As is often the case, when your teacher asks a question, there is only one correct answer. But there is one question that has millions of current answers. That question is "What's your name?" Everyone gives a different answer, but everyone is correct.

    Have you ever thought about people's names? Where do they come from? What do they mean?

    People's first names, or given names, are chosen by their parents. Sometimes the name of a grandparent or other member of the family is used. Some parents choose the name of a well-known person. A boy could be named George Washington Smith; a girl could be named Helen Keller Jones.

    Some people give their children names that mean good things. Clara means "bright"; Beatrice means "one who gives happiness"; Donald means "world ruler"; Leonard means “as brave as a lion”.

    The earliest last names, or surnames, were taken from place names. A family with the name Brook or Brooks probably lived near brook(小溪); someone who was called Longstreet probably lived on a long, paved road. The Greenwood family lived in or near a leafy forest.

    Other early surnames came from people's occupations. The most common occupational name is Smith, which means a person who makes things with iron or other metals. In the past, smiths were very important workers in every town and village. Some other occupational names are: Carter — a person who owned or drove a cart; Potter — a person who made pots and pans.

    The ancestors of the Baker family probably baked bread for their neighbors in their native village. The Carpenter's great-great-great-grandfather probably built houses and furniture.

    Sometimes people were known for the color of their hair or skin, or their size, or their special abilities. When there were two men who were named John in the same village, the John with the gray hair probably became John Gray. Or the John was very tall could call himself John Tallman. John Fish was probably an excellent swimmer and John Lightfoot was probably a fast runner or a good dancer.

    Some family names were made by adding something to the father's name. English-speaking people added –s or –son. The Johnsons are descendants of John; the Roberts family's ancestor was Robert. Irish and Scottish people added Mac or Mc or O. Perhaps all of the MacDonnell's and the McDonnell's and the O'Donnell's are descendants of the same Donnell.

    Next time a customer comes to your office, offer him a cup of coffee. And when you're doing your holiday shopping online, make sure you're holding a large glass of iced tea. The physical sensation (感觉) of warmth encourages emotional (情感的) warmth, while a cold drink in hand prevents you from making unwise decisions—those are the practical lesson being drawn from recent research by psychologist (心理学家) John A. Bargh.

    Psychologists have known that one person's perception (感知) of another's “warmth” is a powerful determiner in social relationships. Judging someone to be either “warm” or “cold” is a primary consideration, even trumping evidence that a “cold” person may be more capable (能干的). Much of this is rooted in very early childhood experiences, Bargh argues, when babies' sense of the world around them is shaped by physical sensations, particularly warmth and coldness.

    Feelings of “warmth” and “coldness” in social judgments appear to be universal. Although no worldwide study has been done, Bargh says that describing people as “warm” or “cold” is common to many cultures, and studies have found those perceptions influence judgment in dozens of countries.

    To test the relationship between physical and psychological warmth, Bargh conducted an experiment which involved 41 college students. A research assistant who was unaware of the study's hypotheses (假设), handed the students either a hot cup of coffee, or a cold drink, to hold while the researcher filled out a short information form: The drink was then handed back. After that, the students were asked to rate the personality of “Person A” based on a particular description. Those who had briefly held the warm drink regarded Person A as warmer than those who had held the iced drink.

    “We are grounded in our physical experiences even when we think abstractly (抽象的),” says Bargh.

    As Internet users become more dependent on the Internet to store information, are people remembering less? If you know your computer will save information, why store it in your own personal memory, your brain? Experts are wondering if the Internet is changing what we remember and how.

    In a recent study, Professor Betsy Sparrow conducted some experiments. She and her research team wanted to know the Internet is changing memory. In the first experiment, they gave people 40 unimportant facts to type into a computer. The first group of people understood that the computer would save the information. The second group understood that the computer would not save it. Later, the second group remembered the information better. People in the first group knew they could find the information again, so they did not try to remember it.

    In another experiment, the researchers gave people facts to remember, and told them where to find the information on the Internet. The information was in a specific computer folder(文件夹). Surprisingly, people later remember the folder location(位置)better than the facts. When people use the Internet, they do not remember the information. Rather, they remember how to find it. This is called “transactive memory”.

    According to Sparrow, we are not becoming people with poor memories as a result of the Internet. Instead, computer users are developing stronger transactive memories; that is, people are learning how to organize large amounts of information so that they are able to find it at a later date. This doesn't mean we are becoming either more or less intelligent, but there is no doubt that the way we use memory is changing.

    The month of March was a milestone for supporters of renewable energy in the U.S. For the first time, wind and solar power accounted for more than 10% of the country's electricity—up from less than 1% at the turn of the century. And total wind and solar power-plant capacity(发电量) is expected to grow more than 30% over the course of this year and next, according to the Energy Information Administration.

    Such forecasts have led many scientists and policymakers to think that moving a large part of the nation's power supply to renewable sources—as cities from Miami Beach to Salt Lake City have promised to do—may not be as far-fetched as once thought. But like any debate, there are dissenters, including those inside the federal government. Their argument is that the nation demands an uninterrupted supply of electricity and cannot count on sun, wind and natural gas to provide it. “You need solid hydrocarbons(固体碳氢化合物) on-site for rising peak demand,” Environmental Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt said on Fox Business in May, referring to the importance of coal as a power source.

    Many experts say the government's concern fails to account for how the power grid(电网) has improved in recent decades. Utility companies(公共事业公司) have developed innovative ways to move electricity from place to place to account for variation in weather. Battery technology can store power for use when renewable sources cannot operate, meaning solar power can be used on days when the sun doesn't shine. And the nation's vast supply of natural gas can be turned into usable energy with the flick of a switch.

    “I don't think 5 or 10 years ago I'd be comfortable telling you we could not sacrifice reliability when we're going to have 35% of our energy come from wind,” said Ben Fowke, CEO of the utility company Xcel Energy, at a recent conference. “I'm telling you, I'm very comfortable with that today.”

    Indeed, many parts of the country are already close to that reality. In some regions, like Iowa and Kansas, renewable energy supplies more than 25% of the electricity. The market has shifted so far in favor of natural gas and renewable energy that even the most concerted federal effort is unlikely to stop its growth. Any attempt to slow the growth of wind and solar will face strong pushback. “If anyone wants to do away with it,” Republican Senator Chuck Grassley told Yahoo News of the federal government's potential cuts to wind energy, “he'll do it over my dead body.”

    But the federal government could slow the acceleration—and with billions of dollars in private and public investments at risk, the pace of change matters. Decisions made today will shape the future of the nation's energy grid for decades to come.

    Did anyone find the names of "Great Britain", "the United Kingdom", "England" and "the British commonwealth" which have the same meaning? Strictly speaking, these names all refer to something different. None of them are exactly the same as any of the others.

    The British isles refer to the main islands and several thousand small ones as well, which you can see on the map. Great Britain, or Britain, refers to the larger of the two main islands. But the word "Britain" is often used as a short form for the United Kingdom or you call it the UK.

    Now as for England, it refers simply to the largest of the three countries on the island of Great Britain. The United Kingdom is the name of the state and the official name of the country, which many people popularly refer to England.

    Finally, the Britain commonwealth is the usual name for what is left of the British Empire. This change shows the weakening of British Empire and the rising of the national liberation movements throughout the world today.