Stop wasting your time thinking of reasons for your failures and shortcomings.  Instead, realize that the seeds of success were planted within you when you were born. Only you have the power to make those seeds grow.

    The seeds, and the power to grow them, are contained in the most awesome machine ever created: the human mind. Success is a choice and not a chance. You were born a winner. You were born rich. You can be a success if only you make the right choice.

    You cannot be successful without first developing your self-esteem (自信心). Your level of self-esteem is always based on the degree of control that you are able to exercise over yourself, and thus over your life. People with low self-esteem are people who do not believe that they have any power，or responsibility for their lives. They are always victims. They are leaves tossed (摇摆) by the winds of chance blown about with any sudden change in the weather.

    You can exercise control over your life only to the degree that you believe you are responsible for everything that happens in your life.  Failures think that everything happens by accident and chance. Successful people realize that they are responsible.

    Everything happens as a result of something.  If we can identify the cause，we can control the effect. We are responsible for what we choose to think and believe. One generally rises to the level that one expects. We are responsible for setting our expectations. Our success is dependent upon our level of confidence.

    If you associate with positive-thinking people，you are definitely going to achieve success. On the contrary，the opposite happens. We are responsible for finding，planting，and nurturing (培育) the seeds that contain future victory, born from setbacks (挫折).

    In short, in all areas of your life，whether they are financial, physical, emotional, or spiritual, you are responsible. Once you recognize this, accept it, and firmly believe it. You are on the road to success.

    Anxiety has now surpassed depression as the most common mental health disease among college students, though depression, too, is on the rise. More than half of students visiting campus clinics cite anxiety as a health concern, according to a recent study of more than 100,000 students nationwide by the Center for Collegiate Mental Health at Penn State. Nearly one in six college students has been diagnosed with or treated for anxiety within the last 12 months, according to the annual national survey by the American College Health Association.

    The causes range widely, experts say, from mounting academic pressure at earlier ages to overprotective parents to engagement with social media. Anxiety has always played a role in the development of a student's life, but now more students experience anxiety so acute that they are seeking professional help. Like many college clinics, the Center for Counseling and Psychological Services at the University of Central Florida (UCF)— one of the country's largest and fastest-growing universities, has seen sharp increases in the number of clients: 15.2 percent over last year alone.

    Anxiety has become characteristic of the current generation of college students, said Dan Jones, the director of Counseling and Psychological Services at Appalachian State University in Boone, N. C. Because of increasingly pressures during high school, he and other experts say, students arrive at college preloaded with stress. Accustomed to extreme parental oversight, many seem unable to govern themselves. And with parents so accessible, students have had less incentive to develop life skills. “They can't tolerate discomfort or having to struggle,” Dr Jones said.

    More often, anxiety is mild and temporary, the indication of a student under the control of a normal developmental issue-learning time management, for example, or how to handle rejection from a sorority. Mild anxiety is often treatable with early, modest interventions. But to care for rising numbers of severely troubled students, many counseling centers have moved to triage protocols (分诊措施). That means that students with less urgent needs may wait several weeks for first appointments.

    Like many college counseling centers, UCF has designed a variety of daily workshops and therapy groups that implicitly and explicitly address anxiety, depression and their triggers. Next fall the center will test a new app for treating anxiety with a seven-module cognitive behavioral program, accessible through a student's phone and augmented with brief videoconferences with a therapist. It also offers semester-long, 90-minute weekly therapy groups, such as “Keeping Calm and in Control”, “Mindfulness for Depression” and “Building Social Confidence” -for students struggling with social anxiety.

    Did you know that, in 2016, over 18 million people attended classical concerts in Germany? That's more people than those who went to main league football matches! Earlier this year, Germany continued its celebration of classical music with the opening of a new concert hall in the heart of Hamburg. Germans are incredibly proud of it and it's the first thing I show to my friends when they come to visit.

    Known as the 'Elphi' by the locals, the Elbphilharmonie is a beautiful tower of glittering glass sitting atop an old warehouse by the banks of the river Elbe. The plaza(露天广场)is open to the public an from the middle of the city's tallest building, you can gaze across the harbour, miles of rooftops and passing ships below.

    The main concert hall seats over 2000 people and is one of the most advanced music venues in the world. Two smaller concert halls are used for jazz, world and contemporary music. In addition, if you're unbelievably rich, you can buy one of the 45 luxurious apartments lying within the building.

