What should we do when we are in a bad situation? Some may choose to give up. But is that what we should do? The following news report may get you encouraged.

    With a population of 156 million, Bangladesh has one of the largest populations in the world. What makes the situation worse is that most of the country is situated on the low-lying Ganges delta(三角洲). As a result, it often suffers flooding, especially during the rainy season from July to October. In this period, the rivers rise as much as 12 feet. In such situations, people can only get to certain places by boat.

    The problems are particularly serious in the Chalanbeel region, a poor area where people survive by farming on the rich delta soil when it is not underwater. But many parents there don't want to send their children to school and there are not enough teachers. As a result, many kids living there do not attend school on a regular basis. The problem becomes worse during the rainy season when land schools cannot be reached. Many students never return to school after the forced breaks.

    How to help students attend school regularly? 22-year-old Bangladeshi architect Mohammed Rezwan decided to take action. In 2002, the young man used $500 he had received in scholarships to start Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha. The non-profit organization's mission was to set up floating schools. It took Rezwan four years to raise enough funds to open his first boat school. But as the world began to know about the organization's worthy cause, money started to pour in. Until now, Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha has built 22 floating schools, some with playgrounds on the upper deck. Now a lot more children in the Chalanbeel region go to school regularly.

    We should keep in mind that there is always a solution to every problem.

    For many people around the world, a subway journey means speeding from one dull station to the next, surrounded by too many uncomfortable, impatient people. But on the Moscow Metro, taking the subway is like walking through a national heritage site. Depending on where you get off, you'll receive a brief course in architectural movements and face colorful glass windows, marble(大理石) columns, gilded(鎏金的) mosaics and painted scenes from Russian history.

    “These extraordinarily beautiful places are unlike any metro station I've ever seen, “says Vancouver-based photographer David Burdeny.

    When Burdeny, who himself has a master's degree in architecture, first found out about Moscow's metro stations, he was struck by the work of art. In all, he has photographed 20 of the most beautiful stations.

    Burdeny had originally planned to focus on Russian stations more generally, taking photos of examples in both St. Petersburg and Moscow.

    “But when I saw the stations in Moscow, they just completely blew away the St. Petersburg ones,” he says.

    Shooting in the subway sounds simple, but it is not without challenges. For one thing, Burdeny had to figure out a way to access them between 00:30 a.m. and 5:30 a.m., when the stations were closed.

    In the end, he settled on Arbatskaya Metro Station, whose vaulted(拱状的) arches he found the most beautiful. But it also represented a challenge he was not sure if he was able to overcome: conveying the hugeness of the spaces. The Arbatskaya platform, for example, stretches 820 feet.

    “Some of the arches are quite long,” he says. “When you enter them, they're just so completely grand.”

How to Make Friends

    Friendship is a very important human relationship and everyone needs good friends. Good friendship has many benefits. If offers companionship, improves self-worth and promotes good health. There are times in our lives such as when we have recently moved into a new town, or changed our jobs or schools. Such changes often leaves us without a friend.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}. But for many of us the process is difficult and requires courage. Below are some helpful suggestions on how to make and keep friends.

1）Associate with others.

    The first step to making friends is associating with other people. You can go to public places to meet new people. Besides, you will need to make yourself known by becoming an active member of such places.

2）Start a conversation.

    Starting a conversation is the second most important step in making new friends.{#blank#}2{#/blank#} You can always start the conversation. Being able to make small talk is a very useful skill in relating with other people.

3）{#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    Choosing friends with common interests is important in building friendship as these interests would always bring you and your friend together. Hanging out will always be a pleasant experience.

4）Let it grow.

    It is a good thing to stay in touch. However, try not to press your new friend with calls, messages or visits as this would likely wear him or her out and finally you may lose your friend.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}. The best friendships are the ones that grow naturally.

5）Enjoy your friendship.

    The best way to enjoy your friendship is to allow your friends to be themselves.{#blank#}5{#/blank#} Try not to change them from who they are to what you want them to be.  Become the kind of friend you will want your friend to be to you.

A. Be cheerful.

B. So you will need to give your friend time to react to you.

C. Making new friends comes easy for some people.

D. For a friendship to develop you need to stay in touch.

E. Do not wait to be spoken to.

F. Try not to find fault with your friends.

G. Do things together.

    My grandparents believed that you were either honest or you were not. They had a simple saying hanging on their living-room wall: “Life is like a field of newly fallen snow. Where I choose to walk every step will show.” They didn't have to talk about it; they showed this truth by the way they lived.

    They understood that honesty is an inner(内部的) standard for judging your behavior. Unfortunately, honesty is in short supply today. But it is the real bottom line in every area of society and a discipline (自制能力) we must demand of ourselves.

    There's a story told about a surgical nurse's first day on the medical team at a well-known hospital. She was responsible(负责) for all surgical instruments and materials during an operation. At the end of the operation, the nurse said to the doctor, “ You've only removed 11 sponges（海绵）, and we used 12. We need to find the last one.”

    “I removed them all,” the doctor assured her. “ No, you didn't , sir,” insisted the nurse. “ Think of the patient.”

    Smiling, the doctor lifted his foot and showed the nurse the twelfth sponge.

    So when you know you're right, you can't yield. Don't be afraid of those who might have a better idea or who might even be more intelligent than you are.

    Self-respect and a clear awareness (意识)of right and wrong are powerful parts of honesty and are the basis for enriching your relationships with others. Honesty means you do what you do because it's right and not just fashionable or politically correct. A life of principle, of not easily yielding, will always take you forward. My grandparents taught me that.

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    Spending money on time-saving services reduces stress and boosts(增进）happiness, according to a new research, but shockingly, few of us do it.

    Whillans, a professor at HBS said, "Buying time helps to protect us from the stress in our lives caused by time pressure, and the feeling that we don't have enough minutes in the day to complete our tasks."

    The effect was clearest in the Canadian experiment, in which 60 working adults were given $40 to spend in two different ways. One weekend, they were told to spend the money on a material purchase—a gift for themselves. The next weekend, they were instructed to spend the $40 on anything that saved them time, from paying the neighbor ' s kid to run errands (跑腿）to taking an Uber instead of a bus.

    〇n the day they made the time-saving purchase, they felt happier, in a better mood, and lower feelings of time stress than on the day they bought a material purchase," said Whillans.

    The biggest surprise to the researchers was how few people would spend money on time-saving services. When they asked 98 working adults how they would spend a "windfall" of $40, only two percent named a purchase that would save them time.

    "One reason," said Whillans, is that we're very bad at remembering how much we hate doing certain tasks once the suffering has passed. That makes us less likely to take active steps to avoid that overburdened feeling in the future. "But another possible cause is good old-fashioned guilt." If you feel guilty about getting someone to clean your house for you, then you might get less happiness from outsourcing (夕卜包）that task," said Whillans, "or you might just be less likely to spend your money in that way."