WELCOME TO THE RONALD REAGAN

PRESIDENTLAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Visit the limited­time “Interactive! The Exhibition” at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum and save more than 30% on museum admission tickets with an audio tour.

WHEN

Through Feb. 28, 2017

WHAT'S INCLUDED

$19 (reg. $28) ... Admission for one person to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library   and Museum,   including “Interactive! The Exhibition” with an audio tour. Please note: the virtual reality (虚拟现实) experience will be an additional cost and participants must be 10 years old or above.

WHY WE LOVE IT

• The exhibition is a hands­on experience focusing on movies, TV, music and the arts

• Experience virtual reality, 1980s video games, robots, 3D printing

• Climb aboard Air Force One,   view the expensive comfortable presidential car and a Marine One helicopter

• Explore Reagan's legacy (遗产): Step into an Oval Office copy and see a piece of the Berlin Wall

• The audio tour has more than 50 stops and original material not copied in the exhibits

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

This is a season­specific event. All sales are final. No refunds (退款) or exchanges. Not valid after the expiration date. Valid any regular museum operating day through Feb. 28, 2017. Museum hours are 10 a. m. －5 p. m. , seven days a week. Valid for one person. Cannot combine with other offers. Must use in one visit. Tickets include admission to “Interactive! The Exhibition” and the entire museum's galleries and grounds.

I have received many Christmas gifts over the years. The best gift I ever received was presented to me by a stranger. I never even knew his name and I only had contact with him for less than 60 seconds. His Christmas present to me changed the way I think about people and about Christmas.

I hate Black Friday sales. It’s often a gathering of people who are there for many different reasons. Some are looking for a deal on that one item for their loved one, or perhaps themselves. Their purposes completely have nothing to do with the festive time of year, and can just be summed up with one word, “Cheap!”

It was several years ago when my wife asked me to meet her at the local department store on Black Friday morning. They had advertised a child’s bike that she wanted to purchase for our son. We stood with a very large crowd, waiting for the manager to blow the whistle(口哨). I told my wife that if we got a bike, fine, but if we did not, I was OK with that too.

As the number of bikes began to gradually decrease, I saw my “polite” opportunity to reach my hands around the corner of one of the boxes. I lifted it and suddenly felt some mild resistance(阻力). I looked up to see one of the largest gentlemen I had ever seen in my life. Frightening was not the word to describe his appearance. He was wearing lots of straps of metal spiked leather(带有柳钉的皮带) around both arms and even his neck. Still, tattoos(纹身) were an obvious love of his.

I started to return the box but he gently pushed it back in my direction and back into my hands. He then directed it into my shopping cart. He looked at me, smiled, and said, “Merry Christmas.” All the way home I was thinking that this moment was by far the best Christmas gift I had ever received. The kindness of a stranger that broke all prejudice(偏见) I may have had of certain types of people. The softness of a human heart can be seen in a simple act. I will never forget it.

This is a time of year when high school students and their families are thinking hard about college. As seniors，juniors，and parents identify their top choices，discussions typically focus on the college itself. Is the institution small or large? How strong are the academics？What is the social life like? Do I like the campus? Such considerations are important, but they can cover the all-important question：Where will these college years lead?

Applicants should think seriously about which college on their list can best prepare them for the real world. They should look for campuses that offer well-structured programs to help them form a direction for their lives and develop the capacity to take steps along that path.

One of the most striking recent phenomena about college graduates in America has been the “boomerang” student: the young person who goes away to college, has a great experience, graduates, and then moves back home for a year or two to figure out what to do with his or her life. This pattern has left many graduates – and their families – wondering whether it makes sense to spend four or more years at college, often at great expense, and finish with no clear sense of who they are or what they want to do next.

The trend points to one of the great shortcomings of many of our nation’s leading colleges and universities. Structured opportunities to think about life after graduation are rare. The formal curriculum focuses almost universally on the academic disciplines of the arts and sciences. Advising on how various majors connect to pathways into the workplace is typically haphazard (没有条理的). Career planning offices are often shorthanded and marginal (不重要的) to college life.

It doesn’t need to be this way, and in recent years some of the country’s top colleges have enriched their academic offerings with opportunities for students to gain real-world experiences.

The World Health Organization says the widespread use of sugar in food products and drinks is a major concern in many areas. So WHO officials are calling on governments to require taxes on sugary drinks in an effort to limit their usage and popularity. The officials believe the taxes also would reduce the risk of health problems resulting from obesity.

Obesity is a condition in which the body stores large, unhealthy amounts of fat. Obese individuals are considered overweight. A new report says that in 2014 more than one-third of the adults in the world were overweight, and 500 million were considered obese. The United Nations agency estimates that in 2015, 42 million children under age 5 were either overweight or obese. It says that number represents an increase of about 11 million during the past 15 years. Almost half of these boys and girls live in Asia and one-fourth in Africa.

The U.N. agency blames unhealthy diets for a rise in diabetes cases. There are 422 million cases of the disease worldwide. WHO says 1.5 million people die from it every year. It says the use of sugar in food products, like sugary drinks, is a major reason for the increase in rates of obesity and diabetes.

Temo Waqanivalu is with the agency’s Department for the Prevention on Non-Communicable Diseases. He told VOA hat taxing sugary drinks would reduce consumption and save lives. Waganivalu noted that Mexico enacted a 10 percent tax on sugary drinks in 2014. He said by the end of the year, there was a 6 percent drop in the consumption of such drinks. Among poor people, the number of people who consumed sugary drinks dropped by 17 percent.

The WHO says people should limit the amount of sugar they consume. It says they should keep their sugar intake to below 10 percent of their total energy needs, and reduce it to less than 5 percent for improved health.