1 . The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) was invented by Katharine Cook Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers. It is a self-report questionnaire indicating differing psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions. The MBTI personality inventory (量表) sorts people into 16 type categories, each of which is represented by four-letter codes such as INFP and ESTJ. Every year, about 1.5 million people have enjoyed discovering their personality type by completing the MBTI. Many companies, as well as hundreds of universities, use it in hiring and training.

Nevertheless, the MBTI has received a noticeable criticism from the academic community. Some research suggests the MBTI is unreliable because the same person can get different results when retaking the test. Other studies have questioned the validity of the MBTI, which is the ability of the test to accurately link the “types” to outcomes in the real world -for example, how well people classified as a certain type will perform in a given job.

Merve Emre, a professor a Oxford University, points out that it would be more scientifically advisable to score the MBTI scales continuously to show people the degree to which they resemble the types. Even when the MBTI’s results don’t quite match your intuition (直觉) about yourself or are just wrong, they can still provide self-insight and insight into differences and similarities between people.

Scoring and interpreting the MBTI the way other personality inventories are scored and interpreted might be less fun than finding. All of the folklore (民间看法) about INFPs, ESTJs, etc. would have to be dismissed. But, in the end the MBTI is sufficiently reliable and valid enough to be useful in a number of real-world contexts.

2 . Climate breakdown threatens to cause a global food production crisis. The UN forecasts that by 2050, feeding the world will require a 20% expansion in global water use for agriculture. It is hard to see how agriculture can feed the population of the planet, let alone toward the end of the century and beyond. Agriculture is a major cause of climate breakdown, and both river and air pollution. Industrial fishing is similarly driving ecological collapse in seas around the world.

However, at this critical time, farming (a new kind of food technology) is creating astonishing possibilities to save both people and the planet. Farming will enable the return of vast areas of land and sea to nature, greatly reducing carbon emissions (排放物). It means an end to the employment of animals, a stop to overfishing, and a dramatic reduction in cutting down forests and the use of pesticides (杀虫剂). It is the best hope for stopping the destruction of the planet and, if it is done right, it means cheap and abundant food for everyone.

We are about to welcome one of the biggest economic transformations, of any kind, for 200 years. Arguments continue about plants against meat-based diets; however, new technologies will soon make these arguments irrelevant. Before long, most food will come neither from animals nor plants, but from micro-organisms (微生物).

Not only will food be cheaper, it will also be healthier. Due to the fact that farming creates food products built up from simple components rather than broken down from complex ones, hard fats and other unhealthy components can be screened out. Meat will still be meat, but it will be grown in factories rather than in the bodies of animals. Fats will still be fats, but food is likely to be better, cheaper and much less damaging to the living planet.

6 . Imagine you found a wallet containing a stranger's contact details but no cash. Would you return it to its owner? Now imagine the same wallet contained a few banknotes. Would that change your response? Does it depend on the amount of money? And how do you think other people would react?

Honesty makes the world go round. Without people trusting in one another, society would fall apart. Honesty is therefore studied academically. Most work,in the area though, takes place under controlled conditions in labs, often featuring( 以..为特点) well-off and well-educated Westerners as its subjects. By contrast Alain Cohn of the University of Michigan and his colleagues have taken such behavioral economics around the world, covering 40 countries, 355 cities and more than 17,000 people.

As the team report this week in Science, Dr Cohn's research assistants entered public buildings. They handed in a wallet to the receptionist, saying they had found it on the street outside. Each wallet contains contact details. Importantly, some wallets also included $13.45, while others not. Then, the team simply waited to see who would return the wallet.

In 38 of the 40 countries, the wallets with money were returned more often than those without (51% Vs 40%). In addition, wallets containing a larger sum of money ($94.15) were even more likely (by about another 10%) to be returned than those with less.

With greater temptation(诱惑), then, comes greater honesty-- at least when it comes to lost wallets. Interestingly, though, such honesty is not reflected in people's expectations of others. When surveyed, most of 299 volunteers predicted that the more money in a wallet, the less likely it would be returned.

A certain doubt about the motives of, others is probably good for survival. But the warm inner thought of “doing the right thing"” is also a powerful motivation. How this altruism developed is much debated—particularly when it extends, as in Dr Cohn's experiments, to strangers whom the altruist has no expectation of ever meeting. Be that as it may, as this study shows, such altruism is real and universal.

