Mother's Day is a time of memory and celebration for Mom. The earliest Mother's Day celebrations date back to ancient Greece in honour of Rhea, the Mother of Gods. During the 1600s, England celebrated a day called “mothering Sunday”. Celebrated on the fourth Sunday of Lent(四旬斋)，“mothering Sunday” honoured the mothers England.

    During the time many of the England's poor worked as servants for the wealthy.AS most jobs were located far from their homes, the servants would live at the houses of their employers. On Mothering Sunday, the servants would have the day off and were encouraged to return home and spend the day with their mothers. A special cake, called the mothering cake, was often brought along.

As Christianity(基督教) spread throughout Europe, the celebration changed to honour the “Mother Church”—the spiritual power that gave them life and protected them from harm. Over time the church festival combined with mothering Sunday celebration. People began honouring their mothers as well as the church.

    In the United States Mother's Day was first suggested in 1872 by Julia Ward Howe as a day devoted to peace. Then in 1907 Ana Jarvis, from Philadelphia, began a campaign(运动) to establish a national Mother's Day. Ms Jarvis persuaded her mother's church in Grafton, Virginia to celebrate Mother's Day on the second anniversary of her mother's death, the 2nd day Sunday of May. By the next year Mother's Day was also celebrated in Philadelphia.

    Ms Jarvis and her supporters began to write to ministers, businessmen, and politicians demanding to establish a national Mother's Day. It was successful as by 1911 Mother's Day was celebrated in almost every state. President Woodrow Wilson, in 1914, made the official announcement that Mother's Day was a national holiday and it was to be held each year on the 2nd Sunday of May.

    While many countries of the world celebrate their own Mother's Day at different times throughout the year, there are some countries such as Denmark, Finland, Italy, Turkey, Australia, and Belgium which also celebrate Mother's Day on the 2nd Sunday of May.

    Closeness and independence are both important in our life. Though all humans need both of them, women tend to focus on the first and men on the second. It is as if their lifeblood ran in different directions.

    These differences can give women and men differing views of the same situation, as they did in the case of couple I will call Tracy and Brian. When Brian's old high school friend called him at work and announced he'd be in town on business the following month, Brian invited him to stay for the weekend. That evening he informed Tracy that they were going to have a houseguest, and that he and his friend would go out together the first night to chat like old times. Tracy was upset. She was going to be away on business the week before, and the Friday night when Brian would be out with his friend would be her first night home. But what upset her the most was that Brian had made these plans on his own and informed her of them, rather then discussing them with her before extending the invitation.

    Tracy would never make plans, for a weekend or an evening, without first checking with Brian. She can't understand why he doesn't show her the same courtesy and consideration that she shows him. But when she protests, Brian says, "I can't say to my friend, 'I have to ask my wife for permission'!"

    To Brian, checking with his wife means seeking permission, which implies that he is not independent, not free to act on his own. To Tracy, checking with her husband makes her feel good to know and show that she is involved with someone, that her life is bound up with someone else's.

    Tracy and Brian both felt upset by this incident because it cut to the core of their primary concerns. Tracy was hurt because she sensed a failure of closeness in their relationship: He didn't care about her as much as she cared about him. And he was hurt because he felt she was trying to control him and limit his freedom.

The Trip to Alishan in Taiwan

    It was the fourth day of our trip to Taiwan, bright but cold. After a good breakfast we put on our jackets and gloves, pulled on our hats and got into a car. We travelled for about two hours, up, and up, and up the mountain road.

    We finally arrived at the top of the mountain. It was Christmas Day. So imagine my joy to see icicles(冰柱)hanging form branches and the whiteness of the scenery. Indeed, it was my first Christmas in the northern hemisphere(半球)and, guess what? It even started snowing too. How amazingly exciting for me to have Christmas in my grandmother's hometown, and to experience icicles and snow. Alishan is really beautiful, especially seen form this dizzy height. After Sun parked the car, we got out and looked down through the trees. It hadn't snowed hard enough so there was no snow on the ground, just loads of pine needles. There was a most wonderful smell of pine sap(松液)drifting up to us form the ground. It was very quiet, except for the twittering of birds, and the odd car passing along the road. Quietness in Taiwan is something to treasure.

