Despite the fact that the Norman Conquest was a monumental event in the history of England, it didn’t change that much about the life of the ordinary English people. (1) /_____________/ There have been many battles since and the reason this one still resonates so strongly in public consciousness is because, a thousand years later, its impact is still controversial. The first major change, which was introduced by the Normans, is a whole scale replacement of England’s ruling class. After a series of rebellions by England’s noblemen, William abandoned any attempt to co-opt England’s nobility into his own and replaced them with the more loyal Norman knights and barons who were a part of his invasion force. (2) /_____________/ The Norman Conquest also had a significant effect on the construction of churches, as skilled Norman architects built much bigger and more elaborate churches and cathedrals than had ever been seen in England before. Changes to both the nobility and church might be better understood in the framework of the feudal system that originated and was incubated in Normandy, and then exported to England with the invasion. This led to a fundamental change of the entire structure of English society, as after that the land lent out by the king to noblemen could be removed from them if they proved to be disloyal. Those nobles then lent land to non-nobles in return for a proportion of the food they cultivated or their labour. (3) /_____________/ One of the important consequences of all the changes in the societal structure were the changes in language, with French becoming the language of the ruling class. This was humiliating for older English noblemen and puzzling for peasants, who could not understand the new laws. Over time, though, French words such as parliament and pork gradually became part of the English vocabulary. It was not only the changes in language that affected the peasants. (4) /_____________/ The construction of nearly 700 motte-and-bailey castles, common in Normandy but previously unknown in England, had a significant impact on the living conditions of the poor. Nearby houses were destroyed to make room for those castles, and the local population was forced to work on building the huge structures. The peasants who did not live near a castle were still affected by big changes. The most important one was a change in forestry laws. In the Anglo-Saxon kingdom, peasants were to some extent allowed to hunt and to gather fossils and other resources. (5) /_____________/ However, those living far from the northern part of the country, or motte-and-bailey castles might have experienced fewer changes in their daily life. Farming occupied most of their time and the jobs they did would not have changed very much 

• A This system replaced the old Anglo-Saxon one in which land was owned by noblemen and not by the king. 

• B The Battle of Hastings remains perhaps the most memorable date in the history of England. 

• C The people who actually did the day-to-day governing and running the country were Anglo-Saxons from the families that were probably already important before the Normans came. 

• D William of Normandy forbade peasants to use forests and introduced punishments for hunting, and that increased hunger. E Despite the submission of the English nobles, resistance continued for several years. 

• F These changes were mirrored by the changes in the Church, when most of the senior English priests were eventually replaced by the Norman clergy. 

• G The Normans brought not only new types of churches, but also new types of castles 

The emergence of detective fiction can be traced back to the second half of the 19th century when legal trials became the primary source of justice. What was so special about them is that in the past, during the age of the monarchy, decisions on whether someone was guilty or not were made by the king. However, after the fall of monarchy and the rise of the bourgeoisie, people had to create a new legal system. Another reason for the rise of the detective genre was the Industrial Revolution that took place in the 19th century. During the Industrial Revolution, many people started to move to the cities which became densely populated, and that led to rising crime rates. Many literary critics trace the development of the modern detective story back to The Murders in the Rue Morgue, an 1841 short story by the American author Edgar Allen Poe. Poe’s writing often centers around mysterious or macabre subject matter, and the story is no exception. The story’s protagonist is an armchair detective named Auguste C. Dupin who solves the case by thinking outside the box. The story’s narrator is a friend of Dupin’s who never ceases to be amazed at the detective’s deductive reasoning. The first detective novel that followed soon after was the British author Wilkie Collins’s The Moonstone. It is significant not only because it is considered to be the first detective novel, but also because it established many of the classic tropes and attributes of the detective novel. The Moonstone‘s detective character Sergeant Cuff was based on the real-life detective Inspector Jonathan Whicher, one of the first ever detectives of Scotland Yard. The character who really shaped the way we see literary detectives to this day is, undoubtedly, Sherlock Holmes. Not only is he the most famous detective character to ever have been written, Sherlock Holmes is one of the most popular characters in the history of fiction. Holmes was partly inspired by Poe’s detective Dupin, but he was also based on a real man: Dr. Joseph Bell. Bell was a surgeon and lecturer at the University of Edinburgh. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of the character, met Dr. Bell in 1877. The first Sherlock Holmes novel, A Study in Scarlet came out in 1887, and Doyle continued to write Sherlock Holmes novels and short stories until around 1927. The period between 1920 and 1939 came to be known as the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. The queen of this age was Agatha Christie. During her lifetime, Agatha Christie wrote sixty-six detective novels and fourteen short story collections. Her novel And Then There Were None remains one of the best-selling books of all time, and as of 2018, Christie is listed in the Guinness World Records as the best-selling fiction writer of all time. 

