Papa's jaw dropped when Mama told him that Sister had cheated on her final exams—not to succeed but to fail. “It's unbelievable!” he said. “Sister has always been so proud of her good grades!”

    “Yes, she has,” said Mama. “But it's not unbelievable. It just shows how badly she wanted off the swimming team.”

    “Wanted off the swimming team?” said Papa. “She never said anything about that to me.”

    “Of course she didn't,” said Mama. “She was afraid you'd blow your top. You already had her getting a swimming scholarship to college and winning gold medals at the Olympics. Can you imagine how much pressure she must have felt? For her, being on the team couldn't have been much fun.”

    “Oh, my god!” Papa said, clapping a hand to his forehead. “I've been so stupid! I just thought she'd want to be a champion swimmer because she's so good at it.”

    “It's like anything else, dear,” said Mama. “No matter how good at it you are, if it stops being fun, you won't want to do it anymore.”

    Papa put his head in his hands.

    “She must be really mad at me,” he mumbled. “Maybe I should say sorry to her.”

    Sister's footsteps could be heard on the stairs. She came into the kitchen and looked hopefully up at her parents.

    “Honey,” said Mama with a smile, “your papa and I have decided that there's no reason for you to be on the swimming team if you don't want to.”

    Sister's face lit up like a Christmas tree. “Yippee!” she cried.

    “And,” added Papa, “there's no need for any more drills. I'm sure you'll bring your grades back up all by yourself.”

    Sister ran to Papa and jumped into his arms. She gave him a big hug. “I'm going to go play cards with Lizzy!” she said. “See you later!”

    From the kitchen window, Mama and Papa watched their daughter run down the sunny road toward Lizzy's house.

    “It's good to see her happy again,” said Mama.

    “It sure is,” Papa agreed. “As for the swimming team, there's always next year.”

    “If?” Mama prompted him.

    “Oh, right,” said Papa. “If she wants to.”

    Mama smiled. “At least you're learning, dear,” she said. She kissed him.

    “Well, you know what they say,” Papa said. “Better late than never.”

    Many students are involved in social practice besides study. On Monday, April 17, 2017, a unique partnership between Saint Agatha and Phalanx Family Services began. Saint Agatha is a primary school and day care program. Phalanx Family Services is a full-service, nonprofit （非盈利的）organization offering various programming for in-need families living in Chicago.

    Thirteen in-school youths, between the ages of 16~18, started training as young reporters in an eight-week camp organized by the two organizations. The program is designed to teach them how to become city reporters. After completing the program successfully, they will receive a job reporting for one of nine online news about the project.

    The very thought of 13 youths' improving reading and writing levels and hunting for career opportunities in journalism（新闻业）is exciting! Imagine, Chicago youths report positive and inspiring stories about the happenings around Chicago's black and brown communities, which are much better than frightening stories coming from local and national medium.

    I admire Saint Agatha and Phalanx Family Services for training youths in a needed skill set. As I see it, technology has harmed youths' reading and writing abilities. My father often says, “Youth is wasted on the young.” It sounds like the wisdom of the old. But Saint Agatha offers training and the opportunity for youths to take an active part in reporting the happenings and events they experience day to day in order to prove students don't waste youth.

    Finding a winter job is often a proof(证明)that you're growing up, and it's also a method for earning money to pay for what you dream of. It's never too early to start considering the future. Now, here are some good choices for you!

    Retail (零售) Sales

    Retail offers plenty of opportunity for teens who are looking for a job. This type of work can pay from $10 to $15 an hour depending upon the duty you are expected to take on. It can also be great for teens who are friendly and enjoy talking to other people. For more information, call us at 4005075.

    Food Service

    A job in the food service industry is a natural fit for sociable teens who enjoy communicating with the public. It allows employees to work as part of a team while learning about following instructions. It also comes with the opportunity to earn between $8 and $10 per hour. Just call 4005077 for more information.

    Babysitter

    This job requires someone who is highly responsible. Though it pays generally between $6 and $8 hourly, it also requires a lot of patience. This is a great choice for teens who wish to make a career in teaching, child care, social work or any other field that makes use of social skills or requires interaction with kids. Got a question? Just call 4005076.

    Housekeeping

    This type of work can bring in about $5 an hour and it will allow teens to learn the tourism industry, so hotels are often looking for more housekeeping staff, and parks often need more people to assist with keeping public areas clean and organized as well. Telephone: 4005079

    Steven Spielberg's 2002 science-fiction thriller Minority Report produced a world where computers could read minds and predict the future. It seemed fanciful at the time, but fantasy is edging closer to fact.

    On Jan 31, a team of scientists at UC Berkeley, led by Robert Knight programmed computers to decode (破译) brain waves and replay them as words. Five months earlier, another group of Berkeley scientists showed their colleagues short movies and used computers to play back in color what people saw.

