Five years ago, when I taught art at a school in Seattle, I used Tinkertoys as a test at the beginning of a term to find out something about my students. I put a small set of Tinkertoys in front of each student, and said:"Make something out of the Tinkertoys. You have 45 minutes today and 45minutes each day for the rest of the week." A few students hesitated to start. They waited to see the rest of the class would do. Several others checked the instructions and made something according to one of the model plans provided. Another group built something out of their own imaginations.

    Once I had a boy who worked experimentally with Tinkertoys in his free time. His constructions filled a shelf in the art classroom and a good part of his bedroom at home. I was delighted at the presence of such a student. Here was an exceptionally creative mind at work. His presence meant that I had an unexpected teaching assistant in class whose creativity would infect(感染) other students.

Encouraging this kind of thinking has a downside. I ran the risk of losing those students who had a different style of thinking. Without fail one would declare, "But I'm just not creative."

"Do you dream at night when you're asleep?"

"Oh, sure."

"So tell me one of your most interesting dreams." The student would tell something wildly imaginative. Flying in the sky or in a time machine or growing three heads. "That's pretty creative. Who does that for you?"

"Nobody. I do it."

"Really-at night, when you're asleep?"

"Sure."

"Try doing it in the daytime, in class, okay?"

Five years ago, David Smith wore an expensive suit to work every day. "I was a clothes addict(有瘾的人)," he jokes. "I used to carry a fresh suit to work with me, so I could change if my clothes got wrinkled(有褶皱的)." Today David wears casual clothes (便装) to the office. He hardly ever wears a necktie. "I am working harder than ever." David says, "and I need to feel comfortable."

More and more companies are allowing their office workers to wear casual clothes to work. In the United States, the change from formal to casual office wear has been gradual. In the early 1990s, many companies allowed their employees to wear casual clothes on Friday. This became known as "casual Friday". "What started out as an extra one-day-a-week benefit for employees has really become an everyday thing." said business consultant Maisly Jones.

Why have so many companies started allowing their employees to wear casual clothes? "One reason is that it's easier for a company to attract new employees if it has a casual dress code." "A lot of young people don't want to dress up for work," says Owen Black, the owner of a software company, "so it's hard to hire people if you have a conservative (保守的) dress code." Another reason is that people seem happier and more productive when they are wearing comfortable clothes. In a study conducted by Levi Company, 85 percent of employers said that they believe that casual dress improves employee morale (心境, 士气). Only 4 percent of employers said that casual dress has a negative influence on productivity. Supporters of casual office wear also argue that a casual dress code helps them save money. "Suits are expensive, if you have to wear one every day," one person said. "For the same amount of money, you can buy a lot more casual clothes."

    On October 23,2016,David Pologruto,a high school physics teacher,was stabbed（刺）by his smart student Jason Haffizulla.Jason got straight A's and was determined to study medicine at Harvard,yet this was his downfall.His physics teacher gave Jason a B,a mark Jason believed would undermine his entrance to Harvard.After receiving his B,Jason took a butcher knife to school and stabbed his physics teacher.

    How can someone as smart as Jason do something so dumb?Studies show there is little or no correlation between IQ and emotional intelligence.

    During my early university years,I regarded myself as an intelligent guy.I got good marks in mathematics, physics,and other subjects.I thought such skills would surely give me a bright future.After one year of study with decent marks,I began to see two major classes of students.The first category of students turned up to few lectures, partied every weekend,enjoyed a great social life,and did minimal work to pass courses.The second category of students were intelligent and hard workers who got good grades and were very focused on their studies.Surely would these intelligent and hard-working students find the great jobs before the other lazier class of students?

    Not so. Students are often shocked upon graduation that their qualifications are not as important as they once thought.Graduates enter the workforce only to realize that co-workers hate them and less intelligent people are the ones receiving promotions.

    Educational skills are useless in some industries when interpersonal skills are absent.You can have great ideas, theories,and solve complex problems,but if you cannot effectively communicate in a persuasive and exciting manner by relating to your fellow humans,you will face an uphill battle in whatever challenges you encounter.It's not that people dislike you because of your intelligence;it's that people dislike you because you're rude and not understanding. The intelligent person with poor communication skills is insensitive or unaware of others' emotions.

    You probably know who Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton is, but you may not have heard of Margaret Munnerlyn Mitchell if you are not interested in foreign literature. Of the outstanding ladies listed below, who is your favorite?

    Jane Austen (16 December, 1775-18 July, 1817)

    Jane Austen, a famous English writer, was born at Steventon, Hampshire. She began writing early in life, although the prejudices (偏见) of her times forced her to have her books published anonymously (匿名).

