“I honestly have no idea how that cat got up there. It's a hundred—foot—metal pole. There's no way he climbed that thing,”Jim said to the worried woman. It wasn't even her cat, but she was passing by and saw it. immediately calling the fire—station to come to save it. Jim saw a lotof strange things as a fireman, often sad or upsetting things, but this was new.

  “I suppose we could get the blanket and see if we can convince the poor cat to jump down. But he doesn't really look too scared…”Jim said to the woman.

  “Dave, get overhere!” Jim called over his shoulder to the fire truck driver. Dave walked over and looked where Jim was pointing.

  “How'd he get up there?”

    Jim shrugged, similarly puzzled.“Do you suppose we could get the blanket and convince him tojump?”

    Dave shrugged in response.“I don't seewhy not.”

    Jim looked up at the black mass on the top of the flagpole, the Americannag waving proudly beneath him. It was definitely a cat, and heregarded the people gathered below as if they were his subjects(臣民) and he their king, his yellow eyes scanning his surroundings with apparentd is interest.

    When the blanket was spread out below the cat, Jim and Davebegan striking the flagpole. The cat lookeddown, and then gazed into the sky as if it were looking for something. Jim and Davefollowed his gaze. Suddenly, out of theclear sky, appeared adark figure. The figures wooped(俯冲) low toward the flag pole. It was aneagle! As it got closer, the cat leaped down the pole swiftly onto the ground, and then got lost in the bushes.

    Jim, Dave, and the oldwoman were left with their mouths open. They all agreedit was the best way to get it down.

    Britain's pub landlords (酒吧店主) are looking with a worried eye to the UK Chancellor's budget for fear that the annual tax gathering round will strike another blow to a traditional industry already reeling (蹒跚). Thousands of pubs have closed since the financial crash in 2007.

    The Plough, which was once a coaching house for travelers, has been serving Britain's famous warm beer since the days of Shakespeare. Now it is under threat too. "Yeah. So many pubs have been closed over the last few years even in this area," said Derek O'Neil, the manager of The Plough Pub.

    Many reasons are the cause—a ban on smoking in public, severe laws against drinking and driving and high taxes have all combined to kill off nearly 10,000 pubs in the last seven years, according to the British Beer and Pub Association. With the closures, pubs are being redeveloped. Many have turned into supermarkets, where the beer is sometimes cheaper.

      Britain's pubs continue to play an important part in the UK economy, selling thousands of different beers and employing more than a million people. The reality, though, is pubs are suffering something of a hangover (遗留物). In the last 15 years the amount of beer sold in pubs has fallen by eight million barrels to just under 36 million a year. Pub landlords want tax breaks (税务减免).

    "People have less money in their pockets, so they can't go out and spend it and habits are changing—so much alcohol is nowadays drunk at home," said Brigid Simmonds, Chief Executive of the British Beer and Pub Association. "Yeah, I miss the pubs where there's a lot of character, especially 30 years ago. You know there was great fun in them."

While pubs are still much loved, they're discovering that love isn't enough to survive 21st century economics.

    What do you remember about your life before you were three? Few people can remember anything that happened to them in their early years. Adults' memories of the next few years also tend to be unclear. Most people remember only a few events—usually ones that were meaningful and distinctive, such as being hospitalized or the birth of a new baby.

    How might this inability to recall early experiences be explained? The passage of time does not account for it; adults have excellent recognition of pictures of people who attended high school with them 35 years earlier. Another seemingly reasonable explanation—that infants do not form enduring memories at this point in development—also is incorrect. Children two and a half to three years old remember experiences that occurred in their first year, and eleven month olds remember some events a year later.

    However, three other explanations seem more promising. One involves physiological changes relevant to memory. Maturation of the frontal lobes (额叶) of the brain continues throughout early childhood, and this part of the brain may be critical for remembering particular episodes in ways that can be recalled later. Demonstrations of infants' and very young children's long-term memory have involved their repeating motor activities that they had seen or done earlier, such as reaching in the dark for objects, putting a bottle in a doll's mouth, or pulling apart two pieces of a toy. The brain's level of physiological maturation may support these types of memories, but not ones depending on clear verbal descriptions.

    A second explanation involves the influence of the social world on children's language use. Hearing and telling stories about events may help children store information in ways that will endure into later childhood and adulthood. Through hearing stories with a clear beginning, middle, and ending children may learn to take out the idea of events in ways that they will be able to describe many years later. Consistent with this view parents and children increasingly engage in discussions of past events when children are about three years old. However, hearing such stories is not sufficient for younger children to form enduring memories. Telling such stories to two year olds does not seem to produce long-lasting verbalizable memories.

