Several times my daughter had telephoned to say, "Mum, you must come and see the daffodils (水仙花) before they are over."

    I wanted to go, but it was a two-hour drive from Lake Arrowhead. "I will go next Tuesday," I promised, a little unwillingly, on her third call.

    The next Tuesday dawned cold and rainy. Still, I had promised, and so I drove there. When I finally walked into Carolyn's house and hugged and greeted my grandchildren, I said, "Forget the daffodils, Carolyn! The road is invisible (看不见的) in the cloud and fog, and there is nothing in the world except you and these children that I want to see!"

    My daughter smiled calmly and said, "We drive in such weather all the time, Mum. You will never forgive yourself if you miss this experience."

    After about twenty minutes, we turned onto a small road and on the far side of a small church, I saw a hand-lettered sign that read "Daffodil Garden". We got out of the car and each took a child's hand, and I followed Carolyn down the path. Then, we turned a corner of the path, and I looked up amazed. Before me lay the most beautiful sight. Flows of flowers of different colors seemed poured down the peak and slopes. There were five acres of flowers! A sea of daffodil! It was like a fairyland all beyond description.

    "But who has done this?" I asked Carolyn. "It's just one woman," Carolyn answered. That's her home. "Carolyn pointed to a well-kept A-frame house that looked small and modest in the midst of all that glory. We walked up to the house. On the patio (露台), we saw a poster. “Answers to the Questions I Know You Are Asking" was the headline. The first answer was a simple one. "50,000 bulbs (鳞茎)" it read. The second answer was, "One at a time, by one woman." The third answer was, "Began in 1958."

    I thought of this woman whom I had never met, who, more than fifty years before, had begun--one bulb at a time--to bring beauty and joy to this remote mountain top. Just planting one bulb at a time, year after year, had changed the world where she lived and created something of magnificence, beauty, and inspiration.

    When we multiply tiny pieces of time with small amounts of daily effort, we too can accomplish great things. Everyone can do something to change the world.

    Women make better drivers than men for many reasons. Why is that? If you ask me, I'd like to say, men know that women are better drivers but do not have the courage to admit the truth—women are queens of the road.

    Unlike men, women stop for directions when they have no idea as to where they are going. We don't drive around for hours pointlessly wasting a tank of gas only to find ourselves heading in the wrong direction. Have you ever been in a car with a man who is lost? He tells you to shut up when you begin to open your mouth. And every five minutes or so he takes a turn going forty-five miles per hour only to find out he's made another wrong turn.

    Speeding is what men do best on the road. There is a reason why men get more speeding tickets than women. Not because we trick to get out of tickets but only because we don't get pulled over as frequently. We don't speed. We have more intelligence than senselessly to put our own lives as well as the lives of others in danger.

    My largest issue with male drivers is how a majority of them drive with one hand on the wheel and the other hand doing only God knows what. The seat is backed as far as possible, and they're totally lost into loud music beyond a necessary level. You don't ever see women driving like that.

    I feel that the above evidence more than proves my points that women are not only better drivers but also safer drivers than men. We women rule the road. Oh, and men, if you want to continue criticizing（批评）women for being bad drivers, bring it on.

    Every man wants his son to be somewhat of a clone（克隆）, not in features but in footsteps. As he grows you also age, and your ambitions become more unachievable. You begin to realize that your boy, in your footsteps, could probably achieve what you hoped for. But footsteps can be muddied and they can go off in different directions.

    My son Jody has hated school since day one in kindergarten. Science projects waited until the last moment. Book reports weren't written until the final threat.

    I've been a newspaperman all my adult life. My daughter is a university graduate working toward her master's degree in English. But Jody? When he entered the tenth grade he became a "vo-tech" student (技校学生). They're called "motorheads" by the rest of the student body.

    When a secretary in my office first called him "motorhead", I was shocked. "Hey, he's a good kid," I wanted to say. "And smart, really."

    I learned later that motorheads are, indeed, different. They usually have dirty hands and wear dirty work clothes. And they don't often make school honor rolls (光荣榜).

    But being the parent of a motorhead is itself an experience in education. We who labor in clean shirts in offices don't have the abilities that motorheads have. I began to learn this when I had my car crashed. The cost to repair it was estimated at $800. "Hey, I can fix it," said Jody. I doubted it, but let him go ahead, for I had nothing to lose.

    My son, with other motorheads, fixed the car. They got parts (零件）from a junkyard, and ability from vo-tech classes. The cost was $25 instead of $800.

