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.

    The First Rule of Finance is to live within your means by spending no more than 80% of your take-home pay．If you take home $ 100 per week, spend no more than $80．

    But ever look at what people spend their money on? I have relatives and friends deeply in debt, spending $ 12 for every $ 10 they earn instead of the $ 8 you know they should be spending．When I see them, they're proud of their new whatever．"What do you think of my new truck?" asked one from the driver's seat．"Do you like my new shoes?" asked another on high heels．"Check out my new big screen．" said a third while holding the remote in his living room．We've all heard people fishing for compliments on their new toys ．

    Every one of them was proud of what they'd financed．They seem to have bought it for the purpose of being proud, of showing off, of keeping up with the Joneses．"Look at my new …?"is everybody's favorite phrase, even when the object in question isn't theirs at all and won't be new when they've finally paid for it, if they ever do．

    They're proud of being stupid．They think it's cool to drive the financed car, wear the financed shoes, and watch the financed TV, but to smart people, whose opinions are the only ones we should respect, these people look dumb as rocks．

    The Joneses, nine times out of 10, are financially stupid．That's why they have all that stuff on borrowed money．Why try to copy them? Worse, why try to impress them? Copy and impress smart people, the ones who own their stuff．If you want to impress smart people, debt is the last way to go about it．Trying to impress a money-smart person by going into debt is like trying to impress Olympic swimming champion Michael Phelps by drowning in a pool．Michael Phelps is impressed by good swimming and a money-smart person by good money management．

    Indian-origin Anvitha Vijay has given a new meaning to the phrase “age is just a number”; she has proved that achievements and knowledge follow passion and not just age and experience.

    Vijay, who lives with her parents in Melbourne, Australia, at the age of seven realized that her piggy bank did not have enough money to hire a developer to make her an app, so she decided to teach herself how to code. With the help of YouTube videos, the young techie learned to code. For one entire year, she watched multiple coding tutorials on the web and became a programmer herself.

    Vijay's inspiration for developing the apps was her little sister, who was still learning to talk. Therefore, Vijay developed an educational app for children that were her sister's age. The app is called Smartkins, which uses about 100 sounds and flashcards of different animals that help children learn and identify. Later, Vijay developed a similar iOS app for children to identify and learn colors. Each app has been downloaded thousands of times.

    Anvitha's skills won her a scholarship to attend a big tech conference hosted by Apple in San Francisco, California. There, she got tips from the pros. She went to workshops where she learned about the latest software for app building.

    All that training led to an idea for a third app. This one, called GoalsHi, inspires kids to practice good habits. Users are rewarded for achieving goals, such as eating their vegetables or practicing piano. Anvitha says the rewards are like getting a sticker for a job well done.

    Anvitha's goal is to continue creating technology that helps kids learn while having fun. But even more important to her is that the world sees the power of technology in kids' hands. “The more training we get in tech at an early age,” she says, “the better chance we have of becoming creativity champions who will one day change the world.”

    Harvard University in the United States has been ranked as the university with the best “reputation” in the world.

    The Times Higher Education magazine has listed 200 top universities all over the world based on how they are regarded by a group of international college teachers. That is to say, the list measures how universities are regarded, rather than how they actually performed.

    “A subjective, word-of-mouth (口碑的) quality such as “reputation” has genuine economic value for universities,” said Simon Marginson, professor of higher education at the University of Melbourne in Australia.

    “Reputation is not just an impression, though it might not be as reliable as performance by objective indicators (客观指标),” said Prof Marginson.

    Based on the views of 13,000 college teachers around the world, it confirms the power of the big US universities, which dominate this list. Seven of the top 10 are US universities, headed by Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Furthermore, 14 of the top 20 are from the US. Cambridge is the highest ranking UK university in the list, in third place, with Oxford ranked as sixth.

    “For students applying to university, reputation might be hard to quantify, but was an important part of the attractiveness,” said the president of Cambridge University's students' union, Rahul Mansigani.

    “Reputation makes a huge difference. If there is an idea that somewhere is great, it will get lots of good people applying whether it's true or not. Factors such as a sense of history and the presence of outstanding college teachers were part of the reputation of Cambridge,” he said.

    There are so many expressions in American English that sound pleasant but are not.

    “Face the music” is a good example. When someone says they have to face the music, it does not mean they are going to a musical performance or concert. To face the music means to accept the unpleasant results of an action.

    Imagine a friend asks you to take care of her beautiful red sports car. She gives you the keys and says, “Thanks so much for watching my car while I'm away. But please do not drive it. It is an extremely fast car.” But you do not listen. You want to show off and pretend the car is yours. So, you drive it around town. As bad luck would have it, you lose control of the car and drive it into a stop sign. The damage is serious. When your friend returns, you must tell her what you have done and “face the music”. That could mean losing her friendship or paying for repairs to her sports car or both. Whatever the music is, you must face it.

    There are other American expressions that mean the same as “face the music”.

    To “take your medicine” means to accept the results from something bad you have done. And if someone says, “You made your bed. Now lie in it.” He means you created a bad situation and now you will experience the results, or as we say in American spoken English, you must deal with it!

    “Pay the piper” also means the same as “face the music”. But, that expression has its own very interesting beginning. We will talk about that on another Words and Their Stories.

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