Mrs. Smith is Jim's mother. She loves her family very much. She often buys food, fruit and clothes for Jim and his father. Now many clothes are on sale at good prices.

    Mrs. Smith comes to the store and she wants to buy some clothes. It has sweaters in all colors for ￥15 each (每件）and sports shoes for only ￥28. Mrs. Smith likes the red sweater and she buys one for herself. She buys a pair of sports shoes for her son. The T-shirts in the store are just ￥18! She buys a white one for Mr. Smith. And that's not all. The socks, in all colors, are ￥2 each. She buys five pairs.

    It was Day 1 of our vacation on Cortes, a beautiful quiet island. "iPhone, iPhone, iPhone," my son kept moaning (呻吟). In front of him was a big window facing the blue ocean. And a cool gentle wind was coming in from the door. Clearly, he saw and felt none of it.

    Back at home, I'd soon give up and hand the phone over to him after five minutes of listening to this kind of moaning.

    But not here. Before we left, I had told my 10-year-old son the rule—no emails, no Facebook, no video games, and no iPhone. We came here to get away from them all. Here we were on our first day and already, he couldn't stand it.

         ▲      I walked down the grass road to the beach and looked out to the sea. My 6-year-old daughter and my husband were drawing on pieces of wood. They were doing just fine.

    On Day 2, we spent the whole morning digging for shells (贝壳). This time, my son joined us. He collected shellfish and other sea treasures. When we got back to our little wood house, I gave my son a book, and put him on the lovely garden chair. It was almost dinner when he looked up.

    The next few days passed in peace.

    On Day 6, my son was lying beside me on the beach, watching the sun going down. He was playing with the sand. And there was something shining in his eyes. I realized how time slowed down for both of us. It was exactly what I wanted. Finally, we were able to sit quietly without thinking about screens, phone calls and e-mail.

    A week away from all the electronics arid Lile is good.

    Look at this. What's this in English, do you know? Ah, it's a photo. Who's that in the photo? It's Li Yan. Li Yan is my good friend. She is a beautiful girl. Who's that? The boy in black? It's Jim. He is an English boy. He is very cool(酷的).He is my friend, too. We are all in the same school. I like Jim and Li Yan.

My Mummy and me

Have you ever thought how lonely your pet dog will be when you leave home for school or work? Don't worry! A teenager has created a helpful robot for you. 

Cassidy Matwiyoff, a student in San Diego, California, created Bowwow. It is a robot and it helps to pet(抚摸) dogs when their owners are not at home. " The robot starts to work by dropping the food. The dog walks over to eat the food. During this process, Bowwow is petting the dog. " Natwiyoff says. 

The girl got the idea after watching ABC's Shark Tank. She spent four years creating a prototype (雏形) of Bowwow with the help of her mother. After that, she went to an Engineering and Computing Capstone Design program in Chico State. She was allowed to introduce her invention to a group of engineers and teachers in the hope of getting it produced. 

One of them disapproved of the idea. " My dog would rip(撕) this to pieces, " he said. This lit(点燃) a fire within Matwiyoff. She spent the next four months doing research and testing Bowwow for dogs of different sizes and ages. 

Matwiyoff hopes to catch an investor's(投资者的) eye soon and bring her invention to the market. " One day, investors will be interested in my product and want to invest it. " she said.