Because plants cannot move or talk, most people believe that they have no feelings and that they cannot receive signals from outside. However, this may not be completely true.

    People who studied plants have found out that plants carry a small electrical charge (电荷). It is possible to measure this charge with a small piece of equipment called “galvanometer”. The galvanometer is placed on a leaf of the plant, and it records any changes in the electrical field of the leaf. Humans have a similar field which can change when we are shocked or frightened.

    A man called Backster used a galvanometer for his studies of plants and was very surprised at his results. He found that if he had two or more plants in a room and he began to destroy one of them —perhaps by pulling off its leaves or by pulling it out of its pot—then the galvanometer on the leaves of the other plants showed a change in the electrical field. It seemed as if the plants were signaling a feeling of shock. This happened not only when Backster started to destroy plants, but also when he destroyed other living thing such as insects (昆虫).

    Backster said that the plants also knew if someone had destroyed a living thing some distance away, because they signalled when a man who had just cut down a tree entered the room.

    Another scientist, named Sauvin, achieved similar results to Backster's. He kept galvanometers fixed on his plants all the time and checked regularly to see what the plants were doing. If he was out of the office, he telephoned to find out about the signals the plants were sending. In this way, he found that the plants were sending out signals at the exact times when he felt strong pleasure or pain. In fact, Sauvin could cause a change in the electrical field of his plants over a distance of a few miles simply by thinking about them.

    Having a great collection of books at home doesn't really mean that you are a person who loves reading. It may be got from your father or your father's father, and it can just impress people around you with the fact that you are a person of culture.

    From my point of view, reading is very important in our daily life. For example, reading is a way of gaining knowledge in different areas. It can help us have a great imagination, and it makes things easier when it comes to making compositions on different themes. It gives you the possibility to speak about science, even if you don't work in this field. You can express your opinions about a political event because you have read something about that.

    Secondly, reading gives us the possibility to enter the world of imagination. We can imagine what life will be like in the future. Sometimes, we compare ourselves with the people in the stories we read and they can give us some clues to solve the problems and tell us what to do in certain situations. Books are based on real life. Even if writers are considered to be somehow different from common people, they often face the same problems as we all do.

    In short, I would like to say that literature is the perfect way of enriching our culture, expressing correctly, having a rich vocabulary, being able to understand different fields and really being considered to be a learned person.

    Waiter Scott was born on August 15, 1771 in Edinburgh, Gotland. At the age of two, Scott suffered from polio (小儿麻痹症) which left him with a limp. He was sent to live with relatives to try and find a cure. In 1783 he attended the University of Edinburgh. He had to leave for a year because of health problems. In 1786, Scott worked in his father's law firm. He returned to the university in 1789 to study law, graduating in 1792. The same year he became a lawyer and was accepted into the Faculty of Advocates (苏格兰律师公会).

    Scott did some translation work from 1796-1798. In 1799, Scott became sheriff-deputy of Selkirkshire, a post which he held until he died. In 1800, Scott rewrote a ballad collection called Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border. In 1805, he became part owner of The Ballantyne Press which had published his The Eve of St. John in 1799. His poem The Lay of the Last Minstrel was published that same year and became very popular. He was a co-founder of the Quarterly Review, a literary journal. Scott continued to write poems and ballads, each one becoming more popular than the last. In 1810, The Lady of the Lake was published and sold 25,000 copies in less than 9 months.

    Scott moved his family to Abbotsford in 1812. In 1813, The Ballantyne Press collapsed, which caused Scott to have serious financial problems. In 1814, he wrote a novel called Waverley to earn money and it became the most successful English novel of the time. He went on to write 26 novels in the series.

    In 1826, Scott faced financial ruin again when his publisher failed, which him to work even harder. In 1830, he began suffering from diseases and he died at home on September 21,1832.

    Philadelphia offers a ton of attractions that are suitable for people of every age and here are some family—friendly attractions.

