Forgiving(原谅) someone who has hurt you or let you down is never an easy thing. Several new studies, however, say that it could have a lot of health benefits. When you think of forgiveness, you probably don't think of it as being a health or medical problem. Studies from Stanford University, on the other hand, show that something like anger(愤怒) can change your well-being.

    When cartoon book characters like the Incredible Hulk get angry, they change colors and often gain special power. In the real world, anger is less obvious and may be more dangerous. That's why Professor Fred Luskin, founder of the Stanford Forgiveness Project and author of Forgive for Good, say holding on to anger and hatred(仇恨) can harm your physical and mental health. Two new studies seem to show the same idea. The studies find that people who are able to forgive feel less stress, less back pain, and less unhappiness. They also have fewer headaches, lower blood pressure and fewer problems on sleeping.

    So it doesn't matter if your anger is caused by the traffic or other things. Learning to let it go is important. Skills such as deep breath or thought can help. Or just ask yourself if it's worth hurting yourself by staying angry with someone else.

    Forgiveness doesn't mean that you simply accept what happened and say it's OK. Instead, it's a way of making peace with yourself about what happened in the past.

    I had been in the city for some time and was coming home. I missed my boat and decided to travel on an old ship. I knew that it would not be a comfortable journey but I had no time to wait for another boat.

    Hardly had we left the port when I saw the dog Gulliver, the captain's favourite dog, for the first time. What a big dog it was! I had never seen one that could frighten me so much!

    On the third day the ship caught fire. Nobody tried to put it out. The ship began sinking and all the men rushed to the life-boats. I saw no chance of getting away in a boat. Suddenly I remembered there was a life-raft on the ship. I had no time to lose, so I immediately rushed towards the raft and pushed it overboard.

    In jumping down onto the raft I hurt myself badly and was unconscious for some time. When I came to, I found there was no sign of a life-boat. Every man who had been on board the ship must have gone down with her. I was the only one who was saved.

    The I saw Gulliver was coming fast towards the raft. He struggled a long time before he managed to get onto it. I wanted to push him back into the water but did not dare to move. The dog shook himself, went to the other end of the raft and lay down. I didn't dare to sleep that night. I must watch him. In the moonlight I could see his eyes were open. He was watching, too.

    Jersey Boys

    Jersey Boys is a Broadway musical that dramatizes the rise and fall of Frankie Valli and the 1960s rock 'n' roll group Four Seasons. According to Selladoor Worldwide, the group's Beijing tour will see a brand-new production of the musical, which features Luke Sheppard as director, Mark Crossland as music director and Cressida Carre as choreographer（编舞）. Since its 2005 premiere（首演）in New York, the musical has won 57 major awards worldwide.

    2:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., Jan 5 to Jan 13.Tianqiao Performing Arts Center, 9 Tianqiao Nandajie, Xicheng district. 400-635-3355.

    Ticket: 199-1,299 yuan ($30-200)

    Large-scale immersive show

    The large-scale immersive show Memory 5D +, directed by Ulan Xuerong, is ongoing in Beijing from Jan 4 to 7.

    The show follows the emotional entanglement between black and white spirits, representing yin and yang, and the flora girl. As a demonstration of traditional Chinese art, the show centers on cultural inheritance and includes live performance of guqin, a plucked seven-string Chinese musical instrument, guzheng, a Chinese plucked zither, konghou, an ancient plucked stringed instrument and horse-head fiddle, as well as acrobatics, Khoomei, shadow play and Mongolian folk song, even chants from The Book of Songs.

    7:30 p.m, Jan 5; 2:30 p.m./ 7:30 p. m., Jan 6; 7:30 p.m.., Jan 7. Beijing Exhibition Theater, 135 Xizhimenwai Dajie (Street), Xicheng district.

    Ticket: 180-1,080 yuan

    London Philharmonic Orchestra set to thrill Beijing

    The London Phiharmonic Orchestra will wrap up its China tour with two recitals in Being on Jan 5 and 6.

    Under the baton of Russian conductor Vasily Petrenko, the orchestra will perform H. Berlioz's overture to Beatrice et Benedict and P. I. Tchaikovsky's Fantasia on Romeo and Juliet and Variations on a Rococo Theme op.33, featuring Swedish-Danish cellist Andreas Brantelid, along with other pieces.

    7p.m., Jan 5-6. Concert Hall, National Center for the Performing Arts, 2 West Chang' an Avenue, Xicheng district. 010-6655-0000.

    Ticket: 380-1,680 yuan

    Russian army's troupe to return after restart

    The Russian army's official dance and choir troupe, the Alexandrov Ensemble, is staging five shows in Beijing from Jan 4 to 7, with a variety of songs, dances and instrumental performances.

The ensemble, also known as the Red Army Choir, was founded in 1928 and has toured the globe performing Russian folk tunes and patriotic songs using Western classical music and traditional Russian instruments.

    The repertoire on Saturday comprises 24 songs and dance pieces, including Song of the Soviet Army, The Sacred War, Moscow Nights and Festival March.

