【推荐1】At the age of twelve years, the human body is at its most vigorous. It has yet to reach its full size and strength, and its owner his or her full intelligence; but at this age the likelihood of death is least. Earlier, we were infants and young children, and consequently more vulnerable; later, we shall undergo a progressive loss of our vigor and resistance which, though imperceptible at first, will finally become so steep that we can live no longer, however well we look after ourselves, and however well society, and our doctors, look after us.

This decline in vigor with the passing of time is called ageing. It is one of the most unpleasant discoveries which we all make that we must decline in this way, that if we escape wars, accidents and disease we shall eventually "die of old age", and that this happens at a rate which differs little from person to person, so that there are heavy odds in favor of our dying between the ages of sixty-five and eighty. Some of us will die sooner, a few will live longer—on into a ninth or tenth decade. But the chances are against it, and there is a virtual limit on how long we can hope to remain alive, however lucky and robust we are.

Normal people tend to forget this process unless and until they are reminded of it. We are so familiar with the fact that man ages, that people have for years assumed that the process of losing vigor with time, of becoming more likely to die the older we get, was something self-evident, like the cooling of a hot kettle or the wearing-out of a pair of shoes. They have also assumed that all animals, and probably other organisms such as trees, or even the universe itself, must in the nature of things "wear out".

Most animals we commonly observe do in fact age as we do, if given the chance to live long enough; and mechanical systems like a wound watch, or the sun, do in fact an out of energy in accordance with the second law of thermodynamics (热力学) (whether the whole universe does so is a moot point at present). But these are not analogous to what happens when man ages. A run-down watch is still a watch and can be rewound. An old watch, by contrast, becomes so worn and unreliable that it eventually is not worth mending. But a watch could never repair itself—it does not consist of living parts, only of metal, which wears away by friction. We could,at one time, repair ourselves—well enough, at least, to overcome all but the most instantly fatal illnesses and accidents. Between twelve and eighty years we gradually lose this power; an illness which at twelve would knock us over, at eighty can knock us out, and into our grave. If we could stay as vigorous as we are at twelve, it would take about 700 years for half of us to die, and another 700 for the survivors to be reduced by half again.

【推荐1】Like many other of our lives today, education has become a global enterprise. In microcosm（微观世界）, my school is proof of how global. Monkseaton High School is an ordinary state-funded school of 850 students in the unfashionable part of northeastern England. Over the past seven years it has sent 12 students to American universities --- two of them to Harvard. Monkseaton has, in turn, attracted students from other countries, including Germany and Latvia. Monkseaton now almost routinely receives inquiries from students in Eastern European countries. Obviously, learning English is a big draw, but his pattern ofstudent movement was unheard of five years ago.

The brain drain is a universal phenomenon, and countries that don’t face up to the new reality will be losing some of their most precious resources. The northeast of England is its poorest region, and has experienced a severe loss of highly qualified professionals-to-be. Some of the most able 18-year-olds are going to other parts of Britain, even to other countries. What is happening here is happening to Britain as a whole. Most noticeably, there is a growing trend of British students taking degrees in American universities. This year the number will break the psychological barrier of 1,000 students for the first time.

And what is happening at the secondary-school level is happening to higher education. Wherever they come from, today’s students have a very different perspective on education from their parents. Because of television, the Internet and their travels, these students see the world as a much smaller place than their parents once did. They are more confident in accepting the challenge of moving from one country to another, from one culture to another; in many cases they can even apply to schools over the Internet. Students are also more aware of the overall cost of education and are looking for value for money. Plus, for many, education linked to travel is a better option than education at home.

【推荐2】A scene from China’s biggest soap opera last year, Ode to Joy Season 2, has triggered much discussion on whether virginity is still a prized asset for women in “modern” China. In the scene, Qiu Yingying, a young but naive character, holds a dinner party to introduce her boyfriend to her friends, but the evening turns dramatic after her neighbour accidentally exposes her past relationship. Her boyfriend, Ying Qin, storms off, furious, expressing his thought that having sex before marriage is a moral spot for a woman.

However controversial the show is, it does reveal a universal phenomenon that sex education in China is often relatively backward and of minor significance. Parents very rarely share information about sex with children. What almost all parents do, however, is to warn their children, especially daughters not to have any dates before they graduate from university, fearing that they get hurt or become pregnant. There are stories of biology teachers skipping details of the reproductive system in class and ask students to learn it by themselves. Chinese communities also traditionally expect virginity before marriage.

Ren Yi, a student from East China Normal University, said it was perfectly reasonable for a boyfriend who was a virgin himself to require his girlfriend to be so. The only problem, she said, was if it was a double standard and the man expected virginity from a woman but not himself.

The issue was also being discussed by her university classmates in WeChat. Someone questioned why there wasn’t gender equality when it came to virginity, but another said she couldn’t accept Ying Qin’s comment on women who had sex before marriage.

While some still concentrate on virginity itself, others have shifted the focus of this debate.

Zhu Pingping, a Shanghai-based English teacher, commented that even debating the topic was old-fashioned in the 21^st Century. She thought it was “disgusting” for the show to make an issue of it in modern cities, women are more independent and liberated, she said.

Her husband, Shen Peng, also a teacher, added that not everyone will and can advance with the times as he or she ages and some even want to restore the so-called traditional Chinese virtues of being a woman (女德), which from his perspective has long been used as a means to oppress women both physically and mentally throughout the history.

“Teaching students knowledge about sex doesn’t mean we encourage them to eat the forbidden fruit. Actually, it is just the opposite, because only when sex---like other aspects of lives---is dealt with frankly and appropriately in the educational process can the healthy growth of children raised in it be truly encouraged,” he said.

【推荐3】Born and raised in a digital age, today’s young people are generally tech savvy (技术娴熟的). But when it comes to basic life skills, they’re less capable than the older generation.

According to a recent study, 69 percent of 18 to 24-year-olds in the UK have no idea how to bleed a radiator(暖气片换水). About 35 percent of them don’t know how to sew on a button, while about 11 percent don’t understand how to change a light bulb or iron clothes.

It appears young people are losing the skills older generations took for granted. In fact, the problem is shared by young people in the United States. According to a report by Forbes in 2014, most millennial (千禧一代) drivers don’t know how to check their tire pressure. Cooking is another basic life skill that has been dropped, as millennials are much more likely to order food deliveries than previous generations.

Technology may be to blame for this generational gap. Skills at using phones and computers are the ones valued these days, and the practical skills are now seen as functions that can be easily outsourced (外包). Indeed, improvements in technology have made young people unfamiliar with many basic life skills. For example, with GPS always at hand, young people have had no need to learn how to read physical maps.

However, this change has raised concerns among many people. “If you have your master’s degree and you can’t live within your means or go home from your job and feed yourself a nutritious (有营养的) meal, you’re not a complete graduate,” Chris Moore, a professor from Brigham Young University, US, told HuffPost.

That’s why there’s an increasing call for the return of “home ec” in the US, short for home economics, which teaches basic life skills like cooking and how to do laundry. It was very popular in the early 20th century, but was later taken out of schools and universities because of budget(预算) cuts. But recently, home ec was reintroduced in a small number of schools and universities.

“The educational system would work better if every academic class had a practical course that applied the theory to do something regular people do in real life,” Robert Frost, instructor and flight controller at NASA, wrote on Quora, according to Huffpost.