1 . When the PISA worldwide educational comparisons came out late in 2023, most countries fell to wondering how to do better. Spain had lost ground since the last time the tests were done in 2018. But students in Catalonia lost even more. Besides, native Spanish-speakers did worse than Catalan-speakers, which soon led to the blame on language policy.

In the 1980s Catalonia began a transition to teaching all subjects in Catalan, except Spanish. Several years ago the region’s top court ruled that at least 25% of classes must be given in Spanish. The regional government, led by separatists, then passed a law allowing individual school heads to raise or lower the level of teaching in Spanish, according to their need.

A new report for the Association for Bilingual Schools in Catalonia (AEB), which campaigns for more Spanish, said that hardly any schools have changed their published policies. And so they requested the European Parliament to investigate whether pupils’ basic rights had been violated. The week before Christmas a delegation made a fact-finding trip. The Catalan education secretary says they came having already made up their minds that the region’s language policy harms pupils’ performance.

In the Escola San Jaume, a primary school in El Prat de Llobregat, a heavily Spanish-speaking town near Barcelona, all signs are in Catalan. Only about 10% of the pupils are native Catalan-speakers, says the director, Arturo Ramírez. Despite the never-ending discussion across Spain, it is one largely achieved in Catalonia, where over 80% of the population speaks and reads Catalan, and everyone, except some immigrants, speaks Spanish too. Watching the happy students on his playground, Mr Ramírez says “There is no problem here. The problem is outside the building.”

2 . The ocean depths contain the metals needed for the widespread use of battery-dependent technologies like electric vehicles, which will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Interested parties see this as a solution to our technological demands and the pressing need for a “green transition”. However, it raises a crucial question: should we mine the deepest stretches of the world’s oceans?

Some scientists and activists warn that seabed mining could cause an irreversible (不可逆的) chain reaction, severely harming the ocean and threatening entire ecosystems on the ocean floor. There are also potential risks to our health, including toxic metals entering the human food chain, and affecting climate change. The most significant direct impact of mining in remote ecosystems is the probable loss of habitat and biodiversity.

Dr Chong Chen is a deep sea biologist at the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC). “There are undoubtedly many undiscovered species with abilities and functions that we cannot even imagine exist,” he says, “and we could lose them without knowing they ever existed.”

The mining process also disturbs seabed sediments (沉积物) and releases them back into the sea, raising additional concerns among scientists. Mining is for metals, whose stability of the construction are unchecked. “Some of those may be broken down and be directly into the water column,” says Jeffrey Drazen, professor of Oceanography with the University of Hawaii at Manoa. “Some of these metals are toxic to life.” says Professor Drazen. At the same time, he acknowledges the core challenge is ensuring whether the benefits of extracting (提取) deep-sea mineral resources outweigh the potential harm to our ecosystem. He notes that it’s a tough choice.

The positive development is that, for the first time, companies, governments, and civil society are actively participating in international discussions to create rules and regulations for the deep-sea mining industry before it begins.

5 . You might have heard of the expression “a guilty pleasure”—maybe it’s the chocolate bar you buy on the way home from work, or the new clothes that you don’t really need.     1     . Perhaps we don’t feel we deserved it, or we don’t think it was a responsible way to spend our money. But should we feel like this? Do we really have to feel guilty about treating ourselves?

Perhaps not. Psychologists have suggested that buying things for yourself can make you feel better as it provides an opportunity to take control of your situation.    2     . It may be that as well as lifting your mood, when you buy a treat, you might just be looking after yourself.

Of course, there are also examples of people turning to destructive behaviour when faced with stressful circumstances. People might spend money that they don’t have or turn to dangerous addictions. Psychologist Leon Seltzer considers the difference between self-indulgence and self-nurturing.    3     , while self-nurturing is taking responsible decisions to satisfy our needs and take care of ourselves in ways that don’t have a significant impact.

    4    . So, many universities publish guides with advice for coping with exam stress. Reflecting the difference between self-indulgence and self-nurture, they recommend rewarding yourself for your efforts, doing things that you enjoy and are good at so that you can feel accomplishment.    5     . Thus, perhaps, as long as we make responsible decisions, we shouldn’t feel guilty about our guilty pleasures.

7 . Which is more important for parents, making more money to give the kids a better life or spending more time with them? It is a problem for parents and it is not easy to decide. A new study shows that today’s parents are spending more time with their children than parents in the past. According to the study, today’s college-educated mothers spend about 21.2 hours a week taking care of their children. But women with less education spend about 15.9 hours. Before 1995, it was only 12 hours.

Dads are spending more time on ball games. Before 1995, fathers with college educations only spent about 4.5 hours a week playing with their children. Today, it increases to 9.6 hours a week. For fathers with high school education, the time goes up from 3.7 hours to 6.8.

These days, parents don’t care more about the cleaning or the cooking. They are trying their best to spend time with their families. As for the kids, they don’t mind how much time their parents spend with them. They just want to enjoy the time their parents do be with them.

So, take part in the kids’ activities when you are with them, such as helping with homework or playing soccer with them.

8 . A tragic case of Kitty Genovese, who was killed, happened in New York in 1964. However, subsequent investigations concluded that several people saw or heard what was happening, but did nothing to intervene. This has been termed the “bystander effect” — a well-known psychological phenomenon where individuals are less likely to offer help to someone when other people are present. The more people there are, the less likely they are to help.

None of us like to think we’d walk on by when someone needed our help. But sometimes we behave in ways we wouldn’t expect when faced with a situation we are unsure about. While we might like to think we would rush to someone’s assistance, we know from studies that often people hang back. Research from the British Heart Foundation has suggested that a third of people would not give first aid if they saw someone collapse on the street, with some even admitting they wouldn’t call an ambulance.

There are various factors contributing to this effect — people think that others will get involved. Afterwards people often say they did not feel qualified or important enough to be the one to intervene. It is also partly down to “pluralistic ignorance” — since everyone is not reacting to the emergency, they don’t need to either; it’s not serious because no one else is doing anything.

Other studies have shown that once people are aware of the bystander effect, they are less likely to be affected by it. Self-awareness is the best solution to it. When facing an emergency, think to yourself how you would behave if you were on your own. Ignore everyone else and go with your gut (直觉) — If you’d run for help, do it. If that’s how you would have behaved when you were on your own, then that’s probably the right course of action. The worst that can happen is that you’ll look a little foolish at having overreacted. You might also save someone’s life.

No matter your age, who can resist a tasty, low-priced meal? At noon, Tongxin Cafeteria near Shanghai’s Jing’an Temple downtown has a queue that shows its multi-generational popularity. The menu,     1     over 60 dishes rotated daily, caters to a wide range of tastes.

These cafeterias, once known as “senior canteens”, were originally established     2     (provide)healthy meals at     3     (afford) prices to older folks     4     might not be getting enough nutrition at home. From 2019 to 2021, the Shanghai government set a goal of building 200 new community canteens,     5     (bring) the total at the end of last year to 1,608.

    6     basic meal with one meat dish and two vegetables costs less than 20 yuan, far cheaper than prices in mainstream downtown restaurants. And all meals     7     (prepare) on site with fresh ingredients. The government supports these cafeterias, sometimes with rent-free space, sometimes with     8     (reduce) water and electricity charges.

Some community cafeterias have become so popular     9     they appear on WeChat and other lifestyle sharing     10     (platform). “We are pleased to have younger people dining here,” said a 90-year-old patron surnamed Qu. “They give the ‘elderly canteen’ a feeling of youthful vigor.”