When I was a little bit younger, I never attached much importance to time, let alone a year, for a year has 365 days, so many, that I couldn’t realize how fast it run until at the last moment. 2018 was planned to be a self improving year. I took two examinations: one failed, and the other still unknown. I read a few books, ranging from politics to history. Apart from that, I had my second child, an adorable, little daughter. Being transferred to another department, I had less sedentary work but more physical things to do, which I think is good for my sore neck and aching waist. After all, life is for moving. The goal to change career, even though after three years I haven’t realized it, is still underway. To make it real is just a matter of time and I am speeding that up. In the best case scenario, I would get my work changed and location allocated next year. It is just an endeavor that needs neither hurry nor sluggishness. In this year, I can feel my abilities improved, my body strengthened, and my family enlarged. There were happy days and worry nights, as well as emboldening moments and exhausting hours. Nevertheless, I shall thank to life, as I am still breathing. Thank you for bringing those splendid days, weeks and months to me. I also thank to the bad days through which I was forged and struck just as a piece of iron. Because of you, I can even feel the mental growth, and with maturity and responsibility, I feel it is my duty to fulfill each day so that my dream will be realized soon. At last, I want to tell you, readers as well as myself, that embrace the time, for it is so invaluable and precious, be it the best or worst. 搜索复制

He who laughs last laughs best. Short-term interest and long-term interest are both sides of a contradiction. More often than not, long-term interest is undermined while short-term interest is pursued, vice versa. For example, why do we need to hurry our children into finishing homework? Someone treats this conduct as misfortune to the kids. For the first time when a child is old enough to be sent to kindergarten, what should parents do to the one with tears in the eyes unwilling to leave them? There are two options. The parents who cannot bear it may take their kid home. The other option is to leave their child with resolution. I reckon most of them would choose the latter, since it benefits the kids by making them less dependent. Such deed is the same to the birds’ when their offspring learned how to fly. By pushing the timid ones off tree, the young birds could acquire the skill sooner. Considering these conducts, they all follow one principle, i.e., abandoning short-term interest for long-term interest. As long-term interest can subdue short-term interest, and will always bring brighter outcome, long-term interest which prevails in the end is the major side of the contradiction. If so, could we reverse it? Yes, and there are numerous cases. Such as taking drugs, it is the extreme example for pursuing short-term interest, as it can bring mightiest pleasure in a blink. Others, like robbery, theft and fraud, are the same. What’s the result then? First, drug-takers get addicted to what they take, making them either go bankrupt, or lose their lives. Second, for those who rob, steal, cheat, the wrong-doing would be on their minds everyday, and finally lock themselves in prison. These deeds, which prioritize short-term interest, are resented by most of the people. They are seen as a rat running across the street, every person disgusted by it on the scene wants the rat to be punished. Humans are rational, so that humanity can be carried forward despite obstacles and crises. What is pursued has never been short-term interest, but the opposite. Whoever covets short-term interest, would stain the picture of human civilization, and be condemned. Whether it is for the personal interest, corporate interest or a national policy, the rule never changed. We hope whoever involved must conduct themselves with ration, constraint and all-round analyses, to prevent disastrous decisions that would harm themselves and the development of humanity, and that end up being written into history with contempt. Village, is the world in an era that information spreads around the globe within less than a second. Therefore, we humans should struggle for a better humanity, see to it that civilization rises to a new height, and build a world of shared future for mankind!

At about half past six, the time during which I draw back the curtains, sunlight suddenly pours into the room, bright and warm, making me realize the spring just comes in no time. Bathing in such sunlight, especially right after the bleak winter, feels like charging energy for each and every cell of the body. It seems that I am rejuvenated. Later on the street, snow has thawed, which brings back the long-forgotten look of the road. Grey and concrete, it gives strong grip to each one’s footstep. In the morning rush hour, I walk slowly at one time and trot at another towards the metro station. Far-flung but shiny, the sun sits on the eastern side of the azure sky. A glance at it can make one feel light-hearted, as well as melting away their sorrow. The air is cool but clean, ready for each deep and pleasant breath. Trees stand along either side of the road, straight and still, as if they were guarding the well-being of the pedestrians. Grey-looking though they are, green will soon be their main color. New twigs and leaves are about to sprout out. It is such a perfect March morning for everyone living in the northeastern China. In fact, it is a bit gloomy to say such weather has become rare. By setting economy development as the main priority, we had overlooked the importance of the environment. Those days that were long taken for granted must re-emerge themselves gradually and as quickly as possible. For good weather, we are waging a war against greenhouse and pollution by streamlining heavy industries, by cutting off overcapacity and by other effective measures. We must win it, and win it well. The task is, of course, not achievable within a few days or months, neither can it be done by sheer talk or by beating drums and clanging the gong. On the contrary, It will need toil and sweat, or even blood and tears in the years to come. That’s true: clear water and green mountains are invaluable assets. Every piece of the land must be, therefore, well-kept and undamaged before it is passed on to our next generation and the generation beyond. I hope it will be common for all of them to enjoy the same as I did today or even more attractive scenery.

