Dear Alcohol,
You've been around forever. I can remember all the pain you've caused for me.
Do you remember the night you almost took my father's life? I do. He loves you. Sometimes I think he loves you more than he loves me. He's addicted to you, to the way you promise to rid him of his problems only to cause more of them. You just sat back and laughed as his car went spinning through the street, crashing into two other cars. He wasn't the only one hurt by you that night.
Do you remember the night of my first high school party? You were there. My friends were intrigued by you. They treated you as if they were never going to see you again, drinking all of you that they could. I spent two hours that night helping my friends who had fallen completely. "I'm so embarrassed," they said as I held their hair back so that they could vomit. "I'm sorry," they said when I called taxies for them, walking them out and paying the driver in advance. "This won't happen again," they said as they were sent to the hospital to have their stomachs pumped. Two 15-year-old girls slept in hospital beds that night thanks to you.
Do you remember the night when you took advantage of my 17-year-old neighbor who had to drive to pick up his sister from her dance lessons? Do you know how we all felt when he hit another car and killed the two people in the other car? He died the next morning too. His sister walked home from her dance lesson, and passed police cars and a crowd of people gathering on the sidewalk just two blocks away from the dance studio. She didn't realize her brother was in the midst of it all. She never saw him again. And it's all your fault.
I wish you'd walk out of my life forever. I don't want anything to do with you. Look at all the pain you've caused. Sure, you've made people happy too from time to time. But the damage you've caused in the lives of millions is inexcusable. Stop luring (引诱) in the people I love. Stop hurting me, please.
Sincerely,
Me
When Oliver Sacks, 82, died on Aug 30 at his home in New York City, the world was saddened by the loss of a brilliant neurologist (神经学者)and a truly beautiful mind.
London-born Sacks was most famous for his writing. A Forbes obituary (讣告)calls him "one of the greatest writers of science of the past 50 years. Maybe the greatest".
In his best-selling 1985 book The Man Who Mistook His Wife far a Hat, Sacks described man who could not tell the difference between his wife's face and his hat, because his brain had difficulty telling what he saw.
In 2006, Discover magazine ranked it among the 25 greatest science books of all time, declaring, "Lots of neuroscientists now looking into the mysteries of the human brain cite (列举)this book as their greatest inspiration."
His 1973 book. Awakenings, is about a group of patients who were frozen in a decades-long sleep until Sacks tried a new treatment The book led to a 1990 movie in which Sacks by Robin Williams. It was nominated (提名)for Academy Awards.
Another book. An Anthropologist on Man、published in 1995, described cases like that of a painter who lost his color vision in a car accident but found new creative power in black-and-white images. Sacks also wrote the story of 50-year-old man who suddenly regained sight after nearly a lifetime of blindness. The experience was a disaster. The man's brain could not make sense of the visual world. After a full and rich life as a blind person, he became "a very disabled and miserable (悲惨的）sighted man," Sacks wrote. "When he went blind again, he was rather glad of it."
Despite the drama and unusual stories. Sacks' books were not meant to be freak shows. "Oliver Sacks humanizes illness…he writes of body and mind, and from every one of his case studies there shows a feeling of respect for the patient and for the illness," Roald Hoffinann, a Nobel Prize-winning chemist, said in 2001.
When Sacks received the Lewis Thomas Prize for science writing in 2002, the citation (荣誉状)declare, "presses us to follow him into unknown areas of human experience and forces us to realize, once there, that we are facing only oureclves."
It's no surprise to hear the honking of horns in New York. Whoever tries every day to get more than a few minutes of sleep in the morning in the city will tell you that he could do nothing about it! No one can deny honking of horns is just one of his most widely enjoyed pastimes.
But Andy, a Japanese website developer has had enough of it. Once, the 27-year-old man approached the open window to wait for the driver to finish honking, delivered a polite "excuse me" and then yelled "Ho-o-o-o-onk!", which means fierce anger in Japan. Then he threw three eggs from the window of his apartment on to a passing car honking loudly below when his patience was worn out. Instead of apologizing to him, the driver threatened to kill him angrily. So, nobly, Andy turned to non-violence. He started writing anti-honking haiku verses, a form of Japanese poetry, and submitted them to local newspapers:
Oh. forget Enron;
The problem around here is; All the damn honking (Enron: a major American company that recently caused a scandal because of corrupt(腐败) mismanagement)
"Then this kind of chain reaction started happening," Andy says. "All these other haiku started appearing unexpectedly" Andy's community is now covered in anti - honking poetry, written by all walks of life.
