1 . There is growing interest in East Japan Railway Co. ltd, one of the six companies, created out of the privatized national railway system. In an industry lacking exciting growth ________, its plan to use real-estate assets in and around train stations ________ is drawing interest.

In a plan called “Station Renaissance” that it ________ in November, JR East said that it would ________ using its commercial spaces for shops and restaurants, extending them to ________ more suitable for the information age. It wants train stations as pick-up ________ for such goods as books, flowers and groceries ________ over the Inter. In a country where city ________ depend heavily on trains ________ commuting, about 16 million people a day go to its train stations anyway, the company ________. So, picking up commodities at train stations ________ consumers extra travel and missed home deliveries. JR East already has been using its station ________ stores for this purpose, but it plans to create ________ spaces for the delivery of Inter goods.

The company also plans to introduce ________ cards—known in Japan as IC cards because they use integrated circuit for ________ information ________ train tickets and muter passes ________ the magic ones used today, integrating them into a/an ________ pass. This will save the company money, because ________ for IC cards are much less expensive than magic systems. Increased use of IC cards should also ________ the space needed for ticket vending.

2 . Obese people experience discrimination (歧视) in many parts of their lives, and the workplace is no exception. Studies have long shown that obese workers, defined as those with a body-mass index (BMI) of 30 or more, earn significantly less than their slimmer co-workers.

Yet the costs of weight discrimination may be even greater than previously thought. “The overwhelming evidence,” wrote the Institute for employment Studies, “is that it is only women living with obesity who experience the obesity wage penalty (薪资损失).” They were expressing a view that is widely aired in academic papers. To test it, The Economist has analyzed data concerning 23,000 workers from the American Time Use Survey, conducted by the Bureau of Labour Statistics. Our number-processing suggests that, in fact, being obese hurts the earnings of both women and men.

The data we analyzed cover men and women aged between 25 and 54 and in full-time employment. At a general level, it is true that men’s BMIs are unrelated to their wages. But that changes for men with university degrees. For them, obesity is associated with a wage penalty of nearly 8%, even after accounting for the separate effects of age, race, graduate education and marital status.

The conclusion — that well-educated workers in particular are penalized for their weight — holds for both sexes. Moreover, the higher your level of education, the greater the penalty. We found that obese men with a Bachelor’s degree (学士学位) earn 5% less than their thinner colleagues, while those with a Master’s degree earn 14% less. Obese women, it is true, still have it worse: for them, the equivalent figures are 12% and 19%, respectively (分别地).

Your line of work makes a difference, too. When we dealt with the numbers for individual occupations and industries, we found the greatest differences in high-skilled jobs. Obese workers in health care, for example, make 11% less than their slimmer colleagues; those in management roles make roughly 9% less, on average. In sectors such as construction and agriculture, meanwhile, obesity is actually associated with higher wages.

These results suggest that the total costs of wage discrimination borne by overweight workers in America are greater than expected. Now, it’s time for our governments to take it seriously.

5 . Borders, departments, or issue areas all represent what systems analysts call system boundaries. System boundaries divide the big, messy, interconnected world into smaller subsystems. This is useful, even necessary. Our minds and our collective governance systems would be stuck if we had to always consider all the connections of everything to everything else. But dividing systems into subsystems can sometimes break a natural cooperativity. For instance, a decarbonizing country will spend money in its energy and transportation sectors and save money in its health system.

Decarbonization could be a win for the whole, but it might be experienced as a bother for particular subsystems.

Donella Meadows, the early systems modeler, wrote that system boundaries are “lines in the mind, not in the world.” And that is actually good news. If departments, and disciplines are just ideas, then there is nothing immovable about them. We can make these borders less obvious and conduct partnerships across them. We can even redraw them to include more of what matters in a single project or investment. That’s the premise of multisolving — using one investment of time or effort to achieve several goals at once.

For instance, Warm Up New Zealand (WUNZ) upgraded the energy efficiency of residential buildings and provided jobs in the building sector after a financial downturn. The project resulted in better health for residents, as well. That translated into health systems savings. Taken together, a 2011 study estimated that across all these benefits, the project saved $3.90 for every $1 invested.

Multisolving seems possible everywhere and like an obvious choice. Yet, it is very much the exception, not the rule. Why is multisolving still so rare when it has the power to boost progress on some of the most urgent issues we face?

Unfamiliarity stands in the way, as does an often-unexamined assumption that making issues smaller makes them easier to address. We often hear the viewpoint, “I already work on poverty (or climate, etc.) and that’s hard enough. Why should I add biodiversity or pollution to the mix?” Fundraising for crossing borders can be a struggle too. Funders want the “visible results” shown, but they don’t always see crossing borders as an essential part of achieving those results.

