Tom appeared on the sidewalk with a bucket of whitewash and a long­handled brush. He stopped by the fence in front of the house where he lived with his aunt Polly. He looked at it, and all joy left him. The fence was long and high. He put the brush into the whitewash and moved it along the top of the fence. He repeated the operation. He felt he could not continue and sat down.

    He knew that his friends would arrive soon with all kinds of interesting plans for the day.

    They would walk past him and laugh. They would make jokes about his having to work on a beautiful summer Saturday. The thought burned him like fire.

    He put his hand into his pockets and took out all that he owned. Perhaps he could find some way to pay someone to do the whitewashing for him. But there was nothing of value in his pockets—nothing that could buy even half an hour of freedom. So he put the bits of toys back into his pockets and gave up the idea.

    At this dark and hopeless moment, a wonderful idea came to him. It filled his mind with a great, bright light. Calmly he picked up the brush and started again to whitewash.

    While Tom was working, Ben Rogers appeared. Ben was eating an apple as he walked along the street. As he walked along it, he was making noises like the sound of a riverboat. First he shouted loudly, like a boat captain. Then he said “Ding－Dong－Dong”， “Ding－Dong－Dong” again and again, like the bell of a riverboat. And he made other strange noises. When he came close to Tom, he stopped.

    Tom went on whitewashing. He did not look at Ben. Ben stared a moment and then said: “Hello! I'm going swimming, but you can't go, can you？”

    No answer. Tom moved his brush carefully along the fence and looked at the result with the eye of an artist. Ben came nearer. Tom's mouth watered for the apple, but he kept on working.

    Ben said, “Hello, old fellow, you've got to work, hey？”

    Tom turned suddenly and said, “Why, it's you, Ben! I wasn't noticing.”

    “Say—I'm going swimming. Don't you wish you could? But of course you'd rather work—wouldn't you? Of course you would.”

    Tom looked at the boy a bit, and said, “What do you call work？”

    “Why, isn't that work？”

    Tom went back to his whitewashing, and answered carelessly.

    “Well, maybe it is, and maybe it isn't. All I know is, it suits Tom Sawyer.”

    “Oh come, now, you don't mean to say that you like it？”

    The brush continued tomove.

    “Like it? Well, I don't see why I shouldn't like it. Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day？”

    Ben stopped eating his apple. Tom moved his brush back and forth, stepped back to look at the result, added a touch here and there, and stepped back again. Ben watched every move and got more and more interested. Soonhe said，“Say, Tom, let me whitewash a little.”

    Tom thought for a moment, and was about to agree, but he changed his mind.

    “No—no—it won't do, Ben. You see, Aunt Polly wants this fence to be perfect. It has got to be done very carefully. I don't think there is one boy in a thousand, maybe two thousand, that can do it well enough.”

    “No—is that so? Oh come, now—let me just try. Only just a little.”

    “Ben, I'd like to, but if it isn't done right, I'm afraid Aunt Polly … ”

    “Oh, I'll be careful. Now let me try. Say—I'll give you the core of my apple.”

    “Well, here—No, Ben, now don't. I'm afraid …”

    “I'll give you all of it.”

    Tom gave up the brush with unwillingness on his face, but joy in his heart. And while Ben worked at the fence in the hot sun, Tom sat under a tree, eating the apple, and planning how to get more help. There were enough boys. Each one came to laugh, but remained to whitewash. By the time Ben was tired, Tom sold the next chance to Billy for a kite; and when Billy was tired, Johnny bought it for a dead rat—and so on, hour after hour. And when the middle of the afternoon came, Tom had won many treasures.

    And he had not worked. He had had a nice idle time all the time, with plenty of company, and the fence had been whitewashed three times. If he hadn't run out of whitewash, Tom would have owned everything belonging to his friends.

    He had discovered a great law of human action, namely, that in order to make a man or a boy want a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to get.

    Night of the Living Zoo

    When: October 30th, 2016, 18:30-22:00

    Where: Lower Zoo

    Cost:

    Tickets now are on sale to FONZ (Friends of the National Zoo) members only! Not a member? Join now to get tickets at the member rate. FONZ members may purchase up to six tickets at the member price. Non-member tickets go on sale September 25th.

