Jimmy is an automotive mechanic, but helost his job a few months ago. He has good heart, but always feared applyingfor a new job.

One day, he gathered up all his strengthand decided to attend a job interview. His appointment was at 10 am and it wasalready 8:30. While waiting for a bus to the office where he was supposed to beinterviewed, he saw an elderly man wildly kicking the tyre(轮胎） of hiscar. Obviously there was something wrong with the car. Jimmy immediately wentup to lend him a hand. When Jimmy finished working on the car, the old manasked him how much he should pay for the service. Jimmy said there was no needto pay him; he just helped someone in need, and he had to rush for aninterview. Then the old man said, “Well, I could take you to the office foryour interview. It's the least I could do. Please. I insist.” Jimmy agreed.

    Upon arrival, Jimmy found a long line ofapplications waiting to be interviewed. Jimmy still had some grease on himafter the car repair, but he did not have much time to wash it off or have achange of shirt. One by one, the applicants left the interviewer's office withdisappointed look on their faces. Finally his name was called. The interviewerwas sitting on a large chair facing the office window. Rocking the chair backand forth, he asked, “Do you really need to be interviewed?” Jimmy's heartsank. “With the way I look now, how could I possibly pass this interview?” hethought to himself.

    Then the interviewer turned the chairand to Jimmy's surprise, it was the old man he helped earlier in the morning.It turned out he was the General Manager of the company.

  “Sorry I had to keep you waiting, but Iwas pretty sure I made the right decision to have you as part of our workforcebefore you even stepped into the office. I just know you'd be a trustworthyworker. Congratulations!” Jimmy sat down and they shared a cup of well-deservedcoffee as he landed himself a new job.

    Proudly reading my words, I glanced around the room, only to find my classmates bearing big smiles on their faces and tears in their eyes. Confused, I glanced toward my stone-faced teacher. Having no choice, I slowly raised the report I had slaved over, hoping to hide myself. “What could be causing everyone to act this way?”

    Quickly, I flashed back to the day Miss Lancelot gave me the task. This was the first real talk I received in my new school. It seemed simple: go on the Internet and find information about a man named George Washington. Since my idea of history came from an ancient teacher in my home country, I had never heard of that name before. As I searched the name of this fellow, it became evident that there were two people bearing the same name who looked completely different! One invented hundreds of uses for peanuts, while the other led some sort of army across America. I stared at the screen, wondering which one my teacher meant. I called my grandfather for a golden piece of advice; flip (掷) a coin. Heads—the commander, and tails—the peanuts guy. Ah! Tails, my report would be about the great man who invented peanut butter, George Washington Carver.

    Weeks later, standing before this unfriendly mass, I was totally lost. Oh well, I lowered the paper and sat down at my desk,burningto find out what I had done wrong. As a classmate began his report, it all became clear, “My report is on George Washington, the man who started the American Revolution.” The whole world became quite! How could I know that she meant that George Washington?

    Obviously, my grade was awful. Heartbroken but fearless, I decided to turn this around. I talked to Miss Lancelot, but she insisted: No re-dos; no new grade. I felt that the punishment was not justified, and I believed I deserved a second chance. Consequently, I threw myself heartily into my work for the rest of the school year. Ten months later, that chance unfolded as I found myself sitting in the headmaster's office with my grandfather, now having an entirely different conversation. I smiled and flashed back to the embarrassing moment at the beginning of the year as the headmaster informed me of my option to skip the sixth grade. Justice is sweet!

    If you have the opportunity to visit some places in New Zealand, then the list below is our recommendation.

    Fiordland National Park

    This park is part of the South Westland World Heritage Area and is New Zealand's largest national park and one of the largest in the world. The scenery in Fiordland is nothing short of extremely beautiful, with steep mountains, wild waterfalls, and abundant rain forests. Being able to come back and forth in its deep bay attracts most of the visitors.

    The area has some of the world's greatest walks including the world famous Milford Track, which was described as the finest walk in the world in the early twentieth century.

