2 . While it may be commonplace, snubbing one’s friends can have serious impacts on relationships, and there are a variety of factors that may drive individuals to ignore their friends in favor of an electronic screen, according to a new University of Georgia study.

The study reveals positive associations between depression and social anxiety and increasing snubbing: depressed people are likely to snub their friends more frequently, and socially anxious people, who prefer online social interactions, might also exhibit more snubbing behavior. These people are really sensitive to their messages. With each buzz or sound, they consciously or unconsciously look at their phones. The device’s various applications are key drivers contributing to this dynamic.

The finding also shows that agreeable individuals have a lower instance of snubbing in the presence of their friends. People who have agreeableness as a personality feature tend to show cooperative, polite and friendly behaviors in their interpersonal relationships and social settings. Though agreeable people may prioritize strong friendships, an exploratory study reveals they are also more likely to turn to phones in the presence of three or more people.

That dynamic may influence the spread of snubbing in the context of a work environment. “It’s ironic that while so many people believe that snubbing behavior is rude, they still do it,” Sun said. “A majority of people snub others, and in a group, it may seem OK, because it’s just me, the speaker doesn’t notice I’m using the phone. The number of people in a group can be one reason.”

Alternately, disabling or turning over a phone can indicate a show of respect for a situation and focus on a person. That, too, is a signal—I am listening to what you are saying and I am focusing on you.

3 . How could we possibly think that keeping animals in cages in unnatural environments-mostly for entertainment purposes-is fair and respectful?

Zoo officials say they are concerned about animals. However, most zoos remain “collections” of interesting “things” rather than protective habitats. Zoos teach people that it is acceptable to keep animals bored, lonely, and far from their natural zones.

Zoos claim to educate people and save endangered species, but visitors leave zoos without having learned anything meaningful about the animals’ natural behaviour , intelligence, or beauty. Zoos keep animals in small spaces or cages, and most signs only mention the species’ name, diet, and natural range(分布区). The animals’ normal behavior is seldom noticed because zoos don't usually take care of the animals’ natural needs.

The animals are kept together in small spaces, with no privacy and little opportunity for mental and physical exercise. This results in unusual and self-destructive behavior called zoochosis. A worldwide study of zoos found that zoochosis is common among animals kept in small spaces or cages. Another study showed that elephants spend 22 percent of their time making repeated head movements or biting cage bars, and bears spend 30 percent of their time walking back and forth, a sign of unhappiness and pain.

Furthermore ,most animals in zoos are not endangered. Captive breeding(圈养繁殖)of endangered big cats, Asian elephants, and other species has not resulted in their being sent back to the wild. Zoos talk a lot about their captive breeding programs because they do not want people to worry about a species dying out. In fact, baby animals also attract a lot of paying customers. Haven’t we seen enough competitions to name baby animals?

Actually, we will save endangered species only if we save their habitats and put an end to the reasons people kill them. Instead of supporting zoos, we should support groups that work to protect animals’ natural habitats.

4 . Future history books might record that we were robbed of the use of our eyes. In our hurry to get from one place to another, we fail to see anything on the way. Air travel gives you a bird’s—eye view of the world—— or even less if the wing of the aircraft happens to get in your way. When you travel by car or train, you are moving so quickly that you do not see the countryside clearly. Car drivers are forever thinking about going on and on; they never want to stop. Is it the great motorways, that attract them, or what? And as for sea travel, it hardly deserves mention. It is perfectly summed up in the words of the old song, “I joined the navy to see the world, and what did I see? I saw the sea.” You mention the place names in the world like EI Dorado, Kabul and someone is sure to say “I’ve been there” meaning “I drove through it at 100 miles an hour on the way to somewhere else.”

When you travel at high speed, the present means nothing: you live mainly in the future because you spend most of your time looking forward to arriving at some other places. But actual arrival, when it is achieved, is meaningless. You want to move on again. By traveling like this, you suspend (中止) all experience; the present stops being a reality: you might just as well be dead.

