September is an exciting month in every college freshman's life. For many, it's the first time that they've left home to live in a new environment. But after the hustle and bustle（喧嚣）of a few weeks, excitement gives way to a less enjoyable emotion— homesickness.

    Homesickness manifests（显露）itself in many ways. You may miss mum's cooking, your pets, or even your old bed. All this becomes a fond memory of the past. Homesickness can be a bitter feeling for many students, especially when faced with the challenges of settling into an unfamiliar environment.

    But remember, you're not alone. According to a recent BBC article, 70 percent of British college students experience homesickness. In this increasingly globalized world in which people migrate to faraway places for a relationship, education or work, homesickness is a feeling shared by many adults.

    Homesickness can have similar symptoms to depression and in extreme cases it can develop into a panic attack. As for the term, homesickness or nostalgia wasn't invented until the 17th century. It was considered a disorder by a Swiss physician, who attributed soldiers' mental and physical discomfort to their longing to return home, “nostos” from Greek, and the accompanying pain, “algos”.

    Studies in recent years, however, have shown that nostalgia may have some benefits to our mental health. After a decade of surveys and researches, Constantine Sedikides, a US social psychologist, found that nostalgia is what makes us human. He explains that nostalgia can resist loneliness, boredom and anxiety. Therefore, it's necessary for college students to learn some ways to overcome the uncomfortable feeling.

    When friends come to visit us in the evening, they spend their time telling us that they are in a hurry and looking at their watches. It isn't that our friends are all very busy. It is just that we haven't got a TV set. People think that we are very strange. “But what do you do in the evenings?” they are always asking. The answer is simple. Both my wife and I have hobbies. We certainly don't spend our evenings staring at（盯着）the walls. My wife enjoys cooking and painting and often attends evening classes in foreign languages. This is particularly useful as we always go abroad for our holidays. I collect stamps and I am always busy with my collection. Both of us enjoy listening to music and playing chess together.

Sometimes there are power cuts and we have no electricity in the house. This does not worry us. We just light candles and carry on with what we were doing before. Our friends are lost —no televisions! So they don't know what to do. On such evenings our house is very full as they all come to us. They all have a good time. Instead of sitting in silence in front of the television, everybody talks and plays games. Yes, life is possible without television!

    At times my mom has been uncomfortable seeing these qualities in me. For example, when I was 12, I went to Puerto Rico all by myself to stay with my grandmother for the summer. My mom was extremely nervous about it. She kept telling me how things were different in Puerto Rico, to always put on sunscreen, not to wander away from my grandmother, and other warnings. She helped me pack and did not leave the airport until she saw my plane take off.

    But despite her worries, she let me go on my own. As I moved into my teens, she continued to give me space to grow and learn even when it might have been difficult for her. When I reached my senior year, I decided to move away for college. Once again I found that I differed from my peers: while many of them wanted to stay close to home, I couldn't wait to be out in the world on my own. While my mom may not have been happy at the thought of me going away, she was supportive and excited for me.

    One big thing I realized during my senior year, as my mom granted me more freedom, was that she actually believes in me and trusts me. That means a lot. Most of my life, and especially when I was little, the main person I tried to impress in my schoolwork or other things was my mother. I knew she expected nothing but the best from me. Sometimes it was hard to live up to her standards; getting a single B on my report card would make me feel bad because I knew she wanted me to have all A's.

    I know that her high standards have helped me stay focused on what's important, like education, and made me who I am. I am thankful for her support and involvement in my life. Most of all I respect her. She is the strongest woman I know and that's why I have turned out so strong and independent.

    Education is not a bystanders sport. Numerous researchers have shown that when students participate in classroom discussion they hold more positive attitudes toward school, and that positive attitudes promote learning. It is no coincidence that girls are more passive in the classroom discussion and score lower than boys on SATs.

    We found that at all grade levels in all communities and in all subject areas boys controlled classroom communication. They participated in more interactions than girls did, and their participation became greater as the year went on.

