A Chinese consortium（联盟）led by China Railway Corp will participate in bidding for a high-speed railroad linking Singapore and Malaysia in 2018, marking another step in China's ambitious strategy to export its high-speed railway technologies to Southeast Asia.

    The consortium, consisting of eight companies including CRRC, China Railway Construction Corporation Ltd, China Railway Signal and Communication Co and Export-Import Bank of China, covers the design, construction, telecommunication, financing, operating and maintenance（维护）sectors for the high-speed rail network.

    A joint tender（招标）for the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore high-speed rail project was issued by the Malaysian and Singaporean government-owned utilities（公用事业）—MyHSR Corp and SG HSR，on Dec 20.According to a joint statement released by the two companies, the potential bidder would be responsible for the design, construction, financing, operating and maintenance of rolling stock and railway systems for the double-track line with a designed speed of 350 kilometers per hour.

    The tender is open to all companies, regardless of their location. A tender briefing will be held in Kuala Lumpur on Jan 23, and proposals need to be submitted by June 29. Submissions will be evaluated based on technical merit（优点）, commercial robustness, financial sustainability and price. The preferred bidder will be selected by the end of next year. The governments of both countries signed a bilateral（双边的）agreement late in 2016 to begin the project. According to the agreement, the high-speed rail link is expected to become operational by Dec 31, 2026, and will cut travel time between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore to just 90 minutes.

    “The move indicates that China's State-owned enterprises have stopped cruel competition to hurt each other,” said Du Chunbu, a professor of rail transportation at Beijing Jiaotong University. “Instead, they have started to form a consortium to better compete with companies from Japan, South Korea, Germany and Canada by bringing their specialties into play.”

    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

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    About 30 years ago, I left Cuba for the United States with my son. After getting settled finally in Brunswick, New Jersey, I enrolled (注册) my son in kindergarten. Several weeks later, my son's teacher asked me to meet him at his office.

    In the teacher's office, and exchange of greetings was followed by his questions: "Is your son mentally retarded (弱智的)? Does he suffer from any kind of mental disability?"

    Was he talking about my wonderful Scola? No, no, it can't be. What a helpless, lonely moment! I told him that Scola was a quiet, sweet little boy, instead. I asked him why he was asking me all these questions.

    My son could not follow the teacher's directions, he told me, and thus, Scola was disrupting the class. Didn't he know my son did not speak English yet? He was angry: "Why hasn't your son been taught to speak English? Don't you speak English at home?"

    No, I didn't speak English at home, I replied. I was sure my son would learn English in a couple of months, and I didn't want him to forget his native language. Well, wrong answer!

    What kind of person would not speak in English to her son at home and at all times? "Are you one of those people who come to this country to save dollars and sent them back to their country, never wanting to be a part of this society?"

    Needless to say, I tried to tell him I was not one of "those people." Then he told me the meeting was over, and I left.

    As I had expected, my son learned to speak English fluently before the school year was over. He went on to graduate from college and got a job, earning close to six figures. He travels widely and leads a well-adjusted, contented life. And he has benefited from being bilingual (双语的).

    Speaking more than one language allows people to communicate with others; it teaches people about other cultures and other places- something very basic and obviously lacking in the "educator" I met in New Jersey.

    To err is human. To blame the other guy is even more human. Common sense is not all that common. Why tell the truth when you can come up with a good excuse?

    These three popular misquotes (戏谑的引语) are meant to be jokes, and yet they tell us a lot about human nature. To err, or to make mistakes, is indeed a part of being human, but it seems that most people don't want to accept the responsibility for the problem. Perhaps it is the natural thing to do. The original quote about human nature went like this: "To err is human, to forgive, divine (神圣的)." This saying mirrors a deal people should be forgiving of others' mistakes. Instead, we tend to do the opposite-find someone else to pass the blame on to.

    However, taking responsibility for something that went wrong is a making of great maturity.

    Common sense is what we call clear thought. Having common sense means having a good general plan that will make things work well, and it also means staying with the plan. Common sense tells you that you take an umbrella out into a rainstorm, but you leave the umbrella home when you hear a weather forecast for sunshine. Common sense does not seem to be common for large organizations, because there are so many things going on that one person cannot be in charge of everything. People say that in a large company," the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing."

    And what is wrong with a society that thinks that making up a good excuse is like creating a work of art? One of the common problems with making excuses is that people, especially young people, get the idea that it's okay not to be totally honest all the time. There is a corollary (直接推论) to that: if good excuse is "good" even if it isn't honest, then where is the place of the truth?

    Millions of Americans are living in areas at high-risk of river flooding, many of whom are completely unaware of the danger.

    While the risk of coastal flooding from extreme storms and rising seas rightly attracts plenty of attention, Americans are being urged to look inland for a similar threat receiving far less recognition: river flooding. New research conducted by the University of Bristol has shown that as many as 41 million Americans are highly at risk from river floods – more than three times the number previously estimated – with real estate (住宅区) in areas such as Louisiana, Florida, Arizona and West Virginia found to be especially at threat.

    For the first time, it has been possible to produce super quality flood risk maps that cover the whole United States, while previous Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) flood maps cover no more than 60 per cent of the country. The fine details provided by these new maps also makes it possible to predict the powerful effects of flooding on many smaller streams than before, thus raising concerns about the increasing number of people potentially threatened.

    "We were all surprised by how many Americans we find are exposed to flooding from rivers," says Oliver Wing, from the University of Bristol's School of Geographical Sciences. "It's particularly worrisome considering that most of these people aren't even aware of the risk they face."

    Additionally, there is the possibility that this lack of awareness means construction in high-risk river flooding areas will continue to rise, despite the threats. Estimates (估量) suggest that projected population growth, continued urbanization trends (城市化趋势), and the unpredictable threats caused by climate change will leave over 60 million Americans vulnerable (易受攻击的) to a 100-year flood by the middle of the century. 'All of this highlights the urgent need for large areas of floodplain and flood risk management planning,' adds Wing.