John Blanchard stood up from the bench, straightened his Army uniform, and studied the crowd of people making their way through Grand Central Station. He looked for the girl whose heart he knew, but whose face he didn't, the girl with the rose.

    His interest in her had begun thirteen months before in a Florida library. Taking a book off the shelf he found himself intrigued, not with the words of the book, but with the notes penciled in the margin. The soft handwriting reflected a thoughtful soul and insightful mind. In the front of the book, he discovered the previous owner's name, Miss Hollis Maynell. With time and effort he located her address. She lived in New York City. He wrote her a letter introducing himself and inviting her to correspond. The next day he was shipped overseas for service in World War II.

    During the next year and one month the two grew to know each other through the mail. Each letter was a seed falling on a fertile heart. A romance was budding. Blanchard requested a photograph, but she refused. She felt that if he really cared, it wouldn't matter what she looked like.

    When the day finally came for him to return from Europe, they scheduled their first meeting -- 7:00 PM at the Grand Central Station in New York. “You'll recognize me,” she wrote, “by the red rose I'll be wearing on my lapel.” So at 7:00 he was in the station looking for a girl whose heart he loved, but whose face he'd never seen.

    I'll let Mr. Blanchard tell you what happened: A young woman was coming toward me, her figure long and slim. Her blonde hair lay back in curls from her delicate ears; her eyes were blue as flowers. Her lips and chin had a gentle firmness, and in her pale green suit she was like springtime come alive. I started toward her, entirely forgetting to notice that she was not wearing a rose. As I moved, a small, attractive smile curved her lips. “Going my way, sailor?” she murmured.

    Almost uncontrollably I made one step closer to her, and then I saw Hollis Maynell. She was standing almost directly behind the girl. A woman well past 40, she had graying hair tucked under a worn hat. She was more than plump, her thick-ankled feet thrust into low-heeled shoes. The girl in the green suit was walking quickly away. I felt as though I was split in two, so keen was my desire to follow her, and yet so deep was my longing for the woman whose spirit had truly companioned me and upheld my own.

    And there she stood. Her pale, plump face was gentle and sensible, her gray eyes had a warm and kindly twinkle. I did not hesitate. My fingers gripped the small worn blue leather copy of the book that was to identify me to her.

    This would not be love, but it would be something precious, something perhaps even better than love, a friendship for which I had been and must ever be grateful. I squared my shoulders and saluted and held out the book to the woman, even though while I spoke I felt choked by the bitterness of my disappointment. “I'm Lieutenant（中尉）John Blanchard, and you must be Miss Maynell. I am so glad you could meet me; may I take you to dinner?”

    The woman's face broadened into a tolerant smile. “I don't know what this is about, son,” she answered, “but the young lady in the green suit who just went by, she begged me to wear this rose on my coat. And she said if you were to ask me out to dinner, I should go and tell you that she is waiting for you in the big restaurant across the street. She said it was some kind of test!”

    It's not difficult to understand and admire Miss Maynell's wisdom. The true nature of a heart is seen in its response to the unattractive. “Tell me whom you love,” Houssaye wrote, “And I will tell you who you are.”

    A private sixth grade is set to start its lessons at 1.30 pm every day because the school's teacher thinks his students will study better after a morning lie-in (懒觉).

    Instead of rising early for a 9 am start, students at the ￡15,000-a-year Hampton Court House, in East Molesey, Surrey, will get to enjoy a lie-in and work from 1.30 pm until 7pm. Head teacher Guy Holloway says the move for all sixth grade students, set to begin from September, has been made according to research by scientists. He predicts (预测) that not only will his students aged 16 and upwards get great night's sleep, but their productivity (效率) will also be improved.

    The co-educational school will have the latest start time in the UK, and will be the only one to begin lessons in the afternoon.

    Experts say young people are programmed to get up later, and that rather than laziness it is simply a shift (转变) in their body clocks.

    There are 168 hours in a week and how productive they are depends on how they choose to use those hours,' said Mr Holloway. 'At Hampton Court House we don't think we have the answer for everybody; it's about what works in our school. We want to get them into a condition where they can get great sleep and study well.' He said students would also benefit from reduced journey times as they travel to and from school after rush hour (上下班高峰时间).

    Year 10 student Gabriel Purcell-Davis will be one of the first of 30 A-level students to start at the later time. 'I want to wake up in my bed, not in my maths lesson,' said the 15-year-old. Lessons for all other students at the school will still begin at 9 am as usual.

    The Great War Exhibition

    When: Sun 10 Jan, 9:00 am- 6:00 pm

    Mon 11 Jan, 9:00 am- 6:00 pm

    Where: Dominion Museum Building, 15 Buckle Street, Wellington

    Restrictions: All Ages

    Ticket Information: Admission Free

    The journey is rich in personal stories which tell of the great experience of the battlefields and the hardships at home during war-time New Zealand. The visitors will experience the desperate horrors and the victories of the human spirit that were part of the Great War.

    Kaipara Coast Plants & Sculpture Gardens

    When: Sun 10 Jan, 9:00 am- 5:00 pm

    Mon 11 Jan, 9:00 am- 5:00 pm

    Where: 1481 Kaipara Coast Highway (SH16), Auckland

    Restrictions: All Ages

    Ticket Information:

    Adults: $10.00

    Children 5-13 (under 5, free):$ 5.00

    Groups 10: $ 8.00

    Over 60 & Students (with ID): $ 9.00

    Come and enjoy a relaxing art and garden experience. Sculptures are for sale and the display changes completely every 12 months with the new exhibition opening in December each year to give you a fresh experience each time you come.

