【推荐2】Strangers Under the Same Roof

Does every dinner with your parents seem to turn into an argument? Have your once warm and open conversations become cold and guarded? Do you feel that you just cannot see eye to eye with them on anything? You are not alone. Heated arguments and cold silences are common between teenagers and their parents.

Teenagers' physical changes may result in such family tensions. You may feel anxious that you are developing at a different rate to your friends, shooting up in height or getting left far behind. You might worry about your changing voice, weight problems or spots（粉刺）.When it all gets too much, your parents are often the first targets of your anger.

It can be a big headache to balance your developing mental needs too. You enter a strange middle ground --- no longer a small child but not quite an adult. You have both a new desire for independence and a continued need for your parents' love and support. You feel ready to be more responsible and make decisions on your own. Unfortunately, your parents do not always agree and that makes you feel unhappy. "Why can't they just let me go?" you may wonder. On the other hand, when you are struggling to control your feelings, you wish they could be more caring and patient---sometimes they forget that growing up is a rough ride. It can be difficult when your parents treat you like a child but expect you to act like an adult. All of this can lead to a breakdown in your relationship.

Although sometimes it may seem impossible to get along as a family, you can take action to improve the situation. The key to keeping the peace is regular and honest communication. When you disagree with your parents，take a minute to calm down and try to understand the situation from their point of view. Perhaps they have experienced something similar and do not want you to go through the same pain. After you have thought it through, explain your actions and feelings calmly, listen carefully，and address their concerns. Through this kind of healthy discussion, you will lean when to back down and when to ask your parents to relax their control.

Just remember that it is completely a common thing to struggle with the stress that parent child tensions create, and that you and your parents can work together to improve your relationship. The good news is that this stormy period will not last. Everything will turn out all right in the end, and the changes and challenges of your teenage years will prepare you for adulthood.

【推荐3】My mother is the most important person in my life and she means the whole world to me. She was a nurse at Stony Brook University Hospital and she always took the night shift so that she could come home in time to drive me to school. She’d sleep during the day and be ready when I returned home before heading out again in the evening. This went on for 23 years. She never complained. No matter how tired she was, she always had enough energy to be my mom.

She often had to work on Christmas, Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve, and sometimes Thanksgiving, which made me upset. However, before holidays she always decorated the inside and outside of our house. She’d also have cookies baking in the oven, a holiday-themed movie in the VCR, and music playing throughout our house for me. But when it was time to go to work, there was no room for debate. “Why do you have to work on this day of all days?” I’d ask sadly. “They need me, too, dear son,” she’d respond, compassion in her tone.

For a long time I didn’t understand why she should care so much about those sick strangers. Recently, as my grandmother became ill, I found myself spending more time in hospitals. The scenes I saw in the hospital made me see the different side of my mother. The nurses checked heart, blood and oxygen levels, and made sure patients were comfortable. They lifted patients in and out of bed and helped them to the bathroom. Beyond their duties, the nurses displayed consideration for each patient.

What I saw helped me to understand why my mother was devoted to her occupation. I was filled with more admiration for my mother.

【推荐1】Do you want to really impress your friend with a birthday gift? How about flying a drone (无人机) made of chocolate?

It can be done, and it was done by a team of three Duke University students, with help from a chocolate maker called Chocolove. About a year ago, mechanical engineering student Anuj Thakkar and his friends were talking over coffee. “Wouldn't it be cool if we had eatable drones?" they wondered.

Over the summer, that idea began to take shape. "We tried cheese. We tried bread. Chocolate was what we settled on." said Thakkar. Chocolate is moldable, making the design process a little easier. Thakkar, Carlo Lindner and Ben Succop started designing. Eventually, to make their friend Kristine Stanner smile, they managed to build a fleet of drones out of chocolate. On Stanner's birthday, they flew a drone to her. She ate a piece of the one-of-a-kind drone at once.

However, they worked really hard for it. The summer in Durham, North Carolina, is very hot, and it's not a great time to work with chocolate. "The first drone — chocolate was falling from the sky," Thakkar said. “It was flowing in drops.” Hearing the news, Chocolove enthusiastically provided his high-quality dark chocolate for them. But the high-quality chocolate is more fragile than the cheap one, so the team had to fix it again. They put the plastic on the airframe at first and then put sweet vermicelli (细面条) to give the airframe more flexibility. The drone crashed a lot, but it always held. And it had a tendency to tear, which may be why real planes aren't made of chocolate.

Thakkar said, “I got tired of chocolate in the first day of designing, but I like to make strange gifts for my friends."

【推荐2】Candace Payne's life changed forever in May 2017 when she posted a video of herself laughing crazily and wearing a mask. The video spread widely and "Mask Mom “became a household name.

During the two years since that, Candace has published several books, starred in a TLC. web series and went on tour with Mandisa. She made appearances on late night talk shows, met J.J.Abrams and was able to fulfill a dream of taking her family to Disney World. It was a busy but joyful time.

Her latest book is Consider It Joy. "I feel like people need a tool in their hands to actually get the joy they are fighting for, "Candace says, "The book can help you keep track of how much space and time you are devoting to things that aren't worth it in comparison to the joy that I know I could have.”

Getting joy is something that has always been important to Candace. “What the opportunity offered me was not a forced open door,” Candace says, "Many people are trying desperately to push things open when they have to be obedient(顺从的) to the little things.”