• 1. She only wrote about ordinary life, yet her stories were never boring. 

• 2. Despite all the evidence against him, Paul still claimed that he was innocent.

• 3. We entered a sparsely decorated room that had only a table and two chairs in it.

• 4. This author has a lot of supporters even though his books are full of controversial ideas. 

• 5. They started to notice the signs of regression, when his vision unexpectedly started to blur.

• 6. Her life is full of pleasant moments, yet she keeps focusing on that one embarrassing moment at work.

• 7. Andrew always starts his day by having a cup of coffee and reading the newspaper. 

• 8. The builders destroyed the wall, and were shocked to discover that there was another room hidden behind it. 

• 9. The detective’s questionably close relationship with the suspect put the entire investigation at risk.

• 10. He stopped arguing with her and decided to just walk away 

On August 24, 410 AD, a band of Visigoths entered Rome’s Salarian Gate. Even before the other gates were taken and the whole horde came streaming into the city, smoke began to rise above the manicured treetops of the Emperor’s gardens. Rome, the imperial city, had fallen. Although Rome was no longer the capital, it remained the Empire’s symbolic heart. No foreign invader had entered the city in eight centuries; and for many Romans, it was almost inconceivable that it could be sacked by barbarians. (1) /_____________/ By contrast, the event regarded by modern historians as the end of the Western Roman Empire – the overthrow of the last western emperor, in 476 – was virtually unnoticed by contemporaries. (2) /_____________/ Rather, it reflects the fact that the fall of the Western Roman Empire was a process, not a moment; an era, not an event. The fall of the Western Roman Empire – in the sense of an end to effective imperial authority in a given region – was not perpetually dramatic, or even especially noticeable. The invasions, like the ones experienced in August 410 AD, were quite frequent and cost many Romans their property, freedom, or even their life. (3) /_____________/ These familiar attributes of life were the first to fade in Britain, the first part of the Western Empire to slip from imperial control. Over the course of a few decades, under the pressure of Germanic raids and the struggles of local warlords, the social structure of Roman Britain collapsed. Cities and villas were abandoned, the production of trade goods ceased, and standards of living sank to their lowest ebb in more than a millennium. Most of the other frontier provinces were also profoundly affected by the collapse of Roman authority. (4) /_____________/ Once the imperial government stopped paying its troops, the whole provincial economy frayed. The end of imperial authority tended to be less devastating in the heartlands of the Western Empire. This was especially true of southern Gaul, whose powerful aristocrats struggled against, negotiated with, and finally served under the Germanic invaders with remarkable success. (5) /_____________/ Thanks to their willingness to cooperate with the new Germanic ruling class, the Italian elites preserved most of their wealth, lands, and prestige. The Senate continued to meet in Rome, consuls continued getting chosen, and games were still staged in the Colosseum and Circus Maximus, financed by the men from the same families who had dominated politics in the final years of the Western Empire. 

• A But for many others, the fall of the Empire represented nothing more or less than the gradual disappearance of Roman patrols from the roads and Roman pots from the kitchens.

•  B This is partly a consequence of the scantiness of sources, and partly an acknowledgement that the Western Empire was little more than political fiction by the time it fell. 

• C Besides the fact that they were the first regions to get overrun with invaders, their economies tended to be heavily dependent on their garrisons. 

• D Saint Jerome, writing from his monastic cell in Bethlehem, summarised the general feeling: “with one city, the whole world has died.”

•  E At its height, the Roman Empire stretched from the Atlantic Ocean all the way to the Euphrates River in the Middle East, but its grandeur may have also been its downfall. 

• F Such adaptability was also the strategy pursued by the great Roman magnates of Italy. 

• G For the first time in nearly a millennium, the city of Rome was in the hands of someone other than the Romans. 

