In the mid­1950s，I was a somewhat bored early­ado lescent male student who believed that doing_any_more_than_necessary_was_wasted_effort.One day，this approach threw me into embarrassment.

    In Mrs.Totten's eighth­grade math class at Central Avenue School in Anderson，Indiana，we were learning to add and subtract decimals (小数)．

    Our teacher typically assigned daily homework，which would be recited in class the following day.On most days，our grades were based on our oral answers to homework questions.

    Mrs.Totten usually walked up and down the rows of desks requesting answers from student after student in the order the questions had appeared on our homework sheets.She would start either at the front or the back of the classroom and work toward the other end.

    Since I was seated near the middle of about 35 students，it was easy to figure out which questions I might have to answer.This particular time，I had completed my usual two or three problems according to my calculations.

What I failed to expect was that several students were absent，which threw off my estimate.As Mrs.Totten made her way from the beginning of the class，I desperately tried to determine which math problem I would get.I tried to work it out before she got to me，but I had brain freeze and couldn't function.

    When Mrs.Totten reached my desk，she asked what answer I'd got for problem No.14.“I...I didn't get anything，”I answered，and my face felt warm.

     “Correct，”she said.

    It turned out that the correct answer was zero.

    What did I learn that day？First，always do all your homework.Second，in real life it isn't always what you say but how you say it that matters.Third，I would never make it as a mathematician.

    If I could choose one school day that taught me the most，it would be that one.

     My husband and I had been married nearly twenty-two years when I acquired Stevens-Johnson syndrome, a disorder where my immune（免疫的）system responded to a virus by producing painful blisters. Although my long-term evaluation was good, I, who had been so fiercely independent, rapidly became absolutely helpless.

My husband, Scott, stepped up to the plate, taking care of kids and cooking dinners. He also became my personal caretaker, applying the medicine to all of my blisters because my hands couldn't do the job. Needless to say, I had negative emotions, bouncing from embarrassment to shame caused by total reliance on someone other than myself.

I recovered from my illness, but I couldn't seem to recover from the thought that I loved my husband less than he loved me. This seeming distinction in our love continued to annoy me for the year following my illness.

Then recently Scott and I went on a long bike ride. He's an experienced cyclist; I'm quite the green hand. At one point with a strong headwind and sharp pain building in my tired legs, I really thought I couldn't go any further. Seeing me struggle, Scott pulled in front of me and yelled over his shoulder, “Stay close behind me.” As I followed his steps, I discovered that my legs quit burning and I was able to catch my breath. My husband was pulling me along-again.

     I pray my husband will always be strong and healthy. But if he should ever become the struggling one, whether on a bike ride or with an illness, I trust Ill be ready to call out to him, Stay close behind me--my turn to pull you along.

    A generation ago young people longed to become lawyers and doctors. Now they desire to be the next Oscar winner or famous pop star. But one university psychologist has pointed out that this is damaging our self-image and sense of self-worth. Over recent years people around the world have been suffering from an increasing fear of their own “insignificance”, according to Dr. Strenger of Tel Aviv University.

    He began a project on the phenomenon 10 years ago, after noticing an increase of fear in his own patients. His findings note hundreds of research projects that have recorded an unprecedented (前所未有) increase in levels of anxiety and depression. By using a wide-ranging framework Dr. Strenger thinks he has given the accurate cause. “The impact of the global entertainment network on the individual is to blame,” he said. “A new species—global man—is born and we are defined by our close connection to the global entertainment network, which has turned ranking and evaluating people according to wealth and fame into an obsession (狂热).”

    As humans we naturally measure ourselves by those around us, but now we live in a “global village” where we are comparing ourselves with the most “significant” people in the world - and finding ourselves not good enough. Today, even high achievers constantly fear that they are insignificant when they compare themselves to success stories in the media. “This creates highly unstable personality and an unstable society,” Dr. Strenger said.

    Dr. Strenger says people should stop measuring their achievement through the cultural fantasies of rich and famous people. The remedy (治疗方法) is a process that he calls “active self-acceptance” through a continuing search for self-knowledge through life. The fear of insignificance can only be overcome through strong individual and cultural identity over and above measurable achievement. “People should invest time and thought in their personal growth from different aspects in the same way they invest in medical studies and law school,” Dr. Strenger advises.

