The Rocky Mountains are home to a rich diversity of wildlife, plants, and splendid natural wonders, and they include many national parks in both the United States and Canada. Here are some of the top parks in the region, each featuring its unique beauty.

Banff National Park

Situated in Alberta, Canada, Banff is Canada’s first national park, celebrated for its towering mountains, numerous glaciers, and crystal-clear lakes like Lake Louise. Popular for hiking and camping in summer, the park also draws visitors in winter for snowshoeing, skiing, and ice skating.

Grand Teton National Park

Located just north of Jackson, Wyoming, and easily accessible from Yellowstone, Grand Teton National Park is rich in both natural beauty and history, with evidence of human presence dating back over 11,000 years. The park offers hiking, camping, boating, and rock climbing, along with spectacular views of the Grand Teton mountain range and plenty of wildlife.

Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone is one of the most famous parks in the world, known for its hot springs, boiling mud, fumaroles, and geysers like Old Faithful, which shoots water high into the air. The park also has beautiful canyons and waterfalls, and is home to wildlife like bison, elk, wolves and bears.

Rocky Mountain National Park

Spanning 415 square miles across the Continental Divide, this park is the first major national park in the Rocky Mountains. It features mountain peaks, valleys, alpine lakes, and waterfalls. Visitors can climb Longs Peak or enjoy hiking trails suitable for all skill levels.

A librarian in Indonesia's Java island is lending books to children in exchange for trash to clean up the environment and get the kids to read more.

Each weekday Raden Roro Hendarti rides her three wheeler with books stacked up at the back for children in Muntang village to exchange for plastic cups, bags and other waste that she carries back.

She told Reuters the is helping promote reading in the kids as well make them aware of the environment. As soon as she shows up, little children, many accompanied by their mothers, surround her “Trash Library” and shout for the books. They are all carrying trash bags and Raden's three-wheeler quickly fills up with them as the books fly out. She's happy the kids are going to spend less time on online games as a result.

“Let us build a culture of literacy from young age to lessen the harm of the online world,” Raden said. “We should also take care of our waste in order to fight climate change and to save the earth from trash,” Raden said. She collects about 100 kg of waste each week, which is then sorted out by her colleagues and sent for recycling or sold. She has a stock of 6,000 books to lend and wants to take the mobile service to neighboring areas as well.

Kevin Alamsyah, an 11-year-old book lover, search for waste lying in the village. “When there is too much trash, our environment will become dirty and it's not healthy. That's why I look for trash to borrow a book,” he says.

Jiah Palupi, the head of the main public library in the area, said Raden's work strengthened their efforts in a novel way to battle online gaming addiction among the youth and promote reading.

The literacy rate for above-15-year-olds in Indonesia is around 96 percent, but a September report by the World Bank warned that the pandemic will leave more than 80% of 15-year-olds below the minimum reading proficiency (阅读水平) level identified by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

After losing an important deal in India, a business negotiator learned that her counterpar (对方) felt as if she had been rushing through the talks. The business negotiator thought she was being efficient with their time. Their cultures have different views on how to conduct negotiations, and in this case the barrier prevented a successful outcome.

Research shows that deal-making across cultures tends to lead to worse outcomes as compared with negotiations conducted within the same culture. As we know, cultures are characterized by different behaviors, communication styles and norms (准则). Consequently, when negotiating across cultures, we bring different views to the bargaining table, which in turn may result in potential misunderstandings that can lead to a lower likelihood of discovering value-creating solutions.

Cultural conflict in negotiations is linked with the fact that we, at most times, interpret others’ behaviors, values, and beliefs through the lens (透镜) of our own culture. To overcome this, it is important to research the customs and behaviors of different cultures as well as understand why people follow these customs and exhibit these behaviors in the first place.

Just as important, not only do countries have unique cultures, but teams do too. Before partaking in any negotiation, take the time to study the context and the person on the other side of the bargaining table, including the various cultures to which he belongs, whether the culture of engineering or his particular company’ s culture. The more you know about the client, the better off you’ll do in any negotiation.

Therefore, the negotiator has learned her Indian counterpart will appreciate a slower pace with more opportunities for relationship building. She seems to have run into the issue: Using time efficiently in the course of negotiations is generally valued in the United States, but in India, there’s often a greater focus on building relationships early in the process. By doing research on the clients’ cultures, they can adjust their negotiation method and give themselves a better chance of creating a valuable negotiation experience for both themselves and their counterpart.

