Car sharing is another way to drive green that’s gaining in popularity,especially in urban areas.People who may not drive every day but still want a car to run errands(差事) or drive on weekends benefit most from car sharing.Car sharing is usually run by a service like Zip car,though there are non-profit and informal car sharing services.Members pay a monthly fee and have access to an entire fleet（车队） of cars when they need one.The cars are parked in fixed spots around the city,so members only need to make a reservation(预约),and then go to the pickup spot.

Car sharing has major environmental benefits because it lessens the number of cars on the road.. Members don’t drive just because they have a car.They plan trips,and if they don’t need a car,they don’t use one.Still,a car is available to them if they need to make a big trip to the grocery store,pick someone up at the airport or if they want to go to the beach for the day.Members also benefit by having access to a car without any of the headaches of ownership.They usually don’t have to pay for gas,insurance or maintenance(保养),and the monthly membership fee is less than a typical car payment.So if you really want to go green but aren’t ready to totally give up a car yet,car sharing may be the way to go.

If you still need to get around,but want to go even greener than sharing a car,share a bus! On the next page,you’ll learn about the green benefits of mass transit.

 My optometrist(验光师）once told me that a research job can be hard on the eyes. I wear contacts(隐形眼镜). She told me to take my glasses to work, in case my eyes tired out. A few years ago, I noticed that on the days when I did remember to bring my glasses, I always needed them. By lunchtime, my eyes had felt uncomfortable. When my glasses stayed at home, I never felt the urge to remove my contacts.

   I’ve worked with Alexandra Freund, a professor of psychology at the UniversityofZurich, to explain how a backup (or Plan B) affects the way we try to achieve our goals.

   Imagine being on the job market. Cash is tight: your goal is a new job this month. Plan A is to work for a tech company. You know getting hired there is a challenge, so you’ve made a backup plan: a banking position. Does your banking plan help or harm your chances of getting a job this month.

   To understand the influence, it’s important to realize that not all backup plans are the same. “Contingent(应变的)” backup plans work for this way: if Plan A does not work, then Plan B will be used. So our job seeker, above, might focus entirely on securing the tech job, and only seek the bank job if the tech job falls through. This kind of contingency backup plan reduces possible costs.

“Redundant（冗余的）”backup plans, the other type, are different. People develop them to maximize possible benefits. With a redundant backup plan, a person works towards the goal using Plan A, while actively comparing whether Plan A or Plan B is currently providing the best possibility for success. For our job seeker, that would mean preparing materials and practicing presentations in parallel, unsure of which job will be the best fit.

   The key disadvantage of a contingent backup plan is also its key strength—it isn’t adopted until the main plan seems likely to fail. This is beneficial in some ways. People don’t have to actively compare whether Plan A or B will be better. They simply turn to Plan B if Plan A fails. In the case of the job seeker, a backup plan is useless if you don’t have enough time to make a change after bad news comes from the tech company.

   Redundant backup plans introduce different challenges. They are costlier. One must actively compare Plan A and B throughout the entire exercise, knowing the ideal time to make the change or to stick to one’s guns. The best situation: You have a well-designed choice ready to use at the exact moment that it increase your chances of success. The worst situation: You could get caught in a problem of indecision, or change plans too early or too late—or put so much work into the backup plan that you damage your chance of securing the primary goal. For the job seeker, actively comparing the tech and bank choices might result in under-preparing for both interviews and being forced to seek out some Plan C.

   So what makes a good backup plan, and what is the best way to use it? Our research suggests that backup plans change the way people try to achieve their goals, even if they are never used, sometimes for the worse. As you think about your own Plan B, consider how it is affecting Plan A. Supportive or harmful? In my own case, I am sitting in my office, while my glasses are safely at home. Risky? Perhaps. But my eyes feel fresh.

As we have seen, the focus of medical care in our society has been shifting from curing disease to preventing disease—especially in terms of changing our many unhealthy behaviors, such as poor eating habits, smoking, and failure to exercise. The line of thought involved in this shift can be pursued further. Imagine a person who is about the right weight, but does not eat very nutritious foods, who feels OK but exercises only occasionally, who goes to work every day, but is not an outstanding worker, who drinks a few beers at home most nights but does not drive while drunk, and who has no chest pains or abnormal blood counts, but sleeps a lot and often feels tired. This person is not ill. He may not even be at risk for any particular disease. But we can imagine that this person could be a lot healthier.

The field of medicine has not traditionally distinguished between someone who is merely “not ill” and someone who is in excellent health and pays attention to the body’s special needs. Both types have simply been called “well”. In recent years, however, some health specialists have begun to apply the terms “well” and “wellness” only to those who are actively striving to maintain and improve their health. People who are well are concerned with nutrition and exercise, and they make a point of monitoring their body’s condition. Most important, perhaps, people who are well take active responsibility for all matters related to their health. Even people who have a physical disease or handicap may be“well” in this new sense, if they make an effort to maintain the best possible health they can in the face of their physical limitations. “Wellness” may perhaps best be viewed not as a state that people can achieve, but as an ideal that people can strive for. People who are well are likely to be better able to resist disease and to fight disease when it strikes. And by focusing attention on healthy ways of living, the concept of wellness can have a beneficial impact on the ways in which people face the challenges of daily life.

Can you remember the first time you learned to ride a bike or drive a car? Learning these skills changed your life forever and opened up new horizons. Learning about computers can be like learning how to ride a bike or drive a car. Once you have invested the time to master the skills, you will never go back to the old days. The new technology is simply too convenient and too powerful.

Technological developments through the years have enabled us to do more with less effort. We have continuously looked for better ways of doing things. Each invention and new development has allowed us to extend our capabilities. Today we see one of the most dramatic technologies ever developed—the computer. It extends the capabilities of our minds.

