Aging is often mentioned in relation to smart homes. Technology can help older people stay independent and safe, and avoid the difficult transition to institutional care. Cox Communications display their new smart home in which every device is “smart”. A strong internet connection is central to their product, and the company also provides a network for other service providers.

The smart home is not only controlled far away, this home—called Home Life—also features direct connections to family members and health professionals. For example, a person can perform their physiotherapy (物理疗法) far away from home with online live guidance from a physiotherapist. Or, their relatives who live in another state can pop in and out through their smartphone or tablet, so loved ones are always there if required.

This super smart home also includes a smart pill container, a smart pot to water your plants, and motion sensors for indoors and outdoors which are useful for fall detection, as well as an automatic barcode scanner (条码扫描仪) that is attached to the home’s trash can so that the packaging gets scanned when it is thrown and the consumed items are added to the user’s shopping list.

In a modern smart home, many activities that are important to independent living can be monitored, and assistance is provided on an as needed basis. If something is out of place for example, a person has a fall or doesn’t take their medicine—family can be informed immediately. However, the person living in the smart home maintains his or her autonomy (自主权) and sense of independence.

The Food Trainer (FoodT app) trains people to tap on images of healthy foods but to stop when they see unhealthy snacks. The new study, by the universities of Exeter and Helsinki, found that playing the game about once a day for a month led to an average one-point reduction of junk food consumption (消费).

Generally, people who used the app more also reported great changes in their food intake. One app user wrote, “Really useful. I used to eat junk food two to four times a week and I have reduced this to once a week after using the app regularly for a month. My desire for junk food has been reduced greatly and I no longer eat in the evening mindlessly.”

The app regularly asks questions about how often users eat certain foods, along with other information such as their age and weight. Then the study used FoodT usage data and found that using the app regularly was connected with big changes in eating habits.

The app is free and it only takes about four minutes per day, so it’s something people can do not just at home but at work and elsewhere. “From our results it seems important that you do the training at regular times and don’t just stop. Therefore, keep it interesting, so you won’t get bored with it. Personalize the app as much as possible and pick the foods that you find really hard to resist (抗拒),” said Natalia Lawrence, a professor of the University of Exeter.

The researchers stress that their findings should be further proved, because there was no comparison group and other factors (such as the possibility that people who did more training were also more motivated (有动力的) to lose weight).

Speaking of children--what child doesn’t like to jump around and act silly sometimes? Monkeys are also known for acting silly. So, when kids act up, parents or teachers may tell them to stop monkeying around. It means to do things that are not useful or serious, or to simply waste time.

Now, in the United States, children do not usually have monkeys as pets, but they do often have dogs. And dogs make most children feel happy. But for some reason, we use “dog” in a phrase that means to feel unwell. If you are as sick as a dog, you are really sick and will most likely stay home from work or school.

Besides, dogs and cats are also favorite pets here in the States. This next phrase combines cats and secrets to make a very common expression. Let’s say you know a secret, a big secret. And let’s say you tell it to people. You have just let the cat out of the bag! This idiom means revealing (揭示) a secret or telling facts that were previously (先前) unknown.

If you let the cat out of the bag, you spoil a surprise. So, if your friend is planning a big surprise birthday for another friend, don’t let the cat out of the bag by accidentally saying it in front of the birthday girl. Even though this is a very common idiom, the origin of “to let the cat out of the bag” is also unknown.

If you are doing an outdoor activity--such as hiking in the woods, or having a picnic in a park--what are some things that may disturb your good time? Bad weather could. And so could bugs! Crawling pests like ants, and flying ones like mosquitoes, could make your experience uncomfortable or annoying.

So, when we bug people we bother them so much that we affect their good time. This common expression is often said as a command: “Stop bugging me !”