It was an autumn morning shortly after my husband and I moved into our first house. Our children were upstairs unpacking, and I was looking out of the window at my father moving around mysteriously on the front lawn. “What are you doing out there?” I called to him.

    He looked up, smiling. “I'm making you a surprise.” I thought it could be just about anything. When we were kids, he always created something surprising for us. Today, however, Dad would say no more, and caught up in the busyness of our new life, I eventually forgot about his surprise.

    Until one gloomy day the next March when I glanced out of the window, I saw a dot of blue across the yard. I headed outside for a closer look. They were crocuses (番红花）throughout the front lawn — blue, yellow and my favorite pink, with little faces moving up and down in the cold wind. I remembered the things Dad secretly planted last autumn. He knew how the darkness and dullness of winter always got me down. What could have been more perfectly timely to my needs?

    My father's crocuses bloomed (开花） each spring for the next five seasons, always bringing the same assurance： Hard times are almost over. Hold on, keep going, and light is coming soon.

    Then a spring came with only half the usual blooms and the next spring there were none. I missed the crocuses, so I would ask Dad to come over and plant new bulbs. But I never did. He died suddenly one October day. My family were in deep sorrow, leaning on our faith.

    On a spring afternoon four years later, I was driving back when I felt depressed. It was Dad's birthday, and I found myself thinking about him. This was not unusual — my family often talked about him, remembering how he lived up to his faith. Suddenly I slowed as I turned into our driveway. I stopped and stared at the lawn. There on the muddy grass with small piles of melting snow, bravely waving in the wind, was one pink crocus.

    How could a flower bloom from a bulb more than 18 years ago, one that hadn't bloomed in over a decade? But there was the crocus. Tears filled my eyes as I realized its significance.

    Hold on, keep going, and light is coming soon. The pink crocus bloomed for only a day, but it built my faith for a lifetime.

    Researchers at Stanford University have developed a new material that can move heat out of buildings and into space. The researchers say the material can cool buildings even on hot days. The cooling material is a very thin sheet with many layers that could be placed on a roof like solar panels(板). However, instead of turning sunlight into energy as solar panels do, the material turns heat into infrared（红外线的）radiation.

    Shanhui Fan is an electrical engineering professor at Stanford University. He says that the panels have a layer of material that is like sand. The panels act like a mirror. They take heat out of buildings and reflect the light from the sun. And he says both the heat and sunlight arc sent 100 kilometers into outer space. "It's a structure that cools itself without electricity input, even under the sun. So, what it does is basically radiate heat to outer space and also reflect the sunlight so it doesn't get heated up by the sun. Mr. Fan says it is like having a window into space. The heat is sent directly into space without increasing the air temperature

    He says buildings in developing countries that do not have electricity or air conditioning could use the panels. "In areas where electricity is out of reach for many people, there is a potential benefit for storing medicine or even food. In many of these situations, being able to reduce the temperature is important. And this would provide a way to do it.”

    The researchers say the main problem is creating actual cooling systems using the high-tech panels. They say it may be possible to develop a cooling spray(喷涂）that could be used on present solid structures. They believe the cooling spray technology could be developed in the next three to five years. They say as much as 15 percent of the energy used in the United States is spent providing power to air conditioning systems.

    It is quite reasonable to blame traffic jams, the cost of gas and the great speed of modern life, but manners on the road are becoming horrible. Everybody knows that the nicest men would become fierce tigers behind the wheel. It is all right to have a tiger in a cage, but to have one in the driver's seat is another matter altogether.

    Road politeness is not only good manners, but good sense too. It takes the most cool-headed drivers great patience to give up the desire to beat back when forced to face rude driving．On the other hand, a little politeness goes a long way towards reducing the possibility of quarrelling and fighting. A friendly nod or a wave of thanks in answer to an act of politeness helps to create an atmosphere of good will and calm so necessary in modern traffic condition. But such behaviors of politeness are by no means enough. Many drivers nowadays don't even seem able to recognize politeness when they see it.

    However, misplaced politeness can also be dangerous. Typical examples are the driver who waves a child crossing the street at a wrong place into the path of oncoming cars that may be not able to stop in time. The same goes for encouraging old ladies to cross the road wherever and whenever they want to. It always amazes me that the highways are not covered with the dead bodies of these grannies (奶奶).

    An experienced driver, whose manners are faultless, told me it would help if drivers learnt to correctly join in traffic stream without causing total blockages that give rise to unpleasant feelings. Unfortunately, modern drivers can't even learn to drive. Years ago, experts warned us that the fast increase of the car ownership would demand more give-and-take from all road users. It is high time for all of us to take this message to heart.

