Will you be playing some music at work?

    Music is particularly popular in the medical profession, especially among surgeons（外科医生）. A recent survey shows that 90% of surgeons in the UK put music on the sound system in the theatre during operations. Plastic surgeons（整形外科医生）play the most music; it appears that ear, nose, and throat specialists the least.

    But it isn't only in surgeries(外科手术) where music is popular. In another recent survey, one-third of the 1,613 people said they listen to music while working. And 79% of them said that humming（哼歌）along improves their job satisfaction or productivity.

    Is listening to music at work a good idea? Yes, say the experts. Many surgeons say that music helps to create a “calm atmosphere”, and a third of them added that it avoids getting bored! Also, listening to music raises the levels of a brain chemical that can help people focus. Office workers say it improves job satisfaction. Several studies suggest that it's also good for hospital patients. Those listening to music through headphones during surgery require less anesthetic（麻醉剂）, up to 50% less in some cases, and recover more quickly afterwards. “Sure, music reduces anxiety before surgery,” says Zeev Kain, an anesthetist at Yale University.

    So, what type of music should we be listening to? Surgeons from the previous survey preferred rock, pop music and classical. And hip-hop is popular too. However, whatever the kind, it appears that self-selected music is the best choice. Pennsylvania State University research showed that when people chose their own music there was more stress reduction(下降). And other researchers found that when listening to self-selected music, surgeons did the maths faster and more accurately than when they were listening to music chosen for them.

    When you sit down, you pick it out. When you are in your car, you reach for it．When you're at work, you take a break to have a moment alone with it. When you get into a lift, you play with it．

    Cigarettes? Cup of coffee? No, it's the third most addictive thing in modern life, the cell phone．And experts say it is becoming more difficult for many people to curb their desire to hug it more tightly than most of their personal relationships．

    With its shiny surface, its smooth and satisfying touch, its air of complexity, the cell phone  connects us to the world even as it disconnects us from people three feet away．In just the past  couple of years, the cell phone has challenged individuals, employers, phone makers and  counselors（顾问）in ways its inventors in the late 1940s never imagined．

    The costs are becoming even more evident, and I don't mean just the monthly bill．Dr．Chris  Knippers, a counselor at the Betty Ford Center in Southern California, reports that the overuse of  cell phones has become a social problem not much different from other harmful addictions: a barrier to one-on-one personal contact, and an escape from reality．

    Sounds extreme, but we've all witnessed the evidence: the person at a restaurant who talks on the phone through an entire meal, ignoring his kids around the table; the woman who talks on the phone in the car, ignoring her husband; the teen who texts messages all the way home from school, avoiding contact with kids all around him．

    Is it just rude, or is it a kind of unhealthiness? And pardon me, but how is this improving the quality of life?

    Jim Williams, an industrial sociologist based in Massachusetts, notes that cell-phone addiction is part of a set of symptoms in a widening gulf of personal separation．He points to a study by Duke University researchers that found one-quarter of Americans say they have no one to discuss their most important personal business with．Despite the growing use of phones, e-mail and instant messaging, in other words, Williams says studies show that we don't have as many friends as our parents. “Just as more information has led to less wisdom, more acquaintances via the Internet and cell phones have produced fewer friends,” he says．

    If the cell phone has truly had these effects, it's because it has become very widespread．Consider that in 1987, there were only 1 million cell phones in use．Today, something like 300 million Americans carry them．They far outnumber wired phones in the United States．

    Airport Express

    With the Airport Express, you are never far from town. There is a train every 10 minutes, ready to rush you between the airport and Hong Kong Station in the heart of the shopping and downtown district in about 24 minutes. Or travel to the Asia World-Expo in just 1 minute from the airport.
   airport Express service hours

    Mon.-Fri.: 5:50am to 1:15am

    Sat.-Sun.: 5:00am to 2:00am

    Tickets

    There are three types of ticket for travelling to and from the Airport: Single Journey, Round Trip and Same Day Return. Single Journey Ticket and Same Day Return Ticket are valid(有效的) on day of issue(发放). Round Trip Ticket is valid for 30 days from day of issue. You can also use the Octopus Card for the Airport Express. (The Octopus Card is an electronic store-value ticket and it can be used on most public transport. The fare will be deducted(扣除) from the stored value each time, so you do not have to carry heavy coins. The card is valid for three years after value has been added.)

    Travel tips

    Children under 3 travel for free.

    Passengers travelling on the Airport Express are now able to write email and do online searches with Wi-Fi service.

    For more information about Airport Express, please visit www.hongkongairport.com or call 00852-21818888.

    As Simon Kindleysides, 34, took his first step in the London Marathon in April, he felt as if magic was in the air.