    Since that first repair job, a broken air-conditioner, a non-functioning washer and a non-toasting toaster have been fixed. Neighbors and co-workers trust their car repairs to him.

    These kids are happiest when doing repairs. They joke and laugh and are living in their own relaxed world. And their minds are bright despite their dirty hands and clothes.

    I have learned a lot from my motorhead: publishers need printers, engineers need mechanics, and architects need builders. Most important, I have learned that fathers don't need clones in footsteps or anywhere else.

    My son may never make the school honor roll. But he made mine.

    (CNN)—This photograph of two men sharing a drink 30 meters below the water is part of an art project exploring the mysterious world of freediving—a form of underwater diving that relies on a diver's ability to hold his or her breath until resurfacing rather than on the use of oxygen tanks (氧气瓶).

    Each man, dressed in shirt, jeans and sunglasses, sits in a chair at the bottom of the Caribbean Sea with local sharks—harmless to humans—swimming just meters away. Of course, these aren't ordinary men, but freedivers: extreme athletes who dive on a single breath of air.

    American photographer Lia Barrett had been taking pictures of brave divers competing at the Caribbean Cup off the coast of Honduras, when she decided to create a fantastic underwater world in which humans go about everyday tasks—such as drinking coffee or riding bikes.

    "After the competitors had a great time in the new national and world records set at the competition, I took advantage of their breath-holding skills to do photo shoots I had only dreamed of before," said the 29-year-old.

    Perhaps unsurprisingly, Barrett is often asked whether the amazing pictures are Photoshopped. She laughs quietly as she insists they're 100% real.

    The picture of two men having coffee took 50 minutes to create, with the men receiving oxygen from standby assistants around every three minutes.

    "On the way back up, we were holding onto the table during our decompression (减压) stop in the strong current (水流)—it was quite a scene."

    The underwater models made an 11-minute stop on the way back to the surface, making sure they didn't rise too quickly and suffer decompression sickness—which can cause deadly blackouts (眩晕).

    An 8-year-old southeast Kansas girl is being praised for her quick, calm thinking. She grabbed the steering wheel(方向盘) and drove the family's SUV when her mother fell unconscious on their highway ride to school.

    Abby Porter and her mom, Shelly, were heading for her school in Riverton when Shelly had a medical emergency. She passed out(昏倒) behind the wheel.

    Abby is a second-grader whose father sometimes lets her drive their tractor. With her mother falling down heavily, Abby leaned over and took the wheel. At some point, Abby even successfully performed a U-turn on the four-lane highway, because she was going home to her daddy, according to Galena Police Chief Larry Delmont.

    "That was at 8:37 in the morning, and there was a lot of traffic," Delmont said. Officer Jimmy Hamilton noticed the SUV going about 20 mph and weaving a bit between the two lanes. He suspected someone was driving under the influence. As he got closer, he noticed the woman fell over in the driver's seat and saw Abby at the wheel.

    Hamilton tried to get in front of Abby's car to slow her down, but she kept switching lanes to avoid bumping into his car. Hamilton got alongside her and told Abby to stop the vehicle, but she didn't know how. He then told her she needed to bump into him to stop the car, but Abby said she didn't want to because she was afraid. He convinced Abby bumping into his car was OK.

    "I never saw her cry," Hamilton said. "From just the expression on her face and the tone of her voice, you could tell she was scared. But she stayed with it."

    Emergency crews got Abby's mother to the hospital, but Delmont said he didn't know what caused her to lose consciousness.

    The police department in Galena, a town of about 3,000 residents about 150 miles south of Kansas City, planned to present Abby with a plaque(匾牌) for "outstanding bravery in a life-threatening situation".

    A famous doctor once received a little child who was badly ill. Thanks to his skill and care, his young patient got well and was soon able to get up and run about again.

    The child's mother was very much obliged to the doctor, and she called on him to thank him for what he had done for her child. "Doctor," she said, "you have saved my little son. I don't know how to thank you enough. I feel that money alone cannot repay you, so I have made this little purse with my own hands, as a sign of my gratitude. I hope you will accept it." The doctor stood up and said coldly, "Madam, a little present like that is very nice between friends, but a doctor needs to be paid properly for what he has done." The lady was so surprised and hurt so much that she could not reply for a moment. Then she said quietly, "Perhaps you will tell me how much your fee is?"

    "Fifty pounds", he answered.

    The lady opened the little purse and took out four fifty-pound bank notes. She handed one of them to the doctor, and put the other three back into the purse. She put the purse into her handbag and, saying good bye to the doctor, went out of the room.