A man came home from work and found his three children outside， still in their pajamas(睡衣) playing in the mud，with empty food boxes and wrappers thrown all around the front yard.

    The door of his wife's car was open，as was the front door to the house and there was no sign of the dog.

    Walking into the entry，he found an even bigger mess. A lamp had been knocked over. In the front room the TV was loudly blaring(大声播放)a cartoon channel，and the family room was thrown with toys and various items of clothing.

    In the kitchen，dishes filled the sink，breakfast food was spilled on the counter，the fridge door was open wide， dog food was spilled on the floor，a broken glass lay under the table，and a small pile of sand was spread by the back door.

    He quickly headed up the stairs，stepping over toys and more piles of clothes，looking for his wife. He was worried she might be ill，or that something serious had happened. He was met with a small drop of water as it made its way out the bathroom door. As he looked inside he found wet towels， soap and more toys thrown over the floor. Miles of toilet paper lay in a heap(堆) and toothpaste had been put over the mirror and walls.

    As he rushed to the bedroom， he found his wife still sleeping in the bed in her pajamas，reading a novel. She looked up at him，smiled，and asked how his day went. He looked at her puzzled and asked， “What happened here today？”

    She again smiled and answered，“You know every day when you come home from work and ask me what in the world I did today？”

    “Yes，” was his reply.

    She answered，“Well，today I didn't do it.”

What's on?

Electric Underground

7.30pm－1.00am   Free at the Cyclops Theatre

    Do you know who's playing in your area? We're bringing you an evening of live rock and pop music from the best local bands. Are you interested in becoming a musician and getting a recording contract(合同)? If so, come early to the talk at 7.30pm by Jules Skye, a successful record producer. He's going to talk about how you can find the right person to produce you music.

Gee Whizz

8.30pm-10.30pm   Comedy at Kaleidoscope

    Come and see Gee Whizz perform. He's the funniest stand-up comedian on the comedy scene. This joyful show will please everyone, from the youngest to the oldest. Gee Whizz really knows how to make you laugh! Our bar is open from 7.00pm for drinks and snacks(快餐).

Simon's Workshop

5.00pm-7.30pm    Wednesdays at Victoria Stage

    This is a good chance for anyone who wants to learn how to do comedy. The workshop looks at every kind of comedy, and practices many different ways of making people laugh. Simon is a comedian and actor who has 10 years' experience of teaching comedy. His workshops are exciting and fun. An evening with Simon will give you the confidence to be funny.

Charlotte Stone

8.00pm-11.00pm     Pizza World

    Fine food with beautiful jazz music; this is a great evening out. Charlotte Stone will perform songs from her new best-selling CD, with James Pickering on the piano. The menu is Italian, with excellent meat and fresh fish, pizzas and pasta (面食). Book early to get a table. Our bar is open all day, and serves cocktails, coffee, beer, and white wine.

    I was at my parent's dinner table. Before me was a worn journal of thin and discolored pages. It was my grandfather's journal and now belonged to my father. My grandfather had passed away in the months leading up to my birth. I never got to visit the places he had frequently and people who had been a part of his life's journey.

    I was now about to enter his world, through the words he had left behind. Within minutes, I was attracted by the power of the written words. In the magical script before me, I was transported to another age when food was an everyday art, planned, prepared and enjoyed in the company of others, and a time when people had the heart to pause，their own lives to embrace (拥抱）each other's struggles. All this was conveyed to me in the beauty of the words that flowed together to connect with the writer's mind and understand the world they lived in.

    That kind of writing seems to be lost on us today. We have gotten used to writing in bite-sized pieces for a public looking for entertainment, and hungry for information. No wonder, there are nearly 200 million bloggers on the Internet and a new blog is created somewhere in the world every half a second. Instead of adding to our collective wisdom, most of these writings reflect the superficiality (肤浅)and impatience of our day and age.

