Dear Ms. Mattie, Thank you very much for offering me the research engineer position at ABC Company. However, after a great deal of thought, I have decided not to accept the position. Your company has an excellent reputation as a research institution and has many aspects that are very attractive to me. Unfortunately, I cannot accept your offer because I have decided to pursue another opportunity. Once again, thank you for your consideration. Very truly yours, Christine Mahoe

Obviously, one of the judgments the public has of us is whether or not our telephone service is good. Technically, if they get their calls through, efficiently and promptly, they get what they want. That, however, is not all they want. They want to have the service rendered to them in a manner that pleases them; they want not only efficiency but courtesy and consideration; and they are in a position to get what they want. They are in the driver's seat; they are paying the bills; and an understanding of that fact is a real and fundamental basis of public relations. In order, therefore, for a great company to satisfactorily serve the public, it must have a philosophy and a method of doing business which will allow and insure that its people serve the public efficiently and in a pleasing manner.

On the path to excellence, some obstacles may initially seem overwhelming. Every performer experiences this feeling, even the greatest performers in the world. If you believe that the obstacles are too great to overcome, you will prove yourself right even when you are wrong. Most seemingly impossible obstacles can be overcome by seeing possibilities, focusing on what is within your control, taking the first step, and then focusing on the next step and the next step after that. If your commitment becomes weak, remember your dream and why it is important to you, find simple joys in your daily pursuits, rejoice in the little victories or small steps forward, and embrace the process of ongoing learning. With a positive perspective and persistence, you will get through and find a way through all obstacles.

For many years now, mediated entertainment such as TV and film has been able to stimulate our optical and auditory senses with sights and sounds. Some forms of new media, however, even engage our senses of touch and smell. The view the wearer of some special device sees is projected on the screen behind him. Wearers become immersed in the computerized scene and use the gloves to pick up and move simulated objects. Many virtual reality games and rides now allow audiences and players to feel sensations of motion and touch. New media may also include aromas, such as Disney's Soaring Over California attraction at the California Adventure theme park, where audiences smell orange orchards and pine forests while enjoying a simulated hang-gliding experience across the countryside. Makers of emerging forms of entertainment will likely continue to experiment with ways they can simulate and manipulate reality by stimulating our senses.

Recently, researchers have suggested that the purpose of laughter is not just to communicate that one is in a playful state, but to actually induce this state in others as well. According to this view, the peculiar sounds of laughter have a direct effect on the listener, inducing positive emotional arousal that mirrors the emotional state of the laugher, perhaps by activating certain specialized brain circuits. In this way, laughter may serve an important biosocial function of coupling together the positive emotions of members of a group and thereby coordinating their activities. This would explain why laughter is so infectious; when we hear someone laughing, it is almost impossible not to feel cheerful and begin laughing too.

《NAS Bird Watching Adventure》 NAS National Wildlife Refuge, Houston Sunday, July 20, 2014, 8:00－18:00 $80 per person The tour starts at the NAS Forest & Trail Headquarters at 8:00 am. Once we arrive at the refuge at about 10:00 am, we will begin our six-hour hike, searching for birds and learning about the plants and animals of the refuge. • What to expect: The hike covers 3 to 4 miles and includes moderately difficult terrain. • What's provided: Transportation, lunch, and expert guides. • What to bring: Comfortable shoes, long pants, and sunblock. For more information, visit www.wls.gov/nasforest.

《SWAN LAKE》 July 3 (Thu.) - 4 (Fri.), 2014, at the State Theater Time: Thu. 8:00 pm / Fri. 7:00 pm Prices: A Seats - $120 / B Seats - $90 Running Time: 2 hours Minimum Age: Children under 7 will not be admitted. The ballet is performed to the live music of the State Theater Orchestra. • 20% Early Purchase Discount until May 31 - To receive this discount, you must purchase your tickets from our website at www.statetheater.com. • Phone Reservations: 887-885-7909 - Business hours: 09:00－18:00 (7 days a week) • Cancellation Policy - On the day of performance: No refund - 1~5 days before the performance: 30% cancellation fee

The above graph shows the percentage of U.S. advertising spending by media and consumer time spent using each type of media in 2011. In the case of TV, both advertising spending and consumer time spent took up the largest proportion with 43% and 40%, respectively. Print ranked second in advertising spending, whereas it ranked last in consumer time spent. Web accounted for the third largest proportion in both advertising spending and consumer time spent. As for the percentage gap between advertising spending and consumer time spent, Radio showed the smallest gap. The percentage gap between advertising spending and consumer time spent was smaller in Web than in Mobile.