    A third likely explanation for infantile memory loss involves mismatch between the ways in which infants encode information and the ways in which older children and adults recall it. Whether people can remember an event depends critically on the fit between the way in which they earlier encoded the information and the way in which they later attempt to recall it. The better the person is able to reconstruct the perspective from which the material was encoded, the more likely that recall will be successful.

    A 27-year-old inventor, Joco Paulo Lammoglia, has come up with a new device named the AIRE mask, which is capable of converting the wind energy provided by the wearer's breath into electrical energy. This means breathing has become a source of renewable energy. The inspiration for the invention came from his watching children blowing on pinwheels (纸风车).

    The device is worn like a mask equipped with tiny wind turbines (涡轮) and it can work its magic even while people are sleeping, jogging or hanging around, since energy is created from one's breath. The principle of this AIRE mask is simple. The invention uses the wind flow created by breathing and changes it into energy that can charge mobile phones and iPods. Simply put this mask connected to your mobile phone on your face. The rest takes place naturally through your breath that provides power to run turbines which produce electricity.

    Lammoglia explained how useful he hopes the AIRE will become. He said, "I hope to bring the concept into production and reduce the carbon footprint. It can be used indoors or outdoors, while you're sleeping, walking, running or even reading books." Apart from saving energy and contributing to environmental protection, it also encourages the practice of physical exercise. This is an entirely all time renewable energy source. Its energy is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

    Lammoglia explained why he thought the AIRE was so useful, saying, "Though many of our modern devices offer benefits, they tend to consume a high amount of electrical energy. This may cause problems for the environment, especially if the energy used by these devices is obtained from non-renewable sources.

    The AIRE mask will be future's cheaper source of charging mobile phones. It would save energy and allow people to never have to worry about their phone dying unless they stop breathing.

    Chinese high school students have the longest study hours compared to their peers (同龄人) in Japan, the US and the Republic of Korea, a survey conducted by the four countries said.

    The survey, released by the China Youth and Children Research Center (CYCRC) on Monday, was jointly conducted with institutions in the four countries in September—October of 2008. It covers nearly 4, 000 students in senior high schools and vocational high schools in the four countries.

    About 78.3 percent of Chinese students said they spend more than eight hours at school and 56.7 percent said they study at least two more hours each day at home. By contrast, only 24.7 percent of their peers in the US, 20.5 percent in Japan and 15.4 percent in Korea study more than two hours after school.

    Around 60 percent of all students surveyed said their burden for studies was the heaviest; however, the Japanese felt their burden was the worst with respondents (应答者) reaching 79.2 percent.

    Among the five biggest headaches for young people in the four countries were: over—scheduling ranked first, followed by a boring leisure life, unsatisfied appearance, little time for exercise and making friends, and no spare money.

    "Moderate (适度的) study pressure can better drive students to develop, however, too much will squeeze (挤) their development space, and can even cause harm to their physical and psychological health," the survey said.

    "Balancing their studies and all-round development is a very important task," it said.

    When I was a boy, my parents and I traveled from New York City to the Pennsylvania countryside for a weeklong taste of rural life. We stayed in a guesthouse on a farm, joining the daily routines and eating meals with the farmer and his family. We got up early to see the cows as they were milked. I even tried my hand at milking one, and then joined the farmer as he released the cows into the field afterward.

    Decades later I still have vivid memories of that trip which made me realize the value of a vacation, of seeing new things, meeting new people and sharing memorable experiences with family members. To this day, I still consider that family trip when I plan to take time off with my wife and kids. Vacations are a time for resting and connecting. As a bank manager, I spend much of my workday encouraging my customers to save their money. One of the reasons I give is that we should all have enough for a family vacation every year. In our busy lives, family is what we should be saving our money and time for.

    For my family, our vacation starts when we begin planning the trip. We talk about destinations and our budget (预算) ahead of time. Among the things we discuss: Can we save money by renting a house instead of spending six nights in a hotel? Would it be better to buy groceries and cook for ourselves rather than eat out every night? Involving (使参与) the kids in planning the vacation makes sure that they have a great vacation too. I prefer to visit historical sites and museums while they love to fish and swim. So I build in some relaxation time for us all so that the vacation can work for everyone.

    Each year, setting aside vacation time to spend together is especially important to us. A relaxing environment opens the doors to all kinds of conversations—deep, silly or meaningful. There's no pleasure from the usual everyday tasks. What matters is that everyone is having a great time.