【推荐1】Many people look forward to the holiday season, which provides an opportunity to take a few days off, or go on a getaway.     1     The combined effort of shopping, attending social events, and entertaining guests can quickly become too much to handle.

    2    This means you may end up with financial pressure. To prevent stress over money, plan ahead; review your finances, and come up with a practical budget.

Purchases shouldn't affect your ability to pay your bills, nor should it result in costly credit card debt.

The holiday season is stressful when you have too much on your plate.     3    You actually needn't cancel your plans, but make sure everything doesn't have to be perfect, and you don't have to do everything yourself- get your family involved.

A holiday season is not always an interval of true relaxation: Sometimes it can mean a lot of rushing around with confusion; allowing you no moment alone.     4    Even as little as 15 minutes alone can make a world of difference as you need to take a breather and clear your mind!

Being in close quarters with your family members for a long holiday can be stressful in itself. Because of your different personalities, it may be easy to rub each other the wrong way. If you let every remark get under your skin, you'll be stressed out the entire time.     5     Don't let the actions of others rob you of your joy.

【推荐2】This Monday, the nation will start to celebrate Presidents’ Day, just seven days before George Washington’s birthday. Everyone agrees that day is a holiday, but is it just to celebrate George Washington’s birthday? What about Abraham Lincoln? Some government offices call it Presidents’ Day. Others say the holiday is officially Washington’s birthday. Confused yet?

George Washington was elected the country’s first President on April 30, 1789. Soon after, Americans began publicly celebrating his birthday. Presidential historians say the actual date of George Washington’s birth is February 11, 1732. But a change in the calendar system 20 years later shifted all dates, making Washington’s birthday February 22, which is now well accepted. In 1879, Congress made Washington’s birthday an official federal holiday. It was the first federal holiday to celebrate an individual’s birthday. In 1968, Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which moved the holiday to the third Monday in February. The new law didn’t change the holiday’s name. It was still called Washington’s Birthday, even though some lawmakers wanted to call it Presidents’ Day to include Abraham Lincoln, whose actual birthday is February 12.

Many people argue that the holiday should celebrate all past Presidents. They feel Lincoln should be honoured for his role in preserving the nation during the Civil War and helping to free slaves. Others feel the holiday should only honour Washington, the country’s first President. They say shifting the focus away from Washington would mean future generations of kids wouldn’t know about the Father of Our Country.

Laws have been introduced in Congress over the years to require use of the term “George Washington’s Birthday”. But none of those laws have been passed. Meanwhile, many state governments and school districts now use the term “Presidents’ Day”. Many stores also use it to promote holiday sales.

Should the holiday honour Washington, Washington and Lincoln, or all past Presidents? Write to tell us what you think.

【推荐1】Sending a package back is not easy. Repacking, printing labels and shipping it back up to the seller is an increasingly familiar experience for online shoppers. In America 21%of online orders, worth some $218bn, were returned in 2021, according to the National Retail Federation, up from 18%in 2020. For clothing and shoes it can reach around 40%.

The problem has its roots in the birth of e-commerce. To compete with bricks-and-mortar (实体的) sellers and make consumers comfortable with ordering online, e-commerce firms offered free returns. Consumers came to expect it.

Each step of the process is costly. Retailers have to pay for goods to be picked up or posted. Processing returns is labor-intensive (劳动密集型), explains Zac Rogers who worked as a returns manager at Amazon. A return must be opened and someone has to decide what to do with it. “A worker in an Amazon warehouse can pick 30 items in a minute, but a return can take ten minutes to process, ” says Mr. Rogers.

Once processed, only 5% of the returned goods can be resold immediately by retailers. Most go to liquidators at the lowest prices or are thrown away.

One solution involves adding friction (阻力). Last year, a Japanese fashion brand became one of the first retailers to charge a small fee for posted returns. Other firms are selling more refurbished (翻新的) goods as a way to cut losses.

Startups are getting in on the action. Using artificial intelligence to help retailers decide what to do with the returned goods is the brainchild of them. Happy Returns, another startup, helps with logistics (物流). It has 5, 000 drop-off points for returns across America, mostly in chain stores. The returns are collected and sent back to retailers all at once, saving up to 40% of postage costs.

Some are experimenting with virtual reality (VR). Over half of the items are returned because they are the wrong size. In June Walmart said it would buy Memomi, an augmented-reality (AR) startup that lets shoppers virtually try on glasses in real-time for a seamless, easy and fun omnichannel experience. Walmart also offers ways to try on clothes and arrange furniture in rooms using AR.

【推荐3】Slang (俚语) is a popular, less official and often very current form of language. It is an important part of a living language and is constantly changing as language changes. Slang is often playful, direct and sometimes less respectful than the more official and traditional version of language. So now I’m going to lay it on you! To “lay it on” is American slang for “to tell” or “to explain.”

Slang can take many forms. For example, slang can be local to one city or area. In Washington, D.C., there is a whole set of slang to describe politics and business in the city. For example, the term POTUS stands for President of the United States. POTUS can often be found with his wife, FLOTUS, the first lady of the United States. “Inside the Beltway” is a popular expression that describes the area of Washington, D.C. The beltway is the large highway that circles the city.

The Internet has helped create a whole new kind of computer-related slang. An “angry fruit salad” is an expression that describes a Web site with too many bright colors. “Netiquette” is slang for correct behavior when using the Internet.

Young people often develop the latest slang. For example, to say Special English “rocks” or is “phat” means Special English is really great. A “kegger” is a party where beer is served.  If something is “wack”, it is wild and crazy.

Different professions often have their own slang as well. For example, medical workers might describe a complaining patient as a “gomer”. A “tough stick” is someone whose veins are difficult to find when he or she needs to have blood taken.

No matter how well you speak English, there are always new and interesting slang words to discover. There are entire dictionaries for describing slang. Many experts do not even agree on what is and what is not slang. Often slang words later become a part of officially accepted language. Official or not, slang is an energetic and exciting part of the American language that continues to change.