There were smiling children all the way. Clearly they knew at what time the train passed their homes and they made it their business to stand along the railway, wave to complete strangers and cheer them up as they rushed towards Penang. Often whole families stood outside their homes and waved and smiled as if those on the trains were their favorite relatives. This is the simple village people of Malaysia. I was moved.

    I had always traveled to Malaysia by plane or car, so this was the first time I was on a train. I did not particularly relish the long train journey and had brought along a dozen magazines to read and reread. I looked about the train. There was not one familiar face. I sighed and sat down to read my Economics.

    It was not long before the train was across the Causeway and in Malaysia. Johore Baru was just another city like Singapore, so I was tired of looking at the crowds of people as they hurried past. As we went beyond the city, I watched the straight rows of rubber trees and miles and miles of green. Then the first village came into sight. Immediately I came alive; I decided to wave back.

    From then on my journey became interesting. I threw my magazines into the waste basket and decided to join in Malaysian life. Then everything came alive. The mountains seemed to speak to me. Even the trees were smiling. I stared at everything as if I was looking at it for the first time.

    The day passed fast and I even forgot to have my lunch until I felt hungry. I looked at my watch and was surprised that it was 3:00 pm. Soon the train pulled up at Butterworth. I looked at the people all around me. They all looked beautiful. When my uncle arrived with a smile, I threw my arms around him to give him a warm hug (拥抱). I had never done this before. He seemed surprised and then his weather-beaten face warmed up with a huge smile. We walked arm in arm to his car.

    I looked forward to the return journey.

    Anaya Elick was born without hands – she has stubs（残端）where most people's wrists begin.

    To hold a pencil, she must balance it between her wrists, then use her arms to push it along the page. But that didn't stop her from winning a national handwriting contest when she was in first grade.

    In the two years since, she has taken on greater challenges. Last week, she won another national handwriting contest, this one for cursive（草书）. And by all accounts from her teachers at Greenbrier Christian Academy, she has become an accomplished artist.

    Anaya isn't one to boast about her successes. She unwillingly says they make her proud but adds that they come from “lots of practice.”

    Her friends at school said, “She inspires everybody by what she does and how she does it” child to fail, and raising one who was born with a disability can heighten that protective instinct.

    Before Anaya was born, doctors knew about her condition, although not its cause. Other than having no hands, she is a regular 9-year-old girl.

    Anaya succeeds because she is not afraid to fail, Middleton said. The two began practicing cursive last year, when Anaya was in second grade. She struggled sometimes, because unlike traditional penmanship, which allows for breaks after each letter, cursive words are written straight through – and added effort for someone who must balance rather than hold the pencil.

    Middleton could see her daughter thinking through the challenge, figuring out how she could do better. She'd get frustrated at times, but she never hesitated to do things as often as it took to get them right.

    “I don't think I've ever heard Anaya say I can't do something,” Middleton said.

    That attitude carries over to her other interests.

    Recently, Anaya and her classmates sat in Cheryl Leader's art room, working on an exercise. The goal was to get them thinking about different concepts, like color combinations and how an image can be formed by fully coloring inside straight and diagonal lines.

    Binge-watching (刷剧) is when a person watches more than one episode of a TV show one after another. With developments in the speed and connectivity of the Internet, increases in technology and the rise of on-demand entertainment companies, people can now watch their favorite shows directly on the Internet at their convenience.

    This behavior is nothing new. In fact, “binge-watching” has been officially listed in dictionaries since 2015. The entertainment companies recognize this behavior and many take steps to encourage it. Often, instead of releasing each episode on a week-by-week basis, an entire series will become available at the same time. Once the episode finishes, many platforms will display pop-ups with “you might like” suggestions, or will automatically play the next episode.

    However, this wonderful gift may in fact be poisonous. Recent research from British media Ofcom suggests that this behavior may have become a hindrance (障碍). Out of the more than half of British adults who watch more than one episode of a show in a row, almost a third have admitted missing sleep or becoming tired as a result; and one quarter have failed to do their household chores. Next well be missing work!

    Bingeing has other connections—binge eating, binge drinking and binge smoking, all of which are often associated with compulsive (强迫性的) behavior, a lack of control and possible route to addiction. Lindsey Fussell, consumer group director at Ofcom, said, “The days of waiting a week for the next episode are largely gone, with people finding it hard to resist watching multiple episodes around the house or on the move.” If people find binge-watching hard to resist, coupled with the fact that it has shown to lead to negligence (疏忽) in many, are we witnessing the birth of a new type of addiction?

