On a stormy day last August, Tim heard some shouting. Looking out to the sea carefully, he saw a couple of kids in a rowboat were being pulled out to sea.

    Two 12-year-old boys, Christian and Jack, rowed out a boat to search for a football. Once they'd rowed beyond the calm waters, a beach umbrella tied to the boat caught the wind and pulled the boat into open water. The pair panicked and tried to row back to shore. But they were no match for it and the boat was out of control.

    Tim knew it would soon be swallowed by the waves.

    "Everything went quiet in my head," Tim recalls(回忆). "I was trying to figure out how to swim to the boys in a straight line."

    Tim took off his clothes and jumped into the water. Every 500 yards or so, he raised his head to judge his progress. "At one point, I considered turning back," he says. "I wondered if I was putting my life at risk." After 30 minutes of struggling, he was close enough to yell to the boys, "Take down the umbrella!"

    Christian made much effort to take down the umbrella. Then Tim was able to catch up and climb aboard the boat. He took over rowing, but the waves were almost too strong for him.

    "Let's aim for the pier(码头)," Jack said. Tim turned the boat toward it. Soon afterward, waves crashed over the boat, and it began to sink. "Can you guys swim?" he cried. "A little bit," the boys said.

    Once they were in the water, Tim decided it would be safer and faster for him to pull the boys toward the pier. Christian and Jack were wearing life jackets and floated on their backs. Tim swan toward land as water washed over the boys' faces.

    “Are we almost there?" they asked again and again. "Yes," Tim told them each time.

    After 30minutes, they reached the pier.

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    For kids and many adults,a San Diego vacation means theme parks and other attractions.Before heading to a park,call or check its website for updated hours of operation; many parks have seasonal or holiday hours.Ticket prices listed here are for general admission（入场费）,single-day use only.

Sea World San Diego

    A 6-minute ride called Journey to Atlantis,which is to open in late May,tells the legend of the island nation. After the ride of Greek fishing boats,folks can visit a new exhibit of dolphins,which have not been on display at the park since 1998.

    DETAILS: General admission is $46.95 for adults,$37.95 for children aged 3-9,free for children 2 and younger. 1-800-380-3203 or www.seaworld.com.

San Diego Zoo

    There's not much in the way of new attractions.The zoo has a new panda cub（幼兽）,Mei Sheng.Nighttime Zoo, a program popular with families,starts June 26.

    DETAILS: General admission is $21 for adults,$14 for children aged 3-11,free for children 2 and younger. 1-619-234-3153 or www.Sandiegozoo.com

Maritime（海的）Museum of San Diego

    The HMS Surprise,the 18th-century British warship featured in the film Master and Commander,is on exhibit through Nov.30.

    DETAILS: The ship is available for tours from 9 am to 8 pm daily.Admission is $8 for adults,$6 for seniors and children aged 13-17,$5 for kids aged 6-12,and free for kids 5 and younger.1-619-234-9153 or www.sdmaritime.org.

Old Town Trolley Tours

    Visiting relatives or friends in San Diego? They can get a hometown pass and ride for free with your paid admission.

    DETAILS: The main ticket booth（售票亭）is in Old Town at 4010 Twiggs St.Hours are from 9 am to 5 pm, daily $25.www.historictours.com.

    Diana Ross, American pop singer and actress, achieved international popularity, first as the leader singer of the Supremes and later as a solo(独唱的) artist. Diana Ross was born on March 26, 1944, in Detroit, Michigan. She was the second of six children of Fred and Ernestine Ross, who lived in one of Detroit's poor districts. Because her family were closely connected with each other, Ross almost didn't notice the difficult life as she grew up.

    Ross professional career began in 1959, when she joined several neighborhood friends to form the Primettes. The group was renamed the Supremes after signing a recording contract (合同) with Motown late the following year. The group produced many number-one hit singles (热门单曲) on the US Billboard hot 100, including Baby Love, Stop! In The Name of Love and Someday We Will Be Together. In 1967, the group was renamed Diana Ross and the Supremes, foreshadowing（预示） Ross' solo career, which she started in 1970.

    Beginning with Ain't No Mountain High Enough from her first solo album, Ross enjoyed more than ten years of great success with her hit singles. Ross also developed a film-acting career in the 1970s, beginning with a starring role as blues singer Billie Holiday in Lady Sings the Blues and continuing with Mahogany, for which she also recorded the theme song Do You Know Where You're Going To.

    However, in the mid-1980s, Ross saw her career begin to wane. Most of her albums were re-recordings of earlier material. In 2006, she produced I Love You, a collection of love songs by many artists, and she started an energetic concert tour the following year to make the album publicly known. Although you can't find her songs on the US Billboard Hot 100 now, Ross remains popular as one of the leading musical performers of all time.

The surface of Venus has never seemed very hospitable. Temperatures change around 470℃(900°F), the result of a runway greenhouse effect, and the pressure of its atmosphere, thick with carbon dioxide and sulfuric acid(硫酸), is some 90 times that of Earth's. Lead(铅) would flow like water on Venus, and water cannot have existed in liquid form for perhaps a billion years.

