How many textbooks does our country consume every semester? According to data recently released by China's National Press and Publication Administration, an average of 2. 8 billion textbooks were delivered to the hands of students and teachers nationwide in the past five years. A majority of those textbooks, however, were sold for scrap （废品），causing an astonishing amount of waste. In this regard, recycling textbooks seems to be a preferable alternative, but many of the individuals still cast doubt on the feasibility （可行，性）of reusing and recycling them. To handle this problem fundamentally, we need to scrap the traditional textbook format and put e-books to good use.

One of the advantages of e-books is that they are compatible across a wide range of terminals, including smartphones, tablets and laptops. Data from the National Bureau of Statistics shows that more than 65 percent of Chinese people have their electronic devices for personal use, while almost every Chinese adolescent has access to the internet. Therefore, the promotion of e-books is just as easy as delivering paper books.

In recent years, more appealing technologies have emerged and are spreading widely among young people. In 2015, Apple released iPad Pro, which enables students to write on a tablet smoothly with an Apple Pencil. Since then, many of the students in colleges take their iPads to class instead of carrying tons of printed textbooks. All of the test papers and assignment sheets are organized in one single device, and this will definitely increase efficiency in terms of academic activities.

As these technologies become more affordable for households and schools, it is time to reduce the production of printed textbooks and promote the utilization of e-books. Hopefully, the electronic documents will be directly sent to our own digital devices, ridding us of the inconvenience in carrying heavy bags to school and back home.

Do you ever pull your phone out of your pocket, thinking it is vibrating (振动), only to find that it isn't?

This phenomenon, which scientists call “phantom (幻觉的) phone vibration”, is very common.Around 80% of people surveyed say they have imagined their phones vibrating when they were actually still.

So, what leads to this universal behavior? According to the BBC, the explanation lies in your brain's ability to discover signals from the outside world.

When your phone is in your pocket, there are two possible states: It is either vibrating or not.   Meanwhile, you also have two possible states of mind: the judgment that the phone is ⅵbrating, or that it isn't. Ideally, you match the four states correctly. However, sometimes your brain decides that the consequences of missing a call are more serious than a “false alarm”. Therefore, you become more sensitive to vibrations so that you don't miss anything.

This is just like the fire alarm in your home—it can be annoying when it goes off in response to just a tiny bit of smoke. But that's a small price to pay compared to a fire really breaking out because the alarm fails to alert you. Now, you might still ask, why can't our brains just make every judgment correctly without being too sensitive to false signals? The answer is that your brain bears a heavy burden every day. “You get a large amount of sensory information that's coining from your eyes, ears and skin, and you can't deal with all that information all the time,” Michael Rothberg, a researcher at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, US, told Live Science.

For example, the rustling (沙沙声) of clothing or the growling (咕咕声you’re your stomach may both lead your brain to believe that they come from the vibration of your phone—it is like trying to hear your name being called in a noisy room.

So, perhaps you should just check your phone whenever you think it’s vibrating, lt isn’t too much trouble to do that, is it?

Think of your most prized possession. Now, imagine you decide you must sell this item. How much is it worth to you? How much would you charge for it? And would anyone else want to buy it at that price?

Let’s consider the real-world example of a yard sale. Before your neighbors come to look at your things, you must first decide on the prices for them. For you, each item has a story, and some items may even evoke strong emotions.

Let’s say you’re selling a pair of special edition sports shoes that you took care of and really enjoyed wearing on special occasions. With these sweet memories in mind, you put a price tag of $130 on the shoes. However, a customer offers $50 for them. You think, “How could they not see how special and valuable these are?”

In financial transactions like this, sellers often believe their own items are worth more than what buyers are willing to pay. This occurs because buyers do not have the seller’s experiences with and emotional attachment to the items. Buyers want a good deal, and they’re not willing to pay what the seller is asking for.

This negotiation process can even feel a little painful for the seller—over losing something and the buyer not valuing it as much. Economists suggest this dynamic occurs through the endowment effect (禀赋效应)—people’s tendency to value things they own more highly than they would if they did not own them. The endowment effect can take hold anytime we feel a sense of ownership over a product, and it can happen quickly.

As the saying goes, “Emotions get the best of us.” There is nothing wrong with being proud of owning things and treasuring your experiences with them. But when you consider selling a prized possession, think about whether you’re fully ready to part with it. The past is the past, though. Removing your emotional attachment to material possessions can help you make more accurate assessments of how much your items are truly worth.