America is a mobile society. Friendships between Americans can be close and real, yet disappear soon if situations change. Neither side feels hurt by this. Both may exchange Christmas greetings for a year or two, perhaps a few letters for a while — then no more. If the same two people meet again by chance, even years later, they pick up the friendship. This can be quite difficult for us Chinese to understand, because friendships between us flower more slowly but then may become lifelong feelings, extending (延伸) sometimes deeply into both families.

    Americans are ready to receive us foreigners at their homes, share their holidays, and their home life. They will enjoy welcoming us and be pleased if we accept their hospitality (好客) easily.

    Another difficult point for us Chinese to understand Americans is that although they include us warmly in their personal everyday lives, they don't show their politeness to us if it requires a great deal of time. This is usually the opposite of the practice in our country where we may be generous with our time. Sometimes, we, as hosts, will appear at airports even in the middle of the night to meet a friend. We may take days off to act as guides to our foreign friends. The Americans, however, express their welcome usually at homes, but truly can not manage the time to do a great deal with a visitor outside their daily routine. They will probably expect us to get ourselves from the airport to our own hotel by bus. And they expect that we will phone them from there. Once we arrive at their homes, the welcome will be full, warm and real. We will find ourselves treated hospitably.

    For the Americans, it is often considered more friendly to invite a friend to their homes than to go to restaurants, except for purely business matters. So accept their hospitality at home!

    A new library in Tianjin—Tianjin Binhai Public Library—recently became an online hit. The Daily Mail described it as the “world's ultimate (终极的) library”, while the word “breathtaking” was the choice of Newsweek magazine. One look at the library and you'll see why. With its futuristic (未来主义) design and walls loaded with books, it's the dream library of every book lover.

    But as the surprise continues, there's a burning question lying in the back of our minds: When physical bookstores are closing down one by one, what makes libraries safe from the wave of digitalization (数码化)? And do we really still need libraries now that we've got the Internet in our hands?

    Reporter Ian Clark has the answer. “Libraries are not declining in importance—people are simply changing the way they use them,” he wrote on the Guardian website.

    What Clark means is that libraries have shifted from simply being storehouses of books to a medium to help “bridge the gap between the haves and the have-nots” according to website Libraries Are Essential. Since not everyone can afford a smartphone, a tablet or an Internet connection, and not everyone has the know-how to search the Internet correctly and efficiently, it's public libraries that make sure that these resources and technologies are available to a larger group of people.

    "Nobody is trying to sell you anything in the library. There is no pressure to buy and there is no judgment of your choices/' Anne Goulding, a professor at Victoria University in New Zealand, wrote on the Newsroom website. “There are few other spaces that you can just 'be' without somebody questioning your presence or your motivation."

    I had an experience some years ago, which taught me something about the ways in which people make a bad situation worse by blaming themselves. One January, I had to hold two funerals on successive days for two elderly women in my community. Both had died “full of years”, as the Bible would say. Their homes happened to be near each other, so I paid condolence(吊唁) calls on the two families on the same afternoon.

    At the first home, the son of the deceased(已故的)woman said to me, “If only I had sent my mother to Florida and gotten her out of this cold and snow, she would be alive today. It's my fault that she died.” At the second home, the son of the other deceased woman said, “If only I hadn't insisted on my mother's going to Florida, she would be alive today. That long airplane ride, the sudden change of climate, was more than she could take. It's my fault that she's dead.”

    You see that any time there is a death, the survivors will feel guilty. Because the course of action they took turned out bad, they believe that the opposite course would have turned out better. After all, how could it have turned out any worse?

    There seem to be two elements involved in our willingness to feel guilty. The first is our pressing need to believe that the world makes sense, that there is a cause for every effect and a reason for everything that happens that leads us to find patterns and connections both where they really exist and where they exist only in our minds. The second element is the view that we are the cause of what happens, especially the bad things that happen. It seems to be a short step from believing that every event has a cause to believe that every disaster is our fault. The roots of this feeling may lie in our childhood.

    A baby comes to think that the world exists to meet his needs, and that he makes everything happen in it. He wakes up in the morning and summons the rest of the world to its tasks. He cries, and someone comes to attend to him. When he is hungry, people feed him, and when he is wet, people change him. Very often, we do not completely outgrow that childish view that our wishes cause things to happen.