    "As we were walking toward the first mile, we actually started joining all the runners," he said. "Everyone was on the streets, cheering, and that was a magical moment." As time went on, the crowds and other racers spread around. Kindleysides and his team of eight supporters continued walking.

    Kindleysides, who is paralyzed(瘫痪的)from the waist down and typically uses a wheelchair, was equipped with an exoskeleton(体外骨骼)to help him walk. His supporters walked with him to change the batteries in his exoskeleton so he could keep moving.

    In 2013, Kindleysides was diagnosed with a brain tumor (肿瘤) that was growing in a way that pressed on certain nerves, leading to him losing feeling in his legs. He was told he would never walk again. Before his paralysis, the London-based singer and dancer had "always wanted to run a marathon," he said, but he never made the plan to do so--until this year.

    During the London Marathon, the last two miles were the hardest. "At that point, I was exhausted. It was freezing cold, and I was hurting emotionally," Kindleysides said. But he kept going. "I didn't want to let people down. I had a team of eight, and I was raising money for The Brain Tumour Charity," he said. "I didn't want to let them down, myself down, and I thought if I would get this far, I would have to continue."So he continued and made history as the first paralyzed man to complete the London Marathon on foot.

    Then, recovering at home, he shared his accomplishment with his three children. "They used to say I'm the only dad in their whole school who's in a wheelchair, and now they say I'm their dad, the only one who has walked a marathon," he said.

    Kindleysides is training to complete three more marathons next year, including the London Marathon again.

    Last summer, after finishing my work in China, I took the trip of a lifetime on the Trans-Siberian Railway (西伯利亚铁路). Leaving Beijing early on a Wednesday morning in July, my wife and I travelled through some awesome (令人惊叹的) countryside before we arrived in Moscow the following Monday.

    The first part of the journey took us past the Great Wall and through the grasslands of Inner Mongolia. At the Mongolian Republic border, we had a delay(耽搁)while the wheels were changed because the railway is different.

    On our way to the capital, Ulan Bator, we saw herdsmen (牧人) on horseback looking after their cattle. There was a great thunderstorm as we crossed a vast open plain. Later we had a quick tour of Ulan Bator.

    Next, the train took us into Siberia. After a stop at Irkutsk, a popular holiday resort(度假胜地), where a tour group left the train, we passed the great Lake Baikal. Later, we saw some lovely wooden houses in pretty, sunny countryside. This surprised us, as we had imagined Siberia as being covered with thick snow.

    Over the next few days, we passed through Novosibirsk, Omsk and other cities in the heartlands of the Russian Federation. By now, our body clocks were losing their sense of time. We wanted to sleep and eat at the wrong time!

    At last we reached Moscow. We were so tired that we slept for 16 hours that night. The next day we went sightseeing. We saw the Dremlin and some other magnificent (宏伟的) buildings in the Russian capital. Then, all too soon, it was time for us to return to our home in London.

    For 63 percent of Americans, coffee is one of their daily essentials. This number has been this high since 2017, according to the National Coffee Association. The rise of coffee is due to its numerous benefits like preventing DNA damage, but it works best if you do this simple thing first: Eat.

    "Drinking coffee on an empty stomach, or early in the morning before you've had breakfast, can raise the level of cortisol (皮质醇) in your body. From the moment you open your eyes in the morning, your body starts releasing cortisol. It's a hormone (激素) that's responsible for ruling your immune response, metabolism (新陈代谢), and stress response," says Dr. Nikola Djordjevic, MD.

    "If you pump your body with caffeine(咖啡因) when your cortisol is at its peak," Djordjevic says, "you'll be forcing your body to bear even more stress." In a study that evaluated preference for caffeinated drinks among medical students, it's shown that 25 percent of students drank coffee in the morning on an empty stomach.

    These students are at an increased risk of mood changes and possible long-term effects on their health, as explained in the study. "Drinking coffee on an empty stomach can greatly encourage the acid in your stomach, producing a more acidic environment," says Dr. Jamie Long, a licensed clinical psychologist. Thus, a full stomach is important to control the amount of stomach acid produced.

    Since coffee increases your stomach acid, you're highly likely to experience heartburn and even develop gastric ulcers (胃溃疡), Djordjevic says. Clearly, drinking coffee on an empty stomach affects physical health. But it does harm to mental health, too. The overproduction of acid in the stomach can cause mood swings, nervousness, shaking and other withdrawal symptoms (症状). "And if you've already had the sign of experiencing anxiety, you're even more possible to be attacked by the effects of coffee," says Long.

    Base line: Know your limits so you can fully experience what coffee can offer, because here's exactly what happens to your body when you drink coffee daily.