With the Chinese language growing in popularity, the UK government plans to invest(投资) 10 million pounds to help more kids learn Mandarin(普通话). Do you think it is necessary for the UK pupils to learn Mandarin? Some people share their opinions online.

Ted(UK): The learning of any language can be valuable and rewarding, but it is not suitable for everyone. Chinese is a difficult language to learn and the UK has a poor reputation for teaching foreign languages. Why should they learn Chinese when most people in the world speak English?

Mark(US): I studied French for 2 years in high school and German for 4 years in college. I studied Mandarin informally for about 4 months before moving to China. Now I speak Mandarin every day as my wife doesn’t speak English. But it is far from being fluent. Learning additional languages is a great thing, which offers a different perspective on the world around us. Nowadays, it’s almost necessary to be able to speak more than just your native tongue.

George (UK): No, unless they’re taught from a very early stage of childhood. Mandarin is so difficult. If China really is going to dominate the world, it’ll have to do so by speaking the world’s dominant language---English.

Sam (UK): I don’t think Chinese will become as widely spoken throughout the world as English. It is too difficult to learn as a second language. To learn Chinese you completely have to devote yourself to learning how to write and read it. If you have to learn it besides other subjects you can’t be good at it. But Chinese will become more popular, and that is a good thing.

Have you ever run into a careless cell phone user on the street？Perhaps they were busy talking，texting or checking updates on WeChat(微信) 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（自拍）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 Daily quoted 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.

The meaning of silence varies among cultural groups. Silences may be thoughtful, or they may be empty when a person has nothing to say. A silence in a conversation may also show stubbornness, uneasiness, or worry. Silence may be viewed by some cultural groups as extremely uncomfortable; therefore attempts may be made to fill every gap (间隙) with conversation. Persons in other cultural groups value silence and view it as necessary for understanding a person's needs.

Many Native Americans value silence and feel it is a basic part of communicating among people, just as some traditional Chinese and Thai persons do. Therefore, when a person from one of these cultures is speaking and suddenly stops, what may be implied (暗示) is that the person wants the listener to consider what has been said before continuing. In these cultures, silence is a call for reflection.

Other cultures may use silence in other ways, particularly when dealing with conflicts among people or in relationships of people with different amounts of power. For example, Russian, French, and Spanish persons may use silence to show agreement between parties about the topic under discussion. However, Mexicans may list silence when instructions are given by a person in authority rather than be rude to that person by arguing with him or her. In still another use, persons in Asian cultures may view silence as a sign of respect, particularly to an elder or a person in authority.

Nurses and other care-givers need to be aware of the possible meanings of silence when they come across the personal anxiety their patients may be experiencing. Nurses should recognize their own personal and cultural construction of silence so that a patient's silence is not interrupted too early or allowed to go on unnecessarily. A nurse who understands the healing (治愈) value of silence can use this understanding to assist in the care of patients from their own and from other cultures.

What does the author advise nurses to do about silence?

When was the last time your family sat down together to have a dinner?

The speed at which we live today no longer allows for slow eating habits. Most people work long hours. There is lots of fast food and eating out is now on the increase. Often, food is eaten in front of the television in silence, or a child eats alone in front of the computer.

When I was a child, every evening around the same time, one of the children would be asked to set the table, and then weˈd go and wash our hands: before the meal. This was the time of day when we would talk about our day at school. But now things have changed a lot.

A family environment plays an important role for children in learning to communicate with others and understanding table manners, such as waiting for others to finish before leaving the table and not speaking with a mouth full of food. Parents’ likes and dislikes of a certain food will also influence a childˈs own likes and dislikes. Studies have shown that children who often eat with their families have better results at school than children who eat with their families less than twice a week.

Regular meal times give children the chance to discuss their problems with family members. They can also learn to respect others around the table. Talking to your children over dinner is the best way of having their trust. Children learn good eating habits from their parents at a very young age. Family meals are important. Prepare them for your children.

Bill Gates recently predicted that online learning will make place-based colleges less significant, and five years from now, students will be able to find the best lectures in the world online. I applaud Mr. Gates. But what’s taking us so long?

As early as 1997, MIT(麻省理工)decided to post videos of all university lectures online, for free, for all people. But today, how many students have you met who mastered advanced mathematics or nuclear physics from an MIT online video? Unfortunately, the answer is not many.

The problem is the poor quality of online education websites and the experience they provide to students. Those who go to the MIT website and watch courses online are surely very smart people, but it’s not like playing a video game such as World of Warcraft. Only the most ardent students, those who are highly motivated, will devote themselves to studying these boring online videos.

The real question is why we aren’t spending more to develop better online education platforms. Where is the “Avatar” of education? Think about this. The market forHollywoodfilms per year is worth around 30 billion USD. Education in the world is a trillion-dollar-a-year market, hundreds of times bigger thanHollywoodmovies. Yet the most expensive digital learning system ever built cost well under 100 million dollars.

Bill Gates’ prediction is going to happen. There is no doubt about it. But it will only happen when we create high-level educational content and experiences that engage and excite more than has ever been possible in the real world.

Should we allow modern buildings to be built next to older buildings in a historic area of a city? In order to answer this question, we must first examine whether people really want to preserve the historic feel of an area. Not all historical buildings are attractive. However, there may be other reasons— for example, economic reasons— why they should be preserved. So, let us assume that historical buildings are both attractive and important to the majority of people. What should we do then if a new building is needed?

