Jack Ma, the founder and executive chairman of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, and US president-elect Donald Trump met at Trump Tower in New York City on Jan,9th 2017, with Trump calling it a "great meeting" and Ma saying the meeting was "very productive"

    "We had a great meeting, and a great, great entrepreneur（企业家）, one of the best in the world, and he loves this country, and he loves China," Trump said. "Jack and I are going to do some great things."

    The two met with reporters briefly after the meeting, and said they discussed plans to create 1 million US jobs by allowing US small and medium-sized businesses to sell to China through Alibaba's platforms.

"We're focused on small business," Ma told reporters. And he had complimentary words for Trump: "I think the president-elect is very smart, he's very open-minded to listen. I told him my ideas about how to improve trade, especially to improve small business, cross-border trade."

    "We also think that the China and USA relationship should be strengthened — should be friendlier," Ma said. "The door is open for discussing the relationship and trade issues."

    The meeting comes in tensions between China and the incoming Trump administration(政府). Trump has repeatedly criticized China for its economic policies and accused the country of "stealing jobs away" from the US.

Trump also has said he may raise tariffs(关税) on Chinese goods sold in the US.

    In 1978, I was 18 and was working as a nurse in a small town about 270 km away from Sydney, Australia. I was looking forward to having five days off from duty. Unfortunately, the only one train a day back to my home in Sydney had already left. So I thought I'd hitch a ride(搭便车).

I waited by the side of the highway for three hours but no one stopped for me. Finally, a man walked over and introduced himself as Gordon. He said that although he couldn't give me a lift, I should come back to his house for lunch. He noticed me standing for hours in the November heat and thought I must be hungry. I was doubtful as a young girl but he assured(使…放心) me I was safe, and he also offered to help me find a lift home afterwards. When we arrived at his house, he made us sandwiches. After lunch, he helped me find a lift home.

    Twenty-five years later, in 2003, while I was driving to a nearby town one day, I saw an elderly man standing in the glaring heat, trying to hitch a ride. I thought it was another chance to repay someone for the favor I'd been given decades earlier. I pulled over and picked him up. I made him comfortable on the back seat and offered him some water.

    After a few moments of small talk, the man said to me, “You haven't changed a bit, even your red hair is still the same.”

    I couldn't remember where I'd met him. He then told me he was the man who had given me lunch and helped me find a lift all those years ago. It was Gordon.

    When I was eight, I got my first pair of glasses. Far from being made fun of at school, the only struggle I got was endless requests to try on my new glasses. Hearing about what happened at school, my father once looked at me and asked whether I had pretended to be the blindness just to look like Harry Potter?

    With my strange hair and glasses, I did nothing to avoid it, either. The Harry Potter books were the great pop cultural event of my generation, who began reading again. My school librarian, both confused and annoyed by us Potter fans, dealt with fights over the schools few old copies by setting a new rule: Harry Potter could be borrowed for only three days, instead of the whole week of borrowing period every other title was allowed.

    In the 20 years since the first book arrived on shelves, publishers and parents have been asking what has made J.K. Rowling's books so loved. It is better to look at the influence they have had on their readers. Yes, the books were about a boy taking on a dark and powerful enemy in the magical world, but they were also about love defeating hate, determination and choosing" between what is easy and what is right". Rowling's entire magical characters were all people we want to be.

    I grew up with Harry and together we became children with our own opinions, teens easy to get angry and young adults thinking of everything as normal. When the final book came out in 2007.I read it for 12 hours without a break and cried as I finished it. I felt something sad: the end of Harry's story signaled the end of my childhood. I was suddenly aimless. Meanwhile, my now Potter-mad father walked impatiently nearby, waiting for the proper moment to take the book away from his daughter.

    Harry Potter did shape my generation. As a girl who grew up mostly in peacetime, many of the ideas I found in these books were ones we had never come across before. The magical world's terrible treatment of non-human beings was the first description of slavery I knew. The treatment of Harry's teacher Remus Lupin, who hides his condition at work, is a metaphor(比喻) for the shame surrounding those who suffer from AIDS. And all settings like this may have real-world reflections .A study found that teenage Harry Potter readers showed more tolerance (包容) towards those who were suffering. Is it possible that Jeremy Corbyn's popularity among the young had anything to do with their literary education? Is it possible that Harry Potter, in the 20 years he has been with us, has inspired a generation to be more empathetic （感同身受）， welcoming and socially open－minded than those before it? We will see, if not, at least my glasses are still cool.

