Put a group of strangers in a room together, and they'll probably start a conversation. "Hot today, isn't it?"one might say. "You said it." another replies.

       Why do we talk so much about the weather? When we meet new people, we don't begin by telling them our life story. We start with small talk, a polite conversation about something like traffic or weather.

       Research suggests that small talk can build new friendships. When we begin conversations with new people, we want to feel comfortable, and so do they. We use small talk to find common interests. Once we have a common interest, a friendship can begin.

Small talk even helps people get hired. In order to impress at a job interview, you need to bond with the interviewer right away. Proper small talk can make that first impression get you the job.

        So, how can you make small talk lead to a new friendship or job? First off, find common ground. Select something around you that you share with the other person.

        Next, keep the conversation going. Compliment (赞美) the other person to make himor her feel comfortable, and ask questions to show interest.

        Third, keep eye contact (接触). When you look people in the eye, they feel you appreciate what they are saying. It makes you appear honest and builds trust.

         Naturally, shy people might not have enough confidence to start up conversations with strangers. Talking to someone you don't know is not the easiest thing to do! Some experts say with more practice, small talk does get easier.

         Some people avoid small talk because they dislike discussing things like traffic or weather. For them, they are just too small. However, when you think about it, small talk is anything but small. In fact, it is actually a very big deal!

The Winner's Guide to Success

    Do you know what makes people successful? To find out the answers, an American scholar recently visited some of the most successful people in America. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

Be responsible for yourself.

    Sometimes you may want to blame others for your failure to get ahead. In fact, when you say someone or something outside of yourself is stopping you from making success, you are giving away your own power. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

Write a plan.

    It is very difficult trying to get what you want without a good plan. It is just like trying to drive through strange roads to a city far away. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Without this “map”, you may waste your time, money and also your energy; while with the “map” you'll enjoy the “trip” and get what you want in the shortest possible time.

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    Nothing great is easy to get. So you must be ready to work hard — even harder than you have ever done. If you are not willing to pay the price, you won't get anything valuable.

Never give up.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} When you are doing something, you must tell yourself again and again: Giving up is worse than failure because failure can be the mother of success, but giving up means the death of hope.

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How to Survive Embarrassing Moments

    Have you ever done something embarrassing? At that moment, you probably wished you could disappear into thin air. Unfortunately, embarrassing things happen to everyone at one time or another. The good news? You can keep the damage to the minimum．Here's some help．

Laugh it off

    You're staring at your crush （意中人） so hard that you walk into a wall．You trip over your own feet and drop all your books．The best thing you can do? As long as you're not seriously hurt, laugh it off．Say like "Hey, I can teach you to do that if you want to!" or "It took me years to learn that!" By laughing at yourself, you show people you're confident and still in control of the situation．That's bound to make a stronger impression than the fact that you dropped a stack of books．

Move on

    Some situations are too personal to laugh off．Your underwear falls out of your backpack. Your bathing suit falls off in the pool．You pass gas while giving a presentation．Making a joke would just call more attention to what happened — and that's the last thing you want．What  now? You can just pretend nothing happened and go back to what you were doing, or you can acknowledge it with a "Oh, that was awkward" and then move on．

    If there's a joker who thinks it's a good idea to point out how badly you just embarrassed yourself, fix him with a glare and then go back to whatever you were doing．Tell yourself he's a  little bug on the ground, not even worth thinking about．Remind yourself that it's over, done．Move on．

Apologize and move on

    Some embarrassing situations pack a double punch．Not only do you embarrass yourself,  but you make someone else feel bad．You say to a friend that another friend is such a copycat, and then realize the copycat is standing right behind you．You imitate your teacher's unusual accent just as the teacher walks in．Now you're embarrassed and they're mad or hurt．

    Making a joke now would make the situation even worse, so don't go there．Although you might feel like running away or even crying, neither of those responses will make you look better．Instead, apologize, "I'm so sorry．That was really mean of me．"

    If you've been disrespectful to a teacher or a parent, accept whatever consequences without complaint．If you've hurt a friend, do your best to make it up to them．Once you've done all you can to make things right again, move on．If someone else brings it up, just say, "I feel bad enough about that —can we just let it go, please?"

    The next time you're stuck in an embarrassing moment, remind yourself that you're a strong person and you can get through this．Stay calm and act confident and the moment will pass．

    Commercial advertisement was once thought of as a technique of the marketers to inform the potential buyers about the availability of certain products. It was seen more as a medium to inform the buyers rather than persuade them to buy. The present day marketers see advertisement as a medium to damage the image of their competitors and their products. This indeed, is an undesirable and an immoral practice. Instead of speaking about their own products, these marketers speak about the drawbacks (often without any basics) of the competing products.

    People watching TV advertisements would notice that there has always been an advertisement war between the marketers of different consumer goods. A few such cases are given below.

⑴Parachute Coconut Oil vs. V.V.D. Gold

Sometime back, the producer of V.V.D Gold Coconut Oil claimed in their TV advertisement that only their products were superior and the one sold in blue colour bottles (the reference was to Parachute coconut oil) was suitable only for un-natural hair.

⑵Tata Salt vs. Captain Cook

Tata salt was first iodised (碘处理) salt marketed by an Indian Company. It has been enjoying a good and steady market. Captain Cook, another producer of iodised salt, who entered the market later, had to adopt some strategy to get control of the market. The TV advertisement of Captain Cook stressed on ‘Free flow' of their salt when transferred to a container. The producer of Tata Salt retaliated (报复) by saying that the claim of Captain Cook was a trick and those who were quality conscious should deal with it with caution.

