Employees typically work five days a week for eight hours each day. However, many employees want to work a four-day week and are willing to accept less pay in order to do so. If a law requires companies to offer their employees the option of working a four-day workweek for four-fifths of their normal pay, it will benefit the economy as a whole as well as the individual companies and the employees who decided to take the option.

For the country as a whole, one of the primary benefits of offering this option to employees is that it will reduce unemployment rates. If many full-time employees start working fewer hours, some of their workload will have to be shifted to others. Thus, for every four employees who go on an 80 percent week, a new employee can be hired at the 80 percent rate.

Besides, the shortened workweek will increase company profits because employees will feel more rested and alert, and as a result, they will make fewer costly errors in their work. Hiring more staff to ensure that the same amount of work will be accomplished will not result in additional pay the company has to prepare for these people, because four-day employees will only be paid 80 percent of the normal rate. In the end, companies will have fewer overlooked and error-prone (容易出错的) employees for the same money, which will increase company profits.

Finally, the option of a four-day workweek will be better for individual employees. Employees who can afford a lower salary in exchange for more free time can improve the quality of their lives by spending the extra time with their families, pursuing private interests, or enjoying leisure activities.

4 . Importance of Ethics

Two 1996 studies indicate the importance of the study of ethics to students in journalism and mass communications programs. A survey of seventy-three media ethics courses at universities across the country revealed a continuing rise in enrollment (报名). The other study noted that 44 percent of the responding schools required students to complete an ethics course.     1    

However, reasons for studying ethics go beyond what potential employers desire.     2     If one objective of an education is to promote the growth and development of the individual, then the place to start is with personal behavior. Developing a sense of what is right and wrong, or appropriate and inappropriate, will promote order, not only in individual lives but also in society at large.     3     Speed limits are set, proper directions are indicated, and numerous suggestions are made—seat belts, for example—so that automobile travel is reasonably safe and efficient. Without the “rules” of the road, travel becomes chaotic (混乱的). Order is necessary. Ethical behavior could play the same role. It sets “rules” for proper human activity and as a result promotes growth, development, and order in individual lives.

    4     Not every problem is an ethical one, and even when an ethical problem does present itself, people sometimes make the wrong ethical decision, or they make the right ethical decision and it results in unforeseen negative consequences. Nevertheless, people must realize that without a large number of individuals doing the right thing, society would not be doing much at all except fighting for survival and trying to figure out an increasingly chaotic world. Things are bad enough with ethics; think how bad they might be without them.

6 . We are having a debate about this topic:Forget Cyclists, Pedestrians Are Real

Danger. Here are some letters from our readers.

8 . I’m 16. On a recent night, while I was busy thinking about important social issues, like what to do over the weekend and who to do it with, I overheard my parents talking about my future. My dad was upset—not the usual stuff that he and Mom and, I guess, a lot of parents worry about like which college I’m going to, how far away it is from home and how much it’s going to cost. Instead, he was upset about the world his generation is turning over to mine, a world he fears has a dark and difficult future —if it has a future at all.

He sounded like this: “There will be a pandemic that kills millions, a devastating energy crisis, a horrible worldwide depression and a nuclear explosion set off in anger.”

As I lay on the living room couch, eavesdropping (窃听) on their conversation, starting to worry about the future my father was describing, I found myself looking at some old family photos. There was a picture of my grandfather in his Citadel uniform. He was a member of the class of 1942, the war class. Next to his picture were photos of my great-grandparents, Ellis Island immigrants. Seeing those pictures made me feel a lot better. I believe the world my generation grows into is going to get better, not worse. Those pictures helped me understand why.

I considered some of the awful things my grandparents and great-grandparents had seen in their life times: two worlds wars, killer flu, a nuclear bomb. But they saw other things, too, better things: the end of two world wars, the polio vaccine, passage of the civil rights laws. They even saw the Red Sox win the World Series--twice.

I believe that my generation will see better things, too—that we will witness the time when AIDS is cured and cancer is defeated; when the Middle East will find peace and Africa grain, and the Cubs win the World Series—probably, only once. I will see things as inconceivable to me today as a moon shot was to my grandfather when he was 16, or the Internet to my father when he was 16. Ever since I was a little kid, whenever I’ve had an awful day, my dad would put his arm around me and promise me that “tomorrow will be a better day.” I challenged my father once, “How do you know that?” He said, “I just do.” I believe him. My great-grandparents believed that, and my grandparents, and so do I.

Designer Dolls Become Desirable Collectables

Kan Hui, senior stage set designer based in Beijing, stands in front of vending machine (自动售货机) in a shopping center. She feeds in the money and a paper box rolls out.     1     Dolls are not just toys for little girls any more. They have become desirable collectables for many young Chinese under the age of thirty.

Molly, a little girl with curly hair, wide eyes and pouting lips, is one of the best-selling dolls in China. Each Molly sells for 59 yuan and there are over one hundred editions of the doll in different series. For doll fans, it is an affordable way to build an “art” collection.

In fact, what has made collecting designer dolls a new phenomenon is the concept of a “blind box”. As the name implies, consumers have no idea which specific doll from a series they will get until they open the box.     2     Over 400 million Molly dolls are reported to have been sold throughout the country last year!

    3     Psychologists say that collectors are trying to bring some order and meaning to their lives. That may be true, but I think they do it just because it is fun and sometimes educational. I have a friend who collects beer bottles. He does not recycle them for money. Instead, he has them lined up in neat rows on shelves, and over 200 of them are from more than 30 different countries—a good way to learn about geography.

Collecting Molly dolls is probably fad (一时的风尚) that will be replaced by another one eventually.     4