In her new book, “The Smartest Kids in the World,” Amanda Ripley, an investigative journalist, tells the story of Tom, a high-school student from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, who decides to spend his senior year in Warsaw, Poland. Poland is a surprising educational success story: in the past decade, the country raised students' test scores from significantly below average to well above it. Polish kids have now outscored(超过……分数) American kids in math and science, even though Poland spends, on average, less than half as much per student as the United States does. One of the most striking differences between the high school Tom attended in Gettysburg and the one he ends up at in Warsaw is that the latter has no football team, or, for that matter, teams of any kind.

    That American high schools waste more time and money on sports than on math is an old complaint. This is not a matter of how any given student who plays sports does in school, but of the culture and its priorities. This December, when the latest Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) results are announced, it's safe to predict that American high-school students will once again display their limited skills in math and reading, outscored not just by students in Poland but also by students in places like South Korea, Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland, Singapore, and Japan. Meanwhile, they will have played some very exciting football games, which will have been breathlessly written up in their hometown papers.

    Why does this situation continue? Well, for one thing, kids like it. And for another, according to Ripley, parents seem to like the arrangement, too. She describes a tour she took of a school in Washington D.C., which costs thirty thousand dollars a year. The tour leader—a mother with three children in the school—was asked about the school's flaws(瑕疵). When she said that the math program was weak, none of the parents taking the tour reacted. When she said that the football program was weak, the parents suddenly became concerned. “Really?” one of them asked worriedly, “What do you mean?”

    One of the ironies(讽刺) of the situation is that sports reveal what is possible. American kids' performance on the field shows just how well they can do when expectations are high. It's too bad that their test scores show the same thing.

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    Now is the best time for Hong Kong shopping lovers, as most shops and markets are having their seasonal sales. With the same amount of money, you can find different kinds of foods in this city. Women, young and old, rarely resist the attraction of this shopping paradise(乐园,天堂) at this time of year. Lovers will surely have an exciting Christmas and   New Year's Eve celebrations at the Time Square or in the western styled bars. Spending your holiday in Hong Kong will be easy too, as several package tours are available from GZL Travel Service, with four-day tours for less than 15 000yuan.

    Tour package 1(3200yuan):a four-day-tour including three nights' accommodation(膳宿供应), scenic helicopter flight, night ferry tour of Victoria Harbor and shuttle bus to the Peak to view the city at night.

    Tour package 2 (1880yuan): a four-day-shopping-tour including three nights' accommodation, tours to Golden Beach and the Vexwork Museum, shuttle bus to the Peak and shopping opportunities.

    Tour package 3(1480yuan):a four-day-DIY-tour including three nights' accommodation in a four-star hotel and total freedom to do what you want.

    Wedding is one of the most universal traditions in the world. But it's celebrated differently by people around the world. Now let's know something about these traditions.

       In Jamaica, weddings are a community affair, with the whole village often coming together to help plan the big day. People in the village gather in the street to see the bride and if she isn't in perfect shape, she will be publicly criticized. And while women wear the typical white wedding dress，men wear a bush jacket for the event. Several cakes are baked for the ceremony and on the wedding day married women wearing white dresses carry the confections (甜点) to the wedding. The reception is often held at the groom's house, in a booth specially built for the event. The wedding celebration also includes a lot of dancing.

    In Welsh wedding tradition, a man carves a spoon out of wood and gives it to the woman he loves. H she wears it, they are engaged (订婚）. Brides are often hidden by their families just before their wedding day. The groom and his family follow and whoever finds her will be the next to get married.

    In her bouquet, a Welsh bride carries a small tree with shiny green leaves and white flowers that smell nice as a symbol of love, and gives a cutting of the plant to her bridesmaids as well. If the bridesmaid plants the cutting in her yard and it blooms, she will soon marry, according to Welsh tradition.

    In Czechoslovak, before the wedding, the bride's friends traditionally plant a tree in her yard and decorate it with colored ribbons and eggshells, because, according to the legend, the bride will live as long as the tree. Before the marriage vows, a baby is placed in the couple*8 bed to bless their fertility. During the wading ceremony, Czech women surround the bride*, dancing and singing. They then remove her veil (面纱）and make her put on a handrnade babushka ( a woman's head scarf).

