Getting rid of dirt, in the opinion of most people, is a good thing. However, there is nothing fixed about attitudes to dirt.

    In the early 16th century, people thought that dirt on the skin was a means to block out disease, as medical opinion had it that washing off dirt with hot water could open up the skin and let ills in. A particular danger was thought to lie in public baths. By 1538, the French king had closed the bath houses in his kingdom. So did the king of England in 1546. Thus began a long time when the rich and the poor in Europe lived with dirt in a friendly way. Henry IV, King of France, was famously dirty. Upon learning that a nobleman had taken a bath, the king ordered that, to avoid the attack of disease, the nobleman should not go out.

    Though the belief in the merit of dirt was long-lived, dirt has no longer been regarded as a nice neighbor ever since the 18th century. Scientifically speaking, cleaning away dirt is good to health. Clean water supply and hand washing are practical means of preventing disease. Yet, it seems that standards of cleanliness have moved beyond science since World War II. Advertisements repeatedly sell the idea; clothes need to be whiter than white, cloths ever softer, surfaces to shine. Has the hate for dirt, however, gone too far?

    Attitudes to dirt still differ hugely nowadays. Many first-time parents nervously try to warn their children off touching dirt, which might be responsible for the spread of disease. On the contrary, Mary Ruebush, an American immunologist (免疫学家), encourages children to play in the dirt to build up a strong immune system. And the latter position is gaining some ground.

    When emergency workers arrive at an old firehouse in New York City, the way they greet each other is not what you might expect. These first responders say," Ni Hao!" "Ni Hao" means "hello" in Mandarin Chinese.

    First responders are the first emergency workers to arrive at a fire, traffic accident or other emergency. Some first responders are fire fighters, while others can be Emergency Medical Technicians.

    In Brooklyn, New York, over 20 first responders are studying Mandarin Chinese for about two hours a week. The class is the first of its kind. It is offered by the New York City Fire Department Foundation.

    The U. S. Census Bureau recently reported that some New York neighborhoods are made up mostly of immigrants. Some people have predicted that the Chinese community is likely to become New York's largest immigrant group. They think the city will have' the largest Chinese community outside of Asia.

    The Census Bureau also found that almost 200 languages are spoken in the city. So, knowing different languages is important, especially if you are a first responder.

    Lieutenant(中尉,少尉) Steve Lee is president of the Fire Department's Phoenix Society. He says that first responders must be able to communicate quickly and effectively when an emergency happens. He explains that first responders enter neighborhoods and communities to assist regardless of where they are from. Many times first responders do not speak the same language as the people they are called to help. He adds that it is vital, or very important, that first responders are able to communicate with the people calling for help.

    Without help from homeowners and others, Lee adds, discovering exactly where a fire is burning can be a real problem. First responders need to ask questions such as "What building? What address? What apartment?" And the most important question," Is there anybody left in the building and where?"

    There lived in South Carolina a young woman named Eliza Lucas. Her father was governor of one of the islands of the West Indies. Miss Lucas often got seeds from her father, and then she planted them in South Carolina.

    Once, her father sent her some seeds of the indigo (靛蓝) plant. She planted some of them in March, but a frost (霜冻) came and killed all her plants. However, she decided to plant some more seeds in April. These grew very well until a cutworm found them and ate her plants. Once more Miss Lucas planted some of the seeds. This time the plants grew very well. She wrote to her father about it. He sent her a man who knew how to get the indigo out of the plant.

    However, the man tried not to show Miss Lucas how to make the indigo. He did not want the people in South Carolina to learn how to make it. He was afraid his own people would not get so much money for their indigo if other people made it as well. So he destroyed the indigo on purpose. But Miss Lucas watched him closely. She worked out how the indigo could be made. Some of her father's land in South Carolina was now planted with the indigo plant.

    Then Miss Lucas got married, and became Mrs. Pinckney. Her father gave her all the indigo growing on his land in South Carolina. It was all saved for seeds. Mrs Pinckney gave some of the seeds to her friends while her husband sowed others. They all grew and were made into the blue dye(染料) that we call indigo. In a few years, South Carolina was producing more than a million pounds of indigo every year. All the people were grateful to her.

    Chinese people are, quite rightly, proud of their food. However, when foreigners like Britons and Americans think of Chinese food, their impression of it is different to what you might think.

    Growing up in the UK, the Chinese food I was used to eating was food I now recognize as being from Guangdong. For example, a typical dish I would order would be pork in sweet and sour sauce, probably with some rice and spring rolls on the side. This is the type of food we generally eat because most Chinese immigrants(移民) to the UK have come from Guangdong. You can tell, because when most British people try to copy the sound of Chinese, they actually copy the sound of Guangdong people—hearing the real Putonghua is sometimes a shock to British people who have grown up thinking it sounds completely different!

    British attitudes to Chinese food may be changing, though. Chinese-American chef Ken Hom has been on British TV for 30 years, and he told BBC Food: "Chinese food at the beginning of the 80s (in the UK) was sweet and sour pork, mainly. Most Brits had the unchangeable view of Chinese food. Now you are seeing more local Chinese food from Sichuan, Hunan and other areas of China. It is no longer just Guangdong food." Similarly, to most Americans, Chinese food doesn't go too far past orange chicken and fortune cookies, but more Chinese local dishes are becoming successful, especially in big cities like New York.

    Attitudes have not quite changed completely, though. Many foreigners who live in China will be familiar with this question from a relative back at home: "Have they given you dog yet?" Yes, perhaps because people still know too little about Chinese culture, many people believe that Chinese people love to eat dog meat. And of course, some people do eat dogs, which to Americans is like "eating a member of one's family" according to Vision Times. Also, Chinese people eat many other things people in the West do not—chicken claws, duck heads and some animals' organs.

    But what do foreigners think when they come to China and taste real Chinese food? You'll be glad to know that in my experience, the impressions have been very good.

    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 to 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 coin 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, given her food, and even 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, very sad for a friend to see and I then thought about how the crown coin, a physical 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.

    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.

    Miep Gies, the woman who hid the Dutch girl Anne Frank's diary from the Nazis to become one of the world's most-read books, died after a brief illness at the age of 100.

    It was Gies who guarded Anne's diary, and presented it to the girl's father, Otto, when he returned from the Auschwitz concentration camp(奥斯威辛集中营) at the end of World War Ⅱ—the only one of his family to survive.

    In her diary, Anne Frank wrote about her teenage life hiding from the Nazis in Amsterdam from 1942 to 1944, when the Nazi police discovered her and her family's hiding place. The diary, first published in 1947, has been translated into 70 languages.

    Anne Frank expressed a great wish to live on after her death. Miep Gies saw it as her duty to help in making this happen.

    Born in Vienna in 1909, Gies moved to the Netherlands at the age of 11. In 1933, she began working for Otto Frank at his trading company. At great risk to her own safety, she and four other helpers brought food and supplies to the Frank family hiding in a secret office building for more than two years.

    When she turned 100, Gies tried to play down her own role. "I'm not a hero," she said. "It wasn't something I planned in advance. I simply did what I could to help."

    Every day she received letters from all over the world with questions about her relationship with Anne Frank and her role as a helper. Gies received many honors for her role, including from the Netherlands, Germany and Israel.