NOVA, one of Japan’s largest language school chains, is planning to close at least 200 of its 900 or so schools at the end of September for failure to pay rent. Meanwhile, Nova is falling behind in employee salary payments, which is a sign that it is running out of funds. At its peak in June, Nova had some 480,000 students enrolled. But Nova itself admitted in August that total enrollment would likely plunge 19.2 percent by September.
Thousands of hyphens perished
新版《简明牛津英语字典》删除1.6万个连字符
THE sixth edition of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (OED) has taken the hyphens out of 16,000 words. The reason is that people no longer have time to reach over to the hyphen key. But hyphens have not lost their place altogether. The Shorter OED editor commended their first-rate service rendered to English in the form of compound adjectives.