Many people count on faster, cheaper and better technology to offer a vision of a brighter future. Nevertheless, as the 2020s dawn, optimism is in short supply. The new technologies that dominated the past decade seem to be making matters worse. Social media, intended to connect people, are infamous for privacy leaks. Convenient E-commerce and online ride-hailing are charged with underpaying workers and blocking the streets with vehicles.

Today’s pessimistic mood targets smart phones and social media, which took off a decade ago. Yet concerns that particular technologies might be doing more harm than good have arisen before. The 1920s witnessed a criticism of cars, once regarded as solutions to horse-drawn vehicles issues like noise, waste, and accidents. And industrialization was criticized in the 19th century by Romantics who worried about the replacement of skilled workers, the robbing of the countryside and the suffering of factory hands.

However, that pessimism can be overdone. Too often people focus on the drawbacks of a new technology while taking its benefits for granted. Worries about screen time should be weighed against the much more substantial benefits of instant communication and information access that smartphones make possible. A further danger is that Luddites’ (卢德分子) efforts to avoid the short-term costs associated with a new technology will end up denying access to its long-term benefits — something Carl Benedikt Frey, an Oxford academic, calls a “technology trap”. Fears that robots will steal people’s jobs may discourage their use. Yet in the long run countries that wish to maintain their living standard as their workforce ages and decreases will need more robots, not fewer.

Any powerful technology can be used for good or ill. It is the choices people make about it that shape the world. Perhaps the real source of anxiety is not technology itself, but growing doubts about the ability of societies to hold this debate, and come up with good answers. So as the decade turns, put aside the pessimism for a moment. To be alive in the tech-fascinated 2020s is to be among the luckiest people who have ever lived.

Simple Tips to Increase Self-Confidence

Having confidence begins with having a mind full of confident thoughts. A mind is controlled by you, therefore believing only the things that will bring you things you desire. Almost anyone in the world can have confidence. 【小题1】 . It is a matter of following these easy steps.

Set goals

It’s a great idea to keep a “Goals Book” and every time something enters your mind you’d like to achieve, list it in the book. Soon you’ll see a pattern among all your goals. 【小题2】 , you begin to see simple changes in your life. There is no greater joy in life than to realize a goal.

【小题3】

People usually can’t tell you how you should live your life when it’s just an expression of their own shortcomings. Don’ allow the shortcomings of others to affect your life negatively. No one but you knows your interests and ambitions. Work in the direction of your true loves and ignore everything that enters your mind going against your own desires.

Challenge your beliefs

【小题4】 . If they are not, cross them out. You may find it difficult to get rid of some of the deep-rooted beliefs, but with true desire you can abandon negative beliefs about yourself and you will realize enormous benefit in growing self-confidence and self-esteem.

Get started

Don’t expect changes right away and have patience in knowing that it takes time to be the person you wish to be. The wonderful thing about becoming a more self-confident person is that little benefits start taking shape almost immediately. 【小题5】 — as long as you continue to keep a positive outlook and display your confidence.

As you achieve confidence, and find little moments of confidence coming closer and closer, all the things you desire will come to you easier than you ever imagined.

I have always had a deep love for art. Ever since I was a child, the world of colors, shapes, creativity has held much ________ for me. However, as life’s responsibilities piled on, with children to support, going after it seemed ________.

Time flew by. About ten years ago, life took an ________ turn. My wife fell ill with Alzheimer’s, a disease that slowly stole her away from me. In the middle of this hardship, I turned to painting, determined to take this path ________. So, at the age of 83, I ________ program in Barcelona. Despite being ________ to study art history, a subject that was totally strange to me, my determination remained unshaken. ________ my studies with life, I spent seven years completing the four-year course, ________ last year at the age of 90.

Looking back, I find that returning to school was ________. Most of my classmates were in their 20s, but they ________ me. During the first two years, we focused on flowers and still life; then we ________ abstraction, which I enjoyed most. I believe talent comes from hard work. Though I felt ________ at times, I refused to give up and pushed through the difficulties, driven by my love for ________.

We often make ________, believing that there will be enough time in the future to pursue what we truly love. But life is full of uncertainties. The following message is for all those with a dream hidden deep in their hearts: Don’t ________ Take the very first step. Start following your passion today.