As a five-year-old, I didn’t know how poor we were. My father would not be home that Christmas Eve. He was in the Army serving overseas. My mother and I worked all afternoon making tree decorations. The kitchen table was crowded with stars made of shiny paper. We were going to get the Christmas tree in the evening, when the prices for them usually dropped.

After sunset, we walked four blocks to a parking lot where they sold Christmas trees. “How much is your cheapest tree?” My mother asked the man standing at the entrance. He held his gloved hands over the fire. “Thirty dollars, miss.”

Her smile disappeared, “Nothing for less?” The man picked up a small tree branch and dropped it into the fire. “I just work here. I can’t change the price.”

The sudden melancholy（忧郁）in my mother’s face made me sad. The man looked down at me for what felt like a long time; it probably was only moments. He pointed at a pile of branches in the corner. “Behind it is a tree that we can’t sell. You can have it for free.”

“Thank you, sir,” I said.

There it was, a thing just a little taller than me. It had few branches—almost a ghost（幽灵）of a tree. My mother asked, “Can we take some of these branches?” He waved his arm. “Take it all if you want to, miss.”

We headed back home. We set the tree in the living room. I couldn’t imagine how we could hang many decorations on such a tree. She was smiling again, “Go to sleep now, son. Santa will decorate the tree for us.”

I woke at dawn and rushed into the living room. To my amazement, the tree had a beautiful natural shape. The decorations shone in the morning light. My mother had somehow fixed branches to the tree trunk. A few weeks later, my father returned. When I told him about the tree, tears filled the eyes of that strong soldier.   

Since then, I have seen many wonderful holidays. That Christmas remains as my favorite.

Exactly five years ago, on New Year’s Eve, I was invited to a children’s ball by a man high up in the business world, who had his connections, his circle of acquaintances, and his close friends. So it seemed as though the children’s ball was merely an excuse for the parents to come together and discuss matters of interest to themselves, quite innocently and casually.

I was an outsider, and , as I had no special matters to air, I was able to spend the evening independently of the others. There was another gentleman present who like me had just stumbled upon this affair of domestic happiness. He was the first to attract my attention. His appearance was not that of a man of noble birth. He was tall, rather thin, very serious, and well dressed. Obviously he had no heart for the family celebration. The instant he went off into a corner by himself the smile disappeared from his face, and his thick dark brows knitted into a frown. He knew no one except the host and showed every sign of being bored to death, though bravely keeping the role of thorough enjoyment to the end. Later I learned that he was a provincial, had come to the capital on some important business, had brought a letter of recommendation to our host, and our host had taken him under his protection, not at all with love. It was merely out of politeness that he had invited him to the children’s ball.

They did not play cards with him. They did not offer him cigars. No one entered into conversation with him. Possibly they recognized the bird by its feathers from a distance. Thus, my gentleman, not knowing what to do with his hands, was compelled to spend the evening stroking his whiskers. His whiskers were really fine, but he stroked them so eagerly that one got the feeling that the whiskers had come into the world first and afterwards the man in order to stroke them.

Far from the traditional image of a culture of aggressive masculinity (阳刚) in which students either sink or swim, the absence of girls gives boys the chance to develop without pressure to conform (符合) to a stereotype, a US study says. Boys at single-sex schools were said to be more likely to get involved in cultural and artistic activities that helped develop their emotional expressiveness, rather than feeling they had to conform to the “boy code” of hiding their emotions to be a “real man”.

The findings of the study go against received wisdom that boys do better when taught alongside girls.

Tony Little, headmaster of Eton, warned that boys were being faded by the British education system because it had become too focused on girls. He criticized teachers for failing to recognize that boys are actually more emotional than girls. The research argued that boys often perform badly in mixed schools because they become discouraged when their female peers do better earlier in speaking and reading skills.

But in single-sex schools teachers can tailor lessons to boys’ learning style, letting them move around the classroom and getting them to compete in teams to prevent boredom, wrote the study’s author, Abigail James, of the University of Virginia.

Teachers could encourage boys to enjoy reading and writing with specifically “boy-focused” approaches such as themes and characters that appeal to them. Because boys generally have more acute vision, learn best through touch, and are physically more active, they need to be given “hands-on” lessons where they are allowed to walk around. “Boys in mixed schools view classical music as feminine (女性的) and prefer the modern style in which violence and sexism are major themes,” James wrote.

Single-sex education also made it less likely that boys would feel they had to conform to a stereotype that men should be “masterful and in charge” in relationships. “In mixed schools boys feel forced to act like men before they understand themselves well enough to know what that means,” the study reported.

The teenage years can be a very confusing time filled with anxiety, especially in high school. Here are some powerful tips which can help you succeed in the years.

Know yourself and pick a direction. You may be faced with too many choices in your life and it’s unwise to try everything.     11     Consider all the benefits that it brings into your life and then see how you can develop your passion into a possible career option.

Get away from the friends that offer poisonous advice and negativity. There is no place for that kind of behavior at any stage of your life.     12     This does wonders for self-confidence and overall positivity.

Read as much as you can.     13     Stop spending hours in watching your favorite TV shows and instead use that time to invest in yourself by reading. You’ll notice in a few days how you begin to see things in a different light.

    14     I am 19 years old, so I understand just how much time can be wasted on technology, especially the Internet and cell phones. Once you spend less time doing things that add no value to your life and instead spend that time enriching yourself, your life begins to shape and turn into exactly what you want it to be.

Make mistakes. Look at a mistake you’ve made from every possible angle and take the lessons from it. Your teenage years are meant to be spent getting to know yourself.     15     It’s okay to make mistakes.