On a rainy day, about 150 volunteers worked for eight hours to clean up Carson Creek that is near a river. About nine tons of trash (垃圾) was taken out from there.

         "We did a good job," said Alan Specter, the organizer of the event. "We've planned to come back here one more time, three years from now. Of course, we hope that there won't be so much trash next time."

         The trash came in all shapes, sizes and colors: bottles, bicycles, batteries, furniture, clothing, plastic bags, dolls and even a golf bag with a full set of golf clubs (高尔夫球杆).  

         The dirty and tiring work was done by two volunteering groups - Save the Bay and Watch the Whales. Most of the volunteers came from a local police station and a fire station. And some of them were old people who had already got retired.

         That day, it rained a little. All of them wore boots and raincoats. The work took place along a two-mile river with over 500 big yellow trash bags everywhere.

         No one found anything that cost much. A five-year-old boy found an earring which he thought might be worth a million dollars. He said he'd sell it. Then he'd donate half of the money to Watch the Whales, and use the other half to buy his favourite ice cream every day.

         Many people laughed at the boy's story. However, it was easily found that the environment there did become better.

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    Ricardo Semler became the boss of his father's company in Brazil at the age of 21. The name of the company is Semco. It sold parts for ships. Semler worked like a mad man, from 7:30 in the morning to midnight every day. One afternoon, while he was visiting a factory in New York, he fell down. The doctor said, “ There's nothing wrong with you. But if you continue like this, you'll find a new home in our hospital.” Semler got the message. He changed the way he worked. In fact, he changed the ways his workers worked, too.

    At the same time, Semler changed the office. Instead of walls, they have plants at Semco, so the boss can't shut himself away from everyone else. And the workers are free to decorate their workplace as they want. As for uniforms, some people wear suits and others wear T-shirts.

    Semco has flexible working hours: the workers can decide when they need to arrive at work. Also, Semco lets its workers use the company's machines for their own projects, and makes them take holidays for at least thirty days a year.

    It sounds perfect, but does it work? The answer is in the numbers: in the last six years, Semco's revenues (收益) have gone from $35 million to $212 million. The company has grown from 800 workers to 3,000. Why?

    Semler says it's because of “peer pressure” (同辈压力). Peer pressure makes workers work hard. It means if someone isn't doing his job well, the other workers will not allow the situation to continue. In other words, Semler treat his workers like adults rather than children, and expects them to act like responsible (负责任的) adults. And they do.

    It is fun being a vet (兽医). I like it because although it is hard work, every day is different! It all depends on what is wrong with the animals that come in.

    At my clinic(诊所), I work long days on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and short days on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Sunday is my day off so I can spend some time with my family.

    My day at my clinic begins at 7 am. My clerk opens the door, turns on some music, and makes everyone a cup of tea or coffee. My assistant (助手) cleans and feeds the animals. The phones start to ring and people make appointments. This is a very busy time of day!

    At 9 am, pet owners start to arrive with their sick pets. Appointments take up the whole morning. At midday, I stop for two hours. I don't examine（检查）any new sick animals. I use these two hours to have lunch and do all my paperwork.

    At 2 pm. I start to see sick animals again. At 5 pm, three students from a local school who love animals arrive to help out. They are very kind and warm-hearted. I am always happy to see their smiling faces!

From 5 pm to 7pm, I continue to see sick animals. Then, at 7 pm, we close our doors and the clean-up begins! We tidy the clinic, and feed and clean the animals. Of course, we also stroke (轻抚) them and give them hugs! Then, we turn off the lights and go home. This is the type of day I want to have.

    I'm very happy being a vet, though unexpected things sometimes happen!

    Uncle Wang works in a book shop in the middle of the city. The shop is not far from his home. It is about one kilometre away. So Uncle Wang seldom(很少)goes to work by bus. He usually goes there by bike, sometimes on foot. It takes (花费) him twenty minutes to get there by bike and forty minutes on foot. Today his bike is broken. He wants to walk there. Now he is having breakfast. He leaves home at ten minutes to eight and he walks to work twenty minutes earlier. His work starts at half past eight in the morning and finishes at a quarter to five in the afternoon.

    Barbara McClintock was one of the most important scientists of the twentieth century. She made important discoveries about genes（基因）and chromosomes（染色体）.

    Barbara McClintock was born in 1902 in Hartford, Connecticut. Her family moved to the Brooklyn area of New York City in 1908. Barbara was an active child with interests in sports and music. She also developed an interest in science.

    She studied science at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Barbara was among a small number of undergraduate students to receive training in genetics in 1921. Years later, she noted that few college students wanted to study genetics.

    Barbara McClintock decided to study botany, the scientific study of plants, at Cornell University. She completed her undergraduate studies in 1923. McClintock decided to continue her education at Cornell. She completed a master's degree in 1925. Two years later, she finished all her requirements for a doctorate degree.

    McClintock stayed at Cornell after she completed her education. She taught students botany. The 1930s was not a good time to be a young scientist in the United States. The country was in the middle of the great economic Depression. Millions of Americans were unemployed. Male scientists were offered jobs. But female geneticists were not much in demand.

    An old friend from Cornell, Marcus Rhoades, invited McClintock to spend the summer of 1941 working at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. It is a research center on Long Island, near New York City. McClintock started a temporary（临时的）job with the genetics department. A short time later, she accepted a permanent（永久的）position in the laboratory. This gave her the freedom to continue her research without having to teach or repeatedly ask for financial aid.

    By the 1970s, her discoveries had had an effect on everything from genetic engineering to cancer research. McClintock won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1983 for her discovery of the ability of genes to change positions on chromosomes. She was the first American woman to win an unshared Nobel Prize.

    Look! This is a picture of my teacher's family. This is Mr. Smith. He is my English teacher.

    His wife is a doctor. She is nice. They have a son and a daughter. The boy's name is Sam and the girl's name is Kate. They are students. They are in the same school. They go to school on their bikes.

    Look! The son is like his mother. The daughter is like her father. Now they are all in China and can speak Chinese. They love China.