2 . On Friday, Japanese researchers announced a population clock that showed a dangerous situation that the Japanese nation would disappear in 1,000 years if the falling birth rate kept the present level. Researchers in the northern city of Sendai said that Japan’s population of children aged up to 14, which now stands at 16.6 million, was falling at the rate of one child per 100 seconds. It would lead to a terrible result that there would be no children left in Japan in 1,000 years.

“If the rate keeps falling at that rate in our country, there will only be one child who is able to enjoy the following Children’s Day left on May 5th,3011,” said Hiroshi Yoshida, a professor at Toholu University. “But 100 seconds later, a national disaster that there are no children left in Japan will happen,” he added, “The nation’s people will disappear for the birth rate has fallen to the level that every woman has no more than two children, which started in 1975.” Yoshida said they created the population clock to make Japanese people pay close attention to that problem for their nation’s future.

Another study showed that Japan’s population was expected to fall to one third of the present population amount: 127.7 million in the next century. The Japanese government predicted that the birth rate would just become 1.35 children per parents within 50 years.

At the same time, Japanese life expectancy which is expected to ascend from 86.93 years in 2010 to 90.93 years in 2060 for women and from 79.64 years to 84.19 years for men has already been one of the highest in the world. More than 20 percent of the Japanese are aged 65 or over.

It means that Japan has become one of the countries with aging populations in the world. The problem of aging populations is a headache for the government and the Japanese economy because there are fewer and fewer workers who can make money for the country. However, the government has to face the terrible situation that it needs to offer a growing number of pensions.

4 . In recent years, China has witnessed the growth of luxury (奢侈品) brands. In this market, Chinese consumers are now the largest spenders. It’s clear that a new generation of young, materialistic people is increasingly relying on luxury brands to improve its self-image. I am a fashionist too, at least in spirit—I love to look at clothes and shoes. But I don’t understand why people spend lots of money on designer labels. When a young woman buys a handbag that costs two months of her salary, that’s a scary thing.

What’s interesting is that scientists have found that having luxury things doesn’t lead to happiness. Study after study has shown that although we want material things, when we get them we don’t suddenly become “happy” people. In fact, a series of studies by Leaf Van Boven at the University of Colorado, US, has shown that individuals who spend money on travel and similar experiences get more pleasure than those who invest it in material things. That’s because experiences are more easily combined with a person’s identity. If I travel to Yunnan, that adventure affects how I think in the future. My memories become a part of me.

Moreover, as Van Boven has observed, young people who pursue happiness through “things” are liked less by their peers. People prefer those who pursue happiness through experiences.

It’s natural to want to express yourself through your appearance. So my advice is: create a look that isn’t tied to a designer label. Convey your own message. Take some lessons from the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. He was always in Levis jeans and a black turtleneck. Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, routinely appears in hoodies and sneakers. These people, successful people, have style. You don’t have to break the bank to send a message about who you are. Take a trip. Go out into the world. Then come back and confidently create your own signature look.

5 . Clockmaking is a traditional technology which involves the building and repair of clocks. But it is now on the red list drawn up by the Heritage Crafts Association (HCA), which has warned more specialists are retiring than entering the profession.

David Poole, a former master of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers, said, “Although there used to be clockmakers on the street, a clock repair shop is a rare sight today.” Waiting lists will just grow, and people will find it extremely difficult to identify anyone to repair their clocks. There are only about 250 makers and repairers left across Britain, according to HCA’s research.

When specialists are approaching retirement, they often cannot afford to take on apprentices (学徒) as happened in the past. Besides, it is feared that the few training courses that have survived will not fill the gap.

Howard Walwyn, a leading dealer in Kensington, warned that, if expertise in repairing is lost, clocks will become lifeless objects rather than living things, adding, “Most clockmakers have fiddled with clocks as kids, taking them apart, and trying to get them to work. The problem is that young kids now are spending all their time in front of screens. I’ve got some younger clockmakers, but they’re few and far between.”

“There are also concerns that too many clockmakers are prepared to use modern mechanical solutions to make a clock work, even if those solutions are aesthetically (审美地) wrong,” said Jonathan Betts, an adviser to the National Trust. He added, “Museum collections and more sensitive private collectors would much rather not have a clock cleaned so it looks brand new, but an awful lot of restorers reject that. “Mr Poole, who became a clockmaker in the 1990s, said, “There are few people coming into the business. Most people who are in it are edging towards retirement, so am I. If people aren’t skilled, all those lovely things won’t be looked after properly.”

8 . BE A GOOD TOURIST

Tourism can be both good and bad.     1    

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.     2     I have three words for people like this: please stop it. If you want to leave a mark on the world, do it by changing someone’s life with kindness and love. Pass kindness along to future generations, not destruction (破坏)。

    3     Some tourists wander around and take pictures of local people without asking for their permission. For example, Chiang Mai University in Thai l 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.     4     Have fun in a way that does not disturb others.

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!     5     Remember, whenever you step outside your country’s borders, you are representing(代表) your country to the rest of the world.

9 . How did nearsighted people manage in the pre-glasses past? Have you ever thought about this? Aristotle may have written the first observations of myopia around 350 B.C. Because their eyeballs are too long, people with this condition can see objects that are close by, but distant objects tend to look blurry.

Neil Handley, a museum curator, said not much is known about how people dealt with myopia before the first lenses for nearsighted people were invented in the 15th century in Europe. And he noted that “even in the history of the invention of spectacles, that is a late development.”

There are 13th-century European examples of handheld convex lenses that were used to treat age-related vision loss known as presbyopia. But the technology wasn’t applied to treat nearsightedness for another 200 years.

“Because of the way that lens is held, you can see through it, and the artist has captured the effect that the glass has,” Handley said. Myopia could be something of a modern condition. Rates of myopia have risen sharply in recent decades, and researchers have projected that half the world will be myopic by 2050.

Doctors are still trying to figure out the cause behind this trend. Some have blamed genetic causes or an increase in studying and screen time.

It’s likely that myopia didn’t affect as many people in the past as it does now. Handley said the late creation of nearsighted glasses suggests that treating the small number of people with myopia wasn’t regarded as a priority and that people could have gotten by with this condition by making some adaptations in their lifestyle. Or, maybe there was more of an emphasis on putting people in jobs that were suited to their ability to see, he said.

For example, people with myopia were historically valued in artisan contexts, such as medieval European monasteries, where illuminating manuscripts and painting required making tiny, precise skills.