When I was in my fourth year of teaching, I was also (and am still) a high school track and field coach(田径教练). One year, I had a student, John, who entered my class when he was a junior. John changed to our school from Greece, and seemed to be interested in sports, so I encouraged him to join our track team. I explained to him that even though he had never taken part in it before, I did believe that he could do well in any event, and I would be willing to coach him at whichever ones interested him. He accepted the offer, and began to work hard at every practice.

    About a month later, I had found out from other sources that John was a first-class tennis player, winning various junior awards in his home country. I went to him asking, "John, I really appreciate that you came out for the track team, but why didn't you play tennis instead? It seems that would interest you a lot more, since you're so good at it." John answered, "Well, I like tennis, but you told me that you believed in me, and that you thought I could do well in track, so I wanted to try it for that reason."

    From then on, I often remember my student's reply. I told it to a friend and she suggested I write it down to share somewhere with more teachers. No matter how critical (不满的) students can be of them-selves, I've found that a simple "I trust that you can do it!" can go a long way!

    To a growing number of US students in China, study in the ancient country is no longer just a cultural experience it has become an important part of their future professional careers.

    Sam Gor, a 26-year-old student from Santa Clara, a county near San Francisco, said the purpose of his studies in Beijing was to help him find a good job when he goes back to the United States. "Culture matters," he said. "But more importantly, to learn Chinese and get a better understanding of the country may help me professionally." As a new student at Beijing Language and Culture University (BLCU), Gor hopes to find a job in Santa Clara's local government when he goes back home in one year. "I need to learn Chinese if I want the job, as we have a large Chinese community there."

    Gor is not alone in his thinking. While the number of US students in China has grown from less than 100 in the early 1980s to more than 10,000 for the time being. Many of them are here to boost(提高) a professional skill as much as to enjoy a new culture.

    “In the past, foreign students came to China simply for our culture,” said Xu Quihan, director of BLCU's foreign students' office. “But because of China's rapid economic and social development, being able to speak Chinese has become a useful tool to a student's future job”

    There are more US students who choose to stay in the country instead of going back after graduation. Stephanie Schubmehlo, a 23-year-old from Rochester, New York State, said she would like to stay in Beijing after graduation. “I love the city, and I can earn myself a living here if I can speak good Chinese,” she said, adding that some of the US students she knows shared the same idea.

    Youth football team members rescued more than two weeks after sudden flooding trapped them in a cave in Thailand are now being well looked after at a hospital in the northern city of Chiang Rai. In addition to treating the boys for potential body fluid loss, inadequate nutrition and lack of oxygen, their doctors also plan to closely monitor them for symptoms of diseases that may have been infected by animals living in the cave.

    "The next step is to make sure those kids and their families are safe, because living in a cave provides a different environment, which might contain animals that could transmit…disease," said the local hospital. The boys and their family members have been told to watch for symptoms such as headache, nausea(反胃), muscle pain or difficulty breathing, the reports added.

    Yet based on the location where the boys were trapped—more than four kilometers from the cave complex's main entrance, past some fully submerged passages—and the fact they have been swimming out wearing full scuba face masks, it seems unlikely that they were living with bats in the cave or breathed in bat-associated bacteria during their rescue, several infectious disease experts said. "It's hard to imagine bats got that deep into the cave because of all those narrow passageways, but it is possible," says Ian Lipkin, an animal expert and professor at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. "It's unlikely that there would be many animals in there," notes Jonathan Epstein, a doctor at EcoHealth Alliance, a nonprofit organization that studies diseases and how to prevent them. Bats typically like to rest in areas they can easily enter and exit, not in places that fully flood, he adds.

    Bats in Thailand have been linked with a wide range of viruses that are similar to severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)—Lipkin says. But it seems more likely the boys would have been exposed to infection-causing bacteria when they swam through the dirty water with cuts and scrapes. "If you are trying to prioritize issues with respect to health care for these kids, number one would be psychological damage and second will be bacterial infections from the cuts and scrapes they may have encountered." Lipkin says.

    LOS ANGELES, Nov. 12 (Xinhua)—Legendary comic book writer Stan Lee has died at the age of 95, according to media reports on Monday.

