The holidays are a time to give. These organizations are looking for volunteers and donations (捐赠). Read on to learn more about them. Then, find out how you can help.

    American Red Cross

    This holiday season, your donation can make a difference at home and abroad. The American Red Cross is making it easy to help people who have experienced natural disasters (灾害), members of the U.S. armed forces, and children all over the world. With just one click (点击), you can give the gift of caring.

    National Military Family Association

    Each year hundreds of Americans serve both at home and abroad to keep our country safe. This holiday season, we can help serve them. Through donations, National Military Family Association helps to provide military members and their families with scholarships, family retreats, camp programs for kids, and more.

    Network for Good

    This website allows its users to donate to organizations and discover volunteer chances. After natural disasters, the Network for Good provides a system of help and support for those in need. The website also offers tips to kids who want to give. Visit the website to find out how you can help make someone's holiday season shine bright.

    Make-A-Wish Foundation

    Sometimes all it takes is one wish made come true to make someone smile. The work of Make-A-Wish Foundation is to make the wishes come true. Through support and donations, the foundation has made dreams come true for hundreds of thousands of children with serious illnesses.

    If you want to help others, don't wait for a better time. Help now! Your help will be valued highly.

    Americans are worried about new technology. They are concerned that machines. Including robots, will take over work now done by humans. These findings come from a new report by the Pew Research Center of Washington DC.

    About 75 percent of Americans questioned by Pew said automation will increase income inequality between the rich and the middle class and the poor. And 64 percent of people expect automation to be so common in America that people will face difficulty finding things to do with their lives.

    Some of the concerns about technology come from a distrust about whether machines will always make the right decision. Many Americans believe humans have better judgment in dealing with complex matters. One example is selecting a person for a job. Three quarters of Americans said they would not want to apply for a job that uses a computer program to choose the most qualified person.

    Most Americans want the government to limit automation, For example, 87 percent support a requirement that all driverless vehicles have a human in the driver s scat who can take control when needed. And 85 percent want to limit machines to mostly doing jobs that are dangerous or unhealthy for humans. And only 25 percent expect more jobs to come from automation. Pew said.

    Mark Zuckerberg, the co-founder of Facebook, spoke last May to graduating seniors from Harvard University in Massachusetts, His talk centered on the uncertain future facing young people. “Our generation will have to deal with tens of millions of jobs replaced by automation like self-driving cars and trucks,” Zuckerberg told the graduates,

    Zuckerberg said young people will have to find projects that will bring both jobs and direct benefits to the people of the world. He said in his speech that 300,000 people worked to put a man on the moon, and millions of people built, the Hoover Dam as well as other great projects over the last 100 years.

    When Vivienne Harr was 8 years old, she saw a photo she would never forget. It was a photo of two young boys carrying large, heavy rocks on their backs. These children were the same age as Vivienne. But they did not have the same freedom and opportunities that she had.

    In some parts of the world, children have to work hard long days and they can't go to school. Vivienne wanted to change this. “I want all kids to be able to go to school and play,” said Viienne, now 10. “I want them to be happy.”

    To help raise money for children like the two boys in the photo, Vivienne started a lemonade stand (柠檬汽水摊位) near her home in Marin County, California. She promised to work every day for a year, rain or shine. “Sometimes, it was hard for me, when the weather was bad or I wasn't feeling well,” said Vivienne. “But I knew that some children were having a harder time than I was.”

    Vivienne's goal was to raise $100,000 in 365 days. On Day 175, she reached her goal. But that didn't stop Vivienne from working. With the help of her family, she started Make a Stand. The company now puts Vivienne's lemonade into bottles and sells it in 130 stores around the US. A small part of sales goes to help achieve Vivienne's dream — to make the world a better place for all children.

    Thomas Edison was one of ten said to be the greatest genius of his age. There are only a few men in all of the history, who have changed the lives of other men as much as the inventor of the first useful electric light. But Edison could never be happy only because someone said he was a genius. “There is no such thing as genius,” Edison said. He said that what people called genius was mostly hard work.