During her childhood years, the artist Tammy Rahr spent a lot of time outdoors making things from flowers and dirt. Then Tammy and her family moved from the woodlands of New York State to an urban city outside of Los Angeles, California. The experience made her more aware of what was going on in the world. After returning to New York State with her family, Tammy faced another lesson in growing up. A gifted student, she was sent to college when she was just 14. Tammy was able to earn her high school diploma and some college credit before trying her hand at a number of different jobs. Eventually, she moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, and studied at the Institute of American Indian Arts. After graduating from the institute, she remained active with it and the museum there.

In the twentieth century, advances in technology, from refrigeration to sophisticated ovens to air transportation that carries fresh ingredients around the world, contributed immeasurably to baking and pastry making. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the popularity of fine breads and pastries is growing even faster than new chefs can be trained. Interestingly enough, many of the technological advances in bread making have sparked a reaction among bakers and consumers alike. They are looking to reclaim some of the flavors of old-fashioned breads that were lost as baking became more industrialized and baked goods became more refined, standardized, and ― some would say―flavorless. Bakers are researching methods for producing the handmade sourdough breads of the past, and they are experimenting with specialty flours in their search for flavor.

Although children watch television at various times, the programming that they view alone tends to be specifically aimed at children. In the United States particularly, most of the advertising during this segment consists of ads for food, particularly sugared food. During the run-up to Christmas, increasing numbers of ads concern toys and games. Such practices are believed to put pressure on parents to yield to what the media have dubbed pester power. This has led to calls for legislation to regulate advertising in Europe and the United States. Indeed, the Swedish government has outlawed television advertising of products aimed at children under 12, and recently in the United States, 50 psychologists signed a petition calling for a ban on the advertising of children's goods.

Dave Butcher, director of training for Sea World in Florida, showed me more than I'd imagined possible. His sea lions worked for social rewards as well as fish. Consequently, he did not have to keep his sea lions hungry in order to make them perform. During and after the day's performances, the sea lions could have all the fish they wanted. One result was that they were not irritable, as any hungry animal might be. The sea lions were friendly to those humans they knew and enjoyed being with them. I was surprised to see trainers on their lunch hour sunbathing in a pile with their sea lions. Another result of stopping food deprivation was that these sea lions grew and grew! In fact, they became bigger than most trained sea lions in the past, which weren't given enough food.

The true champion recognizes that excellence often flows most smoothly from simplicity, a fact that can get lost in these high-tech days. I used to train with a world-class runner who was constantly hooking himself up to pulse meters and pace keepers. He spent hours collecting data that he thought would help him improve. In fact, a good 25 percent of his athletic time was devoted to externals other than working out. Sports became so complex for him that he forgot how to enjoy himself. Contrast his approach with that of the late Abebe Bikila, the Ethiopian who won the 1960 Olympic Marathon running barefoot. High-tech clothing and digital watches were not part of his world. Abebe Bikila simply ran. Many times in running, and in other areas of life, less is more.

The origins of contemporary Western thought can be traced back to the golden age of ancient Greece, when Greek thinkers laid the foundations for modern Western politics, philosophy, science, and law. Their novel approach was to pursue rational inquiry through adversarial discussion: The best way to evaluate one set of ideas, they decided, was by testing it against another set of ideas. In the political sphere, the result was democracy, in which supporters of rival policies vied for rhetorical supremacy; in philosophy, it led to reasoned arguments and dialogues about the nature of the world; in science, it prompted the construction of competing theories to try to explain natural phenomena; in the field of law, the result was the adversarial legal system. This approach is the foundation for the modern Western way of life, in which politics, commerce, science, and law are all rooted in orderly competition.

