Yosemite is a national park in California. It is very beautiful and big. The park includes more than 760,000 acres (英亩) in the California Mountains. Most of the park is wild (荒凉的).

    The part of Yosemite that everyone likes is Yosemite Valley. It is a small valley that is 7 miles long and less than 1 mile wide. It has tall rock walls and streams that flow down in waterfalls. More than two million visitors come to the valley each year.

    It's said that the number of visitors is more than the land can hold. The valley has 4,500 camping places. It has a hotel that can hold 4,000 families. This is still not enough to serve all of the visitors. The valley has grown so big that it has a lot of traffic.

    A worker says the park is trying to keep the beauty of the park and let everyone visit. Some areas have been rounded up (圈起来) to keep people away and planted with seeds to try to keep them beautiful.

    A former worker thinks Yosemite should get more money to take better care of the park. He would also like to teach people what the park service is trying to do.

    Some people are trying to save Yosemite Valley. A plan has been made to remove some buildings. There will be fewer cars allowed inside the park. More buses will help get people around.

    One morning while Officer Vogel was on his coffee break in a restaurant, a man ran in a yelled. “Officer! A little kid is driving a car down the street!"

    He ran out at once and saw a cargoing slowly--about 25 miles an hour--but it wasn't going very straight. He jumped into his police car and followed it. When the car was stopped, Officer Vogel looked inside. The driver was a little boy. His name was Rocco Morabiro and he was 5. In the back seat was his two-year-old sister. Both children were crying.

    "I want my mummy!" the boy cried. "But she can't get here. I have the car.” Then he had an idea. "Just a minute." he told Officer Vogel. "I can drive. I'll go to get her.”

    “No!" Officer Vogel said. “You stay with me!" Then he drove them to the police station and he called their mother. They had many questions for Rocco. The first question was: "Where did you get the car keys?"

    Rocco said. “From the top of the refrigerator." At seven that morning Rocco's father was at work and his mother was sleeping, Rocco saw the keys on top of the refrigerator. He climbed up on a chair, and took the keys.

    Rocco got into the car and started the engine. When Rocco's sister heard the engine, she ran to the car and cried. She wanted to go with him.

It was 7 a. m.—rush hour—so there was much traffic. Rocco drove one mile in heavy traffic. Then Officer Vogel stopped him.

    Newspapers and TV stations heard about Rocco, and a lot of reporters went to his house. One reporter asked Rocco, “What do you want to be when you grow up?"

    “A truck driver," he said, smiling.

Reader's Travel Photography Competition

    This month's images include some original and brilliant shots. The overall 2018 winner will receive a $200 holiday ticket and go on a 16-night wildlife holiday.

    Adults understand what it feels like to be flooded with objects(物品). Why do we often think that more is more when it comes to kids and their belongings? The good news is that I can help my own kids learn earlier than I did how to live more with less.

    I found the pre-holidays a good time to encourage young children to donate less-used things, and it worked. Because of our efforts, our daughter Georgia did decide to donate a large bag of toys to a little girl whose mother was unable to pay for her holiday due to illness. She chose to sell a few larger objects that were less often used when we promised to put the money into her school fund (基金) (our kindergarten daughter is serious about becoming a doctor).

    For weeks, I've been thinking of bigger, deeper questions: How do we make it a habit for them? And how do we train ourselves to help them live with, need, and use less? Yesterday, I sat with my son, Shepherd, determined to test my own theory on this. I decided to play with him with only one toy for as long as it would keep his interest. I expected that one toy would keep his attention for about five minutes, ten minutes, max. I chose a red rubber ball — simple, universally available. We passed it, he tried to put it in his mouth, he tried bouncing it, rolling it, sitting on it, throwing it. It was totally, completely enough for him. Before I knew it an hour had passed and it was time to move on to lunch.

    We both became absorbed in the simplicity of playing together. He had my full attention and I had his. My little experiment to find joy in a single object worked for both of us.

    When my father married my mother in 1943 he gave my mother a 1937 crown coin and told her to keep it in the back of her purse and not spend it. This would mean that she always felt that she was protected and would always have money if she really needed it.

    When I was married in 1970 my husband who had heard this story obtained a 1937 crown for me and I have always kept it in my wallet and I have always had enough for my needs.

    A friend recently fell on hard times partly through external (外部的) circumstances and partly through poor planning. Friends and I have loaned her money, paid her bills, even given her food and tried to teach her budget techniques, but none of them has been a solution. She has just slipped deeper and deeper into financial trouble and depression.

    Last week she looked pale and unwell, very depressed and hopeless. I then thought about how the crown, a reminder of another's care and love, had protected me so I went to the bank for a $100 dollar bill. I told my friend the story and asked her to keep the $100 in the back of her wallet. It turned out that she didn't have a wallet so she put the money in a little pencil case where she kept her coins. She immediately felt better. "I feel rich and thank you for being a good friend" she said and we were both a bit teary.

    The reason for passing this on is not to praise any generosity on my part but to show the power of "random acts of kindness". I went home and remembered a little wallet I had that I'd never used and thought "I'll give that to my friend." I opened it and inside found $100. The universe is very just and if your heart is open the reward always comes.

    Five thousand square meters of old damaged cars, motorcycles and boats fill this junkyard. For a casual onlooker, this might be a very sad sight. But for Andy, it's a real treasure. "I've been a junk hoarder (囤积者) for my whole life and I like fixing up what shouldn't be thrown away. Around 200 old cars end up in this junkyard every week. Some of them are sold for parts, others get repaired, and still others are beyond repair."

    His father Bobby started the business some 50 years ago and still spends every morning there. The father and son have very different approaches to their work. They got a Dean cab that was getting thrown away and that was the father's project, which Andy did not want him to do. "He did basically the opposite of everything I told him and I think he did it just to make me mad. He dumped a ton of money into this car, but in the end it wouldn't run." Andy said jokingly.

    The unusual family business attracted the attention of a TV crew. That's how the show Janka Empire came to be featured on a network of the Discovery Channel. This show, five years of shooting, five seasons and 60 episodes (集), is popular. "There are hundreds of junkyards throughout the United States. I think what's interesting is that it is a family business. My father and I started the business and we joke very well back and forth and I think that's what people like. The cars that end up at the junkyard come out with endless surprises. See, this was a junk car and we restored it with a blown motor. Yet I don't get a chance to ride around it too often. Because despite its shining appearance, the noise of the engine is truly deafening and I worry my neighbors will not put up with it."