3 . We know it can be hard to put your phone to bed before you sleep. However, if you’re trying to improve your sleep, you really should ditch your phone at least an hour before bedtime. Luckily, our experts can help.

Scientific evidence suggests that the blue light emitted from your phone, tablet, computer, and TV suppresses (抑制) your body’s production of melatonin, a hormone (荷尔蒙) that plays an important role in your sleep cycle. Melatonin release in the evening helps you relax before bedtime. A 2013 study that analyzed technology use and sleep patterns with data from a National Sleep Foundation poll found that using devices like phones was tied to more sleep disruption than electronics that aren’t interactive.

Many of us use the excuse that our mobile devices serve as our wake-up calls, or keep them nearby to use meditation apps. If you want to use your phone as an alarm, consider setting it a couple of hours before you turn in for the night, and then setting the phone itself to bedtime mode for the rest of the evening.

Here’s another groundbreaking idea: You could get a real alarm clock. After reviewing them at Reviewed, we recommend the Sharp Dream Caster. Not only is it easy to set a wake-up time, the clock includes white noises and rain noises to help you sleep, plus a number of volume settings to pick what works best for you.

But an alarm clock won’t help you avoid doom-scrolling through social media. Take things a step further by avoiding using electronic devices. You can try reading a book (one made of paper), taking a bath or drinking a cup of chamomile tea.

Finally, if you want to keep up your meditation practice screen-free, consider the Morphée. It looks like a little music box and comes with a variety of breathing exercises and soundscapes to help you get to sleep.

4 . In America, we have a thing called stand-up comedy. This popular form of entertainment consists of a comedian standing up at the front of a club, holding a microphone, and telling jokes. Of course, comedy is popular in Chinese culture as well, but the performances are quite different from the style in the US. In China, it’s called cross-talk, which usually involves two guys engaging in an entertaining dialogue.

It’s believed that cross-talk came into being in the Qing Dynasty as a bit of a by-product of the imitation shows that were a popular form of entertainment in the Song Dynasty. After the PRC was established in 1949, this comedic art became more and more popular. Today, it’s still heavily featured in the CCTV New Year’s Gala programmes in China. The 1990s was the golden age of cross-talk; even foreigners studied the art of cross-talk. Mark Roswell, a Canadian named Da Shan in Chinese was relatively unknown in his native land but was a superstar in China. At the turn of the century, cross-talk began to decline, and many well-known actors left the stage.

There are four skills that are essential in cross-talk: speaking, imitating, teasing, and singing. Most of the time, it is performed with two actors—one serves as the lead actor while the other plays a support role. However, sometimes it is performed simply as a one-man show, and at other times there are several actors. In order to criticize something, the humor involved in cross-talk is satirical.

9 . At 104 years old, Dorothy Hoffner fell. Then she kept falling, and falling. When the lifelong Chicagoan finally touched the ground last Sunday, she landed in the history books and became the oldest person to ever sky-dive (跳伞).

As Hoffner prepared to board, she pushed her red walker out and walked slowly to the plane, where two expert instructors helped her up the steps into the hold. “Let’s go!” she said, finally seated. The plane quickly rose, Hoffner looking calm and confident all the while.

When the aft (机尾) door opened to show the crop fields far below, she and the instructor were ready to stand up. When Hoffner first sky-dived at 100 years old, she was pushed out, she said. This time, she wanted to lead the jump.

Seven minutes after her jump, she moved slowly in the air for her historic landing. The wind pushed back her white hair. A look of excitement and wonder spread across her face. She picked up her legs as the ground approached. And finally, she managed to land on the ground.

The crowd gathered along the landing area. Friends rushed to share the moment. Someone brought over Hoffner’s red walker. She rose fast, and a reporter asked how it felt to be back on the ground. “The whole thing was wonderful, and couldn’t have been better,” she said.

The Guinness World Record for oldest skydiver was set in May 2022 by 103-year-oldLinnéa Ingegard Larsson from Sweden. When asked how it felt like to break the record, Hoffner replied quickly, “Like I’m old.” But the record didn’t seem to interest Hoffner before the jump. Instead, she focused on the peaceful falling through the sky. Hoffner strongly encouraged others to sky-dive like her. “It’s surprisingly affordable and so amazing,” she said.

10 . I grew up around books. I remember opening my parents’ _______ book Finnegan’s Wake by James Joyce and thinking: They might have never opened the _______ from the sign of the dust (灰尘), and with so many obscure words in it, why did they _______ it? In spite of this, I could sense the magic of buying it, and I carried that sense of _______ into my life.

In the past, I had hundreds of books in the house. They _______ my bookshelves, and the books got in the way sometimes. They gathered around the chair where I _______ on to watch TV. They _______ the space on my ottoman (凳子) where my feet were _______ to go. I thought I needed more _______ for my books. Since my work is to write about books, I have some forms of ________. But there’s more to it than that. That is I always had the ________ of holding a book, reading a book, and buying a book.

Though many books I ________ may haven’t been read, nothing can stop me from buying them. ________, with many books around me, there will always be an opportunity (机会) for me to pick up a book ________, and it takes me back to ________ times.