    Now NASA'S Magellan spacecraft seems to have found one more horror in the nasty landscape: active volcanoes. Last week the space agency released the first detailed map of Venus and the most dramatic images ever made of its surface. The picture offer the best evidence to date that a planet once assumed dead is actually a lively pot of geological change.

    The most amazing image is of Venus's second tallest mountain, Maat Mons, which rises 8km(5 miles) . Most of the planet's many peaks, including 9.5-km-(6-mile-) high Maxwell Montes, look bright in the radar pictures Magellan takes from its orbit above the permanent could cover. That means they are strong reflectors of radar waves. But Maat Mons is dark; like the Stealth bomber, it absorbs much of the radar falling on it.

    This interesting fact, say project scientists, is a strong hint that the mountains has recently been covered with lava(熔岩). Rock that sits on the surface of mountaintops appears to weather quickly in the hot , chemically reactive atmosphere, creating a soil that is rich in iron sulfide(硫化铁). It is this mineral, the scientists believe, that can easily be seen on radar. If Maat Mons doesn't have any, it has probably been resurfaced, perhaps within the past few years.

    Such resurfacing has undoubtedly taken place in Venus lowlands: earlier images of the planet showed vast areas that are remarkably free of craters(火山坑). That would be easy to explain on a Planet like Earth, where cratering from meteor strikes is erased by steady erosion. But while there is some evidence of wind erosion on Venus, the best explanation for the lack of cratering is periodic lava flow. Magellan has found direct evidence of such flows, including domelike upwellings and hardened streamed of rock trailing down the sides of Venusian peaks. There are also signs of other geologic activities, including dramatic faulting and several distinct incidents of mountain building. But the evidence can't indicate whether they really occurred millions of years ago. The case for active Venusian volcanoes is not yet proved, but Magellan, which is now well into its second complete survey of the planet's surface, may eventually settle the issue.

Last weekend I made my first visit to a remote village, home to one of our students, Tombe. Another teacher and I walked for two and a half hours to get there—first, up a mountain from where we had fantastic views, and then down a shaded path to the valley below. When we arrived at the village, Tombe's mother, Kiak, saw us coming and started crying "ieee ieee". We shook hands with all the villagers. Everyone seemed to be related to Tombe.

Tombe's father, Mukap, a man with a strong jaw and a wrinkled forehead, led us to his house, a low, round bamboo hut with no windows, with a door just big enough to get through, and with grass sticking out of the roof—this shows it is a man's house. Such housing is dark inside so it took time for our eyes to adjust. Fresh grass had been laid on the floor and there was a platform for Jenny and me to sleep on. There was a fireplace in the centre of the hut. The only possessions I could see were one broom, a few saucers, a kettle, cups, pans, and a couple of jars.

Mukap built a fire outside and laid stones on it to heat. He then placed the hot stones in an empty oil drum with kau kau（sweet potato）, ripe corn, and greens. He then covered the vegetables with banana leaves and left them to steam. It smelled delicious. We ate inside the hut sitting round the fire. I loved listening to the family talking softly to each other in their language, even though I could not participate much in the conversation. Luckily, Tombe interpreted for us.

Later. I noticed a can standing upside down on the grill（烤架）over the fire. After a while. Tombe threw it out of the doorway. Tombe told me that the can was heated to dry out the leftover food. His family believes that leftovers attract bad spirits in the night, so any leftover food is dried up in a can and the can is then thrown out of the hut.

We left the village the next morning after many goodbyes and firm handshakes. My muscles were aching and my knees shaking as we dragged ourselves down the mountain towards home. That evening I fell happily into bed. It was such a privilege to have spent a day with Tombe's family.

St. Patrick's Day, Ireland's National Day, is celebrated on 17th March every year, marking the anniversary of the day on which he passed away. St. Patrick is the most famous saint of Ireland. Born in Roman Britain, he was enslaved in Ireland at the age of 16, but he successfully escaped. Later, he returned to Ireland and brought his religious beliefs to its people.

On St Patrick's Day, Iris h families would traditionally attend church in the morning and celebrate in the afternoon. People would dance, drink, and feast on traditional meals of Irish bacon and cabbage. The Irish have observed this day as a religious holiday for over 1,000 years.

Interestingly, however, the first parade held to celebrate St Patrick's Day took place not in Ireland but in the United States. On 17th March 1762, Irish soldiers serving in the English army marched through New York City. Along with their music, the parade helped the soldiers reconnect with their Irish roots, as well as with fellow Irishmen serving in the English army.

Over 100 St. Patrick's Day parades happen across the U. S., with New York City and Boston hosting the biggest. In 1848, New York Irish Aid societies joined to create the official New York City St. Patrick's Day Parade, the world's oldest civilian（平民的） parade and the largest in the U. S. It draws over 150,000 participants and nearly 3 million spectators（观众）, lasting over five hours. Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Savannah also celebrate the day with major parades.

Today, people of all background s celebrate St Patrick's Day, especially throughout the United States, Canada and Australia. It is also celebrated in many other locations far from Ireland, including Japan, Singapore, and Russia.