    She wrote many books of romantic fiction about the gentry (贵族). Her works made her one of the great masters of the English novel. Only four of her novels were printed while she was alive. They were Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814) and (1816).

    Charlotte Bronte (21 April, 1816-31 March, 1855)

    She first published her works, including Jane Eyre, under the false name of Currer Bell. Her first novel, The Professor, was rejected by many publishers. It was not printed until 1857. She is famous for her novel Jane Eyre (1847), which was very popular when it was printed. Jane Eyre was a strong story of a plain, brave, clever woman struggling with her passions, reasons, and social condition.

    Margaret Munnerlyn Mitchell (8 November, 1900-16 August, 1949)

    She was an American author and journalist, a lifelong resident and native of Atlanta, Georgia. One novel by Mitchell was published during her lifetime, the American Civil-War-Era novel, Gone with the wind, for which she won the National Book Award for Most Distinguished Novel of 1936 and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1937. In more recent years, a collection of Mitchell's girlhood writings and a novel she wrote as a teenager, Lost Laysen, have been published. A collection of articles written by Mitchell for The Atlanta Journal was republished in book form.

    Shot in more than 40 locations in L.A., the musical La La Land is "a love letter to the city". To coincide with UK release, we asked a local writer to pick some of the film's amazing settings.

    Judge Harry Pregerson Interchange

    La La Land's opening scene is a six-minute dance that plays out in L.A.'s bad traffic. It is also where the film's leading roles, struggling actress Mia and jazz pianist Sebastian, first encounter each other—in a road anger incident. The scene is said to have been filmed over two hot days in south L.A.

    Smokehouse Restaurant, Burbank

This is the setting for the scene in which Mia discovers Sebastian's talent for the piano. The fictional Lipton's restaurant—where jazz purist Sebastian was reluctant to play Christmas music—is in reality a place long frequented by actors, producers and other show business types. It has been on this spot, across the street from the Warner Bros studio, since 1949. In the film, the outer wall of Lipton's is the You are the Star mural (壁画), which features Marilyn Monroe, Charlie Chaplin and others, which is on the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Wicox Avenue in Hollywood in reality.

    Warner Bros Studios, Burbank

    Mia works at the studio's coffee shop, where Sebastian comes to meet her. As they wander the studio's lot, Mia points out "the window that Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman looked out in Casablanca." It's one of the film's numerous nods to movie history. Warner Brons is still a working studio, with 35 sound stages, 14 exterior sets and visitor tours.

    Cathy's Corner, Mount Hollywood Drive

    This section of the road that winds through Griffth Park is the setting of their dance play. It overlooks the San Fernando Valley and features on the film poster. Cathy's Corner is near famed Mulholland Drive, but prepare for disappointment if you're expecting a park bench and street lamps, which only exist in the movie.

In the early 1990s, Ashok Kumar and I ran TRAFFIC-India, an organisation that worked to stop illegal wildlife trade in India. That was when the first letter from the famous American conservationist (自然环境保护主义者), George Schaller, arrived on our desk. Tibetan antelopes were being killed in their thousands, he wrote, and their wool (毛) was taken illegally to India. "No use in India for antelope wool," we wrote back, not knowing the seriousness of the illegal trade here. Schaller sent us back pictures to prove it and asked us to begin a Tibetan investigation.

We dug around and found that Schaller was right. We realised that antelope wool was the same as shahtoosh, the famous Kashmiri shawl (披肩). The shawl was made from the underwool of Tibetan antelopes, considered the warmest and softest wool in the world. A single shawl needed the wool of three to five antelopes. We had to save the animal.

Then began India's first campaign (运动) to protect Tibetan antelopes. A lot of designers and models joined us. Slowly, the message was being driven home: shahtoosh was out of style, shahtoosh was illegal and alternative (可替代的) shawls would save the antelopes from extinction.

There were, of course, those who tried to buck the campaign. The wife of a well-known army officer of India refused to give up her shahtoosh till she was forced out of it. She said: "I know the lovely antelope is dying and I so want to save it. But, the shawl is so light on my shoulders!"

Someone suggested farming the antelopes, but studies showed that it was an impractical idea. The antelopes could not even survive in low altitude zoos. The underwool is nature's gift to the animal to keep it warm at great heights. Later, we set up a business to process high quality pashmina wool and make an alternative shawl.

In 2000, good news came in from China. With strict policies in place, the number of Tibetan antelopes was on the rise again.