    Growing up, I was an extremely reserved(腼腆的) boy. I didn't have many friends in primary and middle school and rarely opened up to anyone. I didn't even ask my teacher questions in class. I was scared of the world and the people around.

    As a child, I was scared to do anything without my parents mainly because I was afraid that I would do it badly. I was getting good grades and was well-behaved, but I wasn't happy. It was my belief that I was, for some reason, unable to do the things the others kids could do. I felt inadequate.

    While in my second semester of college, I ran into some information on the Internet about something called social anxiety. I didn't really know much of the disorder. Thus I began to read about some of the symptoms and realized that social anxiety was the thing that hurt me so much.

    It is common knowledge that people with social anxiety experience nervousness in social situations. What a lot of people don't know is that one of the main causes of social anxiety is negative thinking. People having a negative idea of themselves often think that they are ugly or stupid.

    I realized what I was truly afraid of: not being good enough. I was afraid that people would look at me and would not like what they saw; I was scared of rejection. To help deal with these problems, I began to practice meditation(沉思) and other mindfulness exercises. My mind slowly began to change.

    I realized that everyone, from star athletes to noble prize winners, experiences fear in their lives. Whether people are afraid of heights, planes, spiders, or talking to girls, we all experience anxiety and fear. There is no reason for anyone to feel excluded(排除在外的) because something scares them. People with anxiety disorders might have "problems", but there is nothing wrong with them as people. They are just as humans as everyone else.

    For Western designers, China and its rich culture have long been an inspiration for Western creative.

    "It's no secret that China has always been a source(来源) of inspiration for designers," says Amanda Hill, chief creative officer at A+E Networks, a global media company and home to some of the biggest fashion(时尚) shows.

    Earlier this year, the China Through A Looking Glass exhibition in New York exhibited 140 pieces of China-inspired fashionable clothing alongside Chinese works of art, with the aim of exploring the influence of Chinese aesthetics(美学) on Western fashion and how China has fueled the fashionable imagination for centuries. The exhibition had record attendance, showing that there is huge interest in Chinese influences.

    "China is impossible to overlook," says Hill. "Chinese models are the faces of beauty and fashion campaigns that sell dreams to women all over the world, which means Chinese women are not just consumers of fashion — they are central to its movement." Of course, not only are today's top Western designers being influenced by China—some of the best designers of contemporary fashion are themselves Chinese. "Vera Wang, Alexander Wang, Jason Wu are taking on Galliano, Albaz, Marc Jacobs—and beating them hands down in design and sales," adds Hill.

    For Hill, it is impossible not to talk about China as the leading player when discussing fashion. "The most famous designers are Chinese, so are the models, and so are the consumers," she says. "China is no longer just another market; in many senses it has become the market. If you talk about fashion today, you are talking about China—its influences, its direction, its breathtaking clothes, and how young designers and models are finally acknowledging that in many ways."

Everyone wants to be happy, but sometimes it can be difficult to feel happiness. That's because we have misunderstandings (误区) about happiness that can get in the way. The good news is that changing the way you think about happiness can help you to feel more joy each day.

Dr. Williamson from the charity Action for Happiness says, "Happiness is not about denying (拒绝承认) terrible feelings or being joyful all the time. It's about making the most of good times and learning to deal with bad times". Dr. Green believes that happiness comes when we feel good about who we ate and where our life is going.

Noticing when you feel happy and what you're doing or what's happening at that time can help you to find more happiness. For example, you may realize that working out a difficult puzzle makes you feel better than watching a favorite TV show. What helps you to feel happy might be different from what makes someone else happy.

Start a list of things that make you happy and keep adding to it as you discover new ones. Make time to do what you know makes you happy and remember that joy isn't only found in what you do for yourself—being kind and thoughtful to other people helps you feel happier, too.

There are misunderstandings that can make it hard to feel happy. One is that it's selfish (自私的) to be happy when other people are sad. However, stopping yourself from being happy doesn't make other people less sad. In fact, research has shown that happy people spread happiness to others. Another thing is thinking that you need lots of money and things to be happy. Studies have shown that when people win the lottery (彩票), they feel a short burst of happiness but they soon return to feeling the same as they did before they won. So it's important to notice the simple things that make you feel happy.