Holiday gift buying can feel a little empty, when all of those endless lists, long lines at the shopping center and dollars spent lead to a 5-minute excitement of flying wrapping paper. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} The following tips can help make gift giving more meaningful for both the giver and the receiver.

1 Know the person

    The most important thing in the exchanging of gifts is that it shows that you really know the person well, and you really care about him. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

2 Donate in their name

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Research suggests that happier people give more to others, and that giving more makes people happier. Moreover, charity-related happiness is highest when people give in a way that promotes social connection. So, try giving to the less fortunate in someone's name this holiday season.

3 Give handmade goods or hand-me-downs

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#}  A study suggests that people feel that homemade items show more love, and love is what they want to express to the gift receiver.

    Family heirlooms(传家宝) may be another good gift option. A 2009 study found that when families hand down even a very depersonalized thing — money — to the generations, the symbolic value of the cash is greater than the numerical value alone.

4 Provide chances for participation

    If there's a golden rule of gifts, though, it's this: {#blank#}5{#/blank#} People who receive experiential gifts, such as concert tickets or a zoo membership, feel more connected to the gift giver than people who received material gifts.

A. Give experiences rather than objects.

B. But it doesn't have to be that way.

C. Giving gifts to friends or to charity is linked to happiness.

D. That is always beyond their expectation.

E. That means catering to another's pleasure.

F. Start listing every person you plan to give a holiday gift to.

G. The new and store-bought is not always best.

    Among the teachers in my life，there is one person I called“Old Uncle”．I first met with him a decade ago when I was in primary school．{#blank#}1{#/blank#} During those rides，Old Uncle told me about his life．

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#} He made a living by riding tricycles(三轮车)and raised the children on his own．His daughter gave up the chance to go to college so that the younger brother would have money to go after his future．Later on，she became a nurse at a hospital through her hard work．

    For each ride，Old Uncle should charge me five yuan．However，he insisted on accepting only four from me．In our conversations，he told me to always have a good heart，to be a good student，child and person．{#blank#}3{#/blank#} More movingly，every time he took me to school，he asked whether I had eaten breakfast and would try to offer me biscuits．

    Old Uncle was one of the early people who led me to explore pain and suffering，  unintentionally and naturally，through stories and giving．He didn't complain(抱怨)about the hardships he had suffered in life．{#blank#}4{#/blank#} Ten years later as I thought back to the scene，I came to realize that Old Uncle and I shared space，and connected through our spirit．{#blank#}5{#/blank#}

A．I knew that Old Uncle lived a difficult life．

B．Old Uncle would pay the price for his behavior．

C．He took me to school in his tricycle every morning．

D．Old Uncle guided me to see the beauty of human nature．

E．Instead，he shared peacefully as if they weren't happening on him．

F．His wife had passed away when their two children were still young．

G．He said this with so much caring that I listened with my whole heart．

                                   I love Fridays. And so I celebrate Fridays.

    After dropping my son off at school I head to Starbucks to pick up a coffee treat or another. Then instead of driving straight home I take a long route through the most beautiful roads I can find. I see footballs being passed on lawns, hamburgers being thrown on grill（烤架）, and parties everywhere swinging into action.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    The o0ther day I came out from the doctor's office happy over a positive prognosis（预断）. Seeing the signs of spring around me-flowers, birds, sunshine, I was suddenly ready to celebrate. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    My mind rebelled. “What are you doing? It's Tuesday! Coffee treats are reserved for Fridays!”{#blank#}3{#/blank#} Why should Fridays be any more special than any other day of the week? Why waste six days while waiting to celebrate the seventh? Minutes later I was walking back to my car with a big smile on my face and a coffee in my hand.

    A small victory, to be sure, but it's also an accurate example of how many of us live our lives. We're waiting for conditions to be right before we allow ourselves to enjoy our time here on earth. Maybe when we finally graduate from college and get a job, it will be time to celebrate, or perhaps when our babies are old enough to be in school all day. We'll celebrate when the car is paid off, or enjoy life when we're finally able to retire. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} What if we moved a little of that “Friday feeling” into our rainy-day Mondays, our dull Tuesday and our mid-week Wednesdays? {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

    Artificial intelligence（AI，人工智能）can help us make phone calls, guide us to where we want to go, or play games. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Researchers from Microsoft recently created the first machine translation system that can translate news articles from Chinese to English, Business Standard reported.

    According to Microsoft's official website, researchers tested the system by asking it to translate hundreds of sentences taken from news stories.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}They concluded that the system's translations were as good as the human translations. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}This is partly because different words can be used to express the same meaning. It can be hard to say which word is more “correct”.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#}“Much of our research is really inspired by how we humans do things,” lead researcher Liu Tieyan said.

