Are you looking for some new and exciting places to take your kids to? Try some of these  places:

    Head to a natural history museum. This is where kids can discover the past from Dinosaur (恐龙) models to rock collections and pictures of stars in the sky. Also, ask what kind of workshops and educational programs are prepared for kids and any special events that are coming up.

    Go to a Youtheater. Look for one in your area offering plays for child and family visitors. Pre-show play shops are conducted by area artists and educators where kids can discover the secret about performing arts. Puppet (木偶) making and stage make-up are just a couple of the special offerings you might find.

    Visit art museums. They offer all kinds of activities to excite your kids' interest. Many offer workshops for making hand-made pieces, traveling exhibits, book signings( 签名) by children's favorite writers, and even musical performances and other arts.

    Try hands-on science. Visit one of the many hands-on science museums around the country. These science play-lands are great fun for kids and grown-ups alike. They'll keep your child mentally and physically active the whole day through while pushing buttons, experimenting, and building. When everyone is tired, enjoy a fun family science show, commonly found in these museums.

    If humans were truly at home under the light of the moon and stars，we would go in darkness happily，the midnight world as visible to us as it is to the vast number of nocturnal(夜间活动的) species on this planet. Instead，we are diurnal creatures, with eyes adapted to living in the sun's light. This is a basic evolutionary fact, even though most of us don't think of ourselves as diurnal beings. Yet it's the only way to explain what we've done to the night: We've engineered it to  receive us by filling it with light.

    The benefits of this kind of engineering come with consequences 一 called light pollution 一 whose effects scientists are only now beginning to study. Light pollution is largely the result of bad  lighting design，which allows artificial light to shine outward and upward into the sky. III-designed lighting washes out the darkness of night and completely changes the light levels 一 and light  rhythms — to which many forms of life, including, ourselves, have adapted. Wherever human light spills into the natural world, some aspect or life is affected .

    In most cities the sky looks as though it has been emptied of stars, leaving behind a vacant haze(霾) that mirrors our fear of the dark. We've grown so used to this orange haze that the original glory of an unlit nigh, - dark enough for the planet Venus to throw shadow on Earth, is wholly beyond our experience, beyond memory almost.

    We^'ve lit up the night as if it were an unoccupied country, when nothing could be further form the truth. Among mammals alone, the number of nocturnal species is astonishing, Light is a powerful biological force, and on many species it acts as a magnet(磁铁). The effect is so powerful that scientists speak of songbirds and seabirds being “captured” by searchlights on land or by the light from gas flares on marine oil platforms. Migrating at night, birds tend to collide with brightly lit tall buildings.

    Frogs living near brightly lit highways suffer nocturnal light levels that are as much as a million times righter than normal, throwing nearly every aspect of their behavior out of joint including most other creatures ,we do need darkness .Darkness is as essential to our biological welfare, to our internal clockwork, as light itself.

    Living in a glare of our making,we have cut ourselves off from our evolutionary and cultural heritage—the light of the stars and the rhythms of day and night .In a very real sense light pollution causes us to lose sight of our true place in the universe, to forget the scale of our being, which is best measured against the dimensions of a deep night with the Milky Way—the edge of our galaxy arching overhead.

    Tired of Working in Your Country?

    With over 500 instructors and 20 years of experience, we are the leader in the field of teaching foreign languages. We now have positions open in Osaka starting September/October 2015 for instructions of English, German, Spanish and French.

    Teach many different kinds of classes using the latest technology in small classes of up to 30 students.

    Accommodation (住宿), and other necessary documents (文件) will be ready before you leave.

    Applicants will teach their first language only.

    Excellent teacher training programs.

    If you are young with a university degree and are willing to experience different cultures, apply now. Experience in teaching is an advantage but not specially required. Knowledge of the Japanese language is not necessary but good English skills and practical computer knowledge are basic requirements.

Apply with C.V. and send letter to: NOVA France, Mr. Swampy (IHT 3/2) 34, Bd. Haussmann, 75009 Paris, France Fax: 33148014804

    Or visit our website: www.teachjp.com

    The manager expects to meet and talk with successful applicants in Paris in June and July.