Patience slowly fades;
Residents store up their eggs; That day is coming soon.
It's understandable that Andy has set up a website — www.honku.org — and now people from across the country send him news of their own anti - honking activities. It seems that poetry can change the world after all. Then, just recently, anti-anti- honking haiku started to appear, launched by locals who thought Andy should stop worrying about honking and start worrying about starving children, or war in the Middle East instead. Andy has an answer for that. "Stop me if this is too ridiculous," he says, "but they talk about the violence in the Middle East like it's a force of nature, like it's beyond our control. But actually it's kind of like the honking - the violence is man -made. If we can figure out how to stop honking on the streets, I think we could learn some things that we could use on a large scale."
The future is time that is to come. The future is not the present or the past. It is later. We have seen many possible futures in science fiction. They range from the world's polar ice caps melting to nuclear winters. But not all futures are morbid. We have seen the human race spread all over our universe, humans and aliens living in harmony together all over the universe.
It is very likely that we will make some kind of breakthrough in our ability to travel through space sometime in the next 150 years. This would give us the ability to rule other planets.
Finally, the Earth will die whether it is in 1,000 years or 100,000 years. We will be forced to move to another planet then. It's really just a matter of time. When we do so, what will we discover?
Personally, I think everyone will be speaking the same language in 200 years. A world government definitely seems to be in our future. It is stable and has few wars. Indeed, the only type of wars that can happen is the civil war.
And what if we face aliens? If they are friendly, we would probably benefit a lot from putting our knowledge together. They must have advanced technology to travel for great distances. We could benefit from their technology. But if they aren't friendly, then we will be in trouble. Hope that we will have become advanced enough, smart enough, and generally a better race by the time we meet them. But this is all probably being discussed for nothing, because any race out there among the stars is probably as curious as we are about other creatures.
As globalization continues to make the world a smaller place, and goods become more accessible across borders, concerns about food safety in the AsiaPacific region have steadily risen over the years. An APEC forum is being held in Beijing, to find ways to better address the problem.
156 participants from 19 APEC economies and 4 non-APEC members attended the APEC Food Safety Cooperation Forum. Created 7 years ago, the forum has been actively looking for ways to strengthen food safety standard in the region, without affecting trade.
"As consumers are faced with more varieties of food, the potential food safety risk also becomes bigger. This forum has helped APEC economies to cooperate in supervision (监督), exchange information, and improve the overall food safety standard in the AsiaPacific region," said director of China's General Administration of Quality Supervision Wu Qinghai.
For the first time the forum has brought together highlevel regulators, academics, and industry stakeholders to talk about their respective roles in safety supervision. They say governments alone cannot shoulder this heavy duty.
In China, the continuous food safety problems have greatly hurt consumers' confidence in domestic products; therefore more turned to imports. However, problems related to quality of those imported goods also began to show. In July this year, more than 400 batches (批)of food imports from 35 countries and regions were found substandard by the country's top quality supervisor.
Governments and industries have been brought closer by this forum. As food moves more freely beyond borders, this forum is hoped to promote safety control cooperation, so APEC members can better benefit from the economic integration (经济一体化).
Rome is recognized across the globe for its classical artwork, but recently the city's street art has been drawing attention. While many urban artists stick to painting murals（壁画），one Italian sculptor is resisting the trend with his wonderful works made from an unusual material. Andrea Gandini, a native of Rome in his early twenties, has been recognized for his wood carvings of old tree trunks scattered across the city's landscape.
Gandini's Trocomorto, or "dead trunk" project, began in 2018, when the artist ran out of sculpting clay. That's when he noticed the remains of an old tree stump in his neighborhood. He realized that Rome was full of potential canvases (画布) just waiting to be given a new life. "Bringing trees back to life" is exactly how Gandini and others describe his art.
