Is there a magic cutoff period when offspring become accountable for their own actions? Is there a wonderful moment when parents can become spectators (旁观者) in the lives of their children and shrug, "It' s their life," and feel nothing?

    When I was in my twenties, I stood in a hospital corridor waiting for doctors to put a few stitches in my son's head. I was asked, "When do you stop worrying?" A nurse said, "When they get out of the accident stage." My mother just smiled faintly and said nothing.

    When I was in my thirties, I sat on a little chair in a classroom and heard how one of my children talked incessantly, disrupted (打断) the class, and was headed for a career making license plates. As if to read my mind, a teacher said, "Don't worry. They all go through this stage, and then you can sit back, relax, and enjoy them." My mother listened and said nothing.

    When I was in my forties, I spent a lifetime waiting for the phone to ring and the cars to come home, the front door to open.

    My friends said that when my kids got married I could stop worrying and lead my own life. I wanted to believe that, but I was haunted by my mother' s wan ( 淡淡的 ) smile and her occasional words, "You look pale. Are you all right? Call me the minute you get home."

    Can it be that parents are sentenced to a lifetime of worry? Is concern for one another handed down like a torch to blaze the trail of human frailties and the fears of the unknown? Is concern a curse? Or is it a virtue that elevates us to the highest form of life?

    One of my children became quite irritable recently, saying to me, "Where were you? I've been calling for three days, and no one answered. I was worried!!!"

    I smiled a wan smile.

    Many English learners have difficulty deciding what kind of English accent they want to have. A US accent, perhaps imitates(模仿) a Hollywood star speaker? Or maybe you want to imitate the British accent of a BBC news reader?

    Young British people find the US accent attractive while young US people like a British accent. Especially when the person speaking is of the opposite sex(异性)! Let's listen to what they have to say.

    Stephen Yang, 17, from London, UK

    A US accent is cute, especially when a girl speaks it. Whether it's Jessia Alba speaking or the girl-next-door, the way US girls speak has a sweet tingle(感觉) that is really fashionable. A girl from Texas recently moved into our neighborhood. Her Texan twang(鼻音) had all the boys here on their knees within seconds of meeting her.

    To me, accents reflect the attitudes, characteristics(特征) and lifestyles of the people.

    Jennifer Sun, 16, from New Jersey, US

    From watching English actors like Daniel Radcliffe, my friends and I have developed a soft spot(好感) for British men. Some are attracted to the qualities of English males, while others admire their sense of style.

    Everyone, however, agrees that the most appealing aspect of an English man is his accent. For example, many American girls watch Harry Potter movies over and over again just to listen to the actors speak.

    The English accent seems almost like art.

    Antarctica, with its seemingly endless icy beauty, is one place where one look is worth a thousand words. My own dream to see it came true last January when I joined the sixth exploration crew(考查队) of the China National Marine Bureau. We spent 10 days connecting flights to reach our goal, but finally arrived at the Great Wall Station on Antarctica on the eve of Chinese New Year.

    There are only two seasons in Antarctica: winter and summer. You get polar nights in winter and polar days in summer. Day is longer than night in summer, and the temperature often reaches below zero. Luckily, there are no snowstorms in summer, which makes it the best season to travel. What I imagined before starting for Antarctica was a world of ice, storms, endless cold and loneliness. When I stopped on Antarctica for the first time, however, I saw rich, energetic and beautiful scenery that was beyond anything I had imagined.

    We only spent 11 days at the South Pole, but every minute was spent taking pictures and losing our heart to the wonderland. Beauty enveloped us as we watched the world around us. The mountains, oceans, ice, snow, sky, earth and people all seemed to have their own stories.

    Rocks from Antarctica are considered valuable. Unfortunately, I didn't bring one back. However, my heavy bags full of films are certainly worth that. It is in these pictures that the true Antarctica comes alive.

    Earlier this month, 6-year-old Isaac went on vacation to Fort Walton, Florida, with his family. While they were there, his mother Garrett learned about LuLu, a restaurant that offers food to customers with food allergies(过敏).

    At LuLu, Isaac could eat a salad and a bowl of chicken soup with rice. "Isaac looked at me as if asking, 'Is this OK?' " Garrett said. Once his mom gave the OK, Isaac enjoyed for the first time the experience of eating at a restaurant. "That look on his face was like, 'This is the coolest thing I've ever done,' " Garrett added.

    Garrett and her family rarely eat out because of Isaac's food allergies. When they do, she cooks something for Isaac at home before they leave and brings it with her to the restaurant. "It's not fun and it feels unfair," she said.

    Their night at LuLu marked a celebration for Isaac. Garrett shared the moment on the restaurant's Facebook page. "Thank you from the bottom of my heart for giving Isaac this wonderful experience," she wrote in her post.

    Barnett, the restaurant's manager, said, "When customers tell the staff that someone in their group has a food allergy, I assist with the order by passing it to the kitchen, ensuring it's cooked in a separate station and delivering the finished food to the guests. We have been improving this process over the past ten years since our allergy program was started."

