Many people believe that you lose the ability to learn new languages as you get older. Language experts, however, will tell you that you're never too old to learn a new language. As you get older, it can be more difficult to learn a new language, though.

    Children and adults learn new languages in different ways．For children, language is their life. They study for thousands of hours every year, because they need to learn languages to become part of their communities. Adults, on the other hand，are already part of a language community. Learning a new language means becoming part of another language community, and adults seldom get the chance to practice as much as young children do.

    Moreover, children learning a new language are expected to make mistakes. This gives them freedom when learning to be daring and confident. Adults, however, often feel pressured to be perfect when learning a new language. This can discourage many people and make it even harder to learn a new language.

    Research has shown that children who learn a new language when they are very young will not be likely to have a “foreign” accent when speaking a different language. Some scientists also believe that it can take up to 10,000 hours of study to master a new language. This can be difficult for adults to achieve, but young children can accumulate(积累) those hours over several years as they grow up.

    When young children learn a new language, they come to see multiple languages as a “normal” part of society. This mindset (思维模式) helps them learn a new language without feeling like they're doing something unusual or “too hard”.

    So if you want to learn a new language, go for it! It's never too late to learn a new language. If you're older, it may take more work, but it can be done. If you're a young child, though, now is the time to step out and learn a new language!

    I went online to check if my pay was in my bank account. To my amazement, I discovered that not only had I been paid, a company I'd never worked for had also paid me! I knew I'd have been beside myself if my own salary was not in my account, so I tried to get the money back to the right person. It is easier said than done.

    The bank couldn't help as it wasn't a bank problem. The human-resource department as the company that paid me was unable to help as I didn't have enough details. I rang the bank again. Thankfully I had sympathetic call operator who gave me a name, so I again rang the company “Daniel” worked for.

    I expected the bank would contact me to arrange to take the money from my account and repay Daniel. I heard nothing for a month and the money remained in my account when Daniel called, explaining he'd tried to get back his money but had been unsuccessful as neither the bank nor his company felt it was their error. He had rung to ask if I could speak to the bank, but after chatting for a few minutes we realized we could probably fix this problem ourselves.

    We decided I would take the money from my account and he would pick it up from me. Due to my busy job I was unable to meet Daniel personally but he left me a lovely bottle of wine in exchange for what was rightfully his. I never had any intention of keeping Daniel's pay, but red tape（繁琐手续）made it difficult to do the right thing. It all came down to two people being able to do what a huge bank and a large company couldn't do — admit a mistake has occurred and fix it.

    Many people believe high heels(E)make women look good. It seems that the organisers of the Cannes Film Festival reportedly stopped women in low-heeled shoes from walking the red carpet. But all this charm comes at a cost, wearing heels over 10em high can damage your feel.

    A study by Hanseo University in South Korea suggests that continuous wearing makes women run the risk of getting hurt, and makes them easy to lose their balance, A total of 40 women who wear high heels at least three times a week took part in the study, The strength of their feet was measured regularly, researchers found that two of the four main muscles became stronger after a period of between one and three years, This created an imbalance in their feet, Dr Yong Seok Jee from Hanseo University says that the habit of wearing heels can result in feet out of shape, back pain and unhealthy walking patterns He suggests that women limit the use of these kinds of shoes and exercise their foot muscles properly.

    High heels are considered by some people to be female, but in fact the fashion started with men's feet. These shoes were a form of riding footwear, and were seen on the feet of 17th century Persian soldiers, Elizabeth Semmelhack of the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto says: “When the soldier stood up in his stirrups (马镫), the heel helped him keep balance so that he could shoot more effectively.

    Before becoming a main part of modern women's clothing, high heels were used by Louis XIV of France. These shoes were status (身份) symbols Lets face it-nothing shows off status like uncomfortable, expensive and impractical clothing. They say the wearer doesn't have to work in fields or walk very far.

    My daughter Alisa was born blind in her right eye and was bullied (欺侮）pretty severely in school. So I quitted my job as a babysitter and then schooled my daughter heart and soul at home.

