Dear Coach，

    I have been out of work for almost six months now and things are starting to get very tough for me. I am practically living out of my savings. I have been looking for a job, but things are really bad and 1 cannot find a single person who wants to hire me. I know that the main problem is that I do not have a degree. I want to go back to school and get my degree, but I also need a job now. I owe money to some people who have been helping me. Because I am out of work，I cannot pay them back. What do you think 1 should do? I need to find a job as quickly as possible, and want to know what else to do to get people to give me a chance to work for them.

The Unemployed

Dear Unemployed，

   Before you get  yourself   in a really bad situation, you need to stop borrowing     money from people. If you continue doing that, you will be deep in debts and the situation will get even worse for you. The next thing you need to do is look for a job depending on your abilities, skills, and experience. By doing that, you will be increasing your chances of finding a job     that suitsyou best. And the last thing I will suggest is that you should stop feeling sorry for yourself and continue working hard to get a job that you need. Borrowing money, complaining, and feeling bad for your situation will  do no good to you.  Stay strong and get  out there and start showing the world what you can offer. I promise if you work hard and never give up, you will soon find the job that you are looking for. And while you are doing it, thing about getting your degree as well because it will help you to become more challenging. Try those tips.

The Coach

A home school is a school in which parents educate their children at home instead of sending them out to a public or private school. Home schooling is legal throughout Europe, Australia, New Zealand, North America, Hong Kong, and South Africa. Home schooling is most popular in Canada, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Home schooling is legally accepted in all 50 states of the US, but each state has its own laws about it. Currently, it is estimated that over one million families teach their children at home. Most of these families include a breadwinner and a stay-at-home parent who does most of the teaching, although there are single parent families and double career families.

Home schooling education models range from unschooling to traditional classroom schooling. Unschooling is based on interest-based learning in which the child expresses interest in a particular subject, and the parents take steps to provide the materials for that subject.

In some places, the home school group shares in hiring a professional teacher to teach a particular subject. The group may also arrange field trips and sports activities with local private schools. These activities are intended to provide social skills for the students.

Home school families take advantage of technology and the Internet to supplement (补充) traditional teaching. Some home school families enroll (注册) their children in an online school or course as a supplement to their own teaching.

Some home school families teach their children through high school graduation. Others teach their children until they feel they are mature (成熟) enough to live independently.

 In America colleges do recognize a home school diploma (文凭) , but most are more interested in high school transcripts（成绩报告单） and SAT and ACT scores. There are currently over 800 colleges that accept home-schooled graduates including Harvard, Yale, and Stanford.

If you visited your Qzone, Youku.com or other social media websites recently, you might have thought that some famous people and even some of your friends had gone mad.

They took buckets(桶) of icy water and poured them over their heads. They recorded the process, and even asked you to join them!

Welcome to the Ice Bucket Challenge. The challenge is simple: When challenged, one either pours a bucket of icy water over his or her head or donates $100 to the ALS(肌萎缩侧索硬化) Organization. He or she can do both, of course.

As the challenge has got more and more popular, however, I think that it has lost its real meaning. The activity’s initial(最初的) purpose was to make more people pay attention to ALS and donate money for scientists to treat the disease. However, the videos have caught people’s attention too far from the real purpose of the activity. Many people did it just for fun or to follow the trend(潮流). They didn’t even know what ALS was, let alone donate money to the charity.

Some people even tried hard to take the challenge in a funny way. They didn’t know how bad the ALS patients would feel if they watched those videos.

At the same time, the world is facing another challenge — the water crisis(危机). According to The Washington Post, the Ice Bucket Challenge had already used over 5 million gallons (14 million liters) of water by August, which put the world’s freshwater reserves(储存) under a lot of pressure.

In short, the Ice Bucket Challenge has changed from a good thing to a show. ALS patients need our kindness, help and respect. We should do something to help them.

 Do you like shopping? Or does the thought of wandering round the shops fill you with terror? For some of us，shopping is an enjoyable way of spending our spare time and our money. For me, itˈs something I would rather avoid．Thank goodness for the Internet! Itˈs more convenient to buy CDs，electrical items，even food，from the comfort of your sofa．But that’s not the only reason：price is an important factor．We can buy goods and services cheaper online. But sometimes the problem is knowing what to buy．This has led to a type of shopping called “showrooming”．

Showrooming is something Iˈve done．I will go to a shop to see，touch and try out products but then go home and buy them online at a knock—down price．Iˈm not alone in doing this．Research by a company called Foolproof，found 24％of people showroomed while Christmas shopping in 2013．

 Amy Cashman，Head of Technology at TNS UK，says the reasons for this new shopping habit are that“people are lacking time，lacking money and they want security about the products they are buying．”She explains that consumers are not only shopping online at home but they are using the Internet in store or on their smart phones to shop around．

 But does this mean technology will kill shops? Certainly shops will change．They will have to offer more competitive prices or encourage people to buy more by giving in—store discounts or free girls．

 We mustn’t forget that buying in a shop means you can get expert advice from the sales assistant and you can get good aftercare．It’s good to speak to a real human rather than look at a faceless computer screen but at least by showrooming，you get the best of both worlds!

A

Dear Santa Claus,

    My name is Amy. I am 9 years old. I have a problem at school. Can you help me, Santa? Kids laugh at me because of the way I walk and run and talk. I have cerebral palsy. I just want one day when no one laughs at me or makes fun of me.

