A new commodity brings about a highly profitable, fast-growing industry, urging antitrust（反垄断）regulators to step in to check those who control its flow. A century ago ,the resource in question was oil. Now similar concerns are being raised by the giants（巨头）that deal in data, the oil of the digital age. The most valuable firms are Google, Amazon, Facebook and Microsoft. All look unstoppable.
        Such situations have led to calls for the tech giants to be broken up. But size alone is not a crime, The giants' success has benefited consumers. Few want to live without search engines or a quick delivery, Far from charging consumers high prices, many of these services are free (users pay, in effect, by handing over yet more data). And the appearance of new-born giants suggests that newcomers can make waves, too.
        But there is cause for concern. The internet has made data abundant, all-present and far more valuable, changing the nature of data and competition. Google initially used the data collected from users to target advertising better. But recently it has discovered that data can be turned into new services: translation and visual recognition, to be sold to other companies. Internet companies' control of data gives them enormous power. So they have a “God's eye view” of activities in their own markets and beyond.
        This nature of data makes the antitrust measures of the past less useful. Breaking up firms like Google into five small ones would not stop remaking themselves: in time, one of them would become great again. A rethink is required—and as a new approach starts to become apparent, two ideas stand out.
        The first is that antitrust authorities need to move form the industrial age into the 21st century. When considering a merger(兼并),for example, they have traditionally used size to determine when to step in. They now need to take into account the extent of firms' data assets(资产) when assessing the impact of deals. The purchase price could also be a signal that an established company is buying a new-born threat. When this takes place, especially when a new-born company has no revenue to speak of, the regulators should raise red flags.
        The second principle is to loosen the control that providers of on-line services have over data and give more to those who supply them. Companies could be forced to consumers what information they hold and how many money they make from it. Governments could order the sharing of certain kinds of data, with users' consent.
        Restarting antitrust for the information age will not be easy But if governments don't wants a data economy by a few giants, they must act soon.

    When I was 8 years old, I decided to run away from home after a quarrel with my mother. With my suitcase(行李箱) packed and some sandwiches in a bag, I started for the front door.

    My mom asked where I was going. “I'm leaving home,” I said.

    “What's that you're carrying?” she asked.

    “Some clothes and food,” I replied.

    “If you want to run away, that's all right,” she said. “But you came into this home without anything and you can leave the same way.”

    I threw my suitcase and sandwiches on the floor and started for the door again.

    “Wait a minute,” Mom said. “You didn't have any clothes on when you arrived, and I want them back.”

    This infuriated me. I tore my clothes off — shoes, socks, underwear and all — and shouted, “Can I go now?”

    “Yes,” my mom answered, “but once you close that door, don't expect to come back.”

    I was so angry that I shut the door forcefully and stepped out of my home. Then I noticed down the street two neighbor girls walking toward our house. I was so shy that I saw the big spruce (云杉) tree in our yard and jumped under the low-hanging branches (树枝). A pile of dried-up brown needles (针状物) were beneath the tree, and you can't imagine the pain those sharp needles caused to my body.

    After I was sure the girls had passed by, I ran to the front door and knocked at it loudly.

    “It's Billy! Let me in!”

    The voice behind the door answered, “Billy doesn't live here anymore. He ran away from home.”

    Looking behind me to see if anyone else was coming down the street, I said, “Mom! I'm sorry. I'm still your son. Let me in!”

    The door opened and Mom's smiling face appeared. “Did you change your mind about running away?” she asked.

    “What's for supper?” I smiled back.

    A linguist is always listening, never off-duty. I invited a group of friends round to my house, telling them that I was going to record their speech. I said I was interested in their regional accents, and that it would take only a few minutes. Thus one evening, three people turned up at my house and were shown into my front room. When they saw the room they were a bit anxious, for there was a microphone at head height, with wires leading to a tape-recorder in the middle of the floor. They sat down, rather nervously, and I explained that all I wanted was for them to count from 1 to 20. Then we could relax and have a drink. I turned on the tape-recorder and each in turn counted seriously from 1 to 20 in their best accents. When it was over, I turned the tape-recorder off and brought round the drinks. The rest of the evening was spent in total relaxation. I joined them in talking and joking freely, leaving them only to take a telephone call, which lasted some time.

    As a matter of fact, the microphones were not connected to the tape-recorder in the middle of the room at all but to another one in the kitchen. My friends, having seen the visible tape-recorder turned off, paid no more attention to the microphone which stayed in front of their chairs, only a few inches from their mouths, thus giving excellent sound quality. And my long absence meant that I was able to get as natural a piece of conversation as it would be possible to find I should add, perhaps, that I did tell my friends what had happened to them, after the recording was over, and asked them whether it should be destroyed. None of them wanted to—but for some years after that, it always seemed that when it came to buying drinks, it was I who paid for them. Linguistic research can be a very expensive business.

