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Some entrepreneurs (企业家) are 1． (simple) born with a gift of sniffing out a good business. Bryan Loo is one of them. 2． (raise) in the smallest state in Malaysia, Loo owes his success to his parents introducing him to business at an early age.

It was 3． chance then that he realized the gaps in the Malaysian market for tea. People were talking about tea but didn’t have a place to go for a “proper, modern” tea, he said.

Bubble tea, which combines Asian tea with milk or fruit syrups, originated in Taiwan and has most recently spread in 4． (popular) around the globe. Loo then went to Taiwan, where he 5． (expose) to the modern tea drinking culture. After much research, he approached the top ten brands of tea makers to see if they’d expand with him in Malaysia, 6． none of them had any interest in expanding into Malaysia’s market.

And then through a stroke of luck, Loo’s friend mentioned a Taiwanese company called Zhi Qu Cha Tsai was open to talking. So 7． then-24-year-old flew to Taiwan and bought the franchise (经销权), changing the name to Chatime to fit into the Malaysian market. Loo opened his first Chatime store in September 2010, and 8． (have) 172 stores with 880 staff across Malaysia up to now.

It seems there’s no stopping this young, successful entrepreneur 9． hopes his company can lead the way for other ASEAN countries, 10． (inspire) them as a role model.

ARE you happy? People often ask their friends this question; it shows they care. It’s a question that President Nicolas Sarkozy of France seems keen for social scientists to ask in his country. 1．

During the annual “two sessions”, Chinese lawmakers and political advisors are discussing how to build “a happy China”.

2． 

Many studies have shown that wealthier nations tend to be happier than poorer ones; and richer people appear to be more satisfied than the less rich. But a recent Canadian study shows that the happiest people live in that country’s poorest provinces (Nova Scotia), while those in the richest (British Columbia) are among the least happy. Happiness is not determined by wealth.

Some scholars also believe that happiness is what people finally want and wealth is only a means towards this end. 3．

So what is it that makes people happy, if it isn’t money?

In the US author Dan Buettner’s new book Thrive: Finding Happiness the Blue Zone Way, there is a hint. 4． Rather, Buettner found that the four happiest cities on Earth, which span the globe from Denmark to Mexico, give priority to social networks, health and well-being.

Take Singapore as an example. The city-state has one of the highest population densities in the world.

5． However, in a recent survey, 95 percent of people said they were either very happy or quite happy. They gave their city high marks for cleanliness and safety — subways are clean and trains absolutely arrive on time, and police are helpful and good at their job.

China has achieved a rapid GDP growth and become the world’s second largest economy. However, to build “a happy China”, we need to emphasize people’s livelihoods and quality of life over fast economic growth. We need to look for alternative measures that would show national progress not just by how our economy is growing, but by how our lives are improving; not just by our standard of living, but by our quality of life.

In 1945, two sculptures meant to represent the average man called Norman and woman called Norma in the United States went on exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History.

That same year, a contest was launched to find a living representation of Norma. Normal is often used to mean “typical”, “expected”, or even “correct”. By that logic, most people should fit the description of normal. And yet, not one of almost 4,000 women who participated in the contest matched Norma, the supposedly “normal” woman.

This puzzle isn’t unique to Norma and Norman, either — time and time again, so-called normal descriptions of our bodies, minds, and perceptions have turned out to match almost no one. So what does normal actually mean — and should we be relying on it so much?

In statistics, a normal distribution describes a set of values that fall along a bell curve (曲线). The average, or mean, of all the values is at the very center, and most other values fall within the hump (驼峰) of the bell. Normal doesn’t describe a single data point, but a pattern of diversity. Many human traits, like height, follow a normal distribution. Some people are very tall or very short, but most people fall close to the overall average. Outside of statistics, normal often refers to an average like the single number pulled from the fattest part of the bell curve that excludes all the nuances of the normal distribution. Norma and Norman’s proportions (比例) came from such averages.

Applied to individuals, whether someone is considered normal usually depends on how closely they get to this average. At best, such definitions of normal fail to capture variation. When limited or inaccurate definitions of normal are used to make decisions that impact people’s lives, they can do real harm. There were examples in history.

To this day, people are often targeted and discriminated against on the basis of disabilities, mental health issues, and other features considered “not normal”. But the reality is that the differences in our bodies, minds, perceptions, and ideas about the world around us — in short, diversity — is the true normal.

A new study says that no matter how much the world cuts back on carbon emissions, a large and important part of Antarctica is expected to disappear.

