Have you ever wondered what life is like now     1     (compare) to, say, the 1980s or the 1990s? I went to ask some people I know who were adults in the ‘80s and 90s’, and the answer I got was that “Overall, life is a lot     2     (good) now!” This didn’t really surprise me. I mean, these days we’ve got mobile phones and the internet and so on — but     3    (actual) those weren’t the things they talked about.

So what did they talk about? For     4     start, we don’t have to work physically hard since now there are a lot of things like dishwashers for housework. Then there’s the matter of how, these days,     5     is possible to work at home — it’s mainly     6    (computer) that have made this possible. Not only that, there’s a lot more     7     (equal) now. It’s easier for all people, whatever their social background, gender (性别), colour and so on, to have equal access     8     a variety of career opportunities.

That said, it’s not all a matter of improvement. Quite a few people told me that they feel more stressed these days because they rely a lot on technology and they are always     9    (anxiety) about security on the internet. Plus, we spend a lot of our time     10     (use) smartphones. One person said, “Wouldn’t it be great to be off the grid (不上网) for a few days?”

Students’ Time Spent on Physical Exercise Weekly

Nowadays, many students are aware of the significance of physical exercise, although the time they spend on it varies.

3 . You see a shopper trip over in a busy street. Someone else can help. That’s what you tell yourself. This is the bystander effect in action — the dilution (淡化) of responsibility in the presence of others — and it has been demonstrated in many past studies.

But life is complicated and psychologists have seen exceptional circumstances. Two experiments were conducted by Marco van Bommel and his team using an online chat room for people with extreme emotional problems. Eighty-six students were logged into the forum (论坛) and shown five messages from troubled users. They were told to write a reply if they wanted, but it was entirely up to them.

Basically, participants could see their names on the screen alongside others’ names. A counter also told them if the forum was quiet, with just one other person logged in, or busy, with 30 others online. This arrangement reproduced the classic Bystander Effect-participants were less likely to post replies with more people logged in. However, when the researchers cued (提示) self-awareness by highlighting participants’ names in red on the screen, they posted more replies on a busy forum.

A second study was built on these findings, but this time self-awareness was raised by the presence, or not, of a computer web-camera. Over 100 participants took part. Although told the camera wouldn’t be used until later, those with cameras were asked to check the camera’s indicator-light during the study. The Bystander Effect was reproduced when web-cameras were absent-on busy forums participants posted fewer replies to needy users. By contrast, those cued to be self-aware by the web-cam actually wrote more replies.

Nearly any online community can benefit from the research. The ability to turn hesitant bystanders into eager helpers is a recipe for engagement and collective benefit. As in the research, simple design cues could be integrated to help online users remember they are visible to the community. For example, the size of profile images and specific on-site reminders can be used to highlight how users see themselves within the community.

5 . Most of us are familiar with the concept of six degrees of separation — the idea is that anyone in the planet can be connected to anyone else in just six steps. But is there actually any science to back up this commonly cited theory?

If you just take a look at the following numbers, the six degrees of separation idea seems pretty plausible. Assuming everyone knows at least 44 people, and that each of those people knows an entirely new 44 people, and so on, the math shows that in just six steps everyone could be connected to 44⁶, or 7.26 billion people — more than are alive on Earth today.

But this idea wasn’t scientifically tested until the 1960s, when a psychologist sent 300 packages out to people in Nebraska and Boston, and asked them to use their networks to get them back to one specific target — a stockbroker (股票经纪人) living in Boston. They weren’t asked to forward it to him directly, but to send it to someone they knew on a first name basis, with instructions for that person to forward it on to someone in their network that they thought might know the stockbroker.

Only 64 of those packages actually reached the target, with an average path length of just 5.2 intermediary (中间人) connections, and this experiment was used as evidence for six degrees of separation, or the “small world phenomenon”, as the researcher called it.

But Derek Muller, a researcher, dug a little deeper, and found that, of the original 300 packages, 100 were sent to people already living in Boston (where the target also lives) and 100 were sent to stockbrokers who shared a profession with the target, so there were really only 100 purely random packages sent out. And of those 100, only 18 made it back to the target. “So we’re talking about a sample size of 18 — that’s all the evidence there was for six degrees of separation,” Derek explains.

