【推荐1】Research among 2,000 adults showed that about four out of five find small talk with colleagues in the office annoying, especially if it involves football or children. Talking about the weather, or asking someone how their weekend was, was also listed among annoying subjects, according to the study by Hyper Recruitment Solutions.

Most of those surveyed said they had experienced rudeness at work, including being reprimanded（训斥）in front of colleagues or personal remarks about their clothes or possessions.

Half of those asked admitted to avoiding making coffee for themselves at work so they didn’t have to make one for colleagues. A report said, “While employees are direct on some issues, they’d rather avoid the situation completely than feel it is a duty to make coffee for others.”

The report also suggested most employees found that physical contact in the workplace was acceptable, including a kiss on the cheek, high fives or hugs. Ricky Martin, founder of Hyper Recruitment Solutions, said, “We often hear and read in the media how physical contact at work isn’t acceptable, yet the results suggest otherwise. Of course, physical contact isn’t always appropriate or well received, so I would advise it should be essential to be aware of factors such as personality, religion and culture.”

What might be regarded as friendly in one culture may be considered as deeply offensive in another. However, as the results suggest, should the relationship be there and requited（回报）, it shouldn’t be frowned upon（反对）for colleagues to hug, give high fives or give one another a pat on the back.

【推荐2】As a first lady, every workday is desirably different. However, there is one expectation that follows me, and others like me, wherever I go: that I play the role of a sidekick(助手)

This past summer, for instance, European Council President Donald Tusk shared a video online from the G7 meeting. The video was of spouses of U. S. President Donald Trump, President Emmanuel Macron of France, Mr. Tusk and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan. The title: “The Light Side of the Force.”

The video made me feel uncomfortable. It is regrettable to see intelligent women reduced to props(道具)who exist to support their husbands’ political agendas - to see them celebrated first and foremost for their gentle demeanors(风度). In 2019, can we not do better than assume the spouses of our leaders have nothing more worthwhile to do than wander after their other halves to watch traditional performances and take in the view while their made counterparts take care of “serious business”?

It also made me think: On the occasions when I travel with my husband, am I contributing to the myth that female spouses are the “light” side of their powerful husbands?

Since becoming first lady of Iceland in 2016, I have had the chance to wrestle with the contradictions that come with this under-fined role. On the one hand, to serve my country in this way is an honor for which I am very grateful. It is also an opportunity: When choosing activities in which I wish to take part, I am guided by the assumptions of my role as spouse and how I wish to modernize them. On state visits, for example, one of my aims is to destroy the often-gendered expectations of what “the wife” should do - I participate in discussions about sustainable tourism, entre-preneurship and innovation, and yes, gender equality.

Yet I still hate the occasions when my presence is assumed rather than requested. I am not my husband’s handbag, to be seized as he runs out the door and displayed silently by his side during public appearances. It’s uncomfortable to be told I look much nicer with my hair longer or that I should not wear green again because it’s not my color. On almost every solo trip I make as first lady, I am asked who is looking after our four young children as if their father had no parental obligations. If I am ever asked about my professional background, it is always in the past tense, although I still continue much of my paid work. (Why should I get a new job because my husband was elected to one?)

When I share these opinion of being able to help shape debate surrounding gender equality because of something my husband has achieved. I am proud of my husband and his achievements - but no one wants to be judged as her partner’s decoration.

The author, Elisa Jean Reid, is the first lady of Iceland

【推荐1】A series of outdoor basketball games in southwest China’s Guizhou province attracted more than 50 million online viewers in only four days. This is the second time that Guizhou bas held the “Gorgeous Countryside” basketball tournament, which is an amateur inter-village basketball tournament.

The final of this year’s tournament took place in Taipan Town, Taijiang County on Tuesday night. Over 10,000 people came here to watch it. For the winning team, the prize was only a cow weighing 650 kilograms, and for the team in second place, two goats.

Started across the province in 2021, the “Gorgeous Countryside” tournament grew rapidly with more local sports fields built. And across Guizhou province, almost every town has a basketball field. “We used to play on dirt ground, and made baskets by ourselves. With the development of sports facilities in the countryside, we now have a true basketball field in our village and can train better,” said Wang Shenglong, a member of the Taijiang County team. Since April, more than 4,200 basketball games have been organized in Guizhou, none of which would have happened if it weren’t for the fact that more basketball fields were built for the public.

In 2018, the basketball games were included in the Chi Xin Festival, which celebrates harvest on the sixth of June on the lunar calendar. Since then, thanks to the introduction of the “Gorgeous Countryside” tournament, Taipan Town has attracted many not only from nearby, but some who need to drive all the way from Guiyang, the provincial capital more than 200 kilometers away, to experience the unique atmosphere in Taipan.

The tournament is an example of local development, and will promote local development further. The games are liked by the locals more than ever, and will hopefully encourage them to build a brighter future.

【推荐2】We humans have an outsize influence on this planet, and our winged, finned, and four-legged neighbors are in their tough time. Many animals have died out in response to the pressures, but some survivors are adapting. Some animals are showing off never-before-seen behaviors, shifting their diets, and even evolving different shapes, sizes, and colors.

The shifts can’t be avoided and are likely permanent: There’s no going back to when wildlife was still completely wild. “There’s no place anywhere on the planet in its original condition. There are micro plastics at the bottom of the ocean, and Antarctica is melting. The world has changed because we’re in it,” says Tag Engstrom, a biologist at California State University.

African elephants in Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park are some daring members of the animal kingdom, who have found a will and a way to change right along with it.

Normally elephants use their 6-foot-long tusks to dig wells in search of water, lift objects, rip bark off trees, and even battle lions. In other words, the ivory appendages (附属品) are not just impressive to look at — they are highly useful tools. So it might seem strange that a significant number of African elephants in Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park, once an illegal hunting wildlife area, are now being born without tusks.

According to a 2021 DNA analysis published in the journal Science, that the elephants are born without tusks is no coincidence. After decades of being shot by ivory brokers, the leading elephants in some herds have passed down a trait that prevents the females’ prize possessions from growing in — and helps them avoid being hunted. No one knows yet how widespread these genes might be in the greater population of African elephants, or how the loss of tusks might affect the mammals’ survival overall. But the findings are a powerful, if depressing, reminder of the extremes a species might endure to escape from extinction.