I lived in a big city. It's noisy arid dirty and I got very tired. At the weekends I like to leave the city and get some fresh air and a good rest. A few weekends ago I decided to see my parents. I was really looking forward to it.

    My parents live a long way away. I went to see them with James, a friend, and we drove down on Friday night. In the middle of the trip it began to rain. The roads became very wet and it was difficult to drive. We arrived home just after midnight, feeling tired. The next morning it was still raining. James took his car to the local garage which was very good.

In the afternoon the weather became better. We wanted to go for a drive. My parents lent us their car. That was no good. Their car didn't work! We rang the garage. "Oh, no." they said, "your car won't be ready until tomorrow." So it wasn't possible to go for a drive. We decided to play a word game. When we didn't agree about a word we looked for a dictionary. It wasn't there. Suddenly my mother remembered. "I lent it to your sister. She took it with her when she left." The word game wasn't any good without a dictionary.

    On Sunday my mother dropped a suitcase on her foot and wig had to hire a taxi to take her to hospital. When James and I drove back we got stuck in a traffic jam (交通阻塞). Next time I want to have a rest. I'll stay in the city!

    I grew up poor. We had little money, but plenty of love and attention. I understood that no matter how poor a person was, he could still afford a dream. My dream was athletics.

    By the time I was sixteen, I was good at baseball and football. My high-school coach was Ollie Jarvis. He not only believed in me, but taught me the difference between having a dream and showing conviction(信念).

    One summer a friend recommended me for a summer job. This meant a chance for money in my pocket — cash for dates with girls, certainly, money for a new bike and new clothes, and the start of savings for a house for my mother.

Then I realized I would have to give up summer baseball to handle the work schedule, and that meant I would have to tell Coach Jarvis I wouldn't be playing. I was dreading(害怕) this, but my mother said, "If you make your bed, you have to lie in it."

When I told Coach Jarvis, he was as mad as I expected him to be. "Your playing days are limited. You can't afford to waste them," he said.

    I stood before him with my head hanging, trying to think of the words that would explain to him why I dreamed of buying my mom a house.

"How much are you going to make at this job, son?" he demanded.

"Three twenty-five an hour," I replied.

"Well," he asked, "is $3.25 an hour the price of a dream?"

    That question laid bare for me the difference between wanting something right now and having a goal. I devoted myself to sports that summer, and within the year I was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates to play rookie-league ball, and offered a $20,000 contract. I signed with the Denver Broncos in 1984 for $1.7 million, and bought my mother the house of my dream.

    Are you interested in hi-tech products? Here are some that you might find at the market pretty soon.

    CX-1

    Tired of dragging your bag through busy airports? Then you might want to consider CX-1. The smart suitcase uses facial recognizing software to follow its owner as he / she is checking in or heading to the gate. Though CX-1 can only move at a speed of up to seven miles per hour, a tiny tool enables owners to keep track of the suitcase's location. It is expected to be sold on the market by late 2018.

    Aibo

    Sony's latest version of the Aibo robotic dog is aslmost as fun as the real thing—but much less work. The pet dog can recognize its owner, obey several commands, and even recall the behavior that pleases its master the most. Aibo can also learn new tricks, take photographs, and over time, develop its own unique personality.

    Forpheus

    Forpheus, an "athletic" robot developed by Japanese technology company Omron. It teaches users how to play ping-pong. The 10-feet-tall machine uses a camera and artificial intelligence to track the ball's speed and can predict the ball's direction correctly. The smart Forpheus can also quickly test its player's abilities and adjust the playing level, making the game fun.

    Black Box VR

    Though many people determine to go to the gym once a week, few reach their goal. Black Box VR wants to change that by turning hard exercise into fun video games. Using it, gym users will find themselves fighting enemies, including big creatures—all while getting exercise.

    One of my wonderful memories is about a Christmas gift. Unlike other gifts, it came without wrap(包装).

    On September 11^th, 1958. Mum gave birth to Richard. After she brought him home from hospital, she put him in my lap, saying. "I promised you a gift, and here it is." What an honor! I turned four a month earlier and none of my friends had such a baby doll of their own. I played with it day and night. I sang to it. I told it stories. 1 told it over and over how much I loved it!

