Giving Money to Families with Kids Can Relieve Child Poverty
Nearly 1 in 5 American children is officially poor. That’s roughly 15 million kids. But the number living with a significant deprivation——insufficient food, seriously overcrowded housing or a lack of access to medical care due to cost-is actually much higher. According to the latest studies, it’s more like 1 in 3.
A mountain of evidence now shows that poverty can lead to cognitive (认知的) and emotional damage in children. Child poverty is too harmful and punishing to ignore. A growing number of academics believe there is a solution: the government should give monthly cash allowances, without conditions, to every family with kids.
When Michael Harrington’s classic book, The Other America, called attention to America’s general poverty rate of about 25% in 1962, Washington developed social programs that brought the rate down sharply. Valuable policies intended to relieve child poverty have been enacted since then, but they are not enough: 1 in 3 children does not receive the full benefits of these programs because their parents do not qualify for them.
A family with two children receiving $300 to $400 a month per child could improve their standard of living immediately. Money can buy food, heat, coats, eye-glasses and regular doctors’ visits, including transportation, and help pay for childcare. It can also help reduce family stress and help parents provide a psychologically nourishing environment for learning and social development. Studies demonstrate children’s improved educational performance when families are simply given more money.
For far less money-about $100 billion-the number of children living in official poverty could be cut in half. Such a policy would be a humane, practical, efficient victory for a nation too willing to neglect its poor.
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Drawing High Schoolers to Science
A group of educators and plant scientists at Michigan State University (MSU) are connecting to reshape science classes. And this particular partnership isn’t just helping students get a better understanding of biology; it’s turning them into young scientists, even if only during class.
It doesn’t take long to see that the curriculum born from this collaboration makes for a much different experience than the traditional high school biology classes. For starters, it has a comic book for a workbook. Secondly, students are getting their hands dirty growing plants. MSU researchers are also studying the plant. The high schoolers are asking some of the same questions professional plant scientists are trying to answer.
“We’re getting them engaged with science in science practices, not just having them learn about science,” says Hildah Makori, a researcher at MSU. “They learn to look at things differently. That’s a life-time impact.”
The main characters of the comic book are a pair of young field scientists. They invite the high school students to help with plant research inspired by a real project at MSU. By growing their own plants, the students learn about genetics, evolution and how these interact with the environment.
The team has seen how this practice could keep students in the driver’s seat of their learning. To help the characters out, students set up different experiments to test their ideas.
The program is working. “This comic personally gave me a click that sparked my curiosity,” reads one student’s survey response. “The comic book put a lot of creative atmosphere into the story instead of just looking at words, instead of just listening to the teacher talk,” says another.
Teachers also had positive reviews. In a survey, one remarked how helpful it was to have the comic to refer to. The students could see the comic’s characters doing something in the lab and realize, “I’m able to do this right here at my table and I can do the same thing,” the teacher says.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Why You Need a Network of Casual Friends
When I was laid off in 2015, I tweeted it the way any young people would in the hope that someone in my social network would point me to potential opportunities. To my surprise, a friend of a friend alerted me to an opening in her department by Facebook message, and she became my boss three rounds of interviews later.
Think of the parents you see in the drop-off zone at school, your favorite waiter, the other dog owners at the park. Sociologists call these relationships “weak ties.” Not only can these connections affect our job prospects, but they can also have a positive impact on our well-being.
Maintaining the network of acquaintances can help you feel more connected. The desire to belong and form social attachments is a basic human need, alongside food, sleep and safety. But once we hit 25, the number of friends we have peaks and becomes smaller over time, according to a 2016 study. As we get older and priorities shift from after-work bowling league to after-school pickup, maintaining a loaded social calendar becomes less important. Staying socially engaged, then, is integral to personal fulfillment.
Besides, having at least a few acquaintances can connect us with a larger circle of people, which is fantastic news, say, for job hunters. Even if our friends want to help us find a job, the weak ties are often the ones who widen the job-search playing field.
Those acquaintances also provide us with a wider worldview. Regularly interacting with people who have different experiences than we do allows us to be more mindful of others’ circumstances. This, in turn, builds empathy.
Still, casual friends have a lot to offer. Uncovering surprising tidbits(花边新闻) about the regular players in one’s life—discovering that your neighbor is an accomplished dancer, for instance—can spice up your day.
So next time you see a friendly face when you’ re out and about, you might as well try to initiate small talks.
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Panic Buying
Have you ever watched one of the many TV shows set during the apocalypse (大灾难). If it’s not zombies, it’s viruses or natural disasters. One thing that seems to be a typical part of these series is survivors searching for food and resources. Is that why people stockpile food when things go bad?
What is stockpiling? Quite simply it’s when people accumulate a substantial number of goods, for example food or water.
