【推荐1】Sharon Holland and her husband, Jer, are travelling around the world and saving money at the same time-by swapping (交换) houses with strangers to keep the bills low. They only have to pay for their flights, meaning they save hundreds of pounds on their holidays each year.

The couple’s occupation allows them to enjoy long periods of school holidays. Both work as school Deputy Principals, which allows them to take their children, Cian, 23, Miah, 13, and Faye, 11, abroad up to four times per year. On average, they pay £1,250 per year for flights.

Sharon, from Cork, Ireland, has exchanged her home with a stranger 40 times in the last 13 years and says she’s never looked back. She said: “I couldn’t imagine travelling any other way now. Swapping our Irish Georgian farmhouse for another house abroad is amazing. There are home-style houses, modern city apartments and beautiful architectural period houses too. Every holiday is different and staying in someone else’s house makes our experience more rewarding and enjoyable. We are able to meet more locals and understand the culture more than we would if we were to stay at a hotel. We bring our laptops during the summer weeks as we are both responsible for timetabling and school planning but this can be done at a distance”.

Sharon has visited various cities in America, France, Cermany, Hungary, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, the UK and their home country of Ireland. “But our favourite place is Italy. We have been lucky enough to visit there six times. Over the years, every experience has been great—from taking in the architecture to the food. We have made some wonderful happy memories for less”, adds she.

【推荐2】Tourism can be both good and bad. Yes, it brings in money for the local economy and creates jobs for locals, but it may also bring some problems.

One growing problem is tourists who want to prove that they have visited a destination. Tourists have used paint, rocks, or even keys to write on the Luxor Temple in Egypt, the Colosseum in Rome, Stonehenge in the UK, memorial stones at the bottom of Qomolangma, and many, many other places. Thousands of tourist site s are being destroyed by tourists who “love them to death”. I have three words for people like this: please stop it. If you want to leave a mark on the world, do it by changing someone’s life with kindness and love. Pass kindness along to future generations, not destruction.

Another big problem in some places has been tourists disturbing the local people and life. Some tourists wander around and take pictures of local people without asking for their permission. For example, Chiang Mai University in Thailand and Yonsei University in South Korea have great numbers of tourists visiting their campuses and walking through their libraries and other public areas, taking pictures of students, and disturbing their studies. Another example is Sanlitun, a neighbourhood in Beijing, China. Some tourists love to party there late into the night, making it difficult for locals to sleep. I have three words for tourists like this please be considerate. Have fun in a way that does not disturb others.

The number of problems from tourists is endless: walking in large groups without considering others who need to walk by, crossing roads without thinking of local traffic laws, and many more. The only way to solve the problem of the terrible tourist is to make sure that you are not one! Be the best, kindest, most polite tourist possible, Remember, whenever you step outside your country’s borders, you are representing your country to the rest of the world.

【推荐1】Everyone has a phone in their pocket nowadays, but how often do we really use them for their original purpose—to make a call? Telephone culture is disappearing. What brought us to this moment, and what are its effects?

“No one picks up the phone anymore,” wrote Alex C. Madrigal on The Atlantic. “The reflex(习惯性动作) of answering—20th-century telephonic culture—is gone.”

The shift is of course due in large part to more communication options: texting with photos, videos, emojis, reaction gifs, links and even voice message s can be a more attractive option.

Texting is light and fun, not nearly as demanding of your attention as a phone call. It can also be done with multiple people at the same time. Social media, email and video calls have also eaten away at traditional phone calls.

In recent years, another reason has caused people to ignore phone calls completely: robocalls. Robocalls are automate(自动化的) messages from organizations verifying(核实) your phone number or telemarketers trying to sell something. Americans received 22.8 billion robocalls halfway through 2020, equaling an annual rate of 45.6 billion, slightly below 2018 numbers, according to You Mail, a robocall protection service and blocking app.

As telephone culture disappears, what is the loss of a singular family phone   doing to the family unit? Early landline phones unified family members, whereas mobile phone s isolate(隔离) them.

“The shared family phone served as an anchor for home,” said Luke Fernandez, a Weber State University computer-science professor and co-author of Bored, Lonely, Angry, Stupid: Feelings About Technology, From the Telegraph to Twitter. “With smart phones, we have gained mobility and privacy. But the value of the home has been weakened, as has its ability to guide and monitor family behavior and perhaps connect families more closely,” Fernandez said.

Of course, as technology progresses, lives always change for better or for worse. With the loss of telephone culture, families will need to find other ways to unite.

【推荐2】Humans are no strangers to widespread viruses, and each time a vaccine (疫苗) is developed, it gives us hope for the future. Now, the world is waiting for a vaccine to fight COVID-19.

Scientists worldwide have been rolling up their sleeves to work to ward an effective novel coronavirus vaccine.

Under the coordination (协调) of the World Health Organization(WHO), up to 172 countries have been engaging with the “largest and most diverse COVID-19 vaccine portfolio”, a plan known as the COVAX Global Vaccines Facility.

COVAX is a system for joint purchasing and balancing the risks of multiple vaccines. When a vaccine proves to be safe and effective, all countries within the facility will be able to access it, according to Xinhua.

The plan is aimed to ensure that all countries, no matter their economic status, can get the vaccine in a timely manner when one is available. It also makes sure that prices will be kept as low as possible.

“A number of vaccines are now in the final stage of clinical trials,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Aug. 24th, adding that the goal of COVAX is to deliver at least 2billion doses of a vaccine by the end of 2021. According to the WHO, at present, nine potential vaccines are part of the portfolio.

To guarantee the equal access and fair assignment of COVID-19 vaccines, the WHO has said that the world needs to prevent vaccine nationalism — countries putting their own interests ahead of others in trying to secure supplies of a possible vaccine.

“Vaccine nationalism only helps the virus,” Tedros said, warning that it would lead to a prolonged pandemic (疫情) if only a small number of countries got most of the supply.

“Like an orchestra, we need all instruments to be played in harmony to create music that everyone enjoys,” he said.

Vaccine development looks promising, as several countries have made great progress. Russia began production of its first batch of a COVID-19 vaccine on Aug. 15th, according to its health ministry. It’s the world’s first registered vaccine. Four Chinese vaccine candidates have started international stage-3 clinical trials.

【推荐3】Imagine that you, a newly-graduated student were looking for a single apartment. You wandered into a housing agent and learnt that there were three apartments available. The three apartments were almost the same in every aspect except their distances to your workplace and street noise levels. Apartment A takes the longest to go to work, but it is also the quietest. Apartment C takes the least time, but sits near a busy, noisy street. Apartment B is moderate on distances and street noise. Assume that you value convenience as much as quietness. Which apartment will you take?

You may find the decision somehow difficult. After all, all apartments seem similarly desirable, and each apartment has its unique advantages and disadvantages. Unable to figure out whether you should give up convenience for quietness, you are likely to end up with Apartment B—the one with relatively moderate value on convenience and quietness. Researchers call this the “compromise effect”—under decision conflicts, consumers tend to take the middle route, a tendency that grows increasingly obvious as the number of available choices increases.

What exactly motivates consumers to choose a middle or compromise option? You choose the middle apartment because you are determined to look for the “best” apartment—one that takes the least time to your office and at the same time lies in the quietest neighborhood. Unfortunately, such a satisfying option doesn’t exist in a compromise choice set—a shorter distance requires you to give up some quality sleep, and quietness at night comes at the cost of hurry in the morning, particularly if you are late. It is a powerful psychological principle that losses can weigh twice as much as same sized gains. Unwilling to give up either benefit, you are likely to end up with a compromise option—you don’t gain, nor do you lose.