    General Admission: Includes live music, performance artists -including fortune tellers, fire breathers, as well as access to animal exhibits after hours, and interesting outdoor games. Also, all guests will receive free bottled water.

$ 20 FONZ members; $ 30 non-members.

    VIP Tickets: Include access to the VIP area, animal performances and private games, etc.

    $ 55 FONZ members; $ 80 non-members

    Details:

    It's back. Prepare to witness dangerous acts and amazing sights at the Zoo's annual Halloween event, Night of the Living Zoo. With live music, performance artists, and games, it's a special night of fun that you won't want to miss.

    FONZ encourages you to take public transportation and drink responsibly.

    Metro (地铁): The Zoo's Connecticut Avenue entrance is between the Red Line's Cleveland Park and Woodley Park Metro stops.

    Uber is Night of the Living Zoo's transportation partner this year! New to Uber? Sign up for $ 20 off your first ride (new users only).

    Parking: Parking at the event will be $ 22.

    Rick Garcia is going to play outside with his friends. He is taking out his reliever inhaler (缓解物吸入器) and taking two puffs (吸). Five minutes later, he's on the field with his friends, running after a soccer ball. Rick has asthma (哮喘), but he knows how to control it.

    Asthma is a lung disease. A person with asthma may cough or suffer from shortness of breath. Asthma can begin at any age. Childhood asthma, often beginning when a child is younger than 10 years old, is one of the most common childhood diseases. Doctors report that the number of young people with asthma is increasing. It is the number one cause of absence from school. If parents have asthma, their children are more likely to develop the disease. Children in homes where an adult smokes are more at risk.

    It is important to find out the triggers for asthma. As we know, dust, pollen, or animals often make people suffer from asthma. Once a child learns the triggers, he can help prevent future attacks. About half of all children outgrow asthma and then asthma attacks stop when they are teenagers. However, many people live with the disease into adulthood.

    Children often take control drugs once or twice a day to help prevent asthma attacks, if a child begins to have an asthma attack, a quick-relief drug is also necessary. This is often an inhaler. School-aged children usually carry their inhalers with them. This medication works quickly and children begin to breathe more easily in a few minutes. If a child has a serious asthma attack, he may need full-time care at a hospital or a doctor's office.

    Let's look at the movies we can't wait to watch in 2019

    Dumbo (March 29)

    Dumbo is a 1941 American film produced by Walt Disney Productions. The main character is an elephant who is nicknamed “Dumbo”. Dumbo is always laughed at for his big ears, and he is rejected by the other elephants. With no parent to care for him, he is alone. But in fact, he is capable of flying by using his ears as wings. A live-action adaptation of the film directed by Tim Burton is scheduled to be released on March 29, 2019.

    Shazam! (April 5)

    Shazam is an upcoming American superhero film based on the DC Comics character of the same name. Directed by David F. Sandberg, the film is set to star Asher Angel as Billy Batson, a teenage boy who can transform via the magic word “Shazam” into an adult superhero, played by Zachary Levi. It will be the first film version of the character since the 1941 series Adventures of Captain Marvel (the character's original name).

    Aladdin (May 24)

    Aladdin is a fictional character and the role of the film Aladdin (1992) based on Aladdin, a folk tale of Middle Eastern origin He is voiced by Scott Weinger, while his singing voice is provided by Brad Kane. Aladdin never received a formal education, and has only learned by living on the streets of Agrabah. He has to steal food in the local market in order to survive. Mena Massoud is set to play a live-action version of the character in a live action adaptation of the 1992 film.

    Godzilla, King of the Monsters (May 31)

    Godzilla, King of the Monsters is a 1956 Japanese-American science fiction film, co-directed by Terry O. Morse and Ishiro Honda. It is a heavily re-edited American adaptation. For this new version of Godzilla, some of the original Japanese dialogue was translated into English, and some of the political, social and anti-nuclear themes were removed completely.

    As advances in auto-technology have placed a huge number of self-driving machines on our roads and sidewalks, a side product has materialized in recent years: robot-babysitting.

