Some students prefer a part­time job after class to earn some money and improve their working and communication abilities. Here are some good companies for you to choose.

    In­N­Out Burger

    It's the best hamburger shop in the west of America. Thought as one of the best employers, it offers flexible working hours and the highest starting part­time salaries (薪水). Above all, the company treats its workers the way they would like to be treated: like family.

    Position: selling assistant (experience required)

    Website：www.in­n­out.com

    Starbucks Coffee

    Starbucks has been a leader of the United States' coffee. Working hours are flexible. There is also a 30% discount and a free pound of coffee or box of tea every week.

    Position: coffee waiter (experience required)

    Website: www.starbucks.com

    Whole Foods Market

    Whole Foods Market is the world's largest natural and organic food selling company. With its focus on organic food, Whole Foods Market is all about health. Working hours are not fixed. You can get a 20% discount. There are also training courses on health and food every week.

    Position: secretary

    Website: www.wholefoodsmarket.com

    Lands' End

    Lands' End is a Wisconsin­based clothing retailer(零售商). Working hours can be changed easily to suit any new situation. Workers (even part­time workers) have the chance to go to a company­owned centre and get a 25% discount, and an invitation to the yearly company picnic.

    Position: salesman

    Website: www.landsend.com

    “I wish we hadn't come on this trip!” Jeff's voice echoed across the narrow canyon （峡谷）. His father stopped, breathing heavily. “This is hard on you, but you've got to come through with courage!” He gently placed his hand on the boy's shoulder. “Now, I don't know if I can make it without stopping every so often. You're young, but you're strong and fast. Do you remember the way back from here to the road, if you had to go alone?”

    Jeff flashed back to the painful scene of Mark, his seventeen-year-old brother at their campsite. He was bitten by a snake yesterday. This morning he couldn't move, and the pain got worse. He needed medical attention right away. They had left their phone in the car, and it must have been out of power by then. Leaving Mark at the campsite and seeking help was their only choice.

“Jeff, could you do it?”

    Jeff looked to the end of the canyon, several miles away. He nodded and a plan began to take hold in his mind. “What is the name of that little town we stopped, Dad?” There must be a hospital there.

    “Flint. We parked at the side of the road a few miles out of Flint.”

    Jeff nodded. Then they continued climbing. Stone by stone, they made their way up the canyon. Gradually, Jeff's father grew smaller and smaller in the distance. Jeff waved to him and then climbed toward the road. Two hours later, he finally reached the road and struggled toward the town, almost exhausted.

    “Can't stop.” He thought. “Mark's in big trouble. Keep going.” Suddenly, he saw a truck heading toward him. “Hey, mister!” He shouted, waving both arms. He began to jog toward the truck, and then broke into a full-speed run.

    His chest was burning with every breath when the truck driver stopped by him. Jeff explained breathlessly. The driver reached for his cellphone as soon as he heard about Mark. “Better get the helicopter in there,” he said immediately. But Jeff wasn't sure about that because everything got unclear and then went black and quiet.

    Hours later, Jeff opened his eyes to find his father on a chair nearby. “You're a hero, son,” his father said with a smile. “You had the helicopter sent into the canyon after Mark. I can't tell you how happy I was when I saw it overhead. They got him to the hospital. He's going to be fine soon. I'm so proud of you!”

    83-year-old Antonio Vicente has spent the last four decades of his life fighting against the trend. As Brazilian landowners cut down rainforests to make room for profitable plantations(种植园) and cattle grounds, he struggled to bring the jungles of his childhood back to life.

    "When I was a child, the peasants cut down the trees to make grasslands and charcoal, and the water dried up and did not come back," he told the reporters, "I thought: 'Water is valuable, no one makes water and the population will not stop growing. What is going to happen? We are going to run out of water.'"

    With only some donkeys and a small team of hired workers, Antonio Vicente set about bringing back the forest to his land. What started out as a weekend hobby soon became a permanent way of life, and Antonio recalls often spending whole days and nights in his young jungle, surrounded by rats and foxes, and eating banana sandwiches for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Over the last 40 years, he has planted an estimated 50,000 trees on his 31-hectare land, which now make up a small but unique area of rainforest, and a haven for wildlife.

    As the forest grew, the water returned, and Antonio says that there are now over 20 water, sources on his land that were no longer there when he bought it. Then the animals started making a home there. Today, the forest is alive with the sounds of birds and insects living there, and more species are settling in every year.