7 . Every minute, every hour, every day, we are losing precious time to our devices (设备).Technology has taken over much of our lives,especially over the last two years as school and work went online during the COVID-19 pandemic.

    1     No, sadly. But there are things that you can do to make sure you don’t waste your time scrolling (滚屏)in the future.

    2     This is called social economizing, which means you choose how to use your time. You know exactly what you want to do, what brings you joy or closer to your goals, so choose to do those things.

If you feel an urge to jump on social media or scroll websites when you have a few spare minutes, don’t feel bad. This is normal.     3     This can include cleaning your room, organizing your closet or even replying to important messages.

Another great way to help reduce the desire to check your device is to turn off notifications (通 知).In the 1890s, Russian scientist Ivan Pavlov conducted experiments to measure the build-up of saliva (唾液) in the mouths of dogs under a variety of conditions. Like the dogs in the experiments, people are conditioned to respond each time they hear a ping.     4    

As the saying goes, out of sight, out of mind.    5     Simply put your phone, tablet or computer in another room or away in a desk so that it can’t be seen.

8 . If you want to travel on holiday, the very first question you must ask is, “How much is it going to cost?” With little money, you are not going to get very far.     1     Local transport is used, and sleeping is done in tents(帐篷) or not expensive hotels.

However, it seems that many young people have found a different way to see the world. They usually come from a western country and are from well-off families. They pay for a flight from their home to an Asian country, and then try to beg for money once they arrive.     2     It’s become so popular; it has been given its own name: begpacking. It’s a cross between “begging” and “backpacking”.

It is now quite usual to see begpackers sitting on the streets in some of Asia’s popular shopping districts.    3         “I am travelling around Asia without money. Please support my trip.”

In many Asian countries, poverty is never far away. Citizens of popular holiday destinations are asking why visitors arrive on their streets and expect the locals to pay for their travels. When these locals want to travel to a western country, they have to prove that they have enough money to travel.     4    

There have been recent reports that some countries are beginning to tire of begpackers. A law was passed in Thailand recently. The local government can now take action against any foreigner begging on the street.     5     There, western begpackers are taken by the local police to their foreign embassy. And then they are returned to their home.

9 . The mall(购物商场)is increasingly the exception. Dozens nationwide have fallen into disuse in the past decade, and a quarter of the around 1,100 -that remain are projected to follow by 2022, leaving large areas of empty space.

“We built too many malls, and we built them too cheaply,” said Amanda Nicholson, a professor at Syracuse University. “Only the strong will survive, while the weaker ones fold.”

After losing three of its four anchor(主力)department stores, the country’s oldest shopping mall was in need of new life. Southdale Center in Edina, Minnesota, is getting it this month in the form of a Life Time “resort(度假胜地),” complete with a rooftop pool and beach club. The new gym—which also has a full-service spa—will take the place of a former J. C. Penney store. Life Time is spending $43 million building the three-story facility.

“Malls have become a great opportunity for growth,” said Parham Javaheri, president of Life Time. “They have great visibility, great access and many of them have been around for a long time, so they’re located at the center of offices and homes.”

Fitness centers and gyms now lease(租用)three times as much space in US shopping malls 12 as they did a decade ago. Chains such as Planet Fitness, SoulCycle and Life Time have become coveted because they draw a lot of rich members who stop in a few times a week. Life Time now has country club-like locations at malls around the country and plans to open more than 30 more mall gyms in the coming years. Each gym attracts about 3,000 people a day, Javaheri said, which amounts to “a lot of consumers”.

Other cities have been even more creative with empty mall space. Simon Property Group, the country’s largest mall owner, recently spent $5 million on Allied Esports and announced plans to create 200 mall gaming rooms for competitive video gaming events across the country. “We believe focusing on gameplay will drive traffic and excitement for our properties,” said Lee Sterling, a senior vice president at Simon.