My youngest son Jack has begun to learn the cello (大提琴). Every night, he carefully gets his cello out of its case and begins practising. I won't lie; It's not pretty. While he's getting better every day, he has a long way from becoming the next Yo-Yo Ma.

    This led me to wonder what Yo-Yo Ma was like the first time he played the cello. Of course, we now know him as one of the most excellent artists in the world, but I'm sure that when he first tried, he wasn't much better than my son. I'm not suggesting that Jack is going to take the classical music world by storm one day. But he's got to start somewhere.

    Michael Jordan wasn't born playing basketball, but I'm sure that he had to start somewhere. Warren Buffett wasn't born making great investment choices, but he had to start somewhere. J. K. Rowling wasn't born a writer, but he had to start somewhere. Bruce Springsteen wasn't born a songwriter and performer, but he had to start somewhere. Each of these individuals is now famous as being at the top of their occupation. But when they first started, their skills would have been disappointing and their potential unrealized. It has taken years of hard work to realize their undoubted talents. But they had to start somewhere.

    I don't know what my kids are going to do with their lives, but they have a great opportunity to explore a wide range of experiences before focusing on one or two things that they can be crazy about and good at. It's my job as dad to encourage them not to be put off by their bad first efforts. Because everyone has to start somewhere.

Sweet Dreams While You Sleep

    Did you sleep the day away on Friday March 21? Well, you should have done that because it was World Sleeping Day.

    This is the day of the year when people around the world care about their sleep and ask themselves questions about sleep.

    Why do we need sleep?

    Nobody as yet can give a perfect answer to this question. However, lab tests on rats have shown that lack (缺少) of sleep over about four weeks leads to a strong drop in body temperature, great weight loss and finally, death.

    How much sleep?

    Different people need different amounts of sleep. Eight hours a night is considered the average amount of sleep. For teenagers, the least number of sleeping hours advised by doctors are 10 hours for primary school students, nine for junior highs and eight for senior highs.

    Some people seem to get along just well with very little sleep at night. Leading American scientist Thomas Edison, for example thought of sleep to be a waste of time. He did, however take naps (打盹) during the day. On the other hand, Albert Einstein, another great scientist, said he needed at least ten hours sleep a night.

    How can we sleep well?

    Here are some of the most popular tips for a good night's sleep:

    Listen to your body clock, not your alarm clock (闹钟).

    Use your bed only to sleep.

    Get up and go to bed at the same time (also on weekends).

    Exercise in the morning and in the early afternoon. Don't exercise in the evening.

    Stop looking at that clock while you can't sleep! And don't worry.

    Avoid alcohol (酒精), caffeine (咖啡因) and smoking before going to bed.

    Keep the bedroom dark, quiet, and cool.

    One morning, a blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held a sign which said, "I am blind, Please help me."

    There were only a few coins in the hat. A man was walking by. He took out a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words on it. He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by could see the news words.

    Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving the money to the blind boy. That afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see how things were. The boy recognized his footsteps and asked." Are you the one who changed my sign in the morning? What did you write?

    The man said, "I only wrote the truth. I said what you said, but in a different way." What he had written was, "Today is a beautiful day, but I can not see it."

    Do you think the first sign and the second sign were saying the same thing?

    Of course both signs told people the boy was blind. But the first sign simply told people to help by putting some money in the hat. The second sign told people that they were able to enjoy the beauty of the day, but the boy could not enjoy it because he was blind.

    The first sign simply said the boy was blind, while the second sign told people they were so lucky that they were not blind. There are at least two lessons we can learn from this simple story.

    The first is: Treasure what you have. Someone else has less. Try your best to help those who need your help.

    The second is: Be creative. Think differently. There is always a better way.

    I live in Mumbai, India, a big city, but I came from a remote Kerala village. When I was a boy, hardly anyone spoke English around me. So, at age nine, Dad sent me to Montfort, an exclusive boarding school. There, I had to speak English or be punished. My uniform was typical English public school: grey jacket，tie，and black leather shoes-so different from the clothes most people in my village wore. And our official school sport was cricket, something I'd never heard of, let alone played, before arriving.

