchman whose name —Olivier—she couldn't even pronounce properly. When in French ranges from the humorously personal story to a deeper look at various theories of language acquisition and linguistics (语言学).

    The couple met in London “on more or less neutral ground: his continent, my language.” But the balance shifted when they moved to Geneva for Olivier's work. The normally voluble (健谈的) Collins found herself at a loss — “nearly speechless.” The language barrier, and her dependence on her husband for simple things like buying the right cut of meat worsened her mixed feelings about “unlovely, but not ridiculous” Geneva. She comments, “Language, as much as land, is a place__To be cut off from it is to be, in a sense, homeless.”

    Her sense of alienation (疏离感) leads to an examination of America's miserable record when it comes to foreign languages, “Linguists call America 'the graveyard of languages' because of its singular ability to take in millions of immigrants and make their native languages die out in a few generations,” Collins writes. Educated in Wilmington, N.C., and at Princeton, she could — like the vast majority of Americans — only speak their mother tongue.

    Eight months after she moved to Switzerland, Collins gives up on the natural acquisition of language and finally attends a French course. As she struggles with grammar and vocabulary, Collins notes smartly that vert (green),verre (glass), ver (worm), vers (toward), and vair (squirrel) compose a quintuple homonym (同形异义). “Although it's difficult, French can try” she says.

    French is actually considered among the easiest languages for an English speaker to learn, especially compared to Arabic or Mandarin Chinese. Collins, whose notably rich English vocabulary includes glossolalia (nonsense speech) and shibboleth (catchword or slogan), finds plenty of terrific French words to love. She writes, “English is a trust fund, an unearned inheritance (遗产), but I've worked for every bit of French I've banked.”

    Unlike Jhumpa Lahiri, who became so hooked on Italian and used it to write In Other Words, Collins's goals for learning French were more modest, “I wanted to speak French and to sound like North Carolina.” She also wanted to be able to deal with chimney sweeps and butchers, communicate with her in-laws, and “to touch Olivier in his own language.” She admits that she feels different speaking French. ''Its austerity (朴素) made me feel more confused.”

    Readers looking for the romantic spark of classic cross-cultural love stories featuring an outgoing American and a shy Frenchman will find flashes of it here. Among the many cultural differences the couple argue over are her enthusiastic American habit of applying the verb love to express enthusiasm for shoes, strawberries, and husbands alike. But there's far more to Collins, book than fantastic comedy, and those who have experienced linguistic crossings themselves tend to find particular resonance (共鸣) in its inquiry into language, identity, and transcultural translation.

Arranged by chapters named for verb tenses, When in French works its way from The Past Perfect (Le plus-que-parfait) to The Present (Le Present) and The Conditional (Le Conditionnel). Collins ends on a delightful note with Le Futur—fitting for a new mother about to move with her hard-won French husband, French language, and Swiss-born daughter to the French-speaking city of her dreams, Paris.

    People in developed countries are increasingly suffering from illnesses resulting from overeating. While starvation and hunger are still big problems in many poor countries in the world, more than 25 percent of the population in America and other western countries are obese. This doesn't just mean you are a little bit fat. It means you are more than 20 kilos overweight.

    Dr. John Colon from Ohio State University says the problem is only going to get worse.” As more women have gone out to work, you find that parents in general have less time to spend on preparing food. That's not just cooking, but also planning what to eat, doing the shopping and buying the fresh food. Families, therefore, increasingly rely on ready-made and frozen meals, which tends to be high in fat and contain a lot of additives(materials added to food to improve its taste) and sugar. The other thing is that parents seem to feel guilty about not spending so much time with their kids, so they tend to give more quickly to children's demands for things like sweets and chocolate.”

    Ben Brown. Who is a British Member of Parliament, blames the big food companies. He wants to ban any food advertising that is aimed at children. "The problem is that these companies spend millions of pounds selling food to children. It's all crisps (薯片) in the shape of dinosaurs and chocolate in the shape of Mickey Mouse. I meanwhat's going to be more fun to an sight-year-old —an ice cream with a free toy or an apple?"

    One food company thinks it has an answer to this: it has invented cheese-flavored cabbage and chocolate-flavored carrots. It developed the "Whacky Veg" with money donated by a cancer research charity, which found that a diet containing lots of fruit and vegetables helps reduce cancer. However, today's sweet-toothed kids need to be bribed(贿赂)into a healthy diet, and will only cat their greens if they taste different.

    Bill Bowerman was a track coach. He wanted to help athletes run faster. So he had learned how to make running shoes. He had also started a shoe company with a friend. It was 1971. Running shoes at the time were heavy. They had spikes (鞋钉) on the sole (鞋底). The spikes tore up the track and slowed down runners.

    To make a lighter shoe, Bill tried the skins of fish. To make a better sole, he wanted to replace the spikes. Bill dug through his wife Barbara's jewelry box. He hoped to find a piece of jewelry with an interesting pattern. He would then copy the pattern onto the new soles. Nothing worked. Bill was defeated.

    Then, one Sunday morning, Barbara made Bill waffles (华夫饼) for breakfast. Bill watched her cook.

    He studied the criss-cross pattern on a waffle iron.

    Inspiration struck. The pattern on the waffle iron was just what Bill was looking for. The squares were flatter and wider than sharp spikes. The pattern would help the shoes hold any surface without tearing into it.

When Barbara left the house, Bill ran to his lab. He took the liquid chemicals that, when mixed, would harden into the sole of a shoe. He poured the mixture into the waffle iron—and the Waffle Trainer was born.

Bill's company put the Waffle Trainer on market in 1974. It was a huge hit. Maybe you've heard of that company—it's called Nike. And today it's worth around $100 billion.

It was the waffle iron that had changed the course of Bill's life—and helped turn Nike into a well-known name. Today, the waffle iron is kept at Nike headquarters. It serves as a reminder that if we keep trying, we can find a solution to even the most difficult problems. And those solutions can come from unlikely places, even the breakfast table.