A year ago, I paid no attention to English idioms, though my teacher emphasized (强调) the importance again and again. But soon, the importance of English idioms was shown in an amusing experience.

    One day, I happened to meet an Englishman on the road, and soon we began to talk. As I was talking about how I was studying English, the foreigner seemed to be astonished. Gently shaking his head, shrugging his shoulders, he said, “You don't say!” “You don't say!” I was puzzled. I thought, perhaps this is not an appropriate topic (适当的话题). “Well, I'd better change the topic.” So I said to him. “Well, shall we talk about the Great Wall？ By the way, have you ever been there？” “Certainly, everyone back home will laugh at me if I leave China without seeing it. It was magnificent.” He was deep in thought when I began to talk like a tourist guide. “The Great Wall is one of the wonders in the world. We are very proud of it..” Soon I was interrupted again by his words: “You don't say!” I couldn't help asking, "Why do you ask me not to talk about it？" "Well, I didn't request you to do so, " he answered, greatly surprised. I said, "Didn't you say' you don't say？”Hearing this, the Englishman laughed to tears. He began to explain, “'You don't say' actually means 'really!' It is an expression of surprise. Perhaps you don't pay attention to English idioms.” Only then did I know I had made a fool of myself. Since then I have been more careful with idiomatic expressions. Remember: what the English teachers said is always right to us students.

    Suppose you're in a rush, feeling tired, not paying attention to your screen, and you send an email that could get you in trouble.

    Realisation will probably set in seconds after you've clicked "send". You freeze in horror and burn with shame.

    What to do? Here are four common email accidents, and how to handle.

    Clicking "send" too soon

    Don't waste your time trying to find out if the receivers has read it yet. Write another email as swiftly as you can and send it with a brief explaining that this is the correct version and the previous version should be ignored.

    Writing the wrong time

    The sooner you notice, the better. Respond quickly and briefly, apologizing for your mistake. Keep the tone measured: don't handle it too lightly, as people can be offered, especially if your error suggests a misunderstanding of their culture(I.e. incorrect ordering of Chinese names).

Clicking "reply all" unintentionally

    You accidentally reveal(透露)to entire company what menu choices you would prefer at the staff Christmas dinner, or what holiday you'd like to take. In this instance, the best solution is to send a quick, light-hearted apology to explain your awkwardness. But it can quickly rise to something worse, when everyone starts hitting "reply all" to join in a long and unpleasant conversation. In this instance, step away from your keyboard to allow everyone to calm down.

Sending an offensive message to it's subject

    The most awkward email mistake is usually committed in anger. You write an unkind message about someone, intending to send it to a friend, but accidentally send it to the person you're discussing. In that case, ask to speak in person as soon as possible and say sorry. Explain your frustrations calmly and sensibly—see it as an opportunity tic hear up any difficulties you may have with this person.

    In October, I told the eight-year-olds in the class I teach in Pompton Lakes, New Jersey, about my plan. "Since all of you have done extra jobs around the house to earn some money," I said. "Then we'll buy food for a Thanksgiving dinner for someone who might not have a nice dinner otherwise."

    I watched them while they walked up and down the supermarket. "Flowers!" Kristine cried. The group rushed toward the holiday plants.

    "You can't eat flowers."——It was more sensible(明智的) to use any extra money to buy something that could be transformed(转换，转变) into meals.

    "But Mrs. Sherlock," came the begging voice, "we want flowers."

    Defeated finally, I put a pot of "funny" purple(紫色的) mums in the cart full of foods. "She'll like this one," the children agreed.

    An organization had given us the name and address of a needy grandmother who had lived alone for many years. We finally pulled up in front of a small house. A slightly built woman with a weary face came to the door to welcome us.

    My little group ran to get the food. As each box was carried in, the old woman kept on saying "Thanks"—much to her visitors' pleasure. When Amy put the mums on the counter, the woman seemed surprised. She's wishing it was a bag of flour(面粉), I thought.

    We returned to the car. As we fastened our seat belts, we could see the kitchen window. The woman inside waved goodbye, then turned and walked across the room, past the turkey, past the goods, straight to the mums. She put her face in their petal. When she raised her head, there was a smile on her lips. She was transformed before our eyes.

    The children were quiet. At that moment, they had seen for themselves the power they possessed(拥有) to make another's life better. The children had sensed(感到) that sometimes a person needs a bunch of funny purple flowers on a dark November day.

    Can you imagine a world without music? Studies show that public schools across the country are cutting back on music classes to save money. Worse, some schools have never had music classes to begin with. But without them, students' academic growth and emotional health could suffer. In fact, music classes are necessary for all students in schools.

    Recent studies by Brown University have shown that students who received music education classes were better in math and reading skills than those without music classes. Another study by The College Board found that students taking music and art classes got higher points. Students' academic success seems to depend on their taking part in music education.

    Music programs in public schools also help to add to a student's sense of pride and self­confidence. Teens today have too many learning tasks. Besides, they have family problems, self­confidence problems, relationship troubles, and choices about drugs and alcohol. All of these can stop academic success, but music education can help. A study by The Texas Commission on Drug and Alcohol Abuse found that students who took part in school music programs were less likely to turn to drugs. Music programs encourage students to work together to produce an excellent performance.