                                                                                                                                                                                     Love,

                                                                                                                                                                                     Amy

    At radio station WJLT in Fort Wayne, Indiana, letters poured in for the Christmas Wish Contest. When Amy’s letter arrived at the radio station, manager Lee Tobin read it carefully.  He thought it would be good for the people in Fort Wayne to hear about this special third grader and her unusual wish. Mr. Tobin called up the local newspaper.

    The next day, a picture of Amy and her letter to Santa made the front page of the “News Sentinel”. The story spread quickly. All across the country, newspapers and radio and television stations reported the story of the little girl in Fort Wayne, Indiana, who asked for such a simple, yet remarkable, Christmas gift—just one day without teasing.

    Suddenly the postman was a regular at the Hagadorn house. Envelopes of all sizes addressed to Amy arrived daily from children and adults all across the nation. They came filled with holiday greetings and words of encouragement. Some of the writers had disabilities; some had been teased as children. Each writer had a special message for Amy. Through the cards and letters from strangers, Amy glimpsed a world full of people who truly cared about each other.

    Many people thanked Amy for being brave enough to speak up. Others encouraged her to ignore teasing and to carry her head high.

    Amy did get her wish of a special day without teasing at South Wayne High School. Teachers and students talked together about how bad teasing can make others feel.

    That year, the Fort Wayne mayor officially proclaimed December 21st as Amy Jo Hagadorn Day throughout the city. The mayor explained that by daring to make such a simple wish, Amy taught a universal lesson. “Everyone,” said the mayor, “wants and deserves to be treated with respect, dignity and warmth.”

How many men do housework? Recently a European commission(委员会) tried to find out people’s ideas and reactions to the women’s movement. As part of their survey(调查), they asked many men and women the question, “Who does the housework?” The men answered very differently from the women!

The housework they asked people about was: preparing meals, washing dishes, cleaning the house and babysitting. 48% of British husbands said they did these things. 37% of Danish(丹麦的) men helped in the house. But only 15% of Italian men said they did the housework; many of them said they never helped at all! 

But there was an interesting point of view from the wives. According to British wives, only 38% of their husbands helped in the house. And Italian wives said that their husbands hardly ever helped. The Italian and British men did not tell the truth! The Commission found that Danish men were the most truthful husbands; their answers were the same as their wives’ answers. 

Do the men you know help in the house? Do you think the survey gives a true picture in your experience? Write and tell us what you think. 

Each nation has many good people who help to take care of others. For example, some high school and college students in the United States often spend many hours as volunteers in hospitals, orphanages or homes for the aged. They read books to the people in these places, or they just visit them or listen to their problems. Other young volunteers go and work in the homes of people who are sick or disabled. They paint, clean up, or repair houses, do their shopping and mow their lawns(修整草坪).

  For boys who no longer have fathers, there is an organization called Big Brothers. College students and other men take these boys to basketball games or on fishing trips and help them to get to know things that boys usually learn from their fathers.

  Such city has a number of clubs where boys and girls can go to play games or learn crafts. Some of these clubs show movies or organize short trips to the mountains, the beaches, museums or other places. Most of these clubs use a lot of high school and college students as volunteers. They are young enough to remember the problems of younger boys and girls.

  Volunteers believe that some of the happiest people in the world are those who help to bring happiness to others.

B

All you need to participate in home exchange is a house! You don't need to compare values of the houses or search for a swapping (交换) partner in the case of a home similar to yours. It just requires identifying a home where you and your family can stay comfortably in the place you wish to visit. You need to search for a person or a family with whom you would be comfortable exchanging your home with，for a short period of time. In home exchange，you would be taking care of other people's home，as well as enjoying the country while they would be doing the same from your home.

People who have traveled a lot would know that the most expensive part of traveling is paying hotel bills. In many cases，vacations cannot last for long mainly because of the high accommodation (住房) expenses. Holiday home exchange is one of the most simple and intelligent ways to cut down an accommodation expenses. It is an equal trade for both the families and enables both to enjoy the advantages of a home while traveling to another country.

Home exchanges have become very popular in major cities in the United Kingdom as it allows you to benefit from time-share. Mostly, people participating in home exchanges prefer to involve their friends or neighbors to entertain their visitors, by providing the home exchange visitors with information regarding the local sightseeing attractions. Many families with children try to swap houses with families who have children of the similar age group. It saves time and energy that is often exhausted in carrying around a number of toys and equipment. The individual traveler often finds house swapping a great way of relaxing in the comforts of a home after a tiring day of sightseeing and can spend more time to get to know the area better.

People in Hong Kong speak a rich mixture of languages. English was the only official language until 1994. Most people in Hong Kong today speak Cantonese, but Mandarin and other dialects (方言) are also heard, and English as the British used is still widely spoken and taught here. Now however, many people are choosing to learn English which is spoken in the United States.

Victor Chan, for example, has children who attend school called Nature EQ on Saturday and Sunday, and they are learning to say words in American way. Mr. Chan says he wants his sons to learn American English because he plans to send them to the United States for further study.

Nature EQ is one of a growing number of schools in Hong Kong that offer American English classes. Frankie Ng opened the school 17 years ago. At that time, he had only 40 students. Today, the school has 350 students and does not have space for any more.

Mr. Ng says American English is clear and is easy to teach and easily understood. That is not the main concern of the children. Student Sam Yu has another reason for studying American English. Sam Yu said, “I think American English is getting more and more important, and it may take over British English, so I’m willing to learn it.” Public schools here still teach mostly British English. But the number of private language schools teaching American English is growing.

Some observers say American English is becoming the language of international business. Increased contact with American culture, like movies, television programs, computer games and the Internet is spreading American expressions and accents in different areas.