More and more people around the world are getting tattoos (纹身). In the United States a large number of people aged 25 to 40 get tattoos. A third of all Americans between 18 and 25 have a tattoo. In Britain a fifth of all adults are tattooed. Tattooing has become an important industry as well. Today, there are more than 50,000 tattoo artists in the US alone.

Even famous people such as Angelina Jolie and David Beckham have some kind of tattoo on their bodies. According to researchers many people tattoo themselves as a sign of individuality (个性). They want to express themselves and show others who they are. Other forms of body art are also on the rise.

Today, tattoos are widely accepted in society. That hasn’t always been the case. Tattoos used to be connected with criminals (罪犯), lower class people or certain groups like sailors and motorcycle gangs. While tattooing was once only for men, more and more women are now getting tattoos.

Tattooing goes way back in history. In many parts of the world, people used tattoos for different purposes. The ancient Romans tattooed their slaves. Native Americans tattooed themselves as a sign of bravery. N Nazi Germany Jews were marked with a number to tell who they were.

Not only has tattooing itself become a big industry, but removing them is also on the increase. Many people just don’t realize that a tattoo lasts forever and at some time in their lives they may want to get rid of it. The cost of tattooing yourself usually depends on how large the tattoo is or how complex (复杂的) it is. Prices are usually from a hundred to over a thousand dollars.

Few people knew about online food delivery apps ten years ago, but today, many would find it hard to live without them. In China alone, over 400 million people use such apps. For better or for worse, online food delivery services have changed the way we eat, and they are also having a huge impact on our society.

These services have no doubt brought us many benefits. They provide jobs for millions of people and help restaurants find more customers. Since the apps are very convenient, they also benefit consumers: we can now have meals delivered at any time of day, despite bad weather or busy schedules. This is especially important for people who work long hours, since they might not have time to cook. Not only do these apps save time, they also provide us with a wide variety of restaurants to choose from. They have proved to be useful for retired people as well: seniors who live far away from restaurants and supermarkets can now get hold of meals and groceries more easily.

However, we must not forget the drawbacks of online food delivery services. For one thing, they make it even easier to order unhealthy food, high in sugar, fat and salt. Food safety is another problem: it can be hard to establish where the food actually comes from, and whether the owner is legally permitted to run a restaurant. As couriers need to deliver the orders as quickly as possible, some pay little regard to traffic rules. In recent years, there have been a number of terrible traffic accidents because of this. Moreover, the industry is creating unbelievable amounts of packaging waste: over a million tons of online food delivery boxes are thrown away every year. Experts assume that this number will continue to grow in the future, and this will have a negative impact on the environment.

Silly Mistakes Hit the Headlines

We have probably all had moments when we said the wrong thing. I certainly have. There was the time at university when I met a friend in a coffee bar after class and immediately started complaining about our tutor, who was called Dr Gray. I was going on and on about how miserable she was一strict, boring, unfriendly—and my friend wasn’t really saying much. After a minute or so, she interrupted me and said, “Um, I think I should introduce you”. She then turned to this other student who I hadn’t really noticed up till then and said, ”This is Tracy. Tracy Gray’!

Fortunately, the result of putting my foot in it was only an awkward moment and a stony silence. Maybe my friends thought a little less of me, maybe they thought I was an idiot, but no real harm was done. 【小题1】

Take Gerald Ratner. He was the multimillionaire owner of a chain of shops that sold cheap jewellery. In what was supposed to be a light-hearted speech to some fellow businessmen, he joked about the quality of some of his products. He said some earrings were ‘cheaper than a sandwich, but probably wouldn’t last as long’. Other products could be sold at such low prices because they were rubbish. 【小题2】 Ratner had to resign as director and shortly afterwards the company was taken over by a competitor.

In some ways, Ratner could be seen as unfortunate in that he was in a semi-private meeting with friends and colleagues he was at ease with, but there happened to be a journalist there. 【小题3】 And with the rise of social media, there have been plenty of others who have been caught out by the increasingly vague boundaries between our private and public faces. For example, a group of flight attendants made jokes about the engines on their planes failing and complained about their airline and clients (客户).【小题4】 Unfortunately, they did it publicly on Facebook and it led to thirteen of them being fired.