A little boy discovered what looked like a map to an unknown place. He soon realized it was the beginning of an exciting treasure hunt.

    He found two pieces of paper along with the mysterious map. One was written with the instructions, “FIND THE WORDS.” The other piece of paper had several strange symbols scattered all over it.

    Dad, fortunately, was there to help his son figure out the mystery. He folded up the paper with the symbols on it, and together they formed a message, which had another set of instructions, “UNDER STEPS.” The smart little boy knew exactly what to do so he went to look under the steps of his house. Without too much effort, he found a box below the staircase.

    It didn't take him long to figure out what to do next: open it up! Inside the box were some very interesting objects, including another piece of a treasure map and two broken pieces of paper. These were the most interesting finds because they contained what appeared to be a collection of letters on them. Finally, they knew where the treasure was from the letters: IN THE BUSH UNDER YOUR YARD.

    After searching all over the yard, following several clues and wondering where everything would lead, the pair finally found what they had been looking for. And it was exactly what you would want after such an adventure: a treasure box!

    The pair pulled it out of the ground and cleaned away all the dirt. The dad put the box in front of his son, and the little boy couldn't contain his excitement. So he opened it up and finally found out what was inside.

    Inside was more treasure than any little boy could ever want. There were hundreds of coins and all sorts of pirate treasure, including what looks like a pearl necklace and some silver dishes.

    We walked in so quietly that the nurse at the desk didn't even lift her eyes from the book. Mum pointed at a big chair by the door and I knew she wanted me to sit down. Then, Mum took off her hat and coat and gave them to me to hold. She walked quietly to the small room by the lift and took out a wet mop. She pushed the mop past the desk and as the nurse looked up, Mum nodded and said, “Very dirty floors.” The nurse answered. She looked at Mum strangely and said, “But aren't you working late?”

    Mum just pushed harder, each swipe of the mop taking her farther and farther down the hall. I watched until she was out of sight and the nurse had turned back to writing in the big book. After a long time Mum came back. Her eyes were shining.

She quickly put the mop back and took my hand. As we turned to go out of the door, Mum bowed politely to the nurse and said, “Thank you.”

    Outside, Mum told me, “Grandma is fine. No fever.”

    “You saw her, Mum?”

    “Of course. I told her about the hospital rules, and she will not expect us until tomorrow. Dad will stop worrying as well. It's a fine hospital. But such floors! A mop is not good. You need a brush.”

    It's pleased to receive gifts from your loved ones. I have received many Christmas gifts over the years. But the best gift I ever received was presented to me by a stranger. I never even knew his name and I only had contact with him for less than 60 seconds. His Christmas present to me changed the way I had thought about people and Christmas.

    It was several years ago when my wife asked me to meet her at the local department store on Black Friday morning. They had advertised a child's bike that she wanted to purchase for our son. We stood with a very large crowd, waiting for the manager to blow the whistle. After a while, the whistle blew. It was like throwing a bucket of fish into a tank of sharks. I told my wife that if we obtained a bike, fine, but if we did not, I was OK with that too.

    As the shelf of bikes began to gradually decrease in size, I saw my polite opportunity to wrap my hands around the corner of one of the boxes. I lifted it off the box and suddenly felt some mild resistance. I looked up to see one of the largest gentlemen I had ever seen in my life. Threat was not the word to describe his presence. He was decorated with numerous belts of metal pointed leather around both arms and even his neck. Tattoos (文身) were an obvious passion of his.

    I started to return anxiously the box but he gently pushed it back in my direction and back into my hands. He then directed it into my shopping cart. He looked at me, smiled, and said, “Merry Christmas.” My wife and I went to the checkout, paid for the bike and went home. All the way home I was thinking that this moment was by far the best Christmas gift I had ever received. The kindness of a stranger that broke all previous views I may have had of stereotypes and prejudices. I will never forget the tenderness of a human heart in a simple act.

    While we all try to find happiness, sometimes we still end up feeling low. While most people can control this feeling, low moods can stay with some, leading to depression. About 322 million people suffered from depression in 2015, according to a report by the World Health Organization in February. This is more than 4 percent of the world's population.

    Depression is described by the WHO as a mental disorder. It has several symptoms including sadness, loss of interest and feelings of low self-worth. In severe cases, depression may even lead to suicide.

    The number of people living with depression is increasing. The WHO reported a rise of 18.4 percent between 2005 and 2015. Young people are a group known to suffer with depression. “The pressures on today's youth are like no other generation, perhaps," Dan Chisholm, an official of WHO, told Reuters.

    In China, depression among young people is on the rise, Zhu Zhuohong, a psychology professor with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told Xinhua News Agency. Competition to outperform others, especially in education, can cause a lot of pressure for Chinese youth.

    Almost 1.2 million Chinese people aged 15 to 24 suffer from depression, according to a report released by British science journal The Lancet in May.

    Luckily, more and more efforts are being made to deal with this problem. This year's World Health Day, held on April 7, will focus on depression. The day will highlight the “Depression: let's talk" campaign. The campaign aims to make sure that people with depression both seek and get help.

    While every dog owner knows their dogs can read their moods perfectly, scientists have always been a little doubtful. Now thanks to some researchers at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna, Austria, we finally have some convincing evidence.

    For their study, biologist Corson Miller and his team exposes eleven selected dogs to digital images of women that were either angry or happy. Half the dogs were rewarded for touching the screen when shown a happy face, while the other half got their treat for selecting those that appeared angry.

    Interestingly, the dogs were not provided with the entire face. Some dogs were shown only upper halves while the others observed lower halves. That's because the scientists believe humans show their emotions on their entire face.

    After some training like how to recognize small differences like the wrinkles between the eyes or the changes in their shape that accompany the happy or angry expressions, the dogs were mostly able to identify the correct expression not only on a familiar face but on a strange face. The researchers concluded the dogs were smart enough to read human emotions.

    They also found those being trained to read angry expressions took a longer time to learn. They guess it may be because dogs find angry faces disgusting, causing them to withdraw quickly. However, once the smart dogs realized they were getting rewarded, the trepidation seemed to disappear. In fact, the dogs had such a good time playing the computer "game" That scientists had a hard time keeping them away from the touch screens after the study was completed.

    The researchers also noticed only dogs with a male owner had a harder time understanding the expressions correctly. Since the touch-screen models were all females, this confirmed what has been observed in previous studies dogs are more efficient at reading facial expressions of people that are the same gender as their owner.

    International Foundation(预料)humanities(人文学科)and Law

    The International Foundation programs provide academic preparation for first year undergraduate(本科)entry and ensure you meet the academic English language requirements for your chosen degree program.

    Course features

Develop the knowledge and skills for your chosen degree.

    Benefit from smaller class sizes than at university, meaning you'll have more time with your teachers.

    Adapt to studying in the UK thanks to university-style teaching.

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