As long as we，ve had walls and writing， we，ve had graffiti. Writing over 4，000 years old has been found carved on walls in Egypt， and the buildings of ancient Rome were often covered with political messages. In fact， the word “graffiti” comes from the ancient Greek word for “to write”.
Fast forward to New York in the 1950s. Street gangs marked their territoryterritory n.领土， 版图， 地域 with symbolswarnings to rival gangs and the police. Written in marker pen or spray paint， these designs were purely functional but they gradually made way for more artistic work.
By the late 1970s， buildings and subway cars were covered with spraypainted “tags” -the stylized signatures of illicit painters. Invisibleinvisible adj.看不见的， 无形的 during the day， the tagger would come out at night to cover the city with ink and paint. In addition to their signatures， the staggers would also create wild， colorful images often with political and social messages. “Graffiti is a way for people to express themselves when they don，t feel they can do so publicly，” says Joe Austin， a professor of popular culture at Bowling Green State University
While the staggers see their work as street art， the authorities tend to see it as vandalism. Taggers face fines， community service and even jail time. Their works are usually painted over quickly， and cities around the world spend an estimatedestimate v.估计， 估价， 评估 n.估计， 估价， 评估 30 billion a year to remove graffiti.
But there are private citizens who support graffiti， saying it，s a welcome addition to otherwise dull and featureless streets. Give Graffiti The Thumbs Up， a Chicagobased organization， is buying ads to try to influence public opinion with their slogan “Keep America Colorful.”
More recently， graffiti has gone mainstream. Modern art museums regularly display photos of notablenotable adj.值得注意的， 显着的， 着名的 graffiti， and some have invited street artists to come in and create original works within the museums themselves. “It，s kind of funny to think that I，ve got work hanging in a museum， but I still have to keep an eye out for the police， ” says one artist.
街头艺术
越来越多的“街头艺术家”的才华受到肯定，涂鸦渐成主流。
自从我们有了墙壁和书写以来，我们就有涂鸦。我们在埃及的墙上发现了超过4，000年历史的文字，古罗马的建筑上也经常写着政治信息。事实上，“涂鸦”这个词源自古希腊单词“书写”。
将时间快进到20世纪50年代的纽约。街头帮派以记号标示他们的地盘，作为对敌对帮派和警察的警示。这些用记号笔或喷漆画的图案原本只具功能性，但是它们逐渐成为更具艺术性的作品。
到了20世纪70年代末期，建筑物和地铁车厢都布满喷漆画的“画笔签名”——非法画家的艺术性签名。这些涂画者白天不见踪影，晚上就出来用墨水和油漆涂满整个城市。除了他们的签名外，这些涂画者还创作出色彩缤纷的狂野图像，而这些图像通常都带着政治和社会信息。“涂鸦是一种当人们觉得无法公开表达自我时所采取的方式。”伯林格林州立大学的流行文化教授乔伊·奥斯汀这样说。
虽然涂画者视他们的作品为街头艺术，但行政当局倾向于将此视为蓄意破坏公物。涂画者面临罚款、社区服务甚至坐牢的处罚。他们的作品通常很快就被覆盖掉，据估计，世界各地的城市每年花费300亿美元来消除涂鸦。
但是仍有支持涂鸦的个人市民，他们说那是在黯淡且无特色的街道上添加的受欢迎的景观。以芝加哥为根据地的机构“涂鸦万岁”，正在买广告，试图以他们“让美国充满缤纷色彩”的口号来影响公众意见。
最近涂鸦已经变成主流。现代美术馆定期展出着名的涂鸦作品照片，有些还请来街头艺术家在美术馆内亲自创作原创作品。“想到我有作品挂在美术馆内却还要留意警察，这实在有点好笑。”一位艺术家这样说。
The Story of Sushi
Inside a Japanese sushi bar， a long train of plates passespasse adj.已过盛年的， 凋谢的 before the eyes of customers. The elegant and colorful arrangementsarrangement n.排列， 安排 are a feast for the eyes， just as the sushi is a delight to the taste buds. While enjoying the wide variety of seafood creations， customers may wonder how this delicious treat ever came to be.
It took centuries of Japanese innovationinnovation n.改革， 创新 to turn Asia，s staple foodsrice and fishinto Japan，s national cuisinecuisine n.厨房烹调法， 烹饪， 烹调风格. Prior to the days of refrigerators and sushi bars， fresh fish were wrapped in cooked rice and pressed between rocks in groups to fermentferment n.酵素， 发酵， 动乱 v.（使）发酵， （使）激动， （使）动乱 them. This process preserved the fish， but required many months and made the rice wrappings inedibleinedible adj.不适于食用的， 不能吃的.
Long waits and wasted rice were unacceptable to the Japanese， who began wrapping their fish in vinegarsoaked rice. Adding vinegar improved flavor and greatly reduced the time needed for fermentation. Best of all， the new process didn，t spoil the rice wrappings， which meant they could be eaten with the fish： Sushi was born！
寿司物语
在一家日式寿司店里，一列长长的餐盘小火车从顾客眼前驶过。 高雅而生动的排列方式是视觉上的一大盛宴，正如寿司赋予味蕾愉悦的口感一样。在品尝各式有创意的海鲜料理的同时，顾客们也许想知道：这样的美食是怎么来的。
日本人花了数百年才将亚洲人的主食——米饭跟鱼——改革成具有日本民族特色的美食。在冰箱与寿司店问世前，人们将新鲜的鱼肉包在煮好的米饭中、压在石头堆里，以便使鱼肉发酵。这样加工保存了鱼肉的鲜度，但得花费好几个月的时间，而且使得包在外层的米饭无法食用。
由于日本人受不了长时间的等待和浪费米饭，他们开始用泡过醋的米饭包裹鱼肉。加入醋汁不仅能提味，还可以大大减少发酵所需的时间。最重要的是，新方法令包在外层的米饭不会变质，这表示米饭和鱼肉可以一起食用：寿司就这样诞生了！
Mucic Filesharing
Megan Dickinson is a lot like most other 15yearolds： she likes music and she likes computers. So when she got her hands on filesharing software， it wasn，t long before she，d compiledcompile vt.编译， 编辑， 汇编 a personal library of over 1，000 songs on her hard drive.
Unlike most other 15yearolds， however， Megan is being sued. Record companies tracked her down through her Internet service provider， and say she has to pay a 750 fine for each song she downloaded. At the end of the day， total damages， including legallegal adj.法律的， 法定的， 合法 fees， could be close to a million dollars.
After years of losing sales to digital piracy， the record companies are fighting back. Not only are they going after the creators of file sharing software， but they，re also putting the squeezesqueeze n.压榨， 挤 v.压榨， 挤， 挤榨 on individuals who，ve downloaded songs from the Internet without permission. While the number of lawsuits is still tiny， and users outside the US aren，t yet being targeted， the threat of a million dollar fine is causing music fans to think twice before downloading the latest song.
The record companies are also trying to sabotagesabotage n.（不满的职工或敌特等的）阴谋破坏， 怠工， 破坏 vi.从事破坏活动 vt.对……采取破坏行动， 妨害， 破坏 the file sharing services they can，t shut down. Download the latest Britney Spears song and there，s a good chance that you，ll just end up with three minutes of noise. These “decoy” files are put up by the record companies to make it harder to find the authenticauthentic adj.可信的 versions. The idea is that， if finding songs becomes too timeconsuming， people might be willing to go back to the record stores to pay for the music.