In the years of my growing up, Dad was strict with me. He made sure I made my bed and did my homework. He would call in advance to make sure there was no alcohol at the party. I got so angry with him for laying down the law. I would scream, “ I hate you!” Dad would yell back, “Good! I don't care!” Deep down I knew he did.

    One time at a party, I drank too much alcohol and got so sick. I said, “ Call my dad.” Next thing, Dad was carrying me to the car. I woke up the next morning, thinking I would definitely be criticised. As expected, I got a roasting, but I now understand why I need discipline.

    Dad was 29 when he got his big roles in films. I had an early start at the age of nine with a role in a 1990s TV series, but it wasn't until I finished film studies that I pursued my career as an actress. Like those early days for Dad, I faced lots of rejections. Working in such a competitive industry, I've sometimes thought, “ I can't do this any more.”

    Once, after a trip to Hollywood, I returned to Australia so depressed and spent months in my bedroom painting, listening to Eckhart Tolle's music and trying to find myself again. Dad sat me down and said,“Alice, I know it's hard, but it's all about persistence(坚持不懈).”

    Now I get to work with Dad a lot, which I love. We both passionate about acting, which comes from us being so interested in people. If it weren't for Dad, I wouldn't be where I am today. He's my biggest fan, and when you have that in your life you can go a long way.

    Do you want to take time to get in touch with yourself, your feelings, your dreams, and a good, healthy life? Here are some tips:

    {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Sometimes it seems as if our culture has begun to view the need for sleep as a sign of weakness. But your body was genetically(基因地) programmed to spend a third of its life on sleep, and this affects thinking, memory, growth, your immune(免疫的) system and even your weight.

    Begin the day in thankfulness. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Name each person and hold them in your thoughts. The sense of thankfulness you experience will set a peaceful tone for the entire day, and reduce a day's stress that can lead to sleeplessness that night.

    Strike a balance. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Think about tai chi, prayer, yoga(瑜伽)—any daily activity that allows you to develop a peaceful center and a sense of balance.

    Play with friends. The "tend and be friend studies", as they are called, conducted by UCLA researcher, Shelly Taylor, Ph.D. indicate that when women are stressed, they tend to their children and play with other women. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    Use guided imagination. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} The tone of your voice, pacing, music, and pictures will persuade your nervous system that it's time to calm down.

Planning a September trip to France

    September is one of the very best months to visit France．Not only will you enjoy plenty of sunshine and warm weather, but the tourist season is beginning to wind down-which means cheaper airfares, lower prices at hotels, and fewer crowds．{#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    ●Go wine tasting

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#} And there are plenty of wine-related events and festivals around the country．So September is a great time to visit the vineyards around the country and go wine tasting．The Bordeaux, Loire and Burgundy regions are all lovely and great places to visit vineyards．Besides that, going to the castles of the Loire region in between visiting vineyards on such warm and Sunny days is also very enjoyable．

    ●{#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    The temperatures are slightly lower，but plenty of sunshine makes for perfect conditions to enjoy a barge cruise on the canals of France．With such comfortable weather and beautiful scenery at this time of year, nothing equals hanging out on the deck of a barge．

    ●Visit the museums

    Many museums in France have extended opening hours during the summer to accommodate the extra tourists and locals. And some museums also have extended opening hours into September．Wandering around the Louvre will take you into a wonder world，where you can enjoy the world-famous art． {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    Besides the above，riding a bike through France's villages is also a welcome activity for young visitors in September．You call shop for the most fashionable clothes or goods here．You can see the beautiful and fantastic scenery along the road．{#blank#}5{#/blank#}

A．Take a barge cruise.

B．Enjoy the music concerts.

C．So, don't hesitate and start to plan your September trip to France flow!

D．France is a beautiful country．

E．September is the beginning of the grape harvest season in France．

F．Going out of the Louvre, you can walk to the modern and fashionable Champs Elysees to do some shopping．

G．If this is your first trip to France, here is some handy information to help you get started planning your vacation!

    Aside from the health benefits of laughter (which are numerous and significant), having a sense of humor about life's difficulties can provide a way to bond with others, look at things in a different way, normalize your experience, and keep things from appearing too overwhelming or scary. Properly developed, a good sense of humor can keep people and relationships strong.

    Studies show that having a smile on your face can make you feel better, and can lead you to actually feeling happier (rather than just looking happier). Even if the smile is fake, the benefits you will experience are real! Also, a fake smile leads readily to a genuine one. If you are able to put a smile on your face, the laughter will come more easily, and the stress will melt more easily.

    If your situation seems ridiculously frustrating, recognize what can develop into humor in just how ridiculously frustrating and annoying it is. In your imagination, take the situation to an extreme that becomes even more ridiculous until you find yourself amused. For example, when you're waiting in a long line at the store, you can imagine that hours pass, then days, visualizing yourself accepting visits from loved ones from your new home in this ultra-long line, holding your children's birthday parties in aisle seven so you can be there to enjoy them...you get the picture.

