For most people, Christmas is a time to relax in the company of family and friends. But for Santa Claus, and the thousands of fake Santas who impersonate（模仿） him every year, the Christmas season is time to get to work.

    Although Santa Claus waits until Christmas Eve to take his famous sleigh (雪橇) ride, Santa impersonators can be found at shopping malls around America throughout the six weeks leading up to December 25. "When you see Santa talking with kids at your local mall, that's when you know Christmas really is on the way," says Mary Lewine of New York City.

    With the excitement of Christmas, people often forget about the real people behind the red robes （长袍) and white beards, but being a mall Santa. is a tough job. "There is more to it than just sitting in a chair. There is more to it than just a red suit," said Timothy Connaghan, who has worked as a Santa for.38 years. "Children can really put the wear and tear on you.”

    A recent survey showed some of the challenges that mall Santas face every year. About 90 percent of Santas claimed that children pulled their beards to see if they were real, and 60 percent said that up to ten kids cough or sneeze on them every day. Even more disturbing, one-third of the Santas admit to having children wet themselves while sitting on their laps.

    So why would anyone take this job? For Ben Brauch, a retired high school teacher who has worked as a Santa for the last six years, the answer is simple-the children. "I see maybe 12,000 kids in a six-week period.

    It's hard work, but it's worth it because you get to play with kids." In fact, Brauch loves his job so much that he keeps his white beard long all year.

    The value-packed, all-inclusive sight-seeing package that combines the best of Sydney's harbor, city, bay and beach highlights.

    A SydneyPass gives you unlimited and flexible travel on the Explorer Buses: the ‘red' Sydney Explorer shows you around our exciting city sights while the ‘blue' Bondi Explorer visits Sydney Harbour bays and famous beaches. Take to the water on one of three magnificent daily harbor cruises (游船). You can also travel free on regular Sydney Buses, Sydney Ferries or CityRail services (limited area), so you can go to every corner of this beautiful city.

    Imagine browsing at Darling Harbour, tasting the famous seafood at Watsons Bay or enjoying the city lights on an evening ferry cruise. The possibilities and plans are endless with a SydneyPass. Wherever you decide to go, remember that bookings are not required on any of our services so tickets are treated on a first in, first seated basis.

    SydneyPasses are available for 3, 5 or 7 days for use over a 7-calendar-day period. With a 3 or 5-day pass you choose on which days out of the 7 you want to use it. All SydneyPasses include a free Airport Express inward trip before starting your 3, 5 or 7 days, and the return trip is valid  for 2 months from the first day your ticket was used.

    SydneyPass Fares

*A child is defined as anyone from the ages of 4 years to under 16 years. Children under 4 years travel free.

**A family is defined as 2 adults and any number of children from 4 to under 16 years of age from the same family.

    Animal Farm by George Orwell

    Animal Farm is probably one of the most popular school reads in the world. George Orwell wrote it as a political allegory(讽喻)and has since then inspired the minds of not only adult revolutionaries but also the younger ones who start feeling the spark of being right and free for all of the humanity in their hearts.

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

    This is a wise, funny, and heartbreaking memory of Marjane Satrapi's years growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution, and how she dealt with life while experiencing the ruinous effects of the war with Iraq. The mistakes she felt she made opened her eyes and shaped her into becoming the influential individual she is today.

    To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Regarded as a masterpiece of literature—-it is no wonder it won the Pulitzer Prize. The plot and characters are based on the author's observations of her family and neighbors, as well as on an event that occurred near her hometown in 1936, when she was 16 years old. The novel is famous for its warmth and humor, despite telling a story of innocent Tom Robinson being accused of raping(强暴)a white woman because he was black.

    The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

    A story showing the absolute courage of a young boy, who was never afraid to speak his mind in the face of injustice and would always defend the helpless. A boy shows us the importance of believing in ourselves and others. Harry Potter reminds us that the true power to defeat any enemy is not found in others, but found within each of us.

    For centuries, mankind and dogs have suffered from a communication failure. We can tell dogs what we want them to do and sometimes they comply, but we've always struggled when it comes to understanding the true meaning of their barks and whimpers. There is exciting news now – a dog translator has been invented to help you communicate with your furry friend.

    Researchers at North Carolina State University have fashioned some kind of miracle dog translator body harness(束腰带). What's special about it is that it doesn't just rely on the dog's vocalizations to interpret what Fido is banging on about.

    Oh no – this miracle harness reads and interprets the ordinary dogs' body language as well, giving us a full two-way dog communication experience.

    Researcher David Roberts says: "Dogs communicate primarily through body language, and one of our challenges was to develop sensors that tell us about their behavior by observing their posture remotely."

    Sensors on the harness monitor the dog's heart rate and body temperature and software builds up a vocabulary, letting the human know what the dog is feeling.

    What would dogs say if they could talk to us? The human can even communicate back through the harness thanks to vibration motors, supposedly by tapping into the dog's senses so that it can understand what you're trying to say to it.

    The dog harness is designed for dogs involved in search and rescue and other front-line work, but it's got us dreaming of a beautiful future, one where humans and dogs can co-exist as equals, with the dog able to fully express itself at all times.

    Almost every day we come across situations in which we have to make decisions one way or another. Choice, we are given to believe, is a right. But for a good many people in the world, in rich and poor countries, choice is a luxury, something wonderful but hard to get, not a right. And for those who think they are exercising their right to make choices, the whole system is merely an illusion, a false idea created by companies and advertisers, hoping to sell their products.

    'The endless choice gives birth to anxiety in people's lives. Buying something as basic as a coffee pot is not exactly simple. Easy access to a wide range of everyday goods leads to a sense of powerlessness in many people, ending in the shopper giving up and walking away, or just buying an unsuitable item that is not really wanted. Recent studies in England have shown that many electrical goods bought in almost every family are not really needed. More difficult decision-making is then either avoided or trusted into the hands of the professionals, lifestyle instructors, or advisors.

    It is not just the availability of the goods that is the problem, but the speed with which new types of products come on the market. Advances in design and production help quicken the process. Products also need to have a short lifespan so that the public can be persuaded to replace them within a short time. The typical example is computers, which are almost out-of-date once they are bought. This indeed makes selection a problem. Gone are the days when one could just walk with ease into a shop and buy one thing; no choice, no anxiety.

Taiwan was once known as "Garbage Island". Now it is a word leader which recycles more than half of its waste in business that brings in over $2 billion a year.

In 1993, Taiwan was filled with garbage. There was almost no recycling. Two thirds of its landfills were full. Around 20% of the island's garbage was dumped (丢弃). The rest was either buried in a landfill, or burned, leaving the island in an unpleasant and unhealthy situation.

In 1998, the government took action. Their plan affected companies that made products or brought them into Taiwan. These companies were required to take care of their own waste, or to pay the government to do it. The government used the money it collected to improve recycling in the area. Taiwan gave away as much as $6 billion a year to help recycling companies.

Ordinary people had apart, too. The government created a plan called Pay As You Throw. People were required to separate their waste into two groups-garbage, and things that are recyclable or reusable. Recycling is free, but people have to buy special blue bags to throw things away. People quickly began to recycle more.

The government also made it easy for people to deal with their waste. Yellow garbage trucks come around often. To let people know they're coming, they play music. People can also track (追踪) the garbage trucks by using a smartphone app.