“Hi, Mrs. Grady,” said Mark when their neighbor opened her door. “Would you like us to shovel（铲） your sidewalk and driveway?” Shoveling was Jamie's idea, a way to earn enough money for the new Ocean Kingdom video game that came out the next day.

    Mrs. Grady was happy, “That would be wonderful, boys. I think the job is getting to be too much for me.”

“It will cost 10 dollars,” Jamie said. “If that's OK,” Mark added.

“Oh dear,” Mrs. Grady said disappointedly, “I haven't been able to get to the bank. I can offer homemade cookies, but I realize that's not what you had in mind.”

Mark was going to say that Mrs. Grady could pay them another time, but Jamie cut him off. “We'll come back later.”

Mrs. Grady doesn't look like the person who'd come to Mark's rescue last summer when Mr. Dunn's dog Goldie had just wanted to play, but Mark didn't feel comfortable around big dogs. He wanted to call for help, but his tongue seemed locked behind his teeth. Then Mrs. Grady's front door had flown open. She must have seen him from across the street. “Hold on, Mark. I'm coming!” “Goldie” she'd called. As soon as Goldie had turned her head, Mrs. Grady had slipped between Mark and the dog. She wasn't much taller than Mark, but she'd stood firm as a rock in front of him. “Goldie, go home!” Then she'd swept her broom to hurry the dog along. “Get!” Goldie had obeyed.

When Mark showed thanks to Mrs. Grady, Mrs. Grady laughed. “It was nothing. Good neighbors watch out for each other, don't they?”

And now Mrs. Grady needed Mark as much as he'd needed her last summer. He smiled and waved at Mrs. Grady, then his shovel deep into the snow.

“Hey!” Jamie shouted. “What are you doing?” Mark couldn't explain about Goldie and watching out for neighbors. “I like Mrs. Grady's cookies,” he said.

    It's said that you don't know a man until you walk a mile in his shoes. And you also don't know what it's like for older people to travel until you accompany one on a trip.

    After flying with my elderly father from Washington, D.C. to L.A. in July, I began to realize that a companion has important tasks that can make a journey easier for older people. I booked nonstop tickets on JetBlue to avoid tiring, confusing connections, and we flew directly into small, manageable Long Beach Airport. Even though my father could walk, I arranged with the airline for wheelchair assistance, which meant we got on board first.

    When I took him back to the airport for his return flight to Washington, I got permission from JetBlue to wait with him at the gate instead of saying goodbye at the security checkpoint. I wished he'd had a first-class seat and access to a comfortable airline club. Better yet, I wish I had flown with him both ways. As I watched the attendant wheel him to the lift that took him from the tarmac（飞机跑道）to the plane, I felt like an anxious mom sending her child to school for the first time.

    Things can go awry on a plane trip. And then there is the horrifying story about Joe and Margie. When they landed at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, a wheelchair attendant met them to help with a connection. But somehow Margie, who had Alzheimer's disease, disappeared.

    I didn't need to worry about my father wandering away; at 82, his mind was sharper than mine. But his hearing was poor, so I worried about what would happen if he missed an important announcement. Fortunately, everything went just fine. Careful planning made the trip successful.

    Next time I travel with a senior, I'll know better. I hope there will be a next time.

    Watching wooden dolls come to life may not be one of the most popular forms of entertainment today, but with over twenty years' experience, talented puppeteer (木偶表演者) Peter Roberts has earned himself the title "master puppeteer" because of his great ability to turn puppets into believable, almost living characters. "People are quite often surprised to hear what I do for a living and have little appreciation of puppy as a form of entertainment. But while the exact origins of puppet theatre are unknown, it has been popular in many cultures and may have been the very first kind of theatre," he explains.

    Roberts' shows are highly original. "A puppet show can involve anything from clowning(傻逗) to storytelling," he says.  Equally diverse are the audiences he performs for. "Some are attracted by the puppets themselves, while others enjoy the dialogue." Roberts believes that this form of entertainment can be appreciated by people of all ages and cultures.

