The United States has always been a country of many cultures. Before Europeans came to North America, many groups of Native Americans lived here. Different Native American groups had different cultures. The first Europeans in the United States were from England and Holland, but immigrants came from all European countries. Many people also immigrated from Asia and Africa. Sadly, many Africans were brought to the United States as slaves. Many immigrants come from Latin America too. Today, the United States has people from more cultures than ever.

    In the 19th century, people spoke of the United States as a “melting pot.” People thought that all immigrates should forget their native cultures and languages and become English-speaking Americans. They felt that people should assimilate-join American culture. However, not everyone wanted to assimilate completely. Many people tried to keep parts of their cultures, such as foods, customs, and languages. However, their children often forgot their parents' or grandparents' language. But most Americans, even those whose families have been here a long time, can tell the countries their relatives came from. And of course, new immigrants take great pride in their curare and language.

    For all of these reasons, melting pot is no longer a good way to describe the United States. Instead, people now call the United States a “salad bowl.” They say salad bowl because in a salad, you can still see all of the individual parts (lettuce, tomato, and so on), but all the different parts mixed together and begin to take on the flavor of one another.

    The online takeaway industry is growing in China along with the rapid development of the Internet economy. But environmental activists complain that the huge volume of plastic utensils (用具), wrapping and containers presents a great challenge to the environment, and that the heavy use of throwaway wooden chopsticks is reducing natural resources.

    On September 1, the Beijing No.4 Intermediate People's Court accepted a lawsuit filed by the Chongqing Green Volunteer League, an environmental non-government organization (NGO), against the country's three largest food delivery platforms—Baidu Waimai, Ele.me and Meituan. The NGO stated that the companies failed to provide customers with the choice to not receive throwaway plastic utensils along with their food deliveries. Meanwhile, these utensils have created large amounts of rubbish and caused serious ecological damage.

    In response, both Meituan and Ele.me, which acquired Baidu Waimai in August, have promised to take measures to reduce plastic waste. Meituan announced that it would appoint a chief environmental officer to oversee environmental issues from plastic waste and upgrade its smartphone app to provide consumers with the option of ordering food without single-use chopsticks, spoons or napkins. Ele.me followed by offering a similar choice and putting forward a plan to introduce suppliers of degradable (可降解的) plastic utensils to restaurants in the long term.

    Is there a possible way out? Combined efforts by delivery platforms, consumers, restaurants and government departments are required to address plastic waste pollution.

    For platforms, promoting environmental protection and introducing this idea to consumers are a meaningful move. Moreover, in the future, they should also make strict rules on the use of plastic utensils. For example, no more than one plastic bag should be used to wrap soup dishes, and all plastic products should be degradable. It is a long and difficult task for them, and the recent reactions from Ele.me and Meituan are just beginnings.

    Considering most takeout food packaging is thrown into garbage bins and then taken away along with other household garbage, sorting of waste also becomes more important. Government departments could play a major role in this, and by recycling some materials, waste pollution could be reduced and resources saved. Furthermore, there have been growing calls that the government should also invest more in developing degradable plastic products or environmentally friendly alternatives.

    Though consumers enjoy the convenience yet also suffer exposure to the pollution, many of them have paid little attention to the plastic waste problem. Environmental groups suggest that consumers change their habits a little by using their own utensils and dishes and refusing unnecessary plastic containers.

    For years I have had no idea what I have been doing with my life. I was a 30-year-old lawyer in New York. But being a lawyer was never my dream or goal in life. I honestly wanted to be a writer. I have a great imagination and would write amazing stories in my head. But I always knew that being a writer was never possible for me because it was a better financial decision to stay a lawyer.

    Recently, I couldn't fall asleep at my usual time of 10 p. m. and when I did fall asleep I had the same dream over and over again. The dream starts with me in the ocean trying to go for a swim and I'm searching for something, but I start to drown and have no control over my body. Then a light shines through the waters and when I look up all I can see is myself in a bright white room writing a novel. Then I hear a voice say repeatedly, “Now is the time to try something new!”

