Back in 2003 an 86-year-old man drove his Buick through a crowded farmers' market. Nine people were killed. More than fifty-four people were hurt, fourteen with serious injuries. When he finally stopped, the 86-year-old man got out his car and screamed at people to get out of the way. No alcohol or drugs were found in his system. Apparently, he was just old and confused.

    This is a frightening accident, and it is not a rare one. There are many examples of elderly drivers driving into swimming pools, houses, storefronts, or worse.

    In our teenage years, we all heard “driving is not a right; it's a privilege.” That is still true, and there comes an age when driving is no longer a privilege that can be allowed. After a certain age, eyesight and dementia(痴呆) are very serious concerns. Undoubtedly, these age-related problems affect some older adults' driving ability. By the time a person is between eighty-five and ninety years old, his or her driving privilege should be examined.

    Licensing laws vary greatly from state to state, and it's time for a national law on the maximum age limit for driving. The motivation for this law is safety. Another option is to start with laws that ban anyone over the age of eighty-five from driving after sundown, because driving conditions are not as safe as daylight hours. Still another option that may allow elderly drivers to continue driving could be new technology like a voice warning system that cautions drivers on busy streets or at traffic lights. Finally, since there are laws against driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs, shouldn't some prescription drugs also be included? The average age of 85-year-old is undoubtedly taking at least one prescription drug daily.

    The thought of an 86-year-old driver with failing eyesight running down the road in a two-ton piece of metal is unsettling to us all. Driving at an advanced age is not only challenging for the elderly drivers, but also it's dangerous for the rest of us.

    Because of the financial crisis in the US and UK, college students are beginning to struggle to find ways to pay their tuition fees and accommodations.

    Recently, two major US student loan (贷款) lenders, Citibank and JPMorgan Chase, announced they were leaving the student loan industry altogether. Because banks currently have a lack of credit, they are reluctant to offer students low-interest loans that need a several-year wait for any return of interest.

    In the US, many undergraduates fill up their financial needs with a private loan, although the majority can get government-funded loans. In the 2015-2016 academic year, $ 17 billion in private student loans was used to finance higher education. The lack of private funding has yet to be covered and will hit many US students hard.

    Across the Atlantic, UK students have been less troubled by the crisis. Most undergraduates in the UK cover their university expenses with government-funded loans and grants. Their biggest concern is a sudden increase in student rent.

    Most young professionals now rent houses, since 80 percent of UK mortgage schemes (按揭计划) have disappeared—a direct result of the credit crisis. This has boosted the house rent market.

    In large cities, UK students are paying almost 6.5 percent more in rent than the previous year. Figures from the UK organization Accommodation for Student show students in big cities such as London paying an average weekly rent of $ 203.

    Yet, despite students' suffering, the number of this year's university applications is expected to grow. During economic slumps, people regard further education as a way to survive tough job market.

    For many of us, talking about money is embarrassing, especially revealing our income and spending habits in public. So it's no wonder that seeking investment advice from computer program is so popular.

    Consultancy firm Accenture found that 68% of global consumers would be happy to use robot-advice to plan for retirement, feeling it would be faster, cheaper, and fairer than human advice. “Many of our customers say they feel awkward in face-to-face meetings, preferring an online experience where they don't feel nervous,” says Lynn Smith, a director of robot-advice firm Wealth Wizards. So how does robot-advice work and is it really any better than traditional financial advice?

    Robot-adviser firms use algorithms (算法) to analyse your financial situation and goals and then work out an investment plan to suit you. Basically, you answer lots of questions online about your income, expenses, family situation, attitude to risk and so on, and then the algorithm allocates (分配) your savings to a series of investments, from index funds that aim to imitate a particular stock market index or sector, to fixed-income bonds.

    Robot-advice is certainly growing in popularity. But are we really happy to give up the human adviser completely? “No” is the short answer. Accenture finds that a significant proportion of us still want human interaction, particularly when our finances are complex. “When a customer needs advice surpassing a number of different regulatory regimes, human advice will be required, says John Perks, managing director of life and pensions at UK insurer LV, which launched its Retirement Wizard robot-advice service two years ago.

    The truth is that only about a quarter of funds managed by clever humans overcome the market as a whole, so when you take into account the much higher management fees you pay for that kind of service, the performance difference is likely to be marginal (微不足道的) for most of us.

