A few years ago, my wife, Sue had some serious health problems. She had suffered surgery after surgery and had also put on weight. Diets had not helped her and she suffered constantly from undiagnosed pain. One day the whole family sat down and drew up a “wish list”. To our surprise, one of Sue's items was to run in a marathon. Given her history and physical limitations, I thought her goal was completely unrealistic, but Sue became committed to it.

    She began by running very slowly and every day she ran just a little farther than she did the day before. Soon she could run three miles. Then five. Sue kept practicing and longed to run in the St. George Marathon in southern Utah.

    On the big day, I parked our van near the finish line, waiting for Sue. The rain was steady and the wind was cold. The marathon had started over five hours ago. The fast and strong competitors had finished already. Several cold and injured runners had been transported past me, and I began to panic. The image of Sue, alone and cold, off the road somewhere, made me sick with worry.

    Another hour passed and I spotted a small group running up. As they approached, I could see Sue, in the company of three others, and a woman in her twenties was near Sue. It was obvious that they had become friends during the race. I could see her begin to struggle. But when the finish line came into sight, she confidently even happily picked up her pace the last hundred yards to the finish line. Few people were left to congratulate my wife. They openly praised and embraced her, “She made us believe we could do it,” her new friend stated.

    From then on, she was carrying herself differently. Her head was more upright. Her shoulders were squared. Her walk had a new confidence. Her voice held a new, quiet dignity. It was not as if she had become someone new; it was more as if she had discovered a real self she had not known before. It was perseverance that made her realize she was an undiscovered masterpiece with a million things left to learn about herself. She truly liked her newly discovered self. So did I.

    In France, franglais（英式法语）was seen as a national threat. Just as we took in thousands of French words in the Middle Ages, French speakers and writers today are taking in thousands of English and American expressions. By 1994, so many English words had made their way to French that the French government passed a law forbidding the use of English words where good French words existed.

    But the latest edition of the Academy francaise dictionary did admit about 6,000 new words to the French language, including, for the first time, a number of franglais words and expressions.

    However, this sort of thing is not just limited to traditional English – French Competition. Norway and Brazil have recently taken similar measures to keep English out.

    As English spreads around the globe, it has developed rich varieties. English has been spoken in Singapore since the early 19^th century, but after independence from Britain, Singapore went a step further and English was made the official language of business and government. But the day −to–day English that the people of Singapore actually speak is a far cry from the official English that the government wants them to learn. It has become an expressive dialect called “Singlish”, full of vocabulary and grammar borrowed from the Singapores' native languages.

    And this may be the irony（讽刺）of the global spread of English. The more widely it's spoken, the more it may change into local dialects, which are not easily intelligible. People will make English their own and, in doing so, will make it something else. This has happened before to Latin which broke into French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Romanian. But English has always welcomed variety and change, and it still does.

    Getting rid of dirt, in the opinion of most people, is a good thing. However, there is nothing fixed about attitudes to dirt.

    In the early 16^th century, people thought that dirt on the skin was a means to block out disease, as medical opinion had it that washing off dirt with hot water could open up the skin and let ills in. A particular danger was thought to lie in public baths. By 1538, the French king had closed the bath houses in his kingdom. So did the king of England in 1546. Thus began a long time when the rich and the poor in Europe lived with dirt in a friendly way. Henry IV, King of France, was famously dirty. Upon learning that a nobleman had taken a bath, the king ordered that, to avoid the attack of disease, the nobleman should not go out.

    Though the belief in the merit of dirt was long-lived, dirt has no longer been regarded as a nice neighbor ever since the 18^th century. Scientifically speaking, cleaning away dirt is good to health. Clean water supply and hand washing are practical means of preventing disease. Yet, it seems that standards of cleanliness have moved beyond science since World War Ⅱ. Advertisements repeatedly sell the idea; clothes need to be whiter than white, cloths ever softer, surfaces to shine. Has the hate for dirt, however, gone too far?