    Over the road was a small stall so we went over to it. They were selling some drink steaming hot in paper cups, too hot to hold immediately. We jumped around to get warm. There was a cool wind blowing up the side of the mountain, and the clouds above us were moving along quickly. I could imagine there was quite a strong wind blowing up there, so I was glad we were down on the ground! The drink cooled down fairly rapidly. I picked up my share and, wow, what a lovely smell was coming from it. It was the smell of ginger(姜).I took a sip. How delicious, and so this was ginger tea, which I had never tried before. It warmed my body so quickly that I could feel the heat travel right down to my fingers and to my toes. This was very good stuff. And then it was time to leave as we were going down to Hualian to attend a Buddha bi-bi, eat hot pot, and drink some Shaoxing rice wine.

    To err is human. To blame the other guy is even more human. Common sense is not all that common. Why tell the truth when you can come up with a good excuse?

    These three popular misquotes (戏谑的引语) are meant to be jokes, and yet they tell us a lot about human nature. To err, or to make mistakes, is indeed a part of being human, but it seems that most people don't want to accept the responsibility for the problem. Perhaps it is the natural thing to do. The original quote about human nature went like this: "To err is human, to forgive, divine (神圣的)." This saying mirrors a deal people should be forgiving of others' mistakes. Instead, we tend to do the opposite-find someone else to pass the blame on to.

    However, taking responsibility for something that went wrong is a making of great maturity.

    Common sense is what we call clear thought. Having common sense means having a good general plan that will make things work well, and it also means staying with the plan. Common sense tells you that you take an umbrella out into a rainstorm, but you leave the umbrella home when you hear a weather forecast for sunshine. Common sense does not seem to be common for large organizations, because there are so many things going on that one person cannot be in charge of everything. People say that in a large company," the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing."

    And what is wrong with a society that thinks that making up a good excuse is like creating a work of art? One of the common problems with making excuses is that people, especially young people, get the idea that it's okay not to be totally honest all the time. There is a corollary (直接推论) to that: if good excuse is "good" even if it isn't honest, then where is the place of the truth?

When I grow up

    In kindergarten, my class was asked to draw pictures, showing what we wanted to be when we grew up. Our drawings were expected to display our dream occupations. I remember pictures of ballerinas dancing, firefighters putting out a blaze, and astronauts leaping across the moon.

    My picture showed a figure with brown hair holding a box of orange juice beside a counter. Underneath was my handwriting: "When I grow up, I want to work at Market Basket because it would be fun to swipe (刷) orange juice across the scanner." Out of everything, my five­year­old self wished to work at the local grocery store.

    When we are young, questions of what we want to be when we grow up are common. Yet we are not expected to respond with an answer that is likely to come true. However, when we become teens, we are asked the very same questions twice as often. The difference is, now we are supposed to answer with confidence.

    Teens are expected to know exactly what we want to be and how we are going to achieve that goal. However, not all of us can be so sure. Even though I am in high school, I cannot answer with certainty. But I don't consider that a bad thing. How am I supposed to know what I will want to spend my time doing at age 40?

    When I think about the future, I definitely don't see myself working at Market Basket, but in reality, if that was what would make me happy, I would do it. So, the next time someone asks me what I want to be when I grow up, I will simply say "happy".

    Happiness is a destination for everyone. We may want to walk different paths in life, but we all want to be happy wherever we end up. Choose your path, but don't worry too much about choosing wisely. Make a mistake or two and try new things. But always remember, if you're not happy, you're not at the end of your journey yet.

    At 1,345 meters above sea level, Ben Nevis is not the world's most difficult mountain to climb. But things get considerably tricky if instead of hiking shoes you put on a pair of 5-inch high heels, especially if you're a guy. One English teenager recently proved that it was not impossible.

    Ben Conway, a 19-year-old art student from London, recently took up the challenge as a way to stand out in an application for a scholarship for the School of Communication Arts in Brixton. He started his unusual high-heel climb at 8 a.m., on June 27, and was joined by Callum MacKenzie Allen, a friend from his art foundation year, who videotaped the whole thing for a two-minute video that was used as his application project. The whole climb took five hours and wasn't the smoothest experience.

    Halfway up Ben Nevis, one of his shoes broke, so he had to tape the shoes to his feet to make sure they stayed on. The weather didn't make it easy for him either, as he claimed that it rained pretty much the whole time, and he had to go against 40 to 50 miles an hour winds. Due to these difficult conditions, Ben and his friend had to turn back after reaching 900 meters up the mountain.

    Besides providing a unique art school application project, the high-heel climb also allowed the 19-year-old to raise some money for worthy causes (事业), like Sal's Shoes, which provides footwear for barefoot children around the world.

    "Raising money for charity brings happiness to people's lives and if I can do something ridiculous and bring someone happiness, then that's what it's all about." Ben said.