In my view, new architectural styles can exist perfectly well alongside an older style. Indeed, there are many examples in my own hometown of Tours where modern designs have been placed very successfully next to old buildings. As long as the building in question is pleasing and does not dominate (影响) its surroundings too much, it often improves the attractiveness of the area.

It is true that there are examples of new buildings which have spoilt (破坏) the area they are in, but the same can be said of some old buildings too. Yet people still speak against new buildings in historic areas. I think this is simply because people are naturally conservative (保守的) and do not like change.

Although we have to respect people’s feelings as fellow users of the buildings, I believe that it is the duty of the architect and planner tomove things forward. If we always reproduced what was there before, we would all still be living in caves. Thus, I would argue against copying previous architectural styles and choose something fresh and different, even though that might be the more risky choice.

Why does nearly everyone instantly look more attractive with sunglasses on? You know you’re at least a little curious. And so was Vanessa Brown, a senior lecturer of art and design at Nottingham Trent University in the U.K. Her research focuses on the meaning we assign to everyday objects, and in her academic book that’s coming out early next year, she explores the cultural and psychological relationship between sunglasses and our modern idea of “cool”. In an e-mail to Science of Us, Brown explained what her research has uncovered about why most of us look better in shades.

Sunglasses do make your face look better. Put on a pair of sunglasses, and there’ll be instantsymmetry（对称）! The dark lenses cover up any non-symmetrical features around your eyes, and research on facial attractiveness shows a clear link between symmetry and our ideas of beauty.

Many of the snap judgments we form about people come from looking them in the eyes. “The eyes are such atremendoussource of information for the human being,” Brown explained. Eye contact helps us form judgments about someone’s intelligence, confidence, and sincerity, and sunglasses keep us literally in the dark about forming thoseperceptionsabout a person. A recent study showed that people who wore sunglasses acted more selfishly and dishonestly than those wearing eyeglasses, which, the researchers argue, suggests that sunglasses cheat us into feeling more unknown.

Sunglasses are a relatively modern everyday accessory. Sales started to pick up in the 1920s, but they didn’t becomecommonplaceuntil about two decades after that. In their early days sunglasses were primarily used during risky water and snow sports, and were also associated with new technologies like airplane travel, which made them seem “daring and thoroughly modern”.

Soon after that, Hollywood stars of the 1950s and 1960s started wearing sunglasses to defend themselves from being recognized by the public or harassed bypaparazzi（狗仔队）, whose flashbulbs would often explode violently, sometimes literally in their faces. But regardless of practicality, movie stars’ adoption of the sunglasses strengthened the link between sunglasses and attractiveness.

    The sharing economy, represented by companies like Airbnb or Uber, is the latest fashion craze. But many supporters have overlooked the reality that this new business model is largely based on escaping regulations（规则）and breaking the law.

    Airbnb is an Internet-based service that allows people to rent out spare rooms to strangers for short stays. Uber is an Internet taxi service that allows thousands of people to answer ride requests with their own cars. There are hundreds of other such services.

    The good thing about the sharing economy is that it promotes the use of underused resources. Millions of people have houses or apartments with empty rooms, and Airbnb allows them to profit from these rooms while allowing guests a place to stay at prices that are often far less than those charged by hotels. Uber offers prices that are competitive with standard taxi prices and their drivers are often much quicker and more trustworthy（值得信任的）.

    But the downside of the sharing economy has gotten much less attention. Most cities and states both tax and regulate hotels, and the tourists who stay in hotels are usually an important source of tax income. But many of Airbnb’s customers are not paying the taxes required under the law.

    Airbnb can also raise issues of safety for its customers and trouble for hosts’ neighbors. Hotels are regularly inspected（检查）to ensure that they are not fire traps and that they don’t form other risks for visitors. Airbnb hosts face no such inspections.

    Since Airbnb is allowing people to escape taxes and regulations, the company is simply promoting（引起）theft. Others in the economy will lose by bearing an additional tax burden or being forced to live next to an apartment unit with a never-ending series of noisy visitors.

    The same story may apply with Uber. Uber is currently arguing over whether its cars meet the safety and insurance requirements which are accepted by standard taxis. Also, if Uber and related services flood the market, they could harm all taxi drivers’ ability to earn a minimum wage.

    This downside of the sharing needs to be taken seriously, but that doesn’t mean the current tax and regulatory structure is perfect.

In a society such as the United States or Canada, which has many national, religious and cultural differences, people highly value individualism—the differences among people. Teachers place a lot of importance on the qualities that make each student special. The educational systems in these countries show these values. Students do not memorize all possible basic knowledge. Instead, they work individually and find answers by themselves. There is often discussion in the classroom. At an early age, students learn to form their own ideas and opinions.

  In most Asia societies, by contrast, the people have the same language, history and culture. Perhaps for this reason, the educational system in much of the orient reflects societyˈs belief in group goals and purposes rather than individualism. Children in China, Japan and Korea often work together and help one another on assignments.

  There are advantages and disadvantages of both systems of education. For example, one advantage of the system in Japan is that students there learn much more about math, physics, biology and chemistry than American students by the end of high school. They also study more hours each day and more days each year than North Americans do. The system is difficult, but it prepares students for a society that values discipline and self-control. There is, however, a disadvantage. Memorization is an important learning method in Japanese schools, yet many students say that after an exam, they forget much of the information that they have memorized.

  The advantage of the educational system in North America, on the other hand, is that students learn to think for themselves. The system prepares them for a society that values creative ideas. There is, however, a disadvantage. When students graduate from school, they havenˈt memorized as many basic rules and facts as students in other countries have.