The United States has always been a country of many cultures. Before Europeans came to North America, many groups of Native Americans lived here. Different Native American groups had different cultures. The first Europeans in the United States were from England and Holland, but immigrants came from all European countries. Many people also immigrated from Asia and Africa. Sadly, many Africans were brought to the United States as slaves. Many immigrants come from Latin America too. Today, the United States has people from more cultures than ever.

    In the 19th century, people spoke of the United States as a “melting pot.” People thought that all immigrates should forget their native cultures and languages and become English-speaking Americans. They felt that people should assimilate-join American culture. However, not everyone wanted to assimilate completely. Many people tried to keep parts of their cultures, such as foods, customs, and languages. However, their children often forgot their parents' or grandparents' language. But most Americans, even those whose families have been here a long time, can tell the countries their relatives came from. And of course, new immigrants take great pride in their curare and language.

    For all of these reasons, melting pot is no longer a good way to describe the United States. Instead, people now call the United States a “salad bowl.” They say salad bowl because in a salad, you can still see all of the individual parts (lettuce, tomato, and so on), but all the different parts mixed together and begin to take on the flavor of one another.

    Thinking about the future isn't special skill. Actually, everyone does it all the time. We schedule future activities and appointments on our calendars. We make to-do lists, a promise to ourselves of how we will spend our future time and energy. We look up the weekend's weather. We make predictions about the results of sporting events. We practice, study and train for upcoming events that matter to us. We daydream about events we're eagerly looking forward to. We worry about others.

    Most of this common future thinking is about the near future: the next few minutes, hours, days, weeks, months or maybe even the next few years of our lives. Little time is spent thinking about what our lives will be like or what actions we should prepare to take in the far future: ten years, twenty years, or even fifty years from now. This kind of far-future thinking is the domain of professional futurists.

    Futurists are trained to imagine distant realities that seem impossible to others: technologies that don't exist yet, great changes to laws, strange diseases most likely to infect us in the year 2031. Why indeed think about such distant futures? Are there psychological and social benefits to imagining the world, and our lives, decades in advance? And if so, what does it take to become good at imagining the far future?

    These were the fascinating questions that we recently explored with other futurists. I was personally inspired by the discussions, and learned a lot about how futurists imagine the future of life. They specifically wanted to use their imaginations to make the world a better place. Another big benefit for me was that this way of thinking is a skill that can be taught. Society would benefit greatly if we all learned the valuable skills that enable us to think about what things would be like in the future.

    Do you want to get home from work knowing you have made a real difference in someone's life?

    If yes, don't care about sex or age! Come and join us, and then you'll make it.

Position: Volunteer Social Care Assistant

(No Pay with Free Meals)

Place: Manchester

Hours: Part Time

    We are now looking for volunteers to support people with learning disabilities to live active lives! Only 4 days left. Don't miss the chance of lending your warm hands to help others!

Role:

    You will provide people with learning disabilities with all aspects of their daily lives. You will help them to develop new skills. You will help them to protect their rights and their safety. But your primary(首要的;主要的) concern is to let them know they are valued.

Skills and Experience Required:

    You will have the right values and great listening skills. You will be honest and patient. You will have the ability to drive a car and to communicate in fluent written and spoken English since you'll have to help those people with different learning disabilities. Previous care-related experience will be a great advantage for you.

    Imagine walking through an ancient city, then climbing a gate tower to take in a wonderful view of the city and its more than 600-year-old walls. You can hear the city's heartbeat in the air. This is the Ancient City of Pingyao in Shanxi Province, a place that should definitely be on your travel route if you enjoy history or ancient architecture since its origins can be traced back to more than 2,700 years ago.

    Located in the center of Shanxi Province, Pingyao is the hometown of Jin merchants, a group of merchants who actively dominated (支配) a booming commodity market throughout China for more than 500 years, especially during the Ming and Qing dynasties. After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the city's agriculture and manufacturing industries developed rapidly. Following China's reform and opening-up in the 1980s, Pingyao struggled with the transition from a managed economy to the current market-oriented economy. During this time, the city government sought out new ways to break through this economic bottleneck.

    Finally in the winter of 1997, opportunity came knocking. Through the efforts of the city government, Pingyao earned its place on the UNESCO World Heritage list, which caused the entire world to take notice of the city.

    Since the city's fame has risen, locals in Pingyao have deepened their understanding of the conservation efforts preserving the historical relics in their hometown. Meanwhile the city administration has continued to upgrade itself through a strategy that follows the pillars of “conservation, entrepreneurship, development and protection.”

    Currently, the city is focused on establishing a sustainable industry that will enable it to continue to grow while also protecting its relics and introducing them to the world.