Due to years of poor care by the city, many trees became diseased and had to be cut down. This resulted in lots of old stumps that degraded the streets of Rome, which were costly to remove. However, they have been a perfect canvas of Gandini, who has completed over 50 carvings across the city.
Gandini gives each old tree trunk a face and personality of its own. By recognizing each formerly living tree as individual, he hopes to give them some dignity in death and respect each of them with their own headstone of sorts. For those that can't make the trip to Rome, Gandini documents his works of art on Facebook.
Gandini's "dead trunk" project reminds us of what Auguste Rodin says, "There is no lack of beauty in the world, but a lack of eyes to find it." All is beautiful in the eyes of the artist, for his keen eye sees through the heart of all living things. To discover its character is to pierce its outer form and touch its inner truth. This "truth" is also "beauty".
Betty Schrampfer Azar is a world-famous expert on teaching English grammar. Here are some of her opinions.
Why do students need to learn grammar? When teachers are deciding which grammar points to teach, they should first ask two questions. First, will understanding the point help students be understood and will it help them understand better? Next, will learning the grammar point help students be acceptable as English speakers?
People usually think that grammar is all about memorizing rules. In fact, grammar is not just learning rules. It is a way to help students along the way to communication. Teachers should know that students do not all learn in the same way. Each may have a different learning style when it comes to learning grammar. Some may see a pattern and understand the rule. Others need explanations and more practice. "But to teach grammar as subject matter and test it as though you were testing the memorization of dates in history is sure to bore everybody and not to reach the goals that you are trying to reach—successful communication experiences," she says.
Why do some teachers hate teaching grammar? Many teachers are not comfortable teaching grammar because they do not know how to answer their students' questions. "Most native speakers of English don't learn it in school," she says. "If you don't know any grammar of your own language and then you are asked to teach it, it's possible that your students may know more grammar than you and you can't answer their questions."
Can teaching grammar really be fun? Teachers should learn to make the teaching of grammar fun. She says, "My students enjoy learning grammar as much as I enjoy teaching it. I think grammar is fascinating. It holds language together. It is really beautiful when you get to know it. Grammar is quite a remarkable (非凡的) thing."
Earlier this year, artist Malik was about to post a selfie (自拍照) from the Brooklyn Bridge when he had the second thought. He wanted to share something different with his friends and the world.
Malik thought that the social media had become impersonal and he wanted to connect with people in a more meaningful way. Therefore, the Reading Project was born. He began leaving piles of his books in famous New York City locations with a card containing simple instructions put inside each one: take a book, read it and share your thoughts with the artist by email.
The piles of books themselves can be seen as works of art, and so is the process of sharing. Unlike many of the things we share today, he likes to keep the project off social media. To keep the project pure, he doesn't even turn around as he walks away once he has left a pile of books. When he has left them behind, he prefers email to be the only way that he learns what happens to them. The project has now taken him — and his books — all over the world, including London.
"I hope people pick them up and I also hope they read them and let me know their feelings on them. And even if they don't let me know, I just hope they will read the books," Malik said.
He has received thousands of messages from people in more than 30 countries all over the world. For Malik, books are meaningless and lifeless if they gather dust on a shelf and are never read again. He intends to carry on with the project for some time, with a plan to visit Brazil and then decides whether he will continue it or not.
Most of all, Malik loves the connection the books give him with strangers across the world, which is something that other posts could never achieve.
The words "protect animals" appear everywhere in books and on screens because some animals are in danger of dying out. But sometimes the reality can be a little different from what people read or watch.
About 300 black bears were killed in Florida, the US, in October, 2015. It's been the first bear hunt since 1994.
Animal protection groups protested this decision. But local officials explained that the black bear population had grown to 3,500 and become a menace to local people. In the past two years, bears have hurt at least four people in Florida.
This brings an old question back into the spotlight — which is more important, protecting animals or protecting people's interests?
This question is asked in other countries too. In Switzerland, a wolf was sentenced to death by the Swiss government months ago. This is because the wolf killed 38 sheep and local people lost a lot of money. Days ago in China, three old men were arrested for killing a serow (鬣羚), a protected species. But they insisted they didn't know about this and killed the animal because it ruined their crops.