    Construction began in 2007 with a budget of €241 million and a two-year period. Fast forward ten years, the building eventually opened with a final price tag of over 800 million!

    I consider myself very lucky that the Elbphilharmonie opened during my time living in Hamburg, but unfortunately I haven't yet been able to attend a concert. Everything is sold out for six months! For now, I'm content to visit the plaza to enjoy the impressive view over the docks and see the innovative architecture up close. Hopefully one day soon, I'll be lucky enough to grab a last-minute concert ticket!

    English teenagers will receive cooking lessons in schools. The idea is to encourage healthy eating to solve the problem that many people are overweight. Also, it worries people that basic cooking and food preparation skills are being lost because parents use too much pre-prepared fast food.

Cooking was once regarded as an important part of education in England—even if it was mainly for girls. In recent years cooking has become less important in schools. But the rising level of obesity has led to rethink about the food that children are given and the skills they should be taught.

    “What we want is to teach young people how to do basic, simple meals, which they can use now at home and then in their life,” said Ed Balls, an education expert.

    The new lessons will start in September, but some schools without kitchens will be given a longer time to prepare. Also, there may be a shortage of teachers with the right skills, since schools have been teaching food technology rather than practical cooking. Besides, the lessons for hand-on cooking will only be one hour a week for one term. But the well-known cookery writer, Pru Leith, believe it will be worth it.

    “If we'd done this thirty years ago we might not have to face the problem about obesity and lack of knowledge about food and so on. Every child should know how to cook, not just so that they'll be healthy, but because it's a life skill which is a real pleasure.”

    The renewed interest in cooking is an effort to reduce the obesity rate, which is almost the highest in Europe, and according to the government, half of all British people will be obese in 25 years if present trends are not halted.

    Mr. Guo is a teacher from Xi'an. He asked his students to hand in their homework through a QR code (二维码)."We spent an hour or two in class learning how to generate (使产生) the codes, and in the end everything gets easier." Said Guo, "When students finish the homework, they keep it on WeChat. Then, each student makes his own QR code and gives it to me. So I can check their work anywhere using my computer or telephone."

    The QR codes can be sent to Mr. Guo by email, QQ and WeChat. When Guo scans his students' QR codes, their homework appears on his phone. He finds that their homework becomes more creative, with many pictures, music and even videos.

    Guo's students like the new way and think it is interesting. "We are living in the information age. Many students like to work with computers, which makes learning more fun." said Tingting, a student of Guo's.

    "The paper is not easy to keep, but the code is easy to keep and share." Guo said, "It is worth trying to use new technology in education. Education itself is a kind of creation. I don't want my students to fall behind the times."

    However, some parents are worried. They are afraid that their children will spend too much time surfing the Internet and less time communicating with teachers. But in fact, it's unnecessary. Students still need to look up information in books and write it down when they do their homework. They only use the codes when they hand in their work, which doesn't take them too much time. Also for teachers, it allows them to check the students' work at any time. And it's also an easy way to share homework with other students.

    Last summer, after finishing my work in China, I took the trip of a lifetime on the Trans-Siberian Railway (西伯利亚铁路). Leaving Beijing early on a Wednesday morning in July, my wife and I travelled through some awesome (令人惊叹的) countryside before we arrived in Moscow the following Monday.

    The first part of the journey took us past the Great Wall and through the grasslands of Inner Mongolia. At the Mongolian Republic border, we had a delay(耽搁)while the wheels were changed because the railway is different.

    On our way to the capital, Ulan Bator, we saw herdsmen (牧人) on horseback looking after their cattle. There was a great thunderstorm as we crossed a vast open plain. Later we had a quick tour of Ulan Bator.

    Next, the train took us into Siberia. After a stop at Irkutsk, a popular holiday resort(度假胜地), where a tour group left the train, we passed the great Lake Baikal. Later, we saw some lovely wooden houses in pretty, sunny countryside. This surprised us, as we had imagined Siberia as being covered with thick snow.

    Over the next few days, we passed through Novosibirsk, Omsk and other cities in the heartlands of the Russian Federation. By now, our body clocks were losing their sense of time. We wanted to sleep and eat at the wrong time!

    At last we reached Moscow. We were so tired that we slept for 16 hours that night. The next day we went sightseeing. We saw the Dremlin and some other magnificent (宏伟的) buildings in the Russian capital. Then, all too soon, it was time for us to return to our home in London.