    A year ago a boy of 14 befriended my daughter on Facebook after reading something Alisa wrote about bullying. Today he messaged her and asked if she would like six tickets to a Colorado Rockies baseball game. They have never met in person but she said, “Sure! That would be great.”

    Then I received a call from his mother explaining why her son had chosen my daughter. She said he thought my daughter deserved them because of all the good she does in the community. Her son, she explained, had experienced a similar situation and was also home schooled.

    What she said is true. Now my daughter Alisa continues to teach groups of girls in trouble in our community how to look within themselves for the positive and how to be their own person.

    Everything taken into consideration, we decided to meet the mother and the boy at a local bike shop. After meeting, the boy approached my car and my daughter gave him a hug and thanked him for his generosity. She told him that she had never been to a baseball game and that she was going to take her entire family, including myself, her dad, little sister, her cousin and an aunt who has brain cancer.

    We all thanked one another, got in our car, and went our way. As we drove home my daughter opened the envelope. Inside it were the tickets and ＄100 each to buy hot dogs, pay for parking and not have any worries but a great time.

    My daughter has always been the giver and now she and our family are the receivers and I can not tell you how incredibly honored we feel to be on the other end. What an incredible young man to have such a kind idea.

    I've been really lucky this year. Not only did I have the opportunity to live in France, but I was able to see some other countries with my girlfriend. Now she is studying in Essen, a large city in Western Germany. I recently went to stay with her—it was my first visit to Germany! Essen is a very large city. It has all the conveniences of any large city so I felt immediately at home. I loved the variety of shops, restaurants, shopping malls, cocktail bars, nightclubs, parks and even a lake. There is also a city­wide network of trams, which makes getting around a piece of cake!

    I found the people to be really friendly, and most Germans speak very good English which made life easy for me. I was surprised by the casual attitude to alcohol in Germany, where it seems normal for people to drink beer on the street, or on the tram. My girlfriend and I visited two famous local cities, Düsseldorf and Cologne, which are both on the Rhine River. Düsseldorf is an urban metropolis with a great variety of restaurants. We took a boat tour on the river and went up the Rhine Tower, a really tall building which offers great views across the city. Cologne, as you might know, is world-famous for its perfumes. The cathedral there is an unmissable landmark. We made the effort to climb to the top of one of the cathedral's towers. The spiral (螺旋的) stairs seemed endless, but it was worthwhile for the impressive sights from the top.

    We also went in a cable car over the river and tasted a German delicacy called "Spaghettieis" which is ice cream with strawberry sauce! I also got to try the famous German sausage. I must admit, I really enjoyed the food! The only disappointment was the grey and rainy weather, which proves that Britain does not have the worst weather in Europe!

    Over the past 40 years, China has helped more than 700 million rural residents out of being poor, and the poverty rate(贫困率) — the proportion of people living below the Chinese poverty line — had fallen among the rural population from 97.5 percent in 1978 to 3.1 percent at the end of 2017, official figures shows. China's achievements in poverty alleviation(扶贫) made the world look at China with admiration.

    "For me, it is unbelievable that over 40 years, that is, over the course of one working lifetime, China has gone from one of the poorest countries in the world to one that is about to eliminate(消除) absolute poverty," said Craig Allen, president of the US-China Business Council.

    Varaprasad Sekhar Dolla, a professor of Chinese studies at India's Jawaharlal Nehru University, also spoke highly of China's achievements in poverty reduction. "If global poverty came down greatly in the last three or four decades, it's partly because of the Chinese contribution to reducing poverty within its own national boundaries," said the Indian scholar.

    In the eyes of Khairy Tourk, a professor of economics with the Stuart School of Business at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, "many countries look up to China to learn from its experience." "The Chinese experience is based on building a modern infrastructure(基础设施) and then on setting up special economic zones that would help underdeveloped countries to become more industrial," he added.

    In the government work report delivered at the opening of the annual NPC session (全国人大会议) on March 5, China promises to reduce its population of rural poor by over 10 million this year.