3 . Why Are You Still Coughing?

Have you caught a cold recently — but can’t get rid of the cough? You’re not alone. The symptom can stick around for weeks after our bodies have cleared a virus. Michael Shiloh, a physician specializing in infectious disease research at UT Southwestern Medical Center, says coughing patients often report that they were sick as many as eight weeks prior to seeing him. He says, “    1    ”

The United States saw a sharp rise in cases of influenza in late 2023 that’s dragged on into 2024. And though positive tests for the illness have leveled off or decreased countrywide over the past weeks, the number of people seeking healthcare for respiratory (呼吸的) diseases is still elevated across much of the U.S.     2     But research on how infections affect nerves in the airway is revealing new clues.

Coughing is an important reaction that protects the airway from dangers like water or bits of mis-swallowed food, says doctor and researcher Lorcan McGarvey of Queen’s University Belfast.     3     These nerves are decorated with receptor (受体) proteins that react to everything from cold air to hot pepper. When a stimulus causes those receptors, nerves send signals to the brain that we experience as the urge to cough.

While it may seem obvious that coughing is meant to clear our throats, it’s also possible that viruses cause the reaction to help themselves spread.     4     And if we do ultimately cough to clear out our airway during an infection, that still wouldn’t explain what exactly our nerves sense during an infection that causes a cough.

“We don’t know,” says electrophysiologist Thomas Taylor-Clark of the University of South Florida. “But what we can say is that we do know some things, one being that viruses cause infection.”

4 . I was sitting in my high school classroom, nervously tapping my pencil against the desk as I awaited the start of the English exam.

As the clock struck, signaling the beginning of the exam, my heart began to race. I opened the exam booklet and scanned the questions, and I felt a wave of panic over me. The questions seemed foreign, and the topics unfamiliar. In a state of panic, I hurriedly wrote down my answers, hoping that somehow, by some stroke of luck, they would be correct. But as the minutes went by, I realized I couldn’t seem to make sense of the questions before me. As the final bell rang, I handed in my paper with a heavy heart.

In the days that followed, I couldn’t shake the feeling of failure that hung over me like a dark cloud. I replayed the exam over and over in my mind, analyzing every question, every answer, searching for clues as to where I had gone wrong.

But in the depression, a realization began to dawn on me — I had failed, yes, but I had also learned valuable lessons along the way. Armed with this newfound wisdom, I ensured that I would do better next time. I threw myself into my studies with renewed determination, devouring books and practicing past exams with an eagerness I had never known before.

When the time came to retake the exam, I was ready. I approached each question with confidence and clarity, drawing upon the lessons I had learned from my previous missteps.

When the results were announced, I held my breath as I scanned the list of names. And there it was — my name, shining brightly among the list of successful candidates. At that moment, all the hard work, all the late nights and early mornings, were worth it.

And as I look back on that sunny afternoon in the high school classroom, I am grateful for the lessons it taught me, and the person it helped me become.

5 . At first the question was how quickly people would get back to the office. Then it was whether they would ever return. The last three years has introduced in a major change in white-collar working patterns. The office is not dead but many professionals have settled into a hybrid (混合的) arrangement of some office days and some remote days.

Hybrid working has much to recommend: flexibility for employees, periods of concentration at home, bursts of cooperation in the office. A new paper from Harvard Business School describes an experiment in which workers at BRAC, a non-profit organisation in Britain, were randomly assigned to three groups, each spending different amounts of time working from home. The intermediate (中等的) group, who spent between 23% and 40% of their time in the office, performed best on various performance measures.

But a shift on this large scale is bound to raise tricky issues. In workplaces that have moved to hybrid work, there are still plenty of open questions. One is how to handle the impact of less time in the office for new joiners and younger workers. Research by Emma Harrington of the University of Iowa shows that software engineers receive more feedback on their code when the team sits next to each other in the office, especially new engineers. According to Nicholas Bloom of Stanford University, making new employees spend more time in the office can be a good way of integrating them into company culture and improving their competence. And these younger employees were most likely to quit when everyone was forced to go remote.

A second question concerns how strictly to enforce attendance on days when teams are meant to be in the office. An agreement holds that there should be agreed “anchor days” on which all the people come to work in the office; since the idea is to spend time together, as many people as possible should be there. But one person on the team might have moved somewhere else; someone else might have asked to stay home to let the repairer in. In practice, therefore, hybrid working still often means a mixture of people on screen and people in the office.

Other questions exist. How to define performance measures so managers do not spend time worrying about lazy workers at home? Do you require company-wide anchor days or team-level ones? The era of hybrid working is only just beginning, so it will take time for answers to emerge. But if there is a message from this first full year of hybrid working, it is that flexibility does not mean a free-for-all.

6 . Whether you are attracted by landscapes or the after-effects of weather, there are photo opportunities everywhere. The following photography tips from photographers will help you shoot your best shot.

Take time to get to know your local wildlife before shooting, and you might just capture something truly special. Try to shoot from the perspective of the animal you are filming. Resist the urge to just point and click — take the time to observe local wildlife and you will see the rewards in your photos.

Going in close can bring some fascinating rewards in nature photography. Zooming (聚焦) into plants with frost or picking up water drops on a spider’s web can help show the beauty we might miss in everyday life. If you’re zooming in on one particular subject, such as a bee landing on a flower, you could end up with soft-focus objects in the background to create added interest.

