Football, to me, is more than just a game. I have probably learned more valuable lessons from it than from school.

    When I joined the team freshman year, I didn't realize what I was getting into. Even though I had been playing since fourth grade and knew it was hard work, nothing would prepare me for the effort I would put into football that year. We worked all summer in the weight room and ran on the track to get in physical and mental shape before the season.

    See, football is more of a mental sport than anything else, so running on the track wasn't only about getting in shape, we would push our minds by running as hard as we could even if we were going to pass out. At the beginning, I was immature（幼稚）and only thought of myself, sometimes even gave up when I was tired or hurt. Then after the third game I had a season-ending injury. Imagine working all summer and then only being able to play three games! I needed surgery（外科手术）on my arm and at least five months to recover.

    Needless to say, I missed the rest of the season, but this actually helped me realize that since you never know when your last play will be, you should try your hardest in football and life.

    After freshman year I decided that I would always give my best effort. Playing varsity（校队的）football has taught me so much more than just what my assignments are on a particular play or how to block. I have learned to think about others first and realized how important working hard is. Being with all my friends, even sweating and bleeding with them, really made us bond as a group of hard-working young men who I know will succeed in life.

    "Hey, little boy, will you support me when I'm getting old?" Wang Wenshan, 35, asked his newborn baby as he hugged him at home.

    The Chinese tradition of raising sons to support parents in their old age has been weakened by the rapidly growing economy and improved standard of living. As is the case with more and more developed countries, China faces an aging society. People are living longer and having fewer children. Therefore, many Chinese families are falling into a 4-2-1 family pattern: a couple raises one child and supports four elderly parents. But few realize that a problem is likely to happen ahead.

    The aging of the population is a trend that now affects a growing number of countries. The Information Office of the State Council, China's cabinet, issued（发行） a white paper on measures China has been taking to help its elderly population. The paper said China's population entered the aging period at the end of the 20th century and the proportion of people aged 60 and above accounted for over 10 percent of the entire population. By the end of 2005, China had nearly 144 million people over 60, accounting for 11 percent of the population, according to the white paper.

An expanding aged population inevitably means that many issues must be settled, as the problem concerns every aspect of society. It puts more pressure on each family, causing disturbing economic consequences and serious social problems. It also challenges the labor force supply and the pension system.

    "I used to think that it's not an issue for me to provide for the aged," said Wang, whose parents and parents-in-law all enjoy pensions and medical insurance. But last year Wang's father suffered from a serious illness and afterward Wang began to feel the pressure on his shoulders.

    After his father recovered, Wang opened a bank account for each parent and put away some money in the account every month to prepare for future uncertainties. In addition, he has to save money every month to provide for his son's future education. "I'm now breaking my back to support my family: saving pensions for the parents, my son's education funds, and living costs."

    Wang also bought some commercial old-age insurance for himself. "We have to take precautions（预防） before it is too late, and many of my colleagues share the same view," he said.

Love for language

    Very few of us become fluent in another language by studying it in high school. I went to university and then moved across the country, pursued a demanding career, married and raised children.

    I made an effort to maintain the little bit of French that I learned in school, but eventually realized that this was pointless. I was well aware that new languages are best learned when young, and that our abilities in that regard decline with age. However, just before my 50th birthday, I signed up for French classes. After I was tested to see which group I belonged in, I was placed at almost the introductory level. When I looked around at my first Saturday morning class, I was struck by how many of the students were learning French as a third, fourth, or even fifth language.

    Contrary to my assumption that learning a new language was impossibly difficult, there were people who learned new languages as a matter of course. I found that it really was true that certain linguistic (语言的) abilities fade with age.

    While I'd always thought of myself as a quick learner, that was no longer the case. I absorbed new vocabulary very slowly. What I learned one week seemed to slip away as soon as I learned the next skill. I looked up the same words and language structures over and over again.

    Now, a couple of years in, I can listen to the news in French and catch 90 percent of it on the first try, read a novel if the language is not too difficult, and hold up my end of a conversation if it doesn't go too fast.

    Who knows what I might still accomplish?

    I've learned so much beyond grammar and vocabulary. I've met people from around the world and all walks of life who have the courage to make fools of themselves in order to learn something new.

    I've been taught by patient and inspirational teachers from many corners of the world, including France, Eastern Europe, the Caribbean and Africa.

