2 . If you live in Shanghai, Beijing or many other cities, you may see many orange bicycles on the streets these days.

These bikes are owned by a company called Mobike. You can order a bike through an app on your phone. When you find a bike, you just scan a QR code(扫描二维码) on the bike so you can use it. You don’t need to return the bike to a station—you can park it anywhere.

China was known as “the kingdom of bicycles” about 30 years ago. But more people choose to drive cars and catch the subway these days. Bike rental(租赁的) services like Mobike are bringing bikes back.

“Back then, I got the feeling that Chinese people were trying to be modern and push away the past. So they did not want to be connected with bicycles,” said Ines Brunn, a German woman who runs a bike store in Beijing. “I do believe changes in people’s tastes will shape new thinking about bikes.”

Online rental services are making biking more convenient, but it’s still not easy to ride bikes in Chinese cities. Cars often take up bicycle lanes(道路). Bikers have to ride next to cars in car lanes, which can be very dangerous.

Beijing plans to build over 3,200 km of new bike lanes. Drivers who drive in bike lanes will be punished. Traffic signs will be put up to better protect bikers.

3 . “Preventing obesity and smoking can save lives, but it doesn’t save money,”reported researchers. “ It was a small surprise, for it is against the common belief,” said Pieter van Baal, who led the study. “But it makes sense. If you live longer, then your costs of the health system will be more.”

The researchers found that from age 20 to 56, fat people had the most expensive health costs. But on average, healthy people lived 84 years. Smokers lived about 77 years, and fat people about 80 years. Smokers and fat people tended to have more heart disease than healthy people. Therefore, in the long run, the thin and healthy group spent about $417,000, from age 20 on. Smokers spent about $ 326,000 and fat people $371,000.

“The result throws a bucket of cold water onto the idea, based on guesswork, that obesity is going to cost trillions of dollars,” said Patrick Basham, a professor of health politics. “If we’re going to worry about the future of obesity, we should stop worrying about its financial impact,” he said.

“The benefit of obesity prevention may not be seen immediately in terms of cost saving in tomorrow’s budget, but there are long-term gains,” said Baal. “These are often immeasurable when it comes to people living longer and healthier lives.” In the meanwhile, he said that governments should recognize that successful smoking and obesity prevention programs mean that people will have a higher chance of dying of something more expensive later in life.

“Lung cancer is a cheap disease to treat because people don’t survive very long. But if they are old enough to get Alzheimer’s(早年性痴呆症) one day, they may survive longer and cost more. We are not advising that governments stop trying to prevent obesity,” Baal said.” But they should do it for the right reasons.”

4 . Australian experts have expressed concerns that too many millennials(千禧一代) are hoping to use their social media accounts to build their careers. Their concerns follow the sudden rise in “insta-celebrities” who make money by posting sponsored(赞助的) photos online. For the lucky few who are not only talented photographers but also good-looking and business-savvy(有商业头脑的), making money off social media isn’t impossible.

Instagram is flooded with social media professionals paid to promote products and services. However, social scientist Lauren Rosewarne, from the University of Melbourne, says that in reality, there are far fewer people making money off the platforms than one may think. She said many young Australians were getting sucked in by the appeal of making money on platforms like Instagram, describing it as “totally unrealistic” and extremely difficult to do.

“Young people are hoping to be famous in numbers that were simply not there 20 years ago,” Rosewarne told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Saturday. “There are some people who can make fortunes out of monetizing(使具有货币性质) their Instagram posts, but that is not the norm.” She said it was up to parents and schools to discourage students from seeking Insta-fame, as many believe it is a possible career choice. “There’s the warning for parents; this is not a normal or even common occurrence that you can monetize your Instagram account.”

Meanwhile Toni Eager from Australian National University said social problems could arise from spending too much time with social media. “Where do the insta-celebrities go to separate the life people see on Instagram from their actual normal life?” Eager said. “All of a sudden, people own your private life.”

6 . It’s nothing new that you can find many files or services you can download or use from the Internet. The question is: Is downloading legal or not? In most cases the answer is negative. Of course, you can find files for legal downloading, but you have to pay for them.

It seems innocent if you click on the download mark, but it isn’t. It should be compared with stealing in a store. Would you steal a magazine, an MP3 player or a car? Downloading from the Internet is a then, and sharing files, once you have stolen them, only makes it worse.

Many people may think it better, easier and cheaper to do downloading. I think, that is the main reason why Internet users prefer sharing something to buying them. In the modern world we love convenience and what could be more convenient than getting music, films and games without having to leave your house? However, you could be in big trouble if you are caught. But so far only a tiny amount of people have been charged for downloading illegally. The majority of people who download illegally, and use the files for their personal use, will not get in trouble. And that’s why it’s important for people to understand what the long-term consequences are if they don’t want to pay for their music, films and TV. Will film and music companies still spend millions of pounds every year if they have no chance of making a profit? The answer is plainly “no”.

Finally I would like to say that the Internet offers a lot of services for money, but people will always try to get them for free. To summarize my thoughts, I’d like to highlight that illegal downloading is both unfair towards producers and dangerous for those who practice this kind of activity. You have to decide whether to buy or download.

7 . Beauty has always been regarded as something that deserves praise. Almost everyone thinks attractive people are happier and healthier, have better marriages and more respectable jobs. Personal advisors give them better advice for finding jobs. Even judges are softer on attractive defendants (被告). But in the executive (行政的, 管理的) circle, beauty can become a liability.