    Our research contradicted the traditional assumption that girls control classroom communication in reading while boys in math. We found that whether the subject was language arts and English or math and science, boys got more than their fair share of teacher attention. That teachers talk more to male students is simply because boys are more aggressive in grabbing their attention by calling out answers to the teachers' questions first. While girls sit patiently with their hands raised or keep silent. Psychologist Lisa Serbin and K.Daniel O'Leary, then at the state university of New York at stony brook studied classroom interaction at preschool level and found that teachers gave boys more attention, praised them more often and were at least twice as likely to have extended conversations with them.

    Years of experience have shown that the best way to learn something is to do it yourself. It is also important to give students specific and direct feedback about the quality of their work and answers. Teachers behave differently depending on whether boys or girls are active to provide answers during discussions. During classroom discussion, teachers in our study reacted to boys answers with powerful, precise and effective responses, while they often gave girls mild and unclear reactions because of their silence. Too often, girls remain in the dark about the quality of their answers. Active students receiving precise feedback are more likely to achieve academically. And they are more likely to be boys.

    This kind of communication game is played at work, as well as at school. As reported in numerous studies, it goes like this.

    Men speak more often and frequently interrupt women.

    Listeners recall more from male speakers than from female speakers, even when both use a similar speaking style and cover the same content.

    Women participate less actively in conversation. They do more smiling and gazing, and they are more often the passive by standers in professional and social conversations among peers.

    Women often their own statements into unsure comments. This is accomplished by using qualifiers and by adding tag question. These uncertain patterns weaken impact and signal a lack of power and influence.

    Only when girls are active and treated equally in the classroom will they be more likely to achieve equality in the workplace.

    We are the CEOs. We are the head designers. We are the top engineers. We are the senior creators. We are the inventors. We are the only maker of our own happiness.

    However, we still have learned that people's views on happiness often change with many outside things. Some people smile happily beside their new cars and homes. Students feel excited when they get better grades. Babies laugh loudly when they get new toys. Maybe true happiness has been lost in these things.

    How could we have allowed ourselves to be cheated for so long? Something outside may give us happiness, but what directs us to real happiness is inner (内在的) spirit.

    Our spirit is so easily broken, yet it is the single strongest thing we own. Why do people with terrible diseases still smile? Why do those with a broken heart still find joy? The inner spirit is powerful, and it is the only thing on earth that can be broken into pieces but can perfectly mend itself with time. Think about those who suffer a lot but still feel happy. Their inner spirit is very strong.

    Our inner spirit will be the greatest gift that we give ourselves. It is our compass (指南针) to happiness, but we are the tour guides.

    Over the past 40 years, China has helped more than 700 million rural residents out of being poor, and the poverty rate -- the proportion of people living below the Chinese poverty line -- had fallen among the rural population from 97.5 percent in 1978 to 3.1 percent at the end of 2017, official figures shows. China's achievements in poverty alleviation (扶贫) made the world look at China with admiration.

    "For me, it is unbelievable that over 40 years, that is, over the course of one working lifetime, China has gone from one of the poorest countries in the world to one that is about to eliminate(消除) absolute poverty," said Craig Allen, president of the US-China Business Council.

    Varaprasad Sekhar Dolla, a professor of Chinese studies at India's Jawaharlal Nehru University, also spoke highly of China's achievements in poverty reduction. "If global poverty came down greatly in the last three or four decades, it's partly because of the Chinese contribution to reducing poverty within its own national boundaries," said the Indian scholar.

    In the eyes of Khairy Tourk, a professor of economics with the Stuart School of Business at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, "many countries look up to China to learn from its experience." "The Chinese experience is based on building a modern infrastructure (基础设施) and then on setting up special economic zones that would help underdeveloped countries to become more industrial," he added.

    In the government work report delivered at the opening of the annual NPC session (全国人大会议) on March 5, China promises to reduce its population of rural poor by over 10 million this year.