The process of learning this skill was not a plain sailing. At first, I was a slow learner in mental calculation who's math scores were below the average of my class, and it always took me more time than others to come up with answers of mental calculations. However, when it were difficult math problems, mostly I could resolve them much faster than others. My math teacher, an experienced middle- aged man, noticed my talent and treated me with some special training to improve my mental calculating speed, like some intellectual math games and some reaction speed training. Eventually, I improved markedly and my math scores also increased noticeably, which were often ranked at the top of the class. Because of that, I was chosen as one of the top students in the school to take a math contest held in the county, and in which I won the first prize.

I feel this skill is very beneficial, not only in exams and contests, but also in our daily lives. We all need this skill when we need to do daily calculations without a calculator at hand, like summing up the total prices of shopping commodities and calculating utility costs. As the saying goes:" math is forever", once you've learned how to use it, it benefits your whole life.

The subject was mainly about company visual identity (VI) design, which was taught by a middle-aged Italian professional teacher Greg, a very easy-going and talkative person, with an amusing teaching method and rich facial expressions and gestures. I also feel that Greg's quite well-read and experienced in graphic design. At the beginning of the lesson, we were assigned a task of imaging that we work for a company providing services or products for children, like candy companies, toy companies, etc, and we need to provide a business image design concept for the company, namely business cards, logos and brochures.

At first, we were set in 3 groups, with 3-5 students in each group, discussing and processing our ideas. Then, we did some interviews and Desktop Research and then did some teamwork of framing and drawing our concepts. And finally, in the last lesson, each group would choose a person to give a presentation about what they had done. Unluckily, I was chosen as the one who gave the presentation. I don't have any sense of satisfaction of the performance I did, cause I performed painfully remarkably with a lot of hesitation and uncertainty.

From the experience, I've realised the importance of innovation, cooperation and eloquence while studying at college, and I believe those qualities are also crucial outside school. I mean, in the job market, people who are creative, cooperative and eloquent are prone to be successful.

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I have attended countless speeches or lectures in my life, from academic lectures given by well - read professors to product launches presented by professional businessmen. In my experience, male and female orators generally have different ways of speaking regardless the content of their speeches. Males normally speak in a more passive, humorous and profound way sometimes state interesting events related to draw attention, while females talk in a more meticulous, descriptive and compact way, and they tend to introduce more details about a fact to make it sound more realistic and convincible. This describes the vast majority of orators, nevertheless there are always a small number of exceptional ones who have the opposite sex's speaking characteristics.

One contibuting reason for this that I can figure out is perhaps because men and women have different personalities and thinking patterns. We all agree that there are more men than women who have a great sense of humor and they are good at logical thinking, and on the other hand, more females than males are considerate and proficient in emotion related things. In addition, because of thinking patterns, men are more specialise in grasping the overall trend and have a more profound vision, while women are more like to pay attention to details and things close to them. For example, you will find in a classroom, a male lecturer tends to care more about students who sit at the back seats, while a female lecturer mostly asks students sitting at front seats questions.

One day at college I listened to two speeches given by a male and a female professor. People felt more relaxed and laughed a lot when listening to the male professor speaking, while felt more compassionate listening to the female lecturer. …

I do not deny the fact that there are many successful examples of people who are poorly raised but excel at some areas eventually with honest hard work and continuous endeavors. The contributing factors of those self-made successes are quite obvious: they have a burning desire to change their situations and more willing to strike for a better living with their own hands. In addition, those people are prone to be more mature, independent and tenacious, as they have already used to adversities and they know that they have no choice but to endeavor. Even if they face with failure continuously, they are not likely to feel frustrated and will not give up on their dreams.

On the other hand, people who come from well-off families have more chances to achieve success in a variety of professions. To begin with, they acquire better education and are raised in a better environment, where they can focus on pursuing their dreams without being troubled by humble pockets. They can fulfill their many dreams with financial or material support from their families, like travelling around the globe, studying overseas or even starting their own business. Meanwhile, those who are properly raised and educated are more likely to be extroverted, talkative and social, because they can not only learn from their parents who are already the society's elites, but also have better understanding of and more chance to practice leadership.

It is not right to define a person by their backgrounds, and the world is full of uncertainty, where anyone has chances to excel if they zero in on their dreams and slacken no efforts of trying.

