2 . The idea of low material desire, low consumption and refusing to work, marry and have children, concluded as a “lying down” lifestyle, recently struck a chord with many young Chinese who are eager to take pause to breathe in this fast-paced and highly-competitive society.

Many millennials (千禧一代) and generation Zs complained to the Global Times that burdens, including work stress, family disputes and financial strains, have pushed them “against the wall”. They said they hate the “involution(内卷),” joking that they would rather give up some of what they have than get trapped in an endless competition against peers.

“Instead of always following the ‘virtues’ of struggle, endure and sacrifice to bear the stresses, they prefer a temporary lying down as catharsis (宣泄) and adjustment,” said a scholar. “It is no wonder that some young people, under the growing pressures from child-raising to paying the mortgage (按揭) today, would try to live in a simple way and leave the worries behind.”

Interestingly, the majority of millennials and Gen Zs reached by the Global Times, who claim to be big fans of the lying down philosophy, acknowledged that they only accept a temporary lying down as a short rest. It is true that with the great improvement of living conditions, some Chinese youth have partially lost the spirit of hardship and are not willing to bear too much hard work. But in fact, lying down is not entirely comfortable. Young people who lie down always feel guilty about their constant loss of morale (士气) far beyond their reach.

“Young people on campus have both aspirations and confusion about their future, but most of us have rejected setting ourselves up in chains to waste opportunities and challenges,” a postgraduate student told the Global Times. “It’s no use running away. I have to ‘stand up’ and face the reality sooner or later.”

4 . Physical education, or PE, isn’t required for all high school students. In some schools, it isn’t offered for some different reasons. But should high school students have physical education? The answer is certainly “yes”.

Today many people don’t do sports. But as is known to all, doing sports is very important for an adult. Teaching teens the importance of a healthy lifestyle and making fitness plans now can help teens put exercise in the first place as an adult.

High school isn’t that easy. Many students are under a lot of stress. Stress can be harmful to a student’s study and life. Doing sports can help them deal with stress better, helping them live a happier life at school.

The American Heart Association says that 10 million kids and teens suffer from obesity (肥胖症). Teens should get 60 minutes of physical activity per day to control their weight and to help their bones get stronger. The increase in activities that don’t get teens to move around, such as video games and computer activities, means many teens don’t get their required exercise. PE classes act as a public health measure to encourage physical activities and help teens have healthy weights.

Not doing sports increases teens’ risk of developing many diseases. An active lifestyle offers a good way of protection from these health problems. As much as 75 percent of health-care spending goes toward treating medical conditions that can be hindered by lifestyle changes,according to the American College of Sports Medicine.

According to the President’s Council on Fitness,Sports and Nutrition (PCFSN), students who performed five hours of physical activity each week improved their academic (学业的) performance. Students from programs with no physical activity, who used the extra time for classroom study, did not perform better on tests than those who gave up some study time in support of physical education.

5 . Living a healthy lifestyle lies in forming the right eating habits. Here are some of the good habits you can develop when it comes to healthy eating.

Drink plenty of water. You must drink at least 8 glasses of water a day. You may need even more water if you are in a hot environment or if you are exercising.

Eat breakfast.Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. A recent study has shown that those who eat breakfast will consume an average of 100 calories more during the day than their colleagues (同事) who skipped breakfast. They will also be able to concentrate better.

Don’t skip lunch. If you do so, your blood sugar level will drop and your metabolism (新陈代谢) will slow down. When you get home you are starving and eat everything you can find.

We all need to snack from time to time, but please choose your snacks carefully. In fact, it’s a good idea to eat two healthy snacks besides your three main meals. Choose healthy snacks like fruits and vegetables, low fat yogurt, cottage cheese with apple sauce, and so on.

Eat your fruits and vegetables. We should eat at least 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day. Take a piece of fruit for a snack, add some banana and raisins to your favourite breakfast cereal (谷类食品), have a salad with lunch, and eat at least one vegetable at dinner each night.

Do not eat your dinner too late. Try to eat dinner at least 3 hours before you go to bed. This will give your body a chance to digest most of the food before you rest for the next 8 hours. Plan dinner for the week ahead of time and make sure you have everything you need in the house so other family members can get ahead start on dinner if you have a late meeting at the office.

6 . My teacher held up a piece of broken glass and asked, “Who broke this window?”

Thirty boys tried to think about not only what they had done, but also what the teacher might have found out. She seldom became angry, but she was this time.

“Oh,” I thought. I was the one who broke the window. It was caused by a naughty throw of a baseball. If I admitted guilt, I would be in a lot of trouble. How would I be able to pay for a big window like that? I didn’t even get an allowance. “My father is going to have a fit as a result of it,” I thought. I didn’t want to raise my hand, but some force much stronger than I was pulled it skyward (朝向天空). I told the truth, “I did it.” It was hard enough to say what I had done.

