【推荐1】How Interest Rates Affect Spending

With every loan, there is a possibility that the borrower will not repay the money. To compensate lenders for that risk, there must be a reward: interest. Interest is the amount of money that lenders earn when they make a loan that the borrower repays, and the interest rate is the percentage of the loan amount that the lender charges to lend money.

The existence of interest allows borrowers to spend money immediately, instead of waiting to save the money to make a purchase. The lower the interest rate, the more willing people are to borrow money to make big purchases，such as houses or cars. When consumers pay less in interest，this gives them more money to spend, which can create a chain effect of increased spending throughout the economy. Businesses and farmers also benefit from lower interest rates, as it encourages them to make large equipment purchases due to the low cost of borrowing. This creates a situation where output and productivity increase.

Conversely, higher interest rates mean that consumers don’t have as much disposable (可支配的) income and must cut back on spending. When higher interest rates are coupled with increased lending standards, banks make fewer loans. This affects not only consumers, but also businesses and farmers, who cut back on spending for new equipment, thus slowing productivity or reducing the number of employees. The tighter lending standards mean that consumers will cut back on spending, and this will affect many businesses1 bottom lines. This will cause the businesses to reduce the number of employees that they have and to hold off on any major equipment purchases.

【推荐3】We all want to be happy. In the pursuit of happiness, we often purchase shiny things, visit new places, and change our appearances, but the truth of the matter is that these small bursts of high excitement cannot last long. We tend to let one simple human necessity slip away: conscious kindness.

Conscious kindness is an act of looking for opportunities to be kind to others and yourself. Usually acts of kindness are performed when the opportunity arises, such as holding the door open for someone and returning an item dropped on the ground to the person walking ahead of us. We call these “random acts of kindness”. In other words, there is no pattern, meaning or plan to focus on your act. Conscious kindness pushes you out of your comfort zone and sends you into the world to deliberately add moments of kindness to someone’s life.

A recent study set out to investigate the effect of a seven-day kindness activity on changes in subjective happiness. It was found that performing acts of kindness for seven days boosted the participants’ well being more than that of the control group who performed no acts of kindness. It’s no surprise that “a positive correlation can be drawn between the number of kind acts and an increase in happiness”. (Lee Rowland & Olive Scott Curry, The Journal of Social Psychology)

When you open your mind to changing the way you see the world, you begin to be consciously kind. To do this, you must begin with yourself. Being kind to yourself first and this is where goodness will be born; the goodness that comes from you can then be shared and spread to those around you. Speak gently to yourself. You become what you think about. Struggling with and dwelling on negative thoughts will only waste your energies.

Then move on to giving conscious kindness to those around you. Realize that behind every face you see on the street is a story you will never fully know. Understand that, overall, people are good, and they just want to live a happy life. Practice being a kind person, and you will be amazed at those who follow you and you will silently influence their lives.

【推荐1】I am not good at fine dining. Even after a couple of formal meals in college, I still didn’t know how to balance a pile of peas on the back of my fork, which is obviously the European style.

Honestly, I think I am much more used to the simple language of chopsticks. Simple, however, by no means straightforward. To me, the humble (微不足道的) art of chopsticks carries more than any silver knives or forks ever could.

My grandfather’s language of love is teaching. I still remember how my grandfather teaches me to use chopsticks the proper way.”Only your first two fingers should be moving,” he tells me, “and your two chopsticks must never cross.” He can use chopsticks skillfully. He shows me chopstick tricks and we play games with chopsticks, like trying to take a pea from the other’s chopsticks grip. With a pair of chopsticks and his powerful hand, there is no need for any other cutlery when even noodles can be cut clean with a pair of chopsticks.

My grandmother’s language of love is food. In her hand, wooden chopsticks are no longer just cutlery, but a tool to show her concern.“Come, eat more,” she always says while using chopsticks to pick up food for me. When my grandfather comes home from a long day’s work, despite all the nagging that she gives to him, my grandmother always happily places the best part of their food onto his plate with chopsticks, and takes the rest for herself. There is no need for any words, when the love can be expressed with a pair of chopsticks.

Using chopsticks takes practice, patience and tenacity. After more than fifty years of marriage, my grandparents are still studying it and practicing it, with every meal and every mouthful. Mastering the loving language of chopsticks takes even more work, perhaps nobody can ever really be an expert-but isn’t that the beauty of it? Though our chopsticks may cross from time and we might drop the food on the table, we can always pick it up and try again.

A．	B．
C．	D．

【推荐2】One evening, when I asked my 17-year-old son, Ray, for help with dinner, his response took me by surprise. “What’s a colander (漏勺)?” he asked.

I could only blame myself. In the family, nobody’s hands went in the sauce except my own. But as I explained with a touch of panic that a colander is the thing with holes in it, I wondered what else I hadn’t prepared Ray for. Suddenly it hit me: He’d be leaving the house in a year to attend college. No way was I going to send a spoiled prince into the world.

As parents, while focusing on our children’s character, we are also raising someone’s future roommate, husband, or father. I’d raise a boy who would never ask the woman in his life, “What’s for dinner?” So, I came up with a plan to offer Ray a private home economics course. Gladly, he didn’t say no. For two hours, three days a week, Ray was all mine. One day, as his tomato sauce reduced on the stove, he washed and seasoned a chicken for roasting. Then he rolled out the pie crust(大馅饼皮) and filled it with apples, while listening to my explanation for the importance of preheating an oven.

One day we covered Advanced Laundry, in which I taught him never to mix a red sweatshirt with white ones. I knew that he would rather have been shooting hoops in the driveway than learning to mend socks with his mother—he tried to beg off sewing lessons—but it couldn’t be denied that he was learning, and more than just housekeeping. “I appreciate what you do as a mom,” he told me one day.

Ray now understands the finer points of cooking, and more importantly, he realizes there’s nothing masculine(男子气概的) about being helpless. Not only can he make his own dinner, but also he can make a big meal for his family. That’s what I call a man.

【推荐3】I have a special place in my heart for libraries. I have for as long as I can remember. I was always an enthusiastic reader, sometimes reading up to three books a day as a child. Stories were like air to me and while other kids played ball or went to parties, I lived out adventures through the books I checked out from the library.

My first job was working at the Ukiah Library when I was 16 years old. It was a dream job and I did everything from shelving books to reading to the children for story time.

As I grew older and became a mother, the library took on a new place and an added meaning in my life. I had several children and books were our main source (来源) of entertainment. It was a big deal for us to load up and go to the local library, where my kids could pick out books to read or books they wanted me to read to them.

I always read, using different voices, as though I were acting out the stories with my voice and they loved it! It was a special time to bond with my children and it filled them with the wonderment of books.

Now, I see my children taking their children to the library and I love that the excitement of going to the library lives on form generation to generation.

As a novelist, I’ve found a new relationship with libraries. I encourage readers to go to their local library when they can’t afford to purchase a book. I see libraries as a safe haven (避风港) for readers and writers, a bridge that helps put together a reader with a book. Libraries, in their own way, help fight book piracy (盗版行为) and 1 think all writers should support libraries in a significant way when they can. Encourage readers to use the library. Share library announcements on your social media. Frequent them and talk about them when you can.