It was before Christmas. The spirit of the season had not yet caught up with me. Quickly, I filled my shopping cart with some things and went to the long checkout lines. I picked the 1 one, but it looked as if it would be2 a 20-minute wait.

    In front of me were 3 small children—a boy of five and a younger girl. The girl 4 a beautiful pair of shiny, golden shoes and5 them as though they were a treasure.

    The clerk showed them the 6 . “That will be $6.09,” she said. The boy7 some bills on the stand while he8 his pockets. He finally came up with $3.12. “I guess we will come back some 9 time, maybe tomorrow.” With that10 the little girl began to cry. “But Jesus would have loved these11 ,” she cried. “Well, we’ll go home and work some more. Don’t cry. We’ll come 12 .”, he told her.

    Quickly I handed $3 to the 13 . These children had waited in line for a long time and,14  all, it was Christmas. Suddenly a pair of arms came around me and a small15 said,” Thank you, lady.” The girl said. “My Sunday teacher said that the streets in the heaven were made of shiny16 ，just like these shoes. Our mommy is sick and she is going to 17 . Daddy said that she might go before Christmas, to be with Jesus. I think my mom will be beautiful18 in those streets to 19 these shoes.”

    My eyes filled with tears. Silently I thanked God for using these children to 20 me of the true spirit of giving.

    I was asked in an e­mail about learning idioms in a foreign language. Maybe I am different from most people，but I do not bother with them. To me they are kind of dessert of language learning. They come at the end of a meal. Once you have filled up with the key words and phrases that are used in a variety of situations，then you can add a few idioms. And by that time, you will be able to pick them up naturally anyway.

    I find that many learners have trouble with idioms，as if repeating some very colloquial expressions is going to upgrade how they sound in a language. In fact, it is the opposite. Idioms are difficult to use correctly.

    Yes，occasionally you hear idioms and do not understand. But，in my experience，there are always situations where you do not understand. It is best to focus on the most important words，what they mean and how they are used. Certainly，it is best for a non­native speaker to stick to standard speech.

    Some teachers even try to teach the “real language”．Then you hear non­native speakers saying things like “I goanna”, “You wane” etc.

    You will learn all the idioms you need just by exposing yourself to the language. In general，you can save any phrase that you find interesting，and if that includes idioms，go to it. But I would not make any special effort to go after idioms. I，in fact，avoid them. If I come across something in Russian that strikes me as a particularly idiomatic use of words，I just leave it aside; do not even bother trying to learn it. If it keeps on appearing，then I will learn it.

    Both are so much related to each other. And both are so dissimilar! What are the differences between friendship and love? Is platonic (理想的) friendship possible between persons of opposite sex? Let us try and understand.

    What is friendship? Why do we call a person our friend? When do we call someone a very good friend? If we care for a person, if we are always ready to help that person and if we share most of our thoughts with a person, they are our good friends. We can always count upon our good friends in an emergency. We are always sure that our friend will understand why we acted in a certain way. We need not explain anything to our very good friends. The friendship is so deep and the relationship is so close.

    What about love? In a relationship of deep love, all the sharing that we discussed above are taken for granted. But love transcends (胜过) all this. During love, we are attached with a particular person, while in friendship, one may have many friends. A loving relationship makes one so much attached to the other, that one gets pained if his/her beloved is hurt! Love also involves a physical element. Friendship does not have that. This is a vital difference. Nature gives us love but does not give us friendship.

    Your heart beats will never increase in expectation of meeting your friend. You will not lie awake at night thinking about your friend. You will not feel totally lost, if you don't meet your friend for a few days. You will not have dreams in your eyes thinking about your friend. But in love, you will do all this and much more. Indeed, there is no comparison between love and friendship.