Mrs. Strickland did not talk much, but she had a pleasant gift for keeping the conversation general; and when there was a pause she threw in just the right remark to set it going once more.

    "Why do nice women marry dull men?"

    "Because intelligent men won't marry nice women. "

    Mrs. Strickland had the gift of sympathy.

    There was another thing I liked in Mrs. Strickland. She managed her surroundings with elegance(优雅). Her flat was always neat and cheerful with flowers. The meals in the little dining room were pleasant; the table looked nice; the food was well cooked. It was impossible not to see that Mrs. Strickland was an excellent housekeeper. And you felt sure that she was an admirable mother. There were photographs in the drawing room of her son and daughter. The son—his name was Robert—was a boy of sixteen at Rugby. He had his mother's fine eyes. He looked clean, healthy, and normal.

    “I don't know that he's very clever,” she said one day, when I was looking at the photograph, “but I know he's good. He has a charming character.”

    The daughter was fourteen. Her hair, thick and dark like her mother's, fell over her shoulders, and she had the same kindly expression and untroubled eyes.

    “They both look like you,” I said.

    “Yes, I think they are more like me than their father.”

    “Why have you never let me meet him?” I asked.

    “Would you like to?” she smiled and her smile was really very sweet.

    “You know, he's not at all literary,” she said. “He has no interest in literature.”

    “He's on the Stock Exchange(证券交易所), and he's a typical broker(经纪人). I think he'd bore you to death.”

    “Does he bore you?” I asked.

    “You see, I happen to be his wife. I'm very fond of him.” She smiled to cover her shyness, and her eyes grew tender.

    “He doesn't pretend to be a talent. He doesn't even make much money on the Stock Exchange. But he's awfully good and kind.”

    “I think I should like him very much.”

    “I'll ask you to dine with us quietly some time, but mind, you come at your own risk; don't blame me if you have a very dull evening.”

    Chinese students always complain that they're under great pressure and don't get enough sleep. But they may be surprised to learn that they're much luckier than their peers (同龄人) in South Korea and Japan, according to a recently published report, conducted by Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences on the physical and mental health of senior high school students in the three Asian countries.

    According to the study among nearly 6,000 high school students in the three countries, Chinese students are the tallest but poorest in physical fitness. Chinese students are on average 168.17cm, compared with 167.61cm for South Korean students and 164.70cm for Japanese students. Chinese students asked for sick leave more than students in other countries. About 72 percent of Korean students never asked for sick and injury leave during high school, compared to 53 percent for Japanese students and 45 percent for Chinese students. Moreover, Chinese students drink alcohol and smoke earlier than Korean and Japanese students. Around 70 percent of Chinese students have drunk alcohol, compared to 50 percent for Korean and Japanese students.

    According to the survey, Japanese and South Korean students suffer more pressure than their Chinese peers. Statistics (统计) show 16 percent of students in China said they experienced mental pressure often over the past year, while the numbers in Japan and South Korea were 33 percent and 47 percent respectively. Their worries come from “study”, “future after graduation”, “friendships” and “relationship with their parents”. To go with stress, 57.9 percent of Korean students sleep the least, less than six hours a day, compared with 46.6 percent of Japanese students and 30 percent of Chinese students.

    More Chinese students were satisfied with their physical appearance, double that of students in the survey from Japan and South Korea. The report said that over half of students in South Korea had tried to lose weight in the past year, while in China the figure was only 22 percent.

    In measures of self-worth, such as “I think I am valuable” and “I think I am successful”, “I can complete many things”, “I won't give up to failure,” Chinese students showed greater self-confidence than students in Japan and South Korea.

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    In 2018 to which we've just said goodbye, we've seen excellent movies such as Black Panther, Crazy Rich Asians and A Star Is Born. In 2019 there will be returns to classic movie characters and stories. Here are movies not to miss.

    Spider-Man-.Far H0- July 5, US

    Tom Holland, the actor of 2017's Spider-Man: Homecoming, returns to play Peter Parker, a high school student who gains superpowers after being bitten by a spider(蜘蛛). When we see him again in theaters, Spider – Man will have a new red - and – black suit. The movie will take Peter on a global adventure outside of the US. According to Marved Studios President Kevin Feige, Spider - Man will try a return to his "normal" self; he will try to find his old powers on his new journey.

    Hobbs and Shaw, July 26, US

    To most people the Fast and Furious series is all about crazy drivers racing in sports car. But in Hobbs and Shaw, humor is added to the action - packed thrills. The new film will hit US theaters on July 26. Famous English actor Jason Statham will star alongside Dwayne Johnson, "The Rock", as Deckaid Shaw and Luke Hobbs respectively, as in their previous appearances in Fast and Furious 8. The action and chemistry really thrill their audience. But the new action scenes between an MI6 agent Hobbs and the killer Shaw will have to be good to beat their stand - off in the 2017 movie.