    The large amount of information and entertainment that television and online media can bring us is, many would say, a good thing. It offers us opportunities to better understand the world we live in, educate ourselves and enjoy much needed downtime. However, like any behavior done to an extreme degree, it can become dangerous. And when the activity begins to bleed into other areas, causing us to stop functioning-then it becomes a problem. So, what's the answer? Neither a tiny amount, nor too much. After all, as the old proverb says, a little of what you fancy does you good.

    I fondly remember road trips as a child, sitting in the sunny backseat of my mom's car, daydreaming about other worlds and fantastic adventures. As I've grown older, my daydreams have become increasingly occupied less with fantasy but more with the reality of my past and future. Nearly everyone daydreams about their future and reflects nostalgically (念旧地) or negatively on moments of the past. These moments can provide inspiration, but if you spend too much time daydreaming in this fashion, you may be reducing your success in the present.

    If you've ever planned a vacation, you're familiar with the impatient days tapping at your desk, dreaming of the lazy, relaxing days to come. Unfortunately, sometimes you end up comparing the real vacation to your imagined one, and it doesn't live up to the standard. Reflecting nostalgically on the past can also prevent present enjoyment. It is equally fun to reflect on past achievements or fun events, but it's possible to be so consumed with happy memories that you miss opportunities to create more.

    We've all made mistakes that we're ashamed of; reflecting on them is an important step in correcting those mistakes and becoming a better person. But dwelling（细想）too long on your past can also be negative. If you dwell too long on a past mistake, you can begin to equate（使等同）yourself with your past and feel farther away from the person you want to be. Train your brain to think quickly about the past and future, and take only the information and inspiration that you need in order to be the best person you can without resting on your glory moments or your mistakes.

    If your identity is not dependent on the past or future, every experience is new and every day is a blank page for you to write. A fun mental exercise is to always tell yourself that you're experiencing things for the first time. So take advantage of each moment you're given.

    A food chain is a simple way of explaining how each living thing gets its food. For example, a simple African food chain might consist of three parts: first, trees and bushes; second, giraffes; and third, lions. Each link in a food chain is food for the next link. Food chains always start with plants and end with animals.

    Plants are at the bottom of the food chain. Scientists call them producers, because they use light energy from the sun to produce food from carbon dioxide and water through photosynthesis（光合作用）. Animals, unlike plants, can't produce their own food. Instead, they must eat plants or other animals. This is why scientists call them consumers.

    Consumer animals fall into three categories. Herbivores（食草动物）eat only plants. Carnivores（食肉动物） eat only other animals. Omnivores eat both plants and animals. In addition to producers and consumers, there are also decomposers(分解者).These organisms, such as bacteria and fungi, feed on decaying(腐烂) matter. They help the food chain by speeding up the decaying process that releases minerals back into the soil to be absorbed by plants as nutrients.

    Most food chains have only four or five links in them. As you go up a food chain, the amount of energy at each level diminishes, because some of the energy is lost in the form of waste or is used up by the organism at the level. That is why it takes many plants, for example, to feed a few giraffes who in turn feed one lion.

    Most animals are part of many different food chains, because they must eat more than one type of food to satisfy their energy needs. All of these interconnected food chains form a more complex structure called a food web. Humans, for example, are at the center of a very complex food web, because we tend to eat many different types of plants and animals.

    It's not unusual to see an unreasonable child lying on the ground drumming his heels. Beside him is a desperate mother yelling at the top of her lungs. Raising a well-behaved kid is really a head-scratching thing.

    If you took all the parenting styles around the world and ranked them by their gentleness, the Inuit (因纽特人) approach would certainly rank near the top. All the moms mention one golden role: Don't shout or yell at small children. Inuit's no-yelling policy is their central component to raising cool-headed kids. The culture views scolding, or even speaking to children in all angry voice, as inappropriate, although little kids are pushing parents' buttons.

    Playful "storytelling" is another trick to sculpting kids' behavior. But this storytelling differs hugely from those fairy tales full of moral lessons. Parents "retell" what happened when a boy threw a tantrum(发脾气)by way of what Shakespeare would understand all too well: putting on a "drama". After the child has calmed down, the parents will review what happened when the child misbehaved, usually starting with a question: "Can you show us how to throw a tantrum?" Then the child has to think what he should do. If he takes the bait and performs the action, the mom will ask a follow-up question with a playful tone. For example: "Does that seem right?" or "Are you a baby?" She is getting across the idea that "big boys" won't throw a tantrum.

    Kids' brains are still developing the circuitry needed for self-control. What you do in response to your children's emotions shapes their brains. So next time, seeing your boy misbehave, try using the Inuit's storytelling approach. And don't forget to keep cool. After all, boys will be boys.