1 . Going against the tide of flocking (蜂拥) to well-known yet generally jam-packed tourist destinations on vacation, a growing number of holidaymakers in China tend to spend their leisure time at lesser known resorts to seek unique, relaxed holiday experiences. Reverse Tourism has emerged as a new trend among young holidaymakers in China.

Besides crowds, some vacationers chose less-traveled places to save on the cost of trips to popular destinations, which often require pricey tickets, meals and hotel stays. “Tourism used to be about sightseeing. Now it is about experiences,” said Dai Bin, president of the China Tourism Academy. He said popular tourist spots are always packed and often raise their prices during holidays. As people become more mature travelers, they are increasingly unwilling to follow the herd. Some of them are simply looking to take a rest somewhere quiet for a couple of days, which is a good way to vacation.

In addition, lesser-known attractions are not as “commercial” and “standardized” as developed ones and are able to offer more genuine experiences and natural encounters, according to social media posts. And unlike popular destinations, some under-explored places with little online exposure can offer more surprises. COVID-19 is another key factor fueling Reverse Tourism. As precautionary measures continue, traveling has an unpredictable quality. A traveler has no way of knowing what lies ahead before departure, be it a perfect holiday or one interrupted by a sudden outbreak.

“The rise of Reverse Tourism is not a bad thing,” said an opinion piece in Zhengzhou Daily. It means that vacationers now have more options, which brings more possibilities to the tourism market, the article explains. More importantly, the trend is set to force popular destinations to improve themselves instead of resting on their achievements, it noted.

2 . Restaurants, farmers and food businesses are turning to chemistry and physics to deal with the problem of food waste. Some companies are testing coverings to slow the fruits’ ripening(成熟) process and packets to keep food fresh. Others are developing digital sensors that can tell when meat is safe to eat.

Experts say growing awareness of the costs of food waste has led to more efforts to deal with the problem. ReFED is a group that studies food waste. It estimates 225,000 kilograms of food can be kept out of waste areas each year with special high-tech coverings.

But the cost can be a barrier for some companies and shoppers. Kroger, the largest food-store company in the US, ended its deal with Apeel Sciences in 2022. The deal ended because Kroger said shoppers were not willing to pay more for fruits with Apeel’s special covering to keep them fresh.

Many companies are working on ways to help reduce food waste. A Sweden-based company is trying developing a sensor that can show if meat is safe to eat by measuring the buildup of bacteria inside its container. And Ryp Labs, based in the US and Belgium, is working on a sticker for fruits and vegetables that would release(释放) gas to slow ripening.

Some companies find it better to use proven technology in new ways. For example, Chicago-based Hazel Technologies has been trying selling a chemical compound(化合物), called 1-MCP, which is used in a room to slow the fruits’ ripening process. The company now sells packets that can slowly release 1-MCP into small containers of fruits.

“The science is promising, but it is only part of the solution,’” said Yvette Cabrera. She is the director of food waste for the Natural Resources Defense Council. “Most food waste happens at home. Reducing food sizes, buying smaller quantities or improving the accuracy of freshness date could have even more effects than new technology. Overall as a society, we don’t value food as it should be valued,” Cabrera said.

   Square dancing is becoming increasingly popular nowadays, that can be easily found in public places like squares and parks. The dancers gather in the large numbers and dance some joyful music happily. Therefore, not everyone is happy with this. Some people complain the music is too noisy that it affects their life serious. But I don’t agree with them. On the one hand, most of the dancers are retire women. By dancing, they can make more friend and enjoy their life after retirement. On the other hand, the places they chose are public, so everyone has the right to enjoy them there.

5 . Every year around August, millions of teens take their parents to stores to buy new clothes for the start of the school year. Not every parent can afford this, and some teens are forced to go to school in the same clothes they wore last year. The obvious differences in clothes cause differences among students. There is a simple solution to this problem; school uniforms (校服).

I know from personal experience and surveys that wearing uniforms creates a sense of equality among peers (同龄人).

From sixth grade until I graduated from senior high school, I attended a school that required students to wear uniforms. The uniform was very simple: dark brown shoes, green-brown pants, and a white shirt. The uniform left little room for any kind of self-expression, especially through clothes.

However, I learned how to stand out by expressing myself through my personality, art, and sports. I did not know I could draw until the sixth grade. I also would never have learned of my musical abilities if it hadn’t been for my desire to find ways to express myself. Uniforms taught me that I was myself, except what I wore.

Uniforms also contribute to a much safer learning environment. I remember a particular event that happened in my junior high school. A man ran away from prison and wanted to hide in the gym of our school. Luckily, cameras all over the school quickly found the stranger before any danger could ever happen as he was out of place. School officials kept the man locked inside our gym until the police came to take him back to prison.

Uniforms help provide a better educational experience for all students no matter what race, culture, or economic class (经济阶层). In closing, wearing uniforms is good for both schools and students.

7 . Popularization has in some cases changed the original meaning of emotional intelligence. Many people now misunderstand emotional intelligence as almost everything desirable in a person’s makeup that cannot be measured by an IQ test, such as character, motivation, confidence, mental stability, optimism and “people skills.” Research has shown that emotional skills may contribute to some of these qualities, but most of them move far beyond skill-based emotional intelligence.

We prefer to describe emotional intelligence as a specific set of skills that can be used for either good or bad purposes. The ability to accurately understand how others are feeling may be used by a doctor to find how best to help her patients, while a cheater might use it to control potential victims. Being emotionally intelligent does not necessarily make one a moral person.

Although popular beliefs regarding emotional intelligence run far ahead of what research can reasonably support, the overall effects of the publicity have been more beneficial than harmful. The most positive aspect of this popularization is a new and much needed emphasis (重视) on emotion by employers, educators and others interested in promoting social well-being. The popularization of emotional intelligence has helped both the public and researchers re-evaluate the functionality of emotions and how they serve people adaptively in everyday life.

Although the continuing popular appeal of emotional intelligence is desirable, we hope that such attention will excite a greater interest in the scientific and scholarly study of emotion. It is our hope that in coming decades, advances in science will offer new perspectives (视角) from which to study how people manage their lives. Emotional intelligence, with its focus on both head and heart, may serve to point us in the right direction.

8 . Do you have full confidence in your memory? There has been a discussion about whether it is shi or si in the sentence “Thus when Heaven is about to confer a great office on any man...” (“故天将降大任于是/斯人也”). Most people chose si as what they learned at school. However, People’s Education Press, a leading publisher of Chinese textbooks, claimed on Oct 26 that all its textbooks say shi.   

Supporters of si feel shocked and say they’ve experienced the “Mandela Effect” — the situation in which a large number of people believe that an event occurred when it didn’t. Many people believed that former South African president Nelson Mandel died in the1980s in prison. However, Mandela was alive and well, eventually passing away in 2013. US researcher Fiona Broome set up a website to explain her observation of this phenomenon first, coining the term.

Some often joke that our memories have been changed by a strange force. In fact, psychologists have looked into the reasons for the Mandela Effect, as reported on the US-based website Verywell Mind. For example, your mind may fill in gaps missing in your memory to make more sense of it, which is called confabulation (虚构症). However, try not to feel bad — this is not lying, but rather remembering details that never happened.

The Internet may be another reason why we have Mandela Effect events, as the news we read can be false from the beginning. In 2018, Science journal published a study of over 100,000 news stories discussed across Twitter. It showed that false news can spread faster and reach more people than the truth. As a powerful way to spread information, the Internet might be the main reason for falsehoods to enter our minds.