However, these stories don't always mean that animal protection stops due to human interests, especially involving economic development. A man named Zhou Weisen set up a wild animal base in Guilin, Guangxi. He saved over 170 tigers and 300 bears. But his base also offered jobs to local people.
"There may never be a standard answer to the question of whether we should give more attention to the environment or human development," said Robert May, a British biologist at Oxford University. "But we shouldn't push either one to the side, as the future is hanging in the balance."
Pangolins (穿山甲) are the most trafficked (非法交易) mammals in the world and are facing extinction. To draw attention to these scaly (有鳞片的), anteater-like animals, a new wildlife documentary, Eye of the Pangolin, is attempting a unique way to inspire action and conservation. Partnering with the non-profit organization Pangolin. Africa, the documentary was made available on YouTube in May 2019. The intention is to reach communities wherever the Internet is available, especially African communities, who live near the animal's habitats.
Over two years, the documentary crew traveled to South Africa, Ghana, Central African Republic and Gabon in search of the four unique species of pangolin, which has never been achieved before. Filmmakers Bruce Young and Johan Vermeulen say that they went into the shoot knowing relatively little about pangolins, but grew to respect and appreciate the animals. Getting close to the creatures over two years was a crash course in these secretive creatures. Johan Vermeulen said, "One thing however that might seem unimportant is that they are actually quite fussy eaters. You would think they would eat any type of ant, but they all prefer a specific type ant."
Pangolins are hunted illegally across Africa for their scales, which are used for traditional medicine, and their meat. In April 2019, Singaporean customs officials conducted two separate seizures of 24 tons of pangolin scales, which equals to the death of 69,000 pangolins.
Though the documentary focuses less on the trafficking of pangolins, and more on the animals in their natural habitat, the aim of the documentary is to inspire viewers around the world to call for action to end trafficking and protecting these unique creatures.
Filmed on location in South Africa, Ghana, Central African Republic, and Gabon, this powerful documentary is the story of two men on a mission to get all four species of African pangolin on camera for the very first time.
The Notre Dame (巴黎圣母院) fire has been put out, but its wooden roof have been largely damaged. The terrible accident causes a sudden sharp pain to people around the world, "What a pity that we cannot see the damaged parts of the wonder anymore."
But the good news is that there is at least one way of seeing them, namely via a video game called Assassin's Creed: Unity. In this game, the player can travel to one city after another and enter the buildings exactly like what they are in reality, and see Notre Dame as it was before the fire. In addition, with VR technology, which is already quite mature, one can even look around the undamaged Notre Dame as if it is still there. Maybe digital technology could help to better protect architectural cultural heritage (建筑文化遗产).
The idea of digitizing ancient buildings, making digital models of them so their data can be saved, dates back to the 1990s and the necessary technology has continued to advance since then. By scanning the ancient buildings with lasers, building 3D models with hundreds of images, as well as measuring (测量) everything precisely, engineers can make a copy as "same" as the real one.
As computers and smartphones are hugely popular, the digital replica or digital copy has great pratical value. First, it allows tourists to feel the cultural relics (文物) without touching them, which helps protect them. The virtual tour of Dunhuang Grottoes in Gansu Province is a good example of this as tourists can view the paintings without standing near them. Furthermore, it can make the digitized cultural relics more famous by spreading awareness about them via the Internet. In 2000, a virtual tour of the Great Wall became very popular at the Hannover World Expo, which increased the number of foreign tourists visiting it in the following years. Above all, it preserves all the information of the cultural relics. Even if the original ones are damaged one day, people can still know what they were like and can build a replica if desired.
Time is the biggest problem to architectural heritage. Maybe we will have better technologies in the future，but the digital technology offers a practical way to preserve architectural cultural heritage at the moment.
Is the "Go to College" Message Overdone?
Even in a weak job market, the old college try isn't the answer for everyone. A briefing paper from the Brookings Institution warns that "we may have overdone the message" on college, senior fellow Isabel Sawhill said.
