Farah was sitting in the kitchen going over the party list with her mother. The exams were over and Farah wanted to invite her friends for a party.

    “Farah, aren't you going to invite Hafsa?” her mother asked. Hafsa had been her best friend since childhood.

    “Mother, you know I am now a part of Purple Girls Club and we have some rules about people we can be friends with,” Farah answered.

    “Really? And what are the rules?” her mother asked.

    “Well, only very pretty girls can be part of our group. And Hafsa is so, you know, dark.”

    “I cannot believe it.” her mother said angrily.

    As Farah left the kitchen, her father called her from the living room.

    Farah went to her father and paled when she saw the exam report in his hands.

    “Farah, what has happened to your grades? You have failed in Mathematics.” her father said.

    Farah had no answer. The truth was that the activities of Purple Girls Club left her with very little time for studies.

    “Farah, it says that you can take part in supplementary exams(补考). If your grades don't improve then, I'll cancel your trip to Spain.”

    Farah went to her room and called Gina, the leader of Purple Girls Club.

    “Gina, can you help me to complete my notes before the exams?”

    Gina laughed, “Exams? Who cares about exams?”

    One by one, she called her friends in the club but no one seemed to care or wanted to help. Farah knew Hafsa would help her. Farah also knew Hafsa had been hurt by her, but Hafsa said, “If you need any help, just let me know. We can study together till your exams.”

    Next Monday, as two friends entered the school together. Gina called out

    “Farah, you know our rules. You cannot be friends with those who do not belong to our club.”

    “Gina I have a new rule about friendship,” Farah replied.

    A gaming company in New Zealand is luring employees from around the world by offering unlimited paid annual leave, a share in the company's profits and no set work hours.

    Dean Hall became famous in international gaming circles for being the lead designer on popular video game DayZ. After searching the world for a location for his new gaming studio, Rocketwerkz, New Zealander Hall settled on the small university town of Dunedin on the south island's east coast, where land is cheap and creative start-ups have become an important pan of the city's identity.

    Rocketwerkz's flexible work culture is now drawing talent from around the globe, with Hall receiving 300 messages of inquiry since a local newspaper wrote about his studio last week.

    Last year, when the company was still in its infancy(婴儿期), baby cats would also make a regular appearance in the office as a form of fighting stress, and Friday afternoons are generally reserved for sports and games to end the week on a playful note.

"The first time I heard about the idea of unlimited paid leave in places like Silicon Valley it was about the problems it caused. A culture had appeared where employees took no leave," said Hall.

"So to address that, our staff are issued the standard New Zealand annual leave of four weeks, but they can also take unlimited leave in addition to that."

    Emily Lampitt, from Britain, is a 3D junior artist who has been with the company for a year and a half. She says the flexible work culture was a huge factor in her decision to move to New Zealand.

"The flexibility here has made me feel much more relaxed" she says. I "That internal stress I used to feel in a traditional work environment has gone, so when I am at work now it is because I want to be, because I am passionate(有激情的), not because I am afraid of my boss or watching the clock."

    My violin is like a soul mate that whispers words of wisdom to me. Together, we've gone through both tears and happiness.

    About 12 years ago, I made acquaintance with it following an order from my mom. Many hours of boredom were spent practicing it. And to make things worse, the disappointment in my teacher's eyes as I played the wrong notes was like an invisible（隐形的）hammer, striking on my heart. One day, I finally decided: I hate it!

    By chance, things changed when I was seven. I was at home lying on the sofa, wondering how those famous violinists dealt with this terrible dilemma. I searched online for the E-minor Concerto, a well-known violin work by German composer Felix Mendelssohn, and listened to it.

    A beautiful and mysterious sound came from the violin as the bow moved across it. It was like the music slid over the flowers, rose up, and started to fill the air. The violin's voice woke up the sun, made the trees green, and freshened the air. As the music changed, the sky turned back to gray. A gloomy shade covered the grass as all the sunshine disappeared. I could hear children crying and men shouting. It was like an invisible claw had grabbed my heart tightly, making it unable to beat.

    That glorious day set off my passion and interest in violin - I grabbed mine and never let it go. Before the memories faded, I stared at my instrument. Without hesitating, I picked it up, rosined（用松香擦）the bow, and began to play. Peace filled my heart.

