Recently, a painting of actress Elizabeth Taylor, which was drawn by American artist and filmmaker Andy Warhol, sold for US $63 million. Another simple black-and-white image of a Coca-Cola bottle sold for US $35 million. But the all-time record for a Warhol painting is $100 million for a piece titled “Eight Elvises”. What's amazing is not that the pieces sold for so much, but the fact that they are not what you would call traditional art. They are “pop art”, art based on simple images of things and people from advertising, movies, music and day-to-day life.

    Born in the 1920s, Warhol grew up mostly separated from other children due to (由于) health problems. He spent a lot of his time alone drawing and then went on to study art in college. He began his career as a commercial (商业的) artist, creating pictures for magazine articles and newspaper ads. That inspired him to experiment with pop art and he hosted America's first pop art exhibition in the 1960s. The show met with a lot of discussion with some people saying that what he was doing was not art.

    Warhol followed his first works with a series we are all familiar with — paintings of Coca-Cola bottles, Brillo soap pad boxes, and portraits (肖像) of famous people. Soon after, Warhol stopped creating his own artwork. Instead, he had assistants and other artists create them at his studio called “The Factory”. Warhol wanted to show the world that art doesn't have to be complex or original; it can be created by anyone using ordinary things.

    Today, Warhol's work is unmistakable in its uniqueness. No matter how you may feel about his work, one thing cannot be argued. He introduced the world to a whole new art form, inspiring future generations of artists, and eventually becoming one of the most famous and successful pop art artists in the world.

    A good teacher is many things to many people. In my own experience, the people I respect the most and think about the most are the teachers who demanded the most discipline (纪律) from their students.

    I miss one teacher in particular that I had in high school. I think she was a good teacher because she was a very strict person. I remember very clearly a sign on her classroom door. It was a simple sign that said,    "Laboratory: in this room the first five letters of the word was stressed not the last seven." In other words, labor for her was more important than oratory, which means making speeches.

    She prepared her work very carefully and told us to do the same. We got lots of homework from her. Once she had broken her arm, and everybody in the class thought that maybe the homework load would be reduced, but it continued just the same. She checked our work by stamping her name at the bottom of the papers to show that she had read them.

    I think sometimes teachers who demand the most are liked the least. But as time goes by, this discipline really seems to benefit the students.

    Black Friday-the day after Thanksgiving Day in the United States-signals the beginning of the holiday shopping season. Although it's not an official holiday, millions of employers give their employees the day off, and many people use that day to get a jump start on their holiday shopping. A similar day in Canada and the Great Britain is called "Boxing Day".

    Black Friday has become a marketing sensation in recent years. Since 2005, it has been the busiest shopping day of the year. To lure shoppers, retailers（零售商）routinely open their doors as early as 4 am and offer special sales and promotions to the shoppers that arrive early. Some of the special deals offered by stores are only available in limited quantities. That is why some shoppers intend on getting the best deals often camp out in front of stores overnight so that they will be the first in line when the doors open.

    But why Black Friday? Historians believe the name started in Philadelphia in the mid 1960s. Bus drivers and police used "Black Friday" name. In the early 1980s, a more positive explanation of the name began to ciculate. According to this alternative explanation, Black Friday is the day when retailers finally begin to turn a profit for the year. In accounting terms, operating at a loss is called being "in the red" because accountants traditionally used red ink to show negative amounts. Positive amounts were usuallay shown "in black ink". Thus, being in the black is a good thing because it means stores are operating at a profit.

    Recently, for those who are too busy to stop on Black Friday, or who just don't want to fight the crowds, the Monday following Black Friday has become known as Cyber Monday for shoppers can take advantage of the comfort of getting many online deals from their homes.

    No one knew Prince Edward Street as well as Pierre Dupin. He had delivered milk to the families on the street for thirty years. For the past fifteen years a large white horse named Joseph pulled his milk wagon. Joseph was a gentle horse with beautiful spirit shining out of its eyes, so Pierre named him after Saint Joseph.

    Every morning at five, Pierre arrived at the milk company's stables to find Joseph waiting for him, Pierre would call, "Good morning, my old friend." as he climbed into his seat, while Joseph turned his head toward the driver. And the two would go proudly down the street. Without any order from Pierre, the wagon would roll down three streets. Then it turned right for two streets, before turning left to Saint Catherine Street. The horse finally stopped at the first house on Prince Edward Street. There, Joseph would wait perhaps thirty seconds for Pierre to get down off his seat and put a bottle of milk at the front door.

    Pierre knew every one of the forty families that got milk. The cooks knew that Pierre could not read or write; so, instead of leaving orders in an empty milk bottle, they simply sang out if they needed an extra bottle.

    Pierre also had a wonderful memory. When he arrived at the stable he always remembered to tell Jacques, the foreman(领班) of the stables, "The Pacquins took an extra bottle this morning; the Lemoines bought a pint of cream …" Most of the drivers had to make out the weekly bills and collect the money. But Jacques, liking Pierre, never asked him to do this.

    One day the president of the milk company came to inspect the early morning milk deliveries. Jacques pointed to Pierre and said："See how the horse listens and how he turns his head toward Pierre? See the look in that horse's eyes? You know, I think those two share a secret. I have often felt it. He is getting old. Maybe he ought to be given a rest, and a small pension."

