Two of the saddest words in the English language are "if only". I live my life with the goal of never having to say those words, because they convey regret, lost opportunities, mistakes, and disappointment.

    My father is famous in our family for saying, "Take the extra minute to do it right." I always try to live by the "extra minute" rule. When my children were young and likely to cause accidents, I always thought about what I could do to avoid an "if only" moment, whether it was something minor like moving a cup full of hot coffee away from the edge of a counter, or something that required a little more work such as taping padding (衬垫) onto the sharp corners of a glass coffee table.

    I don't only avoid those "if only" moments when it comes to safety. It's equally important to avoid "if only" in our personal relationships. We all know people who lost a loved one and regretted that they had foregone an opportunity to say "I love you" or "I forgive you." When my father announced he was going to the eye doctor across from my office on Good Friday, I told him that it was a holiday for my company and I wouldn't be here. But then I thought about the fact that he's 84 years old and I realized that I shouldn't give up an opportunity to see him. I called him and told him I had decided to go to work on my day off after all.

    I know there will still be occasions when I have to say "if only" about something, but my life is definitely better because of my policy of doing everything possible to avoid that eventuality. And even though it takes an extra minute to do something right, or it occasionally takes an hour or two in my busy schedule to make a personal connection, I know that I'm doing the right thing. I'm buying myself peace of mind and that's the best kind of insurance for my emotional well-being.

    “I would say, no matter what people tell you, anything can happen.” That's the message Internet singer Austin Mahone says at We Day, an event for young people in Canada.

    When he was 14，Austin and a friend began uploading pop songs to musical websites.“I was just doing it because we had nothing to do, living in a small town.”

    “I'd check different websites for the hottest songs, and I'd record my own videos,” he explains. “That's how people began to find me online.”His videos got millions of hits and he signed with a record company. The result was the release of Austin's first album, Junior Year. While it seems like a sudden rise for the teenager, Austin admits the early days were not always fun. He says a lot of people thought badly of him for posting his videos online. Yet this didn't put him off.“I kept working hard. ”And the hits on his videos kept coming.

    Austin's achievement and spirit make him a perfect fit for the message of We Day. After all, Free the Children, the creator of the event, was founded to “enable youth to make changes.” Even Austin's unusual rise by way of the Internet fits with the way Free The children works and raises money.

    Because of Austin, his four million followers will learn about Free the Children. While Austin's presence certainly helps We Day, it's good for him, too. Austin gets to show himself as someone who volunteers his time and talent for a worthy cause and show that he cares about making the world a better place.

    Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May joined the opening ceremony of the 2018 “English is GREAT” activity, which aims to support and encourage more people across China to learn to speak English, during her visit to Wuhan University in Central China's Hubei province, Jan 31.

    Started by the British Council, the UK's international organization for cultural relations and educational opportunities, this year-long activity sets out to improve fluency in spoken English in particular.

    Prize-winning online competition

    The activity also marked the start of an online competition, “My Favorite English Word”. You can join by simply posting your word of choice on the China Daily app. The most popular words will be included in a draw to win a variety of prizes, including Kindle, Polaroid camera and Bluetooth speaker. To participate, click here.

    English Teacher Award

    The activity establishes an English Teacher Award to recognise excellence in teaching among Chinese non-native teachers of English. Nominations(提名) will be made by students and English teachers.

    In order to recognise more inspiring teachers, monthly prizes will be presented and the winner of the grand final award will be announced later in the year. The winner will have the opportunity to take a four-week study trip to the UK—supported by the International House London.

    Throughout the activity, the “English is GREAT” website will provide access to free online resources and all kinds of materials for English learners of all levels.

    UK-Mandarin (Standard Chinese) Excellence Program

    The “English is GREAT” activity will reply to the UK-Mandarin Excellence Program, started in 2016, which aims to have 5,000 secondary school pupils in the UK fluent in Mandarin by 2020.

    Farah was sitting in the kitchen going over the party list with her mother. The exams were over and Farah wanted to invite her friends for a party.

    "Farah, aren't you going to invite Hafsa?" her mother asked. Hafsa had been her best friend since childhood.

    "Mother, you know I am now a part of Purple Girls Club and we have some rules about people we can be friends with," Farah answered.

    "Really? And what are the rules?" her mother asked.

    "Well, only very pretty girls can be part of our group. And Hafsa is so...you know...dark."