    So many of us hold on to little resentments that may have come from an argument, a misunderstanding, or some other painful event. Stubbornly, we wait for someone else to reach out to us—believing this is the only way we can forgive or rekindle a friendship or family relationship.

    An acquaintance of mine, whose health isn't very good, recently told me that she hadn't spoken to her son in almost three years. She said that she and her son had had a disagreement about his wife and that she wouldn't speak to him again unless he called first. When I suggested that she be the one to reach out, she resisted initially and said, "I can't do that. He's the one who should apologize." She was literally willing to die before reaching out to her only son. After a little gentle encouragement, however, she did decide to be the first one to reach out. To her amazement, her son was grateful for her willingness to call and offered an apology of his own. As is usually the case when someone takes the chance and reaches out, everyone wins.

    Whenever we hold on to our anger, we turn "small stuff" into really "big stuff" in our minds. We start to believe that our positions are more important than our happiness. They are not. If you want to be a more peaceful person you must understand that being right is almost never more important than allowing yourself to be happy. The way to be happy is to let go, and reach out. Let other people be right. This doesn't mean that you're wrong. Everything will be fine. You'll experience the peace of letting go, as well as the joy of letting others be right.

    You'll also notice that, as you reach out and let others be "right," they will become less defensive and more loving toward you. They might even reach back. But if for some reason they don't, that's okay too. You'll have the inner satisfaction of knowing that you have done your part to create a more loving world, and certainly you'll be more peaceful yourself.

    That the US stock market dropped sharply immediately after the US government put forward the proposal on Tuesday to tighten the control on exports of various artificial intelligence technologies indicates what the market thinks of the move.

    Multi-national corporations have led the way in the profound compressing(压缩) of time and space that has flattened and changed the world over the last couple of decades, and the overwhelming majority of international technological transfers have been conducted among multi-national companies in pursuit of profits.

    Thus the proposal the US government put forward on Tuesday to tighten the control to "avoid negatively impacting US leadership in the science, technology, engineering and manufacturing sector" is being viewed not only as a brake on the US economy but also as a barrier to maintaining that leadership since it will reduce cooperation with the rest of the world and shrink the market for US companies preventing them from investing research and development.

    The bigger its market, the more profits a technology company can earn, and the more money it then has to invest in developing even more advanced technologies. This is as true for US companies as it is for others.

    Behind the proposal is the narrow-mindedness of policymakers in the US administration, who choose to ignore the fact that the United States would not have become the world leader in science and technology if it had kept its doors closed.

    If such controls are intended to contain China's development, they will certainly fail.

    It is true that China has a lot to do to catch up with the US and other developed countries. Yet it has made great steps forward by opening its doors and cooperating with other economies.

    As it opens its door wider, it will have even more opportunities to cooperate with other countries in science and technology.

The de-materialization of economic activities — with economic output and income generation increasingly reliant on information rather than inputs of raw materials — only increases the need for cooperative agreements and a cross-disciplinary approach to increase the capabilities of AI and advance its application.

    By trying to enforce and exploit an invented-here ideal that is untenable, the US will undoubtedly lose the leadership in science and technology gradually to which it has become accustomed, and prevent the progress of both humans and machines.

    I am afraid of heights but two summers ago I climbed to a high place. Most of our high school had come along on a day trip to a beautiful beach village in Peru. After eating our lunches, many of us wanted to make the climb to an area around the village.

    Do I turn back? "Yes!" Will I regret (后悔))it later? I really want to get to the top, but... At last, I decided at least to have a try.

    My friend Tom was in front of me. Then, suddenly, he slipped (滑倒))and was about 10 feet back! My heart was beating faster until he stopped himself. Knowing that my friend Seth would be right behind me, I began the climb. I was soon past the first challenge safely, but not feeling much better about the rest of the climb. Looking down, I saw rocks everywhere. My breathing sped up, and my heart beat even faster, growing loud in my ears.

    My friends kept climbing. But they did not forget me. Someone was always behind me to help hold my feet when necessary, and someone else was always in front to offer a hand up. With friends helping me by words and actions, I slowly gained ground.

    Then we came to the worst part. The climb looked very close to vertical (垂直的). To me, the wise choice was to go back down. Melody encouraged me to go on and she made it safely first. I stopped, unsure of my footing. "You can do it, Jean! I'm right here," Melody called. She waited patiently, not asking me to hurry. I took a few deep breaths and kept climbing.

    With no more mistakes, we came to the top finally. I was dirty and tired. But it didn't matter. I was at the top! I had never felt so alive.