    Jane Austen has often been considered a woman who led a narrow, inhibited life and who rarely traveled. These assertions are far from the truth. Jane Austen traveled more than most women of her time and was quite involved in the lives of her brother, so much that it often interfered with her writing. Like most writers, Jane drew on her experiences and her dreams for the future and incorporated them into her writing. Her characters reflect the people around her; the main characters reflect parts of herself. In Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice, Elinor Dashwood and Elizabeth Bennet reflect aspects of Jane Austen and dreams she had that were never fulfilled.

    The biographies about Jane Austen describe the facts of her life in a step-by-step manner. They tend to be repetitive since she did not leave behind a rich fabric of day-to-day life. Yet Jane Austen is known not because of the factual details of her life; she is not remembered two hundred years after her death because she had six siblings and was a wonderful aunt to her nieces and nephews. Rather, Jane Austen is remembered because of what she wrote. Only through reading her literature does one get a taste of the real Jane Austen, the Jane Austen who dreamed and made plans for the future that failed to materialize. Only by analyzing June Austen's characters do we get an understanding of the true author.

    Sense and Sensibility's Elinor Dashwood mirrors Jane Austen's strait-laced sense of propriety (礼节) and her concern and care about family members. For example, after her father died, Jane managed to gather herself together and send her father's pocket compass and pair of scissors to her brother Frank as a memento of their father. Elinor in Sense and Sensibility is the sister who holds down the family and discusses the practicality of situations. She too distributes cherished mementos of her father when he dies. Elinor is the sister who is concerned with the welfare of her relations and takes it upon herself to look after their well-being.

    Jane can also be considered the backbone of her family. After she dies, the family is not as close as they were during her lifetime. Jane became very close with two of her nieces, Fanny Austen and Anna Austen. She counseled them on men and marriage when they reached the age of choosing a suitor. She often helped with delivering her sister-in-law's babies. During her thirties, she lived with her brother Frank for several weeks. She cooked the meals for his family and cared for his children while his wife was confined to her bed. Like the character she creates in Elinor, she sticks by her family and helps them when they need her.

    Austen's life closely parallels that of Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice. Austen begins the novel with the line, “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife”. This statement reflects the opinion of the time that a woman had to be married or else she had no social standing. Just as Elizabeth and her sisters feel immense pressure to get married and procure a good match, so too did Jane. Until she was twenty-five she still retained a small spark of hope that she would one day marry and have children.

    The most significant similarity between Jane and Lizzy is their close relationships with their sisters. Jane and her sister Cassandra were extremely close. When they moved into a house in Chawton, they shared a bedroom. They were dependent upon each other and supported each other in all aspects of their lives. They supported each other's decisions and wrote to each other when apart. Lizzy and her older sister Jane were extremely close. They too supported each other's decisions and were always there for the other. They discussed suitors and marriage just as Jane and her sister must have done.

    All of Jane's female characters end up happily married, a state Jane herself never felt. A woman was defined in terms of her husband; if she did not marry, she had nothing. Well into her twenties, Jane still had dreams of getting married. When she was twenty-five, Harris Bigg-Wither, a brother of her good friends, proposed marriage to Jane. At first she accepted: she would become mistress of a large estate, and be able to ensure the comfort of her parents to the end of their days. Most importantly, she would have children and raise a family of her own. The next day, however, Jane reneged the proposal. She did not love him and did not want a marriage based on nothing but money. After this proposal, Jane gave up all hopes of ever having a family of her own. Instead, she fulfilled her dreams through her characters and found “passion” through them. All her characters marry for love (which happens to also be financially advantageous). They make Jane's dreams become a reality within her imagination. _____ . As children reflect upon the parents and often mirror aspects of their parents, so too did many of Jane's characters mirror herself and the people around her.

Best Way to Save Money

    Although the best way to save money can vary from person to person, depending on age, family size and other characteristics, there are still some easy things that all shoppers can do to keep more money in their bank accounts.

    Avoid Impulse (冲动的) Purchases

    When you shop, a best way to save money is to have a plan in mind to help you avoid impulse purchases. For instance, you might leave your credit cards at home and only carry the exact amount of cash that you will need for your planned purchase. Some shoppers agree to discuss any purchases over a certain dollar amount with their spouses (配偶) first.

    Know When to Pay for Quality

    Sometimes the best way to save money in the long term is to spend a little more money right now. A good piece of furniture can stay in the family for decades. A high-quality pair of shoes will last longer than a bargain pair and prevent foot pain. Leaner cuts of meat and organic produce provide health benefits for your family.

    Buy Secondhand

    Check classified ads, thrift stores and garage sales for used clothing, toys, furniture, and much more available at a part of their original cost. For the most secondhand savings, check out groups like Freecycle where members offer unwanted items for free to anyone willing to pick them up.

    Borrow Instead of Buy

    If you're only going to use something once, try to borrow it instead of spending your money on it. Borrow a tool from your neighbor. Swap books with a friend. Check out the resources at your local library. You'll also be reducing disorder in your home.