Last spring, I was fortunate to be chosen to join in an exchange study program. The moment I arrived in Paris, I was greeted by a nice French couple who would become my host parents. The bit of French I had taken in high school began coming out of my mouth; speaking the language would only become more natural over the course of the term. At the airport, we all got into the couple's car and began the journey to their townhouse. We talked the whole way, getting to know one another.

    Every day afterwards, I would eat breakfast with the two of them, and then we'd all go our separate ways for the day. In the evening, my host mother would make delicious dinners for the three of us. My experience was exciting until I received some shocking news from my program coordinator（协调人）: There had been a death in my host parents' family and they would have to go away for several weeks to deal with all the business that arises from the death. That afternoon, I had to move out of one family's house and into another.

    The coordinator told me I'd have a roommate and asked whether I would mind sharing a bedroom with an English speaker. To avoid speaking my native language, I asked not to be placed with an English-speaking roommate. When I got to my new room, I introduced myself to my new roommate Paolo, a Brazilian（巴西人）, the same age as I, whom I was surprised to find playing one of my favorite CDs on his computer! In just a few hours, we knew we'd be good friends for the rest of the term.

    I left France with many stories, so when people ask me what my favorite part of the trip was, they always hear about my Brazilian friend Paolo and the weekdays in class, weeknights on the town, and weekends exploring France we enjoyed together. I would recommend an exchange program to anyone who wants to experience foreign cultures and gain meaningful friendships.

Multitasking

    What is the first thing you notice when you walk into a shop? The products displayed (展示) at the entrance? Or the soft background music?

    But have you ever notice the smell? Unless it is bad, the answer is likely to be no. But while a shop's scent may not be outstanding compared with sights and sounds, it is certainly there. And it is providing to be an increasing powerful tool in encouraging people to purchase.

    A brand store has become famous for its distinctive scent which floats through the fairly dark hall and out to the entrance, via scent machines. A smell may be attractive but it may not just be used for freshening air. One sports goods company once reported that when it first introduced scent into its stores, customers' intension to purchase increased by 80 percent.

    When it comes to the best shopping streets in Pairs, scent is just as important to a brand's success as the quality of its window displays and goods on sales. That is mainly because shopping is a very different experience to what it used to be.

    Some years ago, the focus for brand name shopping was on a few people with sales assistants' disproving attitude and don't touch what you can't afford displays. Now the rise of electronic commerce (e-commerce) has opened up famous brands to a wider audience. But while e-shops can use sights and sounds, only bricks-and-mortar stores (实体店) can offer a full experience from the minute customers step through the door to the moment they leave. Another brand store seeks to be much more than a shop, but rather a destination. And scent is just one way to achieve this. Now a famous store uses complex man-made smell to make sure that the soft scent of baby powder floats through the kid department, and coconut (椰子) scent in the swimsuit section. A department store has even opened a new lab, inviting customers on a journey into the store's windows to smell books, pots and drawers, in search of their perfect scent.

JOIN OUR TEAM

    A. Want to work in media sales?

    This position is perfect for a graduate who wants to start a job in media sales. We are looking for sales staff with the ability to attract new customers in the highly competitive world of Internet advertising. We offer a very attractive starting salary. The one who gets this job will be creative and good at communicating with people.

    Please send a CV(简历), recent photograph, and covering letter to us.

    B. Open Skies

A leading adventure holiday company is looking for guides and instructors for a number of outdoor activities. We need physically healthy and strong people who enjoy being with other people —good team workers with an interest in cycling, riding, water sports, mountain sports and other adventure activities. One will have a better chance of getting this job if he or she has experience and suitable qualifications.

    C. Come and see the world!

    Recently-formed airline company requires flight attendants. These people are going to serve passengers from different countries on our plane. So we want our staff to be of smart appearance, polite and able to communicate in three or more languages. Starting salary depends on experience.

    D. Volunteer needed

    Daily work includes teaching English, art, maths, etc…, as well as leading educational play groups. Support will be given by local teachers or project staff?

