The Healthy Habits Survey（调查）shows that only about one third of American seniors have correct habits. Here are some findings and expert advice.

1). How many times did you brush your teeth yesterday?

Finding：A full 33% of seniors brush their teeth only once a day.

Step：Remove the 300 types of bacteria in your mouth each morning with a battery-operated toothbrush. Brush gently for 2 minutes, at least twice a day.

2). How many times did you wash your hands or bathe yesterday?

Finding：Seniors, on average, bathe fewer than 3 days a week. And nearly 30%wash their hands only 4 times a day-half of the number doctors recommend.

Step：We touch our faces around 3, 000 times a day-often inviting germs（病菌）to enter our mouth, nose, and eyes. Use toilet paper to avoid touching the door handle. And, most important, wash your hands often with hot running water and soap for 20 seconds.

3). How often do you think about fighting germs?

Finding：Seniors are not fighting germs as well as they should.

Step：Be aware of germs. Do you know it is not your toilet but your kitchen sponge（海绵）that can carry more germs than anything else? To kill these germs, keep your sponge in the microwave for 10 seconds.

    Palema Malhotra and her husband Anil Malhotra have spent the last 25 years buying the waste agricultural land and reforesting it, to return the land to a bio – diverse rainforest for elephants, birds and other creatures.

    The couple owns 300 acres of land in Brahmagiri, India. They have spotted more than 300 kinds of birds as well as many rare and threatened animal species. But, this was not the scene in 1991 when Anil and Pamela came to this part of the country. “When I came here, it was a wasteland. The owner wanted to sell because he couldn't grow coffee or anything else,” says Anil who worked in the real estate（房地产）and restaurant business in the US before moving to India. “For me and Pamela, this was what we were looking for all our life.”

    The couple had a love for nature from their childhood. When the Malhotras came to India, the pollution horrified them. “That was when we decided to do something to reclaim（开垦）the forest in India,” says Anil. “We were not looking for money. Early on, we realized that shortage of fresh water will be a concern for India and the rest of the world. Acquisition, protection and reclamation of forested lands and wildlife habitat, where vital water sources have their origin, is the only way to save ourselves,” explains Anil.

    They sold what they owned in America, bought the first 55 acres and began to grow a forest. Soon they bought the land nearby as well. “Many of the farmers considered their holdings 'wasteland' as very little grew on it and were happy to get money,” says Anil.

    Hunting and poaching（偷猎）was a challenge and often the locals did not understand what this couple was doing, so it required a lot of talking to create awareness. They worked with the forest department to set up camera traps and keep poachers away. “There are times I have fought with poachers,” says Pamela.

China is a land of bicycles. At least it was back in 1992 when I traveled the country. Back then everyone seemed to be riding a bicycle. Millions of them, all black. Cars were rare. Yet since my arrival in Beijing last year, I've found the opposite is true. There are millions of cars. However, people still use their bicycles to get around. For many, it's the easiest and cheapest way to travel today. Bicycles also come in different colors—silver, green, red, blue, yellow, whatever you want.

    It's fun watching people biking. They rush quickly through crossroads, move skillfully through traffic, and ride even on sidewalks(人行道). Bicycles allow people the freedom to move about that cars just can't provide.

    Eager to be part of this aspect of Chinese culture, I decided to buy a bicycle. Great weather accompanied (伴随) my great buy. I immediately jumped up on my bicycle seat and started home.

    My first ride home was orderly(守秩序的). To be safe, I stayed with a large group of bikers while cars on the streets came running swiftly out of nowhere at times. I didn't want to get hit. So I took the ride carefully.

    Crossing the streets was the biggest problem. It was a lot like crossing a major highway back in the United States. The streets here were wide, so crossing took time, skill and a little bit of luck.

    I finally made it home. The feeling on the bicycle was amazing. The air hitting my face and going through my hair was wonderful. I was sitting on top of the world as I passed by places and people. Biking made me feel alive.

    Peruvian novelist, Mario Vargas Llosa, who received Nobel Prize for Literature in 2010, is one of the central writers in Latin America, but he began his literary career in Europe.

    Mario Vargas Llosa was born in Arequipa, but from age one he lived in Cochabamba, Bolivia, where he was brought up by his mother and grandparents after his parents separated. However, Vargas Llosa once said that "I feel very much an Arequipan"．He also spent some time in Piura, northern Peru (1945～1946)．

    Vargas Llosa attended Leoncio Prado Military Academy (1950～1952), and Colegio Nacional San Miguel de Piura (1952), Peru． In 1955 he married Julia Urquidi; they divorced in 1964.From 1955 to 1957 Vargas Llosa studied literature and law at the University of San Marcos, Peru. He then attended post-graduate school at the University of Madrid, Spain, where he received his Ph.D.in 1959.