    One method is called dual learning（对偶学习）. In this method, the system translates every sentence from Chinese to English, as well as translating the sentences back from English into Chinese.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}This is similar to what humans do to make sure their translations are accurate.

        Another method makes use of deliberation networks. This is when the system is made to translate the same sentence over and over. Gradually, the system improves the quality of its translation, like humans who would improve their own writing by going over it again and again.

A. Machine translation is always challenging.

B. However, experts used several methods to improve the system's translation abilities.

C. Then, language experts compared the results to two translations that were done by humans.

D. Researchers collected a lot of data to help the system learn and improve.

E. And now, AI can do even more things.

F. Researchers have worked on machine translation for decades.

G. This way, the system can improve itself and learn from its own mistakes.

How the Elderly Are Treated Around the World

    How cultures view and treat their elderly is closely linked to their most prized values and qualities. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    In the US and UK, Protestantism (新教) is at play. Western cultures tend to be youth-centric, stressing qualities like independence. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} It ties a person's value to his or her ability to work – something that becomes weaker in old age. As their health becomes worse, the elderly in these cultures often move to old people's homes and nursing homes.

    In France, parents are protected by law. It is difficult to imagine an Elderly Rights Law being a focus in the laws of many Western cultures. France did, however, pass a similar law in 2004. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} One was a group of official statistics showing France had the highest rate of pensioner suicides in Europe, and the other was the aftermath of a heat wave that killed 15,000 people, most of whom were elderly and had been dead for weeks before they were found.

     {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Native American cultures traditionally accept death as a fact of life. In many Native American areas, elders are respected for their wisdom and life experiences. Within Native American families, it's common for the elders to be expected to pass down their learning to younger members of the family.

    The way to care for Chinese elders is changing. Chinese families traditionally view respect for one's elders as the highest virtue, according to the Confucian tradition. Adult children are generally expected to care for their parents in their old age. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Nursing homes are beginning to become a more socially acceptable option for elderly care.

A. However, this tradition is beginning to break down due to rising lifetime and an aging population.

B. In the African-American area, death is seen as an opportunity to celebrate life.

C. Here's what we can learn from other cultures about treating the elderly.

D. But China faces the unique problem of tending to an increasingly elderly population.

E. Native American elders pass down their knowledge.

F. It was only passed following two disturbing events, though.

G. This relates back to the Protestant work rules.

    According to the recently published cultural mindset study from Culture Trip, 60% of people in the US and UK say that their outlook on life is shaped by influences from different cultures. At the same time, the economic landscape of the last decade has resulted in younger generations being more interested in collecting experiences than possessions.

    Welcome to the "new culture economy"

    The collision of the two trends—globalization and the experience economy—has caused a new travel concept with cultural curiosity at its heart. This is the "new culture economy". The phenomenon is having a profound impact on people's interactions and definitions of cultural exploration and presents an incredible commercial opportunity.

    Education, travel, exposure to other customs and the cultural mashup that energes are the more influential social effects of globalization. More than half of respondents from the cultural mindset study have friends living overseas, while 78% have friends or family of different nationalities. Besides, the confines of student debt and unaffordable housing have created a shift in spending patterns, and so a new set of values has emerged in which experiences matter more than ownership.

    Why we travel

    People's social networks expose them to digital influencers and keep them connected to friends or family living in other parts of the world. The combination of these cultural, social and personal drivers has helped us to identify four cultural mindsets.

    ⒈Culturally aware—The motivation to travel among this group is anchored in pleasure. They seek out familiarity and select destinations close to home or reflective of their own culture.

    ⒉Culturally curious—Those with this mindset travel to discover new things and disrupt their everyday routines. They seek some familiarity, but also want to explore boundaries. They want to be seen as someone who is interested in culture, but this is often expressed in terms of visual interest and well－known sites.

    ⒊Culturally immersive—For this group, travel is all about adventure and personal growth. They want to be seen as highly cultured and as "explorers"; they are happy to celebrate when things go wrong, which they see as the key ingredient to making memories.

    ⒋Culturally fluid—The group's identity is shaped by their familiarity with travel. They feel at home everywhere and have adopted a hybrid cultural identity. Memories are often tied to experiences with people that represent the culture they are travelling to rather than sites.

    The environmental trade－off

    The cultural mindset research also sheds light on how people perceive the effect of tourism on the environment and the measures they take to reduce their impact. Two in five millennials—more than any other generation—worry that tourism has a negative impact on the environment and over a third limit how much they travel to reduce their impact.

    While most people won't control their desire to travel entirely, good news is that those who see the world are also the ones taking measures in their everyday lives to reduce their impact on the environment.