In high school, all Canadian students take part in a very exciting event. It is "Take Your Children to Work Day". Students will have a chance to work with their parents. My day took place in my mom's work, the York Region Police Department.

    When I arrived, a coach was teaching the officers basic combat(格斗)skills. Everyone tried their best to practice. I could see them sweating and panting (喘气).

    The most exciting part of my visit was a stop at the 911 Communication Center. 911 is the same as 110,119 and 120 in China. Every 911 call in the city is answered here. When I entered the center, I stood beside a call dispatcher (分派人员)arid watched him dealing-with the calls.

    Suddenly, the phone rang, he picked it up and a woman cried for help. There was a robbery in her house. The call dispatcher told her, "Please calm down and move to the safe place quietly. Don't fight with them. Just let them take what they want. Please make sure you are not hurt. We are sending officers there."

    He followed the call and found the address. The call dispatcher chose the five closest police cars from the satellite map and clicked(敲键盘) to send the policemen.  I saw the police cars from the satellite map were quickly moving to the woman's house. Five minutes later, they arrived .I asked the call dispatcher why he sent five cars. He said, "There are different levels of emergencies. Robbery is a high priority (优先),so we have to send five cars." The day was interesting. I leaned how the different departments worked together. The officers were very friendly and admirable.

    When the telephone rings late at night, most women guess it must be one of only four or five people calling. A sister? Maybe. An emergency? Possibly. A mother? Probably not at that time of night. Much more probably it is a close female friend calling to tell you that she has split up with her boyfriend again or perhaps simply that a good movie has just started on TV.

    At a time when families are spread far and wide and marriages often end in divorce, friendships are becoming more and more important. Erika, a 32-year-old lawyer, is strengthened by her ten-year friendship with her married friend Jane. “I was very sick one night, so I called Jane at about 3:00 a.m. to talk about it,” she says. “She was very supportive and even came over to take me to the doctor's the next morning.”

    As American TV shows like Friends, which follows the lives of a very close group of young friends, have become more popular, many of us are beginning to see the value of such friendships. TV shows like this tell us that our romantic relationships may not last, but we need to keep in touch with our close friends if we want to survive.

A TV show called Real Women is about the lives and relationships of five former school friends. In this show, family, husbands, and work are all less important than friendships. One of its actresses says the show reflects her own experience. “Friendship is about commitment. I don't see some of my friends for ages but when we get together, it is as if time hasn't passed.”

    This is true of Erika and Jane's friendship. With Erika's family 200 miles away, it is Jane who keeps a spare set of keys to Erika's apartment and waters her plants whenever she is away. “Having Jane around gives me a certain amount of freedom. It is not the kind of thing that you could ask anyone to do, but she knows I would do the same for her.” Erika feels that because she no longer sees her family every day, she now enjoys a closer relationship with her best friend. Jane, who may move to a different city soon, is worried about leaving such a support system of friends. “My friends have more to do with my life than my parents and, therefore, I don't have to spend a lot of time explaining things to them. Friends are more up to date with what is happening.”

    Wanted: A Personal Assistant

    I'm a very busy woman, looking for an assistant to help me with certain important tasks. This is not your average assistant job. What I'm looking for is someone to take care of some of my more personal business so that I may focus on my true passion: grocery shopping. Please apply if and only if you are willing and able to accomplish the following tasks:

    Work I would love to have a nine-to-five job. However, I find sitting in an office all day unbearable. An ideal assistant would secure a high-paying office job and excel in that setting, even going so far as to eagerly accept every invitation to after-work drinks.

    Go on family vacations I love my family, especially when I don't have to spend time with them. Thus, I will require my employee to attend all family vacations in my place. Since I'll miss out on spending time with my nephews, a good assistant will live-stream (直播) them for me the entire time while discreetly muting the live-stream whenever they start fighting.

    Exercise I am determined to get in better shape but find working out strenuous and tiring. The right candidate will exercise for a minimum of an hour every day and allow me to reap the benefits of his or her vigorous activity.

    Eat Just kidding—I love eating!

    Date I'm looking for love but find dating tedious and intimidating. Ideally, my employee will get a drink with a potential mate so he or she can do the tiresome work of getting to know someone and deciding whether I'll like him. If the romantic candidate advances past a third date, I'd be willing to step in and proceed with the relationship from there, excluding birthdays, holidays, and other high-pressure situations.

    Have a baby I'm eager to have a child, but being pregnant and giving birth seems hard. Likewise, raising a child seems daunting. I'd prefer to spend an hour or two with my child each day while someone else tackles the incredible responsibility of childrearing. Once my child turns 18, I will happily assume all parenting duties, excluding any financial obligations.

    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.

    "I really wrote it for me. It was what I found funny and what I liked". Those are the words of J K Rowling, author of the enormously popular "Harry Potter" books. The quote refers to the first in a series of novels featuring a young character who has carved out a permanent place for his creator in the world of children's literature.

    Joanne Kathleen Rowling was born in England in 1965, and wrote her first story at the age of six. She was in her mid-20s when the idea for the Harry Potter novels came to her, during a long train ride. By the end of that journey, she says, the character of Harry and the school for wizards which he attends were more or less fully formed in her mind.

    It would be several years, however, before the novel was completed. By that time, Rowling had been through a failed marriage. Living on welfare as a single parent, she wrote about Harry Potter while sitting in an Edinburgh café with her daughter asleep beside her. She could not have dreamed of the fame and success which Harry would bring her in the years to come.

    Harry Potter is not your average superhero. He is 12 years old, skinny, wears glasses, and tends to worry a lot. Yet, he has captured the imagination of children and adults the world over, and has introduced millions to the joys of reading.

    Harry's appeal stems from his role as a very ordinary boy who finds himself in extraordinary situations. Orphaned as a baby, Harry spends the next 10 years being mistreated by the awful relatives with whom he lives. On his 11th birthday, he learns that he possesses magical powers and is admitted for training at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

    The adventures of Harry and his friends at the school are superbly narrated by J. K. Rowling. She manages to lead her millions of readers deep into the world of the supernatural, while at the same time dealing with the fears and emotions of the ordinary human world. Many feel that this is the real magic of Harry Potter.