【推荐1】My son’s seventh birthday is approaching, so conversation at my house has naturally turned to organizing his party.

For his sixth birthday, we booked the local trampoline(蹦床) park. This worked out well. But the whole event cost us hundreds of pounds. This year, I’m trying to convince him that the dinosaur-themed park down the road offers just as much fun—and you don’t even need to wear special socks! This will be cheaper, because we aren’t required to hire a space—we can simply buy tickets for his mates.

But I still keep pondering over one thing—party bags. Why should a bunch of seven-year-olds, who have already been treated to a day out and a mountain of sugar, also be handed a bag full of pound-shop gifts for simply bothering to show up?

Party bags are an environmental disaster. I reckon my son attends 20 parties per year, and at each party there are 20 kids in attendance, which means 400 plastic bags in total. Within these 400 bags are perhaps 800 plastic toys, almost all of which fall apart on the journey home and then get binned instantly. The waste is shocking, and I don’t want to be part of it.

I know there are some party bag alternatives: one couple I know covered a table with Mr. Men books and got the kids to choose one each. At another party, I saw the hosts fill a bucket with soft toys and crumpled newspaper, and do a lucky dip (抽奖). Admirable efforts.

Even if that is a nice try, and even if the contents in the party bags don’t fall apart, so what? Will our guests think more highly of our child because of the party bags from our party? Will my child’s ability to make and keep friends be improved?

Well, the tradition for kid’s party bags ends with me, and it ends here, and it ends now. Who’s with me?

【推荐2】Identical twins Kathy and Sophie arrived at college last year and determined to strike out on independent paths, so they had requested rooms in different dorms. While Kathy got along with her roommate, Sophie was miserable. She and her roommate silently warred over matters ranging from when the lights should be turned off to how the furniture should be arranged. Finally, they divided the room in two and gave up on oral communication. During this time, Sophie kept seeking comfort from Kathy. Before long, the two wanted to live together again. Sophie’s roommate eventually agreed to move out.

Sophie’s ability to solve her dilemma by rooming with her identical twin is unusual, but the conflict she faced is not. Most roommate conflicts spring from such small, annoying differences rather than from grand disagreements over abstract philosophical principles. One person likes quiet, while the other person spends two hours a day practicing the trumpet. One eats only organically produced vegetables and loves animals, while the other likes wearing fur and enjoys cutting up frogs in biology class.

When personalities don’t mix, the excitement of being away at college can quickly fade away. Moreover, roommates can affect each other’s psychological health. A recent study reports that depression in college roommates is often passed from one person to another.

Many schools have started conflict resolution programs to calm tensions that otherwise can build up like a volcano preparing to explode, ultimately resulting in physical violence. Some colleges have resorted to“roommate contracts“ that all new students fill out and sign after attending a seminar on roommate relations. Students detail behavioral guidelines for their room, including acceptable hours for study and sleep, a policy for use of each other’s possessions. Some schools try to head off the feud before it begins by using computerized matching. Students are put together on the basis of their responses to housing form questions.

【推荐1】The social responsibility of corporations is an ethical framework in which corporations are responsible for fulfilling their duty and taking actions that will benefit society as a whole. Managers always make decisions that maximize profits.     1     The following are some benefits of adding social responsibility within an organization.

    2     In many cases, companies find that when they introduce more energy-efficient methods and begin recycling, they actually cut operational costs and benefit the environment. Social responsibility also increases transparency (透明度) with investment analysts and community members, which in turn improves the company’s reputation and increases the overall value.

It makes business attractive to investors. Investors generally believe that a commitment to social change is a great way to position a company for long-term success. There must be a balancing act between focusing on the profits of an organization and social initiatives (主动性).    3    That is good for investors.

It improves company reputation. If an organization is continually participating in social initiatives, it gives an impression to customers, investors and the world as a whole that the organization has good economic strength.    4    

It increases customer loyalty and support. Consumers are drawn to companies that have a good reputation.    5     As your loyal customers talk to people they know about your product and share positive reviews, they will drive more business to you.

In a word, keeping social responsibility is very important to corporations. It’s also important to consider what social responsibility initiatives they’re going to take and the impact that they will have on society.

【推荐2】The e-commerce company that retailers (零售商) talk about most these days is neither Amazon, the American giant, nor Alibaba, China’s biggest. It is Pinduoduo (PDD), a Chinese firm that started in 2015 as an online food supplier, but whose success has driven its market value above $200bn. Last year it was China’s fastest-growing Internet stock, rising by 330%.

PDD attracts attention for two reasons. One is its business model. David Liu, vice-president of strategy, explains that it has drawn on the popularity of smart phone in China to create an e-commerce experience in which people club together to buy products from robot vacuum-cleaners (吸尘器) to bananas. During the pandemic this has expanded into a fast-growing business across thousands of towns and villages, in which PDD’s users gather to buy local farm produce at low prices. Some call this “community group-buy”. Mr. Liu calls it “interactive (互动的) commerce”. It is one of the hottest parts of the Chinese Internet.

The second is the way PDD has broken the record of giants of online shopping. Until a few years ago, China’s e-commerce market seemed a two-way competition (竞争) between Alibaba and JD.com, a competitor platform. No longer. Elinor Leung of CLSA, a brokerage (经纪公司), expects PDD’s share of online retail in China to go beyond that of JD in 2021. She expects the number of users over Alibaba. And although PDD put a huge amount of money to lower the prices of goods, ensuring the customers from poorer parts of China easy access to its app, she thinks it may turn profitable this year.

Remarkably, the key to its success focused on parts of the market they have been unable to reach instead of defeating its bigger competitors. Although online sales of groceries have rocketed during the pandemic, less than a tenth of the 8.1trn yuan ($1.25trn) farm-produce market is bought and sold digitally. “We are continuing to grow the pie,” says Mr Liu. That lesson applies elsewhere too. However, no matter how a future market looks, there is opportunity for new online businesses because e-commerce is at an early stage of development.

【推荐3】In Flanders, the best advice to give a confused cyclist is: Keep calm and check your numbers. Many riders have a string of numbers with them, preprinted or handwritten on a piece of paper. The numbers are a roadmap to the route.

Nearly 220 miles of cycling paths go through the region in northern Belgium. Each path is numbered, and before setting out, cyclists can check an interactive map to create a sequence(排列顺序)that’s unique to their route. Arrows point riders in the right direction on their way across villages, forests, and fields. And as they ride, cyclists look at the blue signs and then their string of numbers to ensure they’re on the right track.

The network opened in 1990, after being proposed by Belgian mining engineer Hugo Bollen. In the early 20th century, the region experienced an economic boom(繁荣), particularly in the province of Limburg, which mined coal. But by the 1980s, those businesses started to close, and towns needed something else to restart their economic engines. Bollen came up with an idea to develop tourism by depending on another natural resource that was plentiful in the region: astonishing landscapes. He suggested a bike network—and because names of villages and towns could be hard to remember, he proposed a system based on numbers.

The routes are organized around themes designed to inspire and are not necessarily meant to be the most efficient path from one destination to another. These paths celebrate the journey and the scenic spots along the way. Cyclists can choose to ride through strawberry fields, for instance, or around a brewery(啤酒厂)known for its high quality beer. History lovers can choose paths that link up with various sites of historic battles from both World Wars, particularly near the border with France. Besides, there are still signs of the region’s mining heritage(遗产)across Limburg.

Over the years, the region’s tourism agency has added some new attractions along the route, while still highlighting nature and local ecosystems. Kate Vandy, a cyclist from the U.K., said “You’ll soon lose yourself in shades of green, and the white of apple flowers.”