    "But of course," the president laughed. "He has been on this job now for thirty years. All who know him love him. Tell him it is time he rested. He will get his pay every week as before."

    But Pierre refused to leave his job. He said his life would be nothing if he could not drive Joseph every day. "We are two old men," he said to Jacques. "Let us wear out together. When Joseph is ready to leave, then I too will do so."

    Then one cold morning Jacques had terrible news for Pierre. Jacques said,"Pierre, your horse, Joseph, didn't wake up. He was very old, Pierre." Jacques said softly. "He is over in his stall, looking very peaceful. Go over and see him." Pierre took one step forward, then turned. "No … no … I cannot see Joseph again. You … you don't understand, Jacques."

    For years Pierre had worn a large heavy cap that came down low over his eyes. It kept out the bitter cold wind. Now, Jacques looked into Pierre's eyes and he saw something that shocked him. He saw a dead, lifeless look in them.

    "Take the day off, Pierre," Jacques said. Pierre walked to the corner and stepped into the street. There was a warning shout from the driver of a big truck … there was the screech(尖锐的刹车声) of rubber tires as the truck tried to stop. But Pierre heard nothing.

    Five minutes later a doctor said, "He's dead … killed instantly."

"I couldn't help it," the truck driver said. "He walked in front of my truck. He never saw it, I guess. Why, he walked as though he were blind."

    The doctor bent down. "Blind？Of course, this man has been blind for five years."  He turned to Jacques, "Didn't you know he was blind？"

    "No …no …" Jacques said softly. "None of us knew. Only one … only one knew－a friend of his, named Joseph … It was a secret, I think, just between those two."

    It was rainy, and I had no desire to drive up the winding mountain road to my daughter Carolyn's house. But she had insisted that I come to see something at the top of the mountain.

    So here I was, reluctantly making the two-hour journey through fog that hung like veils. By the time I saw how thick it was near the summit, I'd gone too far to turn back.

    Nothing could be worth this, I thought as I inched along the dangerous highway.

    "I'll stay for lunch, but I' m heading back down as soon as the fog lifts," I announced when I arrived.

    "But I need you to drive me to the garage to pick up my car," Carolyn said, "Could we at least do that?"

    "How far is it?" I asked.

    "About three minutes," she said, "I'll drive—I'm used to it."

    After ten minutes on the mountain road, I looked at her anxiously. "I thought you said three minutes."

    She grinned. "This is a detour."

    Turning down a narrow track, we parked the car and got out. We walked along a path that was thick with old pine needles. Huge black-green evergreens towered over us. Gradually, the peace and silence of the place began to fill my mind.

    Then we turned a comer and stopped—and I gasped in amazement.

    From the top of the mountain, sloping for several acres across the mountain side and valleys, were rivers of flowers in numerous colors. It looked as though the sun had tipped over and spilled gold down the mountainside.

    A series of questions filled my mind. Who created such beauty? Why? How?

    As we approached the home that stood in the center of the property, we saw a sign that read: "Answers to the Questions I Know You Are Asking."

    The first answer was: "One Woman—Two Hands, Two Feet, and Very Little Brain." The second was: "One at a Time." The third: "Started in 1958."

    As we drove home, I was so moved by what we had seen. I could scarcely speak. "She changed the world." I finally said, "one bulb (球茎) at a time. She started almost 40 years ago, probably just the beginning of an idea, but she kept at it."

    The wonder of it would not let me go. "Imagine," I said, "if I'd had a vision and worked at it, just a little bit every day, what might I have accomplished?"

    Carolyn looked at me sideways, smiling. "Start tomorrow," she said. "Better yet, start today."

    Self­control is the ability to regulate and adjust responses in order to avoid undesirable behaviors, increase desirable ones, and achieve long­term goals. Common goals such as losing weight, exercising regularly, eating healthy food, giving up bad habits, and saving money are just a few worthwhile ambitions that people believe require self­control.

    One 2011 survey conducted by the American Psychological Association found that 27 percent of subjects identified a lack of willpower as the primary factor keeping them from reaching their goals. Researchers have found that people who have better self­control tend to be healthier and happier. In one experiment, students who exhibited greater self­control had better grades and higher test scores, and were more likely to be admitted to a competitive academic program. The study also found that when it came to academic success, self­control was a more important factor than IQ scores.

    The psychologist Walter Mischel conducted famous experiments in 1975 that were related to delayed gratification. In these experiments, children were offered a choice: they could choose to eat one treat right away, usually a cookie or a candy or they could wait for a brief period of time in order to get two treats. At this point, the researcher would leave the child alone in a room with a single treat. Not surprisingly, many of the kids chose to eat the single treat the moment the experimenters left the room. However, some of the kids were able to wait for the second treat.

    Based on his research, Mischel proposed what he  referred to as a "hot­and­cool" system to explain the ability to delay gratification. The hot system refers to the part of our willpower that is emotional and impulsive ( 冲动的) and urges us to act upon our desires. The cool system is the part of our willpower that is rational ( 理性的) and thoughtful, and enables us to consider the consequences of our actions in order to resist our impulses.

    Self­control is an important skill that allows us to regulate behavior in order to achieve our long­term goals. Research has shown that self­control is not only important for goal attainment, and people with greater willpower also tend to do better on all sides.