It is easy to devalue and underemphasize connection-building. After all, it can be delicate and not always visible. But to realize goals in today’s world, from equitable policies and low-carbon facilities to values like cooperation and fairness, we do need deep shifts, and we need them soon. And facilitating the flow of ideas back and forth across borders is one way to speed change.

6 . A community canteen at the Zhanongkou Community in Shangcheng, Hangzhou recently launched “happiness blind boxes”, which cost just 6 yuan per box. Sales start at 7 p. m. each evening.

The dishes are packaged in transparent (透明的) containers, but to maintain an element of surprise, stickers are placed over the lid (盖子) of the “main dish” section of each box. The “blind boxes” have become popular since being introduced, and on some nights they sell out by about 8 p. m.

A meal assistance program introduced in Zhanongkou subdistrict ensures the elderly can access meals within a 10-minute walk of their homes or have them delivered within five minutes. The service has also been welcomed by younger people living and working in the area.

Yan Xuyang, a professor at Beijing Union University’s Tourism College, predicts that by 2035, those born from the 1970s to the 2000s will comprise the main group of customers for such canteens. “This generation has a reasonable level of disposable (可自由支配的) income, and many of its members may also lack the willingness to prepare meals for themselves,” Yan said.

The successful operation of community canteens depends on their ability to integrate into the daily lives and culture of local residents. In addition to serving dishes to suit local tastes and fostering a welcoming environment for diners, it is important to widen the functions of these canteens. They have been used for cultural activities and other events, which helps raise awareness and foster a positive perspective on these canteens among local communities.

In the latter part of last year, the Weikang community canteen in Ziyang subdistrict, Hangzhou, experienced a significant transformation from being a canteen for seniors to catering for the whole community. Its services have been broadened beyond regular operations to include services for hospitals and businesses, complete with home delivery options. Some other community canteens have also made efforts to appeal to more residents.

7 . Traditionally, the number of meaningful social relationships one can maintain is around 150. This concept finds its roots in the natural development of the human brain. However, in the digital age, where our social connections extend far beyond the geographical boundaries (界限), we easily create more connections with the help of the rising online platforms. Then, a question arises: Does the digital age rewrite the rules of social connection?

A study published in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking explored the effect of social media usage on the size of social circles and the closeness of relationships. The researchers found that more time spent on social media made for a larger number of online “friends,” but not a larger number of offline friends. Further, the findings were not linked to feelings of closeness towards online or offline friends.

Another study from the European Journal of Information Systems studied the link between social media usage and “social overload” — the feeling that too much of the energy for socializing is being used up by online relationships. The authors found that social media usage directly contributed to the experience of social overload, related to digital tiredness and dissatisfaction with social media.

With social media platforms rising, one’s ability to connect with people challenges the traditional concept. The brain, used to manage a limited number of relationships, now fights against the difficulties of dealing with a large number of digital connections, leading to a less attention and feeling investment (投入) in a relationship. And the online shallow connections can not develop meaningful, lasting relationships that stand the test of digital distance.

Therefore, in the digital age’s social whirlwind, instead of drowning (淹没) in a sea of weak interaction (互动), choose to engage in meaningful conversations and focus on the handful of relationships that truly fit your heart. Hug the beauty of face-to-face connections, allowing the richness of human interaction to flower beyond the digital world. By doing so, we create digital and physical spaces that truly improve our well-being.

10 . About two months ago, I removed Uber Eats from my phone. Not because I didn’t like using it. I loved it. Like most cheap, modern luxuries though, there are hidden costs.

“Restaurants are barely surviving. Delivery apps will kill them” was a headline in a newspaper, one of many stories exploring the unfair sign-up strategies and high fees taken by these tech companies. Moreover, there were reports about bad working conditions for delivery riders, leading to tragic accidents, even deaths. That’s truly unbearable!

I deleted the app and haven’t used it, or any of its competitors, since. Instead of ordering online, now I either cook something or get takeaway nearby. Cooking better food has been a great motivation for me. On lazy nights, I’ve discovered that I can still make a satisfying meal by using whatever ingredients I have on hand. This approach has also saved me much money. As with lots of online shopping, I’d been ordering food without much thought about the cost. Cooking is almost always cheaper and so is old-school takeaway.

These changes have cost me one thing — time. One reason the apps are so popular is that they meet the needs of the convenience-seeking, time-starved individuals. But rather than adding to my stress, having to plan meals again somehow made life less so. Some days it’s been a good motivation to stop work earlier, and engage in activities like going to the shops, or start chopping onions. Walking to pick up takeaway forces you to go for a walk. The change in habit forced me to be on my devices a bit less and to be in my actual life and neighbourhood a bit more.

The process has made me think about how technological advances do save us time, but time for what? For me, the answer was often just more time working, or more time online. Making my own food feels like taking back time I had given up for things far less nourishing (有营养的).