Henry had been a journalist for many years. He had worked on many international newspapers and magazines and traveled all over the world.

    Henry had witnessed wars and natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes and erupting volcanos(火山爆发). He had reported on serious accidents such as major fires and airline crashes. He had seen every kind of terrible crime and strange event there was. He had met and written about some of the most unusual people in the world. In fact, there wasn't much that Henry had not seen or done.

    Now he was retired from journalism. He owned a very expensive restaurant and spent his days talking to his wealthy and important customers. He liked to say that nothing surprised him.

    One day he was sitting at the bar in his restaurant when a big gorilla walked in and asked for a table. Henry showed no surprise. He took the gorilla to a table and handed him a menu. He treated him politely and pretended there was nothing at all strange about having a gorilla in his restaurant.

    The gorilla looked through the menu and ordered a salad. Henry served the gorilla his salad personally, knowing that his waiters and waitresses would be too frightened. At last the gorilla finished his salad and asked for the bill. Henry wrote out the bill and handed it to the big animal. The gorilla studied it, shook his head sadly, then gave Henry fifty dollars.

    "Thank you", Henry said, and then to make conversation he added, "We don't get many gorillas in this restaurant."

    "At fifty dollars for a salad," the gorilla said, "I'm not surprised."

    Do you still remember your favorite poem from high school or some other important periods in your life？Why is it that decades later it still stands out in your mind？Probably the main reason is that some aspect of that poem resonates (引起共鸣) with you. In the same way, you too as a school leader can touch the hearts of your teachers and students.

    Poetry allows us to experience strong spiritual connections to things around us and to the past. The power that poetry has displayed over time and across cultures actually satisfies this common need of the human heart and soul.

    As one of the oldest art forms, poetry has successfully connected various parts of humanity (人性) from one generation to another. Referring to poetry, Hillyer makes a simple yet meaningful statement, “With this key mankind unlocked his heart.”

    School leaders can find and make use of the value of poetry for themselves, their students and their teachers. Beyond the simple use of poetry, techniques of poetry such as repetitions can be used to take advantage of the power of language to transform communication, create meaning and a culture of care and attention.

    Since schools are mainly about people and relationships, school leaders, like poets, are required to inspire and encourage the human heart. The use of poetry—or even of some techniques of poetry—in school leadership not only helps to improve communication, but also serves to meet the human need for inspiration.

    PARIS—A scaffolding(脚手架) firm that has worked on the roof of Notre Dame said some of its workers had smoked on the site, but ruled out that a cigarette butt(烟蒂) might have started the fire that destroyed the cathedral's oak－framed roof last week.

    A spokesman for family－owned Le Bras Freres, confirming a report in French weekly Le CanardEnchaine, told Reuters that some workers of its Europe Echafaudage scaffolding unit had informed police that they had "sometimes" smoked on the scaffolding, despite a smoking ban on the site.

    "We blame it. But the fire started inside the building...so for company Le Bras Frères this is not a hypothesis(假设), it was not a cigarette butt that set Notre Dame de Paris on fire, " Le Bras Frères spokesman Marc Eskenazi said. TheCanardEnchaine reported that police had found the remains of seven cigarette butts in the burnt－out cathedral."This is not wrong, " said a source close to the investigation, who declined all other comment. Eskenazi said it was impossible to set a log on fire with a cigarette butt and questioned how cigarette butts could have been found on the site."If cigarette butts have survived the fire, I do not know what material they were made of." he said.

    Europe Echaffaudage also ruled out the possibility that the fire might have been started by an electricity incident at one of the two lifts on the site."The lifts' electricity was perfectly within specifications and well maintained, " he said. He added that the two lifts were on the outside of the building, situated at 45 and 65 metres from the base of the spire(尖顶), where the first smoke and flames had been spotted and that the workers had cut the power to the lifts at 17:50 when they had left the site for the day.

    TheCanardEnchaine also reported that electrical wiring ran through the roof of the cathedral, but the church administration denied that safety norms had not been respected."Nothing was ever done without the approval of the state...There were no wires dangling, everything was properly installed," Notre Dame spokesman Andre Finot said.In 2012, electrical engines had been installed to sound the bells in the spire.