    18-year-old Kayla Perkins explains what is in her bedroom, "I throw something on the floor and I know right where it is." However, her parents, Steve and Deborah Perkins, of McKinney, Texas, haven't caught on. Even Kayla admits that, at the worst, her room is a mess.

    Most families at some point have at least one child whose room looks like a landfill(垃圾堆). The mess can disturb the whole household. Dirty clothes pile up; dirty dishes get lost in the mess and smell bad; homework is lost; and valuable things are ruined.

    Some parents let it go, believing that a bedroom is private space for children to manage as they wish. Others lecture their children, offer rewards for cleaning, or punish them when they don't. What doesn't work, parenting experts say, is constant lectures, verbal(口头的,言语的) threats or getting very angry. Mrs. Perkins says they picked up all the clothes on Kayla's floor and hid them. They cleaned everything up. When Kayla came back to a bare bedroom, there was screaming and shouting, "How can I live without my clothes?" Mrs. Perkins asked Kayla to earn her clothes back by doing housework. These days, she keeps her room clean.

    Humour can help, too. For example, since Jessica, the 14-year-old daughter wasn't bothered by the dirty clothes all over her floor, the whole family started using her room as a place to store dirty clothes. Her attitude changed after her family did that. By the time she gave in and cleaned up her room a few days later, even she was laughing.

Parenting expert, Jim Fay, also recommends that parents first ask children in a nice way to clean up and agree on a reasonable time limit. Children often behave better if you treat them in the way you would want to be treated by your boss at work—with respect and high expectations.

Lack of sleep among children and teenagers in China has worsened in the past decade, with more than 80 percent getting insufficient sleep on school days, a new report has found.

Chinese youngsters snooze 7. 8 hours a night on average on school days, down 0. 3 hours from 2009, according to the report released on Monday by the Chinese Academy of Sciences'Institute of Psychology.

Researchers surveyed more than 15,800 students from Henan, Hebei and Guangdong provinces from April to July, asking what time they go to bed and wake up on days they take offline classes on campus.

Only 46. 4 percent of them sleep for at least 8 hours, compared with 47. 4 percent in 2009.

According to an action plan laying out measures to be taken from 2019 to 2030 to promote the health of citizens, primary school students are recommended to get a minimum of 10 hours of sleep a night. For junior high school and senior high school students, the recommended sleep durations per night are 9 and 8 hours respectively.

By this set of standards, more than 95 percent of students from primary schools, nearly 91 percent at junior high and 84 percent at senior high, did not get enough sleep on school days, heightening the risk of them developing cognitive, mental and physical health problems, the report said.

Hou Jinqin, a researcher at the National Institute of Education Sciences who co-authored the study, suggested local authorities implement measures instructed by the Ministry of Education, such as lessening academic burdens, postponing start times at school and encouraging children to be enrolled at institutions closer to home, in order to prolong sleeping hours.

In terms of the COVID - 19 outbreak's impact on sleep, she said available research overseas shows school closures forced by the COVID - 19 epidemic have added two hours of sleep to young students studying-gat home.

In China, some studies have revealed no marked differences in sleeping patterns of students before and after school reopened, she added.

Four Stories in Life

A real doll

I've worked at an amusement park and when another Barbara joined the team, I changed my name tag(标签) from "Barb" to "Barbie". It was funny to see how kids reacted to my name differently. "Is she really a Barbie?" they asked. I changed it at another job, too, and began answering the phone, "This is Barbie. How can I help you?" Ninety percent of callers now respond, "Barbie, can you tell me..?" Pronouncing that long "e" sound forces your mouth into a smile. But I've found the smile is usually returned voluntarily.

—Barbie Bosco Latrobe, Pennsylvania

Rice twice as nice

We replaced rice with cauliflower(花椰菜) rice. There's not much of a difference in taste, and it cooks in minutes, and is a vegetable instead of empty carbs(精制碳水化合物).

—Michelle Byrd Marlton, New Jersey

Happy wife, happy life

Early in our marriage, my husband would come home feeling tired after work, and I'd be tired due to looking after the kids. We were both tired and bad-tempered, and we often ended up arguing. It got to a point where I worried we were on the verge(边缘)of divorce. The day I realized it, I asked myself, "Am I the person I would want to come home to?"

I began greeting him with a smile and kiss instead of complaining about my day. He'd smile back and we'd talk calmly. We still have our differences, but one small change in attitude saved our marriage forever.

—Annabelle Wallis, Pennsylvania

Our "Spoonland" and "Forkland"

We presort silverware in the dishwasher. It takes no extra time to load and makes emptying much easier. We always smile when our kids, now adults, introduce friends to "Spoonland" and "Forkland".

—Kathleen Luck, Ohio