Today is a perfect day that can leave you with good memories you may someday share with your friends. Here's how:

    {#blank#}1{#/blank#} You can see or do something a million times, but you can only see or do it for the first time once. As a result, first time experiences usually leave a deep mark in our minds for the rest of our lives. So try to experience something different and you'll have more memories!

    Work on something that's great to you. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Life is short. Today is the day to take action.

    Smile and notice what's right. Everything that happens in life is neither good nor bad.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} And no matter how it turns out, it always ends up just the way it should. Either you succeed or you learn something.

    Be true to yourself. The only shoes you can wear are your own. If you aren't being yourself, you aren't truly living. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    Make a new friend. People are interesting creatures (生物), and no two people are exactly alike. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Find out what makes them different. They'll likely open your eyes to wonderful ideas. And you never know, they just might change your life.

    Be present.  Be here now. Remember, right now is the only dear moment to you.  Right now is life.  Don't miss it.

A. Learn a new skill.

B. Try something new.

C. It just depends on your opinion.

D. So meet someone new today.

E. And in fact, you're only existing.

F. Pay close attention to what you're doing.

G. Make yourself busy with something meaningful.

    Ahead of so-called Singles' Day on the 11th of this month，2013, online sales have already begun peaking.

    The leading e-business platform, tmall.com, has promoted(促销) its fifty-percent-off discount(折扣) to attract consumers. They are also trying to attract buyers through social media. Vice President of tmall.com Wang Yulei says more than 20 thousand online stores have joined the Double 11 Day sales. But this number has doubled. The final number of how many products going to be on sale has not been known yet. But so far, many more products planned to be put on shelves with discounts.

    During last year's Singles' Day, tmall.com, together with taobao.com, reached a record of 19.1 billion yuan in sales, which considered a milestone in the e-business history of China.

    Singles' Day was first started by Chinese college students in the 1990s as the opposite of Valentine's Day, a celebration for people without romantic partners. The timing was based on the date: Nov. 11—or double 11—for singles. Single young people would treat each other to dinner or give gifts to show love to someone and end their single status.

    But now, the Singles' Day has been promoted as a kind of grand craze just for the shopping season, thanks to thousands of discounted products being promoted online.

    Taobao.com was the first big e-retail platform which used the double 11 idea to promote sales. Taobao.com reached one million yuan worth of sales on that day in 2009, when they first promoted the Singles' Day idea. In 2010, the sales increased to 936 million yuan. The figure climbed up to 5.3 billion yuan in 2011, putting huge demand on shipping services. The figure doubled in 2012.

    E-commerce is considered to be replacing the traditional retailing industry, but the reality is that both sides are learning from each other.

    A student is learning to speak British English. He wonders: Can I communicate with Americans? Can they understand me? Learners of English often ask: What are the differences between British and American English? How important are these differences?

    Certainly! There are some differences between British and American English. There are a few differences in grammar. For example, speakers of British English say “in hospital” and “Have you a pen?” Americans say “in the hospital!” and “Do you have a pen?”. Pronunciation is sometimes different. Americans usually sound theirs in words like “bird” and “hurt”. Speakers of British English do not sound theirs in these words. There are differences between British and American English in spelling and vocabulary. For example, “color” and “honor” are British, “color” and honor” are American.

    These differences in grammar, pronunciation, spelling and vocabulary are not important, however. For the most part, British and American English are the same language.

    A serious problem for today's society is who should be responsible for our elderly and how to improve their lives. It is not only a financial problem but also a question of the system we want for our society. I would like to suggest several possible solutions to this problem.

    First, employers should take the responsibility for their retired employees. To make this possible, a percentage of profits should be set aside for this purpose. But when a company must take life-long responsibility for its employees, it may suffer from a commercial disadvantage due to higher employee costs.

    Another way of solving the problem is to return the responsibility to the individual. This means each person must save during his working years to pay for his years of retirement. This does not seem a very fair model since some people have enough trouble paying for their daily life without trying to earn extra to cover their retirement years. This means the government might have to step in to care for the poor.