Computers have saved organizations millions of dollars. Furthermore, these same computer systems have opened up new opportunities that would have gone undiscovered or neglected. The computer may multiply what we can do, and the return on investment is high. The growth of computer usage is surprising. On the other hand, the computer can do serious damage. Invasion of privacy(侵犯隐私), fraud(欺诈), and computer-related mistakes are just a few shocking examples.

The computer is like a double-edged sword. It has the ability to cut us free from some activities, but it can also cut deep into profits, personal privacy, and our society in general. How it is used is not a function of technology. It is strictly a function of how people decide to use or misuse this new technology. The choice is yours, and only through a knowledge of computer systems will you be able to avoid the dangers while enjoying the many, many benefits of the computer age.

Some people are so rude!

Who sends an e-mail or a text message that just says“Thank you”? Who leaves a voice mail message rather than texts you? Who asks for a fact easily found on Google? Don't these people realize that they're wasting your time?

Maybe I'm the rude one for not appreciating life's little politeness. But many social agreed standards just don't make sense to people drowning in digital communication.

In texts, you don't have to declare who you are or even say hello; E-mail, too, is slower than a text; Voice mail is a now impolite way of trying to connect.

My father learned this lesson after leaving me a dozen voice mail messages, none of which I listened to.Exasperated, he called my sister to express his dissatisfaction that I never returned his phone calls. “Why are you leaving him voice mails?” my sister asked. “Just text him.”

In the age of the smartphone, there is no reason to ask once-acceptable questions about: the weather forecast, a business's phone number, or directions to a house, a restaurant, which can be easily found on Google Maps. But people still ask these things. And when you answer, they respond with a thank-you e-mail.

How to handle these differing standards? Easy: Consider your audience. Some people, especially older ones, appreciate a thank-you message. Others, like me, want no reply.

The anthropologist(人类学家) Margaret Mead once said that in traditional societies, the young learn from the old. But in modern societies, the old can also learn from the young. Here's hoping that politeness never goes out of fashion but that time-wasting forms of communication do.

Human beings are the most intelligent of all animals because we are gifted with the ability to think and reason logically. Scientists and even common people with special intelligence have made a lot of inventions and contributions to modern lifestyle in the past. “Houses” have been the most popular area for discoveries and inventions in the past and even now.

Many household items have been the result of inventions of people who desired better functioning of the existent products. Every individual has intelligence and if it is used properly for the right purpose it leads to invention of a new tool or device. Many new household inventions are made almost every day and there are specific companies, which particularly keep a record of all these inventions.

A lot of inventions have been made recently in the household field. These products are patented(专利的)and have trade mark licenses(许可). The patented sliding cinch is a very simple but effective method to prevent shoulder stress and injury for those who work before computers all day long. Vanity PC is a type of computer furniture that specifically hides all the computer wires and keeps a clean and good look. All the outdoor dust, mud and snow can be kept out of the house by installing the dirt drain(排水管)at the entrance of the door. Another important invention is the automatic toilet night-light, in which a small light starts when the lid of the toilet seat is opened and closes as soon as the lid is closed.

These are some of the new household inventions invented mostly by common people. Thus, a variety of new household items are invented every day, which helps in a better functioning of household chores and in a more useful manner.

INDEPENDENCE

Most people in the US believe that independence is very important. They do not think of themselves as representatives of their families, communities, or social class. Students think those who depend on their family are dependent. Teachers expect students to be independent, to work alone, and to produce original work.

EQUALITY

The Declaration of Independence states, “All men are created equal." In many ways, people believe this; you can see equality in such common practices as waiting in line. When you go to the bank or to the post office, you will be asked to take a number and wait. No matter how important you are, you will be treated like anyone else; first come, first served. You can also see equality in the classroom. All students are the same in the eyes of the professors. Similarly, professors sometimes ask students to call them by their first names.

PUNCTUALITY（准时）

Many people in the US are very punctual and organize their activities around schedules. Being late is rude. If you cannot be on time， tell the people who are waiting for you. For business appointments, you should arrive a few minutes early. For social appointments, you should arrive 10-15 minutes after the appointed time.

MATERIALISM（物质主义）

Success in the US is often measured in dollars. Many people in the US think more about money and material possessions than people in other countries. As a result, you may think that people ignore those more important things in life, like love and friendship. This is not true: like people in every country, most people in the US still value friendship or love more than wealth.Ks

A new genre(流派) of fiction has come out of rising sea levels. Climate fiction, or “cli-fi”, is a sub-genre of science fiction. It imagines a future where man struggles against the extremes of a changing environment.

Although it is still an unexplored field in the Chinese literary circle, climate change literature is now a regular course in universities in the US, the UK and India, etc. A brief amazon.com search of “climate fiction” returns more than 1,800 results, reflecting a growing demand for books that focus on environmental issues.

According to The Atlantic, cli-fi stories seldom talk about “unreal technologies or faraway planets”, unlike traditional sci-fi. Cli-fi is a lot more down to earth. It examines the effects of pollution, rising sea levels, and global warming on human civilization.

Cli-fi has been made more attractive to younger generations thanks to its appearance in movies and TV shows, Interstellar, Snowpiercer, Madd Addam, just to name a few. The term “cli-fi” created by US writer and climate activist Dan Bloom, seems to be helping “raise the awareness of global warming”. UK cli-fi writer Sarah Holding wrote that the genre “connects young readers with their environment”.

But not everyone is convinced of cli-fi’s potential. Geoge Marshall, founder of Climate Out-reach Information Network, expressed concern that cli-fi would strengthen what people already believe rather than change anyone’s mind. “The unconvinced will see these stories as proof that this issue is a fiction.” he said. “The already convinced will be still concerned, but the story lines may reduce the seriousness of the issue.”