My teacher took down a book from one of our library shelves and I had never known my teacher to strike a student, but I feared she was going to start with me.

“I know how much you like birds,” she said as she stood looking down at my guilt-ridden face. “Here is the field guide about birds that you are constantly checking out. It is yours now. It’s time we got a new one for the school anyway. You will not be punished, but remember that I am not rewarding you for your misdeed (恶行), but I am rewarding you for your truthfulness.”

I couldn’t believe it! I wasn’t being punished and I was getting my own bird field guide — the very one that I had been saving up money to buy.

The lesson my teacher taught me stays with me every day, and it will echo forever.

7 . Why Do Movie Theaters Serve Popcorn?

The savory smell. The crunchy bite. The buttery finish. Americans will recognize the smell and flavor of their favorite movies snack anywhere. Why is it that we feast our taste buds on these crisp kernels (玉米) while our eyes focus on the big screen?

    1     The main reason is the snack’s price, convenience, and timing. Popcorn was cheap for sellers and for customers, and making it didn’t require special equipment.     2     . That is how popcorn got introduced to the silver screen.

Popcorn does not refer to the popped kernel alone.     3     It was originally grown in Central America and became popular in the U. S. in the mid-1800s. Compared with other snacks at the time, it was super easy to make, and it got easier in 1885 when the mobile steam-powered popcorn maker was invented. In the late 19th century, a large number of independent popcorn suppliers became widely available.     4    

Since popcorn was cheap to make, it was also cheap to buy, which increased the popularity of this treat during the Great Depression. The Depression increased consumer spending on cheaper luxury items such as popcorn and movies, and the two industries teamed up.     5     By the mid-1940s, however, movie theaters began to have their own concession stands (小卖部) in the lobby. The introduction of the popcorn-driven concession stand to movie theaters kept the movie theater industry running smoothly, and popcorn has been a basic movie-watching food ever since.

8 . What is the best sleep position for your health?

It’s difficult to control what sleeping position we naturally fall into, as our body will subconsciously all into the most comfortable position for us. However, some positions are better for you than others and come could hold back your health and wellbeing.     1     .

If you sleep on your side

More than 60 per cent of people sleep on their side. Often our body naturally moves to this position, which is linked to when we were in the womb in the foetal(胎儿的) position.    2    It offers a number of benefits to your body, from promoting healthy spine alignment(脊椎对齐) which can help to prevent back pain to reducing heartburn and snoring(打鼾).

If you sleep on your back

Lying on your back is the second most popular sleeping position and offers just as many benefits as side sleeping. When you’re sleeping on your back, it’s easy to keep alignment and to also evenly distribute your weight.     3    

If you sleep on your stomach

Sleeping on your stomach is the least common sleeping position.     4     . And those who sleep on their stomach could put themselves at risk of a less restful night’s sleep. The stomach offers the least amount of back support and can increase pressure on the spine which may cause pain once you wake up.

    5     You should consider various factors such as if you snore or suffer sleep problems, or if you often have back and neck pain. Side sleeping has been noted as the best position for the body, so this is probably one to try and get into the habit of trying, but again, it all depends on you.

9 . Given how valuable intelligence and automation are, we will continue to improve our technology if we are at all able to. At a certain point, we will build machines that are smarter than we are. Once we have machines that are smarter than we are, they will begin to improve themselves. The concern is really that we will build machines that are much more competent than we are. And the slightest divergence (分歧) between their goals and our own could destroy us.

Just think about how we relate to ants. We don’t hate them. We don’t go out of our way to harm them. In fact, sometimes we take pains not to harm them. We step over them on the sidewalk. But whenever their presence seriously conflicts with one of our goals, we will kill them without hesitation. The concern is that we will one day build machines that, whether they’re conscious or not, could treat us with similar disregard.

The bare fact is that we will continue to improve our intelligent machines. We have problems that we desperately need to solve. So we will do this, if we can. The train is already out of the station, and there’s no brake to pull. If we build machines that are more intelligent than we are, they will very likely develop in ways that we can’t imagine, and transcend us in ways that we can’t imagine.

So imagine we hit upon a design of super intelligent AI that has no safety concerns. This machine would be the perfect labor-saving device. It can design the machine that can build the machine which can do any physical work, powered by sunlight, more or less for the cost of raw materials. So we’re talking bout the end of human labour. We’re also talking about the end of most intellectual work. So what would apes like ourselves do in these circumstances?

But the moment we admit that information processing is the source of intelligence, we have to admit that we are in the process of building some sort of god. Now would be a good time to make sure it’s a god we can live with.