【推荐1】Americans use many expressions with the word dog. People in the United States love their dogs and treat them well. They take their dogs for walks, let them play outside and give them good food and medical care. However, dogs without owners to care for them lead a different kind of life. The expression, to lead a dog's life, describes a person who has an unhappy life.

Some people say we live in a dog-eat-dog world. That means many people are competing for the same things, like good jobs. They say that to be successful, a person has to work like a dog. This means they have to work very, very hard. Such hard work can make people dog-tired. And, the situation would be even worse if they became sick as a dog.

Still, people say every dog has its day. This means that every person enjoys a successful period during his or her life. To be successful, people often have to learn new skills. Yet, some people say that you can never teach an old dog new tricks. They believe that older people do not like to learn new things and will not change the way they do things.

Husbands and wives use doghouse when they are angry at each other. For example, a woman might get angry at her husband for forgetting their wedding anniversary (周年纪念). She might tell him that he is in the doghouse and treats him badly. However, the husband may decide that it is best to leave things alone and not create more problems. He might decide to let sleeping dogs lie.

Dog expressions also are used to describe the weather. The dog days of summer are the hottest days of the year. A rainstorm may cool the weather. But we do not want it to rain too hard. We do not want it to rain cats and dogs.

【推荐2】English and Chinese have for a long time been the languages most studied around the world but the line up of other languages of study is ever-changing.

In 2020, Spanish overtook (超越) French as the second most learned language on the popular language learning app Duolingo. This could be explained by a number of factors. The Spanish-speaking community is increasingly influential in the US and Latin America is seen as increasingly influential worldwide. It could be that for many people in the US there’s a practical need to speak Spanish domestically (国内地) that has overridden (比……更重要) the wish to speak French for travel.

Asian languages are also increasing in popularity. There’s recently been great interest in Japanese from China, as well as from some African countries including Chad and Ethiopia. We can mainly relate this growing interest to Japan’s cultural output and general attraction to its unique culture. Not to mention the Olympics getting the interest of language learners from around the world.

What’s striking is that Chinese is now a more popular choice than Russian for language learners. That’s probably because the increasing global influence of China means it is seen as a more useful language to speak compared to Russian. Over 100 million learners are thought to be studying Chinese worldwide with interest from the UK, US, India and Africa. It’s interesting to see a relatively new superpower overtake a more established one — in language terms at least.

It’s hard to judge the cultural influence of a country but the number of people spending time learning more about it through its language is surely a sign that it is exerting (施加) influence.

【推荐3】Thousands of us have been rediscovering the joys of putting pen to paper to send messages of love and encouragement to family and friends recently. Writing is having a comeback, which is great news for all of us.    1    Power off the laptop and phone and pick up a pen and paper.

It helps you learn more readily.

Using a laptop during lectures may be the modern way, but taking notes by hand appears to be more helpful to learning.    2    This, in turn, means you understand it better and commit it to memory.

It enables you to remember well.

    3    Researchers from Chicago found that people who continued reading and writing frequently slowed their memory decline by 32 per cent compared with those who didn't. The rate of memory decline in people who wrote or read only infrequently was 48 per cent faster.

It allows you to sleep well.

If you've ever woken up in the midnight and suddenly remembered certain things you haven't done, it'll be difficult for you to get back to sleep. They'll probably keep you awake because your brain is concerned you might have forgotten them again by morning.    4    That way you're giving your brain permission to forget about them for the night and you can nod off.

    5    

If you're interested in taking your writing to another level, then add modern calligraphy to your hobby list. Calligraphy forces you to slow down and achieve what psychologists call flow, which is a positive emotional state and enjoyment with no stress attached.