Trusting herself has required being confident in saying no. She uses a simple tool to evaluate whether an opportunity is right to her. Candace says, "I have a balance beam (平衡木)where I'm asked to walk every single day as a mom, a wife, a speaker and an author. There are so many things I need to balance at a time. I have to realize what belongs there and what doesn't. The most important factor is joy.”

That's the heart behind the book Consider It Joy. "I really wanted to give people more than just advice about joy, Candace says, "I wanted to give them the ability to actually own it in their everyday life.”

【推荐3】A group of Canadian kids are already spreading a bit of Christmas spirit in Halifax, Nova Scotia, by wrapping (裹) warm clothing around lamp poles (杆、柱) for the city’s homeless to pick up and use. The sight of warmly dressed poles caught recently the attention of locals, who stopped to click pictures to share on social media.

Every year, Tara Atkins collects warm clothing from her community, in order to give to the less fortunate. This year, she took to Facebook to call, for donations and the response was strong-their front porch (门厅) was filled with bags of clothes. Since the family was traveling to Halifax on November 15 with their daughter Jayda and seven of her friends to celebrate her 8th birthday, Tara decided it was the perfect time to teach the children a valuable life lesson.

The kids spent time handing out coats to any homeless they met on the streets and tied the rest around lamp posts for others to pick up. According to Tara, the experience helped the children better understand the difficult situation of homeless people having to confront the serious winter on the streets.

There is no way to be sure that the coats left hanging on street posts were actually picked up by the homeless, but Tara says she isn’t too worried about that. By next morning, all the jackets and scarves on the posts were gone. Photographs of the inspiring project have been shared about 8,000 times on Facebook, and got over 10,000 likes. Tara, who did something similar in Toronto in December last year, says she’s already planning next year’s coat drive. She’s hoping to spread the word well ahead of time, so more people can contribute. And she also wants to add $5 fast food gift cards so the recipients (接受者) can also enjoy a hot meal. “We’ve had help from others when we were in need, and we knew how great it made us feel,” said Zachary Atkins, Tara’s husband.

【推荐2】When I began planning to move to Auckland to study,my mother was a little worried about the uncertainty of living in a place that was so different from India,where we lived. She worried particularly about the lack of jobs,the cultural differences and the chance that I would face racism.

Despite these worries,I came to New Zealand in July 2009. I have found the place and people very nice and supportive. Soon after I arrived,I realized the importance of getting a job to supply my living expenses.

Determined to do this on my own,I spent a whole day going from door to door asking for a job. However,I received little or no response. This became my routine every day after college for a few weeks.

One afternoon,I walked into a building to ask if there were any job opportunities. People there were very surprised,and advised me not to continue my job search in that manner. As I was about to leave,a clerk in the building,who had been listening to what the others had said,approached me and asked if I would wait outside. Fifteen minutes later,he returned. He asked me what my plans were and encouraged me to stay confident. He then offered to take me to the Royal Oak area to search for a job.

I was a little surprised,but had a good feeling about him,so I went along. Along the way,I realized that I had run out of copies of my resume (简历). The man stopped at his business partner's office to make me 15 extra copies. He also gave me tips on dressing and speaking,and added that I should give him a call if I ever needed anything. I handed out my resumes and went home feeling very satisfied. The following day,I received a call from a store in Royal Oak offering me a job.

It seems that the world always gives back to you when you need it. And this time,it was a complete stranger who turned out to be a real blessing.

【推荐3】Seventy-three-year-old Gary selected his food in Value Mart more carefully than NASA chose its candidates for the space shuttle. Skim milk was $2.99, on sale from $3.49; white bread, 89 cents with a discount; table salt, 99 cents, 20 cents off the regular price. Leaving the cashier (收银员), he estimated that he had saved 80 cents today. He was pleased that he had got good value for his money again.

At the exit, the cold wind reminded him of his gloves. “Now where are they?” Not in the coat pockets. Not in the grocery bag either. The worried man made a thorough search of all his pockets, again including the grocery bag. Now he was sure they must have been dropped somewhere inside the store.

Old Gary had bought the black gloves at a 25% discount ten years ago. His quick decision to buy the expensive gloves turned out to be a good one, which even promoted his social status on the bus, as poorer passengers stared at him enviously. Losing this favorite possession was almost like losing a child to him.

Gary re-entered the store with long steps. He followed the same route he had walked before. There were all open passages and it did not take long to be convinced that the gloves were not in sight.

“Society has changed, people have changed”, he murmured to himself. “Years ago, if somebody picked up something lost, they would give it back. Not anymore!”

On his way out, he went over to the cashier to ask if she had received any lost gloves. She asked him what color they were, and when he said “black”, there came a disappointing answer. He took his time now, finally walking out of the store.

Back home, Gary was at a loss. In deep winter, he could not do without a pair of gloves. He was very upset that people no longer returned things they found on the road.

After a month, Gary decided to buy another leather pair. Before boarding the subway, he stepped into Value Mart again to see if by any chance his gloves had been returned to the lost and found office. “What color are they?” the woman in the office asked again. “Black,” he gave the same answer. She looked into her drawer and drew out a pair of men’s leather gloves. “Are they?”

“Yes! Those are mine!” Gary exclaimed, his eyes glowing with joy.