Years ago, I lived in a building in a large city. The next building was only a few feet away from mine. There was a woman who lived there, whom I had never met, yet I could see her seated by her window each afternoon, sewing or reading.

    After several months had gone by, I began to notice that her window was dirty. Everything was unclear through the dirty window. I would say to myself, “I wonder why that woman doesn't wash her window. It really looks terrible.”

    One bright morning I decided to clean my flat, including washing the window on the inside.Late in the afternoon when I finished the cleaning, I sat down by the window with a cup of coffee for a rest. What a surprise! Across the way, the woman sitting by her window was clearly visible. Her window was clean!

    Then it dawned on me. I had been criticizing her dirty window, but all the time I was watching hers through my own dirty window.That was quite an important lesson for me. How often had I looked at and criticized others through the dirty window of my heart, through my own shortcomings?

    Since then, whenever I wanted to judge someone, I asked myself first, “Am I looking at him through my own dirty window?” I try to clean the window of my own world so that I may see the world about me more clearly.

    There are two type of people in the world. Although they have equal degree of health and wealth and other comforts of life, one becomes happy and the other becomes unhappy. This arises from the different ways in which they consider things, persons, events and the resulting effects upon their minds.

    People who are to be happy fix their attention on the convenience of things: the pleasant parts of conversation, the well prepared dishes, the goodness of the wine and the fine weather. They enjoy all the cheerful things. Those who are to be unhappy think and speak only of the opposite things. Therefore, they are continually dissatisfied .By their remarks, they sour the pleasure of society, offend many people, and make themselves dissgreeable everywhere .If this turn of mind was founded in nature ,such unhappy persons would be the more to be pitied . The intention of criticizing and being disliked is perhaps taken up by imitation .It grows into a habit, unknown to its possessors. The habit may be strong, but it may be cured when those who have it realise its bad effects on their interests and tastes. I hope this little warning may be of service to them and help them change this habit.

    Although in fact it is chiefly an act of the imagination, it has serious results in life since it brings on deep sorrow and bad luck .Those people offend many others; nobody loves them , and no one treats them with more than the most common politeness and respect. This frequently puts them in bad temper and draws them into arguments. If they aim at getting some advantages in social position or fortune, nobody wishes them success .Nor will anyone start a step or speak a word to favor their hopes. If they bring on themselves public objections, no one will defend or excuse them, and many will join to criticize their wrong doings. These should change this bad habit and be pleased with what is pleasing, without worrying needlessly about themselves and others, If they do not, it will be good for others to avoid any contact with them .Otherwise , it can be disagreeable and sometimes very inconvenient , especially when one becomes mixed up in their quarrels.

    See our editors' top 5 picks in print books and Kindle books, and discover our editors' picks for the best books of the year.

    # 1 Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann

    In Killers of the Flower Moon, David Grami revisits a shocking series of crimes in which dozens of people were murdered in cold blood. Based on years of research and new evidence, the book is a masterpiece of narrative nonfiction.

    Kindle: $14.99 Hardcover: $ 17.37 Paperback: $15.36

    # 2 Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

    Little Fires Everywhere explores the weight of secrets, the nature of art and identity, and the fierce pull of motherhood and the danger of believing that following the rules can avoid disaster,

    Little Fires Everywhere is the perfect gift for the holidays!

    Kindle: $13.99 Hardcover: $ 20.96 Paperback: $ 12.95

    # 3 Bear Town by Fredrik Backman

    It is a novel about a forgotten town bothered by scandal and the amateur hockey team that might just change everything into a better place. Winning a junior ice hockey championship might mean everything to the residents of Beartown.

Kindle: $10.99 Hardcover: $ 12.95

    # 4 Exit West by Mohsin Hamid

    Profoundly intimate and powerfully inventive, Exit West tells an unforgettable story of love, loyalty, and courage that is both completely of our time and for all time.

