In the early morning, I head for the back door and find 10 inches of snow covering our home. Oh no, Bryan will have to clear the roof again, I think. But Rio rolls onto his back, playing in the white snow and kicking his back legs, delighted. His days in an animal shelter in New Mexico are long forgotten—he's wholeheartedly enjoyed life as a Colorado dog.

    Rio needs a walk. I've planned to attend an emergent webinar, but my husband is busy clearing. Rio pushes my leg with his snout(口鼻部), wondering why we are still inside. We're late for our morning hike. I pull on my boots reluctantly. I don't have time for this!

    Rio and I walk a block through our neighborhood to the beginning of a road. Rio jumps happily into the snow, which is up to his neck. But I walk slowly with heavy steps, worrying about my to-do list, and I don't notice the world around me until Rio starts barking.

    A squirrel (松鼠) chitters at him from a high branch of a pine tree. We haven't seen a squirrel in at least a week because of all the snow storms, so this is a treat for us.

    Once again, my animal teacher is reminding me to enjoy the present moment, and I'm grateful. I take a deep breath and look around. Suddenly there is an explosion(爆炸) of snow. a nearby tree has released its heavy burden, snapping(迅速恢复) back upright. Silver snowflakes(雪花) dust the air around me as a group of birds flees the area, talking to one another as they fly overhead.

I watch and listen in wonder for what seems like a full minute. There will be 1440 munites on this day, but this is the one I'll remember most. Then I look back to the earth and there is my sweet dog, waiting patiently for a treat. He knows I'll want to celebrate this moment we've just shared. “I love you, Rio!” I say as I give him a cookie. He has trained me well!

    When we walk home, I smile broadly, spirit washed clean, ready for whatever the day may bring.

    Jack threw some papers on my desk and looked at me angrily. “What's wrong?” I asked. “Next time you want to change anything, ask me first,” he shouted and left.

    “How dare he treat me like that?” I thought. I had just changed one long sentence, and correct grammar—something I thought I was paid to do. In fact I had been warned. On the first day one of  my workmates took me aside and reminded me of his temper. As the weeks went by, I came to look down on Jack.

    One day Jack's other papers left me in tears so I stormed into his office angrily. “What?” he asked.

    Suddenly I knew what I must do. After all, he earned it. “Jack, the way you've been treating me is wrong. I've never had anyone speak to me that way. As a professional, it's wrong for me to allow it to continue,” I said. Jack smiled nervously, “Susan, I make you a promise that I will be a friend. I will treat you as you should be treated, with respect and kindness,” he said. With these words, I left.

    Jack avoided me the rest of the week, and never questioned my work again. I brought cookies to the office one day and left some on his desk. Another day I left a note: “Hope your day is going great.” Over the next few weeks, Jack reappeared , but there were no more Jack's papers. One year later I discovered I had breast cancer, and was scared. The statistics (统计数字) were not great for my long-term survival.

    On the last day of my hospital stay, Jack came and silently handed me a bundle with several bulbs inside. “Tulips (郁金香) ,” he said. I smiled, not understanding. He cleared his throat. “If you plant them when you get home, they'll come up next spring. I think you will be there to see them when they come up.” Tears clouded my eyes and I whispered: “Thank you.”Jack held my hands firmly, saying, “You are welcome. You can't see it now, but next spring you will see the colors I picked out for you.”

    I have seen those red and white striped（有条纹的） tulips push through the soil every spring for over ten years now. This past September the doctor declared me cured. At a moment when I was praying for just the right word, a man with very few words said all the right things. After all, that's what friends do.

    Hollywood's only Chinese-American superhero has stirred up heated debate on social media after she spoke out against discrimination in American show business.

    Chloe Bennet, a Chinese-American actress who stars in Marvel's trending TV series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., explained on social media why she changed her last name from Wong to Bennet, arguing that Hollywood is “racist” and wouldn't cast her with a last name that made them “uncomfortable.”

    “Changing my last name doesn't change the fact that my BLOOD is half Chinese, that I lived in China, speak Mandarin, or that I was culturally raised both American and Chinese,” replied Bennet.

    Bennet's remarks come after Ed Skrein stepped down from his role as Major Ben Daimion in the upcoming Hellboy movie for fear that his participation would be “whitewashing” a character of Asian descent(后裔).

    Racial barriers have been an essential problem in Hollywood. According to research conducted by the University of Southern California in 2015, nearly three-quarters of all characters in the top 100 films of 2014 were white, while only 5.3 percent of Asian artists can share the same privilege. In another report released in 2017, only 3.4 percent of over 1,000 surveyed films had an Asian director.

