When I was little, I always wanted a luxurious house. That was my idea to be successful. I took all the classes with full carefulness and tried to do well in the exams with my mind set on going to a key school. I just knew that I would somehow become famous and be able to afford the dream house. All the way through junior years, my mind was planning this wonderful future.

    Then in the tenth grade, many losses changed my mind. First, one of my friends died at 16. Soon after, my great-grandmother passed away, followed by my beloved fourth-grade teacher. These events left me not knowing what to do or where to go. Death had never touched me so closely.

    After a long period of emptiness, it finally struck me: Life is not promised and neither is future success. Though I was attempting to achieve material success, I was not enjoying my daily life. I realized that finding inner peace, purpose and happiness will stick with me forever and that is real success.

    Enjoying life's precious quirks(偶发事件) makes an ordinary person more successful than a wealthy person who isn't content and takes everything for granted. The summer before senior years, my attitude changed greatly. Instead of memorizing facts, I began learning skills. Instead of focusing on the future, I focused on today and the many blessings and successes that came with it.

    I still get excellent grades, but now I devote weeks to studying instead of struggling for exams, and I think about the future with a deeper sense of meaning. For me, being successful means truly living life each day.

    Before I had my son, I spent two years working with children with disabilities. I learnt that shouting and threats of punishment would result in a disaster. Coming up against their behaviour could only make the job harder and their behaviour more extreme. I found something that worked, though.

    There was a very naughty boy in the nursery and a teacher who was generally very confident with the children was asked to take charge of him. One day the boy joined a session in the room next to mine. His appearance created an atmosphere of tension. He spent the entire session running around, hitting and kicking, and destroying property.

    I was in the craft room working with some other children when my co­worker told me that this boy's teacher was in tears, and could not get control of the situation. As we were talking, the boy ran in. I told my co­worker that I would take care of him.

    I closed the door. He was full of energy, throwing things around and making a huge mess. But I could see that he was doing all these to annoy me. He needed connection, and this was the only way he knew how to ask for it. So I sat back down and kept quiet. Then he slowed down and began making a rocket. I talked to him about it. We continued like this for a few minutes before I slipped into the conversation：

    “So what happened today？”

    It was purely a question, no blame or anger in my tone. I believe that if I had criticized him, the gate that was slowly opening would have shut firmly closed. He told me that the teacher didn't let him do what he knew well due to safety but asked him to do what he disliked. He also admitted that he had enjoyed making her run around and saw it as a game. I explained that his teacher had not seen it as a game and was very upset. This again was stated simply as a fact. I suggested that next time he had a session, he talk about what he hoped to do at the start, which might be easier for everyone. He agreed and was quiet for a moment. Then he looked at me with tears in his eyes before quietly asking if he could go to find his teacher to apologize.

    The Adler Planetarium(天文馆) is part of the lake front's "Museum Campus", which along with the Shedd Aquarium(水族馆) and Field Museum, attracts a huge number of visitors every year. The Adler Planetarium is included with the purchase of a Go Chicago Card.

    Address: 1300 South Lake Shore Drive

    Phone: 312-922-STAR(7827)

    Getting to the Adler Planetarium by Public Transportation:

    Either the south-bound CTA bus line #146(Marine-Michigan), or Red Line CTA train south to Roosevelt, then take a Museum Campus trolley (电车) or take the CTA bus #12.

    Driving from Downtown of Chicago:

    Lake Shore Drive (US 41) south to 18th Street. Turn left onto Museum Campus Drive and follow it around Soldier Field. Look for signs that will point you to the visitor parking garage. The Adler Planetarium is just northeast of the parking garage.

Parking at the Adler Planetarium:

    There are several lots(停车场) on the Museum Campus, but most tend to fill up quickly and your best bet is in the main parking garage. Parking for all lots is $ 15 per day.

    Adler Planetarium Hours:

    Daily: 9：30 a. m. -- 4: 30 p. m. The Adler Planetarium is open every day except     Thanksgiving Day and Christmas. Extended Hours: From Memorial Day to Labor Day, the Adler Planetarium is open from 9: 30 a.m.--6: 00 p. m. daily.

    Adler Planetarium Tickets:

    General Admission(exhibits only): Adults, $ 7; Seniors (aged 65+), $ 6；Children(ages 4--11), $5.

    The introduction of the iPad, with its touch screen technology, has allowed even very young children to take advantage of a computer. So what if all children in a school were given an iPad to use in class and take home with them?