If in the world there aren’t many things that are fair to everyone, one thing is fair. That is time. There are twenty-four hours a day, and everyone has it. It is the fairest to everyone. It is by spending it differently in your own way that makes you, the unique one in the world different from others. Therefore, there is no reason for you to complain about time, for time is fair to you as it to others. To make a good use of time seems vital to everyone’s life. When looking back into the history, we can draw a conclusion that great people treasure time more than average person. Today, some youngsters seem not understand it. Fierce though competition is, time is fair to everyone. The price or time, which is necessary to pay at a younger age, costs you more later in life. There is a saying in China, which is translated as “an idle youth, a needy age”. The saying has been said a long time ago, but till now still someone hasn’t got it. As for me, I have gotten the meaning. Time is the most valuable asset for me, so valuable that I don’t want a single minute to go in vain. To make every minute useful, I have long stopped chatting with my colleagues on trivial matters. When they complained about the company, the managers or other colleagues, I put my mouth shut. When they joked about others or talk about weather, I kept quiet. In my view, it can add to nothing apart from killing time. Sometimes, I felt uneasy and a little nervous. I suppose in their eyes I have already been labeled as a maverick or something worse. But I feel worth it because what I have saved from the meaningless talk is time. I then put it in good use, as I have set some goals in my life. I am not just a wanderer. When I think of this, my stance stands firmer and stronger.

It’s been days, and even months since I last wrote about in this place. I have left for quite a while I know, but I am uncertain if I should resume blogging. Many friends I have known from here are no longer here, and the website itself is not well managed, which can been found out through its blog front-page, a key page not been updated for months. Worse, it may imply that the official editors have given up on this zone.With a large proportion of blogs being moved from other websites unchanged even for a word, the blogging zone is dying. I felt unhappy when I opened it, hence no mood to write anything. In addition to that, I have figured out some guy here churning out blogs only for self-interests, and it made me sick every time the thought popped up in the head. However, despite all the matters I mentioned above, I should continue blogging here , since without a place like this, I can’t find another spot. Besides, it is not a short time I have been writing blogs here. I think there are still kind people here from domestic and abroad who could become friends of mine in the future. Thus, the good news is I AM BACK!

One day a school teacher met a company engineer at a café. “Hi, I am a school teacher, but I am interested in engineering.” The teacher gave a preliminary introduction.“Oh, glad to hear that. I am an engineer, but to tell you the truth, I don’t like my job very much.” The engineer responded.“Then, what interests you?” inquired the teacher holding his coffee.“Teaching, especially teaching teenagers!” answered the company employee.“Why didn’t you quit your job and work as a teacher?” the teacher came straight to the point. “Well, first. I am now in protection of the Labor Law. As long as I don’t make fatal mistakes, no one can fire me. Second, it is hard to find a teaching job as stable as my current one, especially at the age of over 35 which most schools consider too old. ” having sipped his coffee, the engineer continued: ”so why didn’t you?”“Likewise, I am afraid I cannot get an engineering job so secure as mine. Plus, although it was me getting my current job on the surface, without the covert help from my family the chance would be dreadfully low. “was the response.“Were we able to swap our jobs instead of being stranded in such stagnation, it would be much greater for both of us. ”“yes, but for ever might it be a dream. I now have a car, an apartment, and a lovely wife. In the next years I will have my children. I am satisfied. ” the teacher intended to close the conversation, “Okay, it was a nice talk, but I have an errand to run. Bye, mate.” “Goodbye, my friend.” said the engineer, after which they separately left the café. On their ways home later that day, they were not presumably happy, as if something was lost.

