【推荐1】With the average number of children in a British family falling beneath an average of 2.0,the population of the UK has been declining for quite a few years. The size of the British workforce is declining. This trend (趋势) is quite worrying for the British economy.

There is a whole range of reasons accounting for the worrying trend. One of them is that British people are new having their children at a much older age than previously, meaning they have fewer years in which they can have children. Most young People today tend to choose to go university first and build up work experience before getting desired jobs.

Expensive houses also play a part. Many young people are forced to stay with their parents early in their careers. So it's not until people are about 30 years old that they can afford to buy their own home, and then they can start to think about settling down and having children.

So a British person manages to get a job, get a home and get married. Why isn’t he or she then having at least two children on average? The major reason is that it is relatively expensive to bring up a child in the UK. Usually both parents need to work to cover their living expenses, which means they then need to pay someone to look after their child during the day, such as nanny (保姆) or nursery school.

In addition, uncertainty in the global economy often affects British family size. In face of an economic downturn, young British find it more difficult to find jobs or keep their existing ones This discourages them from having larger families. And with this much pressure on families, it’s no wonder that the divorce rate remains so high

To save the British family, the government is taking active measures, for example , by increasing monthly Child Benefit money and offering increasing amount of government subsidy (津贴)for parents to claim. There are also laws allowing parents to take more time off work so that they can look after their children themselves rather than having to pay others to do it.

Let's hope it's not too late to save the British family. Otherwise, the British won't have enough time, energy or money to have children. And where's the fun in that?

Some people believe that greed and selfishness has become the basis of modern society, and we should return to the old traditions of family and community then we will have a better life. To what extent do you agree or disagree with the above opinion?

In this fast-paced world, many values are undergoing major changes. While people traditionally prioritize caring, sharing and generosity in life and work, modern people seem to be more self-absorbed and self-concerned.

Modern people act selfishly to survive the harsh competition of life. They say that it is a jungle out there. To survive, you have to fight with whatever means that come handy. Obviously greedy and selfishness go perfectly well with such ideas. In a company, employees do everything they can to get better pay and higher position, even at the cost of colleagues. We are in any way advocating any selfish conduct. It is just that people are pressured to act in a certain way due to outside influences.

In spite of common practice, it is hard to conclude that modern society is built on greed and selfishness, both of which are not newly invented vocabulary. In ancient times people also did greedy and selfish things though such behaviors were more condemned then. But we can not ignore the fact that people in the past lived a relatively more isolated life and faced less pressure compared with their modern counterparts.

Are we happier to share with others and be generous to them? There is no fixed answer either. Some people take great pleasure helping and giving to others while others feel happy doing the opposite. But I personally think that people should not be too selfish. Caring for others can actually encourage the development of a mutually beneficial relationship.

In conclusion, modern people appear to be more self-centered than those in the past due to strong outside pressure. However, we should encourage people to know the importance of being caring and generous and to build a mutually beneficial relationship with others.

【推荐1】Faces, like fingerprints, are unique. Did you ever wonder how it is possible for us to recognize people? Even a skilled writer probably could not describe all the features that make one face different from another. Yet a very young child or even an animal, such as a dolphin can learn to recognize faces.

We also tell people apart by how they behave. When we talk about someone’s personality, we mean the ways in which he or she acts, speaks, thinks and feels make that person different from others.

Like the human face, human personality is very complex. But describing someone’s personality in words is somewhat easier than describing his face. If you were asked to describe what a “nice face” looked like, you probably would have a difficult time doing so. But if you were asked to describe a “nice person” , you might begin to think about someone who was kind , considerate , friendly , warm and so on.

There are many words to describe how a person thinks , feels and acts.Gordon Allport , an American psychologist, found nearly 18,000 English words characterizing differences in people’s behavior.And many of us use this information as a basis for describing or typing his personality.

People have always tried to “type” each other.Actors in early Greek drama (戏剧）wore masks to show the audience whether they played the villain’ (坏人）or the hero’s role.In fact , the words “person” and “personality” come from the Latin , meaning “mask” .Today , most television and movie actors do not wear masks. But we can easily tell the “ good guys” from the “bad guy” because the two types differ in appearance as well as behaviors.

【推荐2】In the old days, when you had to drive to a movie theater or to a video store to get some entertainment, it was easy to see how your actions could have an impact on the environment. You were hopping into your car, driving across town, and using gas all the way.

But now that we’re used to staying at home and streaming movies, we might feel better about ourselves. After all, we’re just picking up our phones or maybe turning on the TV. You’re welcome, Mother Nature.

“Not so fast,” says a recent report from the French-based Shift Project. Watching a half-hour show would lead to 3.5 pounds of CO₂ emissions. That’s like driving 3.9 miles. According to “Climate Crisis: The Unsustainable Use of Online Video,” digital technologies are responsible for 4% of greenhouse gas emissions, and that energy use is increasing by 9% a year. Stored in data centers, videos are transferred to our terminals such as computers, smart phones, etc. via networks: all these processes require electricity whose production consumes resources and usually involves CO₂ emissions.

In the European Union, the Eureca project lead scientist, Rabih Bashroush, calculated that 5 billion downloads and streams of the song “Despacito” consumed as much electricity as the countries of Chad, Guinea-Bissau, Somalia, Sierra Leone and the Central African Republic used in a single year.

Streaming is only expected to increase as we become more attached to our devices. Online video use is expected to account for 80% of all internet traffic in five years according to CISCO. By then, about 60% of the world’s population will be online.

You’re probubly not going to give up your streaming services, but there are things you can do to help lessen the impact of your online use.

Here are some tips:

Disable autoplay for video on social media.

Stream over Wi-Fi, not mobile networks.

Watch on the smallest screen you can.

Don’t use high-definition (高清) video on devices.