    Listening to the news as it is presented to the people of France, I have a renewed understanding of how something can look completely different from another perspective. I've learned that a language is not just a set of words, but a way of thinking. But most of all, I've learned that it really is never too late to learn something new.

    I ran into quite a few language problems while vacationing ( 度假) with my family last summer. The most embarrassing was when my Mom apologized to the people we were staying with because her “pants were dirty”. They looked at her in amazement, not knowing how to react. You see, Mom had fallen over and gotten mud on her jeans. But in Britain, “pants” means underpants or knickers( 内裤；衬裤), not trousers as it does back home.

    Katie — From America

    I went to stay with a friend on the west coast last summer. Her flat was on the first floor of a high-rise building so I got the lift up. Then I wandered round for ages looking for her flat but couldn't find it. Fed up and tired, I finally had to go out to find a phone box. She explained that her flat was on the first floor, which for me meant the ground floor.

    David — From Britain

    When I asked for the “restroom” in a big department store, people kept directing me to a room with seats where I could sit and “rest”. It took me years to get through to (使...明白)someone that I only wanted the toilet!

    Tom — From America

    Last summer we went on a two-week family touring holiday, so Dad hired a car over the Internet. This was an old vehicle and there turned out (结果是；证明是)to be lots of things wrong with it. When he phoned the hire company and tried to explain that the lock on the boot was broken, they thought he was talking about footwear! He had no idea their word for “boot” was “trunk”. In the end we went to a garage and just solved the problem.

    Mary — From Britain

    A mystery surrounds my grandmother's collection of salt cellars (盐瓶). No one in the family seems to know when she started collecting them, or exactly how many she had.

    My grandmother died just over two years ago. At 91, she had spent 30 years without her right leg, which was removed due to cancer the year I was born. She was a poet, an artist, a food lover and a salt cellar collector. The funny thing about the salts, as she called them — I never once heard her say salt cellar — was that although everybody knew they were her hobby and everyone was always searching for them at yard sales or in stores, nobody seemed to know what they meant to her and they just wanted to make her happy. Grandma kept her salts in a dark wooden corner display case in the living room. Since her death the case has remained exactly as she left it. Grandpa tries his best to preserve his memories of her just as they are.

    Now I am collecting, too. Collecting memories about my grandmother's hobby, a way she spent her time. And as I hold one of them in my hand, I picture her holding it in her hand on the day she got it. She is smiling. My mother and her two sisters all have small collections, but my mother admits that she was more interested in finding salts to send to Grandma.

    Grandma once wrote a poem titled “When April Comes”. The poem contains the line, “When April comes and I am not around, remember me when daffodils are found.” Now, Grandpa is working on a poem with the line, “April came and you were not around”.

    But she was, somehow. She was there in the memories left behind by her possessions.

    The streets of Stockholm may be cold and snowy during winter, but it is one of the world's hottest startup(创业) centers and a good choice for people with talent worldwide.

    Once the snow melts(融化) in early spring, the city is among the greenest in the world. Two thirds of Stockholm is made up of either water or parks, and locals make it the first thing to enjoy these peaceful surroundings. Less than l% of Swedish employees work more than 50 hours per week.

    The quality of life is important. New parents are given 480 days of leave to look after their babies, while childcare is heavily supported in various sides. Little wonder that Sweden was rated the best location in the world for family life. Adam Webb, 34, a British businessman and father-of-one, said, "Everything is set towards helping parents, from giving dads time off on almost full pay to free bus rides for anyone with a baby carriage."

    Stockholm is also proud of what Vogue magazine recently ranked as Europe's coolest neighborhood. On the island of Sodermalm, just south of the city centre, independent record stores still make money, while plenty of cafes offer a taste for Scandinavia's love affairs with timeless style.

    Many major international companies, including H&M and Ericsson, offer expats(外来者) accommodation for the first three months of their contracts(合同) in Stockholm. But other foreigners arriving in the city are left to battle with a unique property market and a shortage of apartments. More than a third of Swedes live in rented housing, half of which is owned by local governments or state rental companies. If you're lucky enough to get a firsthand contract for this kind of accommodation, it is yours for life. Expats are welcome to join the queue, but in Stockholm they will find around half a million locals in front of them and an average wait of nine years.

    "Finding a place to live is the single biggest challenge when moving to Stockholm, but there is a lot going on to try and solve the problem," said Julika Lamberth from Stockholm Business Region, a state-funded company working to increase investment in the city.