When I was 9, we packed up our home in Los Angeles and arrived at Heathrow, London on a gray January morning. Everyone in the family settled quickly into the city except me. Without my beloved beaches and endless blue—sky days, I felt at a loss and out of place. Until I made a discovery.
Southbank, at an eastern bend in the Thames, is the center of British skateboarding, where the continuous crashing of skateboards left your head ringing . I loved it. I soon made friends with the local skaters. We spoke our own language. And my favorite: Safe. Safe meant cool. It meant hello. It meant don't worry about it. Once, when trying a certain trick on the beam(横杆), I fell onto the stones, damaging a nerve in my hand, and Toby came over, helping me up: Safe, man. Safe. A few minutes later, when I landed the trick, my friends beat their boards loud, shouting: " Safe! Safe! Safe! " And that's what mattered—landing tricks, being a good skater.
When I was 15 my family moved to Washington. I tried skateboarding there, but the locals were far less welcoming. Within a couple of years, I'd given it up.
When I returned to London in 2004, I found myself wandering down to Southbank, spending hours there. I've traveled back several times since, most recently this past spring. The day was cold but clear: tourists and Londoners stopped to watch the skaters. Weaving(穿梭)among the kids who rushed by on their boards, I found my way to the beam. Then a rail—thin teenager, in a baggy white T—shirt, skidded(滑)up to the beam. He sat next to me. He seemed not to notice the man next to him. But soon I caught a few of his glances. "I was a local here 20 years ago, " I told him. Then, slowly, he began to nod his head. "Safe, man. Safe. "
"Yeah," I said. "Safe. "
According to Jessica Hagy author of How to Be Interesting, it's not difficult to make yourself interesting at a dinner party.
, 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. , 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.
? 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. .
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). . 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.
A. How do you know the host
B. The first step is to go exploring
C. If you ask the question "How did you get here? "
D. Be prepared to have awkward conversations with strangers
E. Or turn the conversation into a topic where they have little to say
F. What about that person who had too much to drink or won't stop talking
G. He or she is the person who is feeling the weight of that awkwardness the most
My mother is 92. Unless I have to be out of town, each week I take my mother to do her 1 and visit the doctor, providing 2 and transportation. During the week, however, she likes to go to a nearby store to 3 some small things she needs.
Last week she walked up to the store, but when she went to pay for her groceries, she was 4 about three dollars. The only 5 to pay for the groceries was to take off the 6 she could do without: a bottle of rubbing alcohol (医用酒精) and a bar of soap. By taking off these, she was able to 7 the new total to the amount of cash she had with her.
At this store, people 8 and then go off to the side to 9 their own groceries. My mother was putting her groceries into shopping bags when a 10 came up to her and said, "Here are the things that you 11 . " handing her the rubbing alcohol and the 12 . My mother, who is never speechless, was speechless. She 13 for the woman's name and address so that she could 14 her. The woman told her it was her 15 .
My mother was so 16 by her gesture that she decided to go back to the store and give the cashier (收银员) a five-dollar bill to keep on hand 17 the same happened to someone else if they didn't have enough 18 for all of their groceries.
So, whoever you are, thank you for the random act of 19 that not only helped my mother out, but 20 too.
Going to Mount Huangshan reminds me of the popular Beatles' song "The Long and Winding Road". is so breathtaking about the experience is the out-of-this-world scenes. The rolling sea of clouds you see once you are at the top will remind you how tiny we (human) are.
The hot spring at the foot of the mountain is something you must try after the climb. It will (undoubted) help you get refreshed! The amazing thing about the spring is that the colder the temperature gets, the (hot) the spring! Strange, isn't it? But that's how nature is—always leaving us (astonish).
What comes next is the endless series of steps. You can't help wondering how hard it (be) for the people then to put all those rocks into place. Though it is the only unnatural thing on your way up the mountain, still it highlights the whole adventure offers a place where you can sit down to rest your (ache) legs.
As the song goes, this long and winding road "will never disappear", and it will always stick in the visitor's memory. It sure does in (I). While you're in China, Mount Huangshan is must to visit!