But why do we do it? Consumer psychologist Paul Marsden puts it down to three factors that relate to retail therapy. Firstly, ‘autonomy’ -the idea that people feel the need to be in control. Secondly, ‘relatedness’ - panic shopping helps people to feel connected to the community or other shoppers who are doing the same. Lastly, ‘competence’ - people want to feel like they are ‘smart shoppers’ and doing the right thing. Sander Van der Lindon, an assistant professor of social psychology at Cambridge University, said that a phenomenon known as ‘fear contagion (传播)’ can take hold. People’s decision making stops when stressed, so they follow the actions of other people. If they are panic buying, you will too.
So, can you stop people from stockpiling? Well, supermarkets can ration the amount of products consumers purchase, and governments can try to reassure people that there is no need to panic. However, it seems that it goes against our basic psychology to try and stop people from panic buying.
So, the next time a virus, natural disaster or zombie apocalypse starts, remember that panic buying is probably a given, thanks to our need for retail therapy to manage our emotional state.
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Freelancing is the kind of job that promises to free people from a regular nine-to-five employment to one where the hours are flexible. Such choice is a blessing for people who are held back by other demands but still want to earn an income or make good use of their skills. Freelancing means that there can be more than one source of income, often short-time assignments also known as “gigs”.
It is unsurprising that the conventional image of today’s freelancer is young, laptop-carrying citizens, hurrying for gigs in a shared workspace or coffee bar in an attempt to strike a better work-life balance for themselves. In fact, those in their 30s and 40s make up the largest amount of the freelancer population in the United States and other developed countries. The US is also seeing a rise in freelancing in the retirees. Such is the appeal of the gig economy, and it does not seem to be decreasing.
Is the gig industry truly all sunshine and rainbows, though? While such an industry appeals to many folks with different needs and wants, the lack of certainty makes working in the gig economy unstable. The absence of a steady source of income makes it difficult for people to cope with emergency. Not working permanently (长久地) for a company also means one does not get to enjoy the additional benefits, such as health-care welfare, typically afforded to a permanent employee.
Moreover, instability (不稳定性) leads to insecurity. As gigs vary and assignments may not occur frequently, it is difficult to plan for the future, highlighting one of the biggest problems of the gig economy: unreliability. When life, in this increasingly uncertain and complex world, lands you in trouble, it makes perfect sense to have a permanent job, to have a steady footing in order to deal with it.
In a word, there are many benefits that come with short-term employment and more flexible, convenient working arrangement. However, there are two sides to every story. The key here is to be the captain of one's ship and master of one's fate.
请在答题卡的相应位置作答。
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Tourism can be both good and bad. Yes, it brings in money for the local economy and creates lots of jobs for locals, but it may also bring some problems.
One growing problem is tourists who want to prove that they have visited a destination. Tourists have used paint, rocks, or even keys to write on the Luxor Temple in Egypt, the Colosseum in Rome, Stonehenge in the UK, memorial stones at the bottom of Qomolangma, and many, many other places. Thousands of tourist sites are being destroyed by tourists who “love them to death”.
Another big problem in some places has been tourists disturbing (打扰) the local people and life. Some tourists wander around and take pictures of local people without asking for their permission. For example, Chiang Mai University in Thailand and Yonsei University in South Korea have great numbers of tourists visiting their campuses and walking through their libraries and other public areas, taking pictures of students and disturbing their studies. Another example is Sanlitun, a neighbourhood in Beijing. China. Some tourists love to party there late into the night, making it difficult for locals to sleep.
The number of problems from tourists is endless: walking in large groups without considering others who need to walk by, crossing roads without thinking of local traffic laws, and many more. The only way to solve the problem of the terrible tourist is to make sure that you are not one! Be the best, kindest, most polite tourist possible.
注意：请在答题卡的相应位置作答。
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The dangers of safety
Travelling by road is widely accepted as being the most dangerous way to travel with far more deaths per kilometer than rail, sea or air. In fact, while road traffic injuries represent about 25% of worldwide injury-related deaths, deaths on the road in the UK have been decreasing for some time. We take a look at why the number is decreasing, but why it seems impossible to avoid deaths completely.
Over the years, different methods of reducing the number of crashes have been tried. The Locomotive and Highways Act of 1865 introduced the idea of speed limits to the motoring world. Since then, more and more ways of controlling the behaviour of drivers have been introduced such as one-way streets and traffic signals as well as compulsory driver testing and licensing. These days, there are many more methods of enforcement, including speed cameras and fines for breaking motor laws.
Another solution is to make cars themselves safer in case of an accident. This means the main focus has been on passive safety or crash survival rather than active safety or avoiding crashes. There are many innovations by motor manufacturers, which have made cars safer, such as seat belts, anti-lock brakes and airbags. These improvements have tended to make the driver feel more in control and isolated him/her from the fast-moving and dangerous environment outside the car. It seems strange that as improvements have been made the number of crashes continues to increase.
