On a cold winter day, many years ago, a French art teacher named Pierre Chevalier got on a train in Lyon to go to Paris. When he started his journey, he didn't know that it was the beginning of almost 40 years of accidents and near death experiences.

    During the journey, the train fell into an icy river, killing 12 passengers. Chevalier managed to swim back to the river bank. He only had a broken leg.

    Two years later, Chevalier was on a plane from Paris to Moscow when a door suddenly opened and he fell out. A few minutes later, the plane crashed(坠毁); 27 people were killed. Chevalier was so lucky that he landed in a haystack(干草堆).

    A few years later, he was hit by a bus, but again had no serious injuries. Then a year after that, he was driving on a mountain road when he saw a truck coming straight at him. He drove the car off the road, jumped out, landed in a tree—and watched his car fall 100 metres down the mountain.

    “There are two ways you can look at it,” Chevalier said. “I'm either the world's unluckiest man, or the world's luckiest.” When a reporter asked Chevalier what he thought, he chose the “luckiest” one.

    Two years ago, aged 71, Chevalier bought his first lottery ticket(彩票) in 50 years and won more than 2 million.

    After this, a TV company in America said they wanted him to make an advertisement. At first he accepted, but then he changed his mind. Chevalier said he wouldn't fly to Los Angeles for the filming, because he didn't want to push his luck. Who knows? If he had accepted the invitation, maybe he would have had another accident. But Mr Chevalier is a lucky man. If he'd had another accident, he probably would have survived that too!

    94% of 3-and 4-year-olds have been spanked(打屁股) at least once during the past year, according to one study.

    74% of mothers believe spanking is acceptable for kids ages 1 to 3, says another study.

    61% of parents take spanking as a "regular form of punishment" for young children, according to a different study.

    Sometimes children do not do what their parents tell them to do. When this happens, a parent tries to help the child to do the right thing. When this does not work, the parent usually punishes the child.

    There are many things that a parent can do. One thing that people have done is to spank the child. When a parent spanks a child, they will use their hand or a hard object to strike them on their bottom. This is meant to show the child that they have done something wrong.

    One parent remembers being spanked when he was a child. His parents used a wooden spoon. When he spanked his own children with his hand, he saw that he put a red mark on his child's leg. He never did that again.

    One problem with spanking is that it teaches the child to hit someone when they do not like what the other person is doing. Another problem with spanking is that the parent is usually angry and can hit the child too hard. Sometimes parents will use spanking for everything and not try other ways to get the child to do the right thing.

    Many parents are not sure of what to do instead of spanking. Some people think that their religion tells them that spanking is okay. Some think that the law lets them do it. The courts say that parents have the right to teach their children how to behave.

    Other things should be tried before a parent decides to spank a child. Telling the child exactly what is wanted from them can be one thing. Giving a child more than one choice is another thing that can be tried. Getting down to the child's level and taking a more child-friendly approach can help as well.

    My grandma whom we all called Nanny was a solid, first-generation, Italian immigrant. She came to this country with her family on a tiny ship during World War I when she was only 8 years old. During the trip she survived stormy seas, little food, and an attack by German U-boat. After getting here, her large family worked hard to build a new life in America. They never had much money but were rich in love.

    One day, when I was about 5 or 6 years old, my parents and brothers went on a trip. It was just me and Nanny in the house for the weekend. Nanny seemed so happy to be taking care of me all by herself. She made me a special breakfast that first morning. However, all I could do was to complain about how the food was not how Mom always made it, Nanny quietly put down the plate and went into the living room. I followed a minute later and saw that she had tears in her eyes. It was the first time I had ever seen my strong and proud grandmother cry and I was the one who had caused it.

    I walked over to Nanny, climbed on her lap, and for the first time in my short life I did something else too. I apologized without being told to and asked Nanny to forgive me. She smiled, rubbed my head, and told me I was a good boy even though I didn't feel like one then.

    That memory just like my Nanny's love will stay in my heart forever. It is a sign of both strength and wisdom. Asking for forgiveness helps us to learn, to grow, and to love.

    Without proper planning, tourism can cause problems. For example, too many tourists can crowd public places that are also enjoyed by the inhabitants of a country. If tourists create too much traffic, the inhabitants become annoyed and unhappy. They began to dislike tourists and to treat them impolitely. They forget how much tourism can help the country's economy. It is important to think about the people of a destination country and how tourism affects them. Tourism should help a country keep the customs and beauty that attract tourists. Tourism should also advance the wealth and happiness of local inhabitants.

    Too much tourism can be a problem. If tourism grows too quickly, people must leave other jobs to work in the tourism industry. This means that other parts of the country's economy can suffer.

    On the other hand, if there is not enough tourism, people can lose jobs. Business can also lose money. It costs a great deal of money to build large hotels, airports, air terminals, first­class roads, and other support facilities needed by tourist attractions. For example, a major international class tourism hotel can cost as much as 50 thousand dollars per room to build. If this room is not used most of the time, the owner of the hotel lose money.

    Building a hotel is just a beginning. There must be many support facilities as well, including roads to get to the hotel, electricity, sewers to handle waste, and water. All of these support facilities cost money. If they are not used because there are not enough tourists, jobs and money are lost.

    Nowadays six Amazon Scout delivery robots rolled out in a pilot program in Snohomish County, Wash. The robots carry meals, groceries and packages to homes and offices in this region just north of Seattle. They have appeared on the sidewalks of London, Beijing and other cities and communities worldwide. These machines must overcome pedestrian legs, naughty dogs and broken pavement, which raises some questions.

    These services are gaining attraction as a growing number of city residents expect immediate or scheduled delivery for just about everything. Between 2017 and 2018 online retail sales in the U.S. increased by 16 percent. On the final step of all these deliveries, called the last mile, humans on bicycles, motorized scooters (电动车) or large delivery trucks typically deliver packages. All the vehicles compete for space on busy urban streets. "Deliveries are trending upwards in all crowded city centers, and if city and state leaders don't start thinking about creative solutions like robot deliveries, we can expect even worse traffic jams," says Paul Mackie, director of a transportation policy research center in Arlington.

    A study by this center found 73 percent of delivery vehicles in Arlington were parked outside of authorized areas, often blocking bike lanes and crosswalks. By moving the last step of deliveries from the road to the sidewalk, cities could reduce traffic jams and solve the parking problem entirely, Mackie says.

    Companies such as Amazon are not developing this delivery technology simply to clear up urban traffic. Self-driving vehicles and sidewalk robots could cut down last-mile delivery costs in cities by as much as 40 percent, according to a 2018 report by a consultancy firm. A delivery robot can cost thousands of dollars to manufacture, and most currently require human management and conservation. But in the long run companies that use autonomous delivery vehicles in the next several years could end up saving billions of dollars, the report stated.