【推荐1】Walk along the streets of Beijing and listen carefully to the little babies calling for their mothers while out on an evening walk and what do you hear? mama.     1    . Italian and French babies want their mama and maman respectively. And in East Africa, Swahili-speakers say mama and Arab-speaking children often call their mothers yemma.     2    . In Malaysia, it’s not unusual for mothers to be addressed as mak. The sound ma is almost universal in Europe, and very common even among completely unrelated languages spoken in faraway places. How did this come about? How did one syllable (音节) become so universal in children’s vocabularies the world over?

    3    . Hungry babies only have to open their mouths wide and scream AAAAAAH to pronounce their first vowel-A. Later, as they start playing around with their mouths, all they have to do is to close and open their lips to make an M, their very first consonant (辅音).     4    , they’ve discovered another sound! Adults hearing babies making this charming string of mamama sounds might think that the babies are calling out to them. A mother would then naturally assume that she’s the one being addressed and so would refer to herself as mama!

Another theory is that babies naturally produce nasal (鼻的) sounds, like a very soft mhmh-mlmh while breastfeeding. Indeed mamma means “breast” in Latin.     5    .

【推荐1】When I lived in Hanoi, sometimes an elderly woman would hold my arm so that I could help her cross the street. It was not because she was too weak—but because she was afraid of the traffic. I am now one of those elderly women who fear street crossings.

In many cities around the world, elderly people actually cannot cross the road because the timing on crossing signals is too short. At least we don’t have that problem here for the absence of functional traffic lights. On many mornings, I would watch many people—including or especially the elderly—crossing the road so that they could walk along the lake. The road was fairly empty, which meant that drivers sped along so fast that they could easily have killed someone on foot. But somehow, the right of drivers to speed is considered more important than the right of the elderly to move about safely. “Learn to deal with the risk or stay off the streets” seems to be the truth.

“Why did the chicken cross the road?”

“Because it was still young enough to do so safely!” The more I think about cities, the more I see how they have become places for the young and able-bodied. Small children, the elderly, and people with disabilities is unwelcome.

Nor is it just about the scary roads. Many of our trips are within the neighborhood; elderly people specially need social contact and will die early if they are socially lonely. We need to ensure that there are attractive outdoor public spaces in each neighborhood where the elderly can gather, and that they can reach these places safely on foot. There is also the possibility for the elderly to ride bicycles. Buses, too, need to be dealt with. How easy on earth is it for an elderly to get on and off a bus here?

We can’t allow our cities to become fast-paced and terrifying places, where people not only fear injury and death, but often find their fears becoming a reality. We could do much better for our elderly-and then benefit everyone else in the process.

【推荐2】Are you always looking at your mobile phone as you’re walking, playing with it as you’re studying, and reluctant to put it down as you go to bed? Tired of a life controlled by their mobile phones, many young people seem to be intent on working out how to overcome it.

One of the popular gadgets is the mobile phone isolation box. Users simply put their mobile phone in the box and set a time lock that will ban them from having access to the phone for a set time. Some boxes allow users to respond to emergencies. These isolation boxes can be adapted to almost all types of mobile phones on the market. The locking time generally ranges from one minute to 12 hours, and the price is generally about 100-200 Yuan. Xianfeng Technology, one of the sellers on Taobao says: “Our main customers are students and office workers. They usually ask for engraving some inspirational quotes on the box when buying. Some parents who feel their children are wasting time on Douyin and ruining their studies are also buying them. This physical box is much better than software on phones.” Xianfeng’s after-sales comment section is filled with positive comment from buyers who say the box has helped them become more self-disciplined.

However, Lin Tianqi, a college student says, because the lock time is set by users, whether they can achieve their goal depends on the individual. A five-hour lockup is too harsh, she says, but one of her friends locks the box for just 30 minutes, she seems to delude herself. Liang Wenyu, another college student, sneers at these “flashy” attempts. “Regardless of the effectiveness of the isolation box, you might as well lock yourself up. As simple as that.” he says. “I can understand why they need these blood pumping quotes on the box—because they lack discipline. How about simply taking back your time. Self-disciplined people are bound to succeed without such gimmicks.”

【推荐1】“Angela, do you think the United States will elect a female president in your lifetime?” Years ago, this was the last question of the last interview for a scholarship that I didn’t win. I shook my head “no”. As the interview ended, I sensed that I’d given an answer the committee found disappointing. “Yes, of course there will be a female president in my lifetime, and I hope I have your vote.” Maybe they wanted me to say this assertively.

Where does the bravery to set ambitious goals and strive for them come from?

In a previous study, an experimenter did a series of “car impact experiments”. The experimenter placed a toy car in the middle of the platform and placed obstacles on each side of the car. If the car collided (撞击) with the obstacle on the left, the car would light up. If it collided with the obstacle on the right, there would be no response.

The experimenter invited children to observe him playing two sides of “collision games”. After that, the children were asked to play this game. It was found that all children specifically hit the left obstacle because it would make the car give out light. Through this experiment, we can understand that children will not imitate (模仿) all of your actions, but only your “successful” actions. So we need to be sure they have a good example.

In a more recent study, it is found that the closer the person was to the child, the more willing the child was to imitate. Likewise, college students who are assigned to teaching assistants of similar race or ethnicity were more likely to attend office hours and discussion sections. This match also led to improving student performance in sequenced courses.

Don’t assume that children can he anything they want when they grow up. So go out of your way to expose the young people to inspiring role models they can relate to, whether it’s an Olympic athlete or a local entrepreneur. And now that we have our first female vice president, can the first female president be far behind?

【推荐3】Potential end to sales of gasoline cars in China could benefit makers of electric cars, and suppliers of spare parts and power management solutions in the long run, analysts said.

Policymakers have been suggesting a possible timetable soon for getting rid of cars that use gasoline as fuel from the China market. For instance, Xin Guobin, deputy head of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said at a news conference in early September that authorities are studying a timetable for stopping sales of gasoline cars in China.

At another conference on power and battery development, Xin said that the development of high-efficiency special batteries is key to the development of e-vehicles in China.

Wang Chuanfu, president of BYD, China’s largest e-car maker, said in a recent interview that he estimated sales of gasoline cars will likely end in 2030.

According to a report by China International Capital Corporation Limited or CICC, large-scale production of e-vehicles and a bigger market share in the overall mobility market are inevitable in the next few years.

“Ending sales of gasoline cars is a global trend, and China is not going to fall behind,” the report said.

Norway and the Netherlands have announced they will end sales of gasoline cars in 2025. Germany and India will do so in 2030, and the UK and France in 2040.

Policies will encourage purchase and use of e-vehicles in China. For example, buyers would be offered free car plates in cities. In contrast, gasoline car owners may need to pay more than 80,000 yuan for a plate at auctions (拍卖) in Shanghai.

In the longer term, however, development of e-vehicles in China depends on battery technology improvements and charging networks, said the paper.