My Favourite Books
Jo Usmar is a writer for Cosmopolitan and co-author of the This Book Will series（系列）of lifestyle books. Here she picks her top reads.
Matilda
Roald Dahl
I once wrote a paper on the influence of fairy tales on Roald Dahl's writing and it gave me a new appreciation for his strange and delightful words. Matilda's battles with her cruel parents and the bossy headmistress, Miss Trunchbull, are equally fumy and frightening, but they're also aspirational.
After Dark
Haruki Murakami
It's about two sisters — Eri, a model who either won't or can't stop sleeping, and Mari, a young student. In trying to connect to her sister, Mari starts changing her life and discovers a world of diverse "night people" who are hiding secrets.
Gone Girl
Gillian Flynn
There was a bit of me that didn't want to love this when everyone else on the planet did, but the horror story is brilliant. There's tension and anxiety from the beginning as Nick and Amy battle for your trust. It's a real whodunit and the frustration when you realise what's going on is horribly enjoyable.
The Stand
Stephen King
This is an excellent fantasy novel from one of the best storytellers around. After a serious flu outbreak wipes out 99.4% of the world's population, a battle unfolds between good and evil among those left. Randall Flagg is one of the scariest characters ever.
I suffered from mental illness and depression when I was younger, and it totally affected my teenage years. But after a long struggle, I found a hobby that changed my life.
My depression really kicked in after my parents moved to the UK when I was about 11 years old. Having to get used to life in a foreign country was very difficult. The friends I knew were gone, and the changes in my environment led to my depression. I had problems in many parts of my life, which made it feel impossible for me to carry on.
At that time, I didn't understand that depression was an illness. I remember a particular day when I couldn't find enough strength to get myself home from playing in the park—it felt like I was carrying the world on my shoulders.
Other times, I even thought about killing myself —I just felt so trapped. I never really reached out for help either, as I felt that there wasn't anyone who could have helped with my situation.
What turned my life around, however, was discovering street dancing. I was introduced to it by a friend, and I started taking classes at a studio in London. After a few weeks, I began to go out and meet a lot of other dancers to practice and train with them on a regular basis. It gave me a purpose, and eventually the happiness I gained from it helped me manage my depression. The dancing helped me get my life back, focus on my studies, and get through university.
My advice to anyone who might be going through something like I was is to reach out for help. The thing about life is that it changes, and you never know what might come your way. If someone had said to me during those dark moments that I would have gone on to achieve the things I have, I wouldn't have ever believed it.
Just take each day as it comes, and remember that there's always someone, or something, out there to help you.
Recently, American President Trump announced his budget. One of the budgets would cut all money to the Institute of Museum and Library services and libraries across the United States. However, as far as I'm concerned, we need to save our libraries.
Libraries provide books and after-school programs for children. They encourage literacy (识字）with summer programs. They help inspire a life-time love of learning and reading in children of all ages. Without them, where will kids with no Internet at home do their homework? Where will kids have a place to study or borrow books after school? Therefore, we need libraries for our kids. We need them so that kids can grow up with a place, other than school , where learning and exploration is encouraged. For adults, libraries serve as a place where they can use the Internet to apply for jobs, get job training, early voting centers as well as book clubs to help make new friends. It can also serve as a place to pick up a book and learn something new. What's more, they can also borrow a book and get away from it all.
Libraries save our information for the next generation. When we live in an age of alternative (选择性的）facts, where science is ignored in favor of personal feelings, we need libraries now more than ever. We need them to educate ourselves on the facts and hold the government responsible for them. We need them to have strong public participation.
If you agree with me, you shouldn't be silent on this issue. You can write or call directly to tell the president to save our libraries. You can also write to both your state Senators (参议员）and your district representative. If you do not know who they are, you can find out here. Let them know this is a beneficial issue because all people use public libraries in their daily life.
Do you have trouble trying to create the next big idea? Sometimes the answer isn't to just force an idea out of your mind. Instead, you might want to try sitting back, relaxing and letting your mind wander. Yes, you heard that correctly. If you are in need of a new idea, try daydreaming.
Researchers from the university of California, Santa Barbara, found an association between daydreaming and creative problem-solving. Their study includes having participants first do an "unusual-use task". They had to try to come up with as many different ways to use an object as they could.
Then, the participants chose to do one of the following four things before doing the "unusual-use task" again: complete a difficult task; complete an easy task; take a 12-minute break; or skip the 12-minute break and move right on to the task exercise again.