Part 1

 Wilkie Collins is called the grandfather of the English detective novel. Today, he is best known for The Moonstone (1868), often regarded as the first true detective novel, and The Woman in White (1860), the archetypal sensation novel. During his lifetime he wrote over thirty major books, well over a hundred articles, short stories and essays, and a dozen plays in which he explored the effects of mysterious, shocking, and criminal happenings on Victorian middle-class families. Wilkie Collins was the oldest son of William Collins, a landscape artist and a member of the Royal Academy, and his wife Harriet Geddes, a former governess. Collins was named after David Wilkie, the Scottish painter who was his godfather. After spending one year at a small preparatory school called Maida Hill Academy near Tyburn, England, Collins went to Italy with his family, where they stayed from 1837 to 1838. He later recalled that he had learned more in Italy “which was of use to me, among the scenery, the pictures, and the people, than I ever learned at school.” Having returned to England, he continued his schooling at Cole's boarding school at 39 Highbury Place. It was there that he began his career as a storyteller to appease the dormitory bully. His appearance was distinctive since he was born with a prominent bulge on the right side of his forehead. He was only five feet six inches tall but with a disproportionately large head and shoulders. His hands and feet were particularly small and his pictures from the age of 21 show him wearing spectacles. At age 17, Collins started his first job with a tea merchant named Edward Antrobus, a friend of his father's. Antrobus's shop was located on The Strand in London. The heady atmosphere of The Strand—a major street populated by theaters, law courts, taverns, and newspaper editorial offices—gave Collins ample inspiration to write short articles and literary works in his spare time. His first signed article, The Last Stage Coachman, appeared in Douglas Jerrold's Illuminated Magazine in 1843. In 1846, Collins became a law student at Lincoln's Inn, and was called to the bar in 1851. He never practised law although several lawyers feature prominently in his subsequent novels. Collins's first novel, Iolani, was rejected and didn't resurface until 1995, long after his death. His second novel, Antonina was only one-third of the way finished when his father died. Then Wilkie Collins started working on a two-volume biography of his father, which was published by subscription in 1848. That biography brought him to the attention of the literary world. In 1851, Collins met Charles Dickens, and the two writers became close friends. Although Dickens was not known to serve as a mentor for many writers, he was surely a supporter, colleague, and mentor for Collins. According to the scholars of Victorian literature, Dickens and Collins influenced one another and even co-wrote several short stories.Despite his growing success, Collins's health began to decline during the 1850s and 1860s. He suffered from what he always described as 'rheumatic gout' or 'neuralgia'. This affected his eyes with particular severity and he often needed the services of a secretary. 

Part 2 

It was during the 1860s that Collins achieved enduring fame with his four major novels, The Woman in White (1860), No Name (1862), Armadale (1866) and The Moonstone (1868). The first of these was published in Dickens’s new journal, All the Year Round from November 1859 to August 1860. It was received with great acclaim and ran to seven editions in 1860 alone. All kinds of commodities such as cloaks, bonnets, perfumes were called after it; there were Woman in White Waltzes and Quadrilles; it was parodied in the British humour magazine Punch; and even the British Prime-Minister Gladstone found the story so absorbing that he missed a visit to the theatre. In the novel the sudden meeting of the hero, Walter Hartright, with the mysterious woman in white is said to have been inspired by a real life meeting between Collins, who was strolling home one evening in 1858, accompanied by his brother Charles and the painter Millais. They met, so the story goes, “a woman dressed in flowing white robes escaping from a villa in Regent's Park where she had been kept prisoner under mesmeric influence.” The real life woman in white was Caroline Graves who probably met Wilkie in the spring of 1856. She was a widow, originally came from Gloucestershire, and had a young daughter, Harriet Elizabeth. The novel The Moonstone was described by T. S. Eliot as “the first, the longest, and the best of modern English detective novels…” It is certainly a landmark in the history of crime fiction and has a strong claim of establishing detective fiction as a genre. It influenced Collins's successors from Trollope and Conan Doyle onwards and has set the standard by which other detective novels are judged. However, The Moonstone is far more than just a detective story. In its basic form, the whodunit mystery is formulaic: all the players must be seen as possible suspects and this, of course, restricts character development and depth. However, this is not the case with The Moonstone. Like the precious gem of the title, this novel has many facets. It is a narrative of richness and variety and was originally subtitled ‘A Romance’ rather than ‘A Mystery’. Just before he came to write the novel, Collins attended a criminal trial in London and he was struck by the way in which a chain of evidence and an overall picture of incidents concerning the crime was created from a series of testimonies given by various witnesses as they presented their views from the witness box. He said, “It came to me then that a series of events in a novel would lend itself well to an exposition like this. Certainly, by the same means employed here, I thought, one could impart to the reader that acceptance, that sense of belief, which I saw produced here by a succession of testimonies, so varied in form and nevertheless so strictly unified by their march toward the same goal. The more I thought about it, the more an effort of this kind struck me as being bound to succeed. Consequently, when the case was over, I went home determined to make the attempt.” Many of Collins's later novels do not possess the force and freshness of his earlier works. Nevertheless, he remained immensely popular with the reading public. During the 1880s, Wilkie's always delicate health continued to decline. Breathing difficulties due to heart problems became more common. There followed several severe attacks of bronchitis. He suffered a stroke on the 30th of June and died from further complications on the 23rd of September, 1889. 

