Unit 100 The Wal-Mart You Don't Know Wal-Mart is not just the world's largest retailer. It's world's largest company -- bigger than ExxonMobil, General Motors, and General Electric. The scale is hard to absorb. Wal-Mart sells in three months what num...
Unit 99 The Fragile American Middle class Since 1997, the number of American families filing for bankruptcy annually has exceeded one million. They are going to bankruptcy courts for protection. Those who file are members of the middle class -- a gro...
Unit 98 Drawbacks of Public Schooling John Taylor Gatto had just been named New York State Teacher of the Year nine years ago when he made a shocking announcement. After teaching 26 years in New York City public schools, he was quitting saying he cou...
Unit 97 Buy Nothing Day The singer Elton John took legal action against his managers, accusing them of not looking after his money properly. During the court case, the lawyers asked for a detailed breakdown of the money he spent over the past year. I...
Unit 96 A Glimpse of US Students' Social Life Fun and Alcoholic The unstated purpose of most American students' social life is to have fun. For them, social life entails going somewhere outside their house or apartment and doing something, such as dr...
Unit 95 Scientists Look Forward to the Past Can time travel really be done? Physicists think that travel into future is possible. Einstein's special theory of relativity, published in 1905, predicted that time should be elastic, stretching or shrinki...
Unit 94 Managerial Stereotypes When we travel to a foreign country, we carry in our baggage a preconceived idea in that country. Much of the knowledge we have of different nationalities exists as stereotypes -- conventional and over-simplified pictur...
Unit 93 Metrosexual Man If you haven't heard the term yet, one of the hottest buzzwords in the media today is metrosexual. Arnold Schwarznegger is a metrosexual -- as are Brad Pitt, and soccer superstar David Beckham. And some social observers believ...
Unit 92 The Networked Economy Explosion What we're witnessing today in the realm of cyberspace -- the online reformulation of everything from the way we play and learn to how we shop and trade stocks -- may represent no less a world-transforming chan...
Unit 91 The ABC's of Vitamin Enhanced Skin Care Most of us know that vitamins can work wonders on our skin from the inside. However, many people have yet to realize the benefits of using vitamins on the outside. Below is a simple guide to aid you thr...