I would like to compare the shift from analog to digital film-making to the shift from fresco and tempera to oil painting in the early Renaissance. A painter making a fresco has limited time before the paint dries, and once it has dried, no further changes to the image are possible. Similarly, a traditional filmmaker has limited means of modifying images once they are recorded on film. Medieval tempera painting can be compared to the practice of special effects during the analog period of cinema. A painter working with tempera could modify and rework the image, but the process was painstaking and slow. The switch to oils greatly liberated painters by allowing them to quickly create much larger compositions as well as to modify them as long as necessary. Similarly, by allowing a filmmaker to treat a film image as an oil painting, digital technology redefines what can be done with cinema.

When there is a discrepancy between the verbal message and the nonverbal message, the latter typically weighs more in forming a judgment. For example, a friend might react to a plan for dinner with a comment like that's good, but with little vocal enthusiasm and a muted facial expression. In spite of the verbal comment, the lack of expressive enthusiasm suggests that the plan isn't viewed very positively. In such a case, the purpose of the positive comment might be to avoid a disagreement and support the friend, but the lack of a positive expression unintentionally leaks a more candid, negative reaction to the plan. Of course, the muted expressive display might also be strategic and intentional. That is, the nonverbal message is deliberate, but designed to let the partner know one's candid reaction indirectly. It is then the partner's responsibility to interpret the nonverbal message and make some adjustment in the plan.

Early one night in 1973 in my old and cheap apartment in Bangor, Maine, I got a phone call from my agent, Bill, who was helping me publish my first novel. Are you sitting down? Bill asked. No, I said. Do I need to? You might, he said. The publication rights for your book were sold for four hundred thousand dollars! I was completely speechless. That amount of money was beyond my wildest expectations. I was sure I hadn't heard him right. I couldn't have. I asked, Did you say it went for forty thousand dollars? Bill said it again as clearly as he could, Four hundred thousand dollars. Congratulations, Steve. Are you sure, Bill? I said in disbelief. He said he was. We talked for another half an hour, but I don't remember a single word of what we said.

Music can convey the scope of a film, effectively communicating whether the motion picture is an epic drama or a story that exists on a more personal scale. Music can convey the quality and size of a space. For example, in Alien and Olivier's Hamlet, the music serves at times to make small and/or artificial spaces seem more grand and to enhance the sense of realism. In addition, music can establish a narrative's placement in time. Music for motion pictures often serves to authenticate the era or to provide a sense of nostalgia. Examples of the former would include Amadeus and Immortal Beloved, while a sense of nostalgia is communicated through the music selected for films such as American Graffiti and The Big Chill.

It is difficult to appreciate what a temperature of 20,000,000℃ means. If the solar surface, not the center, were as hot as this, the radiation emitted into space would be so great that the whole Earth would be vaporized within a few minutes. Indeed, this is just what would happen if some cosmic giant were to peel off the outer layers of the Sun like skinning an orange, for the tremendously hot inner regions would then be exposed. Fortunately, no such circumstance is possible, and the outer layers of the Sun provide a sort of blanket that protects us from its inner fires. Yet in spite of these blanketing layers, some energy must leak through from the Sun's center to its outer regions, and this leakage is of just the right amount to compensate for the radiation emitted by the surface into surrounding space.

Mom and Dad went to dinner at a nice restaurant. On that first night to myself, Dad entrusted me with his movie projector and all the reels of film. He said I could do everything myself that night. So I set up the screen at one end of the living room. I turned on the projector, turned off the light, put the bowl of popcorn in my lap, and settled in to watch the film labeled HATTIE-1951. It's one of my favorites because my third birthday party is on it and I can watch our old cat Simon jump up on the dining room table and land in a dish of ice cream. Then I can play the film backward and watch the cat fly down to the floor and see all the splashes of ice cream slurp themselves back into the dish. I made Simon jump in and out several times before I watched the rest of the film.