After he had saved enough money, Pa bought a one-room dugout house in the town of Walnut Grove, Minnesota. The place was tiny, about the size of the wagon the family had just unloaded, but it sat on a parcel of farmland where he hoped to raise acres of wheat to sell to the big flour mills in the city of St. Paul. In the fall, Laura and Mary started school Laura was barely five years old, but the two-mile walk to the schoolhouse with her sister every morning was her favorite part of the day - even if they had to walk barefoot because their parents could not afford shoes for them. The Minnesota winters were harsh, but the heavy snows provided the moisture that would make Pa's wheat crop grow. It was in the summertime that the family's problems began. One day, just before the harvest, Laura was working in the field when a strange cloud darkened the sky. But this was no rain cloud – it was a swarm of locusts. One of the insects peeled out of the cloud and dove, striking Laura square in the back of the head. Then the others followed. When the locusts finally moved on, the wheat field had been stripped clean. Her father lost his entire harvest. Meanwhile, Laura and Mary could no longer walk to school because the ground was blanketed with squashed bugs. Their mother taught them at home instead. The next summer, Laura's father intended to try again with another wheat crop. But he didn't realize that the locusts from the previous year had laid eggs before they left. When they hatched, the bugs started feeding again. Once again, the farmland was decimated. This second invasion convinced Pa that wheat farming was not for him. It was time to load up the wagon again. 

Laura Ingalls Wilder, the author of "Little House on the Prairie", based her classic novels on her own experiences growing up in a pioneer family. Life on the frontier was often harsh, but with each hardship, Laura grew stronger and took on more responsibilities. From insect invasions to raging blizzards, there was nothing this tiny trailblazer couldn't handle. Laura's father, Charles Ingalls, had the heart of a pioneer. He never stayed in a place for long. He needed elbow room and quickly grew tired of an area as it became more crowded. Laura's mother, Caroline, preferred to stay settled in one place, but she reluctantly went along with her husband's wish to be constantly on the move. By the time she turned seven, Laura Ingalls had moved three times. In fact, one of her earliest memories is of her parents packing all their belongings into a covered wagon for the trip from Wisconsin to Kansas. After they arrived in Kansas, Laura helped her father build a house out of logs. One day, she saw Indians on the trail that ran past her house. That night she heard the sound of tom-toms in the distance. The Ingalls did not know yet, but they had built their new home on land that belonged to the Osage tribe. When they had arrived, the Osage were away on a hunting trip. But now they were back and surprised to find white settlers living on their territory. After being told of their mistake, the Ingalls family agreed to leave. Once again, they loaded up the wagon and returned to the Big Woods of Wisconsin, where they lived for the next four years. As more and more people began to move into the area, however, Laura's father started feeling restless again. He grew increasingly irritated at the sound of new settlers chopping down tress all around him. Pa's dream was to live on a sprawling farm where neighbors were scarce and wild animals could run free. He heard about a town in Minnesota where there was plenty of room to roam. 

In the strictest sense, science fiction is a lot older than one might expect. Stories, tales, and myths from all around the world posing speculative questions about technologies have existed long before Ray Bradbury and Frank Herbert, from the time-travelling Japanese fairytale "Urashima Taro" and flying machines from Sanskrit epic “Ramayana” to some of the elements of “1001 Arabian Nights” and space voyages in Lucian’s “True History” – a veritable wonderland of pseudo-scientific marvels. But these were mostly epics and fantasies with just a bit of novelty. Science fiction as a genre wasn't conceived until a period of literary change in the 19th-century West. As romantic visions met with realist sensibilities, the work of some authors began to reflect this confluence. In her momentous novel “Frankenstein”, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley combined emerging concepts of galvanic electricity and chemistry with gothic horror. H.G. Wells and Jules Verne made adventure stories of their speculations, both to wide acclaim. Jules Verne pioneered the adventure-driven romantic sci-fi opera. His most celebrated works are breathtaking adventures that send us beyond the reach of our mundane world. At the time, actual science had yet to catch up to that. Meanwhile, H.G. Wells’ novels are taking a much more moralising tone. In “The Time Machine,” humankind has devolved into either childlike, naive beings or complete monsters. And eventually, Earth ends up as a dried out seasonless husk. And so it was that a smattering of disparate works published over the course of nearly 100 years turned into a new literary form – the simple merging of science and fiction. Writer and editor Hugo Gernsback began to call such stories "scientifiction", and in 1926 he established a magazine, Amazing Stories, and it became the first aggregate for science fiction. The difference between what later became science fiction and existing at that time pulp science fiction was in its instruments and goals. Pulp sci-fi films and stories rely on spectacle, action, thrills, dazzling effects. But not all science fiction spectacles are so much about entertainment. Some invite you to ponder over their speculations, marvel at glimpses of a possible future. By making a spectacle of real science and technology in a way that pulp never had, hard science fiction asserts itself as the truest "fiction of science". 

