The old man walked with a cane (拐杖) slowly into the restaurant. His poor jacket, patched (打补丁的) trousers, and worn-out shoes made him stand out from the usual Saturday morning breakfast crowd. Unforgettable were his pale blue eyes that sparkled (闪光) like diamonds, large rosy cheeks, and thin lips that held a steady smile. He walked toward a table by the window. A young waitress watched him and ran over to him, saying, “Here, Sir. Let me give you a hand with that chair.” Without a word, he smiled and nodded a thank you. She pulled the chair away from the table. Supporting him with one arm, she helped him move in front of the chair, and get comfortably seated. Then she pushed the table up close to him, and leaned his cane against the table where he could reach it. In a soft, clear voice he said, “Thank you, Miss.” “You're welcome, Sir.” She replied. “My name is Mary. I'll be back in a moment. If you need anything, just wave at me.”

    After he had finished a hearty meal of pancakes, bacon, and hot lemon tea, Mary brought him the change, helping him up from his chair and out from behind the table. She handed him his cane, and walked with him to the front door. Holding the door open for him, she said, “Come back and see us, Sir!” He nodded a thank you and said softly with a smile, “You are very kind!”

    When Mary went to clean his table, she was shocked. Under his plate she found a business card and a note written on the napkin, under which was a $ 100 bill. The note on the napkin read, “Dear Mary, I respect you very much, and you respect yourself, too. It shows by the way you treat others. You have found the secret of happiness. Your kind gestures will shine through those who meet you.”

    The man she had served was the owner of the restaurant. This was the first time that she, or any of his employees, had seen him in person.

    If you want to fully enjoy your vacation, you'd better check the Durban City Tours! This is actually one of the best choices in South Africa today.

    There is nothing more relaxing than to think about that there is a place to go and relax, right? City life is strained（紧张的）, but you can escape this situation and be in the place where there is nothing but relaxation. Here in Durban you will get to see all the amazing tourist attractions（吸引人的地方）. If you love animals and want to see some elephants wandering around the streets, then Durban is the place to go. You can even get to ride one if you want!

    Here you will also get to taste all the delicious South African food. You can choose from Italian cooking to its native dishes. Durban is a great place to tour with your friends and family. You will learn a lot about its history through the landmarks（地标） you will see down the streets. Tourists and even the local villagers just can't get enough of these treats!

    However, it is important that you make the necessary arrangements安排. There are actually lots of tour guides that will help you as you make your journey along the streets of Durban. But if you prefer the best tour guides here in Durban, then you'd better choose the Street Scene Tours. Their staff（员工） are all well­trained and professional（专业的）. They will certainly make your stay here an unforgettable one. No wonder tourists prefer the Street Scene Tours when it comes to Durban City Tours.

    Galaxy saw a man and a woman who communicated with the sign language at the train station when she was on the way home one evening. She noticed that the woman asked the man for the direction. He told her that he did not know. Galaxy decided to help them. She had learned the sign language when she served as a volunteer in the deaf and mute (聋哑) school. Then she showed the woman the direction and left her email address to them in case they needed her help later.

    She received an email from that man the next day. Kazrim was his name. Galaxy replied to his mail sincerely. They both started chatting online soon after and began seeing each other. Although they only communicated with the sign language, it never bothered her.

    Galaxy was fond of him gradually. Obviously, Kazrim was the same too. He presented Galaxy with a bunch of sunflowers and asked her sincerely, "Are you willing to be my girlfriend?" Galaxy was pleasantly surprised. She requested him to give her some time to persuade her parents.

    As she had expected, her parents were very angry after they had learned of their love story. Galaxy explained, "Kazrim is an excellent and a very optimistic person. He has a very positive attitude towards life and work. He cares for others always. He is 100% better than the normal. Moreover, the mute is still a human. He should have a perfect and wonderful love."

    Her parents asked to see him, then. The very worried Galaxy took Kazrim home a few days later. When they were on the train, Kazrim told her, "I'm going to tell your parents I'll be looking after you well with all my life!" Galaxy was deeply moved.

As soon as they had entered the house, Galaxy introduced him to her parents. She said, "This is Kazrim." Just right after her speech, an unbelievable thing happened. Kazrim threw the gift away and held her in his arms tightly.

    He said, "YOU CAN TALK?" It was the same question that Galaxy wanted to ask, too.

    The four people were shocked all of a sudden. As a matter of fact, Kazrim always believed that Galaxy was a mute and he still fell in love with her deeply.

