【推荐3】Last year, a popular restaurant released a live stream of a family dining in it, without asking their permission. After finding out what the restaurant was doing, the family showed their objection, but the restaurant ignored it and insisted that they had the right to do it. Moreover, they tried to silence the family, saying that their behavior was damaging the restaurant's image. This event has caused a debate on the violation of privacy and portrait rights by webcasts.

It doesn't bother some people when their images are unconsciously recorded by cameras and shown through live streams on different online platforms. They may even enjoy appearing on screens and cooperate with some businesses. In that way, the restaurant can have more public exposure and thus attract more customers, which is their purpose of webcasting. However, others including the family mentioned above, are against it. The family thought that their portrait rights were violated, considering no one had asked if it was okay to use the images of them. They found intolerable that their actions captured by the camera were webcast live to millions of viewers, not to mention the fact that some of them were not so decent. Thus they demanded an apology from restaurant.

People may behave in a relaxed way when eating or resting, and they don't want others to see them in this way. Thus, from a legal perspective, if businesses webcast their customers for commercial reasons, they have violated customers portrait rights.

Webcasting someone without his or her consent amounts to a violation of portrait rights, which is getting increasingly common these days as cellphone webcasting is growing in popularity for technical convenience, However, public awareness of privacy protection is still falling behind. More should be done to make sure webcasting is developing sustainably, without violating people's legal rights.

【推荐2】Year-round Schooling

Traditional schools in America operate on a 9-month system, but today many people prefer year-round schooling.

Students in year-round schools attend school the same number of days as students in traditional nine-month schools.     1     Instead of the traditional nine months of school and a long, three-month summer vacation, the students have several short breaks between sessions all through the year. Another difference is the track. Instead of single-track schooling that involves an entire school using the same schedule and getting the same vacations off, multiple-track year-round schooling has groups of students attending school at different times with different vacations.     2    

The major advantage of year-round schooling is that it provides the continuous learning that can be lost over a long vacation as the students are not ever out of school for a long period of time.     3    

    4    For example, with one group of students always on vacation, a school that was built for 750 students can serve as many as 1,000. This lets school districts with little or no money for building new schools handle a growing student population and save millions of dollars in construction costs.

Overall, people generally have positive attitudes toward year-round schooling. Disadvantages include the inconvenience to families with children in both traditional and year-round schools.     5     And some people say it interferes with activities that take place outside school-including summer employment.

【推荐1】Lining up to board a plane has become a star k indicator of how our society has commodified (商品化的) the very act of waiting. The more you pay, the sooner you can get on the plane and the less likely you will have to check a bag. It’s not just airlines, it’s also museums, online purchases and amusement parks where VIP status can help you avoid lines. When did the act of waiting get such a bad reputation?

The very act of waiting can enhance our appreciation of something. We savor (欣赏) the anticipation like a child waiting for Christmas or summer vacation. Perhaps the person waiting in line to see his favorite singer perform in concert relishes the night more because of the time invested in getting into the venue.

As our world has sped up, this desirable balance between instant and delayed gratification (满足) is at ever greater odds with the current expectations of many people. This change has a negative impact on mental health both individually and collectively. When we look down upon the act of waiting, we risk losing an important part of our shared humanity. Being forced to wait is often seen as a sign of being less well off or ‘not in the game’. It encourages privileged impatience and disrespect for those who are caught waiting.

The ability to wait patiently is very important for a civitized society; it’s a key skill we all need. If we lose our patience and can’t wait in line or for our turn, we end up feeling the stress of a fast-paced world. Furthermore, if we call people who wait “losers”, we are being unfair and may act without thinking about how our actions affect others. This kind of thinking makes us see those who wait as different and less important, which is a harmful way to treat others.

Of course, we should not have to wait patiently for everything. For example, there are times when injustice deserves immediate action. Asking people to wait can be a calculated block to change. In a larger context though, it behoves (理应) all of us to understand the act of waiting not only as a necessary evil but also as an important function which allows us to participate fully alongside our fellow travelers in life.

【推荐2】It’s the lunch break at Shanghai Xinhua Middle School. No mobile phones can be heard ring anywhere. The common sight of crowds of children chatting on their phones or sending short messages has disappeared.

A grade-2 student said, “I couldn’t concentrate (集中精力) during classes. if the cellphone was with me, I couldn’t help checking if there were messages or missed phone calls. I even played games on the phone sometimes.”

The school leaders say they feel the ban is necessary to keep order in class. They even gave out an open letter to remind parents not to let their children bring mobile phones to school .More than 96 percent of parents say they welcome the school decision. The school is also being flexible (灵活的) in carrying out the plan .Those students who live far from school are allowed to bring mobile phones to contact their parents. But they still have to switch them off in classrooms.

Medical experts have also welcomed the school decision. They say too much dependence on mobile phones can cause many psychological problems in teenage students.

【推荐3】When "irregardless" was included in Merriam-Webster dictionary, it caused wide disagreements. “Irregardless” has been in widespread and near-constant use since 1795, when a newspaper called The Charleston City Gazelle of Charleston Ga., first used it. We do not make the English language, we merely record it,“ the dictionary's staff wrote in “Words of the Week”.

The word's definition, when we read it, would seem to be without regard. However, Merriam-Webster defines "irregardless" as “nonstandard” but meaning the same as “regardless”. According to Merriam-Webster, "Many people find 'irregardless' to be a ridiculous word, as the ir-prefix usually indicates negative meaning; however, in this case it appears to make the meaning of ' regardless’ stronger. "

“It's not a real word. I don't care what the dictionary says,” responds author Michelle Ray, who teaches English in Silver Spring, Md. And she says she's still planning to mark “irregardless" as incorrect on her students' work.

An American newspaper the Baltimore Sun published the word in editor John McIntyre's commentary on Saturday: Irregardless' is too a word; you just don't understand dictionaries. People get upset about the dictionary because they think it is some sort of official document. But actually, it's not. It's just lexicographers identifying words that people use and trying to find out how they are spelled, how they are pronounced, what meanings they have and where they came from. "

“The dictionary's recognition doesn't enroll a word as correct in the English language,“ McIntyre says. "It just says this is a word that a lot of people use in English. And here's what we know about it. " So it's a word, but its use is still discouraged in formal writing.