From the outside, the building resembles a caramel square dusted with cocoa. As I walk through the revolving doors, I am greeted with the pleasing aroma of smooth, sweet, rich chocolate that permeates everything. Even in the reception area, where Peter Moon's wife Leona is busy with Easter orders, I can't escape this potent scent. If you want to appreciate this for yourself, then allow me to indulge you. Get a chocolate bar and, against all your natural instincts, try to open the wrapper slowly. Then take a moment to savour the tantalising smell of chocolate inside. Now picture yourself actually inside, confined within the four walls of the wrapper that is shutting in the aroma with you. If the mere thought of that sounds good to you, what would it be like to breathe in the aroma of this fine chocolate every single day? I ask Leona that very same question. "I'm so used to the smell. I've worked here for so long I don't even notice it any more," Leona admits. To my mind, that is an absolute tragedy. But she later confesses that she still eats a few pieces of chocolate every day. I observe Leona as she expertly handles customers who are desperate to get their orders in on time. The factory's chocolate has just been given the highest rating in a recent consumer report and needless to say, the orders have been flooding in. The boom in business could explain her high spirits, which I must admit is infectious, and I can't help feeling excited about being let into this hidden world. At that moment, Peter Moon enters from a door at the back, dressed in a white hat and a heavy-duty rubber apron. After polite introductions, he immediately launches into his favourite topic. "Did you know that chocolate comes from the bean of the Theobroma Cacao tree, which means 'food of the gods'?" he asks. "The Aztecs considered cacao to be man's inheritance from Quetzalcoatl, the god of the air. Cacao seeds were made into a drink with the addition of maize and vanilla. The Spaniards observed its use and carried back beans to Spain, where it rapidly became a drink for the wealthy." I can tell this man lives and breathes what he does. I follow Peter into the packing room, which is bursting with multicoloured cellophane and ribbons that are waiting to decorate chocolate eggs arranged in lines. I watch as staff work, carefully wrapping Easter treats. Over 60 staff are employed at the factory and, from appearances, I don't doubt their commitment. "My team are extremely focused. We are like a family here," Peter declares proudly. I couldn't agree more. I immediately get the impression that this is no ordinary factory. And then, as he and I enter the adjoining room, I try to pull myself together. I make a great effort to control my excitement, reminding myself that the real purpose of my visit is to gather information to write an article. A conveyor belt transports small cubes of sweet centres towards a chocolate waterfall, with the promise of being enveloped in a thick, luxurious layer of chocolate. Moon picks up a tray of half-finished mini chocolate eggs. Each egg is ready to be filled and brushed over with more chocolate to seal it. Coloured cocoa butter will then be painted on to it to give it a shiny exterior. It is obvious that a significant amount of care and attention goes into making Moon's chocolates, and each one is finished lovingly by hand. "We use the freshest ingredients, which are free from artificial preservatives, and so our products only have a shelf life of three weeks," explains Peter. By finding ingredients from all around the world, Peter is responding to the growing trend of chocolate connoisseurs who hold tasting evenings with friends. They enjoy trying to name the origins of the cocoa bean that the chocolate is made from, like those who appreciate fine wine. As I leave, I learn that Peter, like his wife, also takes the opportunity to sample his work. "I think it's important to test the products on a regular basis," he says smiling. And yes… if you are wondering, I did get to take some home! 

