Tulips(郁金香) are the national flower of Iran and Turkey. The European name for the flower is a misuse of the Persian word for turban(头巾), a mistake probably arising in the common Turkish custom of wearing flowers in the folds of the turban. Alternatively, the misuse may have arisen because this eastern flower, when not yet in full bloom, looks like a turban. In Persia, to give a red tulip was to declare your love for someone. The black center of the red tulip was said to represent the lover's heart, burned to a coal by love's passion.

    Originally growing in the Ottoman Empire (present-day Turkey), tulips were imported into Holland in the sixteenth century. When Carolus Clusius wrote the first major book on tulips in 1592, they became so popular that the tulips in his garden were stolen from time to time. As the Dutch Golden Age grew, so did this colorful flower. They were commonly seen in paintings and at festivals. In the mid-seventeenth century, tulips even created the first economics bubble（泡沫经济）, known as “Tulip Mania”. At that time, tulips were so expensive that they were used as money until the market for them crashed.

    Today, Holland is still known for its tulips and other flowers, often sincerely called “the flower shop of the world.” Tulips are planted in great fields of beautiful color, and transform the landscape into a sea of different colors. Tulip festivals are held throughout the country in spring. However, the most well-known tulip festival is organized in the Noordoostpolder, a province in the central Netherlands, each year. Held in the middle of the tulip fields, this flower festival runs from late April to early May. The Dutch people took their love of tulips abroad when they settled, and tulips and tulip festivals are now found in New York and Michigan, where the connection to their Dutch roots is still very strong.

    BEIJING — The launch of a new manned space mission brings China closer to the establishment of a permanent space station, international experts say.

    Chinese taikonauts, Jing Haipeng, 50, and Chen Dong, 37, were blasted off into space onboard Shenzhou-11 at 7:30 am Monday and will spend 30 days in the Chinese space laboratory Tiangong-2.The launch marks a key step toward China's plan to eventually operate a permanent space station. The successful launch of the Shenzhou-11 spacecraft is another step forward to put China among leading players in space technology, said Alexander Zheleznyakov, a Russian expert on history of space flights. China's experimental space lab will help provide solutions for spacecraft of different functions to approach and anchor, and for a long-term operation of life support system, said Zheleznyakov. Shenzhou-11 is scheduled to anchor on Wednesday with Tiangong-2, which is part of China's plan to build a permanent space station by 2022.

    China can now test technologies for cargo spacecraft anchoring, life support system operation and water recycling to ensure a long-term continuous operation of its space station in the future with less dependence on renewal from the Earth, he said. If all goes well, China will launch the unpiloted Tianzhou-1 cargo ship next spring to autonomously tie up with Tiangong-2. Tianzhou-1 will be capable of automatically transferring rocket fuels, a vital requirement for space station grouping and maintenance, according to a report by Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS).

    "That will further their anchoring abilities needed for the larger space station," Johnson Freese was quoted." Tiangong-2 is supposed to be able to stay in orbit for two years or longer, so that's taking them (Chinese) really close to 2019 or so. I think this will be their last big technology test phase before going to their large space station," said Freese.

    Several months ago, I attended the opening event for a new children's literacy (读写能力) campaign at the Burbank Library in California. The campaign is called Marvel Comics Close- Up, aimed at using comic books to encourage kids to read. Disney and Marvel donated 210,000 books to libraries and schools across the country.

    Stars from Disney XD participated. They read Spider-Man comic books to 70 kids from Boys & Girls Clubs in southern California. The stars included Drake Bell (Ultimate Spider-Man), Dylan Riley Snyder (Kickin' it), Olivia Holt (Kickin' It) and Coie Jenson (Crash & Bernstein).

    Drake Bell said that the Marvel reading campaign is aimed at kids who are bored with books, believing comic books are the answer for kids who say they'd rather play video games. “Comic books really get you into the story,” he told TFK(Time For Kids). “They are not just words or pictures on a page.”

    Dylan Riley Snyder knows from his experiences that comic books have the power to inspire kids' imagination. His mom was a teacher and she used comic books to interest students who thought they weren't interested in reading. Dylan attended these classes. He would read the comic books and draw the characters along with the students. “It was a great way for these kids to start to enjoy reading,” Dylan said. “That's how I got interested in reading too. Now I can share my love for comic books with others through the Marvel Comics Close-Up program.”

    David Levine is the Vice President of Disney XD Worldwide. He said great stories and great characters, like Spider-Man and The Avengers, were key to making reading fun. “Reading can encourage you to explore new things and take you to all sorts of exciting places,” he told TFK.

    You are a new manager at the American branch of your German firm in Chicago. With a few minutes to spare between meetings, you go to get a quick cup of coffee.

