When the Normans built their first simple wooden castles in England，they built them on the top of small hills.The first permanent castles were made of stone and built with thick walls.The main building was usually surrounded by walls which overlooked the moat (护城河)．

     The entrance to the castle was usually over a drawbridge (吊桥) leading to the main gatehouse.The drawbridge could be raised or lowered and an iron grille (栅栏) could be lowered to shut off the entrance to the gatehouse.

     As time went on，the castle builders became more advanced in their techniques.Instead of building a strong central building and surrounding it with walls of lesser strength，they thought out the idea of surrounding a central area with huge walls which could contain all the main rooms of the castle.These walls usually had many towers and these towers were really a series of main buildings along the castle walls.In building these castles they used hill sites whenever possible in order to give the castle a better position.Because the outside world was shut off by a barrier or curtain of defences，they are called “curtain wall” castles.

     With the passing of time there was less need to build strong castles and nobles built manor (庄园) houses.These manor houses often had battlements and iron grilles，but they were built more for comfort and included many of the conveniences and luxuries of the large houses which were being built in the towns.

     Unfortunately，many English castles were damaged or destroyed completely during the Civil Wars of the 1600s.

    Do you want to have a nice place to spend your weekend？Here are some places for you ,which are probably a mere walk away from your college.

King's Art Centre

    A day at the Centre could mean a visit to an exhibition of the work of one of the most interesting contemporary artists on show anywhere. This weekend sees the opening of an exhibition of four local artists.

    You could attend a class teaching you how to 'learn from the masters' or get more creative with paint—free of charge.

    The Centre also runs two life drawing classes for which there is a small fee.

The Botanic Garden

    The Garden has over 8,000 plant species；it holds the research and teaching collection of living plants for Cambridge University.

    The multi­branched Torch Aloe here is impressive. The African plant produces red flowers above blue­green leaves，and is not one to miss.

    Get to the display house to see Dionaea muscipula，a plant more commonly known as the Venus Flytrap that feeds on insects and other small animals.

    The Garden is also a place for wildlife ­enthusiasts. Look for grass snakes in the lake. A snake called 'Hissing Sid' is regularly seen lying in the heat of the warm sun.

Byron's Pool

    Many stories surround Lord Byron's time as a student of Cambridge University. Arriving in 1805，he wrote a letter complaining that it was a place of “mess and drunkenness”．However，it seems as though Byron did manage to pass the time pleasantly enough. I'm not just talking about the pet bear he kept in his rooms.He spent a great deal of time walking in the village.

    It is also said that on occasion Byron swam naked by moonlight in the lake，which is now known as Byron's Pool. A couple of miles past Grantchester in the south Cambridgeshire countryside，the pool is surrounded by beautiful circular paths around the fields. The cries of invisible birds make the trip a lovely experience and on the way home you can drop into the village for afternoon tea. If you don't trust me，then perhaps you'll take it from Virginia Woolf—over a century after Byron，she reportedly took a trip to swim in the same pool.

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    I had an old neighbor, a doctor named Gibbs. When Doctor Gibbs wasn't saving lives, he was planting trees. He had some interesting theories about planting trees. He hardly watered his new trees.

    Once I asked why and he told me that watering plants damaged them because it made them grow weaker. He said he had to make things difficult for the trees so that only the strongest could survive. He talked about how watering trees made them develop shallow roots and how, if they were not watered, trees would grow deep roots in search of water.

    So, instead of watering his trees every morning, he'd beat them with a rolled up newspaper. I asked him why he did that, and he said it was to get the trees' attention.

    Doctor Gibbs died a couple of years after I left home. Sometimes I walked by his house and looked at the trees I'd watched him plant 25 years ago. They were tall and strong.

    I planted several trees myself a few years ago. Two years of caring for these trees meant they grew up weakly. Whenever a cold wind blew, my trees trembled. Adversity seemed to benefit Doctor Gibb's trees in ways comfort and ease never could.