"We've been telling students and their families for years that college is the only way to succeed in the economy and of course there's a lot of truth to that," Ms. Sawhill said. "On average it does pay off… But if you load up on a whole lot of student debt and then you don't graduate, that is a very bad situation."
One comment that people often repeat among the years of slow job growth has been the value of education for landing a job and advancing in a career. April's national unemployment rate stood at 7.5%, according to the Labor Department. The unemployment rate for high-school graduates over 25 years old who hadn't attended college was 7.4%, compared with 3.9% for those with a bachelor's degree or more education. The difference is even bigger among those aged 16—24. The jobless rate for those with only a high school diploma in that age group is about 20%. At the same time, recent research by Canadian economists warns that a college degree is no guarantee of promising employment.
Ms. Sawhill pointed out that among the aspects that affect the value of a college education is the field of one's major: Students in engineering or other sciences end up earning more than ones who major in the arts or education. The cost of tuition (学费) and the availability of financial aid are other considerations, with public institutions generally a better financial bargain than private ones.
She suggested two ways to improve the situation: increasing vocational (职业的)-technical training programs and taking a page from Europe's focus on early education rather than post-secondary learning. "The European countries put a little more attention to getting people prepared in the primary grades," she said. "Then they have a higher bar for whoever goes to college—but once you get into college, you're more likely to be highly subsidized (资助)."
She also is a supporter of technical training—to teach students how to be plumbers, welders and computer programmers—because "employers are desperate" for workers with these skills.
Mr. Hadley was my 6th grade teacher. At that time I was a short girl weighing 70 kilograms. Boys always laughed at me because of it. So I became an extremely shy young lady.
One day Mr. Hadley told us that we would be required to come to the front of the class and read the reports that we had completed.
When my turn came, I refused to stand in front of all those students and open up to their tricks. Mr. Hadley handed me my report and asked me to read it. I gave it back to him. He walked to the font and said, “Martha has a very good report here and I think everyone needs to hear her read it. If you make strange noises or make fun of her in any way, I will let you fail right here and now. OK?”
Mr. Hadley walked back to me and handed me the paper again, asking me to go to the front of the class. I walked there on legs that were shaking and I felt a rabbit in my chest. Everyone was all quiet, including those boys. I stood there trying to be calm.
Mr. Hadley walked over to me and put his arm around me, “You can do it. I have confidence in you!” His words helped me calm down. I read the report and instead of the kids laughing at me and making fun of me, they all stood up and clapped their hands.
From that day on the kids never made fun of me and some actually made friends with me. I continued to be quiet and shy all through school but 1 knew if I had to stand up in front of the class, I could do it.
Hands-on experience is still attractive to many buyers, although online ordering is popular in the UK today.
Oxford Street
London is shoppers' paradise, and most visitors head for Oxford Street. Halfway along is Selfridges, one of the world's first department stores where the architecture and window dressing impress even before you go in. There are at least four other major stores on this street, plus Europe's largest music shop. In December the atmosphere is especially festive because of the Christmas lights which are always lit by a politician, a great sportsman, or a superstar.
Kensington High Street
A fashionable area for shopping is Kensington High Street. One of its department stores even has a roof garden—good for relaxing between purchases. There's also an organic food superstore.
Borough Market
One of the oldest and best for food is probably Borough Market on the south bank of the Thames. Get off the underground at London Bridge and wander among fresh fish stalls, bakeries, and fruit and vegetable sellers. You can also buy special food to take away, like cheeses, pork pies, mustard and chutney.
More places for bargains
Portobello Road on a Saturday is your best choice for jewelry or collector's items. It's a short walk from the subway station at Notting Hill Gate and you never know what you will find. For clothes, Camden Market is the place. It gets a little crowded at weekends, though. Convent Garden offers great experience for the simple pleasure of looking at jewelry and gifts.
Let's take a look at some of the world's unspoilt places that are beautiful because they have been left untouched, and remember the importance of keeping them pristine.