    The Lion King, July 19, US

    This is a brand - new version of the classic children's film. The story of wide - eyed young lion Simba still remains in hearts of world audiences even after 25 years. In this re-telling, Simba again begins the difficult journey to become the King of the Pride Lands，a vast African prairie(大草原).The favorite part of the story for many has always been the friendship between Simba, Timon and Punibaa. The last two sacrifice all they have to help Simba to become the king. How will the new movie re-imagine their famous relationship?

    Microsoft announced this week that its facial-recognition system is now more accurate in identifying people of color, touting (吹嘘)its progress at tackling one of the technology's biggest biases (偏见).

    But critics, citing Microsoft's work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, quickly seized on how that improved technology might be used. The agency contracts with Microsoft for cloud-computing tools that the tech giant says is largely limited to office work but can also include face recognition.

    Columbia University professor Alondra Nelson tweeted, "We must stop confusing 'inclusion' in more 'diverse' surveillance (监管)systems with justice and equality."

    Facial-recognition systems more often misidentify people of color because of a long-running data problem: The massive sets of facial images they train on skew heavily toward white men. A Massachusetts Institute of Technology study this year of the face-recognition systems designed by Microsoft, IBM and the China-based Face++ found that facial-recognition systems consistently giving the wrong gender for famous women of color including Oprah Winfrey, Serena Williams, Michelle Obama and Shirley Chisholm, the first black female member of Congress.

    The companies have responded in recent months by pouring many more photos into the mix, hoping to train the systems to better tell the differences among more than just white faces. IBM said Wednesday it used 1 million facial images, taken from the photo-sharing site Flickr, to build the "world's largest facial data-set" which it will release publicly for other companies to use.

    IBM and Microsoft say that allowed its systems to recognize gender and skin tone with much more precision. Microsoft said its improved system reduced the error rates for darker-skinned men and women by "up to 20 times," and reduced error rates for all women by nine times.

    Those improvements were heralded(宣布)by some for taking aim at the prejudices in a rapidly spreading technology, including potentially reducing the kinds of false positives that could lead police officers misidentify a criminal suspect.

    But others suggested that the technology's increasing accuracy could also make it more marketable. The system should be accurate, "but that's just the beginning, not the end, of their ethical obligation," said David Robinson, managing director of the think tank Upturn.

    At the center of that debate is Microsoft, whose multimillion-dollar contracts with ICE came under fire amid the agency's separation of migrant parents and children at the Mexican border.

    In an open letter to Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella urging the company to cancel that contract, Microsoft workers pointed to a company blog post in January that said Azure Government would help ICE "accelerate recognition and identification." "We believe that Microsoft must take an ethical stand, and put children and families above profits," the letter said.

    A Microsoft spokesman, pointing to a statement last week from Nadella, said the company's "current cloud engagement" with ICE supports relatively anodyne(温和的)office work such as "mail, calendar, massaging and document management workloads." The company said in a statement that its facial-recognition improvements are "part of our going work to address the industry-wide and societal issues on bias."

    Criticism of face recognition will probably expand as the technology finds its way into more arenas, including airports, stores and schools. The Orlando police department said this week that it would not renew its use of Amazon. com's Rekognition system.

    Companies "have to acknowledge their moral involvement in the downstream use of their technology,"

    Robinson said. "The impulse is that they're going to put a product out there and wash their hands of the consequences. That's unacceptable."

A budget is your plan for how you spend your money. Saving money isn't easy unless you have a plan and stick to it. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}.

Set Savings Goals

Defining a goal for your savings plan is the very first step. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) promotes using SMART savings goals: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and tailored. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}. By setting SMART financial goals that are a good fit for your personal finances, you are more likely to keep up with the plan and succeed.

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Overspending is scary for many savers and spenders, but getting weekly spending down on paper can be enlightening and uncover opportunities to save an amount of money right away. Check out the CFPB's spending tracker that automatically sums expense categories and highlights spending limits, helping you stay in control of your money.

Evaluate and Cut Down Monthly Bills

{#blank#}4{#/blank#}. But you may be able to reduce some of the bills. Look for ways to upgrade to energy-efficient appliances if your budget allows. Subscriptions and streaming services are other areas that hide monthly expenses.

Make a Budget and Use Technology

Once you've reduced expenses and identified your savings goal, a budget is key to start saving. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}. If you find yourself getting hit with late payment fees or insufficient funds on your checking account, it's definitely time to address this with technology. Not only do these fees burn lots of money when you're trying to save it, but they can also hit your credit report and impact your credit score.

A. Track Spending Habits

B. Identify and Change Spending Habits 

C. The savings goals you set must be in line with your financial situation

D. Apps and online banking working together make it easier to set up ways to save

E. There are some expenses you can't get around: shelter, food, health care and insurance

F. Setting savings goals and conducting an honest review of spending habits are significant

G. Visit your credit card's website to ensure you take advantage of available cash-back offers