China is the biggest market in the world, and many countries such as Germany, the USA, the UK and Russia do a lot of business in China. Let's have a look at some important tips to help you be successful when dealing with these nationalities.

    First, you must be punctual (准时的) with Germans. Even 5 minutes late makes a bad impression. Being punctual is also very important in the USA. In the UK, it's important to be punctual for business meetings, but nobody expects you to be on time for a social event. Half past seven really means a quarter to eight, or even eight o'clock! With Russians, you should always be on time, though it is not unusual for them to be one or even two hours late!

    It is best to dress formally and wear dark colours when you meet people from all the four countries. In Russia, designer clothes are very common. Don't be surpri if you go to an office in the UK on a Friday and find everyone wearing jeans. Many companies have “dress down Friday”, when people wear casual (随便的) clothes.

    In Germany, first names are only used by family members and close friends, so be prepared to use titles and last names. In the USA you will usually be invited to use first names almost immediately. The British are quite informal and using first names in business is more and more common, especially among younger people. In Russia, however, nobody uses first names, so use titles and last names.

    In conversation, the British and the Americans value humour, and both like to talk about sport. The weather is also a good topic of conversation with the British and the Americans, but avoid talking about politics. In Russia, say positive（肯定的） things about their country, but avoid making complaints. The Germans, however, prefer to get straight down to business!

    So, use these tips, and you will be on your way to a successful international business career!

    Whether you are young or young at heart, it is never too late to change, or take in some new and better practices into your daily life. Here are some wise lessons that I wish I knew when I was younger.

    I used to be worried about what others thought of me. Finally, I changed. Remember that if you're wasting too much time looking for respect(尊重) from others, then you will not have time to finish all you desire(期望).Everyone has an opinion, but in fact others' opinions about you are based more on their history and perceptions(观念) than anything you're actually doing. So depend on your own assessment(评估) of you rather than others'.

    Enjoy every moment of today. Don't wait to do or enjoy anything. Don't tell yourself you will do it tomorrow. If it is important to you, then do it today. Pay attention to what is happening now, the task at hand and all the choices you make today, big and small. Our future is set by what we decide and do today.

    What happened yesterday is over. You can not change it. So let it go. Don't waste your energy considering anger or unhappiness. It only stops you from moving forward in life.

    Look for the good in people. Celebrate the happy moments, big and small. Search for the chances for growth. Give helpful encouragement rather than unwanted criticism (批评). Be helpful whenever possible.

    In a word, life is serious but you can still be delighted and hopeful. Otherwise, what's the point?

    After a few moments, my passenger started a conversation. It began ordinarily enough: "How do you like driving a cab?"

    "It's OK," I said. "I make a living and meet interesting people sometimes. How about you? His reply intrigued me.

    "I would not change jobs even if I could make twice as much money doing something else."

    I'd never heard that before. "What do you do?''

    "I'm in the neurology department at New York Hospital."

    Then I decided to ask for this man's help. We were not far from the airport.

    "Could I ask a big favor of you? I have a son, 15, a good kid. He wants a job, but a 15-year-old can't get hired unless his old man knows someone who owns a business, and I don't." I paused. "Is there any possibility that you could get him some kind of summer job?"

    He didn't respond for a while. Finally, he said: "Well, the medical students have a summer research project. Maybe he could fit in. Have him send me his school record." I tore off a piece of my brown lunch bag, and he scribbled his name on it and paid me. It was the last time I ever saw him.

    After I nagged, yelled, and finally threatened to cut off his pocket money, my son Robbie sent off his grades to the guy the next morning.

    Two weeks later, when I arrived home from work, my son was beaming. He handed me a letter from my passenger, saying he was to call my passenger's secretary for an interview.

    Robbie got the job. He did minor tasks, unpaid, but he fit in well. The following summer, he worked at the hospital again with more responsibility. As high school graduation neared, Dr Plum was kind enough to write letters of recommendation for Robbie and he was accepted by Brown University. Finally, Dr Robert Stern, the son of a taxicab driver, became OB-GYN chief president at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center.

    Some might call it fate, and I guess it was. But it shows that something as ordinary as a taxi ride can change your life.

    What is the single most effective way to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions? Go vegetarian (素食)？ Replant the Amazon? Cycle to work? None of the above. The answer is: make air-conditioners better. On one calculation, replacing refrigerants (制冷剂) damaging the atmosphere would reduce total greenhouse gases equaling 90bn tonnes of CO₂ by 2050. Making the units more energy-efficient could double that. By contrast, if half the world's population gave up meat, it would save 66bn tonnes. Replanting two-thirds of tropical forests would save 61 bn tonnes. A one-third increase in global bicycle journeys, just 2.3bn tonnes.

