Like all big cities, Paris has a traffic problem: lots of cars, lots of traffic jams and lots of pollution from exhaust fumes (废气). So the city began a project to improve the situation.

    Under the Velib project ('Velib' comes from vélo liberté, or 'bicycle freedom') people can take a bicycle, use it for as long as they want, and then leave it at the same or another bicycle station. The first half-hour on the bike is free, but if you don't return it after 30 minutes, you have to pay. But it's only €1 a day or €29 a year! The bicycles are heavy (25 kg), and they are all grey and have baskets. There are about 20,000 of them in the city, and around 1,450 bicycle stations. So there are a lot more Velib stations than the 298 subway stations!

    Paris is not the first city to have a project like this. But not everybody thinks it's a great idea. One Parisian said, “These bicycles are only for short journeys. If people want to travel across the city, they won't use a bicycle — they'll still use their cars.”

    A city spokesman said, “The bicycle project won't solve all our traffic problems, of course. But it might help reduce air pollution. Traffic, together with factory fumes, is a big problem. There aren't any simple answers to traffic problems and pollution in cities. But unless we do something now, there will be more traffic jams and temperatures will continue to rise, so the problems in our environment will get worse. The bikes might help people to lead a healthier life, too.”

    A long time ago, soldiers fought wars on foot. Then they began to ride horses to battle. Until the invention of the stirrups (马蹬), though, men could not fight well with swords or spears while on horseback.

    Without stirrups, soldiers had no place to put their feet. They could not stand up to use their swords without falling off their horses. They could throw spears only with the force of their arms.

    Using stirrups, a soldier could stand up in his saddle (鞍). He could put a spear under the top part of his arm and charge with the force of his horse. He could use force when fighting with a sword. And he could win most fights against soldiers who did not use stirrups.

    The first stirrups were made in India. Because the weather was warm, people did not wear shoes. The Indian stirrup was made of rope. It fit around the big toes. Later, the Chinese made a foot stirrup of wood. Because the Chinese lived in a colder country, the stirrup had to fit around shoes. Still later, around A. D. 700, soldiers in Asia used strong iron foot stirrups.

    I think it was October, 1982. A friend had business dealings in the city of Reno, Nevada, and I was asked to accompany her on an overnight trip. While she conducted her business, I was aimlessly wandering down

    Virginia Street，heading into a most gloriously beautiful sunset. I had a strong wish to speak to someone on the street to share that beauty, but I couldn't make eye contact with anyone. Quickly I went into a department store and asked the lady behind the counter if she could come outside for just a minute. She looked at me as

though I were from some other planet and said, “Well…” Surprisingly, she followed me out.

    When she got outside I said to her, “Just look at that sunset! Nobody out here was looking at it and I just had to share it with someone.”

    For a few seconds we just looked. Then I said, “God's in his heaven and all's right with the world.”

    I thanked her for coming out to see it and sharing the beauty.

    Four years later my situation had changed a lot. I had come to the end of a twenty-year marriage. I was alone and on my own for the first time in my life. One day, while my clothes were going around, I picked up aUnity Magazine and read an article about a woman who had been in similar situation. She had come to the end of a marriage, moved to a strange community, and the only job she could find was one she disliked: cosmetic sales in a department store. We had a lot in common.

    Then something happened to her that changed everything. She said a woman came into her department store and asked her to step outside to look at a sunset. The stranger had said, “God's in his heaven and all's right with the world.”, and she had realized the truth in that sentence and that she simply had not been seeing it. From that moment on, she turned her life around.  

The best books of the year

    When Iwas.in the third grade, we had a hunt at school. We gathered up chalk，pencils，stones, and so on, rapidly filling our checklists. It was a very close race. I was out of breath when I reached the clover (三叶草)patch in search of the last, most hard-to-find item: a four-leaf clover.

    I was pretty sure that I was going to win. 1 have always been able to find four-leaf clovers. I just see them.

    I spent my childhood collecting and pressing four-leaf clovers into books at my mother's house. I started with big cloth- and leather-bound books. When I ran out of romantically bound volumes, I began to put my treasures into anything I could find: fiction paperbacks, cookbooks. The same is true in my house today. Shake a book, and a papery treasure just might fall into your hand.

    A few years ago, in Nova Scotia, my husband and I pulled off the road for a picnic. The ground was thick with clover. Some shoots had four, five, even six leaves. I lined them up on the picnic table to admire as my husband, never yet having found one four-leaf clover, looked on with awe. To me, it was simple. The differences in their shapes popped out, breaking the pretty pattern of the conventional clovers with their three perfect leaves.

    Two summers back, while waiting for an airport shuttle in Munich, I found a tiny four-leaf clover in a traffic circle and put it into my passport. On the way home, my husband and I were upgraded to business class. Friends attributed our good luck to the clover. I think, it's more likely that we were upgraded because a kind customer service officer took pity on us.

    People disagree about whether the luck lies in the finding or in the possession of a clover. Some believe that the luck is lost if the four-leaf clover is even shown to somebody else, while others think the luck doubles if it is given away. I believe that positivity is increased by sharing. I feel lucky to find the clovers so often, but I don't think they influence my life any more than it does to share anything a little special—that momentary closeness between you and a friend or a stranger, as you all lean in to wonder at a rare find.

Famous Modern Chinese Buildings

    Beijing International Airport

    The first place most visitors see when they arrive in China is Beijing International Airport. The airport was constructed in the 1950s. It has an indoor garden, a children's playground, and over 70 food businesses in Terminal 3 alone.

    Shanghai World Financial Center

    Completed in 2008, SWFC took over 10 years to complete due to financial shortages and construction delays. Since its completion, it has won countless architectural awards.

    Tourists are welcome at SWFC's viewing platform, which at 474 meters above ground is the world's highest closed viewing platform.

    The Water Cube

    It was constructed for use during the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics. Now visitors can express surprise at the architecture of the building. They can enjoy the indoor atmosphere as well.

    Among the offerings of the Water Cube are a restaurant and bar, a shopping area, and Water World, a family water park

    The Bird's Nest, Beijing

    It was designed mainly for the 2008 Summer Olympics. It can hold up to 80,000 people and has been used for a winter theme park. Nowadays, its main income is as a tourist attraction. It draws more than 20,000 tourists every day.

    National Center for the Performing Arts

    It was completed in 2007. The building is surrounded by a man-made lake, requiring guests to enter via an underground hallway. It is home to an Opera Hall, Music Hall, and Theater.