Have you ever run into a careless cell phone user on the street? Perhaps they were busy talking, texting or checking updates on WeChat without looking at what was going on around them. As the number of this new “species” of human has kept rising, they have been given a new name —phubbers(低头族).

    Recently, a cartoon created by students from China Central Academy of Fine Arts put this group of people under the spotlight. In the short film, phubbers with various social identities bury themselves in their phones. A doctor plays with his cell phone while letting his patient die, a pretty woman takes selfie in front of a car accident site, and a father loses his child without knowing about it while using his mobile phone. A chain of similar events eventually leads to the destruction of the world.

    Although the ending sounds overstated, the damage phubbing can bring is real.

    Your health is the first to bear the effect and result of it. “Constantly bending your head to check your cell phone could damage your neck,” Guangming Dailyquoted doctors as saying, “the neck is like a rope that breaks after long-term stretching.” Also, staring at cell phones for long periods of time will damage your eyesight gradually, according to the report.

    But that's not all. Being a phubber could also damage your social skills and drive you away from your friends and family. At reunions with family or friends, many people tend to stick to their cell phones while others are chatting happily with each other and this creates a strange atmosphere, Beijing Evening News reported.

    It can also cost you your life. There have been lots of reports on phubbers who fell to their death, suffered accidents, and were robbed of their cell phones in broad daylight.

How to Study Smarter, Not Harder

    Here are some of our favorite study tips that will help any student study smarter, not harder:

Recite As You Study

    Reciting—saying things out loud should first take place as you read through each paragraph or section. Test yourself. This will help you to understand as well as learn faster because it is more active than reading or listening. It will also help you to notice your mistakes and the topics you have trouble understanding.

Take Fuller Notes

    Notes should be in your own words, brief and clear. They should be tidy and easy to read. Writing notes will help you better than just underlining as you read, since it forces you to rewrite ideas in your own words.

Study the Middle

    The best time to review is soon after you've learned something. You are more likely to remember the material at the beginning and the end of the lesson, so make sure you focus on the middle when you review.

Sleep On It

    Study before going to bed, unless you are very tired. It's easier to remember material you've just learned before sleeping than after an equal period of daytime activity, because your brain continues to think even after you've fallen asleep.

Combine Memory and Understanding

    There are two ways to remember: by memorizing and by understanding. Multiplication tables, telephone numbers, and math formulas are better learned by rote. Ideas are best learned by understanding.

    The more ways you have to think about an idea, the more meaning it will have; the more meaningful the learning, the better you can remember it. Pay attention to similarities in ideas and concepts, and then try to understand how they fit in with things you already know. Never be satisfied with anything less than a completely clear understanding of what you are reading. If you are not able to follow the thought, go back to the place where you first got confused and try again.

    Graph can be a very useful tool for conveying information especially numbers， percentages, and other data . A graph gives the reader a picture to interpret. That can be a lot more pages and pages and pages explaining the data .

    Graphs can seem frightening, but reading a graph is a lot like reading a story. The graph has a title ,a main idea ,and supporting details.You can use your active reading skills to analyze and understand graphs just like any other text .

    Most graphs have a few basic parts: a caption or introduction paragraph, a title , a legend or key, and labeled axes. An active reader looks at each part of the graph before trying to interpret the data. Captions will usually tell you where the data came from (for example, a scientific study of 400 African elephants from 1980 to 2005). Captions usually summarize the author's main point as well. The title is very important. It tells you the main idea of the graph by stating what kind of information is being shown. A legend, also called a key ,is a guide to the symbols and colors used in the graph. Many graphs, including bar graphs and line graphs, have two axes that form a corner, Usually these axes are the left side and the bottom of the graph .Each axis will always have a label. The label tells you what each axis measures.

Bar Graphs

    A bar graph has two axes and uses bars to show amounts. In Graph 1 ,we see that the x-axis shows grades that students earned, and the y-axis shows bow many students earned each grade .You can see that 6 students earned an A because the bar for A stretches up to 6 on the vertical measurement. There is a lot of information we can get from a simple graph like this(See Graph 1).

Line Graphs

    A line graph looks similar to a bar graph ,but instead of Bars, it plots points and connects them with a line .It has the same parts as a bar graph – two labeled axes –and can be read the same way .To read a line graph, it's important to focus on the points of intersection rather than the line segments between the points, This type of graph is most commonly used to show how something changes over time.

    Here is a graph that charts how far a bird flies during the first Five days of its spring migration (See Graph 2).

    The unit of measurement for the x-axis is days. The unit of measurement for the y-axis is kilometers. Thus we can see that ,on the first day, the pipit flew 20 kilometers. The line segment goes up between Day 1 and Day 2,which means that the bird flew farther on Day 2.If the line segment angled dawn, as between Day 4 and Day 5,it would mean that the bird flew fewer  kilometers than the day before. This line graph is a quick, visual way to tell the reader about the bird's migration.

    Pie Graphs

    A typical pie graph looks like a circular pie. The circle is divided into sections, and each section represents a fraction of the data. The graph is commonly used to show percentages; the whole pie represents l00 percent, so each piece is a fraction of the whole.

    A pie graph might include a legend，or it might use icons or labels within each slice. This pie graph shows on month's expense, (See Graph 3 ).

