At any discussion of a job offer, money can be a deal breaker. Negotiating an attractive deal, however, can be hard for many job candidates because they lack the necessary skills or simply because they're too concerned that pushing for a high salary can cost them the job.

    These factors certainly can be hurdles (障碍), but it doesn't mean that you give up trying to get the best deal you can get. Needless to say, if money isn't a big factor in your decision, you still need to make sure that the deal you're accepting is fair compared to what's offered in the market. Selling yourself short once can impact your future salaries and set you back financially.

    Here are common mistakes that many jobseekers commit in negotiating money.

    Negotiate too early. Timing is of essence in any negotiation, and negotiating a salary too early in the process can cost you dearly. Many employers, in fact, rank this as one of the biggest mistakes job candidates make. The best timing to begin a salary discussion is after you and your future employer are nearly sure that you've been selected for the position.

    Abandon professionalism. It's common that people, after going through a long recruitment process, can be shocked that the salary offered is significantly below their expectations. If you find yourself in this situation, don't abandon your professional attitude or throw a fit. This likely will get you nowhere except the door.

    There're two options to this situation: the first is that the employer is inflexible (不灵活的) about the budget, and in this case, you may just leave and make a graceful exit from the hiring process.

    The second option is that there's some negotiation room for the hiring manager with other decision makers in the organization. If this is the case, you may be surprised that a final push with a positive attitude and a well-delivered presentation about your skills and market price can get you closer to your expected salary. Still, if this is not acceptable, you don't have to take it.

    Chicago festival season is here, but are you ready? Music festivals, film series, street fests, beer bashes—it's a summer long party. So pull out your calendar, read our guide and start enjoying weekends.

    Friday Art Markets at Daley Plaza

    Select Fridays August 19 through September

    Daley Plaza

    Cost: Free

    Direction: Nearly 75 artists will be showing their work in Daley Plaza, including jewelry, ceramics, sculpture, paintings, glass, wearables, wood and mixed media.

    Website: http://www.FridayArtMarketsaDaleyPlaza php? sid=146320

    Renegade Chicago Pop-Up

    Sept. 9-10

    Pilsen

    Cost: Free

    Directions: Get your hands on the goods at this outdoor celebration of all things handmade. Festivities include food trucks, DJ sets, craft brews, DIY workshops, photo ops and shopping.

Website: http://www.RenegadeChicagoPop-Up php? sid=146346

    Millennium Park Summer Music Series

    Select Mondays and Thursdays June 12 through Aug. 21

    Millennium Park

    Cost: Free

    Directions: Grab a blanket and some picnic snacks for a free outdoor concert in the park. The music series features a wide variety of music from pop local, national and international artists.

Website: http://www.MillenniumParkSummerMusicSeries php? sid=146432

    Northsider Craft Beer Fest

    Sept 23

    Uptown

    Cost: $15-$69

    Directions: Spend a day on the green sampling beers and hard ciders（苹果汁）from breweries across the country, including Colorado, Michigan, California and Wisconsin—and let's not forget those in our own home state, too.

    Website: http://www.NorthsiderCraftBeerFest php? sid=146467

    At first glance Esther Okade seems like a normal 10-year-old. She loves dressing up, playing with Barbie dolls and going to the park or shopping. But what makes the British-Nigerian youngster stand out is the fact that she's also a university undergraduate.

    Esther, from Walsall, an industrial town in the UK's West Midlands region, is one of the country's youngest college freshmen. The talented 10-year-old enrolled at the Open University, a UK-based distance learning college, in January and is already top of the class, having recently scored 100% in a recent exam.

    "It's so interesting. It has the type of maths I love. It's real maths-theories, complex numbers, all that type of stuff," she smiles. "I want to finish the course in two years. Then I'm going to do my PhD in financial maths when I'm 13. I want to have my own bank by the time I'm 15 because I like numbers and I like people and banking is a great way to help people." she adds.

    Esther has always jumped ahead of her peers. She sat her first Math GSCE exam, a British high school qualification, at Ounsdale High School in Wolverhampton at just six, where she received a C-grade. A year later, she got the A-grade she wanted. Then last year she scored a B-grade when she sat the Math A-level exam.

