【推荐2】My first performance in front of the audience was coming up soon.

I tried as hard as I could to remain calm but my heart was racing. I stared down at my sweat-covered shaking hands.

I looked up again at the audience realizing that these were real people. They were not just my mum and dad who would say “Good job!” even if I messed up the entire piece.

What if I had the wrong music? What if I played the wrong notes?

As it turned out, I was never able to answer these questions because the spotlight (聚光灯)was waiting for me. I grasped my hands tightly together drying off the sweat.

Slowly I walked to the mud-brown piano in the center of the room. It contained 88 demanding keys which were waiting impatiently to be played. I swallowed the golf-ball-sized lump (隆起部分) in my throat and sat down. Slowly I opened the music. Next I rested my still shaking hands on the ivory (象牙色的) keys.

As my fingers played across the keys, I was becoming more unsure of my preparation for this moment. But the memory of my years of training came flooding back. I knew that I had practiced this piece so many times that I could play it backwards if requested.

Although at one point, I accidentally played two keys instead of the intended one, I continued to move my fingers automatically (自动地).

My eyes burned holes into the pages in front of me. There was no way that I was going to lose my concentration. To keep this to myself, I leaned forward and focused carefully on the music.

When I came to the end of the page a warning went off inside my head: DON’T MAKE A MISTAKE WHEN YOU TURN THE PAGE!

Needless to say I obeyed myself with all my heart and mind. And proud of my “page-turning” feat (技艺) I finished the rest of the piece without making a single mistake.

After the final note died away, a celebration went into action inside my head. I had finished. I had mastered the impossible.

【推荐3】Two of the saddest words in the English language are “if only”. I live my life with the goal of never having to say those words, because they convey regret, lost opportunities, mistakes, and disappointment.

My father is famous in our family for saying, “Take the extra minute to do it right.” I always try to live by the “extra minute” rule. When my children were young and likely to cause accidents, I always thought about what I could do to avoid an “if only” moment, whether it was something minor like moving a cup full of hot coffee away from the edge of a counter, or something that required a little more work such as taping padding (衬垫) onto the sharp corners of a glass coffee table.

I don’t only avoid those “if only” moments when it comes to safety. It’s equally important to avoid “if only” in our personal relationships. We all know people who lost a loved one and regretted that they had foregone an opportunity to say “I love you” or “I forgive you.” When my father announced he was going to the eye doctor across from my office on Good Friday, I told him that it was a holiday for my company and I wouldn’t be here. But then I thought about the fact that he’s 84 years old and I realized that I shouldn’t give up an opportunity to see him. I called him and told him I had decided to go to work on my day off after all.

I know there will still be occasions when I have to say “if only” about something, but my life is definitely better because of my policy of doing everything possible to avoid that eventuality (不测的事). And even though it takes an extra minute to do something right, or it occasionally takes an hour or two in my busy schedule to make a personal connection, I know that I’m doing the right thing. I’m buying myself peace of mind and that’s the best kind of insurance for my emotional well-being.

【推荐1】On Friday afternoon when I picked Gabriel up from school, he came running towards me smiling widely. Straight away I noticed a gap on the bottom row of his teeth. I felt my heart stop for a moment. At first I thought perhaps he had had some accident, such as falling down the stairs. Gabriel wasn't old enough to lose teeth, was he?!

Before I managed to ask him, he shouted "Mummy! Mummy!   I've lost a tooth!” To my amazement, Gabriel appeared to be happy! ”Wow! When did that happen?" I asked. He thought for a few seconds and told me that he wasn't sure. He remembered eating a cake at lunchtime, and later when he checked in the mirror, his tooth was gone! No pain, no stressing and no worries!

I admit I did feel a little emotional. We focused the early years on his teeth growing, but now Gabriel would lose all those baby teeth and get adult ones! I told Gabriel to write to the tooth fairy （仙子）,who would certainly visit, locate the tooth and leave a coin. Surely enough, a shiny coin was under his pillow （枕头）on Saturday. When Gabriel broke the news to Daddy, we laughed about the amount of cash kids make out of their teeth—a child usually has twenty teeth. A nice profit!

I'm proud of Gabriel. He wasn't frightened or confused, although the missing tooth may be in his stomach, which he thought was quite funny! Later I got some knowledge about which teeth are likely to go at specific ages. Of course, the ages aren't quite exact, but at least I know where we're heading.