    Food $ 25

    Movies $ 12

    Clothing $ 36

    Savings $ 20

    Books $ 7

    There are 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic trash in the world's oceans, and each year, 8 million tons of plastic are added to the figure. Though the oceans seem vast enough to stomach a lot of plastic, the level of waste is starting to reach a crisis point: According to a new report by the Ocean Conservancy, by 2025, the ocean could contain one ton of plastic for every three tons of finfish.

All these floating bits of plastic not only disrupt marine ecosystems, but they also poison the global supply of seafood. “It's reaching crisis proportions,” says Andreas Merkl, CEO of the Ocean Conservancy. “Plastic breaks down into small pieces that look like plankton and is eaten by everyone from plankton to whales.” Plastic acts as a pollution sponge in the ocean, so when wildlife swallow pieces, the plastic might as well be a poison pill.

    The new report calls for a focus on improving waste management systems in a handful of developing countries that are most responsible for the plastic leakage into the ocean. China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam contribute more than half of the oceans' plastic since their waste facilities hasn't kept up with rapid industrialization.

    On average, only about 40% of waste in these countries is actually picked up for disposal. But it's not just uncollected waste floating around-though that is three-fourths of the problem. The other quarter of the oceans' plastic came from post-collection activities. Even when a waste management company picks up waste to landfill it, poorly equipped landfills or illegal dumping mean that trash still ends up in the ocean.

    But how can countries stop the leakage of waste into the ocean? The Ocean Conservancy report suggests five “levers”: waste collection services, closing the leakage points within the collection system, gasification and burning of waste, and recycling facilities. The average waste ends up as litter. Just by expanding collection systems and plugging up their leakage points, the report says plastics leakage could by cut by 50% by 2020.

    It's not just an environmentalist's daydream. Coca-Cola and Dow Chemical, along with some other multinational companies have joined forces with Ocean Conservancy to fight ocean pollution. “We're committed to working toward a future of a plastic-free ocean. Companies don't make plastic with the intent of it ending up in the ocean, and we acknowledge the strong role industry must play in order to help eliminate ocean plastic waste by 2035.” Says Dow Packaging and Speciality Plastics' global sustainability director in a press release.

    Merkl emphasized that the countries can't recycle their way out of the problem. Only about 20% of the waste is valuable enough to be worth recycling: the rest, needs to be sent to sanitary landfills or waste-to-energy plants. “You have to concentrate on the fundamentals of waste management,” he says. And while building landfills and incinerators(焚化炉)across these developing countries might not be pretty, it's far more environmentally friendly than letting waste slide into the world's oceans.

    The values of artistic works, according to cultural relativism(相对主义), are simply reflections of local social and economic conditions. Such a view, however, fails to explain the ability of some works of art to excite the human mind across cultures and through centuries.

    History has witnessed the endless productions of Shakespearean plays in every major language of the world. It is never rare to find that Mozart packs Japanese concert halls, as Japanese painter Hiroshige does Paris galleries, Unique works of this kind are different from today's popular art, even if they began as works of popular art. They have set themselves apart in their timeless appeal and will probably be enjoyed for centuries into the future.

    In a 1757 essay, the philosopher David Hume argued that because" the general principles of taste are uniform(不变的) in human nature," the value of some works of art might be essentially permanent. He observed that Homer was still admired after two thousand years. Works of this type, he believed, spoke to deep and unvarying features of human nature and could continue to exist over centuries.

    Now researchers are applying scientific methods to the study of the universality of art. For example, evolutionary psychology is being used by literary scholars to explain the long-lasting themes and plot devices in fiction. The structures of musical pieces are now open to experimental analysis as never before. Research findings seem to indicate that the creation by a great artist is as permanent an achievement as the discovery by a great scientist.

ABCmouse

ABCmouse is one of the most well-known learn to read apps for children. With its expert-made curriculum, the program offers endless hours of content for children aged 2 to 8. The interactive app offers thousands of activities to help develop this essential skill, with lessons that expose students to math, arts, and science at age-appropriate levels too. The cost after free trial is around $15 per month. Families who purchase a full year's subscription can get about 40% off the price.

Homer

Homer provides a personalized learning path for children aged 2 to 8. Children will learn reading, math, creative thinking, and problem-solving skills in a fun and engaging way. Instead of a one-size-fits-most approach, Homer customizes learning plans and allows students to take the lead in deciding what they want to work on. The price point is in line with similar apps at about $5 per month after a free trial, or roughly $60 for a full year or $100 for lifetime access.

Hooked on Phonics

Hooked on Phonics is an exceptional tool for homeschoolers, with a wide range of lessons, games, and fun activities. It is one of the most popular brands for teaching kids to read, and its integrated system makes it an ideal option for homeschooling students. Children are introduced to each new concept through a series of fun activities, videos, and even songs. The system is a little bit pricier than other apps, at about $16 per month after a trial month for roughly $1.

FarFaria

FarFaria invites children to join in on a magical adventure that includes island hopping and the choice between reading the story or having it narrated completely with fun, magical animation. While the free membership offers one story a day, paid subscribers unlock access to unlimited adventures at roughly $8 per month. Readers can either read the books themselves or take advantage of the "read to me" option to have stories read aloud by professional narrators.