    Charles Dickens' joy at first arriving in Boston Harbor in 1842 reads like Ebenezer Scrooge's awakening on Christmas morning. Biographer Peter Ackroyd reports that he flew up the steps of the Tremont House Hotel, sprang into the hall and greeted a curious crowd with a bright "Here we are!" He took to the streets that twinkling midnight in his shaggy fur coat, shouting out the names on shop signs, pulling bell-handles of doors as he passed—excited with laughter—and even screamed with (one imagines) astonishment and delight at the sight of the old South Church. He had set at last upon the shores of "the Republic of my imagination."

    Though not quite 30, Dickens was a literary rock star, the most famous writer in the world, who landed like a conquering hero in a country swept up in an extreme "Boz-o-mania". He wrote to his best friend, John Forster, that he didn't know how to describe "the crowds that pour in and out the whole day; of the people that line the streets when I went out; of the cheering when I went to the theatre; letters of congratulations, welcomes of all kinds, balls, dinners, assemblies without end." When Bostonians renamed their city "Boz-town", New Yorkers determined to "outdollar…and outshine them". Their great Boz Ball boasted flags, flowers, a huge portrait of the author with a bald eagle overhead, 22 tableaux (场景) from the great author's works. "If I should live to grow old," Dickens said, "the scenes of this and other evenings will shine as brightly to my dull eyes 50 years hence as now." ①

    The Spirit of the Times wrote of it: "This most extraordinary, fashionable, brilliant, unique, eye-dazzling, heart-delighting, superb, foolish and ridiculous celebration…came off at the Park Theatre, New York, on Monday evening." But, the reporter predicted, "Such were silly-minded Americans, and such the ridiculous respect paid to a foreigner, who will probably return home and write a book abusing the whole nation for the excesses of a few fools." ②

    In fact, Dickens wrote two.

    ③ Apart from the country's great writers, he found Americans ill-mannered and invading his privacy. "I am so surrounded by people that I am exhausted from want of air." Dickens complained to Forster. "I go to church for quiet, and there is a violent rush to the neighborhood of the bench I sit in. I take my seat in a railroad car, and the very conductor won't leave me alone. I can't drink a glass of water without having a hundred people looking down my throat."

    ④ He disliked Americans' table manners and the tobacco spit everywhere he looked—on even the sidewalks of the nation's capital, where he found party politics corrupting everything, its leaders "the lice (虱子) of God's creation," and "despicable (卑鄙的) trickery at elections."

    Even worse, everyone wanted a piece of the action, from Tiffany's selling unauthorized copies of his bust (半身像) , to a barber selling locks of his hair. "I never knew what it was to feel disgust and contempt (蔑视)," Dickens said, "till I traveled in America." When he departed in June, he left behind all notions of an Arcadian realm he now regarded as "a vast counting house" full of nothing but "cheaters and bores." (See: A Christmas Carol.)

    Americans had soured on him, too. Dickens never missed an opportunity to accuse American publishers of openly pirating his novels to sell for mere pennies, with no recompense to the author at all. The press took offense. Within a month of his arrival, Dickens were laughed at for his "foppish" clothing and effeminate hair, described as "no gentleman," "a contemptible Cockney (伦敦佬)."

    The market watchdog(市场监督部门) in northwest China's Xi'an has started a survey into a complaint that a woman's newly bought Mercedes-Benz car has engine oil leaks(漏). The incident has attracted wide attention after a video of a woman sitting on top of a Mercedes-Benz while weeping and arguing with salesmen went viral online. In the video posted on Weibo by a net friend on April 11, the woman said she found an oil leak when she was driving the car home from the 4S store. After she drove the car back, the trader claimed the car had passed all tests before it was sold. She was told she couldn't get her money back nor change a new car for her. All that the trader could offer was to change the engine. The CLS300 car cost around 660,000 yuan($98,445).

    The customer met with officials from the market watchdog of Gaoxin District on Saturday, requesting a full maintenance(维修) history of the car and an independent test by a third-party, Shaanxi TV Station reported.

    Mercedes-Benz issued an announcement on its Weibo account on Saturday, saying it was sorry for the customer's "unpleasant experience". The company has sent a team to Van to help solve the issue.

    Li Yong, an official with the market watchdog of Gaoxin District in Xi'an, told cnwest.com that they learned about the incident online. They are still surveying the incident. They will punish those who are responsible if anything illegal is discovered.