You have to shake hands when you're coming or going in Germany, but in Britain you usually only shake hands when you meet someone for the first time.

    You have to give your present in public in the Middle East to show it's not a bribe(贿赂), but it's good manners to give your present in private in Asia.

    You mustn't give cutlery（刀具） in Latin America because it suggests that you want to cut off the relationship. You mustn't give a clock in China because the Chinese word for clock is similar to the word for funeral(葬礼).

    “Come any time” means “I want you to visit me” in India. If you don't suggest a time and arrange a visit immediately, an Indian will think you are refusing the invitation.

    Offices are usually closed on Friday in Moslem countries.

    It's bad manners to discuss business at social occasion in India.

    In an English pub, you have to take your turn to buy a “round” drink for everyone in your group.

    Leonardo da Vinci, one of the greatest thinkers in the world, began his career as an artist. Very little is known about Leonardo's early life. He was born in 1452 in the town of Vinci. As a boy, Leonardo showed a great interest in drawing, sculpting and observing nature.

    However, because Leonardo was born to parents who were not married to each other, he was barred from some studies and professions. He trained as an artist after moving to Florence with his father in the 1460s. It was an exciting time to be in Florence, one of the cultural capitals of Europe. Leonardo trained with one of the city's very successful artists, Andrea del Verrocchio. He was a painter, sculptor and gold worker. Verrocchio told his students that they needed to understand the body's bones and muscles when drawing people.

    Leonardo took the teacher's advice very seriously. He spent several periods of his life studying the human body by taking apart and examining dead bodies. While training as an artist, Leonardo also learned about and improved on relatively new painting methods at the time. One was the use of perspective(透视) to show depth. A method called “sfumato” helped to create a cloudy effect to suggest distance. “Chiaroscuro” is a method using light and shade as a painterly effect.

    Leonardo's first known portrait now hangs in the National Gallery in Washington, D. C. He made this painting of a young woman named Ginevra de' Benci around 1474. The woman has a pale face with dark hair. In the distance, Leonardo painted the Italian countryside.

    He soon received attention for his extraordinary artistic skills. Around 1475 he was asked to draw an angel in Verrocchio's painting “Baptism of Christ.” One story says that when Verrocchio saw Leonardo's addition to the painting, he was so amazed by his student's skill that he said he would never paint again.

    In the world, football is the most popular sport. This is because many countries have wonderful teams for the World Cup. The World Cup is held every four years.

    To remember 2002 FIFA World Cup ,children from different countries and more than 60 children from Japanese schools came together and spent three weekends drawing a big picture called “Dream(梦幻) World Cups ”in Japan .The children drew animals, flowers and people playing football under a blue bright sky. They wished each football team good luck by drawing the flags(旗帜)of all the countries that will take part in the World Cup in Japan and South Korea. The picture was put up in a park near a playground in Yokohama .Some football teams will have games there.

    Are you a football fan(迷)？The World Cup makes more and more people interested in football. Teenagers(青少年)like playing and watching football .Many of them love some football stars so much that they get the pictures of their favorite players on the walls of their rooms. That is the way to show their love for the World Cup as children in Japan.

    Nearly everyone has bad habits. That's because, try as we might, bad habits are hard to break. On the other side, good habits, such as eating more healthfully or exercising regularly, never seem to stick. As a result, most people throw up their hands and surrender.

    But now a new book, Better Than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives by best-selling author Gretchen Rubin, offers some useful solutions.

    Rubin, who became interested in habits during her research on happiness, which resulted in two popular books, The Happiness Project (2009) and Happier at Home (2012), found that our inability to master unwanted behaviors was a major downer (令人沮丧的因素). So, after guiding millions of readers down the path of true contentedness, Rubin turned her investigative skills toward habits.

    Her most important find? Change is possible if we do some soul searching and identify how we respond to expectations. And, just about everybody falls into one of four personality categories: Questioners, Obligers, Rebels and Upholders.

    Rubin believes herself to be a classic Upholder, someone who forms habits relatively easily because she responds well to both other people's deadlines and her own. As to the other types, Questioners will only form a habit if it makes sense to them; Obligers work hard to meet other people's expectations but often let themselves down. And Rebels resent (反感) habits.

    "Think about the habit that you want to form and then think: "What's everything I could do to set myself up for success?" says Rubin. For example, if you want to exercise more and you're an Obliger, call your friend who lives across the street and meet at 6：30 every morning for a walk.

    One common pitfall (陷阱), says Rubin, especially when it comes to changing your diet, is lack of clarity (清楚). "You can't make a habit out of eating more healthfully, "she says. Instead, your habit should be something like: "I'm going to pack a lunch every day and bring it to work instead of eating out."

    As for exercise, Rubin recommends a strategy called pairing—coupling two activities, one that you need or want to do and one that you don't particularly want to do. Rubin, for example, only allows herself to read magazines while on fitness equipment at the gym.

Welcome to Inspire 21

    Our aim is to provide "Inspiring words for the 21^st century". So, here we offer a unique collection of inspiring short stories, motivational short stories, and humorous short stories for you to read and share.

    If you do care to share, click the "SHARE" button in the bottom left corner of each page. And thanks for telling others about Inspire 21.

    The inspiring stories that are labeled (标记) "TRUE" are done so to the best of our knowledge, but we do not have full proof in some cases. However, all of these stories and messages are provided because of their uplifting content, whether true or not. Many books we've read and movies we've watched were totally untrue, but we enjoyed the inspiration they gave us—especially if they had a happy ending.

    So, please read and share these stories at your own discretion (判断力). Thank you for your understanding!

    Also, many of the inspiring stories used here are used with permission from the author. However, we cannot grand (授予) permission to reuse any of these inspirational stories, as the majority of them are not ours.

    Lastly, many inspiring stories (emailed to us or we came across online) are listed as "Author Unknown". If you happen to know the author's name, to whom credit should be given, please contact us with that information so we can keep our inspiring story collection accurate. Thank you again!

    Humans were designed to stand upright. And yet in this modern world, too many of us spend our days with our heads lowered for a simple reason: we're staring at the tiny screen of a smart phone.

    People spend an average of 2 to 4 hours each day with their neck bent while shooting off emails or texts. That's 700 to 1,400 hours a year. The success of social media has led to a rapid development of bad smart phone posture(姿势).

    The average adult head weighs 10 to 12 pounds when it's in the upright position. However, because of the gravity, bending your head at a 15 degree puts 27 pounds of pressure on your spine(脊椎); a 30 degree neck bend could equal 40 pounds of pressure; a 45 degree bend adds the force of 49 pounds, according to the research from Dr. Kenneth Hansraj from New York. These stresses may lead to many problems.

    It's no secret that correct posture is better for your back. According to the researchers, good posture is described as ears aligned(成一条直线) with the shoulders. In proper alignment, spinal stress disappeared. It is the best position for the spine. Standing tall doesn't just make you look better; it improves your health, too. Other studies have found good posture has even been connected to ways of behaving. People who have poorer posture often have poorer physical and emotional health.

    The researchers describe bad posture as “the head in a forward position and the shoulders dropping forward in a rounded position”. Bad posture has been connected to many medical problems, including headaches and other problems, depression and heart disease. This is why Hansraj said it's important to be mindful of your smart phone posture. Though it is nearly impossible to avoid the technologies that cause these problems, people should make an effort to look at their phones with a correct posture.