Peter Huszcz once taught in an agricultural (农业的)college. In the 1990s, he moved to Canada. Peter started out washing dishes in a restaurant in downtown Ottawa. When the manager asked him to help out rolling meatballs in the kitchen, he soon 1earned how to do the job very well. But it was boring and Peter suggested that the manager should buy a meatball-making machine. When the manager told him there was no such thing as a meatball maker, Peter was quick to notice that something was missing in the market. Putting his engineering knowledge to good use, he quickly came up with a simple method—the Magic Meatball Maker.

    He was sure there was a market for his machine. but it took him ten years of hard work to find it. He had to take risks, but he believed in his idea, and he managed to persuade other people to believe in him too. A local manufacturer (制造商) offered to produce the first 1,000 units in return for a share in the profits (收益), local shops offered to keep his meatball makers and a friend's daughter helped him out with his first sales.

    But his lucky break came when he managed to persuade a TV shopping channel to help sell the Magic Meatball Maker. The channel broadcast a program about how the invention worked in the studio kitchen. Within minutes, they had sold more than 4,000 units.

    This was just the start. Peter had been right. He had said his meatball maker would bring him great wealth, and it has: more than two million dollars so far and it's till selling to thousands of American housewives all across the USA.

Choosing the Right Resolution (决定)

     Millions of Americans began 2014 with the same resolution they started 2013 with, a goal of losing weight. However, setting weight loss as a goal is a mistake.

To reach our goal of losing weight — the output, we need to control what we eat — the input ( 输入). That is, we tend to care about the output but not to control the input. This is a bad way to construce goals. The alternative is to focus your resolution on the input. Instead of resolving to lose weight, try an actionable resolution: “I'll stop having desert for lunch,” or “I'll walk every day for 20 minutes.” Creating a goal that focuses on a well-specified input will likely be more effective than concentrating on the outcome.

    Recently a new science behind incentives (激励) , including in education, has been discussed. For example, researcher Roland Fryer wanted to see what works best in motivating children to do better in school. In some cases, he gave students incentives based on input, like reading certain books, while in others, the incentives were based on output, like results on exams. His main finding was that incentives increased achievement when based on input but had no effect on output. Fryer's conclusion was that the intensives for inputs might be more effective because do not know how to do better on exam, aside from general rules like “study harder.” Reading certain books, on the other hand, is a well-set task over which they have much more control.

    As long as you have direct control over your goal, you have a much higher chance of success. And it's easier to start again if you fail, because you know exactly what you need to do.

    If you want to cut down on your spending, a good goal would be making morning coffee at home instead of going to a cafe, for example. This is a well-specified action-based goal for which you can measure your success easily. Spending less money isn't a goal because it's too general. Similarly, if you want to spend more time with your family, don't stop with this general wish. Think about an actionable habit that you could adopt and stick to, like a family movie night every Wednesday.

    In the long run, these new goals could become a habit.

    What makes a gift special? Is it the price you see on the gift receipt? Or is it the look on the recipient's face when they receive it that determines the true value? What gift is worth the most?

    This Christmas I was debating what to give my father. My dad is a hard person to buy for because he never wants anything. I pulled out my phone to read a text message from my mom saying that we were leaving for Christmas shopping for him when I came across a message on my phone that I had locked. The message was from my father. My eyes fell on a photo of a flower taken in Wyoming, and underneath a poem by William Blake. The flower, a lone dandelion standing against the bright blue sky, inspired me. My dad had been reciting those words to me since I was a kid. That may even be the reason why I love writing. I decided that those words would be my gift to my father.

    I called back. I told my mom to go without me and that I already created my gift. I sent the photo of the cream-colored flower to my computer and typed the poem on top of it. As I was arranging the details another poem came to mind. The poem was written by Edgar Allan Poe; my dad recited it as much as he did the other. I typed that out as well and searched online for a background to the words of it. The poem was focused around dreaming, and after searching I found the perfect picture. The image was painted with blues and greens and purples, twisting together to create the theme and wonder of a dream. As I watched both poems passing through the printer, the white paper coloring with words that shaped my childhood, I felt that this was a gift that my father would truly appreciate.

    Christmas soon arrived. The minute I saw the look on my dad's face as he unwrapped those swirling black letters carefully placed in a cheap frame, I knew I had given the perfect gift.

