1 . Regulatory limits for how much PFAS food packaging should contain can vary greatly. For instance, a new law in California set the limit at less than 100 ppm. “Compared to America, Denmark sets a much lower regulatory limit of 20 ppm with great success,” said Xenia Trier, an expert at the European Environment Agency. “It does work to set limits and enforce them. PFAS do migrate from the paper into the food. Even though it was not 100%, we still saw considerable transmission. In general, transmission from packaging to food is increased as the temperature of the food rises. It is the same with the time spent in wrapping materials.” Trier told NBS, one of the major American mass-media companies.

The use of avatars has caused a few concerns. Some users worry that they are spending so much time in virtual worlds     1     they are becoming afraid of meeting people in the real world. The use of several avatars can also be a risk, as people can use avatars to cheat others online.    2    , other users view avatars in a more positive light. They look forward to a time when their avatar will act like a real person and travel around bigger,    3    (exciting) virtual worlds.

Military-Style Cotton Coats (军大衣) Have Made a Major Comeback this Winter and Stormed College Campuses

A video of college students in northeastern China     1     (wear) military-style cotton coats to class has trended on social media platforms. Meanwhile, many young women have started buying floral coats, often on sale.

With the price of down jackets (羽绒服) increasing, college students in China have picked up floral cotton-padded jackets and military coats to fend off the winter cold. Thanks     2     their low cost and high quality, cotton coats have made a major comeback this winter and stormed college campuses.

The general thinking among students     3     (be) that it isn’t about whether or not they can afford a down jacket     4     that cotton coats provide better quality at a much lower price.

One can buy ten cotton coats at the price of one down jacket. The     5     (cheap) military-style cotton coat costs less than 100 yuan, and they have become the most     6     (fashion) winter wear for college students in northern China.

Down jackets have been     7     must-have for many Chinese people. However, the prices have increased. According to data from the China National Commercial Information Center, the average price of down jackets     8     (rise) from 438 yuan in 2015 to 656 yuan in 2020.

The price of goose down has increased,     9     (main) due to the demand downstream. Many     10     (brand) have started to move towards high-end development, resulting in a more significant increase in demand for high-quality materials like white goose down, according to a down jacket seller in Jiangsu Province, surnamed Si.

Recently, there    1     (be) a notable surge in the sales of pre-packaged meals, with “braised pork with preserved mustard greens (梅菜)” emerging as a top favorite. Fuyang city in Anhui province has become a major production hub(中心) for this dish.

During the    2     (influence) annual 315 Gala held by China Central Television to mark World Consumer Rights Day on March 15, it    3     (report) that workers at a pork wholesale market in Fuyang had been using meat from pig neck— an area    4     (contain) glands (腺体), lipoma (脂肪瘤), and thyroid (甲状腺) — to make a traditional Chinese dish consisting of pork belly and preserved mustard greens, all in    5     effort to expand profit margins.

The report stated that the wholesale price for pork belly is about 24 yuan ($3.34) per kilogram,     6    is four times that of meat from pig neck.

CCTV added that the use of meat from a pig’s neck violates Chinese    7     (regulation), yet it is being discovered in Fuyang’s extensive semi-prepared food industry.

Footage    8     (display) at the gala showed that workers at a local food business stacked frozen pork in open air, some without packaging. Inside the workshop, workers put sliced pork    9    preserved mustard greens into cans to be sealed and shipped to market.

A person     10    charge said their business has flourished due to growing appetite for semi-marinated food, which is ready for consumption after simple cooking.

6 . Don’t Be A Bystander

None of us like to think we’d walk on by when someone needed our help.     1    

One of the most famous examples of this is the tragic case of Kitty Genovese who was fatally stabbed in Kew Gardens, New York, in 1964. Subsequent investigations concluded that several people saw or heard what was happening, but did nothing to intervene.     2    The more people there are, the less likely they are to help.

There are various factors contributing to this effect — people think that others will get involved or intervene (called “diffusion of responsibility”).     3    It is also partly down to “pluralistic ignorance” — since everyone is not reacting to the emergency, they don’t need to either; it’s not serious because no one else is doing anything. After a serious incident where people have been affected by the bystander effect, they are often horrified that they didn’t do anything.     4    

The important thing to understand though is that other studies have shown that once people are aware of the bystander effect, they are less likely to be affected by it. Self-awareness is the best antidote to it.     5    Ignore everyone else and how they are behaving and go with your gut—if you’d call an ambulance, do it. If you’d run for help, do it. If that’s how you would have behaved when you were on your own, then that’s probably the right course of action The worst that can happen is you’ll look a little foolish at having overreacted. You might also save someone’s life.

Have you ever noticed when ordering takeaway food     1     there is an additional cost on top of the delivery fee? That is the packaging fee (包装费).

This fee is uneasy     2     (notice) because it is usually small and people acknowledge its value because takeaway food     3     (need) proper packaging.

Now,     4     , some shops have been found to be adding unrelated costs     5     it,     6     (give) consumers unpleasant surprises. Some     7     (shop) apply individual packaging fees for each ingredient of milk tea, each kebab in a barbecue, and even for choosing the flavor of     8     hot-pot meal. With all these charges stacking up, sometimes the     9     (seem) insignificant (微不足道的) outsourcing fees can account for half of the cost of a takeout order.

The Shanghai Consumer Protection Commission in Tune     10     (call) for rules on standardized and transparent packaging fees for takeaways in June, 2023.

10 . ......

These kids are admittedly luckier than those for whom going back home is sadly not an option. But when choosing to live with your mum is the only way of coping with an insecure job, or with the costs of renting in the city, then that’s not much of a choice. Home is still the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in. But a healthy and successful society shouldn’t be sending quite many overgrown children hurrying back for shelter, and nor should it leave quite many parents feeling bad about it.