It’s the 3rd Annual Family Fun Fair!

• Games     • Crafts (工艺品)     • Apple pie contest

• Food     • Face painting     • Door prizes (门票对号奖)

... and more!

What: A chance to celebrate spring, support our community (社区), and have fun!

When: Saturday, February 8th from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., rain or shine!

Where: The big field next to Hopedale Elementary School

For more information: Contact Peter Halm at 555-0191

Don’t miss the 3rd annual Family Fun Fair!

This fair promises to be even better than last year’s fair — no kidding!

Last year the game booths (摊位) were a big hit. (Who could forget Principal Snyder winning a toy dog that was so big it took four students to carry it to her truck?) This year we have two new game booths. So get ready to take part in the games.

Visit our craft tables. They will be better than ever! You can buy items such as clothing, backpacks, and gift baskets.

Children aged 5 and under can have their faces painted for FREE by Mr. Garcia’s third-grade art class.

No fair would be complete without food. We will be selling hot dogs, ice cream, roasted nuts, and cotton candy at our booths. For those of you who love to bake, why not enter our new apple pie contest? Just bring your pie to the pie table on the morning of the fair. At 1 p.m., our judges, Coach Carter and math teacher, Mrs. Adams, will choose a winner.

Won’t you please support our school by coming to the fair? Tickets are only $2 each. Door prizes will be given. You could win sports equipment, a new camera, or dinner for four at Merino’s Restaurant!

We didn’t have a tree. My dad had as much pride as anybody, I suppose, so he wouldn’t just say that we couldn’t afford one. When I mentioned it, my mother said that we weren’t going to have one this year, that we couldn’t afford one, and even if we could, it was stupid to mess up your house with a dead tree.

About three days before Christmas, I was out collecting for my paper route. It was fairly late, snowing and very cold. I went to the apartment building to try to catch a customer who hadn’t paid me for nearly two months. she owed me seven dollars. Much to my surprise, she was home. She invited me in and not only did she pay me, she also gave me a dollar tip.

On the way home, I walked past a Christmas tree shop and the idea hit me. The selection wasn’t very good because it was so close to the holiday, but there was this one real nice tree. It had been a very expensive tree and no one had bought it; now it was so close to Christmas that the man was afraid no one would.

He wanted ten dollars for it, but when I told him what I had, he said he might sell it for that. I really didn’t want to spend the whole money on the tree, but it was so pretty that I finally agreed. I dragged it all the way home and I tried hard not to damage it. I arrived at home at last. My heart was bursting as I announced that I had a surprise.

“Where did you get that tree?” my mother exclaimed. But it wasn’t the kind of exclamation that indicates pleasure. After she knew the truth, she said that I was going to end up in the poorhouse(救济院) because I believe in stupid things like Christmas trees. My mother had never talked to me like that before and I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

In every British town, large and small, you will find shops that sell second-hand goods. Sometimes such shops deal mostly in furniture, sometimes in books, sometimes in ornaments（装饰） and household goods, sometimes even in clothes.

The furniture may often be “antique”, and it may well have changed hands many times. It may also be very valuable, although the most valuable piece will usually go to the London salerooms, where one piece might well be sold for hundreds of thousands of pounds. As you look around these shops and see the polished wood of chests and tables, you cannot help thinking of those long-dead hands which polished that wood, of those now-closed eyes which once looked at these pieces with love.

The books, too, may be antique and very precious; some may be rare first printings. Often when someone dies or has to move house, his books may all be sold, so that sometimes you may find whole libraries in one shop. On the border between England and Wales, there is a town which has become a huge bookshop as well. Even the cinema and castle have been taken over, and now books have replaced sheep as the town’s main trade.

There are also much more humble shops, sometimes simply called “junk shops”, where you can buy small household pieces very cheaply. Sometimes the profits（利润）from these shops go to charity. Even these pieces, though, can make you feel sad; you think of those people who once treasured them, but who have moved on to another country or to death.

Although the British do not worship（崇拜）their ancestors, they do treasure the past and the things of the past. This is true of houses as well. These days no one knocks them down; they are rebuilt until they are often better than new. In Britain, people do not buy something just because it is new. Old things are treasured for their proven worth; new things have to prove themselves before they are accepted.

From self-driving cars to carebots (care+robots) for elderly people, rapid development in technology has long represented a potential threat to many jobs normally performed by people. But experts now believe that almost 50 percent of occupations existing today will be completely unnecessary by 2025 as artificial intelligence continues to change businesses.

“The next fifteen years will see a revolution in how we work, and a revolution will necessarily take place in how we plan and think about workplaces,” said Peter Andrew, Director of Workplace Strategy for CBRE Asia Pacific.

A growing number of jobs in the future will require creative intelligence, social skills and the ability to use artificial intelligence.

The report is based on interviews with 200 experts, business leaders and young people from Asia Pacific, Europe and North America. It shows that in the US technology already destroys more jobs than it creates.

But the report states: “Losing occupations does not necessarily mean losing jobs — just changing what people do.” Growth in new jobs could occur as much, according to the research.

“The growth of 20 to 40 person companies that have the speed and technological know-how will directly challenge big companies,” it states.

A report by Pew Research found 52 percent of experts in artificial intelligence and robotics were optimistic about the future and believed there would still be enough jobs in the next few years. The optimists pictured “a future in which robots do not take the place of more jobs than they create,” according to Aaron Smith, the report's co-author.

“Technology will continue to affect jobs, but more jobs seem likely to be created. Although there have always been unemployed people, when we reached a few billion people there were billions of jobs. There is no shortage of things that need to be done and that will not change,” Microsoft's Jonathan Grudin told researchers.

Recently, I’ve been following a simple rule that is helping me crush procrastination(拖延症) and making it easier for me to stick to good habits at the same time．    16     There are two parts to the 2-Minute Rule.

Part 1—If it takes less than two minutes，then do it now．

    17     For example，washing your dishes immediately after your meal，tossing the laundry in the washing machine，taking out the garbage，sending that email，and so on．

If a task takes less than two minutes to complete，then follow the rule and do it right now．

Part 2—When you start a new habit，it should take less than two minutes to do．

Can all of your goals be accomplished in less than two minutes? Obviously not．But，every goal can be started in 2 minutes or less．    18    

It might sound like this strategy is too basic for grand life goals，but I beg to differ．The 2-Minute Rule works for big goals as well as small goals because of the inertia(惯性)of life．    19     I love the 2-Minute Rule because it embraces the idea that all sorts of good things happen once you get started．

The most important part of any new habit is getting started—not just the first time，but each time．It’s not about performance，it’s about consistently taking action．

I can’t guarantee whether or not the 2-Minute Rule will work for you．    20     Anyone can spare the next 120 seconds．Use this time to get one thing done．Go．