    Anne Laure Bazin works in a school where every child, teacher and teaching assistant is given a free iPad to use in and out of lessons. For her, the main advantage of everyone having an iPad had been the improvement in communication. Documents can be emailed straight over to workmates during a meeting. Children submit their homework by email, or through the school's learning environment. Teachers now take the register (点名) using their iPad, which means that there is a record of which children are in school, and which classroom they are in.

    The use of iPad has encouraged greater sharing of resources among teacher. All communication with parents is now done by email. Working as a group in class is much easier as children can share documents. The whole class can look at one child's work by attaching (连接) the iPad to the whiteboard. If a child has forgotten the textbook, the teacher can take a photograph of the relevant (相关的) page and send it to the student in class.

    While the use of the iPad in schools has revolutionized (变革) the way children are taught, it hasn't completely replaced more traditional methods of teaching. Worksheets are still used in class as some children prefer the contact with paper. The children all have a textbook and exercise books. In Anne Laure's school, parents feared that the iPads would replace exercise books and children would lose handwriting skills. Anne Laure says, "The teacher are not ready to let go of the traditional style of teaching. We have welcomed the iPads in so much as they help communication and widen the resources available but we are not ready to let go of paper yet. The children themselves still value their exercise books and depend on them for review."

    Until the 1990s coffee was rarely served in China except at luxury hotels aimed at foreigners. When Starbucks opened its first shop there in 1999, it was far from clear that the country's tea-drinkers would take to such a different and usually more costly source of caffeine. Starbucks tried to attract customers to coffee's bitter taste by promoting milk and sugar-heavy concoctions(调和) such as Frappuccinos.

    But coffee has become fashionable among the middle class in China. Starbucks now has about 3, 800 shops in China more than in any other country outside America. Statista, a business-intelligence portal(门户网站), says the roast coffee market in China is growing by more than10 %year. Starbucks and its rivals see big opportunities for expanding there.

    So too, however, do home-grown competitors. A major new presence is Luckin Coffee, Beijing- based chain. Since its founding less than two years ago, it has opened more than 2,300 shops. On May 17th Luckin's initial public offering on the Nasdaq stockmarket raised more than $570m, giving it a value of about $4bn.

    Luckin's remarkable growth is sign of change. No longer do Chinese consumers see coffee as such a luxury. Most of Luckin's shops are merely kiosks where busy white-collar workers pick up their drinks, having ordered them online. Super-fast delivery can also be arranged through the company's app. Independent coffee shops are springing up. The growth is striking considering the country's reputation for its tea-drinking culture where many residents like to relax in teahouses sipping tea served gracefully.

    But the two markets are different. The teahouses tend to cater to older people who like to spend long hours playing mahjong and gossiping. At the coffee shops it is rare to see anyone over 40. Young people use them for socialising, but much of their interaction is online -sharing photos of their drinks and of the coffee-making equipment. An option on the Chinese rating app Dianping allows users to search for wanghong ("internet viral") coffee houses.

She is widely seen as proof that good looks can last forever. However, at over 500 years of age, time is catching up with the Mona____Lisa. 

The health of the famous picture, painted by Leonardo da Vinci in 1505, is getting worse year by year, according to the Louvre Museum where it is housed. 

"The thin, wooden panel(嵌板) on which the Mona Lisa is painted in oil has changed shape since experts checked it two years ago," the museum said. Visitors have noticed the changes but repairing the world's most famous painting is not easy. Experts are not sure about the materials the Italian artist used and their current chemical state.

 Nearly 6 million people go to see the Mona Lisa every year, and many are attracted by the mystery of her smile. "It is very interesting that when you're not looking at her, she seems to be smiling, and then you look at her and she stops," said Professor Margaret Livingstone of Harvard University. "It's because direct vision is excellent at picking up details, but less suitable to look at shadows. Da Vinci painted the smile in shadows."

 However, the actual history of the Mona Lisa is just as mysterious as the smile. Da Vinci himself loved it so much that he always carried it with him, until it was eventually sold to France's King Francis Ⅰ in 1519.

 In 1911, the painting was stolen from the Louvre by a former employee, who took it out of the museum and hid it in his coat. He said he planned to return it to Italy. The painting was sent back to France two years later.

 During World War Ⅱ, the French hid the painting in small towns to keep it out of the hands of German forces.

 Like many old ladies, the Mona Lisa has some interesting stories to tell.