When I was a kid in Minnesota, watermelon was expensive. One of my father's friends, Bernie, was a rich businessman, who owned a large store in St. Paul.

    Every summer, when the first watermelon arrived, Bernie would call. Dad and I would go to Bernie's place. We'd sit on the edge of the dock (码头), feet dangling (摇晃), and got ready for a big meal.

    Bernie would take his knife, cut our first watermelon, hand us both a big piece and sit down next to us. Then we'd bury our faces in watermelon, eating only the heart—the reddest, juiciest, firmest, sweetest, most seed-free part—and throw away the rest.

    Bernie was my father's ideal of a rich man. I always thought it was because he was such a successful businessman. Years later, I realized that it was not Bernie's wealth itself but his way of dealing with it that my father liked. Bernie knew how to stop working, get together with friends and eatonly the heart of the watermelon.

    What I learned from Bernie is that being rich is a state of mind. Some of us, no matter how much money we have, will never be free enough to eat only the heart of the watermelon. If you don't take the time to dangle(悬荡) your feet over the dock and enjoy life's small pleasure, your work is probably hurting your life.

    For many years, I forgot that lesson I'd learned as a kid on the loading dock. I was too busy making all the money I could.

    Well, I've relearned it. I hope I have time left to enjoy the success of others and to take pleasure in the day. That's the heart of the watermelon. I have learned again to throw the rest away.

Since May 12, a computer virus named WannaCry has infected（感染）more than 300,000 computers in over 150 countries, according to Reuters.

WannaCry is spread by using a weakness in Microsoft’s Windows operating system. Once the virus gets into the computer, it locks all the papers and asks the user for money to unlock them. At first, it asks for $300, but if the user doesn’t send the money in 72 hours, the price doubled, Papers are locked forever if the user doesn’t pay in seven days.

The virus has brought bad results. For example, in the UK, the virus left the country’s National Health Service in a mess. Some hospitals had to cancel patient appointments（预约）, reported The Telegraph. In China, the virus has hit thousands of computers, according to Qihoo 360. One of the most hard-hit groups in China were university users. Many students’ graduation papers were locked. They felt nervous and frightened. Also many gas stations were seriously hit, and the payment system didn’t work.

WanaCry is the latest example of the cyber security（网络安全）problem. Matthew Hickey(who set up the security company Hacker House) said, “The attack is not surprising. It shows that many organizations do not use updates（更新）fast enough.” According to a survey, nearly half of the people said, “ We are not satisfied with the way software updates work.”

As China Daily wrote, “We can’t completely protect our computers against these kinds of viruses, as this cat and mouse game will continue forever. The best choice for most users is to take care online and always install（安装）software updates.”

Once upon a time, a fox was walking along a road. He saw some beautiful grapes hanging over a high wall. He stopped to look at the grapes. They looked nice to eat .The fox wanted to eat the grapes very much, but he cou1d’t reach them. So he jumped as high as he could. Sometimes his nose touched a grape, but his mouth could not reach it. The fox jumped and jumped until he was very tired．

    Finally he stopped jumping and walked away with his nose held high. He said, “I don't need those grapes. They look nice but I'm sure they are sour.”

    In our daily life, when people can't get something they want, they may say, “The grapes are sour.”

New York is 3 hours ahead of California, but it does not make California slow, or that New York is fast. Both are working based on their own “ Time Zone”（时区）.

Someone graduated at the age of 22, yet waited 5 years before finding a good job! And there is another who graduated at 27 and got hired immediately!

Someone became a CEO at 25, and died at 50.While another became a CEO at 50, and lived to 90 years.

Someone is still single, while someone else got married and waited 10 years having a child. There is another who had a baby within a year of marriage.

Obama retires(退休) at 55, but Trump starts at 70.

Absolutely everyone in this world works based on their Time Zone. People can have things worked out only according to their pace. (步调)

People around you might seem to go ahead of you; some might seem to be behind you. But everyone is running their own race, in their own time.

Don’t envy them or laugh at them. They are in their TIME ZONE, and you are in yours!

Life is about waiting for the right moment to act. Hold on, be strong, and stay true to yourself .Fight in your time zone.

So, RELAX. You’re not LATE. You’re not EARLY. You are very much ON TIME , and in your time zone destiny set up for you.

Should Shanghai bid for (申办) the Summer Olympics in 2028? Here are some peopleˈs opinions.

     Some  people  said,  " The  games  will improve Shanghaiˈs global influence and the city is powerful and must try to become a platform (平台) for major international dialogues. Shanghai has succeeded in holding the World Expo in 2010 and the city can also hold the successful Summer Olympics. "

    Others, however, are not sure that itˈs a good idea They think the Olympics would be too expensive and the money could be better spent on other things.

     The 2008 Beijing Olympics brought much prestige (声望) to the city and to China, but its cost, over $ 40 million, was high and the Olympic site(场地) in the center of the city is now largely unused,  Could Shanghai learn from Beijingˈs experience and do it better?

      My answer is yes. As one American said, "A great city has to do great things. " Shanghai is a great city and is not afraid of facing challenges. Holding the 2028 Summer Olympics would prove that.

In the eyes of many foreigners, Chinese are the best hosts (主人) and the worst guests in the world. They’re not really bad guests, but because the guest-host relationship in China is much different than in some western counties, it appears they are not nice guests. And western guests sometimes look rude (粗鲁的) in the eyes of Chinese guests.

   In China, guests are almost like gods. Whenever I enter a Chinese person’s home, there is always fruit on the table for me, and someone is quick to bring me a cup of tea or water. In the west, generally the guest is not a god. Acting according to the host’s way of doing things is usual behavior for a guest.