    On Garrett's Facebook post, LuLu thanked Garrett for sharing her story. "Thank you for sharing your experience with us," the restaurant wrote in a comment, "We are excited to see your son so happy!"

    Garrett is hoping her post's popularity will convince other restaurants to be more considerate. "LuLu takes it seriously as we take it – nothing could make us happier than that," she said.

    I'd like to share a little story with you about something that happened when I was four. I remember it clearly. Our loving family dog was nearing the end of his life. My father picked him up and put him in a little bed we had made for him. Our dog, my companion, whom we had cared for, bit my father when he attempted to help him. How could he? Why? I couldn't understand it. I didn't like him anymore.

    I hadn't thought about that story for a long time but something that happened last week brought it back to me. I went to speak with a friend. When I knocked on the door, I met in an instant an angry look and a few harsh(尖刻的)words. When the door was slammed(砰地关上)in my face, I stood there shocked, and in a rush, I was reminded of my dog bit my father 20 years ago or so. What brought that story back was that same feeling of betrayal.

    Both stories taught me something the next day. You see, when I got up in the morning and was told my dog had died, it became clear to me that he must have been in great pain. For him to have bitten a family member, he could not have been himself. Much the same for the other story when I learned that my friend's wife had just left him.

    We are all beings of our environments, our opinions and feelings. And all of those things can cause you to say and do things that can't be understood by those who are not in the same situation with you.

    If you meet someone either behaving out of character or acting in a way that doesn't seem to fit the situation, put out your hand and be patient when you think it is least possible for him to do so. You may turn around a story that has a sad ending simply by your actions.

China's marriage-age population base staying stable

（文章来源：Global Times）

The number of marriage registrations on May 20 this year made headlines over the weekend, despite declines in a few places compared with last year. The number of couples getting married will remain stable in the coming years, based on the huge population base in China, a Chinese demographic(人口统计学的) expert said. 

May 20 has become a popular date for marriage registration among Chinese young people, as "520" is pronounced like "I love you" in Chinese, boosting sales of related products and services such as wedding banquets, roses and hotel bookings. Many Chinese newlyweds reportedly lined up overnight outside marriage registration offices to tie the knot, according to media reports. Including Beijing, Shanghai and South China's Guangdong Province, local civil affairs bureaus in multiple places on Sunday announced the number of marriages on Saturday. 

A total of4,087 couples registered their marriages in Beijing, 2,097 couples tied the knot in Shanghai, 16,000 couples married in Southwest China's Sichuan Province and 11,156 couples were registered in East China's Jiangsu Province, along with 7,155 couples in Southwest China's Yunnan Province, 6,873 couples in Southwest China's Guizhou, 6,270 couples in East China's Fujian Province, 1,195 couples in Northwest China's Qinghai Province, and as many as 12,450 couples in Guangdong. 

Experts pointed out that the number of marriage registrations on a specific day can be affected by multiplefactors such as the connotation of the date, the population base of young people of marriageable age and people's general willingness to get married. According to the National Bureau of Statistics and the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the number of marriages is declining but will still remain stable in the next few years, with a major turning point after 2035, Song Jian, a demographer from the Center for Population and Development Studies of the Renmin University of China, told the Global Times on Sunday. 

China's population base of marriage-age people will remain stable in the next few years, Song said. Although the rate of young people being unwilling to marry is on the rise, the proportion of people who never marry remains below 10 percent. "Statistics show that most Chinese people will eventually get married, but they are just putting off marriage," Song said. Compared with last year, marriage registrations in several places, including Jiangsu, Guangdong, Sichuan and Fujian fell sharply this year, which Song noted may be a result of the COVID-19 epidemic, which obstructed(阻碍) personnel flows and communication over the past two years, but the number on a specific date does not mean an overall decline of people getting married. 

Although May 20 this year fell on Saturday, some civil affairs authoritiesannounced to work 48 hours non-stop over the weekend , considering that most couples would like to choose an auspicious date to get married, since May 21, the traditional Chinese solar term Xiaoman (grain buds), was also an auspicious date according to the Chinese lunar calendar. A staffer from the marriage registration office of the civil affairs department in Rencheng district in Jining noted that the number of couples who got married over the weekend reached 400 as of Sunday afternoon, an obvious increase from 250 on May 20 last year. 

"Many newlyweds gave us a thumbs-up for our service and sacrifice, and we feel honored to satisfy those young people with our service and promote young people's willingness to get married," the staffer told the Global Times on Sunday. China's State Council approved the expansionof an inter-provincial marriage registration pilot program to 21 provincial-level regions across the country last week, a latest move to promote long-term and balanced population development, which is particularly appreciated by the migrant population, who no longer need to return to their hometowns to register their marriages. 

In the province of Guangdong, 1,813 couples have accomplished their inter-provincial marriage registration soon after the pilot program was approved. In Dong'ao village in Fujian, the place on the Chinese mainland closest to the island of Taiwan, 21 couples from Fujian and Taiwan participated a group wedding ceremony on Saturday, which is expected to promote cross-Straits affection and people-to-people exchanges through their small families.