We were standing at the top of a church not far from my home. I didn’t know why. “Look down,” Father said. I tried and saw the square in the centre of the village. And I saw the streets to the square. “See, Elsa,” Father said. “There is more than one way to the square. If you can’t get where you want to go by one road, try another.”

   Earlier that day I asked Mother to do something about what we had for lunch at school. But she didn’t think the food was as bad as I said. When I turned to Father for help, he brought me to the church.

   At school the next day, I filled a bottle with the soup for our lunch and took it home. I told the cook to pour the soup in a plate and bring it to Mother. She drank it and cried out, “What’s the matter with the soup today?” I at once told her what I had done, and Mother said that she would take up the matter of lunches at school the next day.

   Now I really understood why Father had taken me to the church. I began to work as a fashion designer two years ago. I wouldn’t stop working until I tried every way to my goal.

Almost every day we come across situations in which we have to make decisions one way or another. Choice, we are given to believe, is a right. But for a good many people in the world. In rich and poor countries, choice is a luxury, something wonderful but hard to get, not a right. And for those who think they are exercising their right to make choices, the whole system is merely an illusion, a false idea created by companies and advertiser, hoping to sell their products.

    The endless choice gives birth to anxiety in people’s lives. Buying something as basic as a coffee pot is not exactly simple. Easy access to a wide range of everyday goods leads to a sense of powerlessness in many people, ending in the shopper giving up and walking away, or just buying an unsuitable item that is not really wanted. Recent studies in England have shown that many electrical goods bought in almost every family are not really needed. More difficult decision-making is then either avoided or trusted into the hands of the professionals, lifestyle instructors, or advisors.

    It is not just the availability of the goods that is the problem, but the speed with which new types of products come on the market. Advances in design and production help quicken the process Products also need to have a short lifespan so that the public can be persuaded to replace them within a short time. The typical example is computers, which are almost out-of-date once they are bought. This indeed makes selection a problem. Gone are the days when one could just walk with case into a shop and buy one thing; no choice, no anxiety.

 For years we have been told that encouraging a child’s self-respect is important to his or her success in life. But child expert are now learning that too much praise can lead to the opposite effect. Praise-aholic kids who expect it at every turn may become teens who seek the same kind of approval from their friends when asked if they want to go in the backseat of the car.

      The implication（含义）of saying “You are the prettiest girl in class ,” or talking about the goals she scored but not her overall effort, is that you love her only when she looks the best , scores the highest , achieves the most. And this carries over to the classroom.

     Social psychologist Carol Dweck, PhD, tested the effects of overpraise on 400 fifth graders while she was at Columbia University. She found that kids praised for “trying hard” did better on tests and were more likely to take on difficult assignments than those praised for being “smart”.

      “Praising attributes (品质) or abilities makes a false promise that success will come to you because you have that quality, and it devalues effort, so children are afraid to take on challenges,” says Dweck, now at Stanford University. “They figure they’d better quit while they’re ahead.”

D

    Scientists are trying to make the deserts into good land again. They want to bring water to the deserts，so people can live and grow food. They are learning a lot about the deserts. But more and more of the earth is becoming deserts all the time. Scientists may not be able to change the deserts. Scientists think that people make deserts. People are doing bad things to the earth.

    Some places on the earth don't get much rain. But they still don't become desert. This is because some green plants are growing there. Small green plants and grass are very helpful to dry places. Plants don't let the hot sun make the earth even drier. Plants don't let the wind blow the earth away. When a little bit of rain falls，the plants hold the water. Without the plants，the land can become a desert much more easily.

       Home to me means a sense of familiarity and nostalgia（怀旧）. It’s fun to come home. It looks the same. It smells the same. You’ll realize what’s changed is you. Home is where we can remember pain, love and some other experiences: We parted here; My parents met here; I won three championships here.

       If I close my eyes, I can still have a clear picture in mind of my first home. I walk in the door and see a brown sofa surrounding a low glass-top wooden table. To the right of the living room is my first bedroom. It’s empty, but it’s where my earliest memories are.

       There is the dining room table where I celebrated birthdays and where I cried on Halloween---when I didn’t want to wear the skirt my mother made for me. I always liked standing on that table because it made me feel tall and strong. If I sit at this table, I can see my favorite room in the house, my parents’ room. It is simple: a brown wooden dresser lines the right side of the wall next to a television and a couple of photos of my grandparents on each side. Their bed is my safe zone. I can jump on it anytime---waking up my parents if I am scared or if I have an important announcement that cannot wait until the morning.

I’m lucky because I know my first home still exists. It exists in my mind and heart, on a physical property（住宅）on West 64th street on the western edge of Los Angeles. It is proof I lived, I grew, and I learned.

Sometimes when I feel lost, I lie down and shut my eyes, and I go home. I know it’s where I’ll find my family, my dogs, and my belongings. I purposely leave the window open at night because I know I’ll be blamed by Mom. But I don’t mind, because I want to hear her say my name, which reminds me I’m home.

