Chinese New Year for Kids

    Chinese New Year for Kids is a full color paperback book with beautiful Chinese illustrations (插图). This is a hands-on workbook for parents and teachers, written for children from ages 3 to 12 years old, for use in the classroom or at home. Music, physical movement, art, and food all add to the atmosphere of taking an imaginary trip to China during the Chinese New Year.

   The Polar Express

One couldn't select a more delightful and exciting premise (前提) for a children's book than the tale of a young boy lying awake on Christmas Eve only to have Santa Claus sweep by and take him on a trip with other children to the North Pole. And one couldn't ask for a more talented artist and writer to tell the story than Chris Van Allsburg.

   The Secret of Saying Thanks

Perhaps you'd like to know a secret, one of the happiest ones of all. You'll discover it all on your own, maybe when you least expect. If you've not yet discovered the secret of saying thanks, it's waiting for you. The secret can be found in the sunrise that offers promises for the day ahead, or in the gentle shade of a tree sheltering you from the hot rays of the sun.

   The Runaway Pumpkin

When Buck, Billy and their little sister Lily spy the biggest pumpkin they've ever seen, they can't resist (抵制). Buck and Billy try to roll the pumpkin down the hill to show everyone, but it's too big! Before they know it, it's rolling out of control down the hillside. It knocks over Gran dpa Baxter and makes him think of pumpkin soup. And when Poppa Baxter finally stops, all he can think of is pumpkin bread.

    Looking at China's history over the past 60 years，it is apparent that，despite much suffering，the country has achieved huge political，economic and social success，especially during the past three decades.

    The press center for the celebration of the 60th founding anniversary of new China was officially opened on the morning of September 22. Zha Shouchen，deputy director of the press center introduced that，during the National Day，there would be 3,200 domestic reporters，and more than 1,300 foreign journalists to come to Beijing to make the covering work.

    The press center provided many services for domestic and foreign reporters，such as issuing the press cards to reporters，accepting the interview application，organizing press conferences and activities of group interviews，providing the means of communication and information services for reporters.And the following was the scene.

    A grand parade in Beijing on Oct.1，led by the People's Liberation Army and the People's Armed Police Force，showed some of China's latest achievements in defense modernization.About 8,000 military officers，along with tanks and other vehicles，formed a straight line stretching 3 kms.

    The military parade was followed by a civilian parade featuring six massive performing groups and 36 formations of about 100,000 people.In addition,60 floats(彩车)represented everything from the country's geographic areas to the previous year's Beijing Olympics.

    Everyday life in China is a parade on a grand scale，with citizens now being able to enjoy things their ancestors did not dare to contemplate 100 years ago，things their grandparents took for luxury 60 years ago，and things their parents did not even know how to attempt 30 years ago.

Rafting the GRAND CANYON Welcomes You!

    For an exciting，fun and challenging white water tours，Rafting the GRAND CANYON is here to help you plan the right tour for you. Whether you want to travel for two days or ten，hike in or not，go on an oar raft or motorized trip，we will help you find the trip that meets your needs.

    For those who will be vacationing on the off­season a trip on the Native American Red River rafting is available year around or a one ­day trip is available on the Colorado River from Diamond Creek to Pierce Ferry (about three hours from Las Vegas)．

    Most of the trips depart from Lees Ferry，Arizona (approximately 21/2 hours from the south rim of the Grand Canyon)．We offer partial trips which allow you to get on or off at Phantom Ranch located at the bottom of the Grand Canyon National Park South Rim. Requiring a hike in or out，with proper planning the horse ride up or down is also an option. Most trips occur between April and October.

    Since all rafting on the Colorado requires a permit，planning and reserving your trip requires reservations well in advance. Please let us know when you would like to go and we will contact all the river concessionaires (特许权获得者)to help you find the best trip for you.

    For planning your trip，questions，concerns or to make your reservations，please email or call the toll free number below. Since these trips are limited we highly recommend you make your reservations months in advance.

    To talk to a live person call us toll free：1­800­222­6966 or 702­655­6060

    If you have any questions regarding a trip，please CLICK_HERE to fill out our form. This will speed up the process of getting you accurate information regarding your trip.

    If you would like to send us an email other than about an up­coming trip you can contact us at info@raftingthegrandcanyon.com.