It's a big dragonfly-shaped kite made from silk and split bamboo, which was a birthday gift from my grandpa, who's an artisan specailising in making handicrafts like paper cuttings, wood carvings, lanterns and kites. It used to be very hard to come by a decent toy when I was a kid, because my family was quite poor, so my my parents wouldn't give me money to buy expensive toys. The kite was the best toy I could ever get, so I was very excited and grateful when receiving the gift and I've cherished it very much. It was still kept in my wardrobe. It brings back old memories whenever I see it.

With the kite, I had chances to experience some interesting things, like taking part in kite-flying competitions during kite-flying festivals, and playing with the kite accompanied by my friends on the countryside road. I have to say it was a good companion more than a plaything to me in my childhood, and it is a really good traditional product, which involves many cultural heritage aspects and cultural deposits in my hometown.

I believe toys are an indispensable part of everyone's childhood, which not only give us joy and happiness without being bored and lonely, but also boost our intelligence and shape our character.

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It's an old - fashioned wooden armchair that has been kept by my family for many years. Now its color has been changed from dark brown to chestnut and the flora patterns engraved onto it have been worn down into rounded edges. It still works like a charm since it has very stout structure and is made from a precious and extravagant material - sandalwood. However, sometimes after sitting on it for a long time, I have a sore back because the material is very hard and solid. It's torturing if you sit on for a long period of time and is not good for health. So I will be comfortable if I replace it with a sofa or a computer chair that has soft materials and is well - designed for health.

Nowadays many new products are aesthetically and ergonormically designed with cheaper materials that are user friendly and good for physical health, although they are sometimes not worth more money than old ones. I believe the trend of designing cheaper but practical new products is good. Although old products possess preservation value, new ones are more advanced and practical.

I believe the future design will continue to follow the trend of designing practical, user friendly and environmentally friendly products.

A few years ago, when I was in high school, I wanted to travel to Beijing to see my grandfather since we hadn't met for about a year, and he really wished to see me. My mom arranged everything for me, such as booking the ticket, putting some some compressed biscuits, two cartons of milk and anti-nausea medication in my backpack, and setting an alarm clock at 6 in the morning. I took a taxi to the station which is about two hours away from my home. When I got out of the taxi, I rushed to the station and didn't pay attention to my backpack on the backseat. It wasn't until I reached the ticket lobby, did I realise that I didn't have my backpack with me. I called the taxi company immediately, hoping to get my backpack back, but it was very hard for them to offer help since I didn't remember the plate number of the taxi.

There was nothing I could do, but to go back home and reschedule the time to visit my grandapa. The things in backpack don't worth much money, but they were very precious for me, like my ID card, for which I had to apply for a new one, my keys, and my books.

After that occasion, I have become more self - awared and organised by learning from the experience of losing the backpack. Now I have a habit, in which I set up some automatically sending emails that write down everything important and set a timer enabling it to send to myself on the exact time, so in this case, I won't forget things.

The comedy tells the livelihood stories of the protagonist Ba Jei, along with other main characters, like Fu Di who's Ba Jei's best friend, Tu Di who's BabJei's uncle, and Ba Jei's wife A'ning. Ba Jei is played by a popular Chinese actor Xu Zheng, who's also a famous auteur that has directed many famous comedic movies and has a special acting style and sophisticated acting skills. Other main actors or actresses include, Zhang Zhiyao, Yangyang, and Tangyan.

I still remember clearly one funny episode features that Ba Jei goes to a beautiful town looking for a job to make a living. After going various rejections and adversities, he finally finds a job to help the landlord to get rid of the rats of the house. After trying all kinds of ways, like using mouse catchers, rat poisons, and bringing a cat to the house, he is on the edge of giving up because the rats seem to be smarter than him and none of those methods is useful. However, he finally comes up with a "great" idea - using water, which really helps him get rid of all the rats, but at the same time, ruins the house with a flood.

Anyway, I love watching the series, because the stories are very compact and sometimes beyond my imagination and brings me many surprises. It's a bit unrealistic and mythological but not too exaggerated, and main actor Xu Zheng had the ability of controlling the plots without being too gassy, and knows how to find the right punchlines.

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