【推荐3】The pandemic saw an increased demand for stories that excite children in new ways and support them in processing difficult emotions. The features of personalized(个性化的) books meet this need well. With personalized Loss Books, children read about losing a family member. With personalized Me and My Pet Books, children read about how they first met their dogs or cats. Identified as the main driver of the rapidly growing interactive children’s book market, personalized books are far from a gimmick(噱头).

Personalized books are printed or digital books that have been crested based on the needs of a specific child. They follow a simple principle: the publisher provides the users with a pattern, which parents fill with children’s data. Thanks to the advanced print-on-demand possibilities of small-scale publishers, it’s not difficult to create a personalized version of any story.

Publishers claim that personalized books teach children empathy(同理心) and encourage love for reading. Now, you might think that it is surely what all parents and teachers want, so should we replace all books with personalized stories?

Our observational studies confirmed publishers’ claim that children are highly engaged and motivated to read personalized books. However, in a recent study, we compared children’s understanding of the moral(寓意) of a story and its application to their lives after they read a personalized, non-personalized or control story. Although children who read personalized stories had more detailed retellings, there was no other difference between the three groups. This could be because the differences among the children were higher than the effect of personalization. Studies with personalized books are too few for us to know for sure.

Besides, while personal stories are often used in therapeutic(治疗性的) practice or in children with special educational needs, personalized stories are a new writing style, raising many open questions. The misuse of children’s personal data and the questions concerning diversity(差异) make one wonder how “personalized” the books actually are. The other key point lies in directing children’s focus towards the other. However, given the increased focus on personalized learning during the pandemic, and the need to customize(定制) children’s reading experiences, there is every reason to believe that the rising trend of personalized books will continue.

【推荐1】A prisoner picked up 1,000 yuan in the course of building the road outside the prison. He handed it out without hesitation. However, someone who was in charge of the prison said to him in contempt, "Stop cheating! With your own money, play such a trick to bribe me; what you want to gain back is the reduced sentence; people of your sort are not honest."

In total despair, the prisoner believed that no one in the world would trust him any more. So he escaped from prison that night.

On his way to flight, he robbed money and values without restraint(无拘无束地). After robbing enough money, he took a train bound for the border. The carriages were so crowded that he had to stand close to a water closet. At this moment, a quite beautiful girl walked into the closet, and found that the latch was broken when she closed the door. She stepped out and whispered to him, "Sir, could you guard the door for me?"

In a daze for a second, he, looking into the pure eyes of the girl, nodded his head. The girl went into the closet with a blush; and he guarded the door tightly like a' loyal guard.

At that very moment, he changed his mind suddenly. At the next stop he got off the train, and went to give himself up to the police at the train station.

Trust is the most precious thing in this world. It cannot be bought, or gained by lure or force. It comes deep from one's soul, and lives in the clear spring of the soul. It can redeem(拯救) the soul and make the soul and make the heart full of purity and confidence.

【推荐2】It was decades ago, but it's still one of the most memorable conversations of my life. On a long, slow train rattling north, with nothing to do but watch the rain, the guy sitting opposite began trying to talk to me. Like most young women who have learned the hard way to be cautious of strangers, I reacted coldly. But curiosity took over when he said that he was just bored, and liked talking.

So that's what we did, for hours and hours, since he turned out to be very talkative. When the train eventually pulled in, we didn't swap numbers—it was a conversation strictly of its time—but I still think about it occasionally on long, boring journeys, before getting a phone out and scrolling silently like everyone else. Rarely can a person cheerfully break the social taboo（禁忌）about talking to strangers without any trace of ill intention but life would be more interesting if more of us knew how to do it

And that's why I feel it ridiculous about a campaign launched this week to heal bitter national divides by encouraging Britons to talk to each other. Obviously, it takes more than a small talk over garden fences to unite a divided nation now. More people live alone than they did a generation ago, and we socialise increasingly through screens instead of bothering to call. In reality, social media platforms designed to bring people together have unknowingly fueled the division.

It is true that the "tube chat" campaign of a few years back failed in its attempt to make Londoners talk to each other on public transport. But even city residents who would normally die rather than make eye contact with strangers still happily join the large crowds of people by the Thames for the New Year's Eve fireworks. They would get a far better view at home on TV—it's not really about the fireworks, but being part of social engagement.

There's no guarantee that this latest attempt to reconnect will succeed, but I hope that my temporary train friend then is still talking, wherever he is now.

【推荐3】German has a word “wanderlust” which means “the desire to travel” if it’s translated into English. Nowadays the opportunity to travel is endless. Thanks to low-cost airfares, travelling abroad is very accessible and sometimes it’s even cheaper to fly out of the country than to travel within your own country. So, yes, travelling is cheap but there have to be other reasons to travel and you’re right; there are plenty!

I have always had this feeling of wanderlust. It started from me wanting to explore my local woods at the back of my garden as a young girl and as I have grown, so has my sense of adventure. And I found my local woods being replaced with the Brazil wetland. The thing with travelling is that it’s always different. Even if you go to the same country, to the same town and stay in the exact same hotel, it will be a completely different experience. The people you meet will be different, and they will tell you their own travelling stories: stories of holiday romances, holiday horror stories and stories that seem so outrageous that you can hardly believe them until something similar happens to you. You find yourself becoming one of those people telling you tales.

Or maybe the difference is yourself? Maybe you have changed since last time you were there. And that’s the thing with travelling — it changes you. When you travel you are forced into immersing yourself in a new culture and whether it’s eating delicious food, or staying with a family where neither of you can speak a common language and you have to communicate by gestures and smiles, the experience may give you itchy feet to do it all again. Although wanderlust is originally a German word, the English idiom “to have itchy feet” captures a similar idea. Someone who has itchy feet needs to leave or travel. This desire to explore is found not only in languages but also in us.