It was New Year's Eve. Everyone in the city was getting ready for the three-day celebration, including the gardener of the king's garden.

    There was a large group of monkeys living in the garden. They always followed the advice of their leader, the monkey king.

    The gardener wanted to celebrate the New Year's holiday, just like everybody else, so he decided to hand over his duties to the monkeys.

    He went to the monkey king and said, "My honorable friend, would you do a little favor for me? New Year is coming. I wish to celebrate it. So I must be away for three days. Here in this lovely garden. There are plenty of fruits and berries and nuts to eat. You and your subjects may come and eat as much as you wish. In return, please water the young trees and plants while I'm gone."

The monkey king replied, "Don't worry, my friend! We will do a terrific job! Have a good time!"

    The gardener showed the monkeys where the buckets were kept. Feeling confident, he left to celebrate the holiday. The monkeys called after him, "Happy New Year!"

    The next day, the monkeys filled up the buckets, and began watering the young trees and plants. Then the king of the monkeys addressed them,"It is not good to waste water. Therefore, pull up each young tree or plant before watering. Inspect（检查）it to see how long the roots（根）are. Then give more water to the ones with long roots, and less water to the ones with short roots. That way we will not waste water, and the gardener will be pleased!"

    Without a second thought, the other monkeys followed their king's orders.

    Meanwhile, a wise man was walking by the garden. He saw the monkeys pulling up all the lovely young trees and plants, measuring their roots, and carefully pouring water into the holes in the ground. He said, "Oh foolish monkeys, what do you think you're doing to the king's beautiful garden?"

    They answered, "We are watering the trees and plants, without wasting water! We were commanded to do so by our king."

    The man said, "If this is the wisdom of the wisest among you — the king — what are the rest of you like? Intending to do a worthwhile deed, your foolishness turns it into disaster!"

    To a growing number of US students in China, study in the ancient country is no longer just a cultural experience it has become an important part of their future professional careers.

    Sam Gor, a 26-year-old student from Santa Clara, a county near San Francisco, said the purpose of his studies in Beijing was to help him find a good job when he goes back to the United States. "Culture matters," he said. "But more importantly, to learn Chinese and get a better understanding of the country may help me professionally." As a new student at Beijing Language and Culture University (BLCU), Gor hopes to find a job in Santa Clara's local government when he goes back home in one year. "I need to learn Chinese if I want the job, as we have a large Chinese community there."

    Gor is not alone in his thinking. While the number of US students in China has grown from less than 100 in the early 1980s to more than 10,000 for the time being. Many of them are here to boost(提高) a professional skill as much as to enjoy a new culture.

    “In the past, foreign students came to China simply for our culture,” said Xu Quihan, director of BLCU's foreign students' office. “But because of China's rapid economic and social development, being able to speak Chinese has become a useful tool to a student's future job”

    There are more US students who choose to stay in the country instead of going back after graduation. Stephanie Schubmehlo, a 23-year-old from Rochester, New York State, said she would like to stay in Beijing after graduation. “I love the city, and I can earn myself a living here if I can speak good Chinese,” she said, adding that some of the US students she knows shared the same idea.

    Living and dealing with kids can be a tough job these days, but living and dealing with parents can be even tougher.

    If I have learned anything in my 16 years, it is that communication is very important, both when you disagree and when you get along. With any relationship, you need to let other person know how you are feeling. If you are not able to communicate, you drift apart()疏远). When you are mad at your parents, or anyone else, not talking to them doesn't solve anything.

    Communication begins with the concerns of another. It means that you can't just come home from school, go up to your room and ignore everyone. Even if you just say "Hi", and see how their day was for five minutes, it is better than nothing.

    If you looked up the word "communication" in a dictionary, it would say "the exchange of ideas, the conveyance（表达）of information, correspondence （通信）, means of communication: a letter or a message". To maintain (保持) a good relationship, you must keep communication strong. Let people know how you feel, even if it's just by writing a note.

    When dealing with parents, you always have to make them feel good about how they are doing as a parent. If you are trying to make them see something as you see it, tell them that you'll listen to what they have to say, but ask them politely to listen to you. Yelling or walking away only makes the situation worse.

    This is an example: one night, Sophie went to a street party with her friends. She knew she had to be home by midnight after the fireworks, but she didn't feel she could just ask to go home. That would be rude. After all, they had been nice enough to take her along with them. Needless to say, she was late getting home. Her parents were mad at first, but when Sophie explained why she was late, they weren't as mad and let the incident go. Communication is the key factor here. If Sophie's parents had not been willing to listen, Sophie would have been in a lot of trouble.

