There are some of history's most inspiring and great females who can be found on the pages of these novels.

Elizabeth Bennet Called "Lizzie" or “Eliza" by her family and friends, Elizabeth Bennet is the stubborn and clever heroine in Jane Austen's 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice. She's the second eldest of five daughters in the Bennet family and, like the rest of her sisters, she is expected to marry for status and money, not for love. To remain true of herself, she would rather remain single, a concept that was unheard at the time.

Nancy Drew She first appeared in 1932 but remains one of the most iconic female characters in all of literature. Created by Edward Stratemeyer, Nancy Drew isn't simply a pretty girl. Instead, the bold, physically strong, and fiercely intelligent Nancy uses her superior intelligence — not her look --- to solve a series of mysteries.

Josephine March Jo March is the second eldest daughter in the March family and is a central focus in the novel Little Woman, published by Lousia May Alcott in 1868. Jo struggles with challenges from society's expectations of how women in the 19th century should carry themselves, making her one of literature’ s most daring female characters.

Hester Prynne Recognized by some critics as one of the most important characters in female literature, Hester Prynne is the leading character in Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1850 novel, The Scarlet Letter. Married but separated by distance from her husband, Hester has an affair with a minister and becomes pregnant.

Walk down any British shopping street and you will find shops with strange names. Why is the barbers called "Shearlock Combs"? Why is the opticians (眼镜店)called "Eyediology"? And who decided to name the butchers "Meat you there" and the fish and chip shop "The Plaice to Come"? What's going on?

The British love puns (双关语)----as do many other nationalities. Puns are jokes based on words that sound the same. You've probably noticed that many words in English which are spelt in different ways and have different meanings are pronounced in the same way. Think about the name of the restaurant: "plaice" is a kind of fish, so our restaurant is "the place" to eat fish. Butchers sell meat ——so we'll "meet you there" ——and opticians look after our eyes in a scientific way --- so eyed-iology (ideology) is a name that fits. Hairdressers shear (cut) your locks (hair) and comb it —— say the three words together quickly and you have the name of a famous detective. In shop titles and adverts, puns are used to get our attention.

Puns are very old. The ancient Egyptians and Romans liked to pun. Shakespeare uses many puns in his plays ——King Richard the Third (the son of York) brings "glorious summer" ——just think about a word that has the same sound as son.

Many people enjoy a good pun (pun / fun for all the family! ) —— others hate them. Puns aren't really designed to make you laugh. Here are some puns that might leave you asking for no more puns. Have you heard about the bears who voted in the North Pole? Or the cheetah (猎豹) who couldn't be trusted at cards? Or how about the clever little Australian animal that had lots of koalaifications or the camel with no humps (驼峰) that was called Humphrey (and so was free of humps ... ).

Puns can be funny, but they sometimes make important points. Here' s a fashion tip: "skinny genes make skinny jeans": so don't worry if your jeans don't fit --- it's your family's fault!

In an ideal world, we might be able to live free from discrimination. But not this one, in which we are constantly dividing everything into “us" and “them".

This is especially true during times of fear, like now, when the novel coronavirus is spreading across China and the world. It's a time when “us" means safe and clean while “them" means infectious and risky. Or at least we'd like to believe so.

But this is actually a misbelief, which has been fueled and promoted by fear, and sadly, the media. When the outbreak first started, the term “Wuhan virus" was used in some news, creating hostility （敌意）toward people from Wuhan and Hubei as a whole. There were reports of hotels refusing to accept guests from Hubei and some hospitals denied their entry even when they needed treatment for other medical problems.

Elsewhere in the world, German magazine Der Spiegel labeled the virus on its cover as “Made in China". Australia's Herald Sun, meanwhile, printed, “China Kids Stay Home" on its front page, implying that all kids from China are carriers of the virus. It's also reported that Chinese people overseas have faced harassment （骚扰）and even violence.

This kind of misbelief is exactly why and when the World Health Organization （WHO） was trying to come up with a name for the disease, it had to be careful. “We had to find a name that did not refer to a geographical （地理的）location, an animal, an individual or group of people," said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the WHO, on Feb 11. And COVID-19 was the final decision.

World leaders and institutes are also sharing sensible voices. "There is no place in our country for discrimination driven by fear or misinformation," Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said at a Lunar New Year celebration in Toronto on Feb 2. Cornell University also sent an email to students and faculty, saying, “We need to remember to care for one another and not make assumptions about others' symptoms or any characteristics of identity."

It's understandable that during times like this, we want to go to extreme lengths to make sure we're safe. But fear is never part of the cure. Only love and independent thinking takes you further.

We say that technology is a double-edged sword -while it brings convenience, it also brings new problems. The sword of “social media” even has a gender preference in its damage: It cuts deeper into girls than boys.

Earlier studies have shown that spending too much time on social media is bad for teenagers’ mental health. Constantly watching their friends show off “perfect” lives can hurt their own self-esteem (自尊). That’s not to mention the problems caused by online shaming and bullying (霸凌).

Jean Twenge, a professor at San Diego State University in the US, recently discovered an alarming trend: Since 2010, the number of teenage girls who suffer from major depression – showing signs like self-harm and suicide (自杀) - has increased much faster than that of boys. In an article she wrote at The Conversation, Twenge said social media, again, was to blame.

For starters, girls use social media more than boys. Boys tend to spend their screen time on games, where they talk to their teammates through headphones. This counts as real human contact. Girls, however, simply type and browse through posts, which is a much more isolated (孤立的) experience. “They’re not having a real-time conversation with someone,” Mary Fristad, psychologist at The Ohio State University, told NPR.

And when it comes to online shaming, girls are also more vulnerable than boys. “Girls face more pressure about their appearance, which could be exacerbated (加重) by social media,” wrote Twenge.

Shannon McLaughlin, for example, is an 18-year-old from Blackburn College in the US. She shared with the Guardian how social media made her feel depressed. “I was constantly confronted (面对) by women with skinny bodies who were praised for the way they looked. This was only made worse by the diet fixes and skinny culture,” she said. But McLaughlin found a solution. She started volunteering with the National Citizen Service, where she made face-to-face contact with people. “It’s so easy to forget the importance of real connections when we have hundreds of people that we’re trying to impress at our fingertips,” she told the Guardian. And she hopes that others “look up from their phones and focus more on the world around them”.