The U. S. Postal Service (USPS) is losing billions of dollars a year. The government company that delivers "small mail" is losing out to email and other types of electronic communication. First-class mail amount fell from a high point of 104 million pieces in 2000 to just 64 million pieces by 2014.

    Congress permits the 600.000-empIoyee USPS to hold a monopoly (垄断) over first-class and standard mail. The company pays no federal, state or local taxes; pays no vehicle fees; and is free from many regulations on other businesses. Despite these advantages, the USPS has lost $52 billion since 2007, and will continue losing money without major reforms.

    The problem is that Congress is preventing the USPS from reducing costs as its sales decline, and is blocking efforts to end Saturday service and close unneeded post office locations. USPS also has a costly union-dominated workforce that slows the introduction of new ideas or methods down. USPS workers earn significantly higher payment than comparable private-sector workers. The answer is to privatize the USPS and open postal markets to competition. With the rise of the Internet, the argument that mail is a natural monopoly that needs government protection is weaker than ever.

    Other countries facing declining letter amounts have made reforms Germany and the Netherlands privatized their national postal companies over a decade ago, and other European countries have followed suit. Britain floated shares of the Royal Mail on its stock exchange in 2013. Some countries, such us Sweden and New Zealand, have not privatized their national postal companies, but they have opened them up to competition.

    These reforms have driven efficiency improvements in all of these countries. Additional number of workers have been reduced, productivity has risen and consumers have benefited. Also, note that cost-cutting measures—such as closing tone post offices—are good for both the economy and the environment.

    Privatization and competition also encourage new changes. When the USPS monopoly over "extremely urgent" mail was stopped in 1979, we saw an explosion in efficient overnight private delivery by firms such as FedEx.

    The government needs to wake up to changing technology, study postal reforms abroad and let businessmen reinvent our out-of-date postal system.

    My parents grew up during the Depression(大萧条) attending small country churches. At the close of Christmas Eve services, each child was given a brown paper bag containing an apple, an orange, nuts and several chocolates.

Years later, whenever Dad recalled that tradition, his eyes shone reliving the memory. My mother didn't share his enthusiasm. She always said the chocolates tasted cheap and old.

    Cheap chocolates or not, the paper bags with goodies were an event. Gifts of any sort during the Depression were rare, especially in large farm families with seven children.

    When our children were young and we were home for Christmas one year, Mom and Dad gave each of the grandkids a brown paper bag holding an apple, an orange, nuts and several chocolates. When we finished the 8-hour drive home after the holiday, there was a message waiting on the phone when we walked in the door. “Your ungrateful kids left their apples and oranges in the back of our refrigerator. No more fruit for them!” Grandpa and Grandma were joking, of course, but still there was a degree of disrespect in the kids leaving behind thoughtfully chosen gifts.

    But the paper bag didn't have a context for our children. They had never known fruit to be a scarcity(缺乏). They didn't appreciate the gift because they had never experienced the need the gift was meant to fill.

    The same is true of Christmas today. We don't appreciate the true gift of the season because we don't understand the need the gift was given to fill.

It's not like we don't know we have needs. We know them, all right—patience, love, self-control, strength, courage, faithfulness, forgiveness—it's just that we have become experts at numbing(使麻木) ourselves to our needs.

    The true gift of the season is a perfect fit for our every need. When a gift like apples and oranges fits a need, there is a cheerful satisfaction. When the gift of a Christmas tree fits a need, there is the joy of Christmas.

    Cultures are based on social and linguistic(语言的) communities.

    In South Africa, we exist amongst diverse groups which are culturally different. This makes us multicultural. Toit, one sociologist in the U.S., explains that multiculturalism is more than the expression of cultural variety, and it also concerns communication. He adds that for multiculturalism to “succeed”, meaningful communication is a requisite.

    In multicultural countries, it is necessary that the education system encourages learners to become interculturally competent (胜任的). The process of becoming intercultural is a “personal transformation” from being cultural to being intercultural. This does not mean that a highly intercultural person's identity is culture-free. Rather, it is not rigidly bound by membership to anyone particular culture. Furthermore for learners to become interculturally competent, it is necessary that all involvers in the education system become aware of their own cultural background.