   My wife’s mother, a very kind elderly Chinese lady, doesn’t smoke. When I see some of her guests smoking in her house, as a non-smoker, I feel unhappy. Usually I want to stop them directly, but I must realize that in China, to be a good host, she must not do that. In most North America homes, if you are a guest, and the hosts are not smokers, you should not smoke in their house. At the very least, you could ask, “Is it OK if I smoke?” “But, don’t besurprised if they say, “No, you can’t smoke.” In our culture, if you smoke in their home, you are a bad guest, but if they don’t allow you to smoke in their house, they are not a rude guest.

   Guests in China also have special habits. Some western people may not adapt to these habits very soon. Thankfully my wife is Chinese, so whenever we visit a Chinese family she tells me to buy them a gift. However, giving a gift to a host is not always necessary in my country. So, if you invite international guests to your home, don’t be too surprised if they don’t bring you a gift.

In China, you probably wonˈt need to change the guest-host relationship very much because you will probably only be the host, and Chinese are naturally very good hosts. If western hosts invite you to their house, try not to be too surprised if their style of treating you is not what you have expected.

 Some people love eating food right after it is cooked. I prefer food just taken out from the freezer (冰箱). Fruit, candies, nuts, chocolate, cake with buttercream frosting (糖果), even peas, all of them taste delicious when frozen. In fact, I often eat them that way.

    I was a kid when I picked up the habit. In my family, lots of things were thrown into the freezer--finally, two freezers--to prevent them from going bad. Among them were some of the candies my sisters and I had collected on Halloween.

    If we eat when they are still warm, we'll find ourselves taking the cookies more than we should. It's better if we can put them into the freezer and wait. That way we'll eat less and enjoy them more because they are hard and chewing (咀嚼) becomes a slower, more patient effort. That's the point about frozen buttercream frosting. Pm it in your mouth at room temperature, and it's gone very quickly. But when it's frozen, you can enjoy the taste much longer as it melts (融化) in your mouth.

    The freezer treats a lot of fruit kindly. Take frozen grapes for example, I keep a bowl of grapes in my freezer. They become a little icy, and somehow their sweetness is improved. They are perfect and healthy dessert (点心). This is the same with oranges, apples, bananas...You might think bananas would get super-hard when frozen. Wrong! They become cool, creamy and sweet. If you have wisely covered some or all of the bananas with melted chocolate before putting them into the freezer, they will have a double taste.

    As long as you aren't eating anything that truly has to be hot, go ahead and experiment.

To encourage reading, a Chinese company placed over 10,000 books around the underground, in taxis and on planes in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. The activity earned the support of many Chinese stars. The “book-dropping battle,” however, won little praise. Instead, the movement drew much criticism(批评).

Some books were left untouched. Around the underground, passengers thought the books were left there to save the seats. Some books were taken away by cleaners. People also complained that they couldn’t get to the books—the carriages were too crowded.

The movement led to a hot debate.

Most people thought it could do little to encourage reading. “I think the best result is that people take selfies(自拍)when they pick up the books and write a post in WeChat. After that, they will just bring the books back home and place them on their bookshelves,” wrote one Weibo user.

Some pointed out that while Watson was a great reader, the Chinese stars who supported the movement didn’t seem to be reading much. Isn’t it embarrassing that the movement is supported by stars who don’t read a lot?

Murong Xuecun is a famous Chinese writer. He thought the book-sharing campaign was not at all a bad thing. “In the past years, the Chinese economy(经济) has been developing rapidly. Everybody is busy with work. They don’t have time for reading,” said Murong.“However, just because Chinese people don’t read regularly, it doesn’t mean we should do nothing to encourage reading, ” Murong added.

       Readers (《朗读者》) is a popular TV show in China. It invites (邀请) people to read aloud (大声地) on the stage (舞台). The show also tells moving (感人的) stories behind those people. They can read everything, like poems (诗), books, and letters.

       Many people are fans of the show. They begin (开始) to enjoy reading aloud at home.

       Now, the show gives people a place to read. It is a reading pavilion (朗读亭). It showed up in cities like Shanghai, Hangzhou and Xi’an. Let’s have a look!

       The pavilion is not very big. Only one person can come into it each (每一) time. There is a microphone (麦克风) in it and it records (记录) people’s voices.

       Everyone can read for three minutes in it. You can read anything you like. The show will pick (挑选) some of the readers and invite them to read on TV.

    Lots of people come to the pavilion to read. Yu Duohan is an 11-year-old girl from Shanghai. “I love reading aloud,” she said. “It makes the story become more beautiful.”

    The pavilion will also come to other cities across the country (国家). You can read your favorite stories in the pavilion soon.

A teacher cleared off his desk and placed on top of it a few things. One of them was an empty mason jar（玻璃瓶）. He filled the jar with golf balls until he could fit no more. He looked at the classroom and asked his students if they agreed that the jar is full. Every student agreed that the jar was really full.

The teacher then picked up a box of small pebbles（卵石） and poured them into the jar with the golf balls. The pebbles filled all of the openings in between the golf balls. He asked the students if the jar was full. Once again, they agreed.

Now the teacher picked up a bag of sand and poured it into the jar. The sand filled in all of the empty space left between the golf balls and pebbles. He asked the class again if the jar was full. The students agreed again.

The teacher said, "I want you to know that this jar represents your life," he started. "The golf balls represent the important things: your family, health, friends…The pebbles represent the other things in life, such as your job, house and car. The sand is every small thing . If you put the sand in first, there is no room for the pebbles or golf balls.The same goes for life. If you spend all of your time on the small things, you will never have room for the things that are most important.

   Pay attention to the important things in your life. You should know there will always be time to clean the house or go shopping.