There are many differences between country life and city life in many ways. One person even does different things in the two places.

    Julia lived in the countryside, but one year she decided to visit the capital city to do some shopping and to see the sights. She stayed at a hotel near the central market. She had seldom been to the city before, and was very excited about what she would find.

    On the first morning of her visit, as she walked from the hotel to the market, she passed a beggar(乞丐). He was holding up a notice, which said, “Blind from birth. Please give generously(慷慨地).”

    Julia felt sorry for the blind beggar and she bent down and put a dollar coin into his bowl. “Thank you.” he said.

    The same thing happened again the following day.

    On the third day, however, Julia did not have a dollar coin. She had only fifty cents, so she dropped this into the beggar's bowl.

    “What have I done wrong?” the beggar said, “Why are you so stingy today? ”

    Julia was very surprised at what the beggar said. “How do you know I haven't given you a dollar?” she said, “If you're blind you can't know what coin I put into your bowl.”

    “Ah, ” explained the beggar, “The truth is that I'm not blind. I'm just looking after this place for the regular beggar while he's on holiday.”

    “On holiday?” Julia said, “And what exactly does your blind friend do on holiday?”

    “He goes into the countryside,” the man said, “and takes photographs. He's a very good photographer.”

    On the very first day, God created the cow and said to him, "As a cow, you must go to the field, working under the sun all day long! And I will give you 40 years to live." The cow objected, "What? You want me to live such a tough life for 40 years? Let me have 20 years, and I'll give the rest back to you." So God agreed.

    On the second day, God created the dog and said, "You'll be man's best friend, guarding his house and eating his leftovers. I'll give you a life span of 30 years." The dog shook his head. "Eating leftovers for 30 years? No way! I'll give half back to you!" So God agreed.

    Then, God created the monkey, saying, "Your job is to entertain people. You've got to do monkey tricks and make them laugh. And you'll live 20 years."" Do monkey tricks to make them laugh? 10 years will do." the monkey said. So God agreed.

    Finally, God created the man. "You will be the man. All you need to do is to sleep, eat, and play, simply enjoying your life. And I'll give you 20 years to live." Thinking for a while, the man replied, "I can be the man, but I want to take all the years that the cow, the dog and the monkey didn't want." So God agreed.

    Since then, man eats, sleeps and plays in the first 2 decades, marries and spends the next 2 decades like a cow, working very hard to support his family. Then when he has children, he lives 15 years like a dog, taking care of the house and eating whatever is given to him. And when he is old, he retires and lives 10 years like a monkey, doing tricks to amuse his grandchildren.

    Growing up, I was an extremely reserved(腼腆的) boy. I didn't have many friends in primary and middle school and rarely opened up to anyone. I didn't even ask my teacher questions in class. I was scared of the world and the people around.

    As a child, I was scared to do anything without my parents mainly because I was afraid that I would do it badly. I was getting good grades and was well-behaved, but I wasn't happy. It was my belief that I was, for some reason, unable to do the things the others kids could do. I felt inadequate.

    While in my second semester of college, I ran into some information on the Internet about something called social anxiety. I didn't really know much of the disorder. Thus I began to read about some of the symptoms and realized that social anxiety was the thing that hurt me so much.

    It is common knowledge that people with social anxiety experience nervousness in social situations. What a lot of people don't know is that one of the main causes of social anxiety is negative thinking. People having a negative idea of themselves often think that they are ugly or stupid.

    I realized what I was truly afraid of: not being good enough. I was afraid that people would look at me and would not like what they saw; I was scared of rejection. To help deal with these problems, I began to practice meditation(沉思) and other mindfulness exercises. My mind slowly began to change.

    I realized that everyone, from star athletes to noble prize winners, experiences fear in their lives. Whether people are afraid of heights, planes, spiders, or talking to girls, we all experience anxiety and fear. There is no reason for anyone to feel excluded(排除在外的) because something scares them. People with anxiety disorders might have "problems", but there is nothing wrong with them as people. They are just as humans as everyone else.