    Spruce Street Harbor Park

    Spruce Street Harbor Park, one of the best urban beaches in America, is an outdoor heaven on the Delaware River waterfront. Visitors can relax in a hammock, play on the playgrounds, and play games like table tennis and giant chess. Don't miss out on the park at night, when colorful LED lights hanging from treetops make the entire area bright.

    Blue Cross River Rink

    Offering ice skating in the winter and roller skating in the summer, Blue Cross River Rink creates a fun, outdoor experience for the whole family. Visitors can play on the nine-hole mini-golf course during the summer, and enjoy eats and drinks from the on-site bar and restaurant all year round.

    Sesame Place

    Big Bird, Elmo and the other stars of Sesame Street come out and play at Sesame Place, the only theme park in the nation starring the popular TV show's most lovable characters. A water park, interactive activities, parades, fireworks and shows add to the fun.

    Once Upon a Nation Storytelling Benches

    On summer days, uniformed and professional storytellers at 13 storytelling benches throughout Philadelphia's Historic District entertain visitors with true, free, three-to-five minute tales about the colonial era as part of Once Upon a Nation. Children can pick up a Story Flag at any storytelling bench, and then collect a star from every storyteller on their journeys. Flags with all the stars can get free rides on the Parx Liberty Carousel at Franklin Square.

    My wife, daughter, and I moved into our home nine years ago and we spent a lot of time and energy in the yard to get it looking like the way it does today. We live on a corner, higher than street level, and the entire side of the yard is surrounded by a professionally built rock wall. The front of the house though is another story because instead of a wall along the sidewalk, the rocks appear to be just thrown up onto the dirt as if someone were in a hurry to finish.

    We did the best we could with what we had to work with and called this area our "rock garden". Whenever we had leftover flowers or plants, Denise or I would stick them out front, just to bring some color to the area. We would do all of the yard work on our own, even the tiring weed-pulling.

    Last summer I had reached the end of the rock garden and found a tiny little plant that I could not immediately identify, I knew I didn't plant it and Denise claimed that she didn't either. We decided to let it continue growing until we could figure out what it was.

    Weeks passed and as I made my way back to the mystery plant, it appeared to be a Sunflower with a tall skinny stalk（茎，杆）and only one head on it. I decided to baby it along and weed around it. As I pulled rocks from the area to get to the weeds, I noticed something unusual. The Sunflower had not started where I saw the stalk begin. It actually had begun under a big rock and grown under and around it to reach the sun.

    That's when I realized that if a tiny little Sunflower didn't let a big rock stand in its way of developing, we too have the ability of doing the same thing. Once our environment begins to see that we believe in ourselves like that little Sunflower, we can attain the same nourishment（营养）and growth as well.

    Stand tall like the Sunflower and be proud of who and what you are and the environment will begin to support you. You will find a way to go under or around your big obstacle in order to reach your desires.

    To be sure, only children experienced some things differently from those with sisters and brothers. Many feel more pressure to succeed. They also tend to look only to their parents as role models in the absence of brothers and sisters.

    In India, 10-year-old Saviraj Sankpal founded a support group for the tiny minority(少数) of only children. Among other things, the group does volunteer work to fight against the false idea that they are not responsible. "People think we're treated too kindly and ruined," says Sankpal, a computer engineering student. "But I'd like to remind them how lonely it can get."

    Most only children, however, say they wish for sisters or brothers only when it comes to caring for aging, unhealthy parents. Britain's David Emerson, co-author of the book The Only Child, says that such a person has to make all the decisions alone. Emerson knows from experience. After his father died, he chose to move his elderly mother from their family home, where she was vulnerable (易受攻击的) to house breakers, to a new one with more safety. "The move was quite hard on her, and she might feel that I pushed her into it, "he says, "After all, I am left with that responsibility."

    In the future, more and more only children will probably face similar choices. With working mothers increasing, many families are finding they simply don't have the time, money or energy to have more than one child. As only children become common, perhaps the world will realize that the charge made against them is unfair.