Introduction of Holi

    Holi is an ancient festival of colours and love. It is celebrated in India and many parts of South Asia. There are lots of Holi celebrations. It is becoming more and more popular.

The festival of colour

Holi means the beginning of spring. It is a time to give thanks for the good harvest. The dates change each year according to the full moon, but it is usually in March and sometimes in late February. People go outside and throw coloured paint powder(粉) at each other. It does not matter whether you are rich or poor, old or young—everyone can throw colours. It is a time to forgive people and repair broken relationships, as well as meet other people, play and have fun.

    Traditional Holi

    Traditional Holi celebrations start the night before the throwing of colours. People meet around a bonfire(篝火) and hope that the bad will be destroyed. The next day is the festival of colours. There is music playing, and people run and laugh in the streets and parks. Holi is celebrated outside.

    Other Holi events in the UK

    Holi celebrations began as early as the fourth century. It is thousands of years old! But recently, Holi-themed events have become popular with a new generation in Europe and North America. Every year, many people go to Holi events in London and all over the UK. They dress in white T-shirts and return covered in bright colours. There are paint-throwing parties at music festivals and races like the five-kilometre 'Colour Run'. In the UK, restaurants and cultural organizations also offer their own Holi celebrations, with special dishes, Indian music and dance.

    People who have seen Trisha Seifried Woodall with her cats say that she has a magic touch. Most people don't know anyone who can order a cat to jump on a table, sit for two minutes, and then jump to the floor and walk backward.

    Ms. Seifried Woodall has taught her cats to do all these tricks -- and many more. At her training center. Got Pet-ential, cats learn tricks for TV and magazine ads. Some of her cats have appeared on bags of cat food.

    When Ms. Seifried Woodall gets a cat, she first learns what that cat likes and doesn't like. "Some cats like to stay close to the ground, so I'll teach them how to stand behind me, and walk with me," she says. "Other cats, like high places, so they'll learn how to jump on my bent knee and then safely leap to my shoulder."

    Ms. Seifried Woodall grew up in a family with many pets, and she was first paid to work with animals when she was 18. At a summer job at an amusement park, she learned how to train a few of the animals for performances. She continued to train and learn about animals for 20 years before starting her own animal-training center.

    Ms. Seifried Woodall is proud of the skills her cats have learned, but she is also proud that her center's cats are healthy and social. She believes her cats enjoy learning new tricks.

    In Ms. Seifried Woodall's experience, no breed (品种) of cat is easier to train than others. All of her cats came from shelters. They have become pets in her home.

    Like most animal trainers, Ms. Seifried Woodall uses a reward system. Cats that are successful during training get food or a new toy. A cat that doesn't enjoy eating or playing will probably not be interested in being trained. She never scolds (责骂) them. "Cats need a lot of encouragement when they are performing, she says." I say good job or that s right several times during a single minute."

Few people enjoyed getting shots at the doctor's office. But many of these shots are important vaccines (疫苗) that help prevent us from getting certain diseases or types of infection.

Vaccines got their start in Europe in the 1720s, when a British woman named Lady Mary Wortley Montagu was visiting Turkey. She saw Turkish doctors purposefully inoculating (接种) people with small amounts of smallpox. Smallpox is a painful, deadly disease that had no cure at the time. But Lady Montagu was amazed that the patients not only recovered, but then proved to be immune (免疫的) to the disease!

Lady Montagu quickly returned to England, excited to share this new procedure. But inoculation took many years to catch on. One problem was that no one had a correct way of inoculating people safely. Occasionally, patients would become fully infected and then begin spreading the disease. However, inoculation eventually saved enough people for it to become the common practice for preventing smallpox.

Some years later, a scientist named Edward Jenner discovered that people who had been infected with a disease called cowpox became resistant to smallpox. Cowpox was less much harmful than smallpox. Jenner convinced doctors to inoculate people with cowpox, which led to a very safe vaccine and far fewer outbreaks of smallpox. Finally, a French scientist named Louis Pasteur realized that Jenner's idea could be used to treat other diseases. Since then, vaccines have been made for many other diseases, such as polio, tetanus, and rabies.

Today, scientists and doctors continue to create new vaccines that could potentially save millions of lives worldwide.