Meeting people from another culture can be difficult. From the beginning, people may send the wrong signal. Or they may pay no attention to signals from another person who is trying to develop a relationship.

    Different cultures emphasize the importance of relationship building to a greater or lesser degree. For example, business in some countries is not possible until there is a relationship of trust. Even with people at work, it is necessary to spend a lot of time in "small talk", usually over a glass of tea, before they do any job. In many European countries, like the UK or France, people find it easier to build up a lasting working relationship at restaurants or cafe rather than at the office.

    Talk and silence may also be different in some cultures. I once made a speech in Thailand. I had expected my speech to be a success and start a lively discussion, instead there was an uncomfortable silence. The people present just stared at me and smiled. After getting to know their ways better, I realized that they thought I was talking too much. In my own culture, we express meaning mainly through words, but people there sometimes feel too many words are unnecessary.

    Even within Northern Europe, cultural differences can cause serious problems. Certainly, English and German cultures share similar values, however, Germans prefer to get down to business more quickly. We think that they are rude. In fact, this is just because one culture starts discussions and makes decisions more quickly.

    People from different parts of the world have different values, and sometimes these values are quite against each other. However, if we can understand them better, a multicultural environment will offer a wonderful chance for us to learn from each other.

    Happy,angry,amazed—these are some of the emotions we like to express these days when we're sending a message on our smartphones.That's a quick way of telling someone how we're feeling.Yes,emojis have become a vital tool for communication.

    The emoji was first invented in Japan in the late 1990s and the word "emoji" comes from the Japanese words for "picture" and "character".The number of different images has dramatically increased since then and now we have a picture for every mood or situation.

    So now we are giving this new creation the visual "thumbs-up" but have you thought why we've become so addicted to using emojis? Professor Vyv Evans has written a book called The Emoji Code, saying "increasingly, what we're finding is that digital communication is taking over certain aspects of face-to-face interaction...one of the reasons why emojis are so popular is that they really do enable us to express our emotional selves more effectively."

    Another advantage of emojis is that they are an international language—they don't use words but some pictures so they can be easily interpreted whatever your native language is. However, the emojis can sometimes be misinterpreted—if a friend sends you an emoji of a hammer, you may think he/she is angry when really he/she is saying he/she is clumsy!

    Emojis are a good way for showing similar feelings. But as linguist(语言学家) Neil Cohn says, "To many, emojis are an exciting evolution of the way we communicate, but to others, they are a linguistic Armageddon（大决战）."It does show there is a lot more to our communication than words alone but does this mean the decline in traditional writing?

    A cat is recovering in California after surviving a 6,500-mile journey across the Pacific stowed inside a Chinese shipping container without food or water. Staff and volunteers have named it “Ni Hao”, which is Chinese for “hello”.

    It was discovered breathing shallowly after a two-week trip across the Pacific Ocean. The cat was seriously suffering from loss of water and starvation when the container was opened in California last week, but was said to be doing well after being sent to the Carson Animal Care Centre in Los Angeles. At first it was too weak to stand, but finally took its first steps. Then it ate a good meal and slept soundly. The cat woke up on Thursday morning, physically in a better condition than 24 hours ago.

     “Ni Hao greeted the medical team with its first meow this morning and is attempting to stand,” said Marcia Mayeda, head of the Los Angeles Department of Animal Care and Control. Aaron Reyes, director of the Department, added, “We finally got to hear its voice. It sounds like a single-engine plane.”

    Ni Hao is expected to be observed for 60 days but afterwards animal workers will look forward to providing it with a good shelter. “It's much better for it to recover in a home environment,” Mr. Reyes said. “It's just like a human being in a hospital so we're hoping to move it.” He added, “Little by little we're getting there. We're hoping that under the treatment and with rest, it'll be able to recover quickly.”

    It was not immediately clear how the cat got into the container.

    Exploit your parking space

    An unused parking space or garage can make money. If you live near a city center or an airport, you could make anything up to £200 or £300 a week. Put an advertisement for free on Letpark or At my house park.

Rent a room

    Spare room? Not only will a lodger（房客）earn you an income, but also, thanks to the government-backed “rent a room” program, you won't have to pay any tax on the first £4500 you make per year. Try advertising your room on Roomspare or Roommateeasy.

    Make money during special events

    Don't want a full-time lodger? Then rent on a short-term basis. If you live in the capital, renting a room out during the Olympics or other big events could bring in money. Grashpadder can advertise your space.

Live on set

    Renting your home out as a “film set” could earn you hundreds of pounds a day, depending on the film production company and how long your home is needed. A quick search on the Internet will bring up dozens of online companies that allow you to register your home for free—but you will be charged if your home gets picked.

Use your roof

    You need the right kind of roof, but some energy companies pay the cost of fixing solar equipment (around £14,000), and let you use the energy produced for nothing. In return, they get paid for unused energy fed back into the National Grid. However, you have to sign a 25-year agreement with the supplier, which could prevent you from changing the roof.

    When a group of children politely stop a conversation with you, saying, "We have to go to work now." you're left feeling surprised and certainly uneasy. After all, this is the 21st century and the idea of children working is just unthinkable. This is, until you are told that they are all pupils of stage schools, and that the "work" they go off to is to go on the stage in a theatre.

    Stage schools often act as agencies to supply children for stage and television work. More worthy of the name "stage school" are those few places where children attend full time, with a training for the theatre and a general education.

    A visit to such schools will leave you in no doubt that the children enjoy themselves. After all, what lively children wouldn't settle for spending only half the day doing ordinary school work, and acting, singing or dancing their way through the other half of the day?

    Then of course there are times for the children to make a name and make a little money in some big shows. Some stage schools give their children too much professional work at such a young age. But the law is very tight on the amount they can do. Those under 13 are limited to 40 days in the year; those over 13 to 80 days.

    The schools themselves admit that not all children will be successful in the profession for which they are being trained. So what happens to those who don't make it? While all the leading schools say they place great importance on children getting good study results, the facts seem to suggest this is not always the case.

    It is common to see many different kinds of insects while spending time outside in the summer. Some of them do not trouble people and can even add beauty to the natural environment. Other insects can harm the environment or humans. The population of these insects seems to stay large and healthy.

    But scientists say this does not appear to be true for some flying insects that serve an important purpose. There is growing evidence that these insects are decreasing across the world.

    One researcher looking into the present insect population is Doug Tallamy, a professor at the University of Delaware. He remembers walking through Washington D. C., in the past when it was "alive with insects, especially butterflies". Now, he said, "The flying insects are actually gone." Wilson said this point seemed to be proved during a drive he made last year from Boston to Vermont. He was surprised that, during his trip, he counted only one insect that had hit the car's front window. Several other scientists have carried out similar tests by checking how many insects hit their cars while traveling.

    While researchers admit this method is not scientific, they say it can still help them understand the changing flying insect population. There have not been many studies done on the flying insect populations covering large areas. However, some international research suggests a downward turn. In 2006, a group of studies showed that there had been a 14-percent drop in ladybugs(瓢虫) in the United States and Canada from 1987 to 2006. In Germany, a 2017 study found an 82-percent drop in the number of flying insects compared to levels recorded in 1990.

    After the German study, other countries also started looking into the problem. David Wagner of the University of Connecticut says other evidence leads him to believe the findings of the 2017 study are "clearly not a German thing".