The study focused on the melting of protective ice around Antarctica’s Amundsen Sea in western Antarctica. They said the “unavoidable” melting will take hundreds of years, resulting in a rise of nearly 1.8 meters in sea levels. This melting will have a profound impact on where and how people live in the future. The study, published in Nature Climate Change, warns that even if future warming was limited to just a few tenths of a degree more, it would have “limited power to prevent ocean warming that could lead to the collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.”

The lead writer of the study, Kaitlin Naughten, explains that the research indicates that the Earth is on a path towards rapid ocean warming and ice shelf melting over the coming century. While past studies have talked about how serious the situation is, Naughten was the first to use computer modeling to study how warm water from below will melt the ice. The study looked at four different cases in how much carbon emissions the world produces. ln each case, ocean warming was just too much for this area of the ice to survive. It also looked at what would happen if future warming was limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius over mid-19^th century levels: the international goal. They found the runaway melting process in this case as well.

The study primarily focuses on the part of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet that is most at risk of melting near the Amundsen Sea, including the Thwaites ice shelf, often referred to as the “Doomsday Glacier”. According to Eric Rignot, an ice scientist at the University of California Irvine, this area is already “doomed” (注定的) due to the rapid melting that has occurred. Naughten does not like to use the word “doomed”, because she said 100 years from now, the world might not just stop but drive back carbon levels in the air and climate change. But she said what is happening now on the ground is a slow collapse that cannot be stopped, at least not in this century.

It was a bright spring afternoon along the Maryland coast, and Jonathan Bauer, 51, a technology executive at a hospital, and his 13-year-old daughter, Ava, were taking full advantage of it. They were driving with the windows down as they headed home on the 1.4-mile, two-lane Route 90 bridge, which spans the shallow waters of Assawoman Bay. Suddenly, the calm was disturbed by a high-pitched noise.

Not far ahead of them, a black pickup was slipping from one lane to the other. To the Bauers’ horror, it hit a BMW sedan and came to rest swinging over the rail of the bridge.

Bauer stopped his car and ran to the BMW. “Are you OK?” he asked the driver. She nodded, too shocked to speak. And then the driver’s door of the pickup was thrown open and a man climbed out. He pointed down, saying something in Spanish. In the water was a car seat. Next to it, a girl, about two years old, was floating on her back, kicking and splashing and screaming.

Bauer waited for the pickup driver to do something, but he didn’t. Maybe he was in shock. Bauer jumped into the shallow water quickly, swam to the drowning girl in a few quick strokes and lifted her out of the water: mouth half open, eyes nearly closed, not breathing. Standing, he laid her against his shoulder and hit her back with the flat of his hand. Come on… come on…

And then a retching (干呕的) sound as ocean water came streaming from her mouth. But still no breath. Another hit on the back and another retch, followed by an intake of fresh air, and then the beautiful sense of little fingers grasping him around the neck. Her eyes were opened now, focused on him. A moment later a family on a rowboat pulled up and dragged Bauer and the little girl aboard. The girl suffered a broken shoulder but was otherwise uninjured.

Ava Bauer was so inspired by her father’s actions that four months later she became a volunteer firefighter so that she too could save lives. “That girl is going to live a whole life because of him,” she says. “It’s incredible.”

It’s an exciting moment when you decide that you are going to study in the US! Before you start packing your bags, here are several things that students need to have before applying to study in the US.

Many students are not aware that they have to pay an application fee to apply to schools, colleges and universities in the US. While this might not be a normal practice in other countries, this is standard in the US. 

Application fees can range in price depending on the school. Some schools charge as much as $90 while other schools charge as little as $25. Generally, schools will waive (免除) the application fee under certain financial circumstances. If you need financial assistance to submit your application, contact your prospective university’s admissions office. 

In addition to the application fee, students are required to show proof of financial qualification. Generally, most schools will require a copy of your bank statement but some schools may allow other documents to show financial qualification.

As you are not a citizen or permanent resident of the US, you will need a passport to study in the US. Schools in the US require prospective students to submit their passport numbers on their applications. Without a passport, the school will not be able to issue the necessary forms for a student visa, if accepted. Most importantly, your passport must be valid (有效的) six months beyond the time your planned studies have been completed.

There are many programs in the US and each has its requirements for admission. Some schools will require students to submit SAT or ACT scores before submitting their applications. As an international student, you will have to submit a TOEFL or IELTS score for consideration to an undergraduate program. 

In addition, schools will require your previous academic transcripts (reports). These transcripts should be from any previous learning institution, such as a high school. Obtaining academic transcripts can be a time-consuming process, so make sure to plan ahead.

Applying to study in the US can be an overwhelming process but if you remember these key elements needed to apply, you’ll experience an easy and simple application process.