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It was 3:43. Thunder was crashing and the rain was pouring. Suddenly my father rushed into my room." Adam! Adam! Get up! We're flooding!" he shouted and shook me by the shoulders. That woke 1 up! I ran downstairs to the basement. It was like a swimming pool. My mother and I immediately started to pick up things and take them upstairs. I had no 2 on, so my feet were quite freezing.
Things got worse every minute. Within the next hour, we had moved everything that we could to the first floor. The computer, big-screen television and heavy boxes 3 with our most valuable things were taken to safety. 4 , our piano, sofa, washing machine and water heater were all still down there—being 5 .There was nothing we could do.
That was the hardest part. Knowing that your home is being destroyed is bad enough, but 6 that you can't do anything to stop it feels even worse.
Water had come in our front door. Rescue 8 were floating in our streets. Mother told me to pack an overnight bag of clothes and valuables and get ready to leave.
When it was 9 safe to walk outside, all the people in the neighborhood 10 at the street corner. People became friends, and friends became like family. People 11 each other. We learned later that the National Weather Service had declared the storm a flash flood.
I really have 12 something from this flood. I've learned what destruction is. I have learned what 13 means. I know in the future, when I watch people's lives affected by natural disasters, I can understand them. I will show great pity on them and I will do what I can to help them.
Cara Lang is 13. She lives in Boston, Massachusetts, US. Last Thursday, she didn't go to school. She went to work with her father instead. Every year, on the fourth Thursday in April, millions of young girls go work. This is Take Our Daughters to Work Day. The girls are between the ages of 9 and 15. They spend the day at work with an adult, usually a mother, father, aunt, or uncle. They go to offices, police stations, laboratories, and other places where their parents or other family members work. Next year, the day will include sons, too.
The Ms. Foundation, an organization for women, started the program about ten years ago. In the U.S, many women work outside the home. The Ms. Foundation wants girls to find out about many different kinds of jobs. Then, when the girls grow up, they can choose a job they like.
Cara's father is a film director. Cara says," It was very exciting for me to go to the studio with my dad. I saw a lot of people doing different jobs." Many businesses have special activities for girls on this day. Last year, Cara went to work with her aunt at the University of Massachusetts. In the engineering department, the girls learned to build a bridge with toothpicks and Candy. In the chemistry department, they learned to use scales. They learned about many other kinds of jobs, too.
Right now, Cara does not know what job she will have when she grows up. But because of Take Our Daughters to Work Day, she knows she has many choices.
On the morning of the day when he left Compton High School in Los Angeles, 18-year-old Allan Guei asked seven of his classmates to come together. Guei, a star on the basketball team, expressed he was giving away he $40,000 he'd won in a competition and was dividing it among them. The room filled with shouts and cheers. "Everyone went mad with excitement," he says. "They were surprised that I would do something like that for them."
In November 2000, Guei's family moved from the Ivory Coast to the United States, and he immediately took up basketball." When I first came to California, the Lakers were winning: it was Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal era (时代),"he recalls." I just fell in love with the game."
A few years later, he was playing for the school. Then, in March, he entered a free-throw competition at the school, and the town saw just how big a team player Guei really is—both on and off the court (球场).
In the first round, each of the eight contestants (竞争者) took ten shots, and the top four shooters advanced." I was one of the final four, but I really didn't shoot that well," Guei says." I was nervous!"" In the second round, however, he took the winning shot. He went home with the prize of $ 40,000.
A few months before Guei left school, he was offered a full scholarship (奖学金) to California State University, and he had an idea." I could have kept the prize money, but I was already going to college for free," Guei says. "I know the others were going to have a lot of difficulty paying for school. They needed it for their futures, so I just decided to give it away."
Now wearing No.25 on Northridge's Matadors basketball team, Guei has little time for anything but training and studying, though he keeps in touch with most of his classmates." I know those kids. Whatever they decide to do in life is going to be something good," he says." It was just the right thing to do."
As for his own future, Guei is still learning. "I work really hard at everything I do," he says. "But whatever happens in my future, I'm just happy that I was able to help somebody else along the way."
Well-known companies are powered by their names and reputations. When people walk into 2 Pizza Hut in Tokyo, Rome, or Miami, they know exactly what they are getting. Through franchising, an investor (投资者) can make use of this brand power by opening a Pizza Hut of his or her own. The risk is low, and the rewards can be big. No wonder franchising is such a successful business model.