    Attitudes to dirt still differ hugely nowadays. Many first-time parents nervously try to warn their children off touching dirt, which might be responsible for the spread of disease. On the contrary, Mary Ruebush, an American immunologist(免疫学家)，encourages children to play in the dirt to build up a strong immune system. And the latter position is gaining some ground.

    From the earliest times, man has been interested in art. People have often worked together to collect and save the world's art treasures.

    Fine art treasures from many countries are kept in an art museum called the Louvre in Paris, France. The works of art have been collected by the people of France over many centuries.

    The Louvre has not always been a museum. The first building was a fort(炮台).In 1190, it was the king's castle with high walls and a round tower. It had a moat to prevent his enemies from walking in.

    Over the years, the number of buildings around the castle grew. By 1350, the castle was no longer needed as a fort. The Louvre became a palace home for French kings and queens.

    During times of peace, new treasures were brought in. During days of war, many treasures were stolen, and the buildings were damaged.

    When Francis I became king of France in 1515, he brought in artists from many countries. One of the artists was Leonardo Da Vinci from Italy. Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" is the best known painting in the museum today.

    In 1793, the Louvre became a public museum, just as it is now. It is a place where art treasures have been saved for everyone to enjoy.

    While the U.S. is still debating about getting rid of the penny, Sweden is rapidly moving towards abolishing currency (货币) altogether. Though this may sound radical(过激的), it is a natural evolution in this digital society.

    Sweden, which was the first European country to introduce banknotes in 1661, has just been working harder to convince its residents that digital payments are a safer alternative to carrying cash.

    Over the years, the idea has gained popularity with residents, especially the younger generation that is much more comfortable with technology. Today many banks don't even have ATMs and some have stopped handling cash altogether!

    Tickets to ride public buses in most Swedish cities can only be purchased via cell phones. Numerous businesses are also moving towards accepting only digital payments. Even the homeless that sell street paper to make ends meet have to start accepting this mode of payment!

    But despite its growing popularity, some people don't like this radical idea. They include the homeless, elderly people as well as those living in rural areas who are still uncomfortable with mobile phones and computers. But the officials are confident that in the very near future, they will be able to convince everyone to move this safe and more cost-effective payment system.

    Sweden is not the only country trying to abolish paper currency and coins. The movement is rapidly gaining ground in Denmark and Finland as well. In 2014, Israel announced a three-step plan to go cashless and just last week the vendors(小贩)of a popular street in Sydney declared they would stop accepting currency from customers. Whether this phenomenon spreads remains to be seen. But one thing is for sure—With increasingly advanced payment systems being introduced every day, pulling out cash is rapidly becoming "uncool".

    The term "smiling depression" —appearing happy to others while actually suffering depressive symptoms—has become increasingly popular. In fact, many people who experience a low mood and a loss of pleasure in activities manage to hide their condition in this way. And these people might be particularly easy to suicide.

    While smiling depression is not a technical term that psychologists use，it is certain to be depressed and manage to successfully mask the symptoms. The closest technical term for this condition is "atypical depression: It can be very hard to spot people suffering depression because they may seem like they don't have a reason to be sad — they have a job, an apartment and maybe even children or a partner. They smile when you greet them and can carry pleasant conversations. In short, they often put on a mask to the outside world while leading seemingly normal and active lives. Inside, however, they often feel hopeless and down, sometimes even having thoughts about ending it all.

    People with smiling depression put on a happy face to the outside world, but they can experience a lift in their mood as a result of positive occurrences in their lives. Other symptoms of this condition include overeating, feeling a sense of heaviness in the arms and legs and being easily hurt by criticism or rejection. They are also more likely to feel depressed in the evening and feel the need to sleep longer than usual. With other forms of depression, however, your mood might be worse in the morning and you might feel the need for less sleep than you are normally used to.

    So how can they break this circle? A starting point needs to be known that this condition actually exists and that it's serious. Only when we stop ignoring our problems because we think they're not serious enough can we start making an actual difference. Then we can find purpose by taking the attention away from ourselves and placing it onto something else. Feeling that our lives matter is finally what gives us purpose and meaning — and this can make a significant difference for our mental health and well-being.