    In Phoenix, human attendants will remotely monitor Google's upcoming Waymo robot-taxis, using the cars cameras to evaluate and adapt to passenger or road challenges. State safety regulations typically require that auto-vehicles be accompanied at all times by humans. These professionals' job titles range from "robot handler" to "safety driver," but they have essentially the same responsibilities: monitoring robot behavior for safety and performance, and answering questions about the technology. Broadly speaking, robot-babysitting jobs fall under the umbrella of careers in automation, which include maintenance, engineering, and programming.

    However, some observers note that certain kinds of robot-babysitting –-- the kind that is boring and doesn't require much education –-- can make for thankless work. The safety drivers who sit in self-driving cars have described their roles as" exhausting" and "demanding," and many told me about the constant pressure to stay vigilant at all times. "It's incredibly hard to sit in a chair and stare at a computer without doing anything for eight hours," Ramsey said. "But you do not need a Ph.D. to do it." In March 2018, the field of robot babysitting took a beating when a self-driving Uber in Tempe, Arizona, hit a 49-year old named Elaine Herzberg. Dashcam footage showed that Rafaela Vasquez, the car's safety driver, had not been looking at the road when the accident occurred. Investigators are deciding if Vasquez will be charged with murder.

    According to the McKinsey Global Institute, 10 million to 800 million jobs globally could be lost to automation by 2030. In the long term, it's inevitable that robot-babysitters will go the way of elevator operators and lamplighters. But they'll also birth new robot-related roles." A huge number of jobs will be created as auto-vehicles are loosed into the environment,” Ramsey said. In 2016, Bosch started training students from Schoolcraft College, a community college in Michigan, in auto-vehicle repair: Toyota has trained students in maintenance as well. "We might even see a return to low-level jobs where people come and fuel the car for you," Ramsey said. "Until we can wirelessly charge, someone needs to refuel them.” The hardest-to-automate industries, as it happens, are the ones that require looking after humans: childcare, education, health-care aides. Robot babysitters might feel like they have gained the job of the future. But in fact, real babysitters might be better positioned.

    The National Beekeeping Centre Wales is a free attraction in the countryside that teaches children about the importance of honeybees – with the chance to try lots of local honeys.

    This friendly visitor centre is a supporter of Welsh honeybees, which are increasingly under threat from climate change and loss of wildflower meadows (草地). It raises visitors' awareness of environmental issues and shows the 4,000-year history of beekeeping and honey-making, from the ancient Egyptians to the Romans. A Hive (蜂巢) Aid scheme lets you adopt a beehive(from £50 per person), and regular courses (from £60 per person) train new generations of beekeepers.

    Fun fact

    Bees pollinate (授粉) about a third of everything we eat and play an important role in sustaining (维持) our ecosystems. In economic terms, honeybee pollination could be worth up to £200m to the UK alone.

What about lunch?

    Next door is the Furnace Tearoom, part of the Bodnant Welsh Food Centre, which serves light bites – wraps (卷饼), fruit salads (£7) and coffee. And the nearby Pavilion Restaurant at the National Trust's Bodnant Garden has cooked food, including baked potatoes (£5) and daily specials such as local casseroles (焙盘) with bread rolls (£6), plus coffee and cakes.

    Exit through the gift shop

    There is a range of bee-themed gifts in our gift shop, including bee toys (£2), wooden honey candy (£2) and a selection of honeys all made by Welsh producers (£5). The bestselling Bodnant honey (£8) goes fast.

Getting here

    We are located just off the A470 on the Bodnant Estate in the Conwy Valley, and 10 minutes from the A55 north Wales coast road. Follow the brown signs just after Bodnant Gardens.

    Value for money

    Visits and activities for kids are free, though donations are welcome. Taster days (from £60) and the weekend beekeeping course (£80 per person) are held at Abergwyngregyn village, 10 miles west down the A55.

    Opening hours

    The Visitor Centre opens daily from 10 am-4 pm but it is volunteer-run, so phone ahead to check. Expect lots of fun activities around the annual Conwy Honey Fair.