Dear Andrew: How time elapses, another year has passed by in a mere blink of an eye. In the last letter a year earlier, I told you that I would take some exams. Yes, this year I have taken two exams, the marks for both of which haven’t been released, so I have to wait for a month longer. But I know I would fail in one of them, because after I signed up, I noticed that the exam-time was against each other. Finally, I attended one exam and was absent from the other. But I still attended one of two subjects the other exam required. Anyway, I just want to tell you that I did what I had said that I would do. Now, I am more confused. I am not young, as you know, when I thought about changing career, I felt afraid of age discrimination, because I had read some job advertisements, in which a certain age was required. Then I felt embarrassed and nervous. Another problem is I wanted to learn French and code. But when I started to learn, I found that the knowledge for these is too deep, which needs years to learn. But my time seems limited, so I gave up on them. In my city, there is not much use for English, unless you teach students English. I was thinking what would happen if I left my city searching for a job. But it seems a dumb idea to work out of my city as a man who has been married and has a daughter who needs to be taken care of. I find a realistic way which is to teach English for students who study in middle school. My wife runs a training centre, I can make a use of it. I still learn English everyday, but I don’t spend as much time on Wechat as a year earlier. I’ve found that something cannot be done on it, which needs some time off Wechat. I read English magazines everyday, like The Economist. I learn new words, hard words everyday as well. I practice speaking and read some reading materials out loud at home. I listen to English reports and radio channels everyday. I feel the subject of English language has too much to learn. Maybe the learning process will cost my whole life. In a year ahead, I will take the exams that I failed or missed, no matter how many times, until I pass them. I will focus more on teaching English. I have written articles in a Wechat public account which specializes in teaching. And please give me another year to quit on my current job. I need it now, for living. But it is a matter of when not if. I will try my best to fulfill the coming year’s life, hoping that I can leave my current job as soon as possible, because every time when I walk in the office, I feel ashamed. I will keep my weight. Last year I managed to gain weight in case of a tough time of post resignation. But as the worst scenario was triggered, and as my weight has reached a warning point, I should keep it by any means. Hope the coming year will make me stronger, mentally and physically. Wish my wife, my daughter, my parents and my friends good health and luck. May you have gained what you have been pursuing! Yours faithfully! Andrew Craven

Before discussing culture promotion, we should know what culture is, and why we need to promote it. First of all, according to Oxford Dictionary, cultures are the customs and beliefs, art, way of life and social organization of a particular country or group. From the definition, we notice it comes from a group of people or a country, and it is the core of life. Without culture, people will not realize where they come from or who they are. It is culture that makes human beings different from other species. Different cultures stand for different values, they differ among humans with different power and influence. Some have more power and influence, some have less to no of them. The cultures among the aboriginal people in Australia and North America, at least, as I know, are few known. Why? When in 1788 the Britain ship first disembarked on the land of Australia, the indigenous people were still living in hunter-gatherer lifestyle. They certainly had cultures, but they were either not widey recognized, or the rest world deemed that they had been out of time. Even worse than that, some cultures were unluckily stopped from passing on. Some disasters can vanish the culture in an instant. Those missing cultures, for instance, those in Atlantis just disappeared in a sudden for no reason. Others’ disappearance was due to the lack of inheritors, partly because they deemed it worthless, partly because there were better cultures emerging. Some cultures became less powerful because of no exchange or interaction. China, when it came to Qing dynasty(1644-1912), had less interacted culture. There were nearly any culture exchange with other countries. The emperors closed the country gate, considering them as the universal leaders. They didn’t realise where America was, nor did they know where Britain was. As a result, Chinese cultures just inevitably withered. From those examples, I found the reasons which lead to weak cultures: 1. They are either not widely recognized, or people outside of them deem them worthless. 2. There are not many people inherit their cultures, or promote them year by year for a long time, which should be lasted for decades at least. 3. There is no exchange or interaction with other cultures Let’s also check out why some cultures are so popular. As far as I know, America culture prevails in domestic and overseas as well as Japanese cartoons. Why? 1. they have universal values that are embraced by all. I have never met a person who doesn’t like watching movies, or reading comic books. On the contratry, nearly every kid watches animations or reading comic books in mordan world, and every adult watches films. That builds a demand or basis for the cultures’ prevalence. 2. They are widely spread. American films or Hollywood are wide spread, so is Japanese cartoons. They are not just popular in their home countries. That leaves one advantage, which makes it impossible to be instantly wiped out unless the whole world is destroyed by an asteroid. 3. They are exchanged and interacted, and are refined through exchange and interaction. Now that they have penetrated in many countries, exchange and interaction of cultures between those and the domestic cultures is irresistable, which makes them even more powerful. Based on the knowledge above, how do we promote Chinese culture? 1. Now that it is the values that play key roles in a culture, we must find them in our own culture. On the other hand, an environment from which valuable culture derives, if not exist, can be created. 2. One thing that Chinese cultures were not wiped out is perhaps because the large population. They can spread inside the country, even though not landing overseas. However, that is not enough, cultures should be exchanged and interacted. 3. For not all cultures are beneficial, China must at first dump the unpleasant cultures, which means it must know its cultures’ advantages and disadvantages at the beginning so that only the good ones are got promoted, not the bad ones. Being put in a furnace, all cultures over the world are ores, and exchange and interaction is the fuel. In turn better new shining ones are ultimately extracted. After having contributed their values, those old ones should go backstage, as what actors do after finishing their performance. Reference:1.https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E5%8A%A8%E6%BC%AB/8993244?fr=Aladdin 2.https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E7%BE%8E%E5%9B%BD%E7%94%B5%E5%BD%B1/73575 3.https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E6%BC%AB%E7%94%BB%E5%8F%B2/2626618?fr=Aladdin 4. https://wenku.baidu.com/view/05ff279987c24028905fc31b.html 5.https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E6%96%87%E8%89%BA%E5%A4%8D%E5%85%B4/93247?fr=Aladdin