    One morning, however, I found its bed empty. My doll was gone! I cried for it. Mum wept and told me that the poor little thing had been sent to a hospital. It had a fever. For several days, I heard Mum and Dad whispering such words as "hopeless", "pitiful", and "dying", which sounded ominous.

    Christmas was coming. "Don't expect any presents this year." Dad said, pointing at the socks I hung in the living room. "If your baby brother lives, that'll be Christmas enough." As he spoke, his eyes filled with tears. I'd never seen him cry before.

    The phone rang early on Christmas morning. Dad jumped out of bed to answer it. From my bedroom I heard him say. "What? He's all right?" He hung up and shouted upstairs. "The hospital said we can bring Richard home!" "Thank God." I heard Mum cry.

    From the upstairs window, I watched my parents rush out to the car. I had never seen them happy. And I was also full of joy. What a wonderful day! My baby doll would be home. I downstairs. My sacks still hung there flat. But I knew they were not empty; they were filled with love!

    One day a poor man was begging with an old wallet in his hand. As he felt sad at his own bad luck, he kept wondering why some wealthy people were never satisfied and were always wanting more.

    "Here," said he, "is the master of this house—I know him well. He is a wealthy businessman. He should have turned over his business to others, and then he could have spent the rest of his life happily, but he didn't. Instead, he sent his ships to sea to trade with foreign lands. However, there were great storms on the water, so his ships were destroyed and his treasure disappeared in the sea. As for me, if I had only enough to eat and to buy clothing, I would not want anything more."

    Just at that moment, Fortune came down the street. She saw the poor man and stopped. She said to him, "Listen! I want to help you. Hold your wallet, and I will pour this gold into it, but only on this condition: all that falls into the wallet shall be pure gold, but every piece that falls upon the ground shall become dust. Do you understand?"

    "Oh, yes," said the poor man.

    "Then be careful," said Fortune. "Your wallet is old, so do not load it too heavily."

    The beggar was so glad that he quickly opened his wallet, and a stream of yellow dollars poured into it. The wallet grew heavy.

    "Is that enough?" asked Fortune.

    "Not yet."

    "Isn't the wallet cracking (裂开)?"

    "Never fear."

    The beggar's hands began to tremble. Ah, if the gold would only pour forever!

    "You are the richest man in the world now!"

    "Just a little more, add just a handful or two."

    Another piece was added, and the wallet cracked. The treasure fell upon the ground and turned to dust. The beggar had nothing now but his empty wallet. He was as poor as before.

Iman, the last Sumatran rhino(犀牛) in Malaysia, died in 2019 — bringing the endangered species one step closer to extinction. Now, Malaysian scientists are hoping to use tissues and cells from Iman and other dead rhinos to bring the population back.

"Before the three rhinos (the last survivors in Malaysia) died, we got their cells, and the cells are still alive — which is why I'm quite confident," Dr. Lokman said. "If we don't have any cells, or have just tissue that isn't living anymore, we wouldn't be able to do anything. But now we have a living thing that we can use. "

The cells came from the rhinos'hearts, lungs and brains. What is the most important is that the team collected stem cells (干细胞). One possible approach is to develop these stem cells into an egg (卵子) and sperm (精子), to create an embryo (胚胎) that will be placed into a surrogate mother (代孕母亲). She will likely be another rhino, either a Sumatran rhino from another country or another species. The other method is to take the egg of a surrogate animal, remove the nucleus (细胞核), and join it with a Sumatran rhino's body cell. This technique was famously used to clone Dolly the sheep in 1996. Dr. Lokman and his colleagues are trying both ways. The team is still in the early stages; next, they need to find a suitable surrogate female.

Sumatran rhinos are listed as critically endangered by the World Wildlife Fund. There are less than 80 alive in Indonesia and Thailand. The fall in the population was first caused by hunting. Later, the situation was worsened by the loss of habitats and human activity. Unfortunately, there are now only five remaining rhino species worldwide, and all are threatened. Some sub-species have already died out; the western black rhino was declared extinct in 2013. And it is a pity that the last male northern white rhino died in 2019.