    Every night before I go to bed, I check on my two sons. I often pray that their lives will be easy. But lately I've been thinking that it's time to change my prayer. I know my children are going to experience difficulties. There's always a cold wind blowing somewhere. What we need to do is to pray for deep roots, so when the rains fall and the winds blow, we won't be torn apart.

    72-year-old Darlene Mullins recently graduated from Tennessee State University in Nashville, Tennessee. Darlene left school nearly 55 years ago in the name of love. She was studying at the college and met her husband-to-be, John Mullins, in 1962. The two knew they would marry each other the moment they met. She finished her freshman year with 25 credits and married John in 1963. Her husband graduated in 1964 and began working.

    Darlene took care of the household and was a stay-at-home mother to their son and daughter. The family lived in six states over the years, due to John's successful career in business. Darlene eventually began a career in retail as their children grew older. Though she remained busy, she always longed to finish school. She always told her children to make sure they finish what they started and she kind of felt it was time to live up to her own dream.

    John was very supportive when she told him she was going back to school. He knew the day would come when she decided to finish her degree. He told her whenever she was ready they would go. The couple moved back to Nashville in 2013 when Darlene re-enrolled. She had to adjust to the technological advances in the classroom, saying that she was determined to finish no matter how long it took. After completing four years, Darlene graduated with a degree, “I feel like God has given me a second chance.” she said' She hopes that her story can inspire others to pursue a degree.

    One of the most important things in the world is friendship. In order to have friends, you have to be a friend. But how can you be a good friend at school？

Listen﹣Listen when they are talking. Don't say anything unless they ask you a question. Sometimes it's not necessary for you to have anything to say; they just need someone to talk to about their feelings.

    Help them﹣If your friend is ever in need of something, be there to help them. You should try to put them first, but make sure you don't do everything they want you to do. Try to take an extra pencil or pen with you to classes in case they forget one. Have a little extra money in your pocket in case they forget something they need.

    Be there for them﹣Be there for your friends to help make them feel better in hard times. Marilyn Monroe, a famous U.S. actor, once said, "I often make mistakes. Sometimes I am out of control, but if you can't stay with me at my worst, you are sure not to deserve to be with me at my best." Always remember this! If you don't want to stay with your friends when they're in hard times, then you don't deserve to be with them when they're having a good time!

    Make plans﹣Try to make plans with your friends. Go shopping, go for ice cream, have a party, go to a movie and so on. Take time to know each other even better by doing something you both enjoy. By planning things together, you both can have a good time. And you'll remember these things when you're all old!

    When I got home after dropping out of college in my junior year because of depression, I didn't want to get out of bed. But my parents wanted me to, so I just transferred myself to the couch in the living room. Sometimes I would turn on the TV and watch marathons of Chopped, but mostly I just sat there, lost in thought.

    One day when I was lying on the couch, not knowing what to do, I wondered since I had been out of school for a long time, I might as well do something productive with my life. I looked at my options. I could attend some kind of online college class, go to in-person events just to get out of the house, or take up a hobby. But none of these things made me happy, and my depression seemed to keep me drowning under the waves.

    There was something that was my thing—entrepreneurship. No matter what kind of day I'm having now, the mere mention of start-ups still perks me up. I have been starting business in some kinds of forms ever since I was a kid, and despite everything, this passion has never changed.

    So I started thinking of ideas, seeing which one could become practical business. I spent my days glued to a wide purple notebook, a pen in hand, sometimes moving from the couch to the table on our back porch in the mornings. If I got up early enough, I'd watch the sun come up. It was there, in the still mornings, that I learned about life and started to look back on mine.

    With time going on, the depression started to lift. I was making more progress in my recovery, and the good days were more frequent than the bad. I started a couple of different businesses, eventually settling on a web design business, and did a lot of experiments and changed my ideas, and after a while, things started to work.