Since group performance in problem solving is superior to even the individual work of the most expert group members, it should not be surprising that students learn better when they cooperate. However, there is one issue that needs further consideration. Specifically, the technique of having students help one another raises the question of whether students with lower ability are being helped at the expense of those with higher ability. Is this true? Not quite. Knowledge, happily, is not a zero-sum product. Higher-ability students can reinforce their own knowledge by teaching those with lower ability. In addition to that benefit, helping lower-ability students often pulls higher-ability students to a more sophisticated understanding of the material. The cliché that teachers learn as much as their pupils is certainly true.

Parents often believe that they are providing help to their children when they constantly correct and criticize them, assuming that they will grow from these remarks. But ask yourself: Do you like being corrected? Do you grow when you are constantly criticized? In truth, we tend to stay the same when we are criticized. We want to defend what we have done, and our innate stubbornness refuses to permit us to accept the criticism we are receiving. Behind virtually all criticism is the sentence If only you were more like me, and living life as I see it, you would be a lot better off. But no one, even your child, is exactly like you. Praise your children for attempting a task, even if it was unsuccessful, and for taking risks. Create an environment in which your children know that you are with them in their efforts, rather than looking to criticize them.

An ant turns right, left, and moves ahead over a sandy hill. How can we explain the complexity of the path it chose? We can think up a sophisticated program in the ant's brain, but it does not work. What we have overlooked is the ant's environment. The ant may be following a simple rule: get out of the sun and back to the nest. Complex behavior does not imply complex mental strategies. The same holds for humans. The apparent complexity of a man's behavior over time is largely a reflection of the complexity of the environment in which he finds himself. People adapt to their environments much as gelatin does; if you wish to know what form it will have when it solidifies, study the shape of the mold that holds the gelatin. To understand behavior, one has to look at both the mind and the environment.

When someone asks us, How does that work? or Why does that happen? we tend to answer the question directly if we know the answer. After all, it is efficient. Another person asks a question; we provide the answer to the question. It is usually a win-win. The problem with this is that the direct approach can have an unintended consequence: the loss of confidence. Although the question wanted for an explanation, what the asker received was a statement of fact. Why does oil float on top of water in a glass? Relative density. What causes climate change? Increased CO2 in the atmosphere. Why does the ocean have tides? The moon. Giving direct, accurate, and factual answers may seem to solve the problem from the perspective of the answerer. But in reality, it can shut the asker down. A statement of fact with no other context puts the burden on the asker to take the next step. If the asker isn't familiar with relative density or CO2, he or she is likely to move on rather than ask a follow-up question or probe for related ideas. Any hope of becoming a customer of that idea is lost. This is a failure in the form of a lost opportunity. Although direct answers are often needed and well-placed, they do not work universally. A skilled explainer learns to see the intent behind the question and formulate an answer that focuses on understanding instead of efficiency.

It was my last football game as a college player. I made the final tackle and we won. As people chanted my name, I was carried off the field on the shoulders of my teammates. Although I wasn't a great student or a great football player, I ended up not only graduating from my dream university but becoming a hero of the team. People keep asking me how I did it. Here is my story. I was born into a large poor family in Chicago. As a kid, I had visions of being a hero ― a police officer or an astronaut. However, people would always tell me, You can't do that. You aren't smart enough. You aren't strong enough. Moreover, I didn't do well in school, and I had no hope of getting into any college. After high school, I gave up on my dream of going to college and got a part-time job instead. I felt like I was living in a box labeled This is where you belong. It was so hard to break out of the box, but I began to feel an urgent need for a change. I signed up for the Army and went to the Vietnam War. A lot of people were worried, but I said, Well, I'm going to get out of my box by deciding what to do myself instead of having someone else tell me what to do. With that one crucial shift in thinking, my whole attitude changed. I began to dream of going to one of the best universities in the country and playing football. After I finished my time in the Army, I packed my bags and went to my dream university. I knocked on the door of one of the professors' offices and said, Please, tell me how to get in here. The professor could see that I was determined. He said, I can't let you in the university, but I will see you whenever you need my advice or help. It took me a long time, but I eventually got into that university, became a football player, and graduated.