    Not content with breaking barriers to attend college at just 10 years old, Esther is also writing a series of math workbooks for children called "Yummy Yummy Algebra."

    "It starts at a beginner level-that's volume one. But then there will be volume two, and volume three, and then volume four. As long as you can add or subtract, you'll be able to do it. I want to show other children they are special." she says.

    These days, people who do manual (体力的) work often receive far more money than people who work in offices. People who work in offices are frequently referred to as "white-collar workers" for the simple reason that they usually wear a collar and tie to go to work. Such is human nature, that a great many people are often willing to sacrifice higher pay for the honor of becoming white-collar workers. This can lead to curious situations, as it did in the case of Alfred Bloggs who worked as a dustman for the Ellesmere Corporation.

    When he got married, Alf was too embarrassed to say anything to his wife about his job. He simply told her that he worked for the Corporation. Every morning, he left home dressed in a smart black suit. He then changed into overalls (工作服) and spent the next eight hours as a dustman. Before returning home at night, he took a shower and changed back into his suit. Alf did this for over two years and his fellow dustmen kept his secret. Alf's wife has never discovered that she married a dustman and she never will, for Alf has just found another job. He will soon be working in an office. He will be earning only half as much as he used to, but he feels that his rise in status (身份；地位) is well worth the loss of money. From now on, he will wear a suit all day and others will call him 'Mr. Bloggs', not 'Alf'.

    I prefer Lynne Truss's phraseology: I am a grammar "sticker". And, like Truss—author of Eats, shoots & Leaves – I have a "zero tolerance" approach to grammar mistakes that make people look stupid.

    Now, Truss and I disagree on what it means to have "zero tolerance". She thinks that people who mix up basic grammar "deserve to be struck by lightning, hacked (砍) up on the spot and buried in an unmarked grave", while I just think they deserve to be passed over for a job—even if they are otherwise qualified for the position.

    Everyone who applies for a position at either of my companies, iFixit or Dozuki, takes a compulsory grammar test. If job hopefuls can't distinguish between "to" and "too", their applications go into the bin.

    Of course, we write for a living. iFixit.com is the world's largest online repair manual (指南), and Dozuki helps companies write their own technical documentation, like paperless work instructions and step-by-step user manuals. So, it makes sense that we've made a strong strike against grammar errors.

    But grammar is relevant for all companies. Yes, language is constantly changing, but that doesn't make grammar unimportant. Good grammar is credibility, especially on the Internet. And, for better or worse, people judge you if you can't tell the difference between "their" "there" and "they're".

    Good grammar makes good business sense—and not just when it comes to hiring writers. Writing isn't in the official job description of most people in our office. Still, we give our grammar test to everybody, including our salespeople, our operations staff, and our programmers.

    Grammar signifies more than just a person's ability to remember high school English. I've found that people who make fewer mistakes on a grammar test also make fewer mistakes when they are doing something completely unrelated to writing—like stocking shelves or labeling parts. It is the same with programmers. Applicants who don't think writing is important are likely to think lots of other things also aren't important.

    China and India are leaders in improving global(全球的) tree cover, a new study based on NASA research showed.

    They took a 31.8% part together of the total global new leaf area between 2000 and 2017. China played a major role, adding 25% to this increase, and India added 6.8%, followed by Canada and Russia. The study in the Nature Sustainability journal shows that more than 5.5 million square kilometers of green leaf area was added globally. Since 2000, there has been a five-percent increase in global green cover, it said.

    "The greening over the last twenty years shows an increase in leaf area on plants and trees which is as large as the area of the entire Amazon rainforest," Chi Chen, a Boston University researcher and lead of the study told Nature Sustainability. Large plantation activities to protect forests in China contributed nearly 42% to the country's green cover, and agriculture added another 32%. In India, 82% of the increase in leaf area was because of agriculture.

    "China and India take up one-third of the greening, but hold only nine percent of the planet's land area covered in green plants," Chi Chen told NASA Earth Observatory. "That is a surprising finding, considering the land degradation(退化) in countries with large populations."

    Boston University's research team first detected an increase in global green cover in the 1990s but were unsure about what contributed to the increase. Finally, with the help of NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites research, they managed to find out the increase in leaf cover from different areas and places.