Master painter Zhang Daqian (1899-1983) was well known for having a large number of friends and students. Among them, painter Li Qiujun was special.

    They got to know each other through Li's elder brother, who was one of Zhang's best friends.

    They admired each other's artistic talent and became confidants, which resulted in a romantic relationship.

    In 1948, Zhang produced Spring Clouds Amid Autumn Landscape, a mountain-and-water ink painting featuring gongbi (meticulous brushwork), as a gift for Li's 50th birthday.

    A year later, Zhang permanently departed from the mainland, and traveled and exhibited around the world before settling down in Taipei in 1976.

    After leaving the mainland, he often said that he missed Li, who died in Shanghai in 1973.

    Spring Clouds Amid Autumn Landscape will be auctioned in Hong Kong on Oct 4.

    The painting not only marks a friendship between the two painters, but it deserves special attention because it shows Zhang at the top of his game as he sought to master the mountain-and-water style, according to C.K. Cheung, head of Sotheby's Chinese painting department.

    Sotheby's will auction the work at its major autumn sale, which runs from Oct 1 to 5.

    Cheung says the painting's composition and Zhang's attention to details reflect his incorporation of traditional touches, especially from Song Dynasty (960-1279) paintings, while also developing his own style.

    It's a Saturday morning, and I am eager to fly away.My husband and I will meet up with our son on the other side of the country to learn and explore together.Sitting now at the airport gate,my husband wanders away to stretch his legs.Moments later,he returns and whispers in my ear.I rise and follow him around the comer toward a large window facing the landing area.

    On the road, Marines stand straight and the plane door is open.A white hearse(灵车）is parked nearby.A man and a soldier stand on either side of a woman,supporting her and waiting for what is to come.Airport personnel stand in reverent stillness.A few people place their hands over their hearts,as I have done.We're joined in witness,sending respect to an honorable soldier whose name we'll never know.

    The woman looks heartbroken. She cries, knowing she will never hear "Mom”from her son. She'll never feel his tender embrace or enjoy his sweet peck on her cheeks.Another man's face is twisted because of the grief.His son,the tiny boy he no doubt wrestled playfully,the teen he probably taught to drive,and the son he stood so proudly by,now lives only in his memory.

    Those behind the glass stay silent, reflecting on this loss, as the family and soldiers leave.Some of us women, with sorrowful expressions, move slowly away, sharing a mother's profound grief .Soon,each of us will fly off in planes and return to an ordinary life made extraordinary by this soldier's courage，by this family's sacrifice and by this love shared by all that look out of the window.

    Now Glen doesn't like to think what might have happened had he and his best friends, Ray Wightman and Chris Johnson, picked their usual path along a rocky outcrop－the faster route to Johnson s home on Triangle Mountain. They were heading there after school that day－April 14, 1999－to play street hockey in Johnson's driveway. There were other lucky twists, too: not stopping at the shops to get a cola« as they usually did; hearing the strange cry.

    It was 3:30 pm. The three teens were laughing and talking when suddenly they heard a strange cry coming from the ditch(沟渠) across the road. Crossing to take a look, they found an Adidas gym bag sitting deep in the icy water. They climbed down the steep bank and pulled the bag from the water, expecting to find abandoned cats or dogs inside. Instead, the boys found a trembling newborn girl. Wrapped in an old blanket, wearing a thin nightshirt, she was almost blue, her lips shaking from the cold and her crying.

    The boys couldn't have been more astonished. They knew this one needed to get warm and dry, although they didn't know much about babies. Ray dug through his gym bag and wrapped her in a T-shirt. “We didn't know what to do,” said Glen. “I didn't think any of us had really held a baby before.” So the three stood beside the ditch, dumbfounded, taking turns to hold the baby to their chests to keep her warm.

    “We knew it was no use walking up to Ray's house, because his mum was working and no one would be home. We figured we'd have a better chance just staying by the road and flagging down someone.” So they stood there and waited.

    A car drove by and the boys caught the driver's attention, telling her that they had found a baby. The woman then drove off to get help. When the police and ambulance came 20 minutes later, the teens were told the baby was probably two or three hours old and had perhaps been in the ditch for an hour or more. They were also told that they had saved her life and that given 10-20 minutes more in the cold water, she probably would be drowned.

    The best-known example of external( 外部的)influence causing language change is the "Americanization" of world culture, which has caused English words to appear in city streets all over the world. The effect is most noticeable in pop music. Foreign groups often record in English, and the words are picked up and repeated in the same language everywhere, even by children who otherwise have little or no command of the language. I once met a Brazilian child of about ten who could count 'one, two, three', but only by adding the words 'o'clock, four o'clock rock 'at the end.

Some people are often strongly critical of the influence of English on their language — especially when an English word replaces a traditional word. In 1977, France passed a law banning the use of English words in official situations if an equivalent( 意义相同的)French expression existed — but the law seemed to be honored more in the breaking than in the observing. Some other countries have considered introducing a similar law despite the evidence that such laws have very little effect, and that the arrival of loan words( 外来词) can greatly enrich a language (as indeed in the case of English itself, which has a long history of welcoming foreign words).

    However, not everyone is critical. In particular, commercial firms and advertisers are well aware of the potential selling power that the use of English vocabulary can bring. In Japan, English is even used in television commercials, despite the fact that the majority of viewers would not understand exactly what was being said: the excellence implied by the mere use of English is apparently enough to command the strategy to the advertisers.

    Most of the influence of English is upon the vocabulary of foreign languages, but surveys are slowly bringing to light several cases where word order or word structure has been affected. Sentences of the type “The book sells well”, using an active construction for a passive meaning, have begun to appear in Danish (Bogen soelger godt). Several languages keep the English plural ending when they make use of a loan word, and do not translate it into the native form, e.g. drinks. There are many other such cases.

    Spring is coming, and it is time for those about to graduate to look for jobs. Competition is tough, so job seekers must carefully consider their personal choices. Whatever we are wearing, our family and friends may accept us, but the workplace may not.

    A high school newspaper editor said it is unfair for companies to discourage visible tattoos (纹身)，nose rings, or certain dress styles. It is true you can't judge a book by its cover, yet people do "cover" themselves in order to convey certain messages. What we wear, including tattoos and nose rings, is an expression of who we are. Just as people convey messages about themselves with their appearances, so do companies. Dress standards exist in the business world for a number of reasons, but the main concern is often about what customers accept.

    Others may say how to dress is a matter of personal freedom, but for businesses it is more about whether to make or lose money. Most employers do care about the personal appearances of their employees, because those people represent the companies to their customers.

    As a hiring manager I am paid to choose the people who would make the best impression on our customers. There are plenty of well-qualified candidates, so it is not wrong to reject someone who might disappoint my customers. Even though I am open-minded, I can't expect all our customers are.

    There is nobody to blame but yourself if your set of choices does not match that of your preferred employer. No company should have to change to satisfy a candidate simply because he or she is unwilling to respect its standards, as long as its standards are legal.

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