When Charles Lee handed me the small red notebook in 1974, he changed my life. “While you are traveling, you should keep notes of things you see and do,” he explained.

    I was 20 years old, a junior in college, spending a term at the University of London. Charles was a retired traveling salesman. I was staying with him in his cottage in Kendal, located in the Lake District of northern England. It was a one-week homestay the university arranged for us before classes began.

    I took his advice. I wrote in the notebook every day during the homestay. Back in London, I recorded weekend trips to Wales, Yorkshire, France, and Spain. I commented on my classes, professors, and classmates. I contrasted my life at a small college in the US with my wandering through the streets of London, my introduction to life in a big city, and my initial travels outside the US. I tracked ideas I had about my life and my future.

    When I wrote in the notebook, I struggled with a sense of my audience and purpose. Who would read this? Were these writings just for me, or did I want others to read them? Was I recording events and ideas just as a prompt(提示) to memory, or was there some larger purpose for this daily exercise?

    I knew I was recording events, thoughts, words that were important to my life. I imagined a future me sitting down to read the pages. I wondered what it would feel like to read those words later. I wondered where I would be and what my life would be like.

    I filled the notebook Charles gave me. I bought a new one and filled it. Then another and another. I continued writing in notebooks for four decades. By that time, they filled two boxes in my garage.

    I had reread some of the journals. Specific volumes had provided me with the background I needed for dozens of articles for magazines. But I had never read them all. Recently, I decided to bring my collection of notebooks into my office and replay my life. As I opened the first box, I suddenly became nervous would I like the former me described on those pages? There was a risk in opening that first notebook. I did it anyway.

    Charles had been right. I remembered the big events and the central happenings, but on each page were many details I hadn't retained(保留).

    The pages revealed highlights from college classes and stories about roommates and friends. I read anxious comments I'd written as I'd launched my teaching career, learned to write lesson plants, assigned grades for student work, and solved discipline problems. I reflected on my coming marriage, then the wedding, and eventually the proud moments when I held each of my three girls as a father. I recounted more trips—returning to Europe, teaching in South America, going on safari(游猎) in Africa, and exploring Greenland. I relived memories of trails hit, rivers crossed, and mountains climbed.

    The writings in those journals framed my life. I hadn't written every day. I often skipped a few days or even weeks, but I always picked up the writing when it felt important. Journals went with me when I traveled, and I often wrote in them at school when my own students were writing.

    It took several long evenings to read through the notebooks, taking me on tour spanning(持续) 42 years. As I read I could recall sitting on a bench in Trafalgar Square in London or in our apartment in Peru to write to the future me. It was then that I realized: I am now the person I was writing to throughout those years.

    Did you know that, in 2016, over 18 million people attended classical concerts in Germany? That's more people than those who went to main league football matches! Earlier this year, Germany continued its celebration of classical music with the opening of a new concert hall in the heart of Hamburg. Germans are incredibly proud of it  and it's the first thing I show to my friends when they come to visit.

    Known as the ‘Elphi' by the locals, the Elbphilharmonie is a beautiful tower of glittering glass sitting atop an old warehouse by the banks of the river Elbe. The plaza(露天广场)is open to the public and from the middle of he city's tallest building, you can gaze across the harbour, miles of rooftops and passing ships below.

    The main concert hall seats over 2000 people and is one of the most advanced music venues in the world. Two smaller concert halls are used for jazz, world and contemporary music. In addition, if you're unbelievably rich, you can buy one of the 45 luxurious apartments lying within the building.

    Construction began in 2007 with a budget of € 241 million and a two-year period. Fast forward ten years, the building eventually opened with a final price tag of over 800 million!

    I consider myself very lucky that the Elbphilharmonie opened during my time living in Hamburg, but unfortunately I haven't yet been able to attend a concert. Everything is sold out for six months! For now, I'm content to visit the plaza to enjoy the impressive views over the  docks and see the innovative architecture up close. Hopefully one day soon. I'll be lucky enough to grab a last-minute concert ticket!

    A friend of mine named Paul received an expensive car from his brother as a Christmas present. On Christmas Eve when Paul came out of his office, a street urchin (顽童) was walking around the shining car. “Is this your car, Paul?” he asked.

    Paul answered, “Yes, my brother gave it to me for Christmas.” The boy was surprised. "You mean your brother gave it to you and it cost you nothing? Boy, I wish…"He hesitated.

    Of course Paul knew what he was going to wish for. He wished he had a brother like that. But what the boy said surprised Paul greatly.

    “I wish,” the boy went on, “that I could be a brother like that.” Paul looked at the boy in surprise, and then he said again, “Would you like to take a ride in my car?” “Oh yes, I'd love that.”

    After a short ride, the boy turned and with his eyes shining, said. “Paul, would you mind driving in front of my house?”

    Paul smiled a little. He thought he knew what the boy wanted. He wanted to show his neighbors that he could ride home in a big car. But Paul was wrong again. “Will you stop where those two steps are?” the boy asked.