    Do you always agree to do things that you are unwilling to do? Are you the type of person who always says "yes"? I've come to learn that it is very important to learn to say NO! It's okay. People are still going to like you. They may even respect you more because they know you are honest.

    I'm not saying to say "no" to someone who really needs your help. I'm talking about refusing that meeting that you really do not want to attend or that birthday party that you don't want to be a guest at.

    Think for a moment how you feel when you say YES to something that you really don't want to do. If you're like I once was, you can't sleep at night and you think about it too much. It weighs on your mind. You try to find ways out. Whatever you're saying to yourself, if you really wanted to go, you wouldn't have all of these thoughts.

    So, why not just say NO from the beginning? Maybe you feel like if you don't show up at the meeting (by the way, it is not the one you must attend) your boss isn't going to like you or your co-workers won't respect you. Maybe you feel as if your mom, dad or sisters won't love you as much if you don't do everything for them that they ask every occasion.

    If these people are your true friends, family members, or a good boss, they will like or love you the same no matter what. People treat you the way you teach them to, and if you're someone who always says "yes", then that's what they're expecting.

    You need to do what is right for you. Of course we do have real obligations in life to fulfill, but we do not have to do everything others want us to do.

While wandering around a Swedish Christmas market, you'll likely come across booths {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (sell) carved wooden horses, typically in an assortment of bright colors and floral patterns. These {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (tradition) Swedish toys are much more than a classic holiday gift or travel souvenir: the Dala horse has become intertwined (交织) with the very image of Sweden {#blank#}3{#/blank#}.

The little wooden horses of Sweden were originally carved by men that worked in the forests during {#blank#}4{#/blank#} winter. When they returned to their villages, they gave the horses to children as playthings. This was in the 17^th century during {#blank#}5{#/blank#} the horses were also sold at market in small towns and villages in the Dalarna region, in central Sweden. The horses were painted in bright colors that were inspired by the furniture in the region. {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (eventual) , even young children learned to carve wooden horses. 

The global attention didn't come until the 20 ^th century in the World's Fair in New York 1939. That was because an enormous painted Dala horse was placed outside the Swedish pavilion, which caused excitement throughout the crowds of {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (visit) . After this, the Dala horses were seen {#blank#}8{#/blank#} a symbol of Sweden and mass production of the horses started. Since then, Dala horses {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (be) popular souvenirs and inspired other products as well. You can now find anything from clothing to tableware and phone cases with a Dala horse {#blank#}10{#/blank#} (decorate) .

Should you find yourself in possession of an additional sum of $100, how might you employ this financial increment to cultivate an atmosphere of benevolence within your local society? If you possess an imaginative reply to this inquiry, peruse our Frequently Asked Questions below and put forth your application for our recurring competition.

What is the nature of this initiative? Kindness-In-Action is a program dedicated to facilitating the realization of benevolent concepts. Individuals from across the globe proffer their proposals on the actions they would undertake if bestowed with an extra $100, and KindSpring designates a victor on a monthly basis.

What is the operational mechanism?Initially, you are to proffer your concept; upon its selection, you will be contacted by one of our volunteer adjudicators to coordinate a telephonic or Skype conversation. Subsequently, we will dispatch a check to you, and you will be granted a month to actualize your concept within your community. Following the implementation, you are to convey your narrative and photographic documentation to the KindSpring community. Moreover, your endeavor will be highlighted in our monthly bulletin, which has a readership extending to over 100 thousand individuals across 150 nations, thereby enabling the propagation of the concept and the amplification of its compassionate influence.

What are the evaluative standards for selection? The criteria for selection encompass your intrinsic motivation, the innovative utilization of Smile Cards, the prospective cascading impact within the local society, and the endorsements from the KindSpring community—current members are entitled to log in and cast their votes. Fundamentally, our objective is to incite modest acts of kindness, not grand gestures.

What was the genesis of this endeavor?In the month of May, we received an unforeseen contribution. In the spirit of sharing the elation, we posted a succinct announcement within our virtual community soliciting ideas. Within a fortnight, we received more than 50 submissions, and numerous individuals assisted us in the appraisal process by bestowing "smiles". On the first of July, we proclaimed our inaugural winner and pledged to perpetuate this initiative. The ongoing purpose of this venture is to: inspire inventive acts of kindness within local societies, to empower individuals to exercise munificence, to exemplify a trust-based philanthropic approach, and to disseminate beneficial concepts.Click Here to Apply. Or join our community and help us select the next winner.