    Besides, find a friend with whom you can laugh also works! You can each share your frustrations, and laugh about them in the process. Even when your friend isn't there, you can feel less stressed by thinking about the retelling that will come later.

    You can have a “most annoying boss” game with your friends, or try to count how many times the same potentially frustrating event happens in a day.(“I was cut off in traffic 7 times today—I'm almost up to 10!”) This works well for predictable or repetitive annoying situations that you can't control; you can begin to value them in their own special way instead of letting them upset you.

    One of the factors that drive the popularity of shows like Modern Family or movies like the classic Ferris Bueller's Day Off, is that they take somewhat universal situations that many people find frustrating and push them a little further, pointing out the silliness of it all.

What's more, you can try joining Funny Clubs.Years ago, when Oprah had a show rather than a network, she did a part on Laughter Yoga that interested me, and I researched a club on my own, finding it to be a terrific place to enjoy a good laugh. Whether you mean business or laugh at the silliness of it all, taking part in the exercises of laughter yoga with other humor-participants can be a very effective way to get back in the practice of getting some more laughter into your day.

    At a meeting of the State Council, China's Cabinet, on Tuesday, Premier Li Keqiang said it is important to keep the social insurance premium（保险费） policy stable（稳定）, which to a large extent has eased people's worries at a time when a new regulation on premium collection has aroused public concern.

    The general offices of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council recently issued a reform plan for tax collection, which includes pension, medical, unemployment, occupational injury and maternity insurance will be uniformly collected by the taxation authorities from Jan 1, 2019.

    In fact, the taxation authorities have been collecting social insurance premiums for more than one decade. Social insurance premiums in 19 provinces and regions are collected by the local taxation authorities.

    In particular, companies have expressed concern over the uniform collection of social insurance premium by taxation authorities mainly for three reasons.

First, the new regulation indicates the reform of the collecting system as a result of institutional reform of the State Council. The companies are worried especially because they believe compulsory collection of social insurance premium will increase their expenditure on social insurance.

    Second, since the taxation authorities are fully in charge of social insurance premium collection, the companies fear that the establishment of a new collection system will prevent enterprises escaping paying the social insurance premium.

    Third, the media have reported that lately the local authorities in provinces such as Jiangsu, Heilongjiang and Hubei have been ordering enterprises to pay the arrears （ 欠 款 ） in social insurance premium they should have paid in the past years.

    These factors have increased the companies' concern over the new premium-collection regulation. Some people assume the reform will increase the companies' cost, and some companies have even begun to lay off employees fearing that “winter is coming”.

    Thanks to the current premium-collection system, the companies have managed to not pay a huge amount of social insurance premium. Take urban workers' basic pension insurance for example. It is estimated that the companies have paid only about two-thirds of the total amount of social insurance premium. Calculating on the basis of the data for 2017, this year the actual social insurance premium collection is 3.34 trillion yuan ($487.71 billion), while the total amount should be 5.08 trillion yuan. The due amount is more than one-third of the total that should have been paid.

    Some background information about the social insurance It is of {#blank#}1{#/blank#}to keep the social insurance premium policy stable.

    The State Council issued a reform plan for tax collection, {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    In business, there is a speed difference: It's the difference between how important firm leaders say speed is to their competitive strategy and how fast the company actually moves. The difference is important regardless of industry and company size. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    In our study of 343 businesses, the companies that choose to go, go, go to try to gain an edge ended up with lower sales and operating incomes than those that paused at key moments to make sure they were on the right track. What's more, the firms that “slowed down to speed up “improved their top and bottom lines, averaging 40% higher sales and 52% higher operating incomes over a three-year period.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#} They thought differently about what "slower" and "faster" mean. Firms sometimes fail to understand the difference between operation speed (moving quickly )and strategic speed (reducing the time it takes to deliver value ).Simply increasing the speed of production, for example ,may be one way to try to reduce the speed difference .But that often leads to reduced value over time, in the form of lower-quality products and services.

    In our study, higher-performing companies with strategic speed always made changes when necessary. They became more open to ideas and discussion. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} And they allowed time to look back and learn. By contrast, performance suffered at firms that moved fast all the time, paid too much attention to improving efficiency, stuck to tested methods, didn't develop team spirit among their employees, and had little time thinking about changes.

    Strategic speed serves as a kind of leadership. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} That kind of strategy must come from the top.

A. How did they disobey the laws of business physics, taking more time than competitors yet performing better?

B. Teams that regularly take time to get things right, rather than plough ahead full bore, are more successful in meeting their business goals.

C. More haste, less speed, which in the study proves wrong.

D. Companies fearful of losing their competitive advantage spend much time and money looking for ways to pick up the speed.

E. They valued efficiency rather than consideration.

F. They encouraged new ways of thinking.