    We look forward to helping you plan your trip! (Please NO Travel Agents)

    Some people think that success is only for those with talent or those who grow up in the right family, and others believe that success mostly comes down to luck. I'm not going to say luck, talent, and circumstances don't come into play because they do. Some people are born into the right family while others are born with great intelligence, and that's just the reality of how life is.

    However, to succeed in life, one first needs to set a goal and then gradually make it more practical. And, in addition to that, in order to get really good at something, one needs to spend at least 10,000 hours studying and practicing. To become great at certain things, it'll require even more time, time that most people won't put in.

    This is a big reason why many successful people advise you to do something you love. If you don't enjoy what you do, it is going to feel like unbearable pain and will likely make you quit well before you ever become good at it.

    When you see people exhibiting some great skills or having achieved great success, you know that they have put in a huge part of their life to get there at a huge cost. It's sometimes easy to think they got lucky or they were born with some rare talent, but thinking that way does you no good, and there's a huge chance that you're wrong anyway.

    Whatever you do, if you want to become great at it, you need to work day in and day out, almost to the point of addiction（沉迷）, and over a long period of time. If you're not willing to put in the time and work, don't expect to receive any rewards. Consistent, hard work won't guarantee you the level of success you may want, but it will guarantee that you will become really good at whatever it is you put all that work into.

    Gwendolyn Brooks was the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Gwendolyn Brooks wrote hundreds of poems during her lifetime. She was known around the world for using poetry to increase understanding about black culture in America.

    Her poems described conditions among the poor, racial inequality and drug use in the black community. She also wrote poems about the struggles of black women. But her skill was more than her ability to write about struggling black people. She was an expert at the language of poetry. She combined traditional European poetry styles with the African American experience.

    In her early poetry, Gwendolyn Brooks wrote about the South Side of Chicago. The South Side of Chicago is where many back people live. In her poems, the South Side is called Bronzeville. It was A Street in Bronzeville that gained the attention of literary experts in 1945. Critics praised her poetic skill and her powerful descriptions of the black experience during the time. The Bronzeville poems were her first published collection.

    In 1950, Gwendolyn Brooks became the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. She won the prize for her second book of poems called Annie Allen. Annie Allen is a collection of poetry about the life of a Bronzeville girl as a daughter, a wife and mother. She experiences loneliness, loss, death and being poor. Ms. Brooks said that winning the prize changed her life.

    Her next work was a novel written in 1953 called Maud Martha, Maud Martha received little notice when it was first published. But now it is considered an important work by some critics. Its main ideas about the difficult life of many women are popular among female writers today.

    In some of her poems, Gwendolyn Brooks described how what people see in life is affected by who they are. One example is this poem, Corners on the Curing Sky.

    By the end of the 1960s, Gwendolyn Brooks' poetry expanded from the everyday experiences of people in Bronzeville. She wrote about a wider world and dealt with important political issues.

Keeping secrets is a burden

    "Don't tell anyone". We hear these words when someone tells a secret to us. But it can be hard to keep a secret. We're often tempted to "spill the beans(说漏嘴)",even if we regret it later.

    According to Asim Shah, professor in the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Baylor College of Medicine, US, keeping a secret may well "become a burden". This is because people often have an "obsessive and anxious urge to share it with someone".

    An earlier study, led by Anita E. Kelly, a scientist at the University of Notre Dame, US, suggested that keeping a secret could cause stress. People entrusted(受委托 ) with secrets can suffer from depression, anxiety, and body aches, reported the Daily Mail.

    But with secrets so often getting out, why do people share them at all? Shah explained that people often feel that it will help them keep a person as a friend. Another reason people share secrets is guilt over keeping it from someone close to them. A sense of distrust can develop when people who are close do not share it with each other. "Keeping or sharing secrets often puts people in a position of either gaining or losing the trust of someone," according to Shah.

    He added that talkative people could let secrets slip out (泄露).But this doesn't mean that it is a good idea only to share secrets with quiet people. A quiet person may be someone who keeps everything inside. To tell such a person a secret may cause them stress, and make them talk about the secret. Shah said that to judge whether to tell someone a secret.

    Shah said that to judge whether to tell someone a secret, you'd better put yourself in their position. Think about how you would feel to be told that you mustn't give the information away. Shah also recommended that if you accidentally give up someone's secret you should come clean about it. Let the person know that their secret isn't so secret anymore.