    In the 1950s, while still a student, Vargas Llosa worked as a journalist for La Industria. His first collection of short stories, LOSJEFES, appeared in 1959."I liked Faulkner but I imitated Hemingway, "he said later. Vargas Llosa moved to Paris because he felt that in Peru he could not earn his living as a serious writer. Although the boom of Latin American fiction in the 1960s opened doors to some authors for commercial success, the great majority of Peruvian writers suffered from the problems of the country's publishing industry. In France Vargas Llosa worked as Spanish teacher, journalist and broadcaster. From the late 1960s Vargas Llosa worked as a visiting professor at many American and European universities. In 1970 Vargas Llosa moved to Barcelona and five years later he settled back in Peru. Most of his novels are set in Peru.

    In addition to the Nobel Prize, Vargas Llosa has received many other honors. Among the most notable are Leopoldo Alas Prize (1959), Peruvian National Prize (1967) and Miguel de Cervantes Prize (1994).

    We've all been there: in a lift, in line at the bank or on an airplane, surrounded by people who are, like us, deeply focused on their smartphones or, worse, struggling with the uncomfortable silence.

    What's the problem? It's possible that we all have compromised conversational intelligence. It's more likely that none of us start a conversation because it's awkward and challenging, or we think it's annoying and unnecessary. But the next time you find yourself among strangers, consider that small talk is worth the trouble. Experts say it's an invaluable social practice that results in big benefits.

    Dismissing small talk as unimportant is easy, but we can't forget that deep relationships wouldn't even exist if it weren't for casual conversation. Small talk is the grease(润滑剂) for social communication, says Bernardo Carducci, director of the Shyness Research Institute at Indiana University Southeast. "Almost every great love story and each big business deal begins with small talk," he explains. "The key to successful small talk is learning how to connect with others, not just communicate with them."

    In a 2014 study, Elizabeth Dunn, associate professor of psychology at UBC, invited people on their way into a coffee shop. One group was asked to seek out an interaction with its waiter; the other, to speak only when necessary. The results showed that those who chatted with their server reported significantly higher positive feelings and a better coffee shop experience. "It's not that talking to the waiter is better than talking to your husband," says Dunn. "But interactions with peripheral(边缘的) members of our social network matter for our well-being also."

    Dunn believes that people who reach out to strangers feel a significantly greater sense of belonging, a bond with others. Carducci believes developing such a sense of belonging starts with small talk. "Small talk is the basis of good manners," he says.

    Convincing someone to change their mind is really the process of convincing them to change their tribe (部落). If they abandon their beliefs, they run the risk of losing social ties. You can't expect someone to change their mind if you take away their community too.

    The way to change people's minds is to become friends with them, to combine them into your tribe, to bring them into your circle. Now, they can change their beliefs without the risk of being abandoned socially.

    The British philosopher Alain de Botton suggests that we simply share meals with those who disagree with us: "Sitting down at a table with a group of strangers has the incomparable and odd benefit of making it a little more difficult to hate them without punishment. Prejudice and conflict between groups of people from different nations or races feed off abstraction. However, during a meal, something about handing dishes around, unfolding napkins (餐巾纸) at the same moment, even asking a stranger to pass the salt makes us less likely to hold the belief that the outsiders who wear unusual clothes and speak in distinctive accents deserve to be sent home or attacked. For all the large-scale political solutions which have been proposed to ease racial or cultural conflict, there are few more effective ways to promote tolerance between suspicious neighbours than to force them to eat supper together."

    Perhaps it is not difference, but distance that produces tribalism and unfriendliness. As proximity increases, so does understanding. I am reminded of Abraham Lincoln's quote, "I don't like that man. I must get to know him better." Facts don't change our minds. Friendship does.

    The Japanese writer Haruki Murakami once wrote, "Always remember that to argue, and win, is to break down the reality of the person you are arguing against. It is painful to lose your reality, so be kind, even if you are right."

    When we are in the moment, we can easily forget that the goal is to connect with the other side, cooperate with them, befriend them, and integrate them into our tribe. We are so caught up in winning that we forget about connecting. It's easy to spend your energy labeling people rather than working with them.

    The word "kind (family and relatives)" originated from the word "kin (old fashion of family and relatives)." When you are kind to someone, it means you are treating them like family. This, I think, is a good method for actually changing someone's mind. Develop a friendship. Share a meal. Gift a book. Be kind first, be right later.