    "Hey, David, how are you?" one of the senior partners at the firm asks you.

    "Good, thank you, Dr. Greer," you reply. You've really been wanting to make a connection with the senior leadership at the firm, and this seems like a great opportunity. But as you start to think of something to say, your American colleague breaks in to steal your spotlight.

    "So Arnold", your colleague says to your boss, in such a casual manner that it makes your German soul cringe(畏缩), "So what's your Super bowl prediction? I mean, you're a Niners fan, right?"

    The conversation moves on, and you walk silently back to your desk with your coffee. You know how important small talk is in the U.S., and you feel jealous of people who can do it well.

    There's nothing small about the role that small talk plays in American professional culture. People from other countries are often surprised at how important small talk is in the U.S. and how naturally and comfortably people seem to do it —— with peers, men, women, and even with superiors. You can be the most technically skilled worker in the world, but your ability to progress in your job in the United States is highly dependent on your ability to build and maintain positive relationships with people at work. And guess what skill is critical for building and maintaining these relationships? Small talk.

    What can you do if you are from another culture and want to learn to use small talk in the U.S. to build relationships and establish trust? Work hard to hone(磨练) your own version of American-style small talk. Watch how others do it. You don't have to imitate what they do; in fact, that would likely backfire because people would see you as inauthentic(假的,不可信的). But if you can develop your own personal version, that can go a long way toward making you feel comfortable and competent.

    Pizza is a pretty universal treat, but where did it start? Here are three things you probably didn't know about pizza.

    1: Pizza's Origins Are Half-Baked.

    The Neapolitans（那不勒斯人）in Italy are proud of saying they invented pizza, but it's probably more accurate to say, they perfected it. The idea of putting toppings on a flatbread and baking it started in the 6th century B. C. But the people of Naples were the first to put tomato on a flatbread in the 16th century. From its start, pizza was a food of the poor, as it was cheap, filling and easy to eat on the run. In Italian, the word “pizza” refers to anything that is made and then pressed flat.

    2: Pizza Margherita Is Not Exactly a Symbol of Italy.

It was said some day in 1889, a local baker named Raffaele Esposito created three pizzas for Queen Margherita when she was on a tour of Italy. The queen loved the version that had tomato, basil and mozzarella cheese— and just happened to match the colors of the Italian flag. So Esposito named the pizza after her.

    But Pizza historian Scott Wiener points out that Italy was unified in name only in 1889 so it was unlikely any Neapolitan baker would want to celebrate “the Northern conquerors.” Further, the letter of gratitude for the pizza from the royal household that Pizzeria Brandi displays appears to be a fake（赝品）and may just have been a marketing plan.

    3: Hawaliian Pizza Invented by a Canadian.

    Sam Panopoulos, from Greece originally moved to Canada at the age of 20. In 1962, he decided to put some ham and pineapple on a pizza at one of his restaurants in Ontario.

    “We just put it on for fun to see how it was going to taste,” he told the BBC in 2017. Panopoulos named it the Hawaiian pizza after the brand of canned pineapple he used. The mix of sweet and savory toppings caught on with a certain part of the pizza-loving public. The inventor died in 2017.

    Once I spoke at a high school. After the speech, I was asked to see a special student. An illness had kept the boy at home, but he had expressed an interest in meeting me, and it would mean a great deal to him. I agreed. He was Matthew. When he was born, the doctor told his parents that he would not live to see five, then they were told he would not make it to ten. Now he was thirteen. He wanted to meet me because I was a gold-medal weight lifter, and I knew about overcoming obstacles (障碍) and going for my dreams.

    I spent over an hour talking to Matthew. Never once did he complain (抱怨). He spoke about winning and succeeding and going for his dreams. He knew what he was talking about. He just talked about his hopes for the future, and how one day he wanted to lift weight with me.

    When we finished talking, I went to my briefcase and pulled out the first gold medal I won and put it around his neck. I told him he was more of a winner and knew more about success and overcoming obstacles than I ever would. He looked at it for a moment, then took it off and handed it back to me. He said, "You are a champion (冠军). You earned that medal. Someday when I get to the Olympics and win my own medal, I will show it to you."

    Last summer I got the news that Matthew had died and a letter Matthew had written me a few days before:

Dear Rick,

    My mom said I should send you a thank-you letter for the picture you sent me. The doctors tell me that I don't have long to live any more. But I still smile as much as I can.

    I told you some day I was going to the Olympics and win a gold medal. But I know now I'll never make it. But I know I'm a champion, and God knows that too. When I get to Heaven, God will give me my medal and when you get there, I will show it to you.

    Thank you for loving me.

Your friend,

Matthew