Andy never wanted to go to bed on time. His parents had explained to him how important it was to go to bed early and get a good rest. But Andy paid no attention to them, and they didn't know what to do until one weekend when they were visiting Andy's grandparents.

    Grandpa Peter heard all about it and said, "This sounds like a job for Tubby." So Andy's parents loaded the cat onto the car and returned home.

That night, at bedtime, the same problem happened. Andy didn't want to go to bed, and even though his parents waited a while to see if Tubby would solve the problem, nothing happened.

    Hours later, Andy finally decided to go to bed. But what a surprise when he entered his bedroom! Tubby was in his bed, totally sprawling out, pot-belly in the air, and snoring like an express train.

    Andy tried to move the cat, but there was no way of moving him an inch. That night he hardly slept, lying on one tiny corner of his bed.

    The next day the same thing happened, even though Andy was much more tired from not having slept well. When the third day arrived, he had understood that if he wanted to sleep in his bed, he would have to get into it before Tubby did. That night, when his parents only started to mention the topic of bedtime, Andy rushed upstairs and dived into bed. His parents could not believe it. They knew nothing about Tubby in the bed, nor did they understand why Andy went to bed on time without complaint. They were so happy about this that they stayed up quite late, celebrating.

    In the United States and several other countries , 2.5 million children play baseball in an organization called Little League . They play on teams in their hometowns . Their parents and other adults in the community coach or instruct them and serve as umpires（裁判员）to make sure that everyone follows the rules . Local businesses give money for the ball fields and the uniforms . Local teams compete against each other and the winners get to play teams that are more distant . Eventually , the top teams go to the Little League World Series .

    One hundred years after Abner Doubleday invented baseball in Cooperstown , New York , in 1839 , Little League got started in Pennsylvania . Three men started the game for neighborhood boys with a smaller playing field and fewer innings（局）than adult baseball . Little League became popular after World War II when the game spread across the United States . By 1955 it was played throughout North America and within five years it had spread to Europe. Children's baseball really caught on in Japan and Taiwan of China and teams from those areas won the World Series seven out of eight years . After this , the organization tried banning foreign teams from the World Series , but the ban came to an end after one year .

    At first , Little League was only for boys aged nine to twelve . However , in 1974 , the parents of girl baseball players brought a law suit . The courts ruled that Little League had to include both boys and girls . Later Little League added on softball and other games for teenagers up to age eighteen . Occasionally , a Little Leaguer becomes a professional player . For example , Gary Carter went from Little League to play nineteen seasons in the Major Leagues , ten of them as an All-Star player . By and large , youngsters play baseball for fun , but their parents are pround of them .

    “Cleverness is a gift while kindness is a choice. Gifts are easy – they're given after all. Choices can be hard.” –– Jeff Bezos.

    I got the idea to start Amazon 16 years ago. I came across the fact that the Internet usage was growing at 2,300 percent per year. I'd never seen or heard of anything that grew that fast, and the idea of building an online bookstore with millions of titles was very exciting to me. I had just turned 30 years old, and I'd been married for a year. I told my wife MacKenzie that I wanted to quit my job and go to do this crazy thing that probably wouldn't work since most start-ups don't, and I wasn't sure what to expect. MacKenzie told me I should go for it. As a young boy, I'd been a garage inventor. I'd always wanted to be an inventor, and she wanted me to follow my passion.

    I was working at a financial firm in New York City with a bunch of very smart people, and I had a brilliant boss that I much admired. I went to my boss and told him I wanted to start a company selling books on the Internet. He took me on a long walk in Central Park, listened carefully to me, and finally said, “That sounds like a really good idea, but it would be an even better idea for someone who didn't already have a good job.” That logic made some sense to me, and he convinced me to think about it for 48 hours before making a final decision. Seen in that light, it really was a difficult choice, but ultimately, I decided I had to give it a shot. I didn't think I'd regret trying and failing. And I suspected I would always be haunted by a decision to not try at all.

    After much consideration, I took the less safe path to follow my passion, and I'm proud of that choice. For all of us, in the end, we are our choices.

