3 . School uniforms are becoming more and more popular across the U.S.A. That’s no surprise, because they offer many benefits. They immediately end the powerful social sorting and labeling (标记) that come from clothing. If all students are dressed in the same way, they will not pay too much attention to their clothing, and some of them will not be laughed at for wearing the “wrong” clothes.

Some people are against the strict rule of school uniforms, but they do not realize that students already accept a kind of rule — wanting to look just like their friends. The difference is that the clothing students choose for themselves creates social barriers; school uniforms tear those barriers down.

As in other places, uniforms remind the wearers of their purposes and duties. For example, when a man or woman puts on a police uniform, he or she becomes, for a time, the symbol of law and order. The uniform means to the wearer his or her special duties and sends the same message to everyone the wearer meets. People with different jobs wear uniforms of one kind or another. For students, the school uniform reminds them that their task for the six or seven hours they are in school is to get an education.

Some parents are unhappy about uniforms, saying that school uniforms will affect their children’s “creativity.” First, as noted above, the clothes students choose to wear do not necessarily express their individuality. They just copy their classmates. Second, students have the rest of the day to be as creative as they like. While they’re in school, their job is to master reading, writing, and maths; this should take up all the creativity they have. Mastery of those skills will be good for the students to build up their creativity in every way.

4 . Free Wi-Fi has become incredibly important to us: many stores and shopping malls offer it, restaurants use it to attract customers, and for libraries and coffee shops it is a must-have service.

Even when people are traveling, they scan for free Wi-Fi, which, according to research released by London’s Amba Hotel on Dec 4, has become the most important standard for selecting a hotel.

According to the survey, as many as 67 percent of travelers questioned said that free Wi-Fi would make them more likely to choose accommodation, above other things such as the hotel’s location and friendly staff. When rating a hotel that they’d already stayed in, six in ten travelers believed that unlimited Wi-Fi was the most important factor in their rating.

“Today, people treat their smartphones, tablets and laptop s like clothes when they are about to travel to some places. They will never forget to pack it into the suitcase,” said the Daily Mail. “We rely on free Wi-Fi heavily when traveling—especially when it comes to checking social media, searching for travel tips, and accessing websites.”

However, despite the opportunities that free Wi-Fi gives us, “our over-reliance on technology has come at a price, with travelers feeling unable to escape social media”, said Lonely Planet, the world’s largest travel guide brand.

Anita Isalska, Lonely Planet editor and tech addict, was forced to unplug when she was stuck in an isolated camp in Greenland recently. “Adjusting to this slower pace, it began to dawn on me: somewhere, somehow, social media had changed into a reflex(条件反射),”   she wrote. “I had believed I was capturing moments, but in reality my busy thumbs were preventing me from enjoying travel’s most profound pleasures. How fully can you appreciate a huge glacier or grassland of wildflowers when your brain is subconsciously selecting the right photo filter(滤镜), or the perfect six seconds to film?”

In September, the brand released 10 predictions for the future of global travel. One of them was that true escapes will be highly valued in future, so remote hotels will start to make their lack of Internet into a feature. Would you like to have an unplugged holiday?

6 . “It’s raining cats and dogs!” Although this phrase isn’t very common in England any more, it clearly shows we don’t always say what we mean. One thing that is often frustrating for language learners is that they understand every word in a sentence and yet the meaning remains unclear - like this sentence that actually means “It’s raining heavily!” However, it’s not just idioms that cause difficulties for people learning English.

The British are often considered to be polite but this can be very confusing for non-native speakers. We often don’t say what we are thinking—in fact we often say the opposite! Here’s an example that will hopefully explain what I mean: “You should come around for tea!”

British people are less open than people from other cultures, so we aren’t as quick to invite people into our homes. This phrase is one of those that we say but often don’t really mean, so when no further details are given, you can probably assume (认为) it was made in the name of politeness! But how does this compare to other countries?

When I lived in India, lots of people would invite me into their homes but I always assumed that they were just being polite. Of course, I was wrong. The invitations were almost always genuine, and people expected me to visit them. In fact, I think I spent more time at other people’s houses than my own!

In England, we often think it’s polite to offer or suggest something even if we don’t actually want to do it, while in other cultures people are more direct. Perhaps if English people just say what they were thinking, things would be a lot easier—especially for non-native speakers!

8 . As Torri’ell Norwood drove through St. Petersburg, Florida, last February, the laughter and chatter from the four teenage girls quickly gave way to screams. As they approached a crossroads, another car crashed into their car, sending it to hit a tree.

Smoke and fire surged from the car and a bystander shouted, “It’s about to blast! Get out!” Norwood crawled out through the window. Along with two of her friends, she ran for her life.

But halfway down the street, she realized that her best friend, A’zarria Simmons, wasn’t with them. Norwood ran back and found Simmons sank in the back seat. She opened the back door and pulled her out. She dragged Simmons a few feet to safety and laid her on the ground. “I checked her pulse.” Norwood said to Inside Edition. Nothing. “I put my head against her chest.” No sign of life. “That’s when I started CPR.”

Had the accident happened a few weeks earlier, she might not have known what to do. But Norwood, who wants to pursue a career in medicine, had earned her CPR certificate just the day before. Looking down at her dying friend, Norwood started pumping Simmons’s chest with her interlocked fingers and breathing into her friend’s mouth in hope of filling her lungs with the kiss of life. No response. And then, after the 30th compression, Simmons began coughing and gasping for air. The CPR had worked.

Soon, medics arrived and rushed Simmons to the hospital, where she heard how her best friend had saved her life. “I wasn’t shocked,” Simmons told CNN. “She is always helping anyhow she can.”