Britain's Buses are Getting Emptier

    In Britain, buses account for more public - transport trips than trains, tubes and trams put together. People love them, in theory: one poll by Transport Focus, a consumer group, found that 74% of young people think they are a good way of getting around and 85% believe it is important for a place to have a good bus service. There is just one problem. In practice, Britions are taking buses less and less.

    Why are London buses emptier? One thing that has changed is young people's behavior. The young are heavy bus users when they travel. But, increasingly, they do not travel. According to Transport for London, the average 17 - to 24-year-old took 2.3 transport trips per day in the year 2011- 12 but only 1.7 in 2018 - 19. The National Travel Survey confirms that no group has cut back harder on travel since the early 2000s than teenagers. Young people are more diligent these days, and stay in school for longer. They can do the things that young people love to do on their phones, without going out.

    The other big bus users are the poor and the old, especially outside London, but both are turning away from buses to cars. Lower lending standards have made cars easier to acquire; a fuel-tax freeze and fuel - saving engines make them cheaper to run. Cars are ever more comfortable and easier to operate, with parking-assist technology and lane-drifting alerts to help starters. Outside London, the average free bus pass was used 90 times in the year 2010-11 but only 74 times in 2018-19, according to the Department for Transport.

    Finally there is the gig economy (零工经济). Online shopping and Uber probably substitute of bus trips as well as private car journeys. And they put new vehicles on the roads, which slows everything down. The number of light-goods vehicles in London has risen by 28% since 2012. Tony Travers of the London School of Economics points out that bus speeds have fallen slightly in the capital, even though private cars have almost been cleared up from the city center. The average London bus now travels at 9.3 miles per hour. Just as people become less inclined to run after buses, they are becoming easier to catch.

    Kulangsu Gallery of Foreign Artefacts from the Palace Museum Collection

    Location: Kulangsu, Xiamen, Fujian Province

    Dates: May 13, 2018 through September 24, 2018

    The gallery is a major place for the Palace Museum to showcase its splendid collection of international art. Most of these works have been kept in the storehouse of the museum and have never been shown to the public. Originally from Europe, East Asia, and North America, these international works date from the sixteenth to the twentieth century.

    Exhibition Commemorating the 120^th Anniversary of Zhang Boju's Birth

    Location: Hall of Martial Valor (Wuying dian)

    Dates: April 3, 2018 through May 6, 2018

    The exhibition features traditional Chinese paintings and calligraphy from state-owned museums. Divided into three sections, the exhibition displays artwork organized in order of time, which offers a comprehensive overview of Zhang Boju's collection through this impressive gathering of the collector's works.

    Discovering the Hall of Mental Cultivation

    Location: The Gate of the Correct Department (Duan men)

    Dates: April 3, 2018 through April 24, 2018

    The exhibition allows visitors new ways to explore the history of the forbidden city with a simple click and celebrates the 92^nd anniversary of the establishment of the Palace Museum, established on October 10, 1925. Adding to the museum's new displays, this exhibition combines traditional Chinese culture and contemporary technologies.

    Treasures from the Al Thani Collection

    Location: The Meridian Gate (Wu men)

    Dates: April 17, 2018 through July 18, 2018

    The Al Thani Collection allows visitors to see cultural landscapes that have been lost in the depths of history. Artefacts from Egypt and Persia throw light on mysteries known to few. Different peoples have marked these relics with their own styles, which reflect the unique sources of each culture but strike the viewers with an equally powerful charm.

    Welcome. You have just entered the largest online museum on the Internet. A work in progress, steadily expanding with thousands of high quality images of the greatest paintings and sculpture in history, the Art Renewal Center is building an encyclopedic collection of essays, biographies and articles by top scholars in the field.

    ARC is the Eye of the Storm, at the core, hub and center of a major cultural shift in the art world. With a growing body of experts, we are setting standards to become ARC Approved for artists, art schools, systems of training, museum exhibitions and historical scholarship, to bring guidance, direction, goals and reality to an art establishment that has been sailing rudderless(无领导者的) for nearly a hundred years.

    Additionally, the Art Renewal Center is a non-profit educational organization committed to refreshing standards of craftsmanship and excellence. Only by gaining a full command of the skills of the past masters can we create the masters of tomorrow. This is a step forward for our culture. Experimentation and creativity can only succeed and prosper(使……繁荣) when built on a solid foundation of past accomplishments, with the tools which can make artists realize their visions.

Nothing has been more restricting(有限制的) and weakening than the theories of modernism, which got rid of these tools, along with the skills to employ them. We are providing a forum for artists, scholars, collectors and the public to appreciate great art, and to recognize that they're not alone in their doubts about the emptiness of modern and postmodern art. These doubts are fully justified by the overwhelming(压倒的) body of evidence and historical facts.

    There was a businessman who was deep in debt and could see no way out.

    He sat on the park bench, head in hands,1if anything could save his company from bankruptcy.

    Suddenly an old man appeared before him. “I can see that something is2you.” he said.

    After listening to the executive, the old man said: “I believe I can help you.”

    He asked the man his name, wrote out a3, and pushed it into his hand saying: “Take this money. Meet me here exactly one year from today, and you can pay me back at that time.”

    Then he turned and disappeared as4as he had come.

    The businessman saw in his hand a check for $500,000,5by John D. Rockefeller, then one of the richest men in the world!

    “I can6my money worries in an instant!” he realized. But7, he decided to put the uncashed check in his safe. Just knowing it was there might give him the8to work out a way to save his business, he thought.

    With renewed9, he negotiated better deals. Within a few months, he was out of debt and making money once again.

    Exactly one year later, he returned to the10with the uncashed check. At the11time, the old man appeared. But just as the executive was about to12the check and share his success story, a13came running up and grabbed the old man.

    “I'm so delighted I14him!” she cried. “I hope he hasn't been bothering you. He's15escaping from the rest home and telling people he's John D. Rockefeller.”

    And she led the old man away16the arm.

    The businessman just stood there,17.All year long he'd been buying and selling.18he had half a million dollars behind him.

    Suddenly, he realized that it wasn't the money, real or19, that had turned his life around. It was his20self-confidence that gave him the power to achieve anything he went after.

There are numerous "secrets" out there on attaining success. The vast majority of these so called secrets all have one thing in common – Attitude.

The key to developing a successful attitude is to decide that there are certain things in life that you need, rather than merely want. For example, do you want a luxury house? Do you want fame and fortune in your career?

Sure, everyone wants these things.  That is because it's never enough to merely want something. You have to be the type of individual who feels that they need these things in order to survive. This gives you the motivation to work towards your dream and do whatever it takes – except, of course, for breaking laws or hurting people – to get there. And all this must be done with the "fuel" of a positive attitude.

How do you begin to change your attitude?

It is always useful to connect with useful resources outside us in changing our attitude for the better.  Try to pay closer attention to your inner thoughts.

Realizing where negative thoughts come from can help us get to the point where we are able to erase them. Once they are erased, it is vital to replace them with more positive thoughts.

Perhaps your friends and loved ones will not understand the new you. But you can become a role model for them — and it begins by developing a positive attitude!

A. What do you need?

B. Do you want a lot of money?

C. What is the secret to Success?

D. Do you find yourself constantly in doubt?

E. However, the change will always begin inside you.

F. Problem is, very few people are able to attain them.

G. This is how we begin to make an attitude adjustment.