At times you become friends in extraordinary situations with the most unexpected people. For many, the pandemic has led to new bonds of friendship being created.
Prema Malhotra, a resident of Ashok Vihar, has all plans set to celebrate Friendship Day. She says, "I started communicating with my neighbors over a game of Tambola and then we were playing it every day. Now, some of us even do video calls to entertain ourselves. Since we couldn't go out anywhere on Friendship Day, we played Antakshari, Tambola, while enjoying food and drinks from our own balconies."
The pandemic has led to people becoming more social with their neighbors. "I am a final year student and due to my busy schedule, I never got the time to connect with people around me. Because of the pandemic, I have got to know a lot of my neighbors and I can so easily bond with them. I have made a new friend who lives next to my house and we're having close conversations. Initially, the conversations used to be about the pandemic and the increasing number of cases but gradually we started sharing thoughts about career goals and study," says Harshiti Bharti, a resident of Shastri Nagar.
Echoing similar feelings, Ankita Singh, a resident of Malviya Nagar, says, "Due to my work schedule, I never had a chance to know many people in my building. After the lockdown was carried out, a WhatsApp group was created for communication. Through that group, we checked on the elderly people and their needs. I happened to connect personally with a few elderly people in my society and I felt really good. Singing songs and participating in various games led to the creation of new friendships during this time."
The above examples indicate that from chatting and playing games from their balconies to providing necessities for the sick and needy while practicing self-isolation, neighbors have become new friends.
Later this month, the city center of London will be car-free for the day. More than 12 miles of roads in the capital will be closed off from vehicles. Though the car-free day is largely symbolic, the government expects people can walk or ride bikes more often instead of driving cars after the activity.
Besides London, there are other cities around the world doing the same thing. Oslo, Paris and Montreal have experimented with a variety of ways to ban cars. Barcelona has created some superblocks as part of a plan to limit vehicles in 70 percent of the city's streets. Leaders in some US cities are also exploring plans to extremely cut down on cars and promote walking, bikes and other forms of travel.
Some people point out cars block city streets while producing harmful chemicals into the air, creating noise pollution and endangering people around them. Cars take up a huge amount of room that could be used to create more enjoyable living space for people. So, limiting the number of drivers on the road is also seen as a major step in fighting climate change.
However, others say the plans of car-free areas are unrealistic, considering the large amount of money spent on the basic systems and services and public transportation that would be required to make them successful. Some argue they would unfairly benefit rich people who have enough money to live in city centers while making travel more difficult for less affluent people in the suburbs.
Most of the early success stories of car-free areas have taken place in dense (密集的) European cities that were designed before cars existed, which leads to a question -- whether the idea would work in modem cities that were built to provide space for cars. Therefore, large-scale changes that would make car-free city living possible would likely take years to take place. And at each step, public sentiment (情绪) and political will must be behind the movement.
Sleep plays an important part in repairing the body and keeping us healthy, but with all of the demands of modem living, getting a good night's sleep can be a challenge. Using electronic products such as computers and smartphones has been considered to disturb sleep because of the blue light given off by their LED displays. Yet, new research has shown that screen time alone may not be as harmful as we thought before.
Scientists at the University of Manchester measured the impact of colored light on the sleep patterns of mice to learn more about how different colors act on the body. They said that twilight (暮色) could provide a physical signal to tell you when to sleep. So, using brighter, warmer lights in the day and cooler lights in the evening could be better for people's health.
"Melanopsin (黑视蛋白) makes people easily feel the difference of brightness. Researchers try to change the impacts of light on sleep by adjusting the brightness signals identified by melanopsin," said Dr Tim Brown, a senior lecturer at the School of Medical Sciences and one of the study's authors. So not being exposed to blue light and staring at your electronic products for a long time could really help adjust your sleep."
However, reducing brightness may be more helpful than simply controlling the amount of blue light. And blue light remover that warms up the screens of computers or smartphones by increasing yellow light could actually be harmful to sleep. Harvard Medical School links exposure (接触) to blue light at night to cancer and heart disease. The health warnings about blue light run deeper than disturbed sleep. Though sunlight is the main source of blue light, the way we stare at computers and smartphones for long periods gives cause for concern.
Phone addiction has a number of negative effects. Here are some ways to remove it.
In order not to look at your phone as soon as you wake up in the morning, place your phone in another room or your coat pocket. Then spend at least the first 30 minutes of your day building good habits.