    "There are toucans(巨嘴鸟), all kinds of birds, squirrels, lizards, and even the boars are returning," 83-year-old Vicente says, "If you ask me who my family are, I would say all this right here, each one of these that I planted from a seed."

Open Letter to an Editor

I had an interesting conversation with a reporter recently — one who works for you. In fact, he's one of your best reporters. He wants to leave.

    Your reporter gave me a copy of his resume(简历) and photocopies of six stories that he wrote for you. The headlines showed you played them proudly. With great enthusiasm, he talked about how he finds issues(问题), approaches them, and writes about them, which tells me he is one of your best. I'm sure you would hate to lose him. Surprisingly, your reporter is not unhappy. In fact, he told me he really likes his job. He has a great assignment (分工), and said you run a great paper. It would be easy for you to keep him, he said. He knows that the paper values him. He appreciates the responsibility you've given him, takes ownership of his profession, and enjoys his freedom.

    So why is he looking for a way out?

    He talked to me because he wants his editors to demand so much more of him. He wants to be pushed, challenged, coached to new heights.

    The reporter believes that good stories spring from good questions, but his editors usually ask how long the story will be, when it will be in, where it can play, and what the budget is.

    He longs for conversations with an editor who will help him turn his good ideas into great ones. He wants someone to get excited about what he's doing and to help him turn his story idea upside down and inside out, exploring the best ways to report it. He wants to be more valuable for your paper. That's what you want for him, too, isn't it?

    So your reporter has set me thinking.

Our best hope in keeping our best reporters, copy editors, photographers, artists — everyone — is to work harder to make sure they get the help they are demanding to reach their potential. If we can't do it, they'll find someone who can.

    Most heroes are not super. They don't appear in comic books, on television, or in movies. They just do what they believe needs to be done to make their world a better place. Bike Batman is one of them.

    Bike Batman is a 30 - year – old married engineer who lives in Seattle, Washington. He's a cyclist who also buys and sells bikes as a hobby.

    About three year, ago, he was looking for his wife. He found one on Craigslist, a website where people list things they want so sell. As he often does, he also looked at Bike Index, a popular website that allows users to register their bikes and post reports when they're taken. The bike, which he was considering purchasing, clearly matched one reported stolen on? Bike Index. Then he called the person who claimed to be the bike's owner and arranged to meet him－supposedly to complete the sale. When the two men met, Bike Batman told the thief. You've got two option. You can wait until a police officer gets here, or you can just get out of here." You can imagine what the thief did.

    After that first success, Bike Batman developed a safer routine. When he sees questionable bike ads on Craigslist, he cross-references the image with bikes reported on Bike Index. Once he has confirmed it with the owner, he arranges a meet - up with the thief and will call the Seattle police department so that officers can participate in the action. In more than half of the 22 cases in which he has got back and returned bikes y the thieves have been arrested. In one case, Bike Batman even helped a family recover a wide range of prized possessions that suspects had stolen during a home burglary.

    His nickname came from a discussion with a police officer who suggested he be called "Robin Hood". Since he wasn't exactly stealing from the rich and giving to the poor, "Batman" seemed a better fit. The idea of a superhero punishing criminals feels pretty silly to him, but the main reason he continues his work is to keep up Seattle's reputation as a friendly city.

    Vacation in the U. S. usually means slower days, and no school teachers know, however, that vacation means students will likely fall behind, and forget things they learned during the year. Simon Vanderpool, a special education teacher in Lexington, Kentucky, decided to do something about it.

    He started a program called Books and Barbers. Children go to the barber, choose a book and read out loud while the barber cuts their hair. The child gets a sticker and can take the book home. And there is an added bonus: money. The kids get paid to read.

    Vanderpool says barber shops are places where kids can feel comfortable. "Once a student feels comfortable, that's whenever the brain opens up, and that they are able to start focusing on nothing but learning." Amir Shalash owns a barber shop. But he is doing more than cutting children's hair. He is listening to them read, and helping them with their reading.

    Most of the children getting haircuts at barber shops are boys. Vanderpool's idea was to do more than just help them with reading and money. The teacher wants to help kids who are growing up in a home without a father liike he did. Also, I created the program in order to provide a positive mentor(指导者）for the kids that go into the barber shop, and are able to have someone that they can rely on and they can trust in, and just build a bond between the two of them." Shalash says he and his fellow barbers like being mentors.

    "The biggest thing is that we try to influence as many kids as we can, and that was my whole intention of it."