Nunavut, Canada
Auyuittuq National Park, which means "the land that never melts", is just one of the shocking wonders in Nunavut, There are many icefalls, mountains, and deep valleys while hikers cross the 60m Akshayuk Pass in the summer. And that's just one attraction. From narrow seas to mountains, there are three areas in Nunavut, all with beautiful natural land feature. Visitors can hunt, fish, mountain hike, and walk across ice flows.
Namib Desert, Namibia
A coastal desert in the southern area of Africa, it is known for its burnt orange-golden sands. The Namib has been dry for at least 55 million years and possibly as many as 80 million. The name means "vast space", and it spreads more than 1200 miles. The hill of sands can reach up to 980 feet high and 20 miles long. Amazingly, the temperatures striking against cold currents create a fog belt that often covers the desert.
Antarctica
Perhaps the last unspoilt place, Antaretica is an empty landscape. No trees grow here, and one must travel with a tourism company in order to visit. Admire icebergs, sea lions, whales, and listen to the sound of absolutely nothing.
Fiordland, New Zealand
One of the most shocking areas of New Zealand, Fiordland can be seen on foot, by air, or by water. The Milford Track is one of the most famous walks, with the tallest waterfall in the country and impressive valley views. Lake Monowai is a glassy, mirrorlike body of water surrounded by mountains and best explored by boating on a still day.
Dear daughters,
Most parents tell their children, "You can be anything you want when you grow up. " I feel the same and I say this often. But I also want you to understand that realizing your dreams comes from hard work, some good luck and good timing.
Here are some words of wisdom for you as you make your way in the world, from an entrepreneur (企业家)and from your mama.
1 Be open-minded to changing your path along the way
In high school, I wanted to be a politician. I left my hometown and went off to college in Washington, DC. There, I discovered that I loved to support women. It taught me that I'm a creative, strong leader and great at marketing. As a result, I moved on to be the head of a national healthcare nonprofit. Becoming a mother while in that job opened my mind to launching a breast pump bag (储奶袋)business. Now I run a highly successful company that I started up on my own. I'm not a politician!
2 Failure is critical to your success
Failure can be heartbreaking. But I will tell you that every failure I've had along the way has absolutely made me better.
Failing the big math exam in high school and going to summer school was embarrassing. I eventually passed, and I've never failed an exam again. I learned from that experience to ask for help. Now, I ask for help in business all the time.
I'm proud to be a role model to you as a mom and an entrepreneur. I hope I inspire you to believe that you can be anything you want. It will be my pleasure to watch your lives unfold before my eyes.
Love,
Your mom
"I'm going to fail !"My best friend cried. She and I had this conversation almost every day while we were in high school.
The truth was that my friend never failed in any subjects. I just think that she can't accept failures because she lives her life as a perfectionist (完美主义者). What she fails to understand is that a lot of good can come from failures.
For example, failure can help build relationships. Once was cooking dinner for a friend. I was tired, and several dishes I tried to make turned out bad. I grew more and more upset until my friend told me that I shouldn't worry. She cared more about our friendship than the dishes. That day, I learned that failure doesn't always make people dislike you. In fact, after she said those words to me, I grew closer to her.
Failure can make success ever more exciting. Every few years, there would be an important test in the PE class at our school. Students had to run a mile within eight minutes. I was never good at running, so I failed every time until the third year at school. Then I began working out regularly, and yet I still failed that year. A few days later, however, the teacher gave me and some other students another chance to run and I got a pass finally! You can't imagine how excited I was after that. I felt the memory of the success was as sweet as honey, because I had to overcome failure to reach it.
Now its clear to see that failure can teach us good lessons. It's not an end—it can be a beginning.
If you follow these insider tips, your photos will look like you had the place to yourself at the popular tourist attractions.
Vatican Museums: Vatican City
The Vatican draws more than five million people each year, and queues can reach four hours during peak season. Christie Hudson, senior communications manager at Expedia, recommends, choosing a skiptheline tour. "This not only lets you avoid the ticket counter, but also includes the use of a private partner entrance." Extra time to visit the Sistine Chapel? Yes!
Bamboo Forest: Kyoto, Japan
Bamboo Forest is the most worthy sight in Kyoto. If you're longing to enjoy the pathways and take pictures in total quietness, Kyoto Arashiyama Travel Guide recommends hitting the famous Bamboo Grove Path as early in the morning as possible—think 7 a．m. if you're up for it. Don't miss these hidden treasures you can only witness in Japan.