Studies show that on average we use the phone 50 to 150 times a day. So you should do something meaningful to avoid looking at it. You could do some reading, do a crossword puzzle or even something as simple as a walk in the yard.
One of the main problems with smart phones is that you worry if you don't check your phone regularly, you may miss out on something important, such as invitations to events or work emails. When someone has something important to tell you, they may give you a call. Therefore, it is necessary to stay away from your phone sometimes.
What's going on in the real world, right in front of you, is almost always more important than what is happening online. Put away your phone when you are with someone important. For example, having dinner with friends will become awkward when you always check your phone.
That is because being addicted to the phone before going to bed greatly influences your sleep. This can harm your physical and mental health in the long run. Therefore, make it a rule to stop using your phone an hour before you go to sleep.
A. Ask your friends or family for help.
B. However, it is almost never the case.
C. Anything helping you get rid of your phone is OK.
D. Your smart phone has almost every tool that you need.
E. A good rest should be more important than your phone at night.
F. This could be exercise like a morning run or cooking a good breakfast.
G. Many relationships have suffered because of our addiction to the phone.
I read an article in the morning paper on Christmas Eve. It describes a 1 store that would be open all day and a local homeless shelter was in 2 of it. Parents who couldn't 3 a gift could come by and take whatever they wanted for their kids.
I 4 to buy some toys and donate them to the store in my mother's name! I had 5 bought her small gifts but I thought this would be an extra special present. 6 she had been a primary school teacher for years and loved children, this would be a perfect Christmas 7 for her.
It had been a pretty 8 winter for her so far. She had an operation in early November, and she was still weak. And her 9 at home was very slow. We really 10 an infusion (输入) of the Christmas spirit. And this could do it! So I made up my mind to buy toys 11。
Then I called the shelter and told my 12. The workers there were quite happy and praised my 13. After the call, I drove outside at once. Minutes later, I 14 a shop full of teddy bears.
I got off my car and went to the shop, quickly 15 various kinds of teddy bears. When returning home, I 16 them in my car. I would 17 the toys early Christmas morning to surprise my mother.
Just as I had 18, after seeing these teddy bears placed on the sofa and knowing they were going to poor children in her name, her face was suddenly filled with a mixture of amazement and 19 .
Later, we took the bears over to the shelter，which gave them to the kids who had the 20 gifts under their Christmas trees. That night, the children would also have something special to comfort them.
People have always had a dream of exploring outer space and with the help of scientists, their dream, was once considered to be impossible, is turning into reality.
Scientists earned out many experiments and (success) made rockets that could escape the earths gravity. In 1961, Yuri Gagarin from the USSR became the first person (send) into space and in 1969, Neil Armstrong from the US set foot on the moon with the famous saying, "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."
Despite the great achievements, sometimes accidents did happen, resulting huge losses. scientists are determined to further explore the universe. One ongoing project is the International Space Station orbiting the earth.
(compare) with the USSR and the US, China started later in its space program, but it has made huge progress. So far, several astronauts, including Yang Liwei, have been to space. China has also launched the Tiangong 2 space lab, (signal) a huge step in its effort to establish space station.
It (believe) that the future of space (explore) is bright thanks to the efforts of the scientists all over the world.
A recent survey in the United States has shown that the average family spends more money on its pets than on its children. Although rather shocking, it should not surprise anyone who has seen the doggy sitting room where loved pets rest comfortably. It is possible that Americans are unique in treating their little friends in this way, but the information we have suggests that the English, too, are kind to their pets.
This can clearly be seen when we look at pet foods, which often contain more vitamins than human food. They certainly cost much. Last year the British public spent two hundred million pounds on pet food alone, not to mention veterinary (兽医的)bills.
There is a variety of reasons why people find the popularity of British pets concerned. In New York, people have great difficulty disposing of (处理) the mess that dogs leave on the streets. Many people find this funny, but in a number of large cities it is a major problem. Animals can cause disease, too. It is the threat of rabies (狂犬病) —a disease with no known cure — that has made the English government strictly limit animals coming into the United Kingdom.
Another problem is the thoughtlessness of pet owners. Most little children want a dog or a cat, and they continually push their mothers and fathers until they get one. It is only when the "sweet little thing" has been brought home that the parents realize how much time and money must be spent on "Rover" or "Bonzo". Then they just give it up. This brings me to my last point. Pets, which run free, are often not sweet at all. English farmers lose hundreds of sheep a year, killed by someone's pet and you must have read of children being hurt by someone's pet.