Franchising had been around for more than 100 years, but its popularity took off in the 1950s. Leading the, trend were, fast food restaurant like McDonald's. These days, there are franchises in more than eighty-five industries, including dry cleaning, hotels and supermarkets. It's a very big business. In the US, there are some 760,000 franchises, totaling more than $1.5 trillion in yearly revenues (income).
There are two sides in a franchise: the franchisor—the owner of the business system and the franchise—the person who licenses the system. After signing a" franchise agreement", the franchisee pays a fee. He or she also pays for equipment, supplies, and, if necessary, building costs. The total investment usually ranges from $10,000 to $1,000,000. After the business opens, the franchisee also pays a percentage of sales revenues—called a royal—to the franchisor. Marking fees must also be paid.
In return, the franchisee receives many benefits. Training is among the most common ones. It includes everything from dealing with customers to understanding the company's standards. The franchisor also handles advertising. On top of that, there's the benefit of the brand reputation that the company has built up.: All of these benefits make the risk of opening a franchise much smaller than that of starting a business from scratch.
However, a franchise can also have drawbacks. If a customer at a single restaurant gets sick, it may hurt every franchise in the system. Running a franchise also means closely following the company's standards. So, one has to give up a degree of independence. You have to do things their way and trust that the system will work.
If you want to earn a lot of money from the business, you have to work hard. Also, remember that the monthly royalty must be paid, even if you are losing money. However, there are thousands of opportunities in franchising. They will surely grow as brand recognition becomes more important in the global economy (经济).
It took 13 years of international effort to map the human biological blueprint of all the genes (基因) that make us different people. The first rough draft (草图) made in 2000. The last of our 23 chromosomes (染色体) was clearly described in 2006. Ever since then, the age of personal genetic testing has been upon us. Since that time, a growing number of private companies have come on the market mostly through the Internet, offering to scan your personal DNA and compare it to some disease markets of the blueprint, called DTC genetic tests.
But over the last five years the medical world has been discussing excitedly about whether these DTC tests are helpful or harmful, scientifically believable or completely useless. One of the usual criticisms (批评) is that the science is so new that no one really knows yet how to explain the information.
"At present they largely remain in the period of research studies," notes Dr. Greg Ferro, special advisor to the director of genomic medicine at the US National Human Genome Research Institute. Ferro says there are two reasons." The first is that when they offer a test, are they really checking what they should check? And then the next is that even if it is believable, does what the test is checking really mean anything to your health?"
Other worries include the privacy of the results and how your personal genetic information might be used by insurance (保险) companies to refuse your insurance or your boss to dismiss you. Or you could learn information with a huge social or personal impact (冲击), such as finding out that genetically you cannot possibly be the father of your child. It can also give you risks that may break your life, such as whether you are at high risk of cancer, Parkinson or other terrible diseases.
Criticisms over the tests are such that some countries, such as Germany, have banned them. In 2011, some scientists advised the US government that most tests should be done under the guidance of medical professionals (专家). The UK government also expressed its worries about DTC genetic tests and in August 2010 made a set of rules to guide the development of genetic tests.
In 2011, three medical researchers published a review article in the International Journal of Clinical Practice, saying that such tests offered more risks than benefits. The most important reason is that the tests might create worries or unreal results or drive unnecessary medical treatments. They also noted some of the genetic information the tests are based on at present is far from being perfect.
Those days when you go on vacation, you spend most of your money just getting there. Travel is expensive, but don't stay home only because you are short of money! Here is some advice:
Travel during off season if possible. Flights and hotels are much cheaper when tourism is low.
Choose a hotel that's a little farther from popular attractions. If you're staying several days, check out prices on vacation homes-- they can end up being cheaper than a hotel.
Take public traffic, such as buses or subway, instead of taking a taxi.
Plan your meals, and cat like locals. Don't waste money at expensive hotel restaurants or fast- food chains. Depending on where you stay, it may be cheaper to make food on your own.
Check online for special discount (折扣)—if you're a student, the old or the parents traveling with children, you could get discounts! A little research could save you a lot of money.
Whether you're backpacking alone or going on a family vacation, your trip doesn't have to cost a lot of money. The key is to plan ahead and write down what you spend. Then put the money you save toward your next trip!
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