    Communication isn't a one-way deal: it goes both ways. Just remember: if you get into a situation like Sophie's, telling the other person how you feel and listening is the key factor to communication.

    Carrie Gracie is knowledgeable about China and its affairs. She also has a reputation as a generous colleague. She has resigned from her job as China editor because her employers will not pay her at the same rate as they pay the handful of men who do a similarly challenging and important job.

    She has resigned because she refused to go on colluding (共谋) with the BBC's dishonesty about its failure to give women and men equal pay for equal work.

    Gracie was recruited to the job, because she had all the talent and skills the BBC needed to cover the difficult international and domestic story of the rise of China. One of the conditions she set for taking it was equal pay with the BBC's other international editors, familiar names including Jon Sopel in Washington and Jeremy Bowen in the Middle East.

    Last summer, the government forced the BBC to publish which of the familiar names on radio and TV earned over ￡150, 000. The results exposed an astonishing pay gap. They also showed Gracie that her employers had misled her.

    Gracie sets out all her efforts to get her bosses to do what they had originally promised her, but they fail to respond adequately. Instead, they prevaricate (搪塞) and offer her a pay rise that still would not have delivered equality. They thought they could buy her off; they thought that the reputational hazard she was running would scare her away from the fight.

    The BBC is wrong this time! Gracie has chosen to resign rather than give in because she thinks that it is her responsibility to stop the BBC doing something stupid. She is fighting for women's legal rights.

    Gracie said she hoped she wouldn't be remembered as the woman who complained about money, but as a great journalist. She is proving that they are two sides of the same invaluable coin.

    Carrie Gracie's dispute with the BBC isn't about money—it's about dignity!

    Earthquakes strike suddenly at any time of the day or night, but there's no way to tell when. If an earthquake happens, it may cause many deaths, injuries and damage. So you need a good preparation ahead of time. Decide how and where your family will get together if separated. Choose an out-of-state friend or relative that the family members can call after the quake to report where they are and how they are. Know the safe places in each room: under the strong tables, desks, or against inside walls. Keep enough food, water and other things, including a flashlight, a radio, medicines and clothing.

    During the earthquake, you should keep a clear head and never be too nervous to know what to do. Protect your head and neck with your arms. If possible, take a book, a pillow or any other things to protect yourself from falling glass and ruins. If you are indoors, you must immediately lie under any strong furniture. If outdoors, move to an open area away from trees, buildings, walls or power poles. If you are in a narrow valley, move to the centre of it and look up for falling stones. If you are in a car, move to the side of the road and stop the car. Do not stop near buildings, power lines or on or under bridges. Stay in your car until the shaking stops.

    Do not move a badly injured person unless he is in great danger after the earthquake. Do not use the telephone immediately unless there is a serious injury or fire. Turn on your radio for instructions and news reports. Be prepared for aftershocks. If you want to leave your home, post a message inside your home telling your family members where you can be found.

    Nowadays six Amazon Scout delivery robots rolled out in a pilot program in Snohomish County, Wash. The robots carry meals, groceries and packages to homes and offices in this region just north of Seattle. They have appeared on the sidewalks of London, Beijing and other cities and communities worldwide. These machines must overcome pedestrian legs, naughty dogs and broken pavement, which raises some questions.

    These services are gaining attraction as a growing number of city residents expect immediate or scheduled delivery for just about everything. Between 2017 and 2018 online retail sales in the U.S. increased by 16 percent. On the final step of all these deliveries, called the last mile, humans on bicycles, motorized scooters (电动车) or large delivery trucks typically deliver packages. All the vehicles compete for space on busy urban streets. "Deliveries are trending upwards in all crowded city centers, and if city and state leaders don't start thinking about creative solutions like robot deliveries, we can expect even worse traffic jams," says Paul Mackie, director of a transportation policy research center in Arlington.

    A study by this center found 73 percent of delivery vehicles in Arlington were parked outside of authorized areas, often blocking bike lanes and crosswalks. By moving the last step of deliveries from the road to the sidewalk, cities could reduce traffic jams and solve the parking problem entirely, Mackie says.

    Companies such as Amazon are not developing this delivery technology simply to clear up urban traffic. Self-driving vehicles and sidewalk robots could cut down last-mile delivery costs in cities by as much as 40 percent, according to a 2018 report by a consultancy firm. A delivery robot can cost thousands of dollars to manufacture, and most currently require human management and conservation. But in the long run companies that use autonomous delivery vehicles in the next several years could end up saving billions of dollars, the report stated.