Stepping Back Two dancing partners in the picture are fascinated by elegant footsteps combining forward and backward movement, which illustrates that, just as the caption states, beauty lies in not only forward steps but also stepping back when needed. What’s more, this philosophy of dancing can also be applied to people’s daily life dealing with interpersonal relations. Nowadays, the increasing rate of divorce especially at the infant stage of marriage can be mainly attributed to young people’s impatient and immature handling relations when it comes to trivial conflicts. If they had reflected themselves and take a step backward to understand each other, they would experience more happiness in the prolonged relationships. Another instance involves a regular distinguished businessman who is more likely to regard his challengers as friends rather than enemies. A proper step in competition and taking advantage of the relationship with rivals may lead to a constant progress on individuals’ ability. Based on the above, I suggest that people learn how to put themselves into others’ shoes and to understand the philosophy combing both stepping forward and back in daily life. Only in this way can we create a friendly interpersonal atmosphere and build a harmonious society.

Electronic Products Dependence in Campus As it is shown in the photo, three students are chatting in campus. The boy, in the middle of the other two, is making a show of his new smartphone while others seem to be amazing at the glittering phone and probably envy its famous brand. A common phenomenon revealed by the picture is that adolescents mainly focus their attention on material comforts rather than studying happiness. Bigger and bigger burden taken by young students may be the major reason for this worrying trend. As a response of that, students are bound to relieve the mental stress by playing electronic products such as PSP, MP4, and smartphone. As far as I am concerned, parents and teachers should assume the responsibility of mending the worrying culture in campus. A correct and effective guidance is needed to change the attitudes of students towards studying. If adolescents could feel fun in the experience of learning, they were likely to spend less time in playing smartphone during lessons. So we should make efforts to promote education in a proper way more easily accepted by students and encourage them study on their own.

The Empty-nest Phenomenon As we can see from the picture, an aged grandmother is sitting on a chair which is placed in front of a large mirror. Faced with the image of herself, the old woman feels extremely lonely and says sadly, “My sons are working in the office while my grandsons are studying in the school, leaving me alone at home. It is so lonely.” The problem reflected from the picture is that so many aged people are suffering from the empty-nest syndrome. On the one hand, as social economy rapidly grows, nowadays old people have to retire at earlier age and then stay at home with nothing to do. On the other hand, young people are confronted with more fierce competition both in office and school. As a result, old parents have less and less opportunities to enjoy time with their children. What’s more important, the increasing isolation will further lead to a misery in the empty-nest family. To solve this social problem typified in the above picture, in my opinion, young people should take the responsibility on caring the old. It is not wise to exchange your happiness with families for a promotion or a decent salary. So I think young workers should learn more about what is the true meaning of love, happiness, and duty. Taking care of the old is not only a traditional virtue cherished by Chinese, but also a real way to experience life. In addition, a harmonious family atmosphere may become a strong motivation to make further progress in personal affairs.

ADMINISTRATOR! Why was my question deleted? Dear Tryonice.W, The question you asked has been deleted by administrator. Question: Do you know this web site:www.viacharacter.org? If not, highly recommend it. Reason: It is not a dating website or place to place advertisements. Sincerely, The italki Team This web site above is my favorite online place in English and it is just my personal view. I put forward such a question and wanna find somebody in the same taste with me. Where is the advertisement you talked about? Are you kiding me? Why have you done that?

Tryonice.W's notebook entry: May 21, 2011 How few chinese friends there are on italki.com!