【推荐1】I love persimmons(柿子). The sweet, bright orange fruit indicates the coming of autumn in Iran, where grew up. Persimmons can’t grow just anywhere, but they do grow in California, where I now live. A few years ago, preparing to travel from San Francisco to Boston, I packed two persimmons, one of which I ate in the departure hall, waiting for boarding.

At this point, a lady came up, asking where the fruit was purchased. She looked a bit disappointed when hearing it couldn’t be gained at the airport and returned to her seat on the other end of the hall. “I can give the second persimmon away”, I thought to myself. When I offered her the fruit, she at first opposed but when I insisted, she was visibly glad and appreciatively accepted. I went back to my seat. happy to have made someone else happy, and that, as far as I was concerned, was the end of the story.

Sometime during the flight, the lady caught up with me to thank me again. She shared that she had grown up in Japan, where there was a persimmon tree in the yard of her childhood home. She now lived in Boston, where she hadn’t been able to find the fruit. The taste of this persimmon was precious to her, reconnecting her with memories of her relatives.

Only then did I understand the impact of this tiny act of generosity. I am so moved to this day that the taste of the persimmon I never ate gives me more joy than all the ones I have eaten.

My experience is not unique. Research has shown that acts of generosity for others make us happier than treating ourselves. A 2018 study by Harvard Business School professor Michael Norton and colleagues found that despite participants’ predictions to the contrary, giving money to someone else increased their own happiness more than spending it on themselves.

【推荐2】A few weeks ago I paid a visit to the UK.The moment I reached Heathrow airport,I was attracted by all the language differences between American and British English. Instead of reading “exit”,the signs read “way out”.The announcer said “alight” instead of “get off“ the plane.

My first stop in the UK was the British museum and I was particularly interested in Room 41.In that room，I saw the oldest sentence ever found written in Old English.Archeologists(考古学家)believe it is from between 450 and 480 AD.

The next stop was Westminster Abbey. At the Poets’ Corner I saw graves of famous writers,such as Shakespeare,Charles Dickens and Samuel Johnson. The list is going on and on.Another thing on the Ab-bey grounds that you should not miss is a colorful glass window in St. Margaret’s Church,as you walk up to the Abbey.The window,about halfway up the left side of the church,honors William Caxton.He was the first person to bring the printing press to England and set up his printing business near the Abbey, probably because he was likely to get work from the government offices in the area.Caxton may not be as well-known as the writers in Poets’ Corner,but he played a very important part instandardizing English.

My final stop was the Tower of London,which wasthe symbol of power of the people who changed English. This castle was built by William the conqueror after he defeated King Harold II in the Battle of Hastings during the Norman Invasion in 1066.After the Normans took over England,the official language became French for hundreds of years,and this was the time when many French words entered the English language especially words related to upper-class life such as words about government and cooking.

So that was my trip.

【推荐1】After four silent years, the 27-year-old British singer Adele Adkins has finally introduced herself to the world again with Hello, the opening song from her third album 25, which came out on Nov. 20, 2015.

Although Adele is a very successful singer now, music wasn’t always what she saw herself doing. At age 10, when she saw her grandmother’s pain over the death of Adele’s grandfather, she pictured herself as a heart surgeon.

“I wanted to fix people’s hearts,” she told the UK music website i-D, remembering the childhood interest she’d had in biology classes until she found out that her real talent was for singing.

Adele didn’t go to medical school, but many would agree that she still has healing(治愈)powers. “Her songs find the kind of memory every listener holds somewhere in their heart. This kind of feeling is what people have always liked in Adele,” said The Telegraph. “She writes a pop diary, sharing the simple secrets of her heart.”

Most successful pop stars make albums at a fast pace, but not Adele. After her second album 21 won the 2012 Grammy Award for Album of the Year, she made it clear with her label that she would spend “four or five years” making her next album. She told Vogue magazine, “I won’t come out with new music until it’s better than 21.”

Instead of seeking fame, Adele remained silent and moved to the countryside. In her free time, she loved to watch TV series Teen Mom, American Horror Story, and The Walking Dead.

Living life as normally as possible is important to the singer’s art. “Nobody wants to listen to a record from someone who’s not living in the real world,” Adele told i-D. “So I live a low-key life for my fans.”

【推荐3】A 63-year-old Chinese grandpa's traditional carpentry (木工) skills are delighting tens of millions of viewers online as he creates woodwork without glue, screws or nails.

The Chinese master carpenter, Wang Dewen, known as “Grandpa Amu” on YouTube, has been regarded as a modern Lu Ban, a famous Chinese structural engineer during the Zhou Dynasty, thanks to his vast carpentry knowledge. His most popular video, which shows he made a fantastic wooden arch bridge, went viral on the platform, gaining more than 42 million views.

Grandpa Amu follows an ancient Chinese mortise and tenon technique (榫卯技术), which means no nails or glue are involved in the entire process of building the arch bridge. Grandpa Amu has also made several wooden toys for his grandson using the same technique. Among all the items, a walking Peppa Pig and a bubble blowing toy are his grandson's favorites.

It was not long before his son and daughter-in-law decided to video Wang's efforts. The master carpenter has so far attracted over 1. 18 million subscribers on YouTube, but Grandpt Amu insists that he is just an ordinary farmer. Just like LiZiqi, who lives in a village of southwest China's Sichuan Province, has made a name for herself by making various Chinese dishes on YouTube since 2016. Grandpa Amu now in fact is also trying to spread unique Chinese techniques and Chinese culture to the world.

Grandpa Amu's son and daughter-in-law now work full time on his videos, hoping that the channel's popularity would help local villagers better sell their farm produce. “We came up with the idea of making the videos because we wanted to bring our rural culture to others and let people learn about these ancient Chinese techniques,” said Huang Chunmei, Grandpa Amu's daughter-in-law, in an interview with South China Morning Post.