It was an autumn morning shortly after my husband and I moved into our first house. Our children were upstairs unpacking, and I was looking out of the window at my father moving around mysteriously on the front lawn. “What are you doing out there?” I called to him.

    He looked up, smiling. “I'm making you a surprise.” I thought it could be just about anything. When we were kids, he always created something surprising for us. Today, however, Dad would say no more, and caught up in the busyness of our new life, I eventually forgot about his surprise.

    Until one gloomy day the next March when I glanced out of the window, I saw a dot of blue across the yard. I headed outside for a closer look. They were crocuses (番红花）throughout the front lawn — blue, yellow and my favorite pink, with little faces moving up and down in the cold wind. I remembered the things Dad secretly planted last autumn. He knew how the darkness and dullness of winter always got me down. What could have been more perfectly timely to my needs?

    My father's crocuses bloomed (开花） each spring for the next five seasons, always bringing the same assurance： Hard times are almost over. Hold on, keep going, and light is coming soon.

    Then a spring came with only half the usual blooms and the next spring there were none. I missed the crocuses, so I would ask Dad to come over and plant new bulbs. But I never did. He died suddenly one October day. My family were in deep sorrow, leaning on our faith.

    On a spring afternoon four years later, I was driving back when I felt depressed. It was Dad's birthday, and I found myself thinking about him. This was not unusual — my family often talked about him, remembering how he lived up to his faith. Suddenly I slowed as I turned into our driveway. I stopped and stared at the lawn. There on the muddy grass with small piles of melting snow, bravely waving in the wind, was one pink crocus.

    How could a flower bloom from a bulb more than 18 years ago, one that hadn't bloomed in over a decade? But there was the crocus. Tears filled my eyes as I realized its significance.

    Hold on, keep going, and light is coming soon. The pink crocus bloomed for only a day, but it built my faith for a lifetime.

    As we all know,drinking beers while running can upset the stomach.However,that's all part of the attraction of the Beer Mile,a unique race that has participants competing in running and drinking.The Beer Mile Race started off as a tradition in 1990,when a group of Canadians thought it would be fun to race each other while drinking a few beers.But it has come a long way since then.The Beer Mile Race is now a major sporting event with around 100,000 official competitors,brand name sponsors and so on.In 2015,the first Beer Mile World Classic was held in San Francisco,where all of the record holders from Canada and the United States came together for the competition.But this year,the event was organized in London,in an effort to take in more competitors about the sport outside North America.

    The rules of the race are pretty simple: runners have to consume four beers before each of the four 400-meter laps making up the famous Beer Mile.The beers can come in bottles or cans but should not be less than 355ml and must be at least 5% alcohol.The drink like apple juice will not do.Runners must drink the beers within a 10 meter zone before the start/finish line and then they are required to tip the bottle/can over their heads to confirm it is empty.

    In the case of vomiting（呕吐）during the race,and yes,there's quite a bit of that during the Beer.Mile,offenders must complete one more lap at the end of the race.Organizers mention that even in the case of vomiting several times, only one more lap must be completed.

    This year,the Elite Men's race was won by Canadian Corey Bellemore,who also set a new world record with a time of 4 minutes and 34 seconds.“I just drink the beers as quickly as I could,hold them down and get the burps（饱嗝）out,”Corey said.“If you can drink a beer in 8 seconds and also run very fast with a feeling of vomiting,then you'll be fine like me.”

    If you're dreaming of visiting one of those picture-perfect European towns filled with old-world attractiveness and scenic beauty, here is a look at the most beautiful small towns in Europe.

    Manarola

    Manarola, Italy, is filled with rainbow-colored homes along the Mediterranean(地中海) coast. This attractive fishing town is famous for its unbelievable wine, and the paintings. There are no cars here, no traffic lights, or traffic noise. You can drive to Manarola, but you'll have to park just outside the town and then take a shuttle bus or walk in on foot.

    Garmisch-Partenkirchen

    Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, is a fascinating(迷人的) mountain town. Once two separate(分开的) towns, one Roman and the other Teutonic, the 1936 Winter Olympics forced them to become one, though the two sides still have different characters(特点). The town dates back to 15 AD, filled with narrow, cobblestoned streets lined with historic three or four-story buildings painted with religious scenes(宗教场景).

    Marsaxlokk

    The energetic trading port of Marsaxlokk, Malta, was built in 900 BC. Today, this pictures-like town is the main supplier(供应地) of fish to the island nation that sits in the Mediterranean Sea. It has no modern buildings to ruin its attractiveness. With such quiet surroundings, including the traditional luzzu's (fishing boats), it's a particularly charming(迷人的) place to visit.