B

A teacher decided to let her class play a game. She told each child to bring along a few potatoes in plastic bags. Each potato would be written a name of a person that the child hated, so the number of potatoes that a child would carry would depend on the number of people the child hated. When the day came, every child brought some potatoes. Some had two; some three and some up to five.

The teacher then told the children to carry the bags wherever they went, even to the toilet, for two weeks. As day after day passed, the children started to complain of the unpleasant smell of the rotten potatoes.

    Those children having five potatoes began to feel the weight of the bags. After two weeks, the children were happy to hear that the game was finally ended. The teacher asked, “How did you feel while carrying the potatoes with you for two weeks?” The children started complaining of the trouble that they had had.

Then the teacher told them the hidden meaning behind the game. She said, “This is exactly the situation when you carry your hatred(憎恨) for somebody inside your heart. The unpleasant smell of hatred will pollute your heart and you will carry an unnecessary burden with you wherever you go. If you can’t tolerate the smell of rotten potatoes for just two weeks, can you imagine what a burden it would be to have the hatred in your heart for your lifetime? So throw away any hatred from your heart. Forgiving others is the best attitude to take.”

Every once in a while, it is necessary to take a step back in order to take a long, hard look at where we are in our lives. At this point, it is good to ask yourself some key questions. Are you at the point in your career where you want to be? Have you so far achieved all of your goals in life? If so, then maybe it is time to make goals that improve yourself a bit more. If you have not achieved your goals in life, then perhaps you have made the mistake of setting too many goals or trying to achieve them at a fast pace.

       It is necessary to set reasonable, intelligent goals in order to succeed in life. Do not be unrealistic because life is not a fairy tale. But you should try to recognize what you want, and to be as specific (特定的，确切的) as possible.

       In order to sufficiently motivate(激励) you, the goal needs to be a major one. The bigger your goals are, then the more motivated you will need to be to work towards achieving them. If you want, for example, to be the greatest concert pianist in the world, then you are going to find yourself a lot more motivated than you would be if your goal were merely to play a couple of Beethoven pieces extremely well. If you are a beginner, then no doubt mastering those tough songs is a very intelligent and realistic goal. But if that is your only goal as a pianist, then you will stop growing as a pianist once that goal has been achieved. This is why it is necessary to constantly stop and renew our goals so that we are aware of what they are, and thus stay motivated.

D

                             Disappearing Roots

    I have fond memories of following my mother to the wet market in Ghim Moh area, walking around the jungle of stands, trying not to slip and fall in my slippers and carelessly getting nay feet wet from the water that dropped off from the fish counters and vegetable stands to the stone floor,  listening to her bargain in Teochew to the vegetable seller who in the next minute would start talking

 to another customer in Malaysian.

     The book store in Ghim Moh that my brother James and I visited frequently as kids, closed 4 years ago after over 30 years in business. I used to appreciate the fact that it had changed little over the course of three decades, the shelves still stocking the same types of notebooks that I had bought as a 7-year-old kid.  It was our childhood landmark and it had allowed me to follow my childhood footsteps on its same worn concrete floors.

    I noticed that a big shady tree just outside of the Ghim Moh market had been removed and in its place stood a skinny tree that could not shade the little dog that was sitting under it, desperate for some shade in the hot mid-day sun.

     Yes, in Singapore we have pictures in museums and books reminding us of our local heritage (遗产) Many of our favorite places can only be read about nowadays in books or magazines.

     We are physical beings. We make sense of our world and our relationship to our world through our senses.  Sometimes, it's not enough to just read about it.  We have to feel it,  smell it, touch it so  as to form our own memories of it, our own stories, and in turn share those experiences and stories with other people.

      I'm pretty sure I'm not alone.

  It's that time of year when both high school and college graduates are looking forward to putting constant exams behind them and moving on to a more exciting stage of their lives. But in the digital age, not everything is so easily left behind. Ever since they were young, they have created a digital footprint that's often not easy to change or cover up.

       However, there are various actions that they can take to make that online presence more appealing. Here are a few suggestions that you might want to pass on:

      1 Clean up your Facebook account

      Clean up your Facebook page and get rid of anything that could he considered offensive or held against you. Remember, the test is no longer "Would you want grandma to see it? "but" Would you want a future employer to see it?"

      2 Use a professional looking photo

      A picture is worth a thousand words, so make sure that first impression(印象) is a good one. Again, what worked at school is unlikely to impress the employers. Also, he consistent(一致的)and use the same photo on all your online platforms. Make it easy for people to recognize you and start to build your brand.

      3 Grow your network

       While it's important to make the transition(转变) from school to the workplace, you don't want to leave everything behind. Make a point of keeping in touch with your school friends, teachers, professors, councilors, camp friends, sports coaches, anyone who could be helpful to you as you establish a career. The best way to land a job is still by word of mouth.

      4 Be yourself

       Nobody can be more like you than you. Make sure your online presence is representative of who you really are. Turn your social networking pages into your own personal web site, and start marketing your own individual brand!