Humans are social animals. They live in groups all over the world. As these groups of people live apart from other groups, over the years and centuries they develop their own habits and ideas, which are different from other cultures. One important particular side of every culture is how its people deal with time.

Time is not very important in nonindustrial societies. The Nuer people of East Africa, for example, do not even have a word TIME that is in agreement with the abstract thing we call time. The daily lives of the people of such nonindustrial societies are likely to be patterned around their physical needs and natural events rather than around a time schedule（时间表）based on the clock. They cook and eat when they are hungry and sleep when the sun goes down. They plant crops during the growing seasons and harvest them when the crops are ripe. They measure time not by a clock or calendar（日历）,but by saying that an event takes place before or after some other event Frequently such a society measures days in terms of “sleeps” or longer periods in terms of “moons.”Some cultures, such as the Eskimos of Greenland measure seasons according to the migration of certain animals.

Some cultures which do not have a written language or keep written records have developed interesting ways of “telling time”. For example, when several Australian aborigines want to plan an event for a future time, one of them places a stone on a cliff or in a tree. Each day the angle of the sun changes slightly. In a few days, the rays of the sun strike the stone in a certain way. When this happens, the people see that the agreed-upon time has arrived and the event can take place.

In contrast(成对比), exactly correct measurement of time is very important in modern, industrialized societies. This is because industrialized societies require the helpful efforts of many people in order to work. For a factory to work efficiently(well, quickly and without waste), for example, all of the workers must work at the same time. Therefore, they must know what time to start work in the morning and what time they may go home in the afternoon. Passengers must know the exact time that an airplane will arrive or depart. Students and teachers need to know when a class starts and ends. Stores must open on time in order to serve their customers. Complicated（复杂的）societies need clocks and calendars. Thus, we can see that if each person worked according to his or her own schedule, a complicated society could hardly work at all.

In many cultures, it is considered unlucky to spill salt. Fortunately, many cultures also have a solution to the problem, which usually involves throwing a pinch of salt over your shoulder. It may seem confusing to modern humans, but knowing that salt was once incredibly valuable can change this perspective.

For thousands of years, salt was an extremely rare commodity. It was difficult to obtain so that the price was very high. Many trading routes were set up to carry salt, people were paid in salt, and salt was sometimes worth more than its weight in gold. Therefore, spilling salt was considered wasteful.

Because of its high value, salt was also associated with friendship and good fortune. Offerings of salt were included in many religious ceremonies, and people might bring salt to a new home for good luck. These associations would have suggested that it would be bad luck to spill salt, since it would seem to violate salt’s fortunate properties.

Salt is also an excellent preservative. It prevents food from going bad. As such, it came to be linked with health and longevity. In some cultures, spilling salt was thought to reduce one's well-being. In Britain, for example, each spilled grain was said to represent a tear, while in Germany spilled salt awakened the devil, bringing misfortune.

The fear of spilling salt was also adopted into the Christian faith. It is said that Judas spilled salt at the Last Supper, and since he later turned out to be the betrayer of Christ, spilled salt is considered unlucky by many Christians.

Should you be unfortunate enough to spill salt, you might throw a pinch over your left shoulder to blind the Devil.

Architects have long turned to the past for inspiration. In this age of concrete and steel, however, they’re more likely to look for aesthetic (美学的) influence than technical know-how. But an ancient Chinese construction technique called dougong is a remarkable exception.

Consisting of a series of wooden brackets (支架) with no nails or fasteners, it is 500 years old and commonly found in Chinese architecture, such as the Forbidden City in Beijing. Many structures built during the Tang and Song dynasties featured “curtain walls” which were non-load-bearing. As a result, the unsupported wood shouldering the weight might break. Designers needed a technique which would more regularly spread the burden across their structures. Their solution was dougong.

Engineering has come a long way since the ancient Chinese building technique was fashion. But there’s a timeless quality to it. Modern designers in many areas are adopting it to produce amazing and stable work of architecture. Among them is Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, who used dougong-inspired methods for his recent buildings: Yusuhara Wooden Bridge Museum and Cafe Kureon, a2, 120-square-foot restaurant.

For architect Terrence Curry, the attraction of using ancient methods is about finding something that can “speak to Chinese identity”. His structure Dougong Cube(立方), now part of the School of Architecture, Tsinghua University in Beijing, was constructed using classical-style brackets and over2, 000boards. “It has fundamental structure of dougong, but we just aren’t using it in the way it was intended to be used. We’re really pulling it out-emphasizing its beauty and complexity, and the way it works,” said Curry, “The shape and function of dougong is directly related to properties of wood, and the ability of people who make these buildings. In this way, there’s little need for decoration because the structure and design give it its distinctive look.”