Actually, it is wrong to talk about safe and dangerous cars in this way. The key to this problem is not actually the car, but the driver. In fact, making drivers feel safer is not the solution to the problem, but it is the cause of the problem. As drivers feel safer, it encourages them to drive aggressively and to ignore other road users and therefore increases the number of crashes
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Scrolling through your WeChat moments, you came across a post saying: “I just got accepted to Harvard AND Oxford! Are they sure they didn't mix my applications up with somebody else?!" This person is clearly humblebragging. The term“humblebrag'"was first coined to describe when someone makes a seemingly modest statement, but the actual purpose is to bring attention to something they are proud of.
Although those who humblebrag think it will make them more likable because they aren't loudly boasting about their triumphs,a study published in the Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology showed that humblebragging actually has the opposite effect. "Humblebragging backfires because it seems very fake. That 'woe is me' attitude combined with self-promotion does not lead to a favorable impression,"said Ovul Sezer,the lead author of the study."Even simply bragging or complaining is better, because at least those messages are seen as more sincere."
Sezer's study also found that nearly 60 percent of humblebrags were complaint-based humblebragging, with most people humblebragging about their looks, followed by their money or wealth, and finally about their performance at work.“It's such a common phenomenon. All of us know some people in our lives, whether in social media or in the workplace, who do this annoying thing,"commented Sezer, adding that we all do it to some extent.
So, if you want to share your achievements with others, what's the best way to do it then? Sezer suggests that people“own their self-promotion and reap the rewards of being sincere". She also suggested finding a wingman:"If someone brags for you,that's the best thing that can happen to you, because then you don't seem like you're bragging.
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France, which prides itself as the global innovator of fashion, has decided its fashion industry has lost an absolute right to define physical beauty for women. Its lawmakers gave approval last week to a law that would make it a crime to employ ultra-thin models on runways. The parliament also agreed to ban websites that advocate excessive thinness by promoting extreme dieting.
Such measures have a couple of uplifting motives. They suggest beauty should not be defined by looks that end up threatening health. That's a start. And the ban on ultra-thin models seems to go beyond protecting models from starving themselves to death --- as some have done. It tells the fashion industry that it must take responsibility for the signal it sends women, especially teenage girls, about the social tape-measure they must use to determine their individual worth.
The bans, if fully enforced, would suggest to women (and many men) that they should not let others be arbiters of their beauty. And perhaps faintly, they hint that people should look to intangible qualities like character and intellect rather than dieting their way to size zero or wasp-waist.
The French measures, however, rely too much on severe punishment to change a culture that still regards beauty as skin-deep -- and bone-showing. Under the law, using a fashion model that does not meet a government-defined index of body mass could result in a $85,000 fine and six months in prison.
The fashion industry knows it always has a problem in focusing on material adornment and idealized body types. In Denmark, the United States, and a few other countries, it is trying to set voluntary standards for models and fashion images that rely more on peer pressure for enforcement.
In contrast to France’s actions, Denmark’s fashion industry agreed last month on rules and sanctions regarding the age, health, and other characteristics of models. The newly revised Danish Fashion Ethical Charter clearly states: “We are aware of and take responsibility for the impact the fashion industry has on body ideals, especially on young people.”
Relying on ethical persuasion rather than law to address the misuse of body ideals may be the best step. Even better would be to help promote notions of beauty beyond the material standards of a particular industry.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Many young people believe shared bicycles have many advantages. They are not expensive to rent, they do not have to be protected from thieves, and there is no need to repair them. You just have to change them for another one. They are also environment friendly and lower the use of cars, which also helps to relieve traffic. In fact, it is considered an awesome（可怕的） combination of technology and tradition.
Since they appeared, shared bicycles have raised a lot of dust. There is no doubt about the benefits but the disadvantages cannot be ignored. Many problems related to shared bicycles have appeared. It is not only due to bad behavior from some users who always want to seize the bicycles, but also because of the mess that has been created since one can leave the bicycle anywhere, which is against public urban order management. There are so many poorly parked bikes that sometimes they end up blocking streets.
In Xi Luo yuan, Beijing, the “Civilized Use of Bicycles” campaign （运动）has been launched. In addition to having 40 officially permitted stops, there are also clear signals（信号） to lead users to these stops. A team of supervisors keep order in the area. This is the first area that is part of an official system to manage bicycles. The purpose of this campaign is to solve the mess that the popularity of shared bicycles is causing in Beijing, both with the participation of companies and the users. If the pilot plan works out well in Xi Luo yuan, it will be extended to all of the cities in China.
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