    When I came to Cincinnati as an au pair (家庭打工留学生), a lot of things there were different from what I knew. My host family lived in a huge house I could only describe as a "castle"．In Germany I had lived in a small apartment together with my mom. Soon I found out that the "castle" was actually rather small in our neighborhood.

    Everybody there was very friendly and polite. They greeted you when they were walking by at least 3 feet away from you. They must not have seen a German au pair before, for most people I met asked me all kinds of questions about Germany. I enjoyed answering their various strange questions. I made a lot of friends and I started to hang out with them.

    Of course, there were a number of new things, and it took me the whole year to find them all out. I never got homesick. Perhaps it was because I did not have too many negative experiences and felt loved and welcomed there.

    However, I had undergone some painful experience back in Germany. I was frustrated by the way people would run me over and not even say "Sorry." Taking up my studies at the TU-Dresden, I felt lonely. Everybody here seemed to be withdrawn(离群的) and I missed everything I had in Cincinnati. Germany was so "cold". I found it so much harder to make new friends. After six months I got a roommate and only two good friends. I also flew back to Cincinnati several times for long periods. I felt that without those visits I was not able to make it.

    Now I am over this German culture shock. It almost took me an entire year. I am still going back and forward between Dresden and Cincinnati four times a year.

    There's a good chance something you've bought online has been in the hands of a "picker" first. These are the workers in warehouses(仓库)who pick, pack and ship all those things we're ordering.

    At Amazon and other companies, they're working side by side with robots. Experts say while the robots are replacing some human workers, the machines aren't quite ready to take over completely.

    When a robot finds its storage unit, it slides underneath, lifts it up and then delivers it to a worker 一 they're called pickers. On a recent day, the computer told a picker to grab what looked like a fantasy board (棋盘)game. The picker found it, canned it and placed it on the conveyor belt.

    ^"In a traditional fulfillment center where the associate would walk to the different items, it can take hours to fulfill a customer order." Robinson says.

    Now, with the help of robots, that task takes minutes 一 and fewer humans.

So is this a sign we're entering a new industrial revolution?

    "It's definitely going to take over a lot of jobs." says Karen Myers, a scientist at SRI, one of Silicon Valley's oldest research centers.

    At the same time, she says, we're running against the limits of technology. Take "the picker" at the Amazon fulfillment center. Myers says those skills are proving to be uniquely human.

    "Our fingers are incredibly flexible and the current generation of robotic operators, they're getting much_, much better," she says. "But they're just not quite there yet."

    There's also the robot's brain.

    Remember that board game the Amazon worker was looking for? She could barely see the box filled into the storage bin — but she could tell it was a board game. Robots can't do that.

    Technologists say that, increasingly, humans will work side by side with robots — instead of robots working alone.

    Amazon says robots and humans enabled the Tracy warehouse to fulfill customer orders faster. That means more customers and more human workers.

    On the night of December 8, 1992, when he was standing in a parking lot talking to friends, Tracy March jumped to the top of a car, as he had done a hundred times before. This time, though, Tracy lost his balance. His head struck the ground, hard.

    All night, Cory, Tracy's mother, stood next to her son, who was lying in a hospital bed, his brown eyes fixed in a lifeless stare. She remembered that Tracy had once mentioned organ donation. Maybe I can spare another family this pain, she thought. When the time came, she and her husband Bill signed the forms permitting his organs to be donated.

    Tracy was declared dead the next day. Twenty-four hours later, in a Boston hospital, Tracy's liver was made part of my husband, David, who was suffering from a hopeless liver disease.

    Months later, we learned from the local organ bank that the donor's parents wished desperately to meet someone who had gained life through the gift from their son. A meeting was arranged by the organ bank to bring together two families linked by the most bittersweet ties imaginable.

    The meeting was risky, but worth it. We talked for 3 hours. They showed us a picture of Tracy. We learned how he had lived and died. We learned something about Bill and Cory too.

    For the Marches, seeing David and knowing he was well seemed to ease their suffering. I'll never forget seeing David's tall figure stopped over Cory, her arms around his waist, as a mother would hug a son. For a long time they held each other tight. It was hard to know if she was saying hello or good-bye. Maybe she was saying both.