    “Asian artists can hardly stand out in Hollywood. Most roles starred by Asians are fixed and stereotyped, as if all Asians are good at math and martial arts. There is an invisible discrimination lurking(潜伏) in show business, as the difference of your skin color may bring disparity in your income and opportunities,” said Alex She, a New York-based Chinese-American photographer and movie maker.

    Bennet's experience has led to heated debate on both Chinese and foreign social media.

    It was almost the worst birthday of Abraham Lincoln's life.

    On February 11, 1861 (the day before he turned fifty-two), Lincoln left for Washington to become the nation's sixteenth President. As he left home in Springfield, Illinois, Lincoln handed his son Robert a black oilskin(油布) bag, and told him to keep it carefully. He did not tell Robert what was inside.

    Unknown to his seventeen-year-old son, Lincoln had placed his newly written inaugural speech in the bag. It was to be the most important speech he ever made. And it was his only copy.

When the train arrived in Indianapolis—the first stop on the long journey—Lincoln rode off in a special carriage without his family. Robert walked from the station to the local hotel.

    When Robert arrived at the hotel, he learned that his family's rooms were not ready. So he asked that the bag should be held at the front desk. Then he went off to be with friends.

    On his return, Robert found his father waiting anxiously. Where was the bag? Robert explained that he had checked it at the desk.

An angry Lincoln sped to the hall and leaped over the front desk. He began searching through a huge pile of luggage.

    As puzzled guests looked on, Lincoln dragged from the pile a familiar-looking black bag and opened it, only to find someone else's dirty clothes. It was the wrong bag. Back he went to the pile.

    At last he found the valuable bag and the speech inside. Lincoln handed it to his son and said strictly, “Now you keep it!”

    It was the one and only time, Robert said, that his father had ever lost his temper at him. But with his speech fond and his birthday yet to be celebrated, Abraham Lincoln grew cheerful. As Robert proudly recalled, “Father did not scold(责骂).”

    The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge, the world's longest sea-based project, comprises four parts: a 22.9-kilometer steel bridge, two artificial islands, a submerged sea tunnel extending for 6.7 kilometers, as well as leading bridges that connect the bridge to the cities.

    For a bridge project, designers prefer to build all the structure on the ground, and only choose the tunnel when there is no alternative. However, for the HZMB, the most practical design is to integrate bridge, island and tunnel to form a complete cross-sea channel.

    "The Pearl River Estuary （河口）holds a world-level shipping channel. Smooth traffic should be guaranteed. And the location is near the Hong Kong International Airport. With about 2,000 flights taking off and landing at the airport, the bridge cannot be built too high for safety reasons, said Meng Fanchao, chief designer of the project. ^"But you cannot have a submerged sea tunnel without any support. That forced us to build the artificial islands."

    Chinese engineers declared a trail in installing deep-immersed tunnel tubes. There is no model for us to refer to as all the cases are shallow-buried tubes, said Meng.

    "For lack of experience, the installation of the first tube lasted for 96 hours," said Yin Haiqing, deputy manager of the Project Management Department. "Everyone was exhausted when we made it."

    The 6.7-kilometer tunnel is the world's longest submerged sea tunnel.

    Two artificial islands, covering an area of 200,000 square meters, help create a smooth transition between bridge sections and tunnels. Different from traditional island, the engineers put 120 steel cylinders （圆柱）with a 22-meter diameter （直径）into the seabed, make out the shape of an island, and fill the island with soil. It is an innovative way they adopted to build the artificial island, making it firmer, more efficient and friendly to the marine ecology.

    The HZMB provides a fixed link between the two Chinese economic centres Hong Kong and Macau and the mainland of China at Zhuhai.

Candy comes in many flavors. Some taste like fruit. Some taste like flowers. Some are chewy, like taffy (太妃糖) and gum. Hard candies are, well. hard! So, they last a long time.

But, in spoken English, there are some types of candy that you cannot eat. For example, you can't eat eye candy. Eye candy is a person-man or woman-who is very good-looking. So, looking at this person is a treat for the eye, just like candy is a treat for the taste buds.

Do you hear of candy coat? Of course it is not a coat made of candy. But you can say I don't candy coat the truth. What does candy-coating something mean? Well, some pills are covered with a coat of thin, sweet candy. The coating makes swallowing the pill easier, and it may hide a bad taste. So, candy coating a difficult truth or situation means you don't directly discuss its bad parts.

After talking about candy you may want to eat some candies. However, some people dislike things that are very sweet, especially adults. But even if you do not like candy, you can still be called a kid in a candy store. This expression means a person is very happy to do something or to simply be somewhere. Imagine a child going from one candy display to the next, not knowing which candy to choose!

Talking about children brings us to another expression: as easy as taking candy from a baby. Think about a small, helpless baby holding a piece of candy. Taking it would be very easy—mean, but easy. So, use this expression when you are talking about something that may be simple to do, but probably not right.