During the financial crisis, several of the country's biggest banks have been forced to sell or close. This has made lots of Americans afraid to buy expensive goods. 

    Samira Marino, a restaurant owner in Miami, has found everyone is ordering water instead of juice and more people are sharing meals.In more than two-dozen interviews with The Associated Press across the country last month，Americans talked about their concerns, from worries about small businesses to doubts about simply making ends meet. 

    The crisis began last year. Experts think it was because US banks lend money too easily. Last year a lot of people and companies,who borrowed money, have found themselves unable to pay it back. This left the banks, as well as the people who put their money in the banks, without money. Since the banks borrowed money between themselves and even across borders, the whole world was in trouble. 

    This month the US government agreed on a $700 billion plan to try to save the financial market. But no one is sure whether it will help or not. President George W. Bush has warned it will take some time.

  Last week top finance officials from 20 countries promised to work together to find a way out of the money trouble.

The US will have a new president this fall. Voters will decide between the Democratic candidate (候选人), Hillary Clinton, and Donald Trump of the Republicans.

But the voting is not a must for each person in the US. So quite a lot of people choose not to vote (投票), especially the young generation. According to Fox News, one-in-five young voters between the ages of 18 and 35 said clearly that they wouldn’t vote for either of the two candidates. Just 12 percent of voters aged 35-54, and only nine percent of voters aged 55 and older said the same thing.

This is not only because young people don’t like Clinton or Trump, according to the Fortune magazine. The truth is that they are traditionally less likely to vote than their parents.
“Young people are not at an age in their life when they think politics (政治) or government has anything to do with them,” said Rodd Freitag, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, US. “But for the older age groups, they have a home, they pay taxes (税), they care about schools and the community .”

Many believe that the civic (公民的) education of an American youth is another reason why they don’t vote.

Students usually just do community services like cleaning the neighborhoods. This means they haven’t learned how to link real life problems to politics through voting, according to Christopher Beem, a politics professor at the Pennsylvania State University. He said the country needs to help young people learn how to take part in politics and get them to see that they can make a difference.

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The 11th G20 summit was held in Hangzhou from Sept. 4 to 5.，2016.

Guards of honor of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) stand atXiaoshan International AirportinHangzhou, the capital of eastChina's Zhejiang Province, Sept. 2, 2016.

A pianist performs at the evening gala for the G20 Leaders Summit in Hangzhou, September 4, 2016. Produced by a team led by famed Chinese director Zhang Yimou, the evening gala is staged with the majestic West Lake as its background（背景）. It's based on Zhang's "Impression of West Lake" show, an astonishing performance that takes place right on the surface of the water, combining music, dance, and light effects all against a natural backdrop. [Photo/Xinhua]

Fireworks go off at the evening gala. [Photo/Xinhua]

Dancers perform Butterly Lovers on West Lake on Sunday night. [Photo/Xinhua]

A singer performs at the evening gala. [Photo/Xinhua]

It was the first time that Sneha had been alone at home. Her parents never left her alone even for an hour. But this time was different. Her grandfather suddenly fell ill and because she had to go to school the next morning, Sneha couldn’t leave with her parents.

Sneha’s mother was very worried while leaving. But Sneha told her that she would be fine and it was just for the night. In the morning, her aunt would come from another city.

Sneha was excited to be home alone at first. She spent the afternoon finishing her homework and then playing on the computer and later reading a magazine. But when it became dark, all her courage (勇气) was gone. She thought first she would sleep with the light on. But then she found she couldn’t get to sleep with the light shining on her face, so she turned it off.

Sneha lay on the bed and felt lonely. She began missing her parents. When she looked out the window, she started seeing all kinds of shapes in the darkness. She told herself they were just trees outside, but yet she was afraid.

Suddenly, she heard the noise in the hall. She was afraid at first, but finally she decided to go and see what was making the noise. She went into the hall and there was the noise once again. She quickly turned on the light and what she saw gave her a surprise. She saw her aunt coming in! She had a set of keys and arrived earlier than Sneha expected. Seeing her aunt made Sneha very happy and she ran to welcome her.

Before her mum came home, Sneha stayed with her aunt. She became brave enough to be alone if her aunt went out somewhere else.

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Close contacts（联系） between Japan and the rest of the world were created in the twentieth century. In the last forty years, business contacts between Japan and the West have become very important. Many foreign companies now have offices in Japan and Japanese businessmen do business around the world. Differences between Japanese and Western ways of doing business, however, often bewilder foreign businessmen and make doing business in Japan difficult for foreigners.

The American businessman, for example, wants to start talking business immediately. He does not want to wait. The Japanese businessman, on the other hand, likes to arrive at decisions after giving them serious thought. Another thing foreign businessmen have difficulty in understanding is when a Japanese means “Yes” or “No”. This is because of cultural differences between Japanese and Western society(社会), Which make it difficult for a Japanese to say “No” directly.

