【推荐2】Last night I entered a poetry competition. It was very rushed. It was the very last minute and I was unprepared. Yet I really wanted to do it. So, without the support of my family, I got up in front of a group of people and got ready to present my poem. But I didn’t expect to win.

Judges were chosen from the audience by having a bouncy ball thrown out into their midst to see who would catch it. As it is with most competitions, performers had 2 minutes to impress the judges who would then give a score from 0.0 to 10. There were five judges. I was the youngest person in the competition. I’m only 16 and everybody else was about 20—70. My poem went really well. People liked it and I think many were impressed by my courage to get up on stage and perform my own work. In the end, I came third, but I was not disappointed. After all, it was only 0.3 points that separated me from second place.

When it was all over, I was waiting in the car park for my dad to pick me up. One of the judges came up to me and told me I had done a fantastic job. Even though many people had congratulated me, this was different. The lady judge was very sincere. She said, “Here, have the ball, so you remember tonight”. I pulled a smile card out for the woman thanking her for her words and the ball. She was impressed by the card, but no words passed between us. It was a silent understanding. Words would ruin the moment.

My father beeped from the car park so I nodded my goodbye and got in the car, holding in my hand the bouncy ball that changed me.

【推荐2】How many times have we expressed how rude young people are for texting while having a conversation?They try to fix eyes on their smartphone screen while nodding.What goes through your mind is “how rude they are!”

Have we forgotten some of the old school manners that our parents, grandparents and teachers taught us manners that have nothing to do with a mobile device or iPad,but everything to do with long-forgotten Golden Rules we were raised with?

When I was growing up,there was etiquette to coughing.When coughing,we were told to turn our head away and block off our mouth.This might sound amusing to many young people．But if we didn't follow these etiquettes，we would get a quick reminder to the back of our head When we were given something,and forgot to say “thank you”，elders would seriously remind us,“aren’t you forgetting to say something”，which was immediately followed by a “thank you”．

Maybe technology has affected our brains so much that we can never go back to those golden days we like.It seems as if we have thrown out manners and etiquette with the bathwater.Simple etiquette is missing in society.A thank-you note for a gift you have received all fall into the same box of manners.People are just cold these days because we are on the run every day in the world.

In the work environment have you ever come across a sign:“Your mother doesn’t work here,clean up by yourself”?We often hear people say, the younger generation have no manners.I think many people have lost their manners.We’ve allowed bad manners to go unchecked.We simply stand bad behavior．

In a world of more good manners,more “thank you” or “please” exchanged， our younger generation will have an improved quality of life．

【推荐3】Forecasting the technological future is difficult. Back in the 1980s, the thought of carrying around a small, portable phone seemed to belong in the world of science fiction. Then in the 1990s, imagining a phone that would allow you to surf the Internet something that didn’t even exist until 1990 was unheard-of. Today, smartphones can surf the Web, run applications and play games,and those with a near field communication (NFC) chip can act as a way to make purchases. And they can still make phone calls, too.

So what will phones look like in 2050? Based upon phone customer behavior, I imagine the future phones will rely more on combiningour physical lives with our digital lives. They probably won’t be similar to the ones we’re reusing now. They’ll be built into other devices and products. Imagine a pair of glasses that can display a digital overlay on top of your physical surroundings.

I don’t think video chat is taking off despite services like Skype and FaceTime. Rather, the trend seems to be toward asynchronous (非同步的) communication. That means the two or more people in a conversation complete a discussion over time.

We might even see the phone part of phones disappear. Recent phone customer behavior suggests that texting is a more popular way to communicate than telephone calls. Future phones will need a way to display messages but don’t necessarily include voice communication.

Since we’re talking about 2050 here, there’s even the possibility that research into brain-computer interfaces (脑机接口) will have reached a point in which we won’t need a physical screen or microphone at all. Electronics could be built into clothing. You’d link the devices to an interface connected to your brain and post messages just through thought. I’d be a form of telepathy (心灵感应).

But what do you think? Will we be wearing devices that let us communicate easily? Or will we be carrying around the iPhone 47 and answering texts between games of Angry Birds? Let us know your predictions.

【推荐2】When I was ten years old, I went to the US to visit some family friends. We travelled all the way from California to Las Vegas. I noticed something funny about the way everyone spoke English. I was thinking, “This is the way they speak in films!”

At the beginning of the holiday, one of my friends asked me if I wanted to order “French fries.” I couldn’t imagine what French fries were. What was fried and French? Snails? Cheese? She was amazed that I had never tried them and she ordered a portion for us to share. When the waiter brought us some chips, I asked her where the French fries were. She pointed to the plate of chips! Later that week she said she was going to buy some “chips” from the supermarket. She came out with a packet of crisps!

During that holiday we were also offered “biscuits and gravy” with our lunch. This was a very strange idea to me, because in England biscuits are sweet. Gravy is a salty, meat-based sauce. I later realized that “biscuits” in America are savoury snacks. What we call “biscuits,” they call “cookies.”

One day, I saw an “eggplant” pizza on the menu in a restaurant! Eggs do not grow on plants, I thought. What on earth could an “eggplant” be? Something eggy and leafy? My dad ordered this pizza and it was covered in aubergines. I asked him where the “eggplant” was. He laughed and pointed to the aubergines. He told me, “They call this ‘eggplant’ in America!”   

Although the same “language” may be spoken in different countries, there are likely to be many differences, not just in vocabulary but also in spelling, grammar and pronunciation! I think part of the excitement of learning a language is discovering the differences in how it is spoken in different places.

【推荐3】Have you ever thought of quitting your job when you feel exhausted? Maybe most of you would say “yes”. After a particularly busy period at work, I decided to get away from it all by going on a hike in the mountains in southern France.

Before I left, I read an interesting story in a magazine. It read, “Once, while I was riding on a crowded bus, the man sitting next to me threw his cell phone out of the window when his phone rang. I was surprised. He looked at me, shrugged (耸耸肩) and looked away. I had no idea whether it was his or stolen or whether he even knew what a cell phone was or not, but he clearly wanted to be free of it, because it clearly troubled him.

Billions of people across the world use cell phones. Though cell phones are a wonderful way for communication, they often do the exact opposite. Using cell phones can increase stress within families and friends.

So when I recently returned home, I got rid of my cell phone. Now I go outside without taking my phone with me. I’ve noticed things in my neighborhood I never noticed before, such as gardens. I’ve met new people, started conversations with neighbors I didn’t speak to before and talked with some of my friends face to face instead of chatting over the phone. Instead of keeping me off from the world, stopping using my cell phone has helped me get even closer to my family and friends.