The main purpose of this report is to improve the experience of learning English on Wechat. Introduction: Earlier I had written a report about learning English on Wechat, a Chinese social media app. In that, I wrote that groups of learning English were a way to learn English, especially for those who didn’t have excess to foreigners. However, after a further practice, I now realize some other facts which may be contradicted to the former report. Findings: 1, I felt overwhelmed when a group was filled with too much voice notes. That is what happened to me in one of my Wechat groups, which is called Spoken English Only. There were hundreds of voice notes everyday, and I had to listen to every note to follow the topics. What’s worse, sometimes, someone dominated the channel. Gradually, I listened more than I spoke in the group. That was the problem, as I joined the group for practicing my English speaking. 2, What’s more, it distracted my attention. I can’t help wondering what might happen in the group, or if someone came and said something. 3, It is a waste of time by listening to every voice notes than reading word messages. However, neither of them helps improve speaking. Suggestions: 1, When discussing a topic, limit speaking time in 5 minutes for each person so that no one can dominate the channel. 2, Set a particular time for members to join a discussion, for example, an hour from 8 P.M. to 9 P.M.. 3, As to keep one’s concentration on learning, withdraw from groups where too many voice notes emerge.

July 1st 1997 was the date that Hong Kong returned to mainland China. Till now it has been 20 years, since that day. Under ”one country, two systems” policy, Hong Kong was permitted by the central government to keep its own political system which was founded by its British colony and had run under the system for more than 100 years. After the hand-over, many in the west had bet that Hong Kong would, to a certain extent, influence mainland’s political system. Is it true? Despite the knowledge that conclusions shouldn’t be jumped into too quickly, at least 20 years later, the result seems not so optimistic as they previously predicted ----China still keeps a strong hold of its own formulation----a Chinese style of socialism. Each and every single development should follow its own process or steps. It is a law of nature. Cutting its corner often backfires seen as a punishment by law. As a Child learns how to run, he or she must first acquire the capability of crawling, standing and walking from step to step. If they jumped a certain step, say, standing for example, they would never acquire the ability to talk, let alone knowing how to run. A country’s development falls in the same category. Those countries that ended up in success after having bypassed a certain step or steps were rarely seen. Even though a few have seemingly made their own success, they have to turn back to fill the gap. China is no exception. Many people marvel at China’s fast economic development, but under the splendid success that China has made, some steps which should have been paid attention were neglected or bypassed .To those who don’t know or haven’t read Chinese history, I ‘d like to offer a hand. I’ll show you a comparison between China and the West in history, particularly at several turning points that the West reshaped the world and changed human’s history. As the Great Charter seen as the cornerstone of constitutional monarchy was born in 1215, what was happening to China? Well, China was still in the Song dynasty, a feudal society that was very weak at the time. The territory was torn into equally two parts by two powers ----the south controlled by the Song dynasty, the north controlled by Jurchen an ethnical minority. And in the following years, China had been entirely under the rule of two ethnical minorities respectively: between 1272-1368 known as the Liao dynasty in the hands of Mongols, and between 1664-1912 known as the Qing dynasty in the hands of Manchu, both were minorities living in the very north of China. Unfortunately, these shifts of power from the top didn’t bring much to China. China was still pacing around the same position----a feudal society under emperor’s rule, when the world, especially on the west hemisphere, was taking up a huge step forwards, a step that was destined to change the world. Later, the independence of America, and the French revolution in the late 18th century both had deeply influenced the world as well. However, China, in which the eastern civilization was born, was still sleeping on its laurels. The 6-centuries sleep almost led China into a western colony. It was eventually awakened by the shells from the warships of the Britain in the Opium War. The awoken China suddenly noticed that its power which was presumed by its rulers in a closed –door arrogance as sublime was in fact too weak to fight back the invaders’ attack. As a consequence, Hong Kong was ceded to Britain after the war. From then on, the Chinese people had realized their country’s less-developed situation , and started to search a way that could save it from being colonized. Then history then came to a fork in the road waiting for China to choose. One was the pro-Capitalism road that led by Sun Yat-sen , a renowned revolutionist and pioneer, who valued the western political system and advocate