    He ran up to the steps. Then in a short while Paul heard him coming back, but he was not coming fast.

    He was carrying his little. crippled (残疾) brother. He sat him down on the step and pointed to the car.

    “There he is, Buddy, just like I told you upstairs. His brother gave it to him for Christmas and it didn't cost him a cent. And some day I'm going to give you one just like it… Then you can see for yourself all the nice things in the Christmas window that I've been trying to tell you about.”

    Paul got out and lifted the boy to the front seat of his cat. The shining-eyed elder brother climbed in and three of them began an unforgettable holiday ride.

B

    Steven Stein likes to follow garbage trucks. His strange habit makes sense when you consider that he's an environmental scientist who studies how to reduce litter, including things that fall off garbage trucks as they drive down the road. What is even more interesting is that one of Stein's jobs is defending an industry behind the plastic shopping bags.

    Americans use more than 100 billion thin film plastic bags every year. So many end up in tree branches or along highways that a growing number of cities do not allow them at checkouts(收银台). The bags are prohibited in some 90 cities in California, including Los Angeles. Eyeing these headwinds, plastic-bag makers are hiring scientists like Stein to make the case that their products are not as bad for the planet as most people assume.

    Among the bag makers' arguments: many cities with bans still allow shoppers to purchase paper bags, which are easily recycled but require more energy to produce and transport. And while plastic bags may be ugly to look at, they represent a small percentage of all garbage on the ground today.

    The industry has also taken aim at the product that has appeared as its replacement: reusable shopping bags. The stronger a reusable bag is, the longer its life and the more plastic-bag use it cancels out. However, longer-lasting reusable bags often require more energy to make. One study found that a cotton bag must be used at least 131 times to be better for the planet than plastic.

    Environmentalists don't dispute（质疑） these points. They hope paper bags will be banned someday too and want shoppers to use the same reusable bags for years.

    Contrary to popular belief, people who sleep six to seven hours a night live longer, and those who sleep eight hours or more die younger, according to the latest study ever conducted on the subject. The study, which has tracked the sleeping habits of 1.1 million Americans for six years, weakens the advice of many sleep doctors who have long recommended that people get eight or nine hours of sleep every night.

    “There's an old idea that people should sleep eight hours a night, which has no more scientific basis than the gold at the end of the rainbow,” said Daniel Kripke, professor of psychiatry（精神病学）at the University of California at San Diego who led the study published in a recent copy of JAMA Psychiatry.

    The study was not designed to answer why sleeping longer may be harmful or whether people could extend their lifespan by sleeping less.

    But Kripke said it was possible that people who slept longer tended to suffer from short-term absence of sleeping, a condition where weak breathing puts stress on the heart and brain. He also stressed that the need for sleep was similar to that for food, where getting less than people want may be better for them.

    The study quickly caused warnings and criticism（批评）, with some sleep experts saying that the main problem of America's sleep habits was deprivation（剥夺）, not sleeping too much.

    “None of this says sleep kills people,” said Daniel Buysse, a psychiatrist at the university of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

    “You should sleep as much as you need to feel awake, alert and attentive the next day,” Buysse added. “I'm much more concerned about people short-changing themselves on sleep than people sleeping too long.”

    “Sleeplessness produces a variety of health consequences that were not measured in the study,” critics said.

    Benito Juarez, a poor Indian boy, was twelve years old when he left his village home in December 1818.Benito walked forty-one miles to the city of Oaxaca, high in the mountains of Mexico. When he heard the Spanish spoken by the city people, Benito didn't know what they were saying.

    First, Benito became a servant for a wealthy gentleman, Serer Maza. Soon, he went to work for Antonio Salanueva ,a church(教会)librarian. Antonio repaired and copied the library books, keeping them in good shape.  Benito became his helper and his housekeeper. Antonio loved to teach. Benito soon became his student as well as his servant. With the help of Antonio, Benito learned to speak, read, and write Spanish.

    At that time in Mexico, many people believed that Indians were not smart enough to read or learn. Antonio knew that was not true. Indians had been prevented from learning by a lack of schools. The first Spanish missionaries(传教士)who came to Mexico had educated the native people. In fact, churches from Spain had built the first college on the North American continent(大陆)for the Indians. As more Spanish came to Mexico, however, the Indian children were crowded out of the schools.

    Benito was a good and bright student, so Antonio developed a plan for him. In 1821, when Benito was fifteen, Antonio decided to enroll him in a school for boys. Antonio taught Benito what he needed to pass the entrance test for the school.

Benito became a student at the college. His studies were difficult, and he was teased because he was the only Indian student there. He succeeded in spite of these challenges. Later, as the laws changed, Benito was able to attend a public college with other Indians.

    Benito Juarez continued his education and became a lawyer and, much later, the President of Mexico from 1861 to 1872. He led the Mexican people to victory over the French, who tried to rule Mexico, and fought for the rights of Indians. He is one of the great heroes in Mexican history.