While attractiveness is a positive factor for a man on his way up the executive ladder, it is harmful to a woman. ①

Handsome male executives were considered as having more honesty than plainer men; effort and ability were thought to account for their success.

② Attractive female executives were considered to have less honesty than unattractive ones；their success was attributed (归因于) not to ability but to factors such as luck. All unattractive women executives were thought to have more honesty and to be more capable than the attractive female executives. Interestingly, though, the rise of the unattractive overnight success was attributed more to personal relationships and less to ability than that of the attractive overnight success.

③ An attractive woman is considered to be more feminine and an attractive man more manly than the less attractive ones. Thus, an attractive woman has an advantage in traditionally female jobs, but an attractive woman in a traditionally manly position appears to lack the "manly" qualities required.

This is true even in politics, "When the only clue is how he or she looks, people treat men and women differently," says Anne Bowman, who recently published a study on the effects of attractiveness on political candidates. She asked 125 undergraduate students to rank two groups of photographs, one of men and one of women, in order of attractiveness. Then the students were told the photographs were of candidates for political offices. They were asked to rank them again, in the order they would vote for them.

④ The results showed that attractive males defeated unattractive men, but the women who had been ranked most attractive received the fewest votes.

8 . It seems that people are gradually losing their smartness as smartphones become increasingly important assistants in their lives. As we rely too much on technology instead of our brains, many people have lost three basic abilities.

The first skill many people have lost is remembering phone numbers. Because phone numbers are stored in smartphone contacts, there’s now no need to dial a number or look at it again. This is fine until you need to call someone for help, only to find your phone is not around.

And some people may also have lost their sense of direction because some apps can guide people anywhere they want. People get so dependent on them that when they can’t use their smartphones, they get lost and anxious.

But the worst lost skills may be social ones, meaning that some people are becoming socially inept (无能的). People often bury themselves in their smartphones. As we’re too absent-minded by what’s happening in the virtual (虚拟的), some of us have lost conversational skills and sometimes can’t even tell whether a person is happy or not.

Last August, researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, studied 51 students aged 11 and 12 who had over five hours’ screen time every day. Their task was to tell the emotions(情绪) of 48 pictures of faces that were happy, sad, angry or scared. The children made an average of 14.02 mistakes at the beginning. But after a five-day camp without electronic (电子的) products, they made only 9.41 mistakes on average.

Luckily, people still have a chance to get these abilities back. You should try to keep your parents’ numbers in mind for emergencies. You should also pay more attention to street signs and stores, which will help you to draw a mind map and stop you from getting lost. And the easiest solution to social skill loss is to take a break from electronic products.

9 . After two years of working from home, we have adapted to communicating digitally, in short bursts of time. Remember in Before Times you could head to the gym after work and then get dressed for dinner and a night out? The pandemic(疫情) has changed this. Our social batteries have run out of charge. It’s been a long time since we had to perform our social role for an extended period.

For 23-year-old Jennie, the excitement of her friends and family to restart their social lives has left her astonished. “At the minute my parents are planning a trip abroad and I keep postponing getting back to them with a date,” she explains. “They don’t know it’s because of all of this. Just the thought of being in a room full of people is scary, it’s like going back to school.”

Heather Garbutt, psychotherapist of The Counselling & Psychotherapy Centre says communication is key to recharging your unused social battery. “Take it slowly and don’t immediately organise a large get-together,” she advises. “Go for a walk with somebody for no more than half an hour and gently get used to being with people again. It may actually be a shock to our system which has been shut down to some degree to cope with absence. We may have that longing to be with others, but that doesn’t mean we are free from anxiety. It would be good to start off with a conversation about what it’s going to be like when you are all together again.”

She says finding some casual topics to discuss also works. Understand that many of you may feel a bit awkward after being physically apart for so long. It’s a bit like learning to walk again after you’ve broken a leg. It may all be off-balance to begin with but you will find a new steadiness with practice. Whatever happens post-pandemic, your loved ones can’t judge if you want to take it easy and not engage in the festivities immediately. We are recovering from a post-pandemic stress disorder, after all.

10 . A new study of 8, 000 young people in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior shows that although love can make adults live healthily and happily. It is a bad thing for young people. Puppy love （早恋）may bring stress for young people and can lead to depression （忧郁症）. The study shows that girls become more depressed than boys, and younger girls are the worst of all.

The possible reason for the connection between love and higher risk of depression for girls is "loss of self"According to the study, even though boys would say "lose themselves in a romantic relationship", this "loss of self" is much more likely to lead to depression when it happens to girls. Young girls who have romantic relationships usually like hiding their feelings and opinions. They won't tell that to their parents.

Dr Marian Kaufnian, an expert on young people problems, says 15% to 20% young people will have depression during their growing. Trying romance often causes the depression. She advises kids not to jump into romance too early. During growing up, it is important for young people to build strong friendships and a strong sense of self. She also suggests the parents should encourage their kids to keep close to their friends, attend more interesting school activities and spend enough time with family.

Parents should watch for signs of depression - eating or mood changes - and if they see signs from their daughters or sons, they need to give help. The good news is that the connection between romance and depression seems to become weak with age. Love will always make us feel young, but only maturity （成熟）gives us a chance to avoid its bad side effects.