    What do you do for fun in your spare time? Do you like reading? Do you often go to a book store? There is a store that is so different from others.

    The World's Smallest Bookstore, whose official name is just these three words, sits quietly about 100 miles northeast of Toronto.

    The bookstore is about 10 feet by 10 feet, so it is easy to imagine how tiny it really is. The bookstore is open 24 hours a day. Inside the bookstore are various books, especially literary books and classic authors' works. So if you are looking for something less popular, you may get a bit disappointed there.

    Another special feature of this bookstore is that each book only costs three dollars. All the expenses are paid on the honor system, which means buyers should make a note of what they've bought and leave their money by themselves. So the tools of the trade in this bookstore are quite simple: pens, papers, light bulbs and a label-maker.

    In order to catch passers-by's attention, the billboards (广告牌) of the bookstore are several times bigger than the store itself. With these large eye-catchers, many people are willing to stop by and have a visit.

    PhoneSoap: Charge and Clean Your Phone

    You may charge your phone every day, but do you clean your phone as much? Whatever your hands touch, your phones touch. It has been discovered that some phones have 18 times more bacteria and viruses than any surface in a public restroom. So it probably won't surprise you that a 2011 University of London study found that one in six of our phones have bacteria and viruses on them—specifically, the bacteria called E. coli.

    The research on bacteria and viruses led to the invention of PhoneSoap. It is not actually liquid like dishwasher soap. It is a phone charger that uses the electromagnetic radiation (辐射) used in hospitals to kill 99.9 percent of bacteria and viruses, cleaning your phone while it charges.

    “There are really certain types of bacteria and viruses that we should not be in touch with, and they are really on our phones,” says Wes Barnes, the PhoneSoap co-founder. It all started while his cousin and co-founder, Dan LaPorte, was in his cancer research lab at college. “He realized he got the idea of getting rid of bacteria and viruses on the phones,” said Barnes. “In the lab they used UV-C light for destroying them. He realized this would be the fastest, most powerful way to kill any bacteria and viruses living on electronic machines.”

    PhoneSoap looks like a little metal suitcase. Your phone rests in to charge and get cleaned at the same time. Instead of plugging your phone into the wall, you'd plug it into the PhoneSoap charger box. The process only takes a few minutes but, Barnes says, “The idea is that you can leave it in there overnight if you want to keep charging. Reflective paint keeps the light completely around the phone so it cleans the phone fully.”

    The co-founders spent 2013 finding the right companies and they started shipping the product in late November. By last week's International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, PhoneSoap was all grown-up. Both co-founders have left their previous jobs and are selling PhoneSoap nonstop. “We're shipping almost more than we can handle each day,” Barnes says. “It's been a great adventure.”

    A few months after Wu Xingu was congratulated by teachers for graduating from the university, the 23-year-old has been making his dream of relieving tens of thousands of teachers in China from drowning in marking papers(改卷) a reality.

    Yitiku, an online software system based on Wu's idea, eases the workload of teachers by doing many of the functions that they did, such as selecting the test questions, forming an exam paper, and preparing exercises for the students.

    The features of Yitiku may sound quite simple, but this idea won his company millions of dollars from China's Internet giant Tencent in January. The unexpectedly successful fund raising story became a popular conversation starter among the people in the education business.

    "I can say it's quite an achievement for me and our company. As far as I know, I'm the first CEO born after 1990s that Tencent has invested (投资) in, and we are the first online education company they have invested in." Wu Xingyu told China Daily.

Different from other online companies that treat students as clients (客户), Yitiku has chosen teachers as their focus. "We make the work of teachers easy. Usually it takes two to three hours for them to prepare a new exam paper. Now it's just three clicks." said Wu. He is quite satisfied with the major feature of the software.

    Sitting in his 10-square-meter office in Zhonguancun, a hub of innovation (创新) in Beijing, Wu looks confident and chatty when talking about his business. His fast-speed answers give people an impression that he has years of experience in the online education sector. The fact is that he had been putting most of attention in directing courses at an art college until about a year ago.