If you have a chance to go to Finland, you will probably be surprised to find how “foolish” the Finnish people are.

    Take the taxi drivers for example. Taxis in Finland are mostly high-class Benz（奔驰）with a fare of two US dollars a kilometer. You can go anywhere in one, tell the driver to drop you at any place, say that you have some business to attend to, and then walk off without paying your fare. The driver would not show the least sign of anxiety.

    The dining rooms in all big hotels not only serve their guests, but also serve outside diners. Hotel guests have their meals free, so they naturally go to the free dining rooms to have their meals. The most they would do to show their good faith is to wave their registration card to the waiter. With such a loose check, you can easily use any old registration card to take a couple of friends to dine free of charge.

    The Finnish workers are paid by the hour. They are very much on their own as soon as they have agreed with the boss on the rate（价钱）. From then on they just say how many hours they have worked and they will be paid accordingly（相应地）.

    With so many loopholes（漏洞）in everyday life, surely Finland must be a heaven to those who love to take “petty advantages”. But the strange thing is, all the taxi passengers would always come back to pay their fare after they have attended to their business; not a single outsider has ever been found in the free hotel dining rooms. And workers always give an honest account of the exact hours they put in. As the Finns always act on good faith in everything they do, living in such a society has turned everyone into a real “gentleman”.

    In a society of such high moral practice, what need is there for people to be on guard against others? 

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    It started as a special day for Wesley Autrey, a 50-year-old construction worker in New York City. It was about 12:45 P.M., and he was waiting on a subway platform (月台) to take his daughters home before he went to work. He suddenly noticed a man nearby have convulsions (抽搐) and fall down suddenly. Mr. Autrey and two women went to help the stranger. The man, Cameron Hollopeter, managed to get to his feet, but then stumbled (绊倒) at the edge of the platform and fell onto the subway tracks. Mr. Autrey looked up and saw the lights of the subway train coming near through the tunnel.

    Mr. Autrey jumped onto the track immediately. He realized that he didn't have time to get Mr. Hollopeter and himself back up on the platform before the train arrived, so he lay on top of the man and pressed down as hard as he could. Although the driver tried to stop the train before it reached them, he couldn't. Five cars passed over them before the train finally stopped. The cars had passed only inches from his head.

    New York loves a hero. Mr. Autrey became an overnight hero and was named the “Subway Superman”. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg gave him the Bronze Medallion, the city's highest honor. He was asked to appear on several TV talk shows. He was also rewarded with money and gifts, such as $10,000 from Donald Trump, a $5,000 gift card from the Gap clothing store, a new Jeep, and Beyonce concert tickets.

    How did Autrey react (反应) to all this? He said, “I don't feel like I did anything great; I just saw someone who needed help. I did what I felt was right”.

    One day, a poor man, who had only one piece of bread to eat, was walking past a restaurant. There was a large pot of soup on the table. The poor man held his bread over the soup, so the steam from the soup went into the bread, and gave it a good smell. Then he ate the bread.

    The restaurant owner was very angry at this, and he asked the man for money, in exchange for the steam from the soup. The poor man had no money, so the restaurant owner took him to Nasreddin, who was a judge at that time. Nasreddin thought about the case for a little while.

    Then he took some money from his pocket. He held the coins next to the restaurant owner's ear, and shook them, so that they made a dingling (叮当声) noise.

    “What was that?” asked the restaurant owner.

    “That was payment for you,” answered Nasreddin.

    “What do you mean? That was just the sound of coins!” said angrily the restaurant owner.

    “The sound of the coin is payment for the smell of the soup,” answered Nasreddin. “Now go back to your restaurant.”

    That little "a" with a circle around it that is found in e-mail addresses is most commonly referred to as the "at" symbol. Surprisingly though, there is no official, universal name for this sign. There are lots of strange terms to describe the @ symbol.

Before it became the fixed symbol for e-mail, the symbol was mostly used to represent the cost or weight of something. For instance, if you bought 6 apples, you might write it as 6 apples @ $1.11 each.

    With the introduction of e-mail came the popularity of the @ symbol. The @ symbol separates a person's online user name from his mail server address, for instance joe@uselessknowledge.com. Its widespread use on the Internet made it necessary to put this symbol on keyboards in countries that had never seen or used the symbol before. As a result, there is really no official name for this symbol.

    The actual origin of the @ symbol remains unknown. History tells us that the @ symbol came from the tired hands of the monks(僧侣) in the Middle Ages. During the Middle Ages when there were no printing presses, every letter of a word had to be copied by hand for each copy of a published book. The monks that performed these long and boring copying duties looked for ways to reduce the number of strokes (笔划) per word for common words.

    Although the word "at" is quite short, it was such a common word in texts and documents that monks in the Middle Ages thought it would be good idea to shorten the word "at" even more. As a result, the monks left out the "t" and created a circle — getting rid of two strokes.

    In 1972, a social worker named Sanjit Bunker Roy founded Barefoot College in Tilonia, Rajasthan. Today the college trains women from villages for six months to build and maintain solar panels and other instruments. Barefoot College also offers education to the younger generation both during the day and at its solar bridge schools that meet by lamplight at night.

    The philosophy of Barefoot College is largely inspired by the principles of Gandhi, starting with equality beyond caste (种姓), gender or religion. As a matter of fact, women are prioritized (优先考虑) as an underserved population that is essential to bringing villages together. Another central principle of the college is self-reliance, teaching students to support and think for themselves.

    After the college's female students have completed their half-year of training, they return to their villages where they wait for solar panel parts to arrive from the college. Once they have all the pieces they need, they construct the panels and begin collecting solar energy. For each village, the college also provides solar lamps. Villagers can, in addition, order parts for other solar-powered devices, such as water heaters and cooking stoves. Once assembled, they and the lamps are powered by the solar panels.

    The effect on the villages is huge. Before the solar panels and lamps arrived  villagers had only candles to light their homes. This prevented adults from doing serious work at night, and it made studying difficult for children as well. As for physicians, they had difficulty treating patients and performing operations at night because they had to rely on flashlights.

    Now there is power for not only the electrical appliances that the college provides but also devices like televisions, radios and computers. For the first time, the villagers can even connect to the world through the Internet.

As I prepared for my Level 8 Royal Conservatory of Music piano exam, memories of previous disappointing marks filled me with dread and anxiety. The mere thought of booking the exam made me feel completely strained. However, fate had other plans in store for me.

Just when I thought things couldn't get any worse, my trusty 10﹣year﹣old electric piano malfunctioned. The middle C note played as an F﹣sharp, and multiple other keys were out of tune.

Despite my distress, my father refused to buy a new piano and instead urged me to be more resourceful. Initially, I was at a loss without my beloved electric piano. But after struggling for a few days, I was determined to find every available piano room on campus. After discovering hidden pianos in corners, I spent countless hours practicing. As my exam drew near

One day, while practicing in a piano room, one of my teachers walked in and offered me a mini exam. To my surprise, I found a place where I could be anyone.

Playing the piano became my escape from the anxieties of adolescence and allowed me to express myself freely. When it was time to play in front of the examiner, I no longer feared judgment. Instead, I only feared not being able to represent all my hard work. As the lights came on

Eventually, I received my mark. Not only did I achieve a rarely given "well done", but I also discovered a newfound appreciation for music. Whenever I feel discouraged, some lessons are best learned the hard way.