    When Iwas.in the third grade, we had a hunt at school. We gathered up chalk，pencils，stones, and so on, rapidly filling our checklists. It was a very close race. I was out of breath when I reached the clover (三叶草)patch in search of the last, most hard-to-find item: a four-leaf clover.

    I was pretty sure that I was going to win. 1 have always been able to find four-leaf clovers. I just see them.

    I spent my childhood collecting and pressing four-leaf clovers into books at my mother's house. I started with big cloth- and leather-bound books. When I ran out of romantically bound volumes, I began to put my treasures into anything I could find: fiction paperbacks, cookbooks. The same is true in my house today. Shake a book, and a papery treasure just might fall into your hand.

    A few years ago, in Nova Scotia, my husband and I pulled off the road for a picnic. The ground was thick with clover. Some shoots had four, five, even six leaves. I lined them up on the picnic table to admire as my husband, never yet having found one four-leaf clover, looked on with awe. To me, it was simple. The differences in their shapes popped out, breaking the pretty pattern of the conventional clovers with their three perfect leaves.

    Two summers back, while waiting for an airport shuttle in Munich, I found a tiny four-leaf clover in a traffic circle and put it into my passport. On the way home, my husband and I were upgraded to business class. Friends attributed our good luck to the clover. I think, it's more likely that we were upgraded because a kind customer service officer took pity on us.

    People disagree about whether the luck lies in the finding or in the possession of a clover. Some believe that the luck is lost if the four-leaf clover is even shown to somebody else, while others think the luck doubles if it is given away. I believe that positivity is increased by sharing. I feel lucky to find the clovers so often, but I don't think they influence my life any more than it does to share anything a little special—that momentary closeness between you and a friend or a stranger, as you all lean in to wonder at a rare find.

Music

    Opera at Music Hall: 1243 Elm Street. The season runs June through August, with additional performances in March and September. The Opera honors enjoy the Arts membership discounts. Phone: 723­1182.

    Chamber Orchestra: The Orchestra plays at Memorial Hall at 106 Elm Street, which offers several concerts from March through June. Call 241­2742 for more information.

    Symphony Orchestra: At Music Hall and Riverbend. For ticket sales, call 381­3300. Regular season runs September through May at Music Hall and in summer at Riverbend.

    College Conservatory of Music (CCM): Performances are on the main campus (校园) of the university, usually at Patricia Cobbett Theater. CCM organizes a variety of events, including performances by the well­known LaSalle Quartet, CCM's Philharmonic Orchestra, and various groups of musicians presenting Baroque through modern music. Students with I.D. cards can attend the events for free. A free schedule of events for each term is available by calling the box office at 556­4183.

    Riverbend Music Theater: 6295 Kellogg Ave. Large outdoor theater with the closest seats under cover (price difference) .Big name shows all summer long! Phone: 232­6220.

    Self-driving cars have been backed by the hope that they will save lives by getting involved in fewer crashes with fewer injuries and deaths than human-driven cars. But so far, most comparisons between human drivers and automated vehicles have been unfair.

    Crash statistics for human-driven cars are gathered from all sorts of driving situations, and on all types of roads. However, most of the data on self-driving cars' safety have been recorded often in good weather and on highways, where the most important tasks are staying in the car's own lane and not getting too close to the vehicle ahead. Automated cars are good at those tasks, but so are humans.

    It is true that self-driving cars don't get tired, angry, frustrated or drunk. But neither can they yet react to uncertain situations with the same skill or anticipation of an attentive human driver. Nor do they possess the foresight to avoid potential perils. They largely drive from moment to moment, rather than think ahead to possible events literally down the road.

    To a self-driving car, a bus full of people might appear quite similar to an uninhabited corn field. Indeed, deciding what action to take in an emergency is difficult for humans, but drivers have sacrificed themselves for the greater good of others. An automated system's limited understanding of the world means it will almost never evaluate (评估) a situation the same way a human would. And machines can't be programmed in advance to handle every imaginable set of events.

    Some people may argue that the promise of simply reducing the number of injuries and deaths is enough to support driverless cars. But experience from aviation (航空) shows that as new automated systems are introduced, there is often an increase in the rate of disasters.

    Therefore comparisons between humans and automated vehicles have to be performed carefully. To fairly evaluate driverless cars on how well they fulfill their promise of improved safety, it's important to ensure the data being presented actually provide a true comparison. After all, choosing to replace humans with automation has more effects than simply a one-for-one exchange.