    Dream Works Animation

    When: Sun 10 Jan, 10:00 am- 6:00 pm

    Mon 11 Jan, 10:00 am- 6:00 pm

    Where: Te Papa, 55 Cable St, Wellington

    Restrictions: All Ages

    Ticket Information:

    Adults: $ 15.00

    Children & Students 3-15 (with Student ID): $ 6.00

    Children under 3: $0.00

    The exhibition features over 400 items, including rare concept drawing, models, interviews, and original artworks. Adults and kids can get creative with real animation tools, and soar above the clouds in the Dragon Flight experience from How to Train Your Dragon.

    Balls, Bullets and Boots

    When: Sun 10 Jan, 9:00 am- 4:30 pm

    Mon 11Jan, 9:00 am- 4:30 pm

    Where: National Army Museum, 1 Hassett Dr, SH1, Waiouru

    Restrictions: All Ages

    Ticket Information: Door Sales Only

    The exhibition explores the impact the cruel reality of war had on colonial sportsmen and their loved ones as they were transplanted from the rugby fields of home to fight.

    I've been in the taxicab business for thirty-five years, and I know there is a lot about it that is not so good. Taxicab drivers have to be tough fellows to be able to work in New York. You've got to fight the New York traffic eight hours a day these days, so people get the wrong impression that they are bad.

    Actually, taxi drivers are just like other people. Most of them will behave as honest fellows. You read in the papers almost every week that a taxi driver turns in money or jewels that people leave in their cabs. If they weren't honest, you wouldn't be reading those stories in the papers.

    One time in Brooklyn, I found a diamond ring in my cab. I remembered helping a lady with a lot of packages that day, so I went back to where I had dropped her. It took me almost two days to trace her down in order to return her ring to her. I didn't get as much as “thank you”. Still I felt good because I had done what was right. I think I felt better than she did.

    I was born and raised in Ireland and lived there until I was nineteen years old. Then I came to this country where I had a family and bought my own cab. Life hasn't been too easy at times, but my wife takes care of our money and we have a good bit put away for a rainy day.

    When I started driving a cab, Park Avenue was mostly a bunch of coal yards. Hoofer's Brewery was right next to where the Waldorf-Astoria is now. I did pretty well, even in those days. In all my years of driving a taxicab, I have never had any trouble with the public, not even with drunks.

    I believe honesty is one of the greatest gifts. I know they call it a lot of fancy names these days, like integrity（正直）, etc. But it doesn't make any difference what they call it; it's still what makes a man a good citizen. This is my code, and I try to live by.

    Retired jet engines could help clear the smog that smothered big cities.

    To land at Indira Gandhi Airport is to descend from clear skies to brown ones. New Delhi's air is poisonous. According to the World Health Organization, India's capital has the most polluted atmosphere of all the world's big cities. The government is trying to introduce rules that will curb emissions-allowing private cars to be driven only on alternate days, for example, and enforcing better emissions standards for all vehicles.

    But implementing these ideas, even if that can be done successfully, will change things only slowly. A quick fix would help. And Moshe Alamaro, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, thinks he has one. His idea is to take a jet engine, put it next to one of India's dirty coal-fired power plants, point its exhaust nozzle at the sky and then switch it on. His hope is that the jet's exhaust will disrupt a meteorological phenomenon known as "inversion", in which a layer of warm air settles over cooler air, trapping it, and that the rising stream of exhaust will carry off the tiny particles of matter that smog is composed of. Inversion exacerbates air pollution in Delhi and in many other cities, from Los Angeles to Tehran. A particularly intense example caused the Great Smog of London in 1952, when four days of air pollution contributed to 12,000 deaths.

    Dr Alamaro thinks a jet engine could punch through the inversion layer to create a "virtual chimney" which would carry the trapped pollution above it, so that it could be dispersed in the wider atmosphere. He calculates that all the emissions from a gigawatt coal-fired power plant could be lifted away using a single engine with a nozzle speed of 460 metres a second.

    However, he has not calculated whether a jet engine could disrupt the inversion layer and allow the pollution to escape the city-so he is now going to test that hypothesis. Within eight months, Dr Alamaro plans to put one of his updrafters next to a coal-fired power plant and monitor what happens using a fleet of drones. He is in discussions with Tata Group, a conglomerate with an electricity-generating arm, to run it next to one of the firm's power stations.

Summer reading

Finding Junie Kim

by Ellen Oh

Middle schooler Junie Kim is facing bullying (欺凌) at school, but she keeps quiet. Then, for a school project, Junie interviews her grandparents, who grew up in Korea during wartime in the 1950s. In their story of struggle, Junie finds the courage to speak up. The book will encourage any kid who has ever been in Junie's shoes.

Simon B. Rhymin'

by Dwayne Reed

Simon is starting fifth grade and wants everyone to call him Notorious D. O. G. because he wants to be a famous rapper (说唱歌手). But he's shy about using his voice to express his thoughts. When a teacher asks the class to give a talk, Simon must face his fears. Simon B. Rhymin' is a great book that will give confidence to readers who are going through similar struggles.

A Shot in the Arm!

by Don Brown

A Shot in the Arm! is a novel about the history of vaccines (疫苗). Readers learn how vaccines have been used throughout history to fight disease. The author also introduces people around the world who helped with the development of vaccines. A Shot in the Arm! is an exciting read that uses colorful drawings to pull the reader in.

The One Thing You'd Save

by Linda Sue Park

If your house were on fire, what one thing would you save? Writer Linda Sue Park explores different answers to this question in poems that show the different voices of a middle school class. Some choose baseball cards or toy animals. One picks a sweater that was passed down for generations. The book is illustrated (给……作插图) with black-and-white art. Readers of all ages will like this book. It helps you realize what matters most.