B

     Sometimes in a big city, there are a large number of things to drive you mad on your daily route, and it’s not just overcrowded subway trains.

      Vicky is a mainlander working in Hong Kong. For her, one thing she can’t put up with is people standing on the wrong side of the escalator（自动扶梯）in subway stations. “Escalators help us move faster and save time. It isn’t a place to rest,” the 24-year-old says. “I often see tourists block the way with their suitcases or chatting on the escalators during rush hours. It annoys me to no end.”

Admitting she is not the patient type, Vicky says things are much better in Hong Kong than in cities on the mainland where “stand right, walk left” signs are often ignored.

       The logic behind the “stand right, walk left” escalator etiquette（礼仪）seems obvious. Even though you may want to catch your breath while you’re transported up or down, you should still consider others and leave enough space for people in a hurry, so that they can run and catch the train.

        Many cities’ escalators, including London’s and Beijing’s, use the “stand right, walk left” system to speed up the flow of people.（Australia is an exception and you should stand on the left side instead.）But some cities discourage people from moving on escalators out of safety reasons. In Hong Kong’s subway stations there are regular announcements asking people to “stand still” on escalators. Even so, most people in this fast-paced city observe the “stand right, walk left” etiquette.

      But the people who stand on escalators defend themselves by telling the walkers not to be so impatient. The BBC quotes one stander as saying：“If the person is in such a rush, why not just take the stairs? Even when the escalator is packed and there’s nowhere to move, I see these same people complaining about not being able to pass.

     Whatever the escalator etiquette is in the place you live or visit, do what most people are doing and always be mindful of others: leave enough space between each other, don’t stay at the end of the escalator, and if someone is blocking your way, a simple “excuse me” is enough.

D

The word tolerance is widely used in liberal democracies. It indicates a positive meaning. Politicians urge us to be tolerant towards minorities. Educators teach us to be tolerant towards the other. The press is full of references to the need to display tolerance when faced with individuals or groups espousing a different view or holding a different religious belief. A tolerant society is an objective sought after by anyone who believes in the values of democracy. A tolerant individual is attributed with virtuous qualities.

The question we must ask is whether we have been using the word tolerance fully aware of its meaning and whether we have applied it correctly to reflect what we really wish to convey?

The word tolerance means to bear, or to bear with. If I tolerate something or someone, I basically say that I am ready to bear it or him. I can tolerate a bad smell or a noisy neighbor. The act of toleration forces me to desist from conveying my objection to the existence of a phenomenon, which I find difficult to bear. A bad smell or a noisy neighbor is considered by me to be an objectionable phenomenon. By tolerating either of them, I am not transforming the bad smell or the noisy neighbor into positive phenomena. Let's be honest: I don't have a different taste when it comes to bad smells. I simply dislike it and wish that it disappears. I don't respect the noisy neighbor. I would rather have him stop at once the noise he is making so I can live in peace.

To try to remove the bad smell or take reasonable action in order for the noisy neighbor to stop bothering me would most probably not be considered an intolerant act by most people.

Now, let's try to apply the word tolerance in reference to a person who is law-abiding and holds a legally acceptable different view from my own. I may have a strong view, which is opposed to his. Quite frankly, I may decide to tolerate his view. By so doing, I would be attributing to it a negative characteristic. I would apply the same attitude to his view as to the bad smell or noisy neighbor. Thus, to try to take action in order to make his view disappear would be considered an intolerant act. To tolerate his view the way I would a bad smell or a noisy neighbor, could hardly be considered virtuous.

The subject tolerating is by nature not equal to the object being tolerated. If I tolerate you, I essentially say that I am above you and am prepared, although unwillingly, to bear with your presence or with your practices or opinions. That may be true in the case of an individual who is ready to tolerate the other. However, this attitude by such an individual, though empirically true, is hardly a virtue. Certainly, the fact that an individual, in reality, may merely tolerate the other or his opinion does not justify a government or any official authority promoting tolerance as a virtue. One cannot tolerate an equal being. True equality involves respect, not toleration. To respect the other as a distinctive person is hardly to tolerate him. This is the true meaning of equality: diversity existing in a mutually-respectful socio-legal setting.

 The danger with tolerance is that it can lead to the acceptance of individuals or groups bent on destroying the foundations of democratic systems. We have seen such cases with regard to political parties or destructive religious groups that have been treated in a liberal manner under the guise of tolerance.

 A tolerant attitude involves the grant of a favor, not a right. The question we should ask ourselves is whether we would ever wish a parliament to make laws according to us, as individuals and as part of a collective entity or a permission to pursue certain actions interpreted as a favor rather than a right? Indeed, would we ever wish anyone to listen to our views and accept us the way we are simply because he is kind enough to tolerate us?

Children’s lives have changed greatly over the last 50 years. But do they have a happier childhood than you or I did?

It’s difficult to look back on one’s own childhood without some element of nostalgia(怀旧的). I have four brothers and sisters, and my memories are all about being with them, playing board games on the living room floor, or spending days in the street with the other neighborh ood children, racing up and down on our bikes, or exploring the nearby woods. My parents scarcely appear in these memories, except as providers either of meals or of severe blame after some particularly risky adventure.