    My violin has been by my side for 12 years. When I feel happy, an energetic tune makes it even better; when I'm deep in sorrow, a peaceful tune washes it away, when I'm walking on air, feeling especially pleased with my achievements, solemn（庄严的）tunes calm me down. Gradually, it has become a part of my life.

    My violin, shall I compare you to a summer's day?

    Emma and Ryan, a married couple, were driving to a friend's house when Emma turned to Ryan and asked, “Would you like to stop for lunch?”

    Ryan replied. “No, I'm not hungry yet,” and continued driving. Meanwhile, Emma sat quietly fuming (十分恼火)in the passenger seat. Ryan could not understand why Emma was unhappy. He had thought she was asking if he was hungry, but in reality, Emma was telling him that she was hungry and wanted to stop for lunch.

    Misunderstandings like this often occur between men and women, even among people from the same culture. Deborah Tannen, professor of linguistics at Georgetown University in the United States, has studied conversational rules.

    In Emma and Ryan's situation, Emma was making a request in the form of a question. Her style of talking is common for women. She needed Ryan to agree they were both hungry. So, Emma asked Ryan what he wanted. She was really telling Ryan what she wanted; however, Ryan did not understand this. If he had been hungry, he would have said something more direct, such as, “I'm hungry. Let's have lunch.”

    Tannen believes that most women grow up in a world where talk is used to express feelings. However, most men are raised differently and they tend to keep their feelings to themselves.

    Tannen says, for men, talk is often used as a situation used outside the home to gain respect, to entertain and get attention , or to exchange information. This is why men communicate by making each other laugh, or talking about sport and work. These men do not always feel it is necessary to talk to feel close or to express their feelings. Women, on the other hand, are encouraged to speak about their feelings since this is a way to build relationships.

    Can you trust your very first childhood memories? Maybe not, a new study suggests.

    Past researches show that people's earliest memories typically form around 3 to 3. 5 years of age. But in a recent survey of more than 6,600 people, British scientists have found that 39 percent of participants claimed to have memories from age 2 or younger. These first memories are likely false, the researchers said. This was particularly the case for middle -aged and older adults.

    For the study, researchers asked participants to describe their first memory and the age at which it occurred. Participants were told they had to be sure the memory was the one that had happened. For example, it shouldn't be based on a photograph, a family story or any source other than direct experiences. Then the researchers examined the content, language and descriptive details of these earliest memories and worked out the likely reasons why people would claim to have memories from an age when memories cannot form.

    As many of these memories dated before the age of 2, this suggests they were not based on actual facts, but facts or knowledge about their babyhood or childhood from photographs or family stories. Often these false memories are fired by a part of an early experience, such as family relationships or feeling sad, the researchers explained.

    "We suggest that what a rememberer has in mind when recalling fictional early memories is …a mental representation consisting of remembered pieces of early experiences and some facts or knowledge about their own babyhood or childhood," study author Shania Kantar said in a journal news release, "Additionally, further details may be unconsciously inferred or added. Such memory-like mental representations come over time, to be collectively experienced when they come to mind, so for the individual, they quite simply are memories, which particularly point to babyhood."

    "Importantly, the person remembering them doesn't know this is fictional," study co-author Martin Conway said "In fact, when people are told that their memories are false they often don't believe it."

    In 1978, I was 18 and was working as a nurse in a small town about 270 km away from Sydney, Australia. I was looking forward to having five days off from duty. Unfortunately, the only one train a day back to my home in Sydney had already left. So I thought I'd hitch a ride (搭便车).

    I waited by the side of the highway for three hours but no one stopped for me. Finally, a man walked over and introduced himself as Gordon. He said that although he couldn't give me a lift, I should come back to his house for lunch. He noticed me standing for hours in the November heat and thought I must be hungry. I was doubtful as a young girl but he assured (使…放心)me I was safe, and he also offered to help me find a lift home afterwards. When we arrived at his house, he made us sandwiches. After lunch, he helped me find a lift home.

    Twenty-five years later, in 2003, while I was driving to a nearby town one day, I saw an elderly man standing in the glaring heat, trying to hitch a ride. I thought it was another chance to repay someone for the favour I'd been given decades earlier. I pulled over and picked him up. I made him comfortable on the back seat and offered him some water.

    After a few moments of small talk, the man said to me, "You haven't changed a bit, even your red hair is still the same." I couldn't remember where I'd met him. He then told me he was the man who had given me lunch and helped me find a lift all those years ago. It was Gordon.