    Roberts' interest in puppets started when he received some beautiful glove puppets one Christmas. He started putting on shows with these for family and friends and then moved on to handmade Chinese string puppets. Learning mostly from books and personal experience, he explains, "I was already spending most of my free time carving puppets and putting on shows, so I hardly noticed the change from students to full-time professional puppeteer."

    The puppets are designed specifically for each show, which is extremely time consuming. According to Roberts, "Sometimes what you expect and what you actually create in the end are two very different things. I've made some of my best puppets 'accidentally'."

    When most people hear the word "puppetry", they more than likely think of a way of keeping children entertained at birthday parties. Certainly the subject matter will be expected to be light-hearted rather than serious. However, Roberts wants to point out that puppets convey serious messages sometimes." he says.

    War can be deadly for wildlife, too. A new study reports that war is the biggest threat to Africa's elephants, rhinoceroses, and other animals. Researchers examined how years of conflict in Africa have affected populations of large animals. More than 70 percent of Africa's protected wildlife areas have been within a war zone at some point in the last 70 years. The more frequent the fighting, the greater the drop in animal populations, said Josh Daskin, an ecologist at Yale University. He was the lead author of the study, which was published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

    It takes very little conflict, as much as one conflict in about 20 years, for the average wildlife population to be declining, Daskin said. "Areas with frequent fighting — but not necessarily the bloodiest fighting—lose 35 percent of their large animal populations during each year of war," he said.

Some animals get killed by weapons of war. Yet, many also die because of changes in social and economic conditions in an area as a result of war, said Rob Pringle. He is an ecologist at Princeton University and the study's co-author. "People in and around war zones are poor and hungrier. So they may begin to illegally hunt animals for valuable tusks or hunt protected animals to eat," Pringle said. "And during wartime, animal conservation programs do not have as much money or power to protect wildlife."

    The new study examined the entire African continent over 65 years. The researchers looked at 10 different factors that could change population numbers. They included war, drought, animal size, protected areas and human population density. The number of wars had the biggest effect on wildlife population. The intensity of the wars — measured in the number of human deaths — had the least effect on animals.

    Alison Malmon was trapping up (完成) the end of her freshman year at the University of Pennsylvania, US when she got the news: Her older brother Brian, a student at Columbia University, was suffering from mental illness.

    Inspired by this, Malmon formed a group at her university to empower (使能够) students to talk openly about mental health. It soon blossomed into a national organization that today has more than 450 campus chapters. Leaders with the organization spend their time talking with college students about the pressure that today's young people face.

    "What you hear often is just a need to be perfect," said Malmon, "and a need to present oneself as perfect."

    And a new study in the UK proved that this need for perfectionism is simply part of today's society. In the study, two researchers studied more than 40,000 students from the US, Canada, and the UK. They found that what they called "socially prescribed(社会定向型的) perfectionism" increased by a third between 1989 and 2016.

    Lead researcher Thomas Curran said that while so many of today's young people try to present a perfect appearance online, social media isn't the only reason behind this trend. Instead, he said, it may be driven by competition in modern society, meaning young people can't avoid being sorted and ranked in both education and employment. That comes from new norms(准则) like greater numbers of college students, standardized testing and parenting that increasingly emphasizes success in education.

    For example, in 1976, half of high school seniors expected to get a college degree of some kind. By 2008, more than 80 percent expected the same. The researchers also said changes in parenting styles over the last two decades might have had an impact. As parents feel increased pressure to raise successful children, they in turn pass their "achievement anxieties" onto their kids through "excessive(过多的) involvement in their child's routines, activities or emotions"

    Those in the mental health community like Malmon say they're concerned about the impact the culture of perfectionism has on mental health on campuses. "Mental health has truly become this generation's social justice issue," she said. "It's our job to equip them with the tools and to let people know that it's not their fault."