    Montfort had been built for the children of the British officials who once ruled India, but by the time I arrived in 1961, nearly all the students were from powerful Indian families. Its English traditions, however, continued.

    When I returned home for the holidays still wearing my uniform, people stared at me like I was an alien. "Speak some English," they teased. Looking back, I unwittingly brought a bit of English culture to my village.

    But English and too much Western influence are precisely what many traditionalists and politicians fear. They ask: Will such influences finish off our own culture?

    Various leaders have tried to erase the British traditions, pulling down old British statues and replacing many British-rule city names with older native names. Some even suggest changing our weekly day of rest from the "Western" Sunday to the "Hindu" Tuesday.

    Extreme responses I say. You can't change history, and it's only natural for foreign influences to affect a nation's culture. So Indian culture, as it is today, is really a mixture derived from centuries of foreign invasions.

    Add to that the massive changes of the 20th century resulting from the television, jet-age travel, the Internet, etc.

    Everything from clothes and language to food keeps changing, yet we remain Indian. I believe that Asian cultures are too ancient and deep-rooted to be weakened by foreign influences.

    Allow me to illustrate my point. Some time ago, I took my visiting Singapore-born-and-raised cousin to a Chinese restaurant for dinner. Later, while driving home，I talked about the fine Chinese food we'd just had.

    "Was that Chinese food?" my cousin exclaimed. "Oh, I didn't know." It must have tasted too Indian for him to realize it.

    Meanwhile, like countless others, my village has transformed over the past decades. Many people wear modern clothes and TV brings cricket into local homes. There's even an English- language school, where you can hear kids giggling, yelling, flirting-all in English, but with an Indian accent. Just like the Chinese food you get in India.

    Are these foreign influences something to worry about? I don't think so. India's Chinese food tastes pretty good to me!

    American and British people both speak English of course. But sometimes it does not seem like the same language. In fact, there are some important differences between British English and American English.

    First of all, they sound very different. Often, Americans don't say each word separately. They say several words together. Americans may say "I dunno" instead of "I don't know". Or they may say "Whaddaya say?" instead of "What do you say?" However, the British are more careful in their speech. They usually say all the words and keep them separate.

    Sound is not the only difference between British English and American English. Words sometimes have different meanings too. Some American words are never used in England. The same thing is true of some British words in America. For example, the vocabulary for cars and driving is very different. Americans drive trucks, but in England people drive lorries.

    Many expressions are also different in the two countries. In England，if you are going to telephone your friends, you "phone them up". In America, you "give them a call". When you are saying goodbye in England you might say "Cheerio!" In America you might say "See you later."

    There're also some differences in grammar. For example, Americans usually use the helping verb "do" when they ask a question. They say "Do you have a storybook?" But the British often leave out the helping verb. They say "Have you a storybook?"

    All these differences can be confusing if you are learning English. But most languages are like this. Languages change over time. When people live in separate places, the languages change in different ways. This is what has happened to English. It can also happen to other languages, such as French. Many people in Canada speak French, but their French is very different from the French of France.

Elephants might be the most well－known and well－loved animal in African wildlife. But conservation (保护) of the African elephant faces special difficulties. While the elephant population is half of what it was 40 years ago, some areas of Africa have more elephants than populated areas can support. That's why AWF scientists are studying elephant behavior, protecting habitats and finding ways for humans to live peacefully with elephants in Africa.

Years ago, overhunting and the ivory trade were the biggest threats to elephants' survival. Luckily, ivory bans (禁令), hunting rules and protected areas protect elephants from these dangers today.

The 21st century brings a different challenge to elephant conservation—land－use. Elephants walk across borders and outside parks and other protected areas. So they often destroy crops, causing conflicts (冲突) between local farmers and these big animals.

Successful conservation strategies (策略) must allow elephants to walk freely in their natural habitats while reducing conflicts between elephants and local people.

AWF researchers are searching for a way to give both elephants and people the space they need. The AWF is collecting information on elephant habitats and behavior. The information they gather will help to develop the widest possible space for elephants.

The AWF is helping elephants by protecting their habitats. And they also work with local farmers to improve their life in order to encourage them to protect rather than destroy elephants.