The main point made by people who dismiss Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) as a pointless waste of time and money is that there is no scientific evidence whatsoever that it works. For conventional medicine there is of course an enormous amount of scientific research to back up the effectiveness of medical treatments. This is because of the fundamental difference between conventional medicine and CAM. Conventional medicine regards the body as a complex and sophisticated machine and illness as a breakdown of one or more parts of the machine. Its aim is to get the machine working properly again by removing the problem parts or treating them so that they return to working order. CAM, in the form of such things as homeopathy, acupuncture, and medical herbalism, regards illness as a breakdown of the body’s natural healing systems. It believes that there is a natural, non-physical force in all of us that enables the body to heal itself and its aim is to make that force powerful enough to overcome illness and restore health. This natural, non-physical force, however, cannot be detected using the usual scientific techniques. So it is impossible to prove its existence scientifically, and this has led some people to reject the whole idea of CAM. With conventional medicine, we can test scientifically whether treatments have an effect on the body by looking for changes in the body’s cells, nerves, organs and systems as a result of treatment. With CAM, we cannot prove whether or not the natural force for restoring health exists. However, it is possible to see what effects CAM treatments have had on the cells and structures of the body in order to assess their effectiveness. One example of scientific evidence for the effectiveness of CAM treatments is a study which showed that homeopathic medicine had an effect on the brain activity of sufferers from fibromyalgia, a painful muscle disorder. Research also indicated that acupuncture was effective in the treatment of patients suffering from Crohn’s disease, a painful disorder of the digestive system. Tests on their digestive systems showed that they had less inflammation after acupuncture treatment. Another study concerned the highly diluted solutions used in homeopathic medicines. Sceptics claim that these cannot possibly have any effect because they are so diluted and little or nothing of the original substance remains. But a study showed that ultra-high dilutions of histamine (a protein involved in allergies) have an influence on cell activity in the body. One of the most common tools of conventional medical research is a test called an RCT. This is a comparative test to discover the effectiveness of, for example, a new drug. Some subjects are given the drug and others are given a dummy pill. The subjects do not know whether they have taken a real pill or a dummy one, known as a placebo. Researchers then look at whether the people who took the real pill showed more improvement than the people who took the dummy pill, or placebo. The same kind of test is also carried out for CAM treatments, and it seems an obvious thing to do in order to get evidence of their effectiveness. However, a number of CAM practitioners feel that these RCT tests are not appropriate for CAM treatments. This is for two reasons. Firstly, they say, this is because CAM therapies are entirely focused on each individual as a separate case. Treatment isn’t dictated by the specific medical problem the patient is suffering from but by the need to restore to full power that individual’s natural force for maintaining health. So the result of an RCT test for one person may be wholly different for another, meaning that no general conclusion could be drawn about a particular treatment. Secondly, the practitioners say, a key factor in CAM treatments is the relationship between the patient and the practitioner. Many people, especially those with severe or long-standing medical problems, opt for CAM treatments because they do not want to take drugs for a long time or because they do not have faith in conventional medicine to improve their condition. Some of these people may feel that they get benefits from CAM treatments and from their consultations with CAM practitioners, even if the treatments do not work for their original problem. So CAM treatments may be beneficial in ways that RCT tests would not reveal. Some patients, for example, say that they prefer the holistic approach of CAM and feel that the decisions about treatment give them greater control over their own lives than conventional medicine. They like the feeling that they are taking personal responsibility for their own health 

New fashions and styles appear in all societies. First, we must understand the difference between fashion and style and how the changes in fashion and style happen for different reasons. The former are driven by insiders s to prevent others from copying the insiders' style. The latter are created by outsiders trying to invent alternative styles to the mainstream; the style of most people in a society. In order to succeed, a new style needs to completely reject one of the main indicators of the mainstream style. This rejection means that most people will not accept or choose the new style, and it also means that it is rarely driven by big business. Let us identify the main factor that shapes a particular style before returning to the topic of fashion. Many suggest that style is the main visible or outward component of group identity. However, research reveals that it goes deeper than that. Most studies conclude, and it is also my view, that style is the expression of certain underlying principles and viewpoints. People decide to adopt a style only after careful thought. It is unlike buying a new coat to get a new look. Moreover, a new style does not necessarily involve showing wealth or class. Turning to nature, we all know that the male peacock bird displays his beautiful tail to attract a female. For a male peacock, having a long, shiny tail shows strength and energy. Therefore, the strongest male peacocks have a better chance of attracting a mate than weaker males. In humans, in extreme cases, some people spend an unreasonable amount of time grooming themselves and may even do without more essential items in order to be fashionable. 55 Humans differ from animals in their ability to deceive. Almost as soon as a new garment by a top designer appears on the catwalk, fakes turn up on market stalls. The original is out of financial reach of the majority. And so, copies are born. Some are so true to the original that they may be mistaken for the genuine article even by dedicated followers of fashion. Those who knowingly buy fakes rarely concern themselves with the reaction of those who purchase the original article. The fake, in fact, carries with it so much of the image of the original that it becomes attractive in itself. Another interesting phenomenon is what is called ‘counter-signalling’. We can divide society into three groups: high, middle, and low. The middle group can easily imitate the fashion of the high group, so the middle group can be confused with the high group, to the detriment of the high group. Counter-signalling occurs when the high group imitates the fashion of the low group. However, if the middle group imitates the low group, they take the risk of being confused with lower one. A typical example of counter-signalling is wearing jeans. Eventually, wearing jeans became popular with everyone. This partly explains why fashion goes in cycles. The concept of changes in fashion relates to a much wider sphere than just clothes. It is evident in the evolution of language. What once was considered slang may become an accepted phrase. Interestingly, music plays an important role in the development of fashion. It brings people together at festivals and people can see how others dress and speak. In other words, it provides a chance for people to be influenced by others. I do not argue that music alone creates a new fashion. But music, dress and speech all work together to spread new ideas and trends. 