There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to timing, and a shadow or lots of natural sunlight can produce great results — it’s just best to avoid extremes. Too much bright light hitting your camera lens (镜头) sensor will result in an overexposed photo with little detail, while a dark sky full of stars might provide too much contrast between the background and the subject you are taking pictures of.

Although the delete button can be your best friend, a few things will help you avoid unclear images. Keeping the camera stable is key, whether that’s through a solid pose as you stand ready to shoot or using a support. A self-timer can also be a handy tool for keeping your hands away from dials and settings once you have chosen your shot.

7 . Recent years have seen a small increase in unemployment rates due to slowing of the economy. The fact that many college graduates are finding it difficult to land a job has sparked online discussions on the cost of education and the returns on it, with many agreeing with the notion that “education is useless”.

Stories like a person with a doctorate’s degree from Zhejiang University is delivering food, and overseas-returned graduates are selling hot-pot ingredients have caused many to question the value of education. Moreover, the fact that about 36,000 fewer candidates have applied to take the postgraduate exam in 2024, the first decline in numbers in years, has also fueled the “education is useless theory.

Is education truly worthless? This question has resurfaced due to several factors.

The wide spread of higher education has significantly increased the number of college graduates, reducing the value of college degrees. As the job market becomes over-crowded with graduates, the scarcity of high-level talents has become apparent, particularly in fields such as the humanities. For example, more than 900 institutions in China offer English major, making it the most common degree program, yet there’s a shortage of top talents who are proficient in English and have a good knowledge about the differences in Chinese and foreign approach to fields such as international relations and journalism.

The declining returns on the investment in education have given rise to the “education is useless” theory. Given the challenging job market, many believe college education does not guarantee any sort of employment, let alone a suitable job. And with various economic opportunities available, the notion that one can become financially successful even without formal education is becoming increasingly acceptable.

In light of these developments, combined efforts need to be made to change the situation. For instance, universities must take measures to integrate education, research and industry, while enhancing cooperation with enterprises through tailored talent training programs. Additionally, the authorities need to pay greater attention to vocational education, an important part of China’s educational system. Students, parents and society, on their part, should abandon their bias against vocational training, because it integrates education with career prospects throughout the learning process, offering targeted, technical and practical training which allows students to master their skills which can get them well-paying jobs in the future.

Developing a correct view of employment and career choice is key to abandoning the notion of “education being useless”. People, especially students, must understand the current employment landscape, their positioning, and strengths and weaknesses. While realizing that a college degree is no longer a ticket to employment, college students should leverage education resources to enrich their professional knowledge and competitiveness. And youths should approach vocational education with an open mind in order to make the most of what the job market has to offer.

Education is not synonymous with earning money, nor does a college degree guarantee financial success. The value of education is knowledge, which we need to make informed decisions not only in our professional life but also in our social and other fields of life.

9 . When I first moved away from home to study, I started out living in student housing. We all had our own rooms, but every floor shared a kitchen and a common room. There was no supervision from family members, and we were expected to take care of ourselves. I had a neighbor who had, like most of us, just moved away from home. It was his first time on his own, and he felt unhappy.

We had to teach this poor boy EVERYTHING. It started with the mystery of why the plates in the cupboard were always greasy (有油渍的). It turned out that the boy didn’t know he had to use hot water to wash the dishes; he just washed them in cold water and put them back.

He spent the first six months complaining about how he was always running out of money. This was because he didn’t know how to cook. The rest of us lived on the usual student diet and treated ourselves to a pizza on weekends. However, he got fast food every single day. I could feed myself for a month on his weekly meal budget. Moreover, he had no idea how to wash clothes with a washing machine. I had to take him shopping for laundry detergent (洗衣粉) first because he didn’t know what it was. He thought he could just put ordinary soap in the washing machine.

To his credit, the boy was very grateful for the help and very depressed that no one had taught him how to do all these things before he moved out.

One day, the boy’s mother came to visit. He happily introduced all of us to his mother. After we graduated, I was invited to his wedding. He introduced me to his new wife as “the one who taught me how to be a man”.

10 . How Young Americans Spend Their Money

Young people have always puzzled their elders. Today’s youngsters are no different; indeed, they are confusing. They have thin wallets and expensive tastes. They prize convenience and a social conscience. They want shopping to be personal.     1     As they start spending in earnest, brands are trying to understand what these walking paradoxes with conflicting features want and how they shop. The answers will define the next era of consumerism.

Their absolute numbers are impressive. The European Union is home to nearly 125m people between the ages of ten (the youngest will become consumers in the next few years) and 34. America has another 110m of these Gen-Zs and millennials, a third of the population. The annual spending of households headed by American Gen-Zs and millennials hit $2.7trn in 2021, around 30% of the total.

    2     Forrester, a market-research firm, found that most users of “buy now, pay later” apps are around 20. Megan Scott, a 20-year-old student from London, speaks for many of her peers by admitting that, when shopping, she has no self-control—until the bill arrives.

The light-speed online world also appears to have lowered tolerances for long delivery times. A study by Salesforce, a business-software giant, found that Gen-Z Americans, who prefer to use their phones to pay for shopping, are the likeliest of all age groups to want their groceries delivered within an hour.     3    

The Internet has also changed how the young discover brands. Print, billboard or TV advertising has given way to social media. Instagram, part of Meta’s empire, and TikTok, a Chinese-owned app, are where the young look for inspiration, particularly for goods where looks matter such as fashion, beauty and sportswear.     4     Such apps are increasingly adding features that allow users to shop without ever leaving the platform. According to McKinsey, six in ten Americans under the age of 25 had completed a purchase on a social-media site.