8 . Declining in the past several decades, the multigenerational household seems to find its way back in recent years. Different generations of the same family live together in one household for a whole range of reasons. The most popular belief is that multigenerational households today come about because young adults won't fly the nest. While there is some truth in this, “adult children yet to leave home” was only the third-most-common driver.

Grandparents are now moving across town to be closer or to live with their grandchildren so they can provide childcare during the day. Likewise, some people are inviting their elderly parents to live with them so they could take care of them. “Care arrangement support” was the second-most-common driver for multigenerational living.

Finance pressure in getting higher education, workforce employment and the cost of housing encourage the younger generation to delay leaving the parental home. Changes in government policies on child, aged and disability care can also have impacts on people's decisions. This is actually the last straw which breaks them.

There are admittedly problems with multigenerational living. One of the bigger complaints about it is that not everyone helps. While adult children do help out with chores, they simply do housework for themselves, instead of being responsible for the whole family. Complaints about chores, however, pale in comparison to those about lack of privacy in the family home. This is the result of a combination of family members not respecting personal boundaries but also of many housing designs that are not suitable for multigenerational needs.

Despite the attention given by the public to this household form, little is known about it, particularly the experiences of those who choose to live in them. Whatever it is, there are pros and cons to multigenerational living, just like living alone.

9 . Today’s journalists face modern challenges. Online media platforms are springing up. And the lowly newspaper---and its reporters---are fighting money, tech, and distrust issues. Journalism students and teachers must emphasize new skills to keep their profession alive.

A trustworthy press helps inform people and monitor all levels of government. That is essential to a nation. Yet this useful establishment is growing increasingly unpopular. According to the University of North Carolina (UNC), newsroom jobs across the Country are fewer than half what they were 10 years ago. And on many college campuses, the news about the news is bleak too.

Take the Syracuse, New York, student-run newspaper The Daily Orange: It isn’t daily anymore. The paper prints just three times each week. Next year, The Diamondback of the University of Maryland will be online only. Half the newspapers that still exist on paper say they don’t print as many copies. And UNC’s The Daily Tar Heel has cut staff pay and rented cheaper offices to make its budget.

Considering the problems in journalism, it’s surprising that the enrollment(注册人数) in college journalism programs is up. The Daily Orange managing editor Catherine Leffert calls the layoffs and cutbacks disheartening. “But what keeps me wanting to be a journalist is seeing the effect that The Daily Orange has,” he says.

But journalism educators wonder, “Are we preparing young people for a dying industry?” Years ago, journalism graduates took low-level reporter jobs at newspapers or television stations. That still happens. But today’s jobs more often involve digital editing, social media production, and video streaming. Some universities are taking action. The University of Florida offers a sports media program. Several schools highlight statistics-driven data journalism.

The news isn’t all bad. Journalism professor Kathleen Culver says, “When I look at 18-and 20-year-olds in journalism and see what they want to do, I’m optimistic.” Maddy Arrowood is the student editor of The Daily Tar Heel. She says her experience makes her more interested in a journalism career, not less. Her optimism “comes from knowing that people still need news. They still need information.”

Nowadays, an increasing number of young Chinese spend money because they are “lazy”. According to a report issued in December by China’s e-commerce platform Taobao on China’s “lazy economy”, Chinese people spent 16 billion yuan on products and services online in 2018. The post-1995 generation was the “laziest” as its consumption increased by 82 percent, compared with that in 2017.

The so-called lazy economy refers to a new type of consumption of products and services which are designed to save time and labor. According to the report, many people of the post-1995 generation buy high-tech electronic devices such as floor mopping robots and automatic window cleaners, which save the trouble of doing household chores. Meanwhile, take-out food delivery services are also popular among people born after 1995.

Young people are willing to spend money on such products because they want to enjoy hard-earned leisure time after a busy and stressful day at work or school, reported Global Times. Because they need to focus on their studies or jobs, these so-called lazy people tend to use their leisure time more efficiently. For example, Wei Duo, a 21-year-old college student, is a frequent user of take-out food delivery services. “I once had a birthday cake delivered to my friend who lives far from my home. It cost me 50 yuan but it saved me almost half a day that would have been needed to deliver it myself My friend was also happy because she got to eat the cake instantly.” Wei told the Global Times.

While the “lazy economy” might be convenient for young people, it might also create problems. The lazy economy’ on campus is expressed in things like people buying food or other things without leaving the dormitory. As a result, they stay in their dormitories all day long, playing on computers and smart phones. According to Jinan Daily, this situation could lead to young people becoming less sociable and even developing problems of communicating with others. Young people should be alert (警觉的) to it.