Surprisingly, the group that performed best was the one that completed the easy task. Many participants reported that they were daydreaming while performing the easy task. So the researchers believed that this daydreaming might have helped unlock their creativity.
But how could daydreaming help the brain come up with creative ways? The answer is something known as "unconscious thought". Even when you are not actively working to solve a problem, it is still in the back of your mind. Your brain is still thinking about the problem, but in a much more subtle (不易察觉的) way.
When you daydream, your mind is allowed to think in ways it normally would not. Because it is free of control, it can create completely new and out-of-the-box ideas.
Great ideas never come easily, but that does not mean you always have to work hard to get them. Feel free to do what you want and let your mind wander.
Most people want to find ways to travel inexpensively. The following are the secrets of traveling on the cheap.
Use cashback websites
According to travel blogger James Cave,using Topcashback.com puts more dollars in your account "Cashback websites like Topcashback .com give you back the commission(回扣) that they would normally get from referring you to a booking website" Cave explains. ". It may not seem much, but over a week that could end up being close to ＄100." Cashback websites also work with car hire, travel insurance companies, and hundreds of other travel companies. " ,"he adds.
Consider house sitting
If you're a pet owner, what do you do with your beloved pet?, many pet owners offer their house to travelers in exchange for pet sitting. "In return for feeding the cat, walking the dog, and doing whatever else the homeowner needs, you get to stay in the person's house for free. "Cave says. Try checking out TrustHousesitters.com to list your own proper（财产) or book a stay abroad.
World traveler Brian Corsetti says an often overlooked way to save money is to strike up a conversation with a local. Not only is it great to be friendly, but people who live in popular destinations know the best ways to find sales or inexpensive eats, which can help you avoid falling into tourist traps.. Instead of going to a restaurant, you stop by the home of a local, who will prepare traditional food for much less, giving you a glimpse（一瞥）into how locals really live and eat.
A. Get to know the locals
B. Find the best way to travel
C. Instead of paying for expensive boarding fees
D. Together, it all adds up to big vacation savings
E. Because of so many super-inexpensive airlines
F. You could expect to save around $5 to $ 10 a night on a $100 nightly booking
G. For another one-of-a-kind experience abroad, consider sharing a meal via EatWith
"Look Mom, he paints like me!" Eight-year-old Alexandra Nechita had just discovered Pablo Picasso's artwork for the first time. The art world 1 and began to call Alexandra the "Petite（小的） Picasso." This 2 artist has been turning heads in the art world ever since.
Even at age two, Alexandra3nearly all her time on her colouring books. 4their daughter spent too much time alone, Alexandra's parents took her colouring books away. They 5 she' d start to jump rope or play with dolls. But taking away her 6was like taking the air out of her life. Alexandra began to colour on paper her mother 7home from office.
When Alexandra was four, her parents began to notice the figures she8. They were abstract and 9Picasso's work, with four eyes and two faces. She10painting with watercolours and then with other paints.
Alexandra's classmates would sometimes 11 her paintings. But her 12school teacher saw talent in her drawings. She helped eight-year-old Alexandra organise her first13at a local library.
Within a year, Alexandra had several other exhibitions. By then, she had 14 more than 250 paintings. Her exhibition at the famous Mary Paxon Gallery brought her to the 15of national art critics（评论家）She began to16 on television, in news and talk shows around America
Today, Alexandra17paints in her special style. Admirers have spent a large amount of money buying her paintings. But the18 doesn' t seem to have affected her negatively (消极地）.Through various charities, Alexandra shares her wealth with those 19around the world. And 20Alexandra continues to paint, the world will be blessed to experience more of her love for life and art.
China is a big old country, has a history of more than five thousand years. We are proud of (it) culture and part of the culture even influences the world (great), for example, the thought of Confucius. As Chinese economy develops very fast and plays important role in the world, more and more (foreign) learn Mandarin (普通话) in Confucius institutions. The Chinese traditional culture can be tested by the time. It unites the whole nation and no matter kind of disaster comes, we will fight together for the country's future. Today, many young people lose faith in traditional culture and they are crazy the western culture. They follow the western fashion, (think) we are the old style. But some day, they (realize) it is wrong (abandon) traditional culture.
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Since I was a kid, I've considered different job I would like to do. First, I wanted to be a fireman, whose uniform looked so coolly. Then, when I was in the five grade, I wanted to be a teacher because I liked my English teacher very much. When I studied chemistry high school, I reconsidered my goal or decided to be a doctor. They were two reasons for the decision. One was that I was amazing at the fact that a sick person could feel much more better after seeing a doctor. And the another was that I want to help people in need.
