When I was 16 years old, I made my first visit to the United States. It wasn't the first time I had been abroad. Like most English children I learned French at school and I had often been to France, so I was used to speaking a foreign language to people who didn't understand English. But when I went to America I was really looking forward to having a nice easy holiday without any language problems.

    How wrong I was! The misunderstanding began at the airport. I was looking for a public telephone to give my American friend Danny a ring and tell her that I had arrived. A friendly old man saw me looking like being lost and asked if he could help me.

    “Yes,” I said. “I want to give my friend a ring.”

    “Well, that's nice,” he said. “Are you getting married? But aren't you a bit young?”

    “Who is talking about marriage?” I replied. “I just want to give my friend a ring to tell her I've arrived. Can you tell me where there's a phone box?”

    “Oh!” he said. “There's a phone downstairs.”

    When at last we did meet up, Danny explained the misunderstanding to me.

    “Don't worry,” she said to me. “I had many difficulties at first. There are lots of words which the Americans use differently in meaning from us British. You'll soon get used to all the funny things they say. But most of the time British and American people can understand each other!”

"You can you up, no can no bb." The latest Chinglish buzz phrase, having swept through Chinese cyberspace (网络空间) and society, has now made a landing overseas, entering the US web-based Urban Dictionary.

According to the entry put forward by "gingerdesu", "You can you up" which means "If you can do it, go ahead and do it", is a Chinglish catch phrases referring to people who criticize others' work, especially when the critic is not so much better.

As well as "You can you up", other Chinglish catch phrases, such as "tuhao" and "no zuo no die", have also been recorded on the site.

    Coined with roots in Chinese grammar, and even containing Pinyin, Chinglish words and phrases are even spreading beyond grass roots (草根) websites.

In 2013, "dama" and "tuhao" found their way into The Wall Street Journal and the BBC, and words such as "feng shui", "Chengguan" and "people mountain people sea" have been admitted to the Oxford English Dictionary.

"The frequent use of Chinglish by foreign institutions suggests that people are looking more to the lifestyle and popular culture of China," says Zhang Yiwu, professor of Peking University's Department of Chinese Language and Literature.

"Words like 'dama' and 'tuhao' are so vivid. My friends and I use them a lot —it's so much fun," said Satoshi Nishida, a Japanese student studying at Beijing Language and Culture University.

"Behind these Chinglish words and phrases is the Chinese culture. They are reflections of the changes and trends in the Chinese society and they help people from other countries to understand what's happening in China," according to Xing Hongbing, a professor of Beijing Language and Culture University.

"When the price of gold went down last year, while the super purchasing power of the Chinese bargain-hunting middle-aged women drew worldwide attention, there was no effective way available in other languages to describe them, and 'dama' filled the gap very neatly," says Xing.

    Mya Le Thai is a scientist studying at the University of California, Irvine. She recently discovered a process that may result in batteries that last forever. Thai said she had been discouraged that the batteries for her wireless devices degrade. Over time, they fail to charge fully.

    Thai did not like to have keep her wireless laptop connected to an electrical outlet. She decided to do something about that problem.

    At first, she and her team thought about inventing a new battery. But as they experimented, Thai discovered something that might permit lithium-ion(锂离子) batteries to last forever. Lithium-ion batteries power most wireless devices. Over time, the batteries lose the ability to hold a charge. Most of these batteries have a life span of about 7,000 charging cycles before they die.

    One of the reasons lithium-ion batteries degrade is their use of nanowires(纳米线) to carry electricity. Nanowires are extremely thin. A human hair is thousands of times thicker, for example. Nanowires are extremely efficient carriers of electricity, which makes them useful in batteries. But Thai said their thinness also makes them weak. "Nanowires break over time," she said. "That's why they lose capacity."

    But, Thai had a theory: The nanowires might last longer if covered with a material. She and the team tested her theory. The team tried many coverings for the wires. PMMA was one of them. The nanowires were coated with PMMA and cycled through charges 200,000 times. The PMMA coated nanowires showed no evidence of damage. The results suggest that batteries could last forever, without losing charging ability.

    Thai hopes to continue her research to understand why this material works so well and to see if any other material could create better results.

"It's kind of cool," she said. "I'm really glad people are showing interest in my work and not just in the work itself, but also in technology and energy."

    Chris Thomas used to think of Facebook as just a platform to get in touch with his friends. He now believes the social networking service with saving his life. The 28－year－old was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy(肌肉萎缩症) nine years ago and has relied on a wheelchair ever since.

    On July 15，2015，Thomas was getting ready for bed in his apartment，when a shelving(架子) fell onto his wheelchair and knocked him over，causing him to fall and hit the back of his head. After waking up from a few minutes of coma(昏迷)，he realized he couldn't reach the string used to get the doorkeeper's attention.

    His phone was nearby and had the Facebook application conveniently open，so he posted a status update that immediately got his friends worried—even some he hadn't spoken to in years. “It was amazing，friends from six different states who didn't know each other were connecting with each other to get me help，” Thomas said. “Now that's the power of social media! You have hundreds of people at your fingertips.”

    Eight minutes after the status went up，an old friend，Leah，got in contact with Thomas' friend Brad，whose wife was in the neighborhood，and before you knew it there were 12 Facebook friends in his apartment，who took him to the hospital at once. They showed up to the rescue at the perfect time. Minutes before they arrived，Thomas thought he was going to have a panic attack，which he often suffers from because of his illness，but he's doing better now.

    “It felt good to know that my friends，even those I haven't spoken to in the past，came to save me，” Thomas said. “They all came together .I would've never imagined it.”

    We often hear stories of animals rescuing people. But now someone has managed to return the favor.

    The event took place one snowy January morning Thomas Smith was walking his dog, Jack, in the park." As I was walking, I just saw Jack running onto the ice towards the ducks in the middle, and then he fell into the water and couldn't climb out, "said Smith. He realized he had no choice but to try and save his dog. "Someone else told me the lake was only one-meter deep, but it was at least twice that. I had to break my way through the 6-cm ice. Finally, I got Jack by the neck, and pulled him out. I don't think I have ever felt so cold by the time we got back to dry land. And when we got there, everyone was asking if Jack was okay no one was particularly worried, about me!"

    A neighbor, Julie Brown, saw it all happen. "The dog went onto an icy lake. All of a sudden, it started to go under. There were crowds of people around, and they were all shouting and screaming. Before I knew it, the owner Smith was in the water forcing his way through the ice. I can't begin to imagine how cold it was. Everyone was very nervous, but he was as cool as a cucumber he just crawled back out, put the dog on its lead, and went home."

    Many regard him as a hero, but Mr. Smith is quite laid-back about it. "Most dog owners are the same as me. They would do what I did without a second thought. But in the future, I'm going to make sure he's on lead near any ice ponds, Pets are members of our family. Would you do the same for them?