【推荐1】Water is everywhere, from soil to the cells inside our own bodies. Depending on factors like location, age, and sex, the average human is between 55-60% water. So what role does water play in our bodies, and how much do we actually need to drink to stay healthy?

The water in our bodies works to adjust temperature, and to nourish(滋养) the brain and other body parts. Water isn't only in our blood. An adult's brain and heart are almost three quarters water, while lungs are 83% water.

If we are mainly made of water, why do we still need to drink so much? Well, each day we lose two to three liters(升) through our sweat, urine(尿) and even just from breathing, which helps our bodies get rid of waste. While these functions are necessary to our survival, we need to compensate for the water loss. Keeping a balanced water level is essential to avoid dehydration(脱水), which can have bad effects on overall health. Dehydration is usually caused by over consumption of water in a short amount of time. It can cause obvious drops in energy, mood and blood pressure. In severe cases, it will cause headache, and even death.

However, on a normal basis, maintaining a well-hydrated system is easy to manage for those of us who are fortunate enough to have access to clean drinking water. For a long time, it’s commonly believed that we should drink eight glasses a day.   But now it is suggested that the amount of water we need to drink depend largely on our weight and the environment. The recommended daily intake varies from between 2.5-3.7 liters of water for men, and about 2-2.7 liters for women.

【推荐2】I drove a taxi to make a living. One night about twenty years ago, I went to pick up a passenger at 2:30 AM. When I arrived to collect, I found the building was dark except for a single light in a ground floor window.

I walked to the door and knocked, “Just a minute,” answered a weak, elderly voice.

After a long pause, the door opened. A small woman in her eighties stood before me. By her side was a small suitcase.

I took the suitcase to the car, and then returned to help the woman. She took my arm and we walked slowly toward the car.

She kept thanking me for my kindness. “It’s nothing,” I told her. “I just try to treat my passengers the way I would want my mother treated.”

“Oh, you’re such a good man.” She said. When we got into the taxi, she gave me an address, and then asked, “Could you drive through downtown?”

“It’s not the shortest way,” I answered quickly.

“Oh, I’m in no hurry,” she said. “I’m on my way to a hospice(临终医院). I don’t have any family left. The doctor says I don’t have very long.”

I quietly reached over and shut off the meter(计价器).

For the next two hours, we drove through the city. She showed me the building where she had once worked, the neighborhood where she had lived, and the furniture shop that had once been a ballroom where she had gone dancing as a girl.

Sometimes she’d ask me to slow down in front of a particular building and would sit staring into the darkness, saying nothing.

At dawn, she suddenly said, “I’m tired. Let’s go now.”

We drove in silence to the address she had given me.

“How much do I owe you?” she asked.

“Nothing.” I said.

“You have to make a living,” she answered. “Oh, there are other passengers,” I answered.

Almost without thinking, I bent and gave her a hug. She held onto me tightly. Our hug ended with her remark, “You gave an old woman a little moment of joy.”

【推荐3】Where did you buy your last book? Chances are that you bought it on the Internet. But if you did, you missed the unusual experience of browsing in a real bookstore. These days bookstores offer lots of great books and plenty more.

Taipei’s Eslite Dunnan Store

Time magazine once named Eslite Dunnan Store in Taipei "Asia's best bookstore!". One visit to the store tells you why. The store, spreading across five floors, offers a combination of restaurants, music and over 200,000 books. With its comfortable reading spots, visitors sometimes say it's like a library. Others have called it the “7-Eleven of bookstores” because it's open 24hours a day.

Saraiva Bookstore

Rio de Janeiro's Saraiva Bookstore might be the world's most colorful bookstore. The visible upper level is lined with books all ranged by their colors. This rainbow effect provides a colorful greeting for shoppers as they arrive. A rainbow path also leads young readers into the children's section.

Book Garden

The world's biggest bookstore is Tehran, Iran's Book Garden with 700,000 square feet of space. In addition to restaurants and a theater, the Book Garden features a park on the roof.

Libreria Acqua Alta

Venice, Italy, is a city surrounded by water. It seems only right then that one of its most interesting bookstores is Libreria Acqua Alta. Its books are displayed in all things related to water such as boats, bathtubs and more.

Whether you enjoy reading inside or outside, there is always an interesting bookstore to be discovered.