    But Edison was a dreamer as well as a worker. From his earliest days as a child he wondered about the secrets of nature. Nature, he often said, is full of secrets. He tried to understand them; then, he tried to learn what could usefully be done with them.

    Edison enjoyed thinking. He knew that most people will do almost anything instead of the difficult work of thinking, especially if they do not think very often. But he knew, too, that thinking can give men enjoyment and pleasure.

    Edison could not understand how anyone could be uninterested in life. As he loved to think, he also loved to work. On the day he became 75 years old, someone asked him what ideas he had about life. “Work,” he answered. “Discovering the secrets of nature and using them to make men happier.” He said he had enough inventions in his mind to give him another 100 years of work.

    As our closest neighbor in space, the moon has been the subject of popular myths, songs and poems since ancient times. And it has no less fascinated scientists. But even after centuries of research many questions remain to be answered about Earth's only satellite. Perhaps the Chang'e-4 lunar probe will be able to reveal more of its secrets.

    On Dec 8, the probe lifted off from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan Province. It is the first probe to the far side of moon.

    The Earth's gravity slows the moon's rotation, matching it to the speed of its orbit. Thus, the far side of the moon is always dark and has never been seen. It's this sense of the unknown that makes the far side of the moon such an interesting place for scientific and space exploration.

Long exposed to solar winds, the far side may have the special soil and minerals in its upper mantle(地幔).For this reason, Chang'e-4 will study the effect of solar winds on the lunar surface and any minerals found beneath the spacecraft.

    Chang'e-4 is also carrying flower seeds and potato and silkworm eggs to see whether life is possible on the moon. If it is, then the moon will become a more likely destination for space travel in the future. However, due to communication problems, exploration of the dark side will not be easy.

    As the far side is blocked off from us, radio noise coming off Earth is also blocked. This is why China launched the relay satellite Queqiao in May—so that communication between Earth and the probe could go ahead. Power supply will also be a challenge to the mission.

    Chang'e-4 gets energy from the sun through its solar panels. However, a lunar day has the length of 28 Earth days. This means that the probe will need to orbit the moon for over 20 days to be in a position to be able to land in moon daylight and so use its solar panels.

    According to Xinhua, if everything goes well, the satellite will land on the far side on Jan 2.

    The New York Times described the journey as “groundbreaking”, and wrote that it will “give clues to the history and development of the moon”.

    It's nice to have people of like mind around. Agreeable people boost your confidence and allow you to relax and feel comfortable. Unfortunately, that comfort can hinder the very learning that can expand your company and your career.

    It's nice to have people agree, but you need conflicting perspectives to dig out the truth. If everyone around you has similar views, your work will suffer from confirmation bias (偏颇).

    Take a look at your own network. Do your contacts share your point of view on most subjects? If yes, it's time to shake things up. As a leader, it can be challenging to create an environment in which people will freely disagree and argue, but as the saying goes: From confrontation(冲突) comes brilliance.

    It's not easy for most people to actively seek conflict. Many spend their lives trying to avoid arguments. There's no need to go out and find people you hate, but you need to do some self-assessment to determine where you have become stale(疲沓的) in your thinking. You may need to start by encouraging your current network to help you identify your blind spots.

    Passionate, energetic debate does not require anger and hard feelings to be effective. But it does require moral strength. Once you have worthy opponents, set some ground rules so everyone understands responsibilities and boundaries. The objective of this debating game is not to win but to get to the truth that will allow you to move faster, farther, and better.

    Fierce debating can hurt feelings, particularly when strong personalities are involved. Make sure you check in with your opponents so that they are not carrying the emotion of the battles beyond the battlefield. Break the tension with smiles and humor to reinforce the idea that this is friendly discourse and that all are working toward a common goal.

    Reward all those involved in the debate sufficiently when the goals are reached. Let your sparring partners (拳击陪练) know how much you appreciate their contribution. The more they feel appreciated, the more they'll be willing to get into the ring next time.