Knowing how much her own children loved presents at Christmas, Ann Sutton always tried to seek help for one or two poor families. With a social worker mother, the Sutton children had inherited her commitment to service, and knew never to take their good fortune at Christmas for granted. This year, Kinzie, her seven-year-old daughter was thrilled that Santa Claus would make a special visit to a 22-year-old mother named Ashley who worked in a factory raising her 12-month-old son by herself.

    The phone rang on Sunday. A representative from a local organization was calling to say that the aid Ann had requested for Ashley had fallen through. No Santa Claus, no presents, nothing.

    Ann saw the cheer vanish from her children's faces at the news. Without a word, Kinzie ran into her bedroom. She returned, her face set with determination. Opening up her piggy bank, she put all the coins onto the table: $3.30. Everything she had.

    “Mom,” she told Ann, “I know it's not much. But maybe this will buy a present for the baby.”

    At a breakfast meeting the next day, Ann told her coworkers about her daughter's story. To her surprise, staff members began to open their purses and empty their pockets to help Kinzie. By day's end, the story of Kinzie's gift had spread beyond Ann's office. She received a call from an unknown donor. If a seven-year-old could give everything she had, he said, he should at least match her gift 100 to 1. He contributed $300.

    On Christmas Eve, Ann drove through the pouring rain to the small trailer where the Ashleys lived. Then she began to unload the gifts from the car, handing them to Ashley one by one.

    Ashley was very moved. Reflecting on a little girl's generosity, Ashley says she'll one day be able to do something similar for someone else in need. “Kinzie could have used that money for herself, but she gave it away,” Ashley says. “She's the type of kid I'd like my son to grow up to be.”

                                                                                                  Chinese International School

    Application Form

    Before an applicant can be invited to take part in an assessment, an application form should be returned to the Admissions Office, and the application fee of HK$1,000 cannot be returned. For overseas applicants wishing to pay in currencies other than HK dollars, the fee is US$145. Checks are also good for payment to “Chinese International School”.

    The application should include

    Applicants' academic report from the last school year.

    A recent passport-sized photo (attached to the application form).

    A copy of the applicant's Hong Kong ID card or a passport showing a valid Hong Kong visa.

    Only for applicants applying under a Corporate Nomination (提名) Right：A company letter confirming the nomination.

    Please note that the application fee is non-refundable. Applicants who would like to re-apply for another academic year are asked to submit a new application and application fee.

    Acceptance

    Applicants will be informed of their acceptance status in writing by postal mail. Initial (最初的) offers for Reception will be sent out from late March once all assessments have been completed.

Some applicants who have been assessed may be held on a reserve list. Acceptances may also be made on a conditional basis among the applicants on the reserve list.

    Applicants who have been assessed but who have not been admitted are welcome to reapply for the next academic year. Please note that such applicants will be asked to submit a new application and application fee.

    Confirmation of Acceptance and Enrollment (录取)

    Once an applicant has been admitted, the applicant family will be asked to confirm acceptance and hold the student's place with immediate payment of the required fees for the Nomination Right (HK$ 500), plus the sum of HK$ 7,500 as the first tuition payment.

    In addition, enrollment will not be considered complete until the following have been received, normally one month before the start of the new school year

    Physical examination results           Tuition (first month)

    Lennon Flowers' mom was diagnosed with lung cancer when she was a senior in high school. This young woman gave up her big dreams to go to New York University and become an actor and instead entered the University of North Carolina so she could be close to home. Though she was surrounded by a community of friends, she rarely brought up her mom. “I became good at not talking about what was happening to me,” she explains. “I got really, really good at being really, really busy.”

    When her mother died during her senior year in college, many of Lennon's friends hadn't even known she was sick. In part, she said she kept silent about it due to her belief that it protected other people.

    Three years after her mother died, Lennon moved to Los Angeles for a job and, met Carla Fernandez. They had an immediate connection. Later, while apartment hunting side-by-side, Carla admitted that her father had died just six months earlier. Lennon shared her own story. A seed was planted.

    A couple of months later Carla organized a dinner party for five women, Lennon among them. All of them had lost a parent already though they were only in their 20s; all of them had felt alone in that loss.

    An emotional movement was born: The Dinner Party. Today, there are 31 “tables” across the country and the initial organization plans to create even more.

