This Monday, the nation will start to celebrate Presidents' Day, just seven days before George Washington's birthday. Everyone agrees that day is a holiday. but is it just to celebrate George Washington's Birthday? What about Abraham Lincoln? Some government offices call it Presidents' Day. Others say the holiday is officially Washington's Birthday. Confused yet?

    George Washington was elected the country's first President on April 30,1789. Soon after, Americans began publicly celebrating his birthday. Presidential historians say the actual date of George Washington's birth is February 11,1732. But a change inthe calendar system 20 years later shifted all dates, making Washington's birthday February 22, which is now well accepted. In 1879. Congress made Washington's birthday an official federal holiday. It was the first federal holiday to celebrate an individual's birthday. In 1968, Congress passed the Monday Holidays Act, which moved the holiday to the third Monday in February. The new law did not change the holiday's name. It was still called Washington's Birthday, even though some law makers wanted to call it Presidents' Day to include Abraham Lincoln, whose actual birthday is February 12.

    Many people argue that the holiday should celebrate all past Presidents. They feel Lincoln should be honored for his role in preserving the nation during the Civil War and helping to free slaves. Others feelthe holiday should only honor Washington. the country's first President. They say shifting the focus away from Washington would mean future generations of kids would not know about the Father of Our Country.

    Laws have been introduced in Congress over the years to requireuse of the term “George Washington's Birthday.”but none of those laws have been passed. Meanwhile, many stategovernments and school districts now use the term “Presidents' Day．”Many stoles also use it to promote holiday sales.

    Should the holiday honor Washington, Washington and Lincoln, or all past Presidents? Write to emailbag@timeforkids, com and tell us what you think.

    It was a winter morning,just a couple of weeks before Christmas 2005.While most people were warming up their ears,Trevor,my husband,had to get up early to ride his bike four kilometers away from home to work.On arrival, he parked his bike outside the back door as he usually does.After putting in 10 hours of labor,he returned to find his bike gone.

    The bike,a black Kona 18 speed,was our only transport（交通工具）.Trevor used it to get to work,putting in 60-hour weeks to support（养活）his young family.And the bike was also used to get groceries（食品杂货）saving us from having to walk long distances from where we live.

    I was so said that someone would steal our bike that I wrote to the newspaper and told them our story.Shortly after that,several people in our area offered to help.One wonderful stranger even bought a bike,then called my husband to pick it up.Once again my husband had a way to get to and from his job.It really is an honor（幸事）that a complete stranger would go out of their way for someone they have never met before.

    People say that a smile can be passed from one person to another,but acts of kindness from strangers are even more so.This experience has had a spreading effect in our lives because it strengthened our faith in humanity（人性）as a whole.And it has influenced（影响）us to be more mindful of ways we,too,can share with others.No matter how or how small,an act of kindness shows that someone cares.And the results can be everlasting.

    Alibaba started taking the lead in China, simply enough, by connecting big Chinese, manufacturers(制造商)with big buyers across the world. Its business-to-business site, Alibaba.com allowed business to buy almost everything. Alibaba's advantage wasn't hard to identify: size.

    Alibaba is just big, even by Chinese standards. Its marketplaces attract 231 million active buyers, 8 million sellers, 11.3 billion orders a year—and Alibaba is just the middleman. It encourages people to use its markets—not charging small sellers a percentage of the sale.

    If you want a quick look into the influence of Alibaba on daily Chinese life, take my experience. I moved to Beijing almost a year ago and quickly got tired of visiting small stores across the crowded, polluted city of 20 million people in search of new electronics, bathroom furnishings. “You're looking for what exactly? Why not try it? ” my Chinese teacher asked me one day. With that, my wonderful new relationship with Alibaba began.

    Alibaba's original business-to-business model now is secondary to consumer buying. Chinese retail（零售）buying makes up 80% of Alibaba's profit, and leading that group is Taobao, with 800 million items for sale and the most unbelievable selection of things you'll ever find. TMall.com is Alibaba's other big site, where you can find brand name goods from Nike and Unilever near the lowest prices.

What I have a hard time explaining to friends and family back in the U. S. is how China has gone beyond traditional shopping—big-box retailers(零售商)especially—in favor of online purchases on Taobao and a few other sites. In smaller towns than Beijing, where big retailers have not yet traveled, shopping online is shopping, and shopping is Taobao.

    I have a list of some of my recent purchases on Taobao for a sense of how extensive(广泛的) the marketplace is. Almost everything arrived a day or two after ordering with free shipping. I'm not even a big buyer, because I need friends to help me search the Chinese-language site. When I was searching my purchase history on my Chinese teacher's iPad, which helps me buy goods, I looked through with great difficulty about 10 of her purchases for every one of mine.

    You're in a department store and you see a couple of attractive young women looking at a sweater. You listen to their conversation: “I can't believe it—Lorenzo Bertolla! They are almost impossible to find. Isn't it beautiful? And it's a lot cheaper than the one Sara bought in Rome.”

    They leave and you go over to see this incredible sweater. It's nice and the price is right. You've never heard of the brand of Lorenzo Bertolla, but those girls looked really stylish. Their clothes follow the fashion. They must know. So, you buy it. You never realize that those young women are employees of an advertising agency. They are actually paid to go from store to store, talking loudly about Lorenzo Bertolla clothes to be heard by others.

    Every day we notice what people are wearing, driving and eating. If the person looks cool, the product seems cool, too. This is the secret of undercover marketing. Companies from Ford to Nike are starting to use it.

    Undercover marketing is important because it reaches people that don't pay attention to traditional advertising. This is particularly true of the MTV generation-consumers between the age of 18 and 34.It's a golden group. They have a lot of money to spend, but they don't trust ads.

    So advertising agencies hire young actors to “perform” in bars and other places where young adults go. Some people might call this practice misleading, but marketing executive Jonathan Ressler calls it creative. “Look at traditional advertising. Its effectiveness is decreasing.” It is true, because everyone knows an ad is trying to persuade you to buy something. However, you don't know when a conversation you overhear is just a performance.

    If you're a yoga lover, you've probably noticed the ways yoga works — you're sleeping better, getting fewer colds or just feeling more relaxed and at ease. But if you've ever tried telling a beginner how it works, you might find explanations like "It increases the flow of prana" or "It brings energy up your spine" fall on skeptical ears.

    As it happens, Western science is starting to provide some concrete clues about how yoga works to improve health, heal aches and pains, and prevent sicknesses. Once you understand them, you'll have even more motivation to step onto your mat.

    I myself have experienced yoga's healing power in a very real way. Weeks before a trip to India in 2002 to investigate yoga therapy, I developed numbness and tingling (刺痛) in my right hand. After first considering scary things like a brain tumor and multiple sclerosis, I figured out that the cause of the symptoms was thoracic outlet syndrome, a nerve blockage in my neck and chest.

    Despite the uncomfortable symptoms, I realized how useful my condition could be during my trip. While visiting various yoga therapy centers, I would submit myself for evaluation and treatment by the various experts, try their suggestions and see what worked for me.

    Thanks to the techniques I learned in India, advice from teachers in the United States, and my own exploration, my chest is more flexible than it was, my posture has improved, and for more than a year, I've been free of symptoms.

    My experience inspired me to dig into the scientific studies that I'd collected in India as well as the West to identify and explain how yoga can both prevent disease and help you recover from it.

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