    The robots may be coming, but in this case at least, they seem to be on the side of the small investor trying to save for a comfortable retirement.

With the clicking of walking sticks and determined steps, a long line of walking group along the winding road is a fantastic sight. Almost each of the walkers is using some kind of fitness tracker. A few Fitbits, some Xiaomi wrist bands (手环), a couple of phone apps and some other pedometers (计步器) — and all, they say, are counting their steps.

    Fitness trackers are in. Sales figures for 2016 released by Internet Data Center (IDC) indicated 25% market growth compared to the previous year, with Fitbit taking the lion's share, followed by the brand Xiaomi.

    However, the wearables market has had a rollercoaster ride in recent months. Jawbone, once a popular fitness tracker brand, announced that it is leaving the consumer market. Microsoft has removed its Fitness Band on its online store although it is still available on retail (零售) giant Amazon. Fitbit remains a key brand name at the heart of the fitness tracker revolution. But it is recently reported to be cutting down on workers, and its founder James Park said it experienced “softer than expected” sales recently.

    Counting steps is probably the most common use of wearable devices (可穿戴设备), but recently experts have questioned whether the golden goal of walking 10,000 steps a day is actually worthwhile, and a US study concluded that health trackers did not aid weight loss.

Analyst Ben Wood from CCS Insight used to wear a fitness tracker on either wrist. Now, however, his concern is about users'experience — these devices don't tell you anything new after a while. There are also battery problems and many of the older and cheaper varieties aren't waterproof (防水的).

    On a freezing cold day, a couple had to move into a small apartment because of their failure in business. The husband worked day and night to support the family but gave no care of his wife. So she thought, "He doesn't love me any more. He just cares about his business ... not me"．

    One day, she was about to take a shower when he stopped her at the door, "Let me take it first, okay?" "Why not me first?" she asked. "I am tired, honey, you take it later, okay?" She was entirely unhappy.

    One day, she found nothing to do and turned on his computer. A few words came into her sight. Reading them, she burst into tears. It was his diary：

    Today, I was quite sad. She asked me why I was always taking the shower first, and I said to her, "I was exhausted." She was unhappy. In her mind, I treated her not as well as usual, but what could I do? I was not as rich as before! We moved to the small apartment, and there was only one shower in the bathroom. It was so cold to take a shower in such a cold winter. But I found that if one person took the shower first, the room could get a little warmer. So every day I rushed to the bathroom first. I was thinking that, when she took the shower, the room would get warmer, even if it was only 1℃.

    Now I cannot give her a comfortable life, take her to good restaurants, or buy expensive dresses for her, but at least, I can give her 1℃ love.

    I use tea to refer to a snack(点心)taken in the late afternoon or early evening (ie after getting home from work but before the main meal, which I call dinner) and I don't think that's rare(罕见)at all. I think the difference is when you originally had your main meal and I would agree that it's a class thing, not a north/south thing(I've heard the midday meal referred to as both lunch and dinner by different people in all areas of England).

    Dinner was always the main meal. In the past, working class men worked near(or even at)home and came home for their main meal at midday, and so that was their dinner. Middle class men worked in offices far from their homes(often working in the city centre, and living outside the city) and so couldn't go home for a meal at midday. They therefore had a light meal at midday and had their main meal with their family in the evening after they go home from work, so dinner was in the evening. Because most children at state schools were working class, we still use dinner for school meals. For middle and upper class people, tea was a light snack served in the mid-afternoon at which ladies(who didn't, of course, go out to work)could entertain their friends. For working class people, however, tea was the light snack you had before going to bed. Supper, for all classes, was the light snack you had before going to bed.

    However, because work patterns changed and many working class people started eating their main meal in the evening too, dinner, tea and supper started to become interchangeable for them. Also many working class families have since become middle class, so the terms have become less of a current class thing(if class still exists at all) and more of a system of terminology inherited(家族术语)from grandparents etc, different from family to family. When I was a child(Southern English, middle class family, but with working class forebears(祖先)) we called the midday meal dinner and the evening meal tea, but when I was in my early teens I had a new stepfather(from a family that had always been middle class for generations)who used lunch and dinner, and that's what I've used ever since.