⑶Pepsi vs. Coca Cola

Coca Cola was selected as the official soft drink for the Wills World Cricket 1996. When the cricket series was on, the marketers of Pepsi constantly advertised on TV. Their advertisement gave the idea that the cricketers preferred only Pepsi and as a matter of fact there was nothing official about it.

⑷Horlicks vs. Complan

Sometime back, the TV advertisement of Complan, a health drink directly attacked Horlicks, which has been in the market for several decades. The claim of Complan was that their brand (which according to them was Brand C) has a higher percentage of ingredients compared to Brand H (reference was nothing but to Horlicks).

The above examples clearly show how the technique of advertisement is misused by some marketers to ruin the image of their competitors. This, certainly, is not a healthy trend.

    Any marketer should only speak about his products and not about his competitors' products. The awareness of consumers has certainly increased over the years and they are no longer easily taken in. There are many consumer products like salt, oil, shaving blades etc. But one thing for sure is that offering the same product in a different container will not make the product different.

    Mass media like Radio, Television and newspaper should not allow advertisements that tell lies. Legal regulations, in this regard, should also be made stricter.

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    The 17^th-century French tragedian Pierre Corneille wrote: The manner of giving is worth more than the gift”. He had a point, according to Charles Spence, head of Crossmodal Research Laboratory at the University of Oxford.

    The professor's work focuses on how our brains sense the world around us. His research has shown that high-frequency sounds and curved shapes seem to increase the sweetness wine tastes better if it is accompanied by the popping sound of a cork and drunk from all these created multisensory experiences.

    So, what's his advice if you want to impress this holiday season?

Bulk it up hide

    “We've just published research on eating a box of chocolates，” Mr Spence said. “If you are 30-gram weight in a box of chocolates, that weight translates to a significant increase perceived(感知)quality of the chocolate.”

    There are exceptions, but the association between weight and the perception of luxury(奢侈)applies to many items including tableware， perfume(香水)and wine， Mr. Spence said. “That's why in a restaurant， a waiter might artfully give you the bottle to weigh in your hand,” he added.

    Black is basic

    Black is the color most associated with luxury because, Mr. Spence said ，“it seems to be the color that we perceive to be the heaviest.”

    Such luxury indications are learned, rather than inborn, so they can change over time. I'm doing a lot of work on transparency(透明) at the moment; high-quality packaged goods should have a transparent window because it suggests freshness or quality,” he said.

    But the trend is recent， the professor added, because “traditionally luxury goods used to have nontransparent packaging. I think it has to do with the current desire for originality.”

    Layer it on

    Unnecessary wrapping(包裹)can be an ecological concern but, when it comes to luxury goods like wine in a presentation case, it does make an impression.

    “Tissue layers are really good,” Mr. Spence said， “because the crinkle adds an extra sense to the experience.”

    Consider a little perfume in the box or wrapping, and, if you want to involve other senses, work out some way for classical music to be playing when the gift is opened because we associate it with quality.

    Engaging several senses at once is beneficial.“ The brain combines the inputs from each sense, both to determine what something is, but also to determine a reward value,”Mr. Spence said. Also, the more stimuli(刺激)to the senses， the more activity is produced in the orbitofrontal cortex, a small part of brain situated just beside the eyes. And the more activity there, the more rewarding something is perceived to be.

    You can go too far

    “Engaging an extra sense is more effective, but you can potentially have a disagreement if that extra sense doesn't match the others.” the professor said.

    Recently, in the quest for a selfie (自拍), a woman climbed over the concrete barrier of a Jaguar (美洲虎) enclosure at Wildlife World Zoo, Arizona. The jaguar ripped into her arm. Bystanders pulled her away before the animal could injure her further. She's fine-so is the jaguar.

    This isn't the first time a story of a person acting rudely to get close to a wild animal made headlines. Last year, a man jumped into a lion enclosure at a zoo for a close-up photo. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Multiple tourists in Yellowstone National Park have been attacked by bison (野牛) when they've gotten too close for a photo.

    It's common sense not to get close to wild animals that can hurt you. It's why zoos have barriers -sometimes multiple walls-to keep people separated from animals. Signs posted everywhere state the obvious warning. Keep your hands off the cage.

    "Yet animals have become less real to us," says an environmentalist. We see exotic animals most frequently in managed settings like zoos. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} People are trying to take advantage of their rarity to show off on social media and ignore their fierceness.

    Media often normalize interaction with dangerous animals. Seeing a man like "Lion Whisperer" Kevin Richardson regularly play-fight with lions on TV, may send the message that these animals aren't so dangerous after all.

    Social media are also perfectly positioned to contribute to the rise of animal selfies. Getting likes and comments provide instant satisfaction. Your self-esteem actually gets a temporary boost. To hold onto that feeling, people may go to more and more extremes to showcase the most exciting versions of themselves. It may not be enough to get a photo of a beautiful, dangerous animal from outside a cage. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    People's careless approach can put the animal's safety at risk as well. Zoo animals often must be killed to protect the person who's entered their space. In fact, thrill-seekers actively endanger the lives of animals. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} with the zoo environment, they take it for granted that animals are there for people, ignoring the fact that animals and humans are both equal existents in the nature.