If women are mercilessly exploited（剥削）year after year,they have only themselves to blame.Because they tremble at the thought of being seen in public in clothes that are out of fashion,they are always taken advantage of by the designers and the big stores.Clothes which have been worn only a few times have to be put aside because of the change of fashion.When you come to think of it,only a woman is capable of standing in front of a wardrobe（衣橱）packed full of clothes and announcing sadly that she has nothing to wear.

    Changing fashions are nothing more than the intentional creation of waste.Many women spend vast sums of money each year to replace clothes that have hardly been worn.Women who cannot afford to throw away clothing in this way,waste hours of their time altering（政变）the dresses they have.Skirts are lengthened or shortened;neck-line are lowered or raised,and so on.

    No one can claim that the fashion industry contributes anything really important to society.Fashion designers are rarely concerned with vital things like warmth,comfort and durability（耐用）.They are only interested in outward appearance and they take advantage of the fact that women will put up with any amount of discomfort,as long as they look right.There can hardly be a man who hasn't at some times in his life smiled at the sight of a woman shaking in a thin dress on a winter day,or delicately picking her way through deep snow in high-heeled shoes.

    When comparing men and women in the matter of fashion,the conclusions to be drawn are obvious.Do the constantly changing fashions of women's clothes,one wonders,reflect basic qualities of inconstancy and instability （不稳定）?Men are too clever to let themselves be cheated by fashion designers.Do their unchanging styles of dress reflect basic qualities of stability and reliability（可靠）?That is for you to decide.

    What Theresa Loe is doing proves that a large farm isn't a prerequisite for a modern grow-your-own lifestyle. On a mere 1/10 of an acre in Los Angeles, Loe and her family grow, can (装罐) and preserve much of the food they consume.

    Loe is a master food preserver, gardener and canning expert. She also operates a website, where she shares her tips and recipes, with the goal of demonstrating that everyone has the ability to control what's on their plate.

    Loe initially went to school to become an engineer, but she quickly learned that her enthusiasm was mainly about growing and preparing her own food. “ got into cooking my own food and started growing my own herbs(香草)and foods for that fresh flavor,” she said. Engineer by day, Loe learned cooking at night school. She ultimately purchased a small piece of land with her husband and began growing their own foods.

    “I teach people how to live farm-fresh without a farm,” Loe said. Through her website Loe emphasizes that ''anybody can do this anywhere.” Got an apartment with a balcony (阳台)? Plant some herbs. A window? Perfect spot for growing. Start with herbs, she recommends, because “they're very forgiving.” Just a little of the herbs “can take your regular cooking to a whole new level,” she added. “I think it's a great place to start.” Then? Try growing something from a seed, she said, like a tomato or some tea.

    Canning is a natural extension of the planting she does. With every planted food, Loe noted, there's a moment when it's bursting with its absolute peak flavor. “I try and keep it in a time capsule in a canning jar,” Loe said. “Canning for me is about knowing what's in your food, knowing where it comes from.”

    In addition to being more in touch with the food she's eating, another joy comes from passing this knowledge and this desire for good food to her children: “Influencing them and telling them your opinion on not only being careful what we eat but understanding the bigger picture,” she said, “that if we don't take care of the earth, no one will.”

    In 1863, the great novelist Jules Verne wrote a novel called Paris in the Twentieth Century. In the book he used the full power of his great ability to forecast the coming century. Unfortunately, the manuscript (手稿) was lost until his great-grandson happened to discover it lying in a safe where it had been carefully locked away for almost 130 years. Realizing what a treasure he had found, he arranged to have it published in 1994, and it became a bestseller at once.

    Back in 1863, kings still ruled the ancient world in Europe, with so many poor people working in the fields. And steam power was just beginning to change the world. But Verne predicted that Paris in 1960 would have glass skyscrapers, air conditioning, TV, high-speed trains, gas-powered vehicles, and even something similar to the Internet. Verne described life in modem Paris almost without any mistakes.

    Just two years later Verne made another amazing prediction. He wrote From the Earth to the Moon, in which he predicted the details of the task that sent several astronauts to the moon 100 years later in 1969. He correctly predicted the size of the space capsule, the number of astronauts who would carry out the task, the weightlessness that the astronauts would experience, and the final landing in the ocean.

    How was Jules Verne able to predict 100 years into the future successfully? Although he was not a scientist himself, Verne often turned to scientists, asking them questions about their opinions of the future. He collected a vast amount of information about the great scientific discoveries of his time. Verne realized that science would make it possible for many amazing things to appear in the future. The secret of his successful prediction was his belief in the power of science to change society.