Chichen Itza: Yucatán, Mexico
Home to E1 Castillo and the Temple of the Warriors, Chichen Itza is a mustsee. Want to beat the rush? Schedule an early tour that takes place before a site opens to the public. Led by an archaeologist guide, it's full of fascinating insights and facts—without tons of packwearing tourists.
Louvre Museum: Paris, France
The Louvre is one of the most popular museums on the planet. If waiting around in line to get in isn't the way you prefer to spend your time in Paris, consider purchasing a reserved ticket. This will give you entry to the pyramid within a halfhour window. The Louvre is also open until 9：45 p．m. on Wednesdays and Fridays, if you're up for some latenight art visits.
The world of work is changing. Are people ready for the new job outlook? A survey of 15-year-olds across 41 countries by the OECD ( 经 合 组 织 ) has found that teenagers may have unrealistic expectations about the kind of
work that will be available.
This selection is partly due to wishful thinking on the part of those surveyed. Furthermore, teenagers can hardly be expected to have an in-depth knowledge of labour-market trends. They encounter doctors and teachers in their daily lives. Other popular professions, such as lawyers and police officers, are familiar from films and social media.
Four of the five most popular choices are traditional professional roles: doctors, teachers, business managers and lawyers. Teenagers cluster around the most popular jobs, with the top ten being chosen by 47% of boys and 53% of girls.
More boys than girls expect to work in science or engineering. The problem continues in higher education：with the exception of biological and biomedical sciences, degrees in STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and maths ) are male-dominated. In America women earn just 35.5% of undergraduate STEM degrees and 33.7% of PhDs. In Britain only one in five computer-science university students is a woman.
Women play a much bigger role in the health- and social-care sectors. The problem is that some of these jobs are not very well paid. Home-health and personal-care aides had median annual salaries in 2018 of just over 24, 00.Some jobs in health care are extremely profitable, of course. But another gender imbalance emerges here: women make up only one-third of American health-care executives. In contrast, they tend to dominate the poorly paid social care workforce.
The biggest problem in the labour market, then, may not be that teenagers are focusing on a few well-known jobs. It could be a mismatch: not enough talented women move into technology and not enough men take jobs in social care. Any economist will recognise this as an inefficient use of resources. Wherever the root of the problem lies— be it the education system, government policy or corporate recruiting practices— it needs to be identified and fixed.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a research group supported by companies that insure owners of motor vehicles, says U. S. crashes involving large trucks rose by nearly one-third since hitting a record low in 2009. A total of 4,136 people died in such crashes in 2018, with 119 deaths resulting from large trucks rear-ending other vehicles.
However, a new study has found that when the rear-end crashes happened, safety systems were able to slow down the vehicles by over 50 percent, resulting in fewer injuries and less damage. The institute's Eric Teob did the study. He examined crash records from 62 trucking companies that operate tractor-trailers or other large trucks. He found about 2,000 crashes. Those accidents involved vehicles that traveled more than 3. 2 billion kilometers from 2017 to 2019.
The safety systems use cameras, radar and other sensors to watch the roadway. Some are designed to warn drivers of dangers, while more complex systems will stop the truck. Trucks with crash warning systems reduced rear crashes by 44 percent, while automatic emergency braking systems cut rear crashes by 41 percent, the study found.
The institute called on the federal government to require such systems on new large trucks. It's noted that many truck operators are already adding emergency braking on their own.
"Rear-end crashes with trucks and other vehicles happen a lot, often with horrible consequences," said Teob. "This is an important countermeasure to that."
The study found that trucks equipped with a crash warning system bad 22 percent fewer crashes than those without the technology. Trucks with emergency braking systems had 12 percent fewer crashes.
Teob said the findings could be valuable for trucking companies and drivers who are considering whether to get safety devices on their next vehicles.
In the United States, there are currently no requirements for either system. In Europe, automatic emergency braking with forward collision warning has been required by the European Union on most new large trucks since late 2013, the institute said.