China to establishing a republic country with checks and balances ; but his successor Chiang Kai-shek, sadly to say, had failed in realizing Sun’s idea and instead became a dictator. The other road was the pro-Communism one which was influenced by the October Revolution in Russia. After the second World War and China’s Civil War, eventually, history chose to take China on the pro-Communism road. It was destined not a flat sail for a new China that, from a mere feudal society, plunged directly into a socialistic state. At the beginning mistakes were made, such as the Great Leap and the Culture Revolution, seen as backfiring. However, after turns and twists, China came to a new era in which China reformed its policy and opened its gate. The country along with its people was benefited by this great practice. China led by the Communist Party has made significant achievement, for instance: more than one billion people were lifted out from poverty, which no other Parties had ever achieved. Over recent years, China has surpassed Japan, becoming the second wealthiest country in the world with an annual GDP of 11 trillion dollars. Despite this, when this number is divided by 1.3 billion of its people, not much is left comparing with the figure of developed countries. That is why China is still a developing country. And like any other developing countries, China faces the same challenges. Corruption, for example, is the chronic illness for any government around the world. The only difference is some deal with it better than others. For China the illness was bad as well if not worse. In the feudal society, rules for tackling corruption were usually weak and inconsistent. In socialistic China, the problem hadn’t been paid enough attention until recent years. Now it is currently fighting hard against corruption. The scenario of keeping power in cage was reiterated recently by president Xi. It is believed that with regulations and laws truly imposed onto the officials of all levels, power can be eventually put in cage. China has made the pledge, and is now on the way of forming such a system. Second, it comes to inequality. Such as the inequality between rural areas and cities, the inequality between a developed western part and a less-developed eastern part, etc.. For the influence of opening up its gate, coastal cities in the east part of China took a more advantage . People there become the first to enjoy a relatively prosperous society. However, it is sure that they have made up their mind to deal with the issue. Policies were released, for instance: farmers on longer have to pay any taxes since 2006; the Development of the West Region was deployed too in 2000; China will eradicate poverty all over the country in the next few years. China is doing all they can to narrow the gap between rich and poor. Third, it seems human right is being valued higher and higher recent years, as more and more people is entering into middle class. Some complaints were made, such as not having the right to vote. Protests were even made occasionally. That is an issue China must not duck. However, China has its own election system----The system of People’s Congress. They can definitely vote for their deputies to the People’s Congress who have the right to vote for the country’s leader along with other rights and obligations. But there is not much enthusiasm for voting for their deputies to the People’s Congress, at least from what I have seen. Many people don’t use the right, some don’t even know they have such right. That is partly due to the lack of practice. It is until recent decades that mainland China didn’t have such a voting system. There are not many ways to practice the right. That is the aspect that was neglected and should be paid enough attention now. As to Hong Kong, please don’t forget, before China took charge, there was a position called governor. Who can take the job? Hong Kongers cannot. It was well known that no Chinese person can take it, no matter how wealthy or how intelligent he or she was. After the handover, Hong Kongers finally have to right to choose their official leader. Now Hong Kong people are able to run Hong Kong. Based on that, they should be thankful, shouldn’t they? Under the new situation that Britain leaves the EU, and that Mr. Trump proclaims “Americans first”, China will inevitably face not only opportunities, but also challenges which come both from the interior and the exterior side. What we’ve learnt from the history is there are always issues here and there coming out as civilization develops. Surely in the future, there will be some in the way, if not more. It is vital that solutions that tackle issues outpace the issues themselves. Or else, backlash would be made. Instead of shying away, China must face them and solve them. Despite noticing the rise of nationalism and anti-globalization, China should not change its attitude towards globalization and the related treaties. Instead, China should forge in the lead. “One belt, One road” initiative will definitely benefit the countries along the way. It is also a strong push for human’s civilization. Recently, some achievements were made, but the Chinese people should never sit on the laurels ever again. They should, according to their own issues, come up with relevant solutions, as there is no panacea for all issues.