1 . According to Jessica Hagy, author of How to Be Interesting, it’s not difficult to make yourself interesting at a dinner party.

    1    , if you’re out of your comfort zone or if you’re wandering into somebody’s house for the first time. So the main thing is just to show up and be adventurous, trying different foods and talking to strangers.

People love to talk about themselves. If you can start the conversation with a question other than “What do you do for a living?”, you’ll be able to get a lot more interesting conversation out of whomever it is you’re talking to.     2    , it can bring in “I have this old, broken-down vehicle” or “I rode the bus with these crazy people who were laughing at silly jokes in the back.” It just opens up conversation.

    3    ? If you can’t take their wine away, you should certainly try to take away their soapbox (讲台). If you’re the host, you can ask them to help you in the kitchen with something and just remove them from the situation.    4    .

And what about that other dinner-party killer: awkward silence? If you’re faced with an awkward silence at a dinner party, the only thing that always gets everyone talking again is to give the host a compliment (赞扬).     5    . Just quickly turn around and say, “This cake is extremely delicious and you have to tell me all about it.”

So being interesting at a dinner party isn’t that hard.

5 . On a tram smoothly pulling into the heart of Luxembourg City, Marck gives a smile and takes a look at the fabric of the seat next to him. For him, the city’s trams are more than just transport. More even than the focus of his job. They are about transforming his country and, perhaps, changing the world.

Marck is the director general of Luxtram, Luxembourg’s modern trams. It first started running services two years ago. Next year, Luxembourg will become the world’s only country to get rid of fares on all its forms of public transport. Luxembourg’s traffic problems come from its army of workers. The population of the capital city almost doubles during the working day, when more than 110,000 people travel in and out.

After three decades when its roads have become so crowded, Luxembourg is going to do something remarkable. Free fares, and a plan to persuade people to switch from cars to trams or trains. Marck, along with many others, is excited to see what happens next. “The fact that this is free means that everyone can use it — young or old, rich or poor,” he said. “Everyone can say to themselves it’s better to leave the car at home. We must continue to improve and extend the network. It must always be comfortable, well-connected, efficient.”

Lydie Polfer, the city’s mayor, says she hopes to reach the point where more than a third of people come into the city using public transport — at the moment, it’s less than one in five. She said, “It’s not practical to ban cars because some people, like the elderly, need them. But everyone has to be aware that he or she can do something to improve the situation. There is an expression in German — you are not in the traffic jam — you are the traffic jam, and that is true. I think that making it free will be the biggest arguments for people to use public transport. ”

6 . Throughout history, many species of animals have been threatened with extinction. When Europeans first arrived in North America, more than 60 million buffalo (水牛) lived on the continent. Yet hunting the buffalo was so popular during the 19th century that by 1900 the animal’s population had fallen to about 400 before the government stepped in to protect the species. In some countries today, the elephant faces a similar challenge, as illegal hunters kill the animals for the ivory in their tusks.

Yet not all animals with commercial value face this threat (威胁).The cow, for example, is a valuable source of food, but no one worries that the cow will soon be extinct. Why does the commercial value of ivory threaten the elephant. while the commercial value of beef protects the cow?

The reason is that elephants are a common resource, while cows are private goods. Elephants wander freely without any owners. The hunter has a strong motivation to kill as many elephants as he can find. Because illegal hunters are numerous, each has only a slight motivation to preserve the elephant population. By contrast, cattle live on farms that are privately owned. Each farmer makes great effort to maintain the cattle population on his farm because he harvests the benefit of these efforts.

Governments have tried to solve the elephant’s problem in two ways. Some countries, such as Kenya and Uganda, have made it illegal to kill elephants and sell their ivory. Yet these laws have been hard to put into effect, and elephant populations have continued to dwindle. By contrast, other countries, such as Malawi and Namibia, have made elephants private goods and allowed people to kill elephants, but only those on their own property.

With private ownership and the profit motive now on its side, the African elephant might someday be as safe from extinction as the cow. The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle pointed out the problem with common resources: “What is common to many is taken least care of, for all men have greater regard for what is their own than for what they possess in common with others.”

9 . Learning how to care for a sad person will help you be there for your loved ones and friends when they are down. However, knowing how to care for a sad person is not something an individual is born with.     1     Here are a few tips that will eventually help you lift the spirit of a sad person.

Give a hug. Hugging someone shows your affection and care.     2     This can make them feel relaxed and open to you. This can also help them recognize that you are there to help them go through this moment. With no kind and loving words, your actions have already said a lot.

    3     Now, go on and say some kind words. Words like “I’m here”, “we are in this together”, “you’ll get over this”, “lean on me” and so on, can help a sad person feel better and know that you’re there to take him/her through the sad moment.

Use the right tone of voice.     4     They go along with tone to convey a meaning to the listener. To convey your words with faith that would create a positive effect on the sad person, you would need to say it with the right tone of voice.

Listen patiently. People ask lots of questions but they end up paying little attention to getting the feedback (反馈) that they wanted. Don’t be that person. After asking the questions, listen patiently to know what the sad person would appreciate at that time.     5    

“A barbecue restaurant owner I know told me to come back on Monday, so as to leave the weekends to out-of-town visitors.” said Huang Yang, a native of Zibo city in Shandong province     1     works outside his hometown. He recently returned home for a visit and wanted to have some barbecue,     2     he failed to find seats in four different restaurants.

Thanks to social media recommendations, Zibo has gone viral on Chinese social media platforms.    3     (video) on sites such as Xiaohongshu show thousands of people traveling to the city to try its local barbecue, which they say     4     (wrap) in a pancake and has a “distinct taste” .

Taking advantage of the barbecue craze, Zibo has gone all out to promote local tourism resources, while     5     (work) to ensure the safety of visitors and the quality of tourism products. To provide visitors     6     a happy experience, market regulators have carried out inspections on barbecue restaurants to ensure food safety. Police have increased     7     number of patrol (巡逻) personnel to ensure visitors’ safety. Railway authorities have even added two additional high-speed trains between the     8     (province) capital Jinan and Zibo on weekends to meet the growing passenger demand. The local government now has released a map of barbecue joints and added 21 new bus routes     9     (facilitate) urban transportation.

According to data from on-demand service platform Meituan, Zibo has seen an 800 percent increase in accommodation bookings for the upcoming holiday     10     (compare) to 2019, ranking first in Shandong province in terms of growth rate.