    At 27, after serving in World War II, I dreamed of owning a piece of land. So I moved from central Illinois to Shelbina, Missouri, and bought 236 acres for $6,000. The land was situated on a dirt road and was half farmland and half trees, with an old house that had no running water or electricity. Obviously, it was not what you'd call a perfect farm. But it was mine.

    I was alone for the first time in my life, and I found it liberating. My days were filled from dawn until dusk with plowing and planting corn. Dinnertime came and went, and I barely remembered to eat.

    I wouldn't say I was a great success at farming in Missouri. However, when I went to the store to buy some tools, I met a nice woman named Claudette working behind the counter. I also ran into her at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Shelbina each week. I found out later that her manager kept asking her about “that tall boy from Illinois living out in the country in an old house with no water, no electricity and no housekeeper.”

    Claudette and her sister soon visited my farm and put up some curtains. To show my appreciation, I took Claudette out for a ride in my truck. We married in 1954 and have now been together for more than 62 years!

    I later sold the Missouri farm for a $3,500 profit and bought 40 acres in Illinois. For many reasons, buying the Missouri farm was a good idea. I will always cherish memories of owning the farm and meeting my beloved.

Jennifer Fish, a weather forecaster may soon be replaced by something truly fishier—the shark.

    Research by a British biology student suggests that sharks could be used to predict storms.

    Laura Smith, 24, is close to completing her study on shark's ability to sense pressure.

    If her studies prove the theory, scientists may be able to monitor the behaviour of sharks to predict bad weather.

    Miss Smith had previously studied the behaviour of lemon sharks in the Bahamas.

    She then used their close relatives, lesser spotted dogfish (猫鲨), for further research at Aberdeen University.

Her work—thought to be the first of its kind to test the pressure theory—resulted from the observation that juvenile blacktip sharks off Florida moved into deeper water ahead of a violent storm in 2001.

    Miss Smith said: “I've always been crazy about traveling and diving and this led me to an interest in sharks.”

“I was delighted to have been able to research in the area for my degree. I know there's so much more we need to understand—but it certainly opens the way to more research.”

    It has been discovered that a shark senses pressure using hair cells in its balance system.

    At the Bimini Shark Lab in the Bahamas, Miss Smith fixed hi-tech sensors to sharks to record pressure and temperature, while also tracking them using GPS (Global Positioning System) technology.

In Aberdeen, she was able to study the effects of tidal (潮汐的) and temperature changes on dogfish—none of which were harmed. She also used a special lab which can mimic (模拟) oceanic pressure changes caused by weather fronts.

    She is due to complete her study and graduate later this year. She says she will be looking for a job which will give her the chance to enrich her experience of shark research.

    Mr. Parker was born in a small village. His father was so poor that he couldn't send him to school. The boy had to help his parents to do some farming and learned English and maths by himself when he was free. Later on he was made to leave his home village and hoped to find a job in a city. And as soon as war broke out, he joined the army. He couldn't forget his terrible past and fought with the enemies bravely. So he became a general when he was fifty. He was honest and friendly to his soldiers and often punished those who tried to pocket a portion of the soldiers' pay (克扣军饷). And his soldiers liked him very much.

    Once Mr. Parker heard from a soldier. In the letter the young man said the food in their military camp was very bad and he wished the general could go to find out the reasons, the old man went there at once, without telling anybody. He went in the kitchen and examined everything carefully and found it was very dirty. Then he went in the soldiers' bedrooms and found there were a lot of fleas. He became angry and asked the soldiers, “What do you think of your food, young men?”

    The soldiers saw their officer standing by the general and said nothing Only a new soldier said, “Very bad, sir!”

    “What did you have for lunch today?” asked Mr. Parker.

    “A fried chicken, some fish and pork, a cake, six eggs and I had three cups of wine.”

    “Really?” Mr. Parker called out in surprise. “It's the King's lunch, I think!”

    “So do I, general,” said the young man. “But it's my birthday today. I paid three hundred dollars for them all in the restaurant!”