My grandfather Jack is 96 years old，and he has had an interesting life. He has travelled a lot in his life in the Far East. He visited the Taj Mahal in India and the Pyramids in Egypt. He hunted（狩猎） lions in Africa, and rode a camel in the Sahara Desert. He says the most beautiful place he has travelled to is Kathmandu in Nepal.

    Jack has married twice. His first wife died when she was 32. He met his second wife Maria while he was cycling round France. They have been married for 50 years, and they have lived happily in a small village since they got married.

Jack says that he has never been ill in his life. The secret of good health, according to my grandfather, is exercise. He goes swimming every morning. He has done this since he was a boy. He also has a glass of wine every night! Perhaps that is his secret!

    A few years ago, I worked at a church（教堂） and since my son was home schooling, he went with me to the church every day. Most mornings, we'd stop at a local convenience store, getting a chocolate drink for him and a cup of coffee for me.

    The clerk at the store we chose to visit refreshed our lives each day, and so we returned again and again. She had found her own way of enjoying life and her job. I'm not even sure that she was realizing that her energy put a smile on the face of each customer.

    When a customer brought cookies to the counter, any other clerk could have asked, "Would you like some milk with those cookies?" Instead, she inquired, "Would you like a lottery ticket（彩票） with those cookies? "

    She might have asked me if I wanted a donut with my coffee. But instead, she asked, "Would you like some batteries（电池） with that coffee?"

    Yes, life is what you make of it. This clerk's method of dealing with what some think is a boring job, and with the customers she met daily, made the hours in her day more enjoyable. In doing that, she also refreshed the lives of others and made them laugh.

    Sometimes, if my day at the church had been particularly tiring, we'd stop at that store before heading home. We'd giggle（咯咯笑）as we left the store, the clerk's words echoing（回响）behind us. "Would you like some shampoo with that soda?"

For thousands of years, humans have explored the earth. Nowadays, we are exploring space. Many astronomers (天 文 学 家) are looking for new planets and new places for humans to live in the future. But where do astronomers start looking?

First, astronomers look for a star(恒星),because our own earth moves around a star. More importantly, it is the correct distance(距离) from the Sun for heat and light. So when astronomers have found the star, they look at the planets around it. In recent years, astronomers have found nearly 400 new planets with stars. However, many of these planets are either too near the star or too far away.

Then, if the planet is in a good position(位置), astronomers look for three key things: water, air and rock. Water is important because all life needs water. And plants produce air for humans to breathe and food to eat. Rock is also important, because there is often water under the rock.

After many years of scrutinising, astronomers have found a planet that is similar to the earth. It's Gliese 581g and it's near a star. The astronomers think it has water and rock. Gliese 581g is bigger than the earth. A year on Gliese 581g is only 37 earth days instead of 365. But astronomers do not think these are big differences and some of them think Gliese 581g will be a new earth.

The population of the world continues to increase, but in some areas the population is falling. 

This is true in Europe and especially in Eastern Europe. In Russia, the population is going down by about 100 people every hour!

One of the main reasons is a change of lifestyle (生活方式). Most young people, especially educated women, have a different idea on children compared with their parents. "I have one child and she is enough for me," said Linda, a doctor from Russia. "My husband and I both work full- time. We can't imagine having more than one child." Many women decide to have children later in life or not to have children at all. "I don't want to have any children until I have worked for at least 10 years," said Sally from England. Her opinion is typical (典型的) in Europe. 

In Poland, the population is going down for a different reason. A lot of young people are leaving the country to work abroad. Poland joined the European Union in 2004 and since then more than half a million people have moved to Britain, Germany, Spain and Italy. Even so, the population of those four countries and many other countries in West Europe is also going down. 

Many governments are now encouraging people to have larger families. In France, women can receive nearly $1,000 a month for a year if they have a third child. Austrian women receive about $700 a month for three years when they have their first child.