    These experiments are a big advance from 2006, when a French scientist first replayed images from a human mind, a black-and-white checkerboard pattern. The possibilities are great: a disabled person could" speak"; doctors could access the mind of a patient who fainted; you could rewatch your dreams on an iPad. There are, of course, equally dark side, such as the involuntary take out of information from the brain.

    In spite of these breakthroughs, Jack Gallant, the neuroscientist who led the first Berkeley team, says current technology for decoding brain activity is still "relatively primitive". The field is held back by its poor machinery, in particular the FMRI.

    "Eventually," says Gallant, "someone will invent a decoding machine you can wear as a hat." Such an advance into the human mind, he says, might take 30 years.

    Still, the recent advances at Berkeley offer small answers, which scientists can use to begin unlocking the secrets of memory and consciousness.

    Based on the State Information Center (SIC)'s definition for a sharing economy, payment for knowledge can be regarded as a process of turning knowledge into commercial products or services. To be specific, people can share their knowledge with others via Internet platforms, meanwhile bringing themselves extra income. These platforms, at the same time, earn their profits on that.

    The year 2016 marked the beginning of knowledge payment in China. An investigation jointly conducted by Guokr and Netease's online platforms shows that 70% of users have paid for online learning; while in 2015, the number was only 26%.

In May, 2016, Zhihu, a Chinese question-and-answer website, launched Zhihu Live (payment sharing). Within three days, these new platforms attracted over one million users. In June, Luo Zhenyu, founder of LUOgic Show, launched Li Xiang's Commercial References on iget(得到网)，and within two days over four million users subscribed; in August, Z/"7m's approval & tip function, Snowball O&A, Lenovo's Zhiliao Q&A came online; in September, Huxiu (虎嗅网)began to provide in-depth reports to VIP payment members. Other paid knowledge platforms such as Ximalaya FM, Douban，have also been developing their knowledge payment services.

    People with a wealth of knowledge and experience in specific areas are the most likely to benefit from payment for knowledge. Senior managers in large multinational companies like Google, financial elites with top university backgrounds and well-known psychologists, can all profit from these online platforms. But the opportunities also favor the ordinary: a body-builder, a girl who traveled around the world, or a student that passed a postgraduate entry exam can all set up a live classroom. One hundred minutes of audio sharing cost ¥ 19.9 or $2.9, and thousands of users might pay and join the course, bringing those with specific knowledge remarkable income.

    In the 2017 China's Sharing Economy Development Report provided by the SIC，the turnover in China's knowledge market measures about Y61 billion, or $9 billion，which is a 205% growth compared to last year; the number of payment for knowledge users reached 300 million, accounting for half of all Chinese Internet Users.

    The investigation shows that, males are the majority of the users, accounting for nearly 60%: 25-35 year olds account for 59.3%, which mirrors the majority of Internet users, 63% of the paying users are college graduates, and 53.9% of the paying users have an income of Y3-8k,or $ 441-1176, and most are employees and junior management.

    4-Day Classic Beijing Tour The 4-day classic Beijing tour is designed for tourists who come to visit China for the first time. It covers the most popular and typical places in Beijing, fully displaying the scenery, culture, history, local lifestyles and features, food and drinks, business, etc. for you.

    Day 1：Arrival in Beijing

    Your guide meets you at Capital Airport, and helps you check in at your hotel.

    Enjoy Beijing Duck as welcome dinner.

    Accommodation：Beijing downtown

    Day 2：The Great Wall & the Summer Palace

    Start your day at the most famous part of the Great Wall, the Badaling Great Wall. Leave the downtown for the Great Wall at 8am. Since it is a long drive to the Great Wall （about 2 hours' riding） have a break at the Jade Museum on the way. Lunch will be enjoyed in a local restaurant. In the early afternoon come back to the city and have a sightseeing tour of the Summer Palace.

    Recommended Activity：Beijing Opera Show （Liyuan Theatre, 19：30-21：10 every evening）

    Accommodation：Beijing downtown

    Day 3：Beijing city sightseeing & Local experience

    Your guide meets you at the hotel at 8 am and set out for the day's touring：    Tian'anmen Square and the Forbidden City.

    After visiting the two sites, have a break and get ready for lunch.

    Hutong visit：see some traditional arts of the old Beijing, such as paper cutting and kite making, and visit a local family.

    Accommodation：Beijing downtown

    Day 4：Beijing Olympic sites

    Visit the Olympic sites：Bird's Nest, Water Cube and Olympic Park, witnessing the fast developing modern China. Enjoy some free time after visiting the sites.

    After lunch, it is shopping time and then the tour is over.