    Toit conducted a survey, the objective of which was to determine the problems experienced by learners in a multicultural learning environment. Two hundred questionnaires were administered. 55% believed that different values and beliefs were a major cause of the communication problems. Closer examination of the interactions showed that learners were in fact mostly associating with members of their own cultural groups. Toit points out that in an intercultural communication, people would be challenged by the sudden difference in culture, and this may force an evaluation or re-evaluation of their beliefs and values. 45% of the learners believed that there was lack of trust among their peers. The general lack of trust between two complete strangers leads to an uncomfortable situation. They said that when learners are asked to work in groups, they are unwilling to do so. They added that one of the many issues that contribute to such negative opinions was the language barrier.

    Beauty has always been regarded as something praiseworthy. Almost everyone thinks attractive people are happier and healthier, have better marriages and have more respectable jobs. Personal advisors give them better advice for finding jobs. Even judges are softer on attractive defendants. But in the executive(主管) circle, beauty can become a liability.

    While attractiveness is a positive factor for a man on his way up the executive ladder, it is harmful to a woman.

    Handsome male executives were considered as having more honesty than plainer men; effort and ability were thought to lead to their success.

    Attractive female executives were considered to have less honesty than unattractive ones; their success was connected not with ability but with factors such as luck.

    All unattractive women executives were thought to have more honesty and to be more capable than the attractive female executives. Interestingly, though, the rise of the unattractive overnight success was connected more to personal relationships and less to ability than that of the attractive overnight success.

    Why are attractive women not thought to be able? An attractive woman is considered to be more feminine and an attractive man more manly than the less attractive ones. Thus, an attractive woman has an advantage in traditionally female jobs, but an attractive woman in a traditionally manly position appears to lack the "manly" qualities required.

    This is true even in politics. "When the only clue is how he or she looks, people treat men and women differently," says Anne Bowman, who recently published a study on the effects of attractiveness on political candidates. She asked 125 undergraduate students to rank two groups of photographs, one of men and one of women, in order of attractiveness. Then the students were told the photographs were of candidates for political offices. They were asked to rank them again, in the order they would vote for them.

    The results showed that attractive males completely defeated unattractive men, but the women who had ranked most attractive unchangeably received the fewest votes.

    (NEW YORK) A French tourist highly praised for rescuing a two-year-old girl in Manhattan said he didn't think twice before jumping into the cold East River.

    Tuesday's Daily News said 29-year-old Duret from France is the man who left the spot(现场) quickly after the rescue last Saturday.

    He lifted the little girl out of the water after she fell off the bank at the South Street Scaport museum. He handed the girl to her father, David Anderson, who had jumped into the water after him.

    “I didn't think at all,” Duret told the Daily News. “It happened very fast. I reacted very fast.”

    Duret, an engineer on holiday, was walking with his girlfriend along the pier ( 码头 ) when he saw something falling into the water. He thought it was a doll, but realized it was a child when he approached the river. He jumped into the water at once.

    When he reached the girl, she appeared lifeless, he said. Fortunately, when she was out of the water, she opened her eyes.

    Anderson said his daughter slipped off the bank when he was adjusting his camera. An ambulance came later. Duret caught a train with his girlfriend shortly after.

    Duret said he didn't realize his tale of heroism had greatly moved New York until he was leaving the next morning. “I don't really think I'm a hero,” said Duret. “Anyone would do the same thing.”

    Everyone needs friends. We all like to feel close to someone. It is nice to have a friend to talk，laugh and do things with. Surely，there are times when we need to be alone. We don't always want people around. But we would feel lonely if we never had a friend.

    No two people are the same. Sometimes friends don't get along well，which doesn't mean that they no longer like each other. Most of the time they will go on being friends. Sometimes friends move away，then we feel very sad. We miss them much，but we can call them and write to them. Maybe we would never see them again，and we can make new friends. It is surprising to find out how much we like new people when we get to know them. Families sometimes name their children after a close friend. Many places are named after men and women，if they are friendly to people in a town. Some libraries are named this way. So are some schools. We think of these people when we go to these places.

    There's more good news for people who have friends. They live longer than those people who don't. Why? It could be that they are happier. Being happy helps you stay well. Or it could be just knowing that someone cares. If someone cares about you，you take better care of yourself.