    It wasn't just a dream; it was my opportunity to make something good out of my life. That afternoon, I quit my job at the law firm and I couldn't have been any happier. My life started at 30, and every day since that point I haven't stopped enjoying life. I started to write and have been on the best-sellers list for the last two months. Things have definitely turned around.

    Change is a good thing; it gives us an opportunity to take a chance. So my two favorite words I live by and so should you are “change and chance”.

    It happens from time to time: you feel terrible when you take your first bite of a certain food, but after eating more, you find yourself enjoying it. This is what is called an acquired taste. But why do our tastes change?

    The answer, according to a recent study presented at an American Chemical Society meeting in Boston, lies in proteins in our saliva (唾液).

    Most of us tend to think saliva, almost entirely made up of water, is “only a mouth lubricant (润滑剂) helping us to swallow food,” the New York Times said. However, it also contains many proteins, which can help break food down, protect our teeth and help in tasting food.

    To explain how these proteins affect taste, a team of scientists from Purdue University in the US invited 64 volunteers to drink a bitter-tasting chocolate milk three times a day for six weeks and rated their tastes at the same time.

    According to the research, the participants found a strong bitterness on the first day, but the unpleasant flavor came to decrease as time went on and finally disappeared.

    That is not all that was changing. A noticeable increase in the levels of proline-rich (富含脯氨酸的) proteins was found in the saliva samples of the test subjects in the research period. These proteins serve to reduce the bitterness we taste and improve our adaptation to this flavor.

    “We think the body adapts to reduce the negative feeling of these bitter compounds,” said Cordelia Running, a food scientist at Purdue University. “Saliva changes flavor, which in turn changes eating choices.”

    This change in taste not only makes the food tastier, but also helps people keep an appetite for healthy food whose flavor might otherwise keep them away.

    One day, these proteins may even be extracted (提炼) and used as a separate food additive that could help people stick to healthy food whose flavor they continue to dislike, researchers told Science Alert. And according to Running, even it doesn't happen, the idea that “maybe some little piece of your body is actually trying to help you” could really benefit some people. Let's wait and see.

    One of the most important aspects of an image is color. People are very sensitive to color, and different colors have different on people.

    In general, red is an exciting color, which creates an image of action, energy danger. Red is also the most frequently used color in flags. Eighty percent of the world's flags contain red. A study in Germany showed that football teams wearing red are more successful. Blue is a very calm color. Business executives usually wear dark blue suits. Blue is also a peaceful color. The flag of the United Nations is light blue. Yellow is associated with openness and freedom. Green is a very relaxing color. Surgeons nowadays wear green, because it's less tiring than white. Black creates an image of power and authority. It can also be a very threatening color. Gangsters and vampires often wear black, white is a pure and strong color. This is one reason why doctors wear white coats. We trust them more. Grey is a very anonymouscolor. People wearing grey don't want other people to notice them. Brown is the opposite of black. It's warm and friendly, while black is threatening

Teaching Poetry

    No poem should ever be discussed or "analyzed", until it has been read aloud by someone, teacher or student. Better still, perhaps, is the practice of reading it twice, once at the beginning of the discussion and once at the end, so the sound of the poem is the last thing one hears of it.

    All discussions of poetry are, in fact, preparations for reading it aloud, and the reading of the poem is, finally, the most telling "interpretation" of it, suggesting tone, rhythm, and meaning all at once. Hearing a poet read the work in his or her own voice, on records or on film, is obviously a special reward. But even those aids to teaching can not replace the student and teacher reading it or, best of all, reciting it.

    I have come to think, in fact, that time spent reading a poem aloud is much more important than "analyzing" it, if there isn't time for both. I think one of our goals as teachers of English is to have students love poetry. Poetry is "a criticism of life", and "a heightening of life". It is "an approach to the truth of feeling", and it "can save your life". It also deserves a place in the teaching of language and literature more central than it presently occupies.

    I am not saying that every English teacher must teach poetry. Those who don't like it should not be forced to communicate this to anyone else. But those who do teach poetry must keep in mind a few things about its essential nature, about its sound as well as its sense, and they must make room in the classroom for hearing poetry as well as thinking about it.