1 . We are familiar with an old saying that “Clothes make the man”, which means good-looking outfits may possibly make a person better respected and look more like a true gentleman.    1    . Naturally, he may be well respected and gracefully treated even though he doesn’t seem so respectable as others imagine. Instead, if a man is poorly or commonly dressed, he can’t avoid being looked down upon and unfairly treated,    2    . As far as these people are concerned, what one wears is taken as an essential signal of status and an expression of characteristics. Consequently, clothes do seem to help make a good impression on others, and gain more respect.

    3    . I think the good impression one leaves on others based on clothes doesn’t last long. Only good internal quality and beauty will impress people forever and never fade.     4    . On the contrary, when people who are fascinated by a person’s clothes eventually find out that he is an undesirable person, they would think he is pretentious and may even treat him with contempt (蔑视). On top of this, people who attach too much importance to clothes would waste their time and money on it. Besides, it adversely affects their effort on the things that really matter.

In summary,     5    . Nothing can count more than good internal quality in building up the man. Therefore, only one’s internal beauty and knowledge are more decisive of a person’s value.

5 . Lake Mary Jane in central Florida, where people living along the lake like to go boating and swimming and watch the wildlife, is under pressure from development. Orange County, which surrounds the lake, is one of the fastest-growing counties in Florida. A development planned for a site just north of Mary Jane would transform nineteen hundred acres of wetlands and cypress forest into homes.

In an effort to protect herself, Mary Jane is suing (起诉). The lake has filed a case (立案) in Florida state court, stressing that the development would negatively impact the lake, causing concrete, distinct, and visible injuries. Mary Jane’s case is the first in American history. Never before has a lifeless slice of nature tried to defend its rights in the court. “It is long past time to recognize that we are dependent on nature and the continued destruction of nature needs to stop,” Mari Margil, director of the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights, said in a statement.

The concept that natural objects like woods and streams should have rights was first put forward half a century ago, by Christopher Stone, a law professor who was assigned to teach University of Southern California’s introductory course on property law in 1971. He explained how ownership rights had developed over time and why our natural objects like trees or even rocks should also be given rights. This little thought experiment set off a heated debate nationwide.

Each time there is a movement to give rights to some new things, the proposal is bound to sound odd or frightening or laughable. However, this extension of rights, Stone argued, was needed to address an unavoidable problem. So long as natural objects were valued only in terms of their worth to humans — for the use of humans they could, quite legally, be destroyed.

Despite the fact that the developer is pushing to have Mary Jane’s case dismissed, arguing that the rights the lake wants do not — and cannot — exist, people are starting taking Stone’s words seriously. Even Stone’s critics had fun with his idea. There’s no way to get back to the past. The lake’s wish is pretty clear: It just wants to be left alone.

8 . There’s a recent trend of Internet users paying someone to verbally abuse (言语辱骂) someone else. However, the service is not only unacceptable, but also illegal.

This behavior is often conducted on social media where some people sell the service. People who seek this service pay them a certain amount of money to have them insult (侮辱) the target online.     1    

“These insults usually hurt their right to reputation, which can lead to civil liability (民事责任),” Xing Junxia, a lawyer, told the press.     2     For instance, the offender has to formally apologize to the victim. Also, both the attacker and the payer bear civil liability as they plan and carry out the verbal abuse together.

    3     For example, the Internet security department in Qiqihar, Heilongjiang, arrested a man who had been selling this service online. Despite knowing it was illegal, he believed it was an easy way to make money. In the end, he was fined 500 yuan apart from handing over all of his illegal earnings.

In the most serious cases, according to Xing, “the verbal abuse can lead to online violence.     4    ” In this case, the attacker will face criminal liability which can lead to a prison sentence.

“The Civil Code includes the principle of public order and good customs,” Xing added.    5     “If your behavior is against public order and good customs, you should also bear certain civil liability,” Xing explained.

9 . Have you heard of the term “tweenager”? It’s a slang(俚语)word used in the UK to describe children between about ten and twelve years old. They are between being a junior and a teenager, you see. Why do the press and media refer to kids in this way?

Well, more and more companies now create products and services for tweenagers. They seem to tell us that tweenagers must have more money, freedom and influence upon their parents than they’ve ever had before.

Most children in the UK today get more pocket money than kids did a decade ago. Despite problems happening fairly often and regularly in the economy, parents generally have more money to give than before, since they are having fewer children on average than in the past. In addition, a higher divorce(离婚)rate in the UK makes parents try to compensate(补偿)by buying presents for their children. It’s a bad habit for both parents and children to get into, but parents are under constant pressure from commercial marketing and the requests of their children.

You may wonder how tweenagers have more freedom than previous generations. Well, UK children today are very media-and computer-literate. They have access to much more information about life and the world. They may have experienced a lot in life as well. With such sophistication(老于世故)at such a young age, it’s no wonder tweenagers are able to influence their parents.

Now UK tweenagers are also very fashion-conscious and concerned about their images. In a world of television programs that promise immediate success and fame at a young age, some people think it’s extremely important to look fashionable.

So what does tweenage fashion look like? It’s lots of brightly colored materials, particularly pink, and usually plain, not patterned. There are plenty of bows, necklaces and bracelets, too.

But can it really be healthy for us to encourage kids to be like adults at a young age? Are we stealing childhoods in return for a bit of profit? Well, the UK government is certainly concerned, and for that reason has strict laws preventing companies from clearly and openly marketing their products and services at children.

10 . People have traditionally been hired based primarily on the degree they earned, the job they had, or the people they knew. Skills were not a big part of the conversation in the hiring, or in the economy overall. That’s changing. Workers better understand the need to articulate (清晰地表达) the skills they have and the skills they want. And businesses, eager to fill roles in this historically tight labour market, have started to focus on whether people have the skills to get the job done. Skills come first.

We need to take advantage of this momentum (势头). Skills-first hiring needs to become the new way to connect talent to opportunity. The World Economic Forum estimates we’ll need to reskill over one billion people by 2030.

Employees consider opportunities to learn and grow as the primary driver of great work culture, yet our data shows only 52% of employees feel their manager encourages the use of work time to learn new skills. This major disconnect will start to impact employers as the skills-economy continues to grow. By caring about employees’ careers, investing in their skills development, and helping them transform into new roles, companies benefit too. When leaders offer growth opportunities through internal mobility, they keep their employees nearly twice as long as their peers.

A focus on upskilling needs employers to change their concept of business management. Everyone from the top down needs to understand how critical ongoing learning and upskilling is, not only from an employee’s growth perspective (角度), but also for maintaining a company’s competitive edge. The organizations that keep their employees on top of new technologies are the ones that will see success in this new world of work.

Never in the history of the labour market has been a clear or reliable way to understand whether people and jobs are matched in the most efficient way. The labour market has worked from some, but skills can change that. By harnessing (利用) new data and tools that make it easy for people and companies to identify talent based on skills, along with the access to building more diversified and equitable networks, we have the ability to help fill the most in demand jobs based on what a candidate can do. This will not only create greater equity in our economy, but also greater dynamism. It will create new levels of progress and prosperity.