Recently I started discovering one thing which amazes me so much: how perfect everything is in the world we are living in! Just look, all day long we are busy working and just when we get tired, the night comes in, so we may sleep and relax. One day we may enjoy the bright sun and another day, when we get tired of the sun, the rain pours down.

    A few months ago I was so happy with my life. Later, I got tired from the happiness. I wished I would have some trial to strengthen my character and learn something new about life. I got what I wanted. Shortly after I got severe angina (心绞痛), so I had to stay home for several weeks. During this period I had time to rethink my life and discover myself. The lessons were terrific, but I felt grateful for this time.

    Another example: I have a friend, who primarily thinks about having fun. Once I thought why we get along well with each other and what in me attracts her. A couple of days ago I found the answer. I like calmness and silence. She likes noise and agitation (热闹). We attract each other just to balance ourselves, in other words, to give some drive to me and some calmness to her!

    So remember that the universe is so wise that it will try to balance you. As for me, this is perfect because extremes create suffering: too much food – too little food, too cold – too hot, too much fun – too little fun.

    I travel a lot, and I find out different “styles” of directions every time I ask “How can I get to the post office?”

    Foreign tourists are often confused in Japan because most streets there don't have names; in Japan, people use landmarks（地标）in their directions instead of street names. For example, the Japanese will say to travelers, “Go straight down to the corner. Turn left at the big hotel and go past a fruit market. The post office is across from the bus stop.”

    In the countryside of the American Midwest, there are not usually many landmarks. There are no mountains, so the land is very flat; in many places there are no towns or buildings within miles. Instead of landmarks, people will tell you directions and distances. In Kansas or Iowa, for example, people will say, “Go north two miles. Turn east, and then go another mile.”

    People in Los Angeles, California, have no idea of distance on the map; they measure distance in time, not miles. “How far away is the post office?” you ask. “Oh,” they answer, “it's about five minutes from here.” You say, “Yes, but how many miles away is it?” They don't know.

    It's true that a person doesn't know the answer to your question sometimes. What happens in such a situation? A New Yorker might say, “Sorry, I have no idea.” But in Yucatan, Mexico, no one answers “I don't know.” People in Yucatan believe that “I don't know” is impolite. They usually give an answer, often a wrong one. A tourist can get very, very lost in Yucatan!

    The yearly Academy Awards ceremony was once a private affair. Now, because of television, it is very much a public affair. Hundreds of people gather in Hoolywood to see the Oscars presented to outstanding actors, and others involved（参与） in the motion picture industry. Millions more watch on the television.

    It all began on May 16, 1929, when 270 men and women sat down to dinner at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. There was no secret about the winners. The names of the winners had been known for months. Janet Gaynor, for example had won as Best Actress. Douglas Fairbanks presented her with the famous gold statue（塑像）. The little statue was not then called Oscar. Like a new actor, Oscar was unknown. About six years later, it somehow got that renowned name. A number of explanations have been offered for its origin(由来), but nobody knows the true story for certain.

    Nowadays the result of the Oscar voting are kept secret. Only two people know the winners before the names are announced at the ceremony. The counting of votes is not done by one group of people but by different groups. Nobody except two members of an accounting company sees the final results.

    The information is not kept in open files. Winners' names are placed in closed envelopes. The accountants each carry a complete set of envelopes to the ceremony. One set is simply a spare to be used in case something happens to the other one.

    Mandara seemed to know something big was about to happen. So she let out a yell, caught hold of her 2-year-old daughter Kibibi and climbed up into a tree. She lives at the National Zoo in Washington D. C.

    And on Tuesday, August 23rd, witnesses said she seemed to sense the big earthquake that shook much of the East Coast before any humans knew what was going on. And she's not the only one. In the moments before the quake, an orangutan（猩猩）let out a loud call and then climbed to the top of her shelter.

    “It's very different from their normal call,” said Brandie Smith, the zookeeper. “The lemurs（monkeylike animals of Madagascar）will sound an alarm if they see or hear something highly unusual.”

    But you can't see or hear an earthquake 15 minutes before it happens, can you? Maybe you can—if you're an animal. “Animals can hear above and below our range of hearing,” said Brandie Smith. “That's part of their special abilities. They're more sensitive to the environment, which is how they survive.”

    Primates weren't the only animals that seemed to sense the quake before it happened. One of the elephants made a warning sound. And a huge lizard（蜥蜴）ran quickly for cover. The flamingoes（a kind of birds）gathered before the quake and stayed together until the shaking stopped.

    So what kind of vibrations（震动）were the animals picking up in the moments before the quake? Scientist Susan Hough said earthquakes produce two types of waves—a weak “P” wave and then a much stronger “S” wave. The “P” stands for “primary”. And the “S” stands for “secondary”. She thinks the “P” wave might be what sets the animals off.

    Not all the animals behaved unusually before the quake. For example, Smith said the zoo's giant pandas didn't jump up until the shaking actually began. But many of the other animals seemed to know something was coming before it happened. “I'm not surprised at all,” Smith said.

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    MacDonald's will soon remove cheeseburgers and chocolate milk from its Happy Meal menu to set a good example in offering a healthy diet for kids at its restaurants.

    Customers can still ask for cheeseburgers or chocolate milk with kids' meal, but MacDonald's said that not listing them would make them less likely to be ordered. Since it removed soda from the menu four years ago, orders for it with the Happy Meal have fallen by 14%.

    As MacDonald's is known for getting more business from families with children, it is especially important for it to offer a healthy diet instead of junk food. And the Happy Meal is a key part of that. The Happy Meal has long been a target(目标) of health advocates(拥护) and parents who link it to childhood obesity(肥胖症). To get rid of its bad image, MacDonald's has made many changes on the Happy Meal over the years, including cutting the size of its fries and adding fruit.

    Recently, the company replaced its former apple juice with a new kind of juice that has less sugar. MacDonald's wants all its Happy Meal choices to have 600 calories or fewer. It also wants less than 10% of the meal calories to come from fat and added sugar. The cheeseburger and chocolate milk didn't meet those new standards. However, MacDonald's is trying to cut sugar from chocolate milk and believes it'll be back on the menu eventually.

    There will be other changes. For example, bottled water will be added as a choice to the menu, but it will cost extra. Currently, the Happy Meal menu lists milk, chocolate milk, and apple juice.

    For international restaurants, MacDonald's said that a least half of the Happy Meal choices available must meet the new standards. Some MacDonald's restaurants are adding new menu items to obey. For example, In Italy, a grilled chicken sandwich was added to the Happy Meal menu.