Mr. Hopkins said, "We have a verywide choice of items for sale. Whenever I serve a new customer, I take hispicture. "  Mr. Hopkins pointed toan ancient camera on a table.

    I began to appreciate the lovely itemson sale. I spent a very pleasant hour being shown the commodi-ties inthe shop. Finally,  I bought an antiquejewelry box, a pair of riding boots and a sewing machine.

    I was very excited that I had found sucha good little shop. "I will tell all my friends about your love-ly place." I told the shopkeeper. "Please don't do that, sir. " said Mr.Hopkins. "This is a special place for special people. You must keep thisshop a secret. " Then he took my photograph and handed me the picturestraight away.

    " That was quick! " Iexclaimed. In the picture I looked proud and excited holding the presents I hadbought there.

    On Christmas Day, my friends andrelatives were delighted with the presents I had bought for them.

    For weeks, my brother begged me to takehim to the wonderful little shop. I finally agreed.

We walked along Oxford Street, past thedepartment store and found—nothing. In its place was an empty space beingused as a car park. I checked the area again. There was the music shop, andthere was the department store. In between should have been Hopkins and Son,but it wasn't there.

    Just then, an old policeman came."Are you looking for something, sir?" he asked. "I am lookingfor a little shop called Hopkins and Son. "

    "Oh yes, there was a shop here'once called Hopkins and Son. But it was knocked down over 30 years ago. "

    I looked again at the place, then Ireached into my pocket and took out the photograph that Mr. Hop-kins had takenof me holding my presents in the little shop.

    " How strange!"  I screamed.

    Time is more precious than money for an increasing number of people who are choosing to live more with less—and liking it.

    Kay and Charles Giddens, two lawyers, sold their home to start a B&B hotel. Four years later, the couple dishes out banana pancake breakfast, cleans toilets and serves homemade chocolate chip cookies to guests in a B&B hotel surrounded by trees on a hill known for colourful sunsets.

    “Do I miss the freeways? Do I miss the traffic? Do I miss the stress? No,” says Ms. Giddens, “This is a phenomenon that's fairly widespread. A lot of people are revaluating their lives and figuring out what they want to do. If their base is being damaged, what's the payoff?”

    Simple living ranges from cutting down on weeknight activities to sharing housing, living closer to work, avoiding shopping malls, borrowing books from the library instead of buying them, and taking a cut in pay to work at a more pleasurable job.

    Vicki Robin, a writer, lives on a budget equal to a fifth of what she used to make. “You become conscious about where your money is going and how valuable it is,” Ms. Robin says, “You tend not to use things up. You cook at home rather than eat out…”

    Janet Luhrs, a lawyer, quit her job after giving birth and leaving her daughter with a nanny for two weeks. “It was not the way I wanted to raise my kids,” she says, “Simplicity is not just about saving money; it's about me sitting down every night with my kids to a candlelit dinner with classical music.”

    Mrs. Luhrs now edits a magazine, Simple Living, which publishes tips on how to buy recycled furniture and shoes, organize potluck dinners instead of expensive receptions, and generally how to consume less.

    Mrs. Luhrs explains, “It's not about poverty. It's about conscious living and creating the life you want. The less stuff you buy, the less money goes out of the door, and the less money you have to earn.”

    England continues to be one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world. London in particular is one of the most visited cities and draws people in with its appeal, history and pubs. England's smaller cities, like Bath and Oxford, are equally as attractive with a lot of culture and fewer crowds. Liverpool, birthplace of The Beatles, has a rich musical history. The countryside has wonderful natural beauty. Here are some tips on traveling in England.

    Free museums—Public museums offer free admission in every city throughout England and the UK. It's a great way to learn about the country's most influential artists and history, and spend a rainy day without paying a cent.

    Book early—Book all transportation well in advance, even if you don't plan to use it. Fares can be around £ 2 with a little planning. The Megabus not only runs buses but also provides trains throughout England and is the best choice for cheap travel throughout the country.