    The English language is full of phrases about the weather. Some of these phrases are easy to understand, but others are not really about the weather at all. If you say you "hit rough weather", you may not be struck by a real storm, but you do experience difficulties or problems. If you don't know what such phrases mean, they might leave you "in a fog (雾)"!

    In English, you can "shoot the breeze", or have an informal chat. But things can also be a breeze. If you take an exam and find it very easy, you'd tell your friends: "It was a breeze!" The wind can also bring information. You can "get wind of" a piece of news, and if someone "knows which way the wind blows", they have a good idea about how things will work out. But don't "throw caution (警惕) to the wind" — that means taking a great risk!

    Clouds sometimes bring rain, and in English they often represent problems or difficulties. If someone "sees a cloud on the horizon (地平线)", there may be problems ahead. And if someone is "under a cloud", then people think the person might have done something wrong. But clouds are not always bad; in fact, people say that "every cloud has a silver lining". This means that there is a good side to every situation, no matter how bad it may seem. You may even end up "on cloud nine", which means you are very happy! But some people have their "heads in the clouds", not paying attention to reality.

    No one likes to be stuck in the rain or storm, so it's no surprise that phrases about them are generally negative. When someone says "it never rains but it pours", they are complaining (抱怨) that when things go wrong, they go very wrong. People who talk about "weathering a storm" just want to get through a difficult period or situation.

Dogs

    Almost everyone likes dogs, and almost everyone likes to read stories about dogs.

    I have a friend who has a large police dog named Jack. Police dogs are often very clever. Every Sunday afternoon my friend takes Jack for a long walk in the park. Jack likes these long walks very much.

    One Sunday afternoon a young man came to visit my friend. He stayed a long time. He talked and talked. Soon it was time for my friend to take Jack for his walk. But the visitor still stayed. Jack became very worried. He walked around the room several times and then sat down in front of the visitor and looked at him. But the visitor paid no attention (注意).He kept on talking. Finally Jack could stand it no longer. He went out of the room and came back a few minutes later. He sat down again in front of the visitor but this time he held the visitor's hat in his mouth.

    Here is another story about a clever dog. It was a seeing-eye dog. A seeing-eye dog is a special dog that helps blind people walk along the streets and do many other things. We call these dogs "seeing-eye" dogs because they are the "eyes" of the blind man and they help him to "see". These dogs usually go to special schools for several years to learn to help blind people.

    One day a seeing-eye dog and a blind man got on a bus together. The bus was full of people and there were no seats. One man, however, soon got up and left his seat. The dog took the blind man to the seat, but there was very little space. The dog began to push the people on each side with his nose. He pushed and pushed until the people moved down and finally there was enough space for two people. The blind man then sat down and the dog got up on the seat at his side. He lie down and put his head on the leg of the blind man. He was very comfortable and soon fell asleep. Everyone on the bus had to smile at the intelligence (聪明) of the dog in making space for the blind man and, at the same time, making a place for himself.

This was no ordinary class. The students who came together were all science or engineering professors at Cornell University. They had interrupted their research to accept an invitation to take part in an unusual experiment: "an interesting week of poetry". This class was part of a study to answer the questions: Why is science difficult for many non-science students? What can teachers learn about teaching if they take a class that is not in their field? 

The students in the poetry class listened to lectures and took notes. They had reading tasks and had to write three short papers. All students noticed one thing—the importance of spoken words. In science and engineering classes, the instructors put tables and drawings on the blackboard. But in this poetry class, the instructors just talked. They didn't write anything on the board.

The scientists and engineers noticed one similarity between science and poetry. In both subjects, students need to find layers of meaning. Some layers are simple, clean, and on the surface;   other layers are deeper and more difficult. This search for different levels of meaning doesn't happen much in undergraduate science classes, but it is important later, in a graduate school. And it is always important in humanities (人文学科).

Both the poetry instructors and their students learned something about teaching from this experience. One poetry instructor, for example, now sees the importance of using careful, clear definitions when he explains a poem. He also plans to be more informative as he teaches. Most of the scientists agreed on several points. Firstly, humanities classes might help science students to see patterns and decide which information is important. Secondly, the poetry class was fun. One engineer decided, "We need to change the way we teach engineering to make it an enjoyable experience for students."

But perhaps the most important result of the experience was this: all of the professors began to think about how they teach and how they can teach better.