    Abel Tasman National Park

    Abel Tasman may be New Zealand's smallest national park, but the attractions are huge. Located in one of New Zealand's sunniest spots, the area also has the best beaches in the country.

    The popular Abel Tasman Walk is a great way to see this park. It takes 3-5 days to complete. Sea taxis are also available and can drop you off at any number of beaches within the park.

    Rotorua

    Accessible from New Zealand's biggest city, Auckland, Rotorua is famous for its volcanic activities. Rotorua is also famous for its plentiful lakes which are great for swimming and fishing. The surrounding area contains plenty of native bushes and some famous walks.

    Rotorua is also the best area in the country to experience and learn about Maori culture.

    Mt Cook National Park

    Mt Cook as well as the surrounding area is an alpine( 高山的) park within the World Heritage listed in South Westland. The biggest peaks in all of Australasia are here. The park doesn't contain many trees or plants due to the altitude. Walks range from a two-hour walk to difficult tracks suitable for experienced mountaineers only.

    A helicopter or plane ride gives visitors excellent views of the mountains with the option of landing at the top of Tasman Glacier, a true permanent snow-covered alpine environment.

Outdoor Science Field Trips!

A 293-million-mile journey of the NASA Perseverance rover (探测器) to Mars: ended successfully on February 18, 2021, with a picture-perfect landing inside the Jezero Crater. The car-sized, six-wheeled rover, nicknamed Percy is the US space agency's biggest and most advanced explorer to date. Its primary mission is to search for signs of ancient microbial (微生物的) life on Mars.

Landing on Mars is extremely tricky. The Red Planet's gravitational pull causes approaching spacecraft to go faster to high speeds, while its thin atmosphere-just 1 percent that of Earth's-does little to help slow it down as it approaches the surface.

The scientists had to reduce Percy's 12,000 mph speed to a safe landing speed of less than five mph-in just six and a half minutes. The target entry angle also had to be a precise 12 degrees-any steeper, and the spacecraft would burn up; any flatter, and it would get lost in space. It is no wonder that the final approach is often referred to as the "seven minutes of terror. "

Upon attaining a manageable speed, Percy briefly flew over the Martian surface to seek out the perfect landing spot. Its complex map-reading system rapidly scanned the area and matched it with maps in its database to find the best location.

The NASA scientists will spend the next two months testing Percy's scientific instruments. Once ready, the rover will begin to carry out its mission.

"Perseverance is the smartest robot ever made, but confirming that microbial life once existed carries an unusually large burden of proof," said Lori Glaze, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division. "While we'll learn a lot with the great instruments we have aboard the rover, it may very well require the far more well-equipped laboratories and delicate instruments back here on Earth to tell us whether our samples (样本) carry evidence that Mars once harbored life. "

Simply being quiet is a growing appeal. Lots of business have appeared to meet a rising demand for quiet time, from silent weekend getaways to silent dining, silent reading parties and even silent dating. Silence can mean different things to different people. We are usually silent only with those closest to us. So there is something almost radical(不同凡响的)about the recent trend towards enjoying silence with strangers.

Mariel started a regular silent reading party in Dundee just under a year ago. Readers bring their books and meet in a bar, where they read together in silence for an hour or sometimes two and then put their books away to chat and have a drink. "When the reading party starts, everything goes quiet," says Mariel," It's a little bit surreal (超现实的), especially in what is usually a noisy bar. However, there is something special about sharing the silence with others. It offers a chance to escape from reality; everyone is so busy with work and with technology being ever present. An event like this gives people the opportunity to escape these things for a while."

Honi Ryan is an artist based in Berlin who began hosting silent dinner back in 2006. The rules of the dinner are: no talking, no using your voice, no reading or writing, trying to make as little noise as possible, not connecting with technology, and staying for at least two hours. So far she has taken her silent dinner project to Mexico, the US, Australia and China. "It's evident that the age-old connections we make over food do not depend on the words around it. Silence creates the space for the people and places involved to fill with whatever is needed; it is quite different from our usual social behaviors."