I moved to Berlin last summer from London, where I had essentially suffered a burnout, depression and emotional collapse. This explanation doesn’t go well in small talk, so I tend to claim instead that I wanted a change of scene. At the time, my debut novel had been published two years earlier and had gathered a lot of attention. That might sound like a dream come true – but over the months that followed, I was driven progressively more insane by my chronic inability to say no. I tried to be thankful for the flood of media requests and speaking invitations, endless interviews chat shows, Q&A sessions and other public appearances I was asked to make. But that just didn’t’ work out. I never craved for all that attention. I told myself that most people would regard it as a nice problem to have. To me it turned into a nightmare. For as long as I could, I denied that anything was wrong. Throughout my early years and adolescence, I found it difficult to communicate and form relationships. I was used to hiding my difficulties and neglecting my own wellbeing in an attempt not to burden others. I could never get used to quick changes and always stuck to my well-established daily patterns. There were definitely moments when I felt like I was on a completely different planet from the rest of the young. But by early 2022, I could no longer even vaguely pretend to be holding things together. I struck the bottom when I couldn’t sleep for three whole days, by the end of which my feet had swollen, I twitched at background noises and my own voice sounded as if it were coming from several meters away. After finally managing to sleep on the third night, I woke up sixteen hours later to several missed phone calls. Someone from my literary agency had come to a nearby coffee shop with a contract I urgently needed to sign, and had waited in vain for an hour. That was the turning point. Exactly around that time, I visited an Irish friend in Berlin. At my first night in Berlin, I took the tram in the dark, carried my suitcase up the communal stairs in my friend’s apartment building and slept more soundly on her small polyester couch than I ever had in my London double bed in the semi-detached house. In the morning I walked around the neighbourhood, enjoying the wide pavements and abundance of trees. Consider this January trip the first beat in my spiralling romance with Berlin. I returned in the spring to stay another few days and I moved that summer. It was a nobrainer. I had no second thoughts about it. Relocating to Berlin has improved my mental health in two main ways. The first is that I’m less professionally overwhelmed. I’m asked to do fewer things now, since it’s a hassle to bring me to London – and when I do feel swamped with work, I’m finding it easier to speak up. Daily exposure to German directness has cured me of my once-consuming need to be liked. Better yet, learning German has toned-down my perfectionism. Many young Berliners instantly switch to English when they hear the slightest trace of any accent. At first I took this personally, interpreted each English response as a minus. Over time, I toughened up. Nowadays I rarely get hit with English – and when I do, I choose to see it as their own desire to practice. I asked my German friends “Why do you reply in English to me if I’ve just spoken perfectly fine German?” They were uniformly baffled that anyone could get upset. “Of course” they say “you speak English with English-speakers – for us it’s just a matter of politeness!” Did I need to move to Berlin to get happy? Maybe not. But I needed to do something and this thing worked. I love writing again, love people, love being alive and learning words of the German-yet-unknown. 

