If you want to be happy, you must take responsibility and stop expecting things or people to make you happy. You are the source of your own happiness, so stop looking elsewhere. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}. Here are a few ways for you to follow:

    Be thankful to others. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} It is too easy to take those around us for granted. Show them the same consideration you would like shown to you.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} This goes beyond(超过) politeness; it is a form of giving. Treat everyone you meet as if they have a big sign on their chest saying “make me feel important.” If you do this you will discover a hidden source of joy.

    Perform acts of kindness. Don't wait to be asked, {#blank#}4{#/blank#} It doesn't need to be a big thing, hold the door for a stranger, or smile at anyone you make eye contact with. Look for chances to make others feel good.

    Make a decision to be happy. This is the most important step on the road to a happy life. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} You are the key to your own happiness, so go ahead, unlock it once and for all.

A. Respect other people.

B. Be polite to other people.

C. Instead of looking for happiness, start creating it.

D. You can change your feelings by acting the way you want to feel.

E. If you see a chance to do something nice for someone else, do it!

F. Simply make up your mind to be the happiest person you know, and you will be.

G. Be grateful to the people in your life, and practice saying thank you for any politeness they show you.

    Last year, Claire Noble-Randall woke up at 5:30 am every morning. She had to catch two buses to arrive in time for first-period chemistry at Ingraham High School in Seattle, US.

    Ingraham starts at 8 am, but Noble-Randall often didn't go to sleep until after midnight. “It was really hard not to fall asleep in class,” she said.

Her mom solved the problem this year when she discovered that other parents had hired a private city tour bus to take their children to the school.

    “Now, she leaves the house at a much more reasonable time 7:10 in the morning…to catch the little tour bug at 7:23 am,” said her mother, Noelle Noble.

    That may be one way to help students get more sleep. But more than 3,300 people have signed an online petition (请愿) looking for a better solution from the Seattle school district. Those who have signed the petition want all high schools and middle schools to start no earlier than 8:30 am. Most of Seattle's high schools and middle schools start at 8 am or earlier.

    Later start times for teenagers is an idea that some parents around the nation, have wanted for years. They've provided plenty of scientific evidence that teenagers tend to be night owls and delayed start times improve their health, mood, attention, and, in some cases, learning.

    But attempts to delay start times for teenagers haven't worked. Coaches don't want late dismissals (放学) cutting into sports practices; community groups don't want to wait longer for gyms and fields and before- and after-school programs don't want to change their schedules.

    This time, however, they've got Seattle School Board. President Sharon Peaslee on their side. She herself is the mother of two high school students. Peaslee hopes other board members will pass her plan calling on the district to find a way to make the changes.

B

Find Your Adventure at the Space and Aviation(航空) Center

    If you're looking for a unique adventure, the Space and Aviation Center (SAC) is the place to be. The Center offers programs designed to challenge and inspire with hands-on tasks and lots of fun.

    More than 750,000 have graduated from SAC, with many seeking employment in engineering, aviation, education, medicine and a wide variety of other professions. They come to camp, wanting to know what it is like to be an astronaut or a pilot, and they leave with real-world applications for what they're studying in the classroom.

    For the trainees, the programs also offer a great way to earn merit badges(荣誉徽章). At Space Camp, trainees can earn their Space Exploration badge as they build and fire model rockets, learn about space tasks and try simulated(模拟) flying to space with the crew from all over the world. The Aviation Challenge program gives trainees the chance to earn their Aviation badge. They learn the principles of flight and test their operating skills in the cockpit(驾驶舱) of a variety of flight simulators. Trainees also get a good start on their Wilderness Survival badge as they learn about water- and land-survival through designed tasks and their search and rescue of ＂downed＂ pilot.

    With all the programs, teamwork is key as trainees learn the importance of leadership and being part of a bigger task.

    All this fun is available for ages 9 to 18. Families can enjoy the experience together, too, with Family Camp programs for families with children as young as 7.

    Stay an hour or stay a week — there is something here for everyone!

    For more details, please visit us online at www.oursac.com.

    Give yourself a test. Which way is the wind blowing? How many kinds of wildflowers can be seen from your front door? If your awareness is as sharp as it could be, you'll have no trouble answering these questions.

    Most of us observed much more as children than we do as adults. A child's day is filled with fascination, newness and wonder. Curiosity gave us all a natural awareness. But distinctions that were sharp to us as children become unclear; we are numb(麻木的）to new stimulation(刺激), new ideas. Relearning the art of seeing the world around us is quite simple, although it takes practice and requires breaking some bad habits.

    The first step in awakening senses is to stop predicting what we are going to see and feel before it occurs. This blocks awareness. One chilly night when I was hiking in the Rocky Mountains with some students, I mentioned that we were going to cross a mountain stream. The students began complaining about how cold it would be. We reached the stream, and they unwillingly walked ahead. They were almost knee-deep when they realized it was a hot spring. Later they all admitted they'd felt cold water at first.

    Another block to awareness is the obsession(痴迷) many of us have with naming things. I saw bird watchers who spotted a bird, immediately looked it up in field guides, and said, a "ruby-crowned kinglet" and checked it off. They no longer paid attention to the bird and never learned what it was doing.

    The pressures of "time" and "destination" are further blocks to awareness. I encountered many hikers who were headed to a distant camp-ground with just enough time to get there before dark. It seldom occurred to them to wander a bit, to take a moment to see what's around them. I asked them what they'd seen. "Oh, a few birds," they said. They seemed bent on their destinations.

    Nature seems to unfold to people who watch and wait. Next time you take a walk, no matter where it is, take in all the sights, sounds and sensations. Wander in this frame of mind and you will open a new dimension to your life.

With more recognition than Halloween and less than Christmas, Valentine's Day as an imported festival faces a dangerous situation in China, where it's caught between forces of tradition and fashion. Valentine's Day has a natural enemy in China. And it is not the Chinese equivalent, which falls on the seventh day of the seventh month on the lunar calendar, usually around half a year away from Feb. 14. It is the Spring Festival, also known as the Chinese New Year, that will influence the Feast of Saint Valentine.

The real disagreement between East and West probably took place over a century ago, when China's door was forced open by Western powers and Chinese scholars supported westernization as a means to strengthen our nation's ability to compete.

The introduction of the solar calendar and Western measurements was both an acknowledgment of their influence and an effort to be accepted by the world order.

For a full century, we have had two systems running in parallel. When it comes to the eventual outcome, practicality usually beats all other concerns. Laws can help, such as the three traditional festivals of Tomb Sweeping, Dragon Boat and Mid­Autumn gaining legal status in 2008 and giving every Chinese citizen a day off, but laws cannot push what people have no feelings for. So, the celebration or boycott of imported holidays or homegrown ones should be no cause for worry. If they are irrelevant, no social media will change the public's mind; and if they are accepted, there must be a need which they happen to satisfy.

Since we have no global Qin Shihuang to force one system on every country, we can always rely on a dual (双重的) approach by which we share with the outside world on the one hand but preserve our own ways of life on the other.