    "I cannot believe it," her mother said angrily.

    As Farah left the kitchen, her father called her from the living room. Farah went to her father and paled when she saw the exam report in his hands. "Farah, what has happened to your grades? You have failed in Mathematics," her father said. Farah had no answer. The truth was that the activities of Purple Girls Club left her with very little time for studies. "Farah, it says that you can take part in supplementary exams(补考). If your grades don't improve then, I'll cancel(取消) your trip to Spain." Farah went to her room and called Gina, the leader of Purple Girls Club, "Gina, can you help me to complete my notes before the exams?" Gina laughed. "Exams? Who cares about exams?"

    One by one, she called her friends in the club but no one seemed to care or wanted to help. Farah knew Hafsa would help her. Farah also knew Hafsa had been hurt by her, but Hafsa said, "If you need any help, just let me know. We can study together till your exams." Next Monday, as two friends entered the school together, Gina called out. "Farah, you know our rules. You cannot be friends with those who do not belong to our club."

    "Gina, I have a new rule about friendship," Farah replied.

    Stay-at-home kids are named “generation nini” in Spain. They are those adults who still live at home and are neither working nor studying. But the problem is not limited to Spain. It is a worldwide problem.

    In Italy, they are known as “bamboccioni” or big babies. There are nearly 60 percent of 18-34-year-old adults still living in their parents' home, up from almost 50 percent since 1983. Once kept there by the love for their mama's home-cooked food, the economic crisis(经济危机)has seen a rise in adults left unable to hold down a steady job or afford a home of their own. Last year, an Italian government minister admitted that his mother washed his clothes and made the bed for him until he was 30. He demanded a law forcing young Italians to leave their parents' home at 18 to stop them becoming hopelessly dependent on their parents.

In the UK, the government has made the term NEETS—not in employment, education or training for these children. In England alone the percent of NEETS aged 19-24 surged to 18.8 percent of the age group-in the last quarter of 2010, up 1.4 percent on the same period a year before. The number of British men in their 20s living with their parents has risen from 59 percent to 80 percent in the past 15 years, while the number of women has risen from 41percent to 50 percent. The average age of the first-time house buyers is now 38.

    In the US, the problem is known as the “full nest syndrome(综合症)”. Adults there are left struggling to support adult children who have stayed at home with student debts and facing few job opportunities in a weak economy. A recent study showed almost a third of American adults aged 34 and under are living with their parents

Senses That Work Together

    When we think about how our senses work, we usually imagine them operating separately: you sniff a flower, and the smell is delivered uninterrupted from nose to brain. However, it's more complex than that. Most evidence for cross modal perception (知觉) comes from studies into sound and vision (视觉). But research that shows other senses crossing over is coming out all the time, and it seems that even sound and smell sometimes form an unlikely pairing.

    When New York researchers, Daniel Wesson and Donald Wilson, tried to find out the truth about a "mysterious” area of the brain called the olfactory tubercle, they had to deal with this fact. Originally, they only intended to measure how olfactory tubercle cells in mice responded to smell. But during testing, Wesson noticed that every time he put his coffee cup down, the mouse cells jumped in activity. In fact, the olfactory tubercle is well-placed to receive both smell and sound information from the outside world. Later they found that among separate cells, most responded to a smell but a significant number were also active when a sound was made. Some cells even behaved differently when smell and sound were presented together, by increasing or decreasing their activity.

    Of course, mice aren't people, so research team has been carrying out further experiments. They pulled together a group of people and gave them various drinks to smell. Participants were asked to sniff the drinks, and then match them to appropriate musical instruments and produce the notes at different levels. The results were interesting: piano was regularly paired with fruity fragrances; strong smells sounded like the instruments that are made of metal.

    Further research found that listening to different sounds can change your perceptions. Studying taste this time, the team ordered some special toffee (太妃糖) and put together “soundscapes” corresponding to bitterness and sweetness. Participants tasted similar pieces of toffee while listening to each soundscape, and found the toffee more bitter or sweeter, depending on which soundrack they were listening to.

    Studies like this are helping scientists correctly describe our understanding of the senses, and how the brain combines them with its advantage. The consequences are worth considering. Could we see musicians work together with chefs to produce sound-improved food and drink? Will you be ordering a coffee with a soundrack to bring out your favorite smell? Come to think of it, that could be one thing you hope coffee shop chains don't get round to.