There seems to be something special about coworking spaces. What makes such spaces – defined as membership-based workspaces where diverse groups of freelancers, remote workers, and other independent professionals work together in a shared, communal setting – so effective? And are there lessons for more traditional offices? People who use coworking spaces see their work as meaningful. First, unlike a traditional office, coworking spaces consist of members who work for a range of different companies, ventures, and projects. Because there is little direct competition or internal politics, they don’t feel they have to put on a work persona to fit in. Working amidst people doing different kinds of work can also make one’s own work identity stronger. Second, meaning may also come from working in a culture where it is the norm to help each other out, and there are many opportunities to do so. Lastly, meaning may also be derived from a more concrete source: the social mission inherent in the Coworking Manifesto, an online document signed by members of more than 1,700 working spaces. It clearly articulates the values that the coworking movement aspires to, including community, collaboration, learning, and sustainability. So in many cases, it’s not simply the case that a person is going to work; they’re also part of a social movement. They have more job control. Coworking spaces are normally accessible 24/7. People can decide whether to put in a long day when they have a deadline or want to show progress, or can decide to take a long break in the middle of the day to go to the gym. They can choose whether they want to work in a quiet space so they can focus, or in a more collaborative space with shared tables where interaction is encouraged. Coworkers feel part of a community. Connections with others are a big reason why people pay to work in a communal space, as opposed to working from home for free or renting a nondescript office. Each coworking space has its own vibe, and the managers of each space go to great lengths to cultivate a unique experience that meets the needs of their respective members. Grind, for example, is a growing network of coworking spaces in New York and Chicago. Anthony Marinos, who oversees Grind’s marketing, community management, and member services, shared with us, “When it comes to cultivating our community at Grind, we’re all about the human element. We consider ourselves as much a hospitality company as we do a workspace provider. Our staff knows all of our members by name and profession, and we’re constantly facilitating introductions between Grindists.” So what are the implications for traditional companies? Even though the coworking movement has its origins among freelancers, entrepreneurs, and the tech industry, it’s increasingly relevant for a broader range of people and organizations. In fact, coworking can become part of your company’s strategy, and it can help your people and your business thrive. An increasing number of companies are incorporating coworking into their business strategies in two ways. First, they’re being used as an alternative place for people to work. Michael Kenny, Managing Partner of San Diego-based Co-Merge, told us, “In the past year and a half, we’ve seen a dramatic increase in the use of the space by enterprise employees. We have seen teams come in to use various on-demand meeting rooms. We have users from global companies of size ranging from several hundred to several thousand employees who use the space not only to allow their distributed workers to get productive work done, but also to attract employees who demand flexible workplace and work time.” Grind is also witnessing growth in the number of remote workers who are becoming members. “We haven’t had to reach out to larger organizations, they actually tend to just come to us,” Anthony Marinos says. “We’ve had employees from Visa, journalists from the Chicago Tribune, and even people affiliated with large financial institutions all work out of Grind.” Spending time away from the office at a coworking space can also spark new ideas. Rebecca Brian Pan, the founder of COVO and former chief operating officer of NextSpace, explained how Ricoh’s innovation team worked out of NextSpace Santa Cruz for several months to observe how people work and where they hit pain points. Based on member insight and feedback, and their own observations, the Ricoh team explored several new products that could help members in their daily work and chose the most highly rated product to pursue. Second, the lessons of coworking spaces can be applied to corporate offices. Just as it’s important to encourage flexibility and support your mobile workforce, there is an equally important reality of creating the right kind of work environment inside your own walls. But this doesn’t just mean creating open plan layouts or adding a coffee bar. In reality, people need to be able to craft their work in ways that give them purpose and meaning. They should be given control and flexibility in their work environment. The combination of a well-designed work environment and a well-curated work experience are part of the reason people who cowork demonstrate higher levels of thriving than their officebased counterparts. 

Leading figures in the business world dumping icy water over themselves, eye-catching photos posted on the Internet of people lying horizontally for no good reason. Looking at some of the things online today, it seems these crazes are becoming more and more popular. And what do they have in common? They’re all memes. First used by biologist Richard Dawkins in the 1970s, the word meme described the transmission of ideas from person to person. However, the meaning has evolved in the social media age: a dictionary recently defined meme as ‘an image or video that is spread rapidly by internet users’. Transmission is so fast that a joke shared between friends can become a global phenomenon in a matter of hours. Typical memes are easy to understand and quick to pass on. People sharing a meme feel a sense of belonging: they are ‘in’ on an inside joke. Having seen the potential of the meme, marketing executives were keen to use this powerful tool. However, successful memes are unforced, starting organically rather than in a marketing meeting. Apparently, you are more likely to buy a prize-winning lottery ticket than have a meme go viral! The meme has also proved to be an amazing way to generate donations for charities and NGOs (non-governmental organizations) - in one case producing a tenfold increase in the charity’s previous annual income. Opinions on this are sharply divided. Supporters say it not only raises money for a specific cause, but also encourages people to donate more in general. 6 Opponents, however, criticize the way celebrities exploit these phenomena for their own interests; they say many people taking part are engaged more by the meme than by the real issue; they also feel the income one charity receives may be out of proportion with the relative extent of a given disease, or reduce donations to other causes not in the public eye. Whatever your view, there is little doubt that the viral meme is one of the most powerful communication tools around.