    Donald Watson was a man who thought very much about the food he ate. He was born in Yorkshire, England, in September 1910. And he died in November 2005, at the age of 95. That is a very great age. Watson explained that it was because he never ate any food from animals.

    When he was a boy, Watson stayed on a farm. .He loved to see the animals. He said that they gave so much to people. And all the animals were so friendly. Then, one day, he saw a man killing a pig. He was very sad. From then on, Watson decided that he would never again eat meat. Twenty years later he decided that he wouldn't eat anything from animals, such as milk, cheese or eggs. He became vegan (素食主义者).

    Watson formed a group called "The Vegan Society". In its newspaper, The Vegan Society thought it was terrible and wrong to eat food from animals. At first, there were not many people who agreed with him. They thought it was crazy to do it. Most people thought it was too difficult and unhealthy. However, over time, more and more people began to agree with Watson and The Vegan Society.

    People become vegans for many reasons. Watson and his friend stopped eating because they loved animals. They believed that it was wrong to hurt another living thing.

    Now, people also become vegans for environmental reasons. Keeping animals takes a lot of resources(资源), including water and food. Also, in some places, people are cutting down trees to create more land for cows. By avoiding food from animals, vegans hope to protect these forest areas.

    Finally, just like Watson, some people believe that being a vegan is healthier. They believe that food from animals causes heart problems, a high body weight and many other health problems.

Yesterday, I went to the bookstore to pick up a present for my mother's upcoming birthday. I found one of the books I wanted, but not the other one my mother had discussed with me the other day. When I went to pay. I asked the clerk behind the counter if I could order the second book.

A lady was standing in line behind me at the checkout. The clerk said she could order the book. but asked if I would mind letting the lady behind me pay for her purchases first. The lady behind me said no and that it was fine to wait.

It took nearly 15 minutes to put my order through! The lady behind me chatted agreeably with us for the entire time. When it finally came time for me to pay, I placed two $10 off cards on the counter. The clerk informed me the offer was only valid(有效) for the book I was purchasing in-store and wouldn't work for the book I'd ordered. This meant that I'd have one $ 10 card left.

"You can come back and purchase another book." the clerk smiled. "The offer is valid until the end of the week."

I thought about this for a millisecond and then turned around to face the lady behind me who'd been so patient, kind, and charming through the very long wait at the checkout. "Here." I gave her the $10 off card. She was very surprised and said. "Really?"

The gift didn't cost me anything. I knew I wouldn't be back before the end of the week and it rewarded someone whose attitude left a smile in my heart. Most definitely a win-win moment.

Perhaps you have seen them, those who fall asleep on the subway and then, somehow, wake up exactly at their stop. Perhaps you are one of them. How is this possible? We spoke to two doctors, who offered their insights about it.

It is possible that your body gets used to waking up at a certain point each time during your commute, said Dr. Marc I. Leavey, a primary-care specialist in Maryland. That holds especially true if you commute at the same time every day. This suggests that if you were to get on at a different time, or if the journey were delayed, your internal clock might not wake you up at your stop. It is an interesting theory, but Dr. Ronald Chervin, director of Michigan Medicine's Sleep Disorders Centers, does not fully buy it. He is skeptical that circadian rhythms can also explain why you wake up after a brief nap.

You are also likely to wake up for your particular stop because of an oral cue, such as the conductor stating the name of the subway stop over the public-address system. Such cues alert your brain that you have arrived, explained Dr Leavey. According to a study published in the Public Library of Science, during sleep, our brain reacts differently when we hear our own name and other people's names, noted Dr Chervin. This suggests that your brain does not turn off during sleep, which makes it possible to pick up on the announcement of your stop.

Another reasonable possibility: You may wake up at each stop, check if it is yours, and go back to sleep, all without having remembered it, added Dr. Chervin. He sees this in cases where patients are suffering from sleep apnea. They may wake up as many as 200 times during a single night, without having remembered a single instance. That's because they fall right back asleep before their brain has time to process their experience into long-term memory. Similarly, you could be waking up every time you hear a new stop called. But you just don't remember such instances even after you fully come awake for your stop—leading you to believe that you have slept the whole way through and miraculously woken up at the right time.