The traveler on foot, on the other hand, lives constantly in the present. For him traveling and arriving are one and the same thing: he arrives somewhere with every step he makes. He experiences the present moment with his eyes, his ears and the whole of his body. At the end of his journey he feels a delicious physical tiredness. Satisfying sleep will be his: the just reward of all true travelers.

6 . It was late, about 10:15 p. m. Janice Esposito got off the train at Bellport, New York, went to her car and started driving home. She was so familiar with the route that she almost drove automatically. However, when Esposito's car had just crossed the railroad tracks—bam!, it hit another vehicle and was pushed back onto the tracks. Injured but mostly shocked by the crash and by the airbags that popped up, she was stuck in the vehicle.

As it happened, Pete DiPinto was just about to go to sleep when he heard a sharp noise. As a volunteer firefighter, he fetched a flashlight and rushed out without hesitation. “Any firefighter would have done what I did,” he said. “We're always on duty.”

After making sure that the driver was all right, DiPinto discovered Esposito's car straddling the railway tracks. And then he heard the bell ring, which signaled a train's arrival.

DiPinto rushed to Esposito's car and broke the window on the driver's side. Esposito looked up at him, with her eyes glazing over. “I don't know where 1 am,” she said.

“I have to get you off right now!” DiPinto yelled. The train was running toward them at a high speed. The driver's door cannot be opened due to the collision (硬撞), so DiPinto quickly ran to the other side and managed to open the door. He pulled her toward him across the passenger seat until finally got her out to safety. Several seconds later, the train crashed into the vehicle. “It was like a Hollywood movie,” DiPinto told reporters the next day.

“Last night,” said Gregory Miglino Jr, Chief of the Department in South Country Ambulance, “the hero arrived in pajamas (睡衣裤), not in a fire truck.”

9 . Let children learn to judge their own work. A child learning to talk does not learn by being corrected all the time; if corrected too much, he will stop talking. He notices a thousand times a day the difference between the language he uses and the language those around him use. Bit by bit, he makes the necessary changes to make his language like other people's. In the same way, children learn to do all the other things without being taught to walk, run, climb, whistle, ride a bicycle... They compare their own performances with those of more skilled people, and slowly make the needed changes.

But in school we never give a child a chance to find out his mistakes and correct them for himself. We do it all for him. We act as if we thought that he would never notice a mistake. If it is a matter in mathematics or science, give him the answer book. Let him correct his own papers. Why should we teachers waste time in such routine (日常的) work? Our job should be to help the child when he tells us that he can't find the way to get the right answer. Let the children learn what all educated persons must some day learn, how to measure their own understanding, how to know what he does not know.

10 . The words “protect animals” appear everywhere in books and on screens since some animals are in danger of dying out. But sometimes the reality can be a little different from what people read or watch.

About 300 black bears were killed in Florida, the US, in October, 2015. It’s been the first bear hunt since 1994.

Animal protection groups were against this decision. But local officials explained that the black bear population had grown to 3,500 and become a menace to local people. In the past two years, bears have hurt at least four people in Florida.

This brings an old question back into the spotlight — which is more important, protecting animals or protecting people’s interests(利益)?

This question is asked in other countries too. In Switzerland, a wolf was sentenced to death by the Swiss government months ago. This is because the wolf killed 38 sheep and local people lost a lot of money. Days ago in China, three old men were arrested for killing a serow (鬣羚), a protected species. But they insisted they didn’t know about this and killed the animal because it ruined their crops.

However, these stories don’t always mean that animal protection stops due to human interests, especially involving economic development. A man named Zhou Weisen set up a wild animal base in Guilin, Guangxi. He saved over 170 tigers and 300 bears. But his base also offered jobs to local people.

“There may never be a standard answer to the question of whether we should give more attention to the environment or human development,” said Robert May, a British biologist at Oxford University. “But we shouldn’t push either one to the side, as the future is hanging in the balance.”