    This not only robs us of the skill of writing impressive essays, it also prevents us from exploring what is truly important. Writing humbles us in a way that is vital for our character growth, by reminding us about the limits of the self and our appropriate place in the vast flow of life. Writing frees us by helping us explore the unknown so that we truly open up to the magic of the world around us. I saw all of this in the writing s of my grandfather. And I've seen it again and again in the writings of the greatest thinkers of humanity. Their writings reflect deep thought on issues of human importance.

    Now many young people are traveling around the world on their own，not because they have no one to travel with，but because they prefer to go alone.

Kristina Wegscheider from California first traveled alone when she was at college and believes that it is something everyone should do at least once in their life. “It opens up your mind to new things and pushes you out of your comfort zone.” Wegscheider has visited 46 countries covering all seven continents.

    In foreign countries，with no one to help you read a map，look after you if you get ill，or lend you money if your wallet is stolen，it is challenging. This is what drives young people to travel alone. It is seen as character building and a chance to prove that they can make it on their own.

    Chris Richardson decided to leave his sales job in Australia to go traveling last year. He set up a website，The Aussie Nomad，to document his adventures. He says he wished he had traveled alone earlier. “The people you meet，the places you visit，or the things you do，everything is up to you and it forces you to grow as a person，” said the 30-year-old man.

    Richardson describes traveling alone like "a shot in the arm"，which "makes you a more confident person that is ready to deal with anything". He said，"The feeling of having overcome something on my own is a major part of what drives me each day when I'm dealing with a difficult task. I walk around with my head up because I know deep down inside that nothing is impossible if you try.”

    The great 19th century explorer John Muir once said，"Only by going alone in silence can one truly get into the heart of the wilderness."

Larry was on another of his underwater expeditions(探险)but this time, it was different. He decided to take his daughter along with him. She was only ten years old. This would be her first trip with her father on what he had always been famous for.

    Larry first began diving when he was his daughter's age. Similarly, his father had taken him along on one of his expeditions. Since then, he had never looked back. Larry started out by renting diving suits from the small diving shop just along the shore. He had hated them. They were either too big or too small. Then, there was the instructor. He gave him a short lesson before allowing him into the water with his father. He had made an exception. Larry would never have been able to go down without at least five hours of theory and another similar number of hours on practical lessons with a guide. Children his age were not even allowed to dive.

After the first expedition, Larry's later diving adventures only got better and better. There was never a dull moment. In his black and blue suit and with an oxygen tank fastened on his back, Larry dived from boats into the middle of the ocean. Dangerous areas did not prevent him from continuing his search. Sometimes, he was limited to come to a cage underwater but that did not bother him. At least, he was still able to take photographs of the underwater creatures.

    Larry's first expedition without his father was in the Cayman Islands. There were numerous diving spots in the area and Larry was determined to visit all of them .Fortunately for him, a man offered to take him around the different spots for free. Larry didn't even know what the time was, how many spots he dived into or how many photographs he had taken. The diving spots afforded such a wide array of fish and sea creatures that Larry saw more than thirty varieties of creatures.

Larry looked at his daughter. She looked as excited as he had been when he was her age. He hoped she would be able to continue the family tradition. Already, she looked like she was much braver than had been then. This was the key to a successful underwater expedition.

    The popular image of the mountain climber is of a person carefully climbing a steep cliff with a network of safety ropes, but it is not the only kind. Many climbers now enjoy bouldering. It's more accessible and better for the environment.

    Here is an example of a climber addressing a bouldering problem.

    Figure 1: The climber has two routes she could take, one to the left and one to the right. The left one appears easier because it has a jug within easy reach, but look what happens if she chooses that direction. She gets stuck on the rock and has to go back down. Sometimes that is even more difficult than going up.

    Figure 2: The climber takes the one to the right this time. Using a foothold and placing her right hand in a crimp, she is able to lift herself up and locate other handholds. After only a few moves, she is able to throw her leg over the top of the boulder and pull herself up.