    Lennon says, “As people gather month after month, they branch out from talking about their lost loved ones and start exploring what those losses have taught them about the meaning of life.”

    Asia can boast(吹嘘) that it has some of the best beaches in the world. Sihanoukville, Cambodia is a seaside town located 200km or a four­hour bus ride away from the country's capital, Phnom Penh. With several beaches and small offshore islands, it is definitely not a place to miss out if you are intending to visit Angkor Wat, as the beaches there are stunning and still unspoiled by mass tourism.

    Serendipity Beach

    Serendipity Beach is the most popular beach for the masses, since it is the most accessible beach, being the nearest one from the main town area. There are plenty of bars scattered around the beach, so be prepared for the crazy parties every night.

    Ochheuteal Beach

    Ochheuteal Beach is located south of Serendipity Beach, and it's a bit of an improvement from Serendipity Beach itself in terms of the people that go there. Over here, there are bars and pubs, but at night, don't expect wild parties like at the Serendipity Beach area.

    Otres Beach

    All the way down south, near Moat Peam, lies a hidden gem called Otres Beach. This is where you can get your yoga suit on and practice meditation(冥想). This is the quietest beach in Sihanoukville and it is the least crowded, with very few parties. If your idea of a beach holiday is just yourself and the sun, sea and sand, this place is for you.

    Koh Rong

    Koh Rong is an island off Sihanoukville that is covered with beautiful sandy beaches. True relaxation lies at Long Beach, which is located on the other side of the island. Clear water surrounds the beach, and once you get there, you'll be greeted with fine white sand.

    Koh Rong doesn't have any roads, so there are no cars or motorbike rentals — everything is mostly on foot.

    Is any economist so dull as to criticize Christmas? At first glance, the holiday season in western economies seems a treat for those concerned with such vagaries(奇思遐想)as GDP growth. After all, everyone is spending; in America, retailers make 25% of their yearly sales and 60% of their profits between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Even so, economists find something to worry about in the nature of the purchases being made.

    Much of the holiday spending is on gifts for others. At the simplest level, giving gifts involves the giver thinking of something that the recipient would like--he tries to guess her preferences, as economists say--and then buying the gift and delivering it. Yet this guessing of preferences is not easy; indeed, it is often done badly. Every year, ties go unworn and books unread. And even if a gift is enjoyed, it may not be what the recipient would have bought if they had spent the money themselves.

    Interested in this mismatch between wants and gifts, in 1993 Joel Waldfogel, then an economist at Yale University, sought to estimate the difference in dollar terms. In a study, he asked students two questions at the end of a holiday season: first, estimate the total amount paid(by the givers) for all the holiday gifts you received; second, apart from the sentimental value of the items, if you did not have them, how much would you be willing to pay to get them? His results were gloomy: on average, a gift was valued by the recipient well below the price paid by the giver.

    In addition, recipients may not know their own preferences very well. Some of the best gifts, after all, are unexpected items that you would never have thought of buying, but which turn out to be especially well picked. And preferences can change. So by giving a jazz CD, for example, the giver may be encouraging the recipient to enjoy something that was ignored before. This, a desire to build skills, is possibly the hope held by many parents who ignore their children's desires for video games and buy them books instead.

    Finally, there are items that a recipient would like to receive but not purchase. If someone else buys them, however, they can be enjoyed guilt-free. This might explain the volume of chocolate that changes over the holidays. Thus, the lesson for gift-givers is that you should try hard to guess the preference of each person on your list and then choose a gift that will have high sentimental value.

2023 Collection of Australian Stamps（Executive Edition）

Explore a bound treasure of gummed and perforated（涂胶打孔的）stamps presented in exclusive layouts. In addition to all the stamps released in 2023, this book gets the essence of stamp collecting with fascinating text about each stamp issue. Included is an exclusive gummed Concession Stamp minisheet, the 2022 Native Animals stamps and 89 mint stamps presented in unique layouts. This great gift comes with $124.25worth of stamps.

Our network of more than 400 Parcel Lockers are free and available around the clock, so you can pick up your order anytime. With over 3,600 locations across Australia, get your order delivered to a post office near work or home, and collect during business hours. Australia Post has partnered with hundreds of third-party retailers to provide another option for collection.

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