    Air-conditioning is one of the world's great overlooked industries. Automobiles and air-conditioners were invented at roughly the same time, and both have had a huge impact on where people live and Work. Unlike cars, though， air-conditioners have drawn little criticism for their social impact, emissions or energy efficiency. Most hot countries do not have rules to govern their energy use. There is not even a common English word for “coolth” (the opposite of warmth).

    Yet air-conditioning has done more than most things to benefit humankind. Lee Kuan Yew, the first prime minister of Singapore, called it “perhaps one of the signal inventions of history”. It has transformed productivity in the tropics(热带地区)and helped turn southern China into the workshop of the World. In Europe, its spread has pushed down heat-related deaths to 10% since 2003, Men 70,000 people than usual, most of them elderly, died in a heatwave. For children, air-conditioned classrooms are associated with better grades at school.

    Environmentalists who call air-conditioning “a luxury we cannot afford” have half a point, however. In the next ten years, as many air-conditioners will be installed(安装)around the world as were put in between 1902(invention time)and 2005.Unless energy can be produced without carbon emissions, these extra machines will warm the world. At the moment, therefore, air-conditioners create a vicious cycle. The more the Earth warms, the more people need them. But the more there are, the warmer the world will be.

    Cutting the impact of cooling requires three things. First, air-conditioners must become much more efficient. The most energy-efficient models on the market today consume only about one-third as much electricity as average ones, Minimum energy-performance standards need to be raised raised, orintroduced in countries that lack them altogether, to push the average unit's performance closer to the standard of the best.

    Next, manufacturers should stop using damaging refrigerants. One type called hydrofluoro-carbons, is over 1,000 times worse than carbon dioxide when it comes to trapping heat in the atmosphere. An international agreement to knock out these pollutants will come into force in 2019.

    Last, more could be done to design offices, malls and even cities so they do not need as many air-conditioners in the first place. More buildings should be built with overhanging roofs or balconies for shade, or with natural ventilation (自然通风).Simply painting roofs white can help keep temperatures down. Providing indoor air-conditioned comfort need not come at the expense of an overheating world.

    I sat with my friend in a well-known coffee shop in a neighboring town of Venice. As we enjoyed our coffee, a man called the waiter and placed his order, “Two cups of coffee, one on the wall.” We got interested and observed that he was served with one cup of coffee but he paid for two. As soon as he left, the waiter attached a piece of paper to the wall saying “A Cup of Coffee.” Similar occasions took place twice while we were there. It seemed that this gesture was quite normal at this place. However, it was something unique and confusing for us.

    After a few days, when we again enjoyed coffee there, a man entered. The way this man was dressed did not match the standard or the atmosphere of this coffee shop. Poverty was evident from his looks. As he seated himself, he looked at the wall and said, “One cup of coffee from the wall.” The waiter served coffee to this man with respect and dignity. The man had his coffee and left without paying. We were amazed to watch all this when the waiter took off a piece of paper from the wall and threw it in the dustbin.

    Now it was no surprise for us; the matter was very clear. The great respect for the needy shown by people in this town moved us to tears.

    Coffee is not a necessity. However, the point is that when we take pleasure in any blessing, maybe we also need to think about those people who also appreciate that specific blessing but cannot afford.

    Note the waiter, who gets the communication going between the affording and the needy with a smile on his face. Think about the man in need: he enters the coffee shop without having to lower his self-dignity; he has a free cup of coffee without asking or knowing about who has given this cup of coffee to him; he only looked at the wall, placed an order for himself, enjoyed his coffee and left. Besides, we need to remember the role played by the wall that reflects the generosity and care of people in this town.

    Over the past 40 years, China has helped more than 700 million rural residents out of being poor, and the poverty rate(贫困率) — the proportion of people living below the Chinese poverty line — had fallen among the rural population from 97.5 percent in 1978 to 3.1 percent at the end of 2017, official figures shows. China's achievements in poverty alleviation(扶贫) made the world look at China with admiration.

    "For me, it is unbelievable that over 40 years, that is, over the course of one working lifetime, China has gone from one of the poorest countries in the world to one that is about to eliminate(消除) absolute poverty," said Craig Allen, president of the US-China Business Council.

    Varaprasad Sekhar Dolla, a professor of Chinese studies at India's Jawaharlal Nehru University, also spoke highly of China's achievements in poverty reduction. "If global poverty came down greatly in the last three or four decades, it's partly because of the Chinese contribution to reducing poverty within its own national boundaries," said the Indian scholar.

    In the eyes of Khairy Tourk, a professor of economics with the Stuart School of Business at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, "many countries look up to China to learn from its experience." "The Chinese experience is based on building a modern infrastructure(基础设施) and then on setting up special economic zones that would help underdeveloped countries to become more industrial," he added.

    In the government work report delivered at the opening of the annual NPC session (全国人大会议) on March 5, China promises to reduce its population of rural poor by over 10 million this year.