In the USA, it is easy to say “No” to something one does not want to do. But in Japan, it is very difficult to say “No”. To refuse an invitation or a request(请求) with “No” is felt to be impolite. It is thought to be selfish and unfriendly. So instead of saying “No” directly, the Japanese have developed many ways to avoid(避免) saying “No”. These can help them avoid hurting other people’s feelings. However, this often makes their ways of doing business rather difficult for foreigners to understand and follow.

You can plan your own hours and work when you want to. There is no more rush hour and no hours that people waste when they get to and from a job every day.

②The Fact   The fact is that this dream can be attained. You can stay at home，work when you want to and make money when you need to. There are plenty of opportunities for you to make money at home, just by using your computer and the Internet．

③Start Today!  Educate yourself，look closely into all the opportunities and decide on what works best for you. It will not happen during one night, but you can make the decision today and start to make it happen today.

④How Could You Do It? Do you have a blog（博客）or a personal website like millions of other people?  Are you using it to make money? Most of these blog and website owners are not. But you can do that!

⑤             When you have your computer and the Internet working for you, your businesses will be working for you 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You will make money while you sleep, travel or do whatever you want to do all day long．

⑥Get Going!  There are many ways you can make money with your computer. And you can begin your Stay – at – home businesses with just a little money. What are you waiting for ?

The European Union (EU) is like a wall. Some Eastern European countries like Albania want to get inside, while the UK is thinking about getting out.

On June 23 this year, people from the UK will vote (投票) and decide if the country will stay in the EU, the UK Prime Minister David Cameron said on Feb 19.

The EU is an organization in which its 28 member countries work together. But the UK has always kept away from getting too deeply into it. Now, 19 out of the 28 members use the same money: the euro (欧元), but the UK is not one of them. Also, some EU countries set up the Schengen(申根) area, so people in it can move freely without a visa (签证), just as we do between Chinese provinces. However, the UK chose not to join.

In recent years, the EU seems to be even less attractive to many British people. More and more foreign workers from other countries, especially those in Eastern Europe, go to Britain. And many British believe that it put a burden on the UK’s welfare (福利), reported the Daily Mail. Besides this, the country has always given money to the EU but gets less in return, according to The New York Times.

However, there are also people who want the UK to stay in the EU. They say it’s easier for the UK to sell things to other EU countries. The EU as a whole has a big say on the international stage, and leaving the EU would hurt the UK’s influence on the world. Leaders of other EU countries like Angela Merkel of Germany and Francois Hollande of France hope to keep the UK in the EU, too.

“We need to think carefully about what is best for Britain, what is best for our future,” said Cameron. And as each side has its own ideas, we may not know the result until June.

British people are famous for drinking tea. But brother and sister, Sahara and Bobby Green, became young millionaires when they opened a chain of American-style coffee shops in the U.K.

Having the idea: It started when Sahara took a weekend trip to New York to visit her brother Bobby. One evening, in a Thai restaurant, Sahara told Bobby how much she wished she could buy American-style coffee in London. Bobby suggested they start their own coffee shop. Sahara fell in love with the idea.

Doing the Research: Back in London, she spent a whole day on the London subway, getting off the train at different stations to taste the coffee. “It was terrible, and I knew there was a gap in the market.” In November 1995, they opened their first Coffee Republic shop in central London.

Making it work: The first year was very difficult. There were problems finding and keeping staff, and British people were not used to the names of American coffees, like latte and machination. But being successful was their dream and they were not going to give up. Today, there are over 100 Coffee Republic shops all over the country and the company has revenues(收入) of ￡30 million a year.

Advice for others: Sahara has now written a best-selling book about their experience, called Anyone Can Do It! She hopes it will help other young people to start their own businesses. She believes success is 1% idea and 99% hard work, but she says, "If you think you have the energy, then get out and follow your dream."

   In today’s world many people seem to be hungry for money．Some of them even lose their lives for it．Money does have its most useful effect on the poor，but once a person has a rich life，a lot more money doesn’t mean more happiness．

    If money was everything，all millionaires(百万富翁)would have true love，true friendship，good health and a long life．However，this is not always true．

    Nothing else is more pleasant than the three words which are”I love you” But can love be bought?I’m afraid not．Love means to give，not to take．To every person，health and a long life are probably the most precious(宝贵的)things．Well，can health and a long life be bought with money? The answer is“No”．

     Of all the longest living people in the world，few of them are millionaires．True friendship can’t be bought either．In a word，where money is worshiped(崇拜)，money can cause brothers to quarrel，lovers to hate，strangers to fight and so on．No matter how much money you have，it is still not enough to make you a happy person if you have no one to laugh with，no one to cry for．