    Pub food—Eating in England can be quite expensive, but for good cheap and filling meals, visit the local pubs, where you cam get a good meal for less than £10. Besides, the pubs are a great way to meet people!

    Get a Taste of UK card—The taste of the UK card offers up to 50% off at selected restaurant. You don't need to be an English to get the card, and you needn't pay the first month's membership fee, which is perfect for most travelers.

    Take a free walking tour—Many major cities in England offer free walking tours. They usually last a few hours and are a great way to see the city.

    Trees are useful to man in three important ways: they give him wood and other useful things, they give him cool places, and they help to stop drought and flood.

    Unluckily, in many parts of the world, man has not found that the third of these points is the most important. Man wants to make money from trees, so he has cut them down in large numbers, only to find that without them he has lost the best friends he had. And also, he is usually too careless to plant and look after new trees. So the forests slowly disappear.

    This does not only mean that man will have fewer trees. The results are even worse: for where there are trees, their roots break up soil-make the rain in-and also bind the soil, thus stopping it from being washed away easily; but where there are no trees, the rain falls on hard ground and flows away, causing floods and carrying away the rich top-soil. When all the top-soil is gone, nothing is left but useless desert.

    I live on the West Coast of British Columbia with my husband and three children. Our day started like any other day. My husband left for work in the north of the town, which is an hour and a half's drive. The younger children caught their bus to school ten minutes away. Our oldest attends high school and is a 40-minute drive away. I work at home in the office, working on the computer.

    It was November 2006 and the news had reported gusty winds. When the winds started to get strong I shut the computer down and tried to phone my husband. I left a message telling him the winds were blowing at 80 to 90 km/hr. As I hung up the phone, I heard a tree crack. I went outside and stood in the driveway. Another tree exploded and my heart was racing.

    When the school bus carrying the youngsters arrived, I ran to get them. No sooner had we made it to the house than another tree exploded. The children were clearly scared, so I loaded them up into the car and we parked in the middle of the yard, where no trees could land on us, it was starting to get dark.

    My oldest son didn't come home on the bus and my husband was stranded at work. I called the high school and reached my son. He said he was stranded and didn't know what to do. I called a friend in town for help. He managed to get my son home to me. Finally, my husband managed to get home.

    We had been prepared for such events, as we had a generator, candles, a wood stove, fresh water, batteries and two freezers full of food. We were without power for five days. But we didn't panic we had all the emergency equipment we needed. Thankfully, none of our neighbours were injured, but the damage was extensive. We are witnessing climate change. We need to be prepared.

    Some people say summer is the time when teachers should get more pay. But not everyone is grateful to teachers for keeping kids occupied (无空闲的) between August and June: Washington state representative Liz Pike has written a Facebook post, titled "A life in the day of a WA state representative," and responded to teachers' complaints of rising costs of living. The post has received criticism for being anti-teacher. After reading her post, I feel that Liz Pike should rethink her criticism of public school teaching and avoid comparing it to the private school.

    Many of us teachers would certainly like teaching to be more like the private school. We see nothing wrong with fair pay for fair performance. In fact, performance is the name of the game. With standardized testing popular throughout K-12 education, teachers are some of the most analyzed and performance-measured employees in the United States. Liz Pike is very angry that teachers want raises even while test scores are dropping. Well, how are we supposed to have discipline (纪律) in the classroom when our hands are tied and we can hardly do anything with naughty students or fail students who are not prepared to move on to the next grade?

    Teachers would love to be able to turn education around and improve student performance. But we can't, and we should not suffer for it. Unlike private school businesses, public schools cannot turn away "customers". A private school business serves customers who walk through the door of their own free will, while public schools have to educate students who only attend because courts say they must.

    She says those who are "uninspired" by a lack of a cost of living increase should give up teaching. Is this the message that she thinks should be sent to the students whose academic performance she claims (声称) to care so much about? That "if you love it you'll shut up and not stand up for yourself"? I think teachers should stand up for themselves and I also think supporting teachers can make teachers teach children how to stand up for themselves.