    Music crosses language, class, cultural and political boundaries (界限). Music allows students from different countries to connect. For example, at a school talent show, a new Japanese student played a piano duet (二重奏) with an American classmate. Although they could not communicate verbally (口头上), they were able to read the music in order to play the duet. Two students from different cultures worked as a team with self­confidence and common purpose through music.

    The gift of music is priceless. We need to be sure to have necessary music classes for all students. The world is losing its music, and putting music into schools is the first step to get it back.

    When you get a cut, you cover it with a bandage. How do you know when to change it? Maybe you just wait until it's wet or dirty. But when people have long-term or chronic (慢性的)wounds that take months to get better, changing bandages too early or to late could make healing take even longer. Changing the dressing on a wound too often can provide an opportunity for infections to get in. But if a bandage gets very wet very quickly from the inside, it might be filling with pus (脓)--a sign an infection has begun. Judging just when to change is important.

    Chronic wounds are common in people who are older or who have certain health conditions. Chronic wounds affect around 6.5 million people per year in the United States. When Anushka Naiknaware, 13, learned about chronic wounds, she decided to make a device that could alert a person when it's time to change their bandages.

    After a lot of trials and errors, the teen settled on a design that used an “ink” filled with carbon nanoparticles(纳米粒子). The teen loaded her ink into a printer cartridge (墨盒) to print onto her special paper, which was to be made into bandage. Well, actually, Anushka loaded her ink into many, many printer cartridges. Just changing a printer cartridge isn't easy, and filling one is even harder.

    The small printed papers cost only 5 to 10 cents, Anushka estimates. The Bluetooth sensor is more expensive, but the teen notes that it could be used over and over again. She also knows there is a long way to go before her design can help patients. It hasn't been tested on a real person yet. “You have to make sure everything works perfectly,” she says.

    Fred Rogers was a curious man, six feet tall and without pretense (虚伪). He liked to pray, to play the piano, to swim, and to write, and he somehow lived in a different world than I did. We became friends for some 20 years, and I made lifelong friends with his wife, Joanne. I remember thinking that it seemed as if Fred had access to another realm (领域) like the way pigeons have some special magnetic compass that helps them find home.

    Fred died in 2003, somewhat quickly, of stomach cancer. He was 74. "Just don't make Fred into a saint (圣人)," That has become Joanne's refrain (叠句). 91 now, still full of energy, she lives alone in the same roomy apartment, in the university section of Pittsburgh, that she and Fred moved into after they raised their two boys. Throughout her 50-year marriage to Fred, she wasn't the type to hang out on the set or attend production meetings. That was Fred's thing. He had his career, and she had hers as a concert pianist. For decades she toured the country with her college classmate, Jeannine Morrison, as a piano duo; they didn't retire the performance until 2008.

    "If you make him out to be a saint, people might not know how hard he worked," Joanne said. Disciplined, focused; a perfectionist — an artist. That was the Fred she and the cast and crew knew. "I think people think of Fred as a child-development expert," David Newell, the actor who played Mr. "Speedy Delivery" McFeely, told me recently. "As a moral example maybe. But as an artist? I don't think they think of that." that was the Fred I came to know. Creating, the creative impulse (冲动), and the creative process were our common interests. He wrote or co-wrote all the scripts for the program — all 33 years of it. He wrote the melodies. He wrote the lyrics. He structured a week of programming around a single theme, many of them difficult topics, like war, divorce, or death.

    I don't know that he cared whether people saw him as an artist. He seemed more intent (急切的) that people not see him at all. The focus was always on you. Or children. Or the tiny things. It was hard to see Fred.

    I like you just the way you are. One day he told me where that core message came from. His grandfather, Fred Brooks McFeely, who like the rest of the Rogers family lived in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, about 40 miles east of Pittsburgh. "He was a character," he said. "Oh, a lot of me came from him."

    His grandfather represented a life of risk and adventure, the very things Fred's boyhood lacked. He was a lonely kid, an only child until he was 11, when his sister came. He was bullied. Here comes Fat Freddie! He was sickly. He had asthma. He was not allowed to play outside by himself. He spent much of his childhood in his bedroom.

    He had music, and he had puppets to keep himself amused. He didn't need much. He was expected to fill his father's shoes, become his business partner at the brick company. "My dad was pretty much Mr. Latrobe," he told me. "He worked hard to accomplish all that he did, and I've always felt that that was way beyond me. And yet I'm so grateful that he didn't push me to do the kinds of things that he did or to become a miniature (缩小的) version of him. It certainly would have been miniature."

    Fred wanted to be like his grandfather. "He taught me all kinds of really neat stuff!" he told me. "I remember one day my grandmother and my mother were telling me to get down, or not to climb, and my grandfather said: ‘Let the kid climb on the wall! He's got to learn to do things for himself!' I heard that. I will never forget that. What a support that was. He had a lot of stone walls on his place." "I think it was when I was leaving one time to go home after our time together," Fred told me, "that my grandfather said to me: ‘You know, you made this day a really special day. Just by being yourself. There's only one person in the world like you. And I happen to like you just the way you are."