    Lee, born in Stanley Lieber on Dec. 28, 1922, began his career in 1939 and joined the Marvel Comics in 1961.

    He is considered as one of the most legendary names in the history of comic books and the leading creative force behind the rise of Marvel Comics. He co-created iconic fictional characters such as Spider-Man, X-Men, the Avengers, and many more.

    Lee's characters often have super powers, but they also have weaknesses. They were humans, not gods. They not only struggled to save the world, but also to pay their bills, make friends, and hold jobs. This made Marvel comic book heroes stand apart from its competitor DC, which produced the seemingly perfect heroes like Superman and Wonder Woman. Those superheroes have been adapted into blockbuster films, most of which were made after Disney acquired Marvel in a 4-billion-dollar deal in 2009.

    In a statement, Bob Iger, chairman and CEO of the Walt Disney Company said Stan Lee was as extraordinary as the characters he created.

Marvel also praised Lee on its website by putting on one of Lee's famous quotes, which goes, "I used to be embarrassed because I was just a comic-book writer while other people were building bridges or going on to medical careers. And then I began to realize: entertainment is one of the most important things in people's lives. Without it, they might go off the deep end. I feel that if you're able to entertain, you're doing a good thing. "

Praise from his Hollywood peers and colleagues was generous. President of Marvel Studios Kevin Feige appreciated Lee's unparalleled impact on the industry. "No one has had more of an impact on my career than Stan Lee, " Feige said. "Our thoughts are with his family and the millions of fans who have been forever touched by Stan's genius, charisma and heart. "

    Can you remember the day when you spoke your first word? If you can, you are unusual. Try to imagine what first few months of your life were like. I am sure you just spent most of your time eating, sleeping and crying. As you grew older, you were awake more of the time. It took your parents more time to play with you and talk to you. You watched and listened curiously (好奇). You began to know that people made certain sounds to go with certain things.

    Then you began to try making the sounds you heard. And step by step you were able to make the right sound for one thing. On that day you came to understand the secret of language. The secret is that a certain sound means a certain thing. One sound might be as good as another. But it is no good as a word unless everybody agrees on its meaning. Only when a group of people use the same set of sounds of things, can they understand each other. Then, and only then do these people have a LANGUAGE.

    After you found the secret of language, you learned words. Some of the words meant things, such as BOOKS, CHAIRS and SHOES. Some words meant doing things, such as GO and SWIM, and other words describe things, such as GOOD and DIRTY. Soon you learned to put words together to express your idea, such as “I want to go out and play with my friends.” This is language. By means of language people can communicate. So we say languages are means of communication.

    A few years back I worked in a university building that also housed a department full of psychologists, all of whom seemed to see us as perfect guinea pigs(豚鼠) for their latest theories. If an eager graduate student showed up in my office bearing desserts and asked me to pick one, I'd cast a careful glance and ask "Why?" before grabbing the apple pie.

    So one day, when someone from the Psychology Department posted instructions in the bathroom persuading all of us to "Think about five things for which you're grateful every day for a week!" my response was frankly doubtful. I did the math. Five things a day for seven days is a lot of brainpower to expend without so much as the promise of an apple pie.

    I wandered into the office of Heidi Zetzer, the director of our school's Psychological Services Clinic. "What's with the gratitude thing?" I asked. You don't ask an academic question－even a simple one unless you're prepared for a long answer. Heidi came alive, and I sat down. That's when I first heard the term "positive psychology". The gratitude thing, as I had called it, was but one small and simple element of the practice. "Kind of like training the brain to focus on joy," my friend Heidi explained. "It's only a week," she urged. "Try it." I did. And guess what? It worked.

    Every day for a week, I found five distinct things for which I was thankful. They had to be different every day. I couldn't get away with just being grateful for my wonderful husband. But I could, suggested Collie Conoley, another positive psychologist, express my gratitude for specific aspects of a certain person each day. He's a great cook. He always puts our family first.

    Life will never be perfect. I still see new stories that annoy me. The traffic in my city is maddening. I wish I could speed up my recovery. But with just one simple exercise, I'm rediscovering the peace of that old saying: accepting the things I can't change, working without complaint to change what I can, and being wise enough to know the difference.

    And all it took was a little gratitude.