These days, in the UK at least, the nature of childhood has changed dramatically. Firstly, families are smaller. It is common for both parents to work outside the home and there is the feeling that there just isn’t time to bring up a large family, or that no one could possibly afford to have more than one child. As a result, today’s boys and girls spend much of their time alone. Another major change is that youngsters today tend to spend a huge amount of their free time at home, inside. This is due to the fact that parents worry far more than they used to about real or imagined dangers, so they wouldn’t dream of letting their children play outside by themselves.

Finally, the kind of toys children have and the way they play is totally different. Computer and video games have replaced the board games and more interesting activities of my childhood. The irony（讽刺）is that so many ways of playing games are called “interactive”. The fact that you can play electronic games on your own further increases the sense of loneliness felt by many young people today.

Do these changes mean that children today have a less relaxing childhood than I had? I personally believe that they do, but perhaps every generation feels exactly the same.

Having a tattoo(纹身) can reduce your chance of getting a job, but it depends on where the tattoo is, what it expresses and if the job involves dealing with customers, new research says.

Dr Andrew R Timming told the British Sociological Association conference on work, employment and society in Warwick today that employers were likely to view tattoos negatively. Dr Timming of the school of Management at the University of St Andrews said he had spoken to 15 managers involved in hiring staff about their reaction to interview candidates with visible tattoos.

"Most respondents agreed that visible tattoos are a stigma," Dr Timming told the conference. One woman manager told him that "they make a person look dirty." Another male manager told him "subconsciously that would stop me from employing them." The managers were concerned about what their organisations' customers might think, said Dr Timming. "Hiring managers realise that, ultimately, it does not matter what they think of tattoos -- what really matters, instead, is how customers might think of employees with visible tattoos.

Dr Timming said: "The one qualification to this argument is there are certain industries in which tattoos may be a desirable characteristic in a job interview. For example, an HR manager at a prison noted that tattoos on guards can be something to talk about and an in that you need to make a connection with the prisoners."

The negative attitude to tattoos did not extend to ones that could be easily covered by clothing. Dr Timming also found that in some of the organisations it was only certain types of tattoos that diminished the chances of getting a job at interview. One male manager told him: "If it's gang culture-related you may have a different view about the tattoo than if it's just because it's a nice drawing of an animal that they've done on their arm."

Banks view online banking as a powerful “value-added” tool to attract and keep new customers while helping to eliminate costly paper handling or teller（出纳员）interactions in an increasingly competitive banking environment.

    Today, most large national banks, many local banks and credit unions offer some form of online banking, variously known as PC banking, home banking, electronic banking or Internet banking. Online banks are sometimes referred to as “brick-to-click” banks, both to tell them from “brick-to-mortar” banks that haven’t yet offered online banking, as well as from “virtual”（虚拟）banks that have no physical branches or tellers whatsoever.

    The challenge for the banking industry has been to design this new service channel in such a way that its customers will readily learn to use and trust it. Most of the large banks can now offer fully safe , fully functional（功能的）online banking for free or for a small cost. As more banks succeed online and more customers use their sites, fully functional online banking will likely become as commonplace as automated teller machines (ATM).

    Online banking has a lot of advantages. Unlike your corner bank, online banking sites never close; they’re at hand 24 hours a day, seven days a week and they’re a mouse click away. If you’re out of state or even out of the country when a money problem appears, you can log on instantly to your online bank and take care of business. Online bank sites generally carry out and confirm deals at or quicker than ATM processing speeds. Many online banking sites now offer fashionable tools to help you manage all of your valuable items more effectively.

  If you see a group of people dancing and singing on the street or in the railway station, you don't need to feel surprised. They are a lash mob(快闪族),which is a group of people who come together suddenly in a public place, do something unusual for a short time, and then quickly break up. They are usually organized with the help of the Internet or other digital communication network. At a pre determined(提前决定的) time, they gather and perform some distractions(消遣) such as waving their hands and exchanging hooks. Then, they quickly break up before the police can arrive. Using mobile phones. the flash mob can change its location if the first one has been replaced for any reason.

       Bill Lasik. senior editor of Harper's Magazine, organized the first flash mob in Manhattan in May 2003 and the first successful flash mob came together on June 3,2003 — after the first attempt was foiled at Macy's department store, Lasik claimed that the activity was designed to make fun of hipsters(赶时髦的人) ,and call attention to the cultural atmosphere.

       Flash mob gatherings can sometimes shock people. Such an activity might seem amusing and untrue, hut it also might frighten people who are not aware of what is taking place. Undoubtedly, flash mobs can serve as good political tools in any direction. They also have great economic potential, such as using flash mobs to advertise a product.

       The flash mob is now becoming more and more popular. People use it to do many things. For example, in 2009,Michael Jackson's fans took part in a flash mob to remember him. Hundreds of his fans gathered singing and dancing Michael's famous song "Beat It" together. Flash mobs give people from all walks of life an opportunity to come together to create a memory.