    Volunteers should be available to start work next month. No qualifications required, but people interested in this job should be outgoing and be good with young children.

    Please send a CV and a short introduction of yourself.

    I was just in France to visit my grandmother who is very dear to me. I don't get to cross the Atlantic very often, and she's now 96 years old, so every time I visit her, the two of us are very aware that it might be the last time we see each other.

    Last year, I did a series of short video interviews about her life. I asked her what it was like growing up with her father in the 1910s, and living alone with two young children. I asked her about her greatest memories, and her favorite books, foods, etc. I learned a lot of amazing new things about her I had never known before. These were very intimate conversations, which made me know her better.

    This year, I did not really have questions and I only had a great desire to make her know how much I loved her. I cooked for her and read her stories. I gave her a foot massage (按摩), which was her first ever! Before leaving, I was looking for a way to leave something meaningful behind besides the memory of our time together. Therefore, I wrote her five different love notes, and hid them in different places where I knew she would eventually find them.

    I left really joyously knowing that these cards would surely cheer her up after I left. She called me as I was travelling back to Paris to catch my plane back to the US and said, “I found your cards! By the time I discovered the last one, I was laughing out loud! Thank you so much, my sweetheart!” I smiled to myself, knowing she still had two more to go! It was Sunday, so my guess was that she had not checked her mailbox and had not yet driven her car!

    He was once referred to as the Picasso of poetry. Beloved by Chileans of all classes, he is one of the most widely read and respected poets in history. And this year is the 100th birthday of Pablo Neruda (1904-1973).

    Born with the name Neftali Ricardo Reyes Basolto, he was a tall, shy and lonely boy. He loved to read and started to write poetry when he was ten. The American poet Walt Whitman, whose framed picture Neruda later kept on his table, became a major influence on his work.

    However, his father did not like the idea of having a poet for a son and tried to discourage him from writing. To cover up (掩饰) the publication of his first poem, he took the pen name Pablo Neruda.

    In 1924 Neruda gained fame with his most widely read work "Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair". Yet his rich experience as a diplomat and exile (流亡) made him go beyond the theme of love. His work also reflected the political struggle of the left and development of South America. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971.

    Neruda loved the sea which he saw as creative, destructive and forever moving. He found inspiration in the power and freedom of the waves and the seabirds on the coast. "I need the sea because it teaches me," he wrote. "I move in the university of the waves." He loved how the sea forever renewed itself, a renewal echoed in his work.

    Throughout our daily lives, we have known plenty of people and will know more. But how can we tell if someone is trustworthy? In a paper published recently in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, researcher gave us the answer.

    The researchers asked 401 adults from the United States to fill out a questionnaire measuring their guilt-proneness (内疚倾向) in different situations as well as several other qualities, and then play a short online game. In this game, Player 1 is given $1, which they can choose to give to Player2. Any money given to Player 2 is then automatically increased to $2.50. Player 2 can then decide whether to keep all of the money or behave in a trustworthy way by returning a portion of the money to Player 1. The researchers found more guilt-prone people were more likely to share the money with Player 1. Actually, in follow-up studies, guilt-proneness predicted trustworthiness better than other personality qualities the researchers measured.

    Why might guilt lead to trustworthy behavior? The researchers found people who were guilt-prone also reported feeling an obligation to act in ethical (合乎道德的) and responsible ways while interacting (互动) with their partners in the game. People who are guilt-prone tend to avoid engaging in behavior that might harm or disappoint others. If they do something bad, guilt encourages them to try to make things right again.

    Then, how can we use this research to ascertain whether someone is trustworthy? "One way to do this might be observe how they respond to experience regret," lead author Emma Levine, assistant professor at the University of Chicago Levine, explains. Another way is to ask them to describe a difficult dilemma they faced in the past, suggests co-author Taya Cohen, associate professor at Carnegie Mellon University. This is particularly effective, Cohen and her colleagues have found, because it allows us to see if they're concerned about the effects their actions have on others.