    7 p.m., Jan 5-7; 2:30 p.m., Jan 6. Opera House, National Center for the Performing Arts, 2 West Chang' an Avenue, Xicheng district. 010-6655-0000.

    Ticket: 180-1000 yuan

    It's that time of year when people need to lock their cars. It's not because there are a lot of criminals running around stealing cars. Rather, it's because of good-hearted neighbors who want to share their harvest. Especially with this year's large crop, leaving a car unlocked in my neighborhood is an invitation for someone to fill it with zucchini（西葫芦）.

    My sister, Sharon, recently had a good year for tomatoes. She and her family had eaten and canned so many that they had begun to feel their skin turn slightly red. That's when she decided it was time to share her blessings. She started calling everyone she knew. When that failed, she began asking everyone in the neighborhood, eventually finding a neighbor delighted to have the tomatoes. "Feel free to take whatever you want, "Sharon told her. Later that day, Sharon found that her garden had indeed been harvested. She felt happy that she could help someone and that the food didn't go to waste.

    A few days later, Sharon answered the door. There was the neighbor, holding a hot loaf of bread. The neighbor smiled pleasantly, "I wanted to thank you for all of the tomatoes, and I have to admit that I took a few other things and hoped you wouldn't mind. "

    Sharon couldn't think of anything else in her garden that had been worth harvesting and said so. "Oh, but you did, "the neighbor said. "You had some of the prettiest zucchini I've ever seen. "

    Sharon was confused. They hadn't even planted any zucchini. But her neighbor insisted that there really were bright-green zucchini in her garden. Sharon felt curious and decided to go to see where the zucchini had grown. The two of them walked together into the backyard. When the neighbor pointed at the long green vegetables, Sharon smiled. "Well, actually, those are cucumbers（黄瓜）that we never harvested, because they got too big, soft and bitter for eating. "

    The neighbor looked at Sharon, shock written all over her face. She gulped（哽住）a few times, and then, smiling, held out the bread, part of a batch she had shared all over the neighborhood. "I brought you a nice loaf of cucumber bread. I hope you like it. "

    While the start of a new school year is always exciting, this year was even more so for some elementary school students in Auckland, New Zealand. They became the world's first kids to be "taught" by a digital teacher, Will. Before you start imagining a human-like robot walking around the classroom, Will is just an avatar(化身) that turns up on the students' desktop, tablet, or smartphone screen when called.

    Thanks to a digital camera and microphone, the avatar not only responds to questions the kids may have, but also picks up non-verbal signals. For example, if a student smiles at Will, he responds by smiling back. This two-way communication not only helps draw the students' attention, but also allows the program's developers to monitor their involvement(参与) and make changes if needed.

    Vector's Chief Digital Officer, Nikhil Ravishankar, believes that Will-like avatars could be a novel way to attract the attention of the next generation. He says, "Using a digital human is a very popular method to deliver new information to people, and I have a lot of hope in this technology as a means to deliver rich and educational experience in the future." Greg Cross, the Chief Business Officer for Soul Machines, states that kids who have grown up in this digital time adapt(适应) to new technology quickly, and he hopes to develop the idea of digital humans in the area of educate further.

    The program, in place since August 2018, has been a great success so far. However, no mater how popular it becomes, Will is unlikely to replace human educators any time soon. For one, the avatar's knowledge base is severely limited. But more importantly, even the smartest digital avatars could never predict and react to all the unexpected situations that educators have to deal with on a daily basis. However, it could come in handy as a "personal teacher", providing kids with one-on-one help on the subjects or even topics.

    Finding a friend doesn't seem like a difficult job. However, bad friends are easier to find than good friends these days. If you're sitting there and wondering if you have a bad friend, let me define it for you.

    A bad friend is someone whose jealousies and insecurities outweigh their love for someone. They might want to be a good friend but they're too messed up in their own head to ever actually do it. They wonder if their friends are going out without them or if they're being forgotten and left behind. People who are violently insecure don't have what it takes to be the quality of a friend.

    Bad friends are narcissistic(自恋的). They look for any opportunity to bring the conversation back to them. Worse, they might not even be aware that they're doing it. In their mind, they might think they are the best friend ever, which is truly frightening.

    Bad friends are quick-change. They're by your side when you're fun and you have something to give them but as soon as you're going through a difficult time, they will become indifferent quickly. They won't bring you cold medicine. They won't give you a ride to the doctor, everything they do is self-serving.

    If you find a friend who has these same characteristics, send them to your bad friend list immediately. Your friends are supposed to be the solution to your problems, not the source.

    I believe your twenties are a time when you need positive and helpful friends. In such a time, friendships aren't easy to maintain like they once were in school. Now we actually have to put work into it, we have to make a conscious effort to keep the friendship going. You need to ask yourself, "Is this person worth it? Do they treat me like a fool or what?" if you have doubts, try to make them clear by considering the past experiences. Toxic(有毒的) friendships do nothing but drag you down. My point is that you have to take care of yourself and stop getting in touch with your bad friends. Only surround yourself with people who bring out the best qualities in you. It may sound cruel but it's true.