    In addition, the government could take responsibility for the care of the elderly. This could be financed through government taxes to increase the level of pensions. Furthermore, some institutions should be created for senior citizens, which can help provide a comfortable life for them. Unfortunately, as the present situation in our country shows, this is not a truly viable answer. The government can seldom afford to care for the elderly, particularly when it is busy trying to care for the young.

    One further solution is that the government or social organizations establish some working places especially for the elderly where they are independent.

    To sum up, all these options have advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, it is reasonable to expect that some combination of these options may be needed to provide the care we hope to give to our elderly generations.

    The number of giraffes is becoming smaller across Africa, according to the Giraffe Conservation Foundation. The total population has dropped by 40 percent in the last 15 years. Surprisingly, even scientists haven't given much attention to giraffes. We are learning more about their ecology, but what we know is still way behind what we know about other species. "It's a silent extinction," said Dr. Julian Hennessy, a wildlife scientist.

    "The main reason for the smaller number of giraffes is their loss of living places," said Hennessy, "as an increasing part of land is used for farming. But hunting also has a big influence." You might wonder why hunters would focus on giraffes. First of all, once a giraffe is brought down, there is lots of meat with a small amount of effort. Besides, there is another thing encouraging the hunting. In Tanzania, Hennessy says, the latest word on the street is that eating giraffe meat could cure AIDS. Fresh giraffe heads and bones can be sold at prices of up to $140 per piece.

    Another widespread misconception about giraffes is that they are everywhere. Look at kids' books which are full of giraffes. They are always in zoo collections. They can be seen easily, so you don't think we have to worry about them. But the truth is that they are in danger of extinction. There is a lack of right and true data.

    Hennessy and other researchers are now pulling together the data needed to improve the situation of the entire giraffe species and all nine subspecies (亚种). The information will be used to change the giraffe's listing on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List, which now lists the species as of "least concern" but two subspecies as "endangered". "It's a lot of work to gather the necessary information," Hennessy says. "And several other giraffe subspecies will be recommended for endangered listings next year or the year after." He hopes that the world will finally start to take notice of how endangered these beloved animals have become.

    Courses Available at North Coast College Campuses

    Agriculture

    Specialist agriculture centres of the North Coast College offer courses ranging from agricultural skills to beef production, horse studies and rural management. The Wollongbar Campus is famous for its Tropical(热 带的) Fruit Growing program and has introduced courses on bush foods and coffee production. Taree offers the Veterinary(兽医的) Assistant program and has introduced “Agristudy”, which enables students to learn flexibly and by correspondence( 函 授 ), using a mixture of student learning guides, telephone tutorials, information sessions and workshops. Mullumbimby has the popular Rural Business Management program, which can also be studied by correspondence. Grafton, meanwhile, offers traineeships in agriculture including beef and dairy.

    Health Programs

    The continued improvement of healthier living within the community has seen an increase in fitness awareness and a need for trained staff in the Fitness and Sport industries. Fitness Instruction courses are offered at Tweed Heads and teach students how to keep healthy and lead a safe fitness program.

    Lismore offers the Aged Support program and Port Macquarie offers the Early Childhood Nursing program. These courses give you the theoretical skills, knowledge and practical experience needed to work in a variety of residential and community-based health care institutions. For students interested in working in the Medical Health Care industry, Kingscliff is a specialist centre for the Natural Therapy Diploma and has a health clinic on campus.

    Environmental Studies

    The Environmental Studies courses offered by the North Coast College have been developed to help students increase their awareness and understanding of environmental issues and to enable them to determine their environmental impact. The Environmental Practice course, which includes Coastal Management, is offered through the Ballina Campus.

    For people interested in working to protect natural forests, the North Coast College offers the Forest Protection course at Casino. This course can provide a pathway for students into the Natural Resource Management Diploma at university.