5 . Celebrity has become one of the most important representatives of popular culture. Fans used to be crazy about a specific film, but now the public tends to base its consumption on the interest of celebrity attached to any given product. Besides, fashion magazines have almost abandoned the practice of putting models on the cover because they don’t sell nearly as well as famous faces. As a result, celebrities have realized their unbelievably powerful market potential, moving from advertising for others’ products to developing their own.

Celebrity clothing lines aren’t a completely new phenomenon, but in the past they were typically aimed at the ordinary consumers, and limited to a few TV actresses. Today they’re started by first-class stars whose products enjoy equal fame with some world top brands. The most successful start-ups have been those by celebrities with specific personal style. As celebrities become more and more experienced at the market, they expand their production scale rapidly, covering almost all the products of daily life.

However, for every success story, there’s a related warning tale of a celebrity who overvalued his consumer appeal. No matter how famous the product’s origin is, if it fails to impress consumers with its own qualities it begins to resemble(类似) an exercise in self-promotional marketing. And once the initial attention dies down, consumer interest might fade, loyalty(忠诚) returning to tried-and-true labels.

Today, celebrities face even more severe embarrassment. The pop-cultural circle might be bigger than ever, but its rate of turnover has speeded up as well. Each misstep threatens to reduce a celebrity’s shelf life, and the same newspaper or magazine that once brought him fame has no problem picking him to pieces when the opportunity appears. Still, the self potential for expansion is limitless. Having already achieved great wealth and public recognition, many celebrities see fashion as the next frontier to be conquered. As the saying goes, success and failure always go hand in hand. Their success as designers might last only a short time, but fashion-like celebrity-has always been temporary

6 . Transhumanism, first coined in 1957 by biologist Julian Huxley, meant “man remaining man, but going beyond himself by realizing new possibilities of and for his human nature.” Generally speaking, transhumanism in its modern meaning implies that human beings can be enhanced by the means of science to the extent when they rise above biological limitations and capabilities programmed by nature.

There are numerous areas which, according to transhumanists, require enhancement. In particular, transhumanists work on such problems as overcoming the physical boundaries of the human body. Starting with aging, which they believe to be rather a disease than a natural process, and ending up with replacing organs with their artificial ones. All kinds of nanotechnologies for repairing damaged organs; nerve stimulants and drugs to alter mood and eliminate negative emotions; brain implants and implanted technologies to allow interconnectivity between multiple human beings and to advance intelligence. Some of the technologies transhumanists plan to employ to push the boundaries of humanity are available already. For example, gene therapy allowing to cure or stop certain diseases that were considered terminal; CRISPRi or SHARP-2 methods, which were discovered not so long ago, have already proved to be efficient in treating a number of complicated medical conditions. Virtual reality, another technology from science-fiction movies of the late 1980s, has become not so virtual either, after all. VR device can be easily purchased from online stores, and the prices are affordable. So far, it has been mostly used for games and education, but in the future, the range of its useful applications will definitely broaden.

About a hundred years ago, the idea of flying in the skies seemed absurd, until Wilbur and Orville Wright proved this assumption wrong. Who knows, perhaps in a couple of decades the concepts listed here, no matter how fantastic they look now, will become reality. Moral aspects and the price humanity will have to pay for such advancements are a different subject.

7 . It was decades ago, but it’s still one of the most memorable conversations of my life. On a long, slow train rattling north, with nothing to do but watch the rain, the guy sitting opposite began trying to talk to me. Like most young women who have learned the hard way to be cautious of strangers, I reacted coldly. But curiosity took over when he said that he was just bored, and liked talking.

So that’s what we did, for hours and hours, since he turned out to be very talkative. When the train eventually pulled in, we didn’t swap numbers—it was a conversation strictly of its time—but I still think about it occasionally on long, boring journeys, before getting a phone out and scrolling silently like everyone else. Rarely can a person cheerfully break the social taboo about talking to strangers without any trace of ill intention but life would be more interesting if more of us knew how to do it.

And that’s why I feel it ridiculous about a campaign launched this week to heal bitter national divides by encouraging Britons to talk to each other. Obviously, it takes more than a small talk over garden fences to unite a divided nation now. More people live alone than they did a generation ago, and we socialize increasingly through screens instead of bothering to call. In reality, social media platforms designed to bring people together have unknowingly fueled the division.

It is true that the “tube chat” campaign of a few years back failed in its attempt to make Londoners talk to each other on public transport. But even city residents who would normally die rather than make eye contact with strangers still happily join the large crowds of people by the Thames for the New Year’s Eve fireworks. They would get a far better view at home on TV—it’s not really about the fireworks, but being part of social engagement.

There’s no guarantee that this latest attempt to reconnect will succeed, but I hope that my temporary train friend then is still talking, wherever he is now.

8 . Many people think that there should be some sort of universal service around cash, forcing banks to provide it and sellers to accept it. I disagree, but I do understand why they think it appealing.

One of their arguments is that cash is a necessary fallback, the only payment method that society can depend on in the event of nuclear war or natural disaster and therefore businesses should be forced to keep the ability to distribute and collect notes and coins. They think that cash is the backup in a disaster. It really isn’t. When things go really wrong, it is the people who keep their money in cash who suffer the most.

Remember the Japanese disaster of a decade back, where following a severe earthquake off the northeast coast of Japan’s Honshu Island in 2011, a huge tsunami (海啸) towering a hundred feet above the ground went crashing into cities, towns and villages destroying more than 200 square miles. Since Japan remains a cash-based society and a great many people keep their savings in cash in their homes, the disaster led to the unusual phenomenon of safes and cash washing up on beaches. Yasuo Kimura, a former bank employee then aged 7, said that he had many friends who lost everything. “I had tried to convince them to put their money in a bank,” he said. “They always thought it as safer to keep it at home.”

Another argument they make is that electronic payment can be bad for privacy, making cash remain the best backup. They ask “How do you stop data thieves and data brokers from monitoring your buying history?” and suggest paying in cash is the answer. Personally, I think using electronic payments is a better answer, though measures should be taken to enhance privacy-protecting technologies, but that’s a discussion for another day.

Time-honored brands(品牌)have been through a decades-long or even a centurics-long journey. They either serve as a     1    (remind)of people’s old childhood flavors, or relate to festival traditions and nostalgic(怀旧的)memories. Data from the Ministry of Commerce show that China has 701 century-old brands. The     2    (old)one-Beijing Bianyifang, famed for its specialty roast duck,     3    (survive)for 607 years.

The total number of     4    (exist)time-honored brands, which are well- known throughout the country and recognized by the Ministry of Commerce     5    (be)1,128, according to Sheng Qiuping, China’s vice commerce minister. They stand for China’s traditional culture and the majority of them own at least one intangible cultural heritage. It is the traditional skills and craftsmanship     6    (pass)from generation to generation     7     make time-honored brands endure the changes of the times.

While some brands have sustained their classic style and ancient beauty, others have innovated their products and tapped into digital plattorms     8    (win)the hearts of younger consumers. Data show that nearly 350 time-honored brands participated     9     live-streaming events. Such events of time-honored brands in 2022 topped 50,000, with a combined business volume of 3.5 billion yuan.     10     figure increased over five times compared with that of 2019.