A busy public square in the Chinese city of Nanjing is home to an unusual experiment.

    For almost two months, the country's first “honesty bookshop” has occupied（占据） a sidewalk on HanZhong Road in the city's Gulou District.

    With no cashier or other staff, the store relies on trust for payment.

    Making money isn't the company's main goal and they don't punish those who take books without paying.

    “If they can really finish the books, it doesn't matter if they took the books for free,” Zhu Yu, the marketing director of the company says.

    “In fact, we are really happy to witness so many people taking books from the honesty bookshop.” After browsing the four wooden bookshelves, customers must drop their money in a locked box.

    Prices are set at 30% of the usual cover price. Zhu hopes that his sidewalk store, which sells, on average, 60 books a day, will make more people interested in reading. Like elsewhere, e-books are affecting sales of traditional books, and traditional books and many independent booksellers are struggling.

    Zhu got permission from the city government to use the sidewalk and says he's determined to make it a long-term project.

    He says the store is open every day, except when it rains, and it's locked up each night.

    In September last year, the company laid out 1,000 books and reading lamps on the ground and encouraged people “to go on a date” with a book.

    “Independent bookshops represent the well-being of the city.” Zhu told CNN in 2013, “when a city is losing its bookshops, it's actually losing something in its soul.”

If the success of the Honesty Bookstore is any guide, Nanjing's soul is in pretty good shape.

Prague VS Vienna: Which One to Visit?

    Prague and Vienna are both wonderful and exciting cities with modern cosmopolitanism and ancient history and culture. But if you've got a European vacation planned and are trying to decide which one of these amazing cities to visit, it can be daunting(困难)for sure.

    Sightseeing

    While both cities are rich in sightseeing adventures, Prague is definitely more beautiful as a city. You can walk along the Danube River for breathtaking views, sit in one of the many cafes that dot the urban landscape, and breathe in the amazing architecture  both old and modern that makes up this Central European metropolis(都市).Vienna is a hotbed of history, home to such great sites such as The Hofburg, Schonbrunn Palace and Gardens, and St. Stephen' S Cathedral.

    Shopping

    You most likely didn't travel all the way to Europe just to go shopping. But, if you happen to be a shopaholic, Vienna is definitely better. But be warned: fine goods you buy in Vienna will sometimes be three times more expensive than what they are in the United States or Canada.

    Cuisine

    When it comes to great dining, both cities are equally fascinating. Austrians are known for their love of sweets and pastries(糕点), which is reflected in the many bakeries, cafés, and restaurants scattered around Vienna. Some restaurants in either city offer local cuisine, though you're more likely to be eating a combination of Western European or even Americanized food. Bear in mind that Prague(being that it is in Central Europe)will be far less pricey than Vienna.

    Culture

    What do you hope to see on your trip? Palaces? Medieval Cathedrals? The Opera? How about museums? If you do happen to visit both cities, you'll find that culture equally as enriching. However, Vienna has more world—class museums which display the rich history of the area.

My First Marathon

    A month before my first marathon, one of my ankles was injured and this meant not running for two weeks, leaving me only two weeks to train. Yet, I was determined to go ahead.

    I remember back to my 7th year in school. In my first P.E. class, the teacher required us to run laps and then hit a softball. I didn't do either well. He later informed me that I was “not athletic”.

    The idea that I was “not athletic” stuck with me for years. When I started running in my 30s, I realized running was a battle against myself, not about competition or whether or not I was athletic. It was all about the battle against my own body and mind. A test of wills!

    The night before my marathon, I dreamt that I couldn't even find the finish line. I woke up sweating and nervous, but ready to prove something to myself.

Shortly after crossing the start line, my shoe laces(鞋带) became untied. So I stopped to readjust. Not the start I wanted!

    At mile 3, I passed a sign: “GO FOR IT, RUNNERS!”

    By mile 17, I became out of breath and the once injured ankle hurt badly. Despite the pain, I stayed the course walking a bit and then running again.

    By mile 21, I was starving!

    As I approached mile 23, I could see my wife waving a sign. She is my biggest fan. She never minded the alarm clock sounding at 4 a.m. or questioned my expenses on running.

    I was one of the final runners to finish. But I finished! And I got a medal. In fact, I got the same medal as the one that the guy who came in first place had.

    Determined to be myself, move forward, free of shame and worldly labels(世俗标签), I can now call myself a “marathon winner”.

    Hilton English Language Center

    Information for New Students

    Class time: 8:30 a.m.-10:00 a.m., 10:30 a.m.-12:00 a.m., 1:30 p.m.-3:00 p.m.

    The Language Center is open Monday to Friday. Each class has one afternoon free per week. On the first day, go to the lecture hall to check your timetable.

    Self-access (自习): The language laboratory (Room 1110) is open Monday to Friday from 3:15 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. for all full-time students.

    You can learn how to use computers for language games. There are tapes for students to borrow to practice their English. Go in and ask the teacher to show you. If you plan to take public examinations, there are listening comprehension tapes for you to practice with. There are other kinds of exercises on the computers. Ask your class teacher for a list of past exam essays. Students can borrow tapes to take home but they must be returned after two days.

    Attendance (出勤): All students are expected to attend classes as it is required. Students who do not attend classes will be reported to OSS. Eighty percent attendance is required for students to receive their certificates (证书) when they finish their courses.

    Books: If students are given course books, the books are their responsibility. If a book is lost, the student will be expected to pay for it. If students wish to buy books, there is a bookshop in the college specializing in English books (Room 3520).

    Mr. Brown was a writer. He wrote many books, and he thought they were quite good. He lived in the city. One morning, he went to a small town near the city to visit a friend. He went there by bus. When he got to the town, he saw a bookshop not far from the bus stop. As it was early, he decided to go in and have a look. There were many books in the shop. He was very happy that all the books in the shop were written by him. "Where are other writer's books?" he asked the man in the shop. The man looked up at him and answered. "Oh, they are all sold out."

Livestreaming (直播) through platforms such as Amazon Live and TikTok is an increasingly popular way to sell goods online. It usually lasts between 5 and 10 minutes, and someone promotes a product. Viewers can then readily buy it by just clicking on a link.

We analyzed (分析) 99, 451 sales cases on a livestream selling platform and matched them with actual sales cases. In terms of time, that is equal to over 2 million 30-second television advertisements.

To determine the emotional (情绪的) expression of the salesperson (销售员), we used two deep learning models: a face model and an emotion model. The face model discovers the presence or absence of a face in a frame of a video stream. The emotion model then determines the probability that a face is exhibiting any of the six basic human emotions: happiness, sadness, surprise, anger, fear or disgust. For example, smiling signals a high probability of happiness, while an off-putting expression usually points toward anger.

We wanted to see the effect of emotions expressed at different times in the sales cases so we counted probabilities for each emotion for all 62 million frames in our database. We then combined these probabilities with other possible aspects (方面) that might drive sales — such as price and product characteristics — to judge the effect of emotion.

We found that, perhaps unsurprisingly, when salespeople show more negative emotions — such as anger and disgust — the volume of sales went down. But we also found that a similar thing happened when the salespeople show high levels of positive emotions, such as happiness or surprise.

A likely explanation, based on our research, is that smiling can be disgusting because it lacks true feelings and can reduce trust in the seller. A seller's happiness may be taken as a sign that the seller is gaining interests at the customer's expense.