Kindle: $12.99 Hardcover: $ 15.73 Paperback: $11

    # 5 Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Harari

    Yuval Noah Harari, author of the international phenomenon Sapiens, returns with an equally original and attractive book, turning his focus toward humanity's future, and our quest to upgrade humans into gods.

    Kindle: $17.99 Hardcover: $ 28.95 Paperback: $22.99

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    When you are sitting in class, have you ever drawn pictures in the margins (页边的空白处) of your notebooks? If so, you are doodling. Many people think of doodling as a distraction (分心) from more important things. But it might be just the opposite.

    One study shows that doodling may help you remember things you hear 29% more. Besides, doodling can help you think creatively. Walking away from a problem to draw might actually help you solve it. When you come back, you'll have a fresh perspective and figure out an answer more quickly.

    An author named Sunni Brown wrote a book on doodling. She argues that doodling is a tool that can help people think. In fact, she runs a business that helps companies improve organization and planning through doodling. Brown believes doodling is helpful because it includes many ways of learning. You learn in four ways: seeing, hearing, reading or writing, and through movement. The more ways you use, the better you learn. And when you doodle while listening to a lecture, you use all four.

    You might think that being good at drawing is important for doodling. But if the point of doodling is to help you think, then it doesn't matter what the picture looks like. Even if you're not an artist, doodling can help you. So next time you need help focusing, pick up a pen and doodle away!

    Steven Stein likes to follow garbage trucks. His strange habit makes sense when you consider that he's an environmental scientist who studies how to reduce litter, including things that fall off garbage trucks as they drive down the road. What is even more interesting is that one of Stein's jobs is defending an industry behind the plastic shopping bags.

    Americans use more than 100 billion thin film plastic bags every year. So many end up in tree branches or along highways that a growing number of cities do not allow them at checkouts(收银台) . The bags are prohibited in some 90 cities in California, including Los Angeles. Eyeing these headwinds, plastic-bag makers are hiring scientists like Stein to make the case that their products are not as bad for the planet as most people assume.

    Among the bag makers' argument: many cities with bans still allow shoppers to purchase paper bags, which are easily recycled but require more energy to produce and transport. And while plastic bags may be ugly to look at, they represent a small percentage of all garbage on the ground today

    The industry has also taken aim at the product that has appeared as its replacement: reusable shopping bags. The stronger a reusable bag is, the longer its life and the more plastic-bag use it cancels out. However, longer-lasting reusable bags often require more energy to make. One study found that a cotton bag must be used at least 131 times to be better for the planet than plastic.

    Environmentalists don't dispute(质疑) these points. They hope paper bags will be banned someday too and want shoppers to use the same reusable bags for years.

    During your four years in the college, you'll have many exciting choices to make, the first of which will be your course selection for your first semester. The beauty of this choice is that you can't go wrong! No matter which one of our First-Year Options you select to apply for, you will create a rich intellectual experience to begin your college career.

    Option 1: Liberal Arts Seminar

    The Liberal Arts Seminar is a multidisciplinary(多学科的)course that explores the cultural history of the Mediterranean through fictional and nonfictional books.

Fall schedule: When Registration opens, you will select between one and four additional courses to complete your schedule.

    Option 2: FLL Hager Scholars Program

    The FLL Hager Scholars Program is designed with our most ambitious students of languages and linguistics in mind, and is designed to create for them both a sense of community and opportunities for intellectual growth.

    Fall schedule: When Registration opens, you will select between one and three additional courses to complete your schedule.

    Option 3: Ignatius Seminars

    Offered only in the first semester, Ignatius Seminars introduce students to the depth and diversity of Georgetown's dynamic intellectual community.

    Fall schedule: When Registration opens, you will select three or four additional courses to complete your schedule.

    Option 4: Traditional First-Year Academic Program

    With this program, you'll take your first step into the college's rich and varied core courses and explore your fields of interest in free optional coursework.

    Fall schedule: When Registration opens, you will build a schedule of four or five additional courses from the full college curriculum.