    We've all had cases where we've waited just a bit too long to pay an electric bill or speeding ticket. But one man, from California by reasonable assumption, who goes by "Dave", recently took procrastination (拖延) one step further, by paying a parking ticket almost a half-century after it was given.

    In December 2018, the Minersville Police Department in Pennsylvania received a letter in the mail. Whoever wrote the letter decided it was best to keep his name somewhat unknown, so he put the return address as "Wayward Road, Anytown California" under the name "Feeling guilty".

    When the officers opened the envelope, they found a brief letter, along with a $5 bill, and a parking ticket dating all the way back to 1974. The note read, "Dear PD, I've been carrying this ticket around for 40 plus years always intending to pay. Forgive me if I don't give you my info. With respect, Dave."

    Even though the initial parking ticket was only for $2, "Dave" must have felt awfully guilty because he left 150 percent, or $3, in interest.

    Michael Combs, the Police Chief of the Minersville Police Department, stated in an interview that the same ticket would cost about $20 if it were given today. Combs went on to share that the original ticket from 1974 was given to a vehicle that had an Ohio license plate.

    Because there was no system for tracking tickets given to out-of-state cars back then, "Dave" could have gotten away with never paying the $2 fine. But apparently, guilt got the best of him, and he decided to finally cough up the money more than 40 years past its due date.

    Dogs certainly need to bark (犬吠) every now and then, but if your neighbor's dog is getting in the way of your daily life, you need to do something.

    "Before you take action, you should record the dates and times that the barking happens to find out any patterns," says Schweitzer, who is a dog owner. You might notice the barking only happens when the owners are at work, or during thunderstorms.

    After two to three weeks of observing (观察), go to your neighbors with the facts. Wait for a time when the barking is over. "Since you're trying to keep a good relationship, you can't go when you're angry and upset," says Schweitzer. Besides, your neighbors might not even realize the barks are a problem, especially if the worst barking happens when they're not at home.

    Politely explain the times when the barking gets bad, and then suggest a way of solving the problem. Ask if the dog can stay inside during storms, or offer a dog training class.

    Making friends with the dog could help you gain some peace and quiet. If your neighbors introduce you to their dog, you should give the dog a treat. "If they become more comfortable seeing you, they're less likely to bark when they see you or when they're in the backyard，" says Schweitzer.

    Whatever you do, don't talk with your other neighbors about the problem or start a petition (诉状) to get the dog to quiet down. "Those make people feel angry," says Schweitzer. "That's when things escalate."

    If weeks go by and you still aren't seeing a difference, follow up with a note. Tie a dog treat on the note to build trust with your neighbors, and make a copy before dropping it off. That way, you'll have evidence (证据) that you've discussed it before and followed up politely if you need to bring in a third party, says Schweitzer.

The Big Ben is located in the tower at the eastern end of the Houses of Parliament, Westminster, Greater London. It was designed by Edmund Beckett and Baron Grimthorpe.

The Big Ben is very famous throughout the world, but nobody really knows why it is called Big Ben. There are two hearsays about this. Some people say that it was named after Benjamin Caunt, a boxer, who was called Big Ben. More people believe it was called after Welshman, Sir Benjamin Hall. He was the commissioner(特派员)of the work at the time of its installation in 1859. A story was told that during a debate in the Commons on what to call the bell, Sir Benjamin was about to give his ideas when a MP who sat behind the front bench shouted, "Let's call it Big Ben!" Then this name came into being.

The bell hasn't gone through a smooth road since the beginning of its design. Because there was great disagreement about the design of the clock. It took fifteen years to build. In 1857, the bell was completed and tested on the ground, but a four-foot crack appeared and the bell had to be cast again. Finally, the clock started ticking on 31 May, 1859, and struck its first chime(报时)on 11, July. Then in September, the bell cracked again. It was silent for four years but was eventually turned a quarter of a revolution(旋转). In this way, the crack was not under the striking hammer. Craftsmen made a square above the crack to stop it growing longer and it can still be seen today.

The Big Ben is famous not only for its 13-ton weight, but also for its accuracy(准确性) which is a result of its precise mechanism(机械装置). Even one extra penny's weight on the balance will cause a gain of two fifths of a second in twenty-four hours. Although there have been several problems, the bell is still striking today. Its chimes can be heard all over the world on the B. B. C.