    Portmagee, Ireland

    In a country filled with beautiful towns, Portmagee, is a standout, sitting on the southwest coast of Ireland. This postcard-perfect seaside fishing town has a row of brightly colored buildings along with a rich and colorful history. At The Bridge Bar, you'll find live music many nights of the week along with nice food and a fine glass of beer.

    Today, we are constantly bombarded with media reports about research on the right diet to follow to help us maintain a healthy lifestyle or lose weight—but it's hard to know which one to pick and, once chosen, it's harder still to stick to it. And now there's another choice to get our teeth into.

    A flexitarian(弹性素食者)diet involves eating plant—based foods and only occasionally eating meat and fish. This eating style allows you to supplement some ingredients that you wouldn't get in a stricter vegan(素食主义者)diet—another trend growing in popularity. And like veganism, flexitarianism isn't about eating carefully to help you lose a few pounds—it's something people choose for ethical reasons, to help the planet. And a study into the global food system and how it affects the climate, has found that eating mainly plant-based foods is one of three key steps towards a sustainable future for all by 2050.

    This research found that food waste will need to be halved and farming practices will also have to improve to achieve this. But without a single solution, a combined approach is needed. Dr Marco Springmann from the University of Oxford was one of the lead authors of the report. He told the BBC “We really found that a combination of measures would be needed to stay within environmental limits and those include changes towards healthier more plant—based diets.”

    But whereas vegans think it's wrong for animals to be killed for food, flexitarians believe eating meat once in a while is acceptable. And Dr Springmann agrees—as long as we “treat it as a luxury, it's probably OK but you shouldn't have more than one serving of red meat, which includes beef and pork, per week.” And here's another fact to digest: If we moved to this type of diet, the study found that greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture would be cut by more than half.

    I had been living in a whirl: studying the organ at the University of Arizona, conducting a speech clinic in town, and teaching a class in musical appreciation at the Desert Willow Ranch, where I was staying. I was going to parties, dances, horseback rides under the stars. One morning I collapsed. My heart! “You will have to lie in bed for a year of complete rest,” the doctor said. He didn't encourage me to believe I would ever be strong again.

In bed for a year! To be invalid—perhaps to die! I was terror-stricken! Why did all this have to happen to me? What had I done to deserve it? I swept. I was bitter. But I did go to bed as the doctor advised. A neighbor of mine, Mr. Rudolf, an artist, said to me: “You think now that spending a year in bed will be a tragedy. But it won't be. You will have time to think and get acquainted with yourself. You will make more spiritual growth in these next few months than you have made during all your previous life.”

I became calmer, and tried to develop a new sense of values. I read books of inspiration. One day I heard a radio commentator say: “You can express only what is in your own consciousness.” I had heard the words like these many times before, but now they reached down inside me and took root. I determined to think only the thoughts I wanted to live by: thoughts of joy, happiness, health. I forced myself each morning, as soon as I awoke, to go over all the things I had to be grateful for. No pain. A lovely young daughter. My eyesight. My hearing. Lovely music on the radio. Time to read. Good food. Good friends. I was so cheerful and had so many visitors that the doctor put up a sign saying that only one visitor at a time would be allowed in my cabin—and only at certain hours.

    Nine years have passed since then, and I now lead a full, active life. I am deeply grateful now for that year I spent in bed. It was the most valuable and the happiest year I spent in Arizona. The habit I formed then of counting my blessings each morning still remains with me. It is one of my most precious possessions.

     Aspirin has long been praised as a wonder drug. An aspirin a day keeps the doctor away. Many Americans have been taking one aspirin a day, believing it would protect them from a heart attack a stroke(中风), and even a cancer. But several recent studies have thrown this into question. Daily use of aspirin can have serious side effects(副作用).

    One study followed more than 19,000 healthy people aged 65 and older. They were required to take either 100 mg of aspirin (a little more than the 81 mg dose that most people take) or a placebo(无效对照剂) every day for about years, Not only did people in the aspirin group not lower their risk of heart disease, or disability but they were also more likely to suffer from bleeding into the brain or stomach. And they were more likely to die because of an increased risk of giving in to cancer, Similarly, an experiment of more than 12. 500 people aged 55 and older who have a cardiovascular (心血管的)risk found no benefit to taking aspirin daily. In study of more than 15,000 people with diabetes(糖尿病), a daily aspirin did prevent heart attacks and strokes, but it also caused serious bleeding.

    Although some earlier research has proved that aspirin can help people who have already had or are at high risk for heart attacks or strokes, the drug's value is not so clear for people, especially older people,

    The bottom line is this: Be smart and be safe. You should not take daily low-dose aspirin without talking to a doctor if you.

    ● Are over the age of 70

    ● Drink wine regularly

    ●Are on any simple medical operations