Each time I see a balloon, my mind flies back to a memory of when I was a six-year-old girl. It was a rainy Sunday and my father had recently died. I asked my mom if Dad had gone to heaven. "Yes, honey. Of course." she said.

    "Can we write him a letter?"

    She paused, the longest pause of my short life, and answered, "Yes."

    My heart jumped. "How? Does the mailman go there?" I asked.

    "No, but I have an idea." Mom drove to a party store and returned with a red balloon. I asked her what it was for.

    "Just wait, honey. You'll see." Mom told me to write my letter. Eagerly, I got my favorite pen, and poured out my six-year-old heart in the form of blue ink. I wrote about my day, what I learned at school, how Mom was doing, and even about what happened in a story I had read. For a few minutes it was as if Dad were still alive. I gave the letter to Mom. She read it over, and a smile crossed her face.

    She made a hole in the corner of the letter where she looped the balloon string. We went outside and she gave me the balloon. It was still raining.

    "Okay, on the count of three, let go. One, two, three."

    The balloon, carrying my letter, darted upward against the rain. We watched until it was swallowed by the mass of clouds.

    Later I realized, like the balloon, that Dad had never let his sickness get him down. He was strong. No matter what he suffered, he'd persevere, hang on, and finally transcend this cold world and his sick body. He rose into sky and became something beautiful. I watched until the balloon disappeared into the gray and white and I prayed that his strength was hereditary. I prayed to be a balloon.

    Most animals have little connection with animals of a different kind, unless they hunt them for food. Sometimes, however, two kinds of animals come together in a partnership (伙伴关系) which is good for both of them. You may have noticed some birds sitting on the backs of sheep. This is not because they want a ride, but because they find easy food in the parasites (寄生虫) on sheep. The sheep allow the birds to do so because they remove the cause of discomfort. So although they can manage without each other, they do better together.

    Sometimes an animal has a plant partner. The relationship develops until the two partners cannot manage without each other. This is so in the corals(珊瑚) of the sea. In their skins they have tiny plants which act as “dustmen”, taking some of the waste products from the coral and giving in return oxygen which the animal needs to breathe. If the plants are killed, or are even prevented from receiving light so that they cannot live normally, the corals will die.

    The iPhone, the iPad: each of Apple's products sounds cool and has become a fad(一时的风尚). Apple has cleverly taken advantage of the power of the letter “i” --and many other brands are following suit. The BBC's iPlayer--which allows Web users to watch TV programs on the Internet--used the title in 2008. A lovely bear--popular in the US and UK--that plays music and video is called “iTeddy”. A slimmed-down version(简装本) of London's Independent newspaper was started last week under the name “i”.

    In general, single-letter prefixes(前缀) have been popular since the 1990s, when terms such as e-mail and e-commerce(电子商务) first came into use.

    Most “I” products are targeted at(针对) young people and considering the major readers of Independent's “I”, it's no surprise that they've selected this fashionable name.

    But it's hard to see what's so special about the letter “i”. Why not use “a”, “b”, or “c” instead? According to Tony Thorne, head of the Language Center at King's College, London, “i” works because its meaning has become ambiguous. When Apple uses “i”, no one knows whether it means Internet, information, individual or interactive, Thorne told BBC Magazines. “Even when Apple created the iPod, it seems it didn't have one clear definition(定义),” he says.

    “However, thanks to Apple, the term is now connected with portability (轻便).” adds Thorne.

    Clearly the letter “i” also agrees with the idea that the Western World is centered on the individual. Each person believes they have their own needs, and we love personalized products for this reason.

    Along with “Google” and “blog”, readers of BBC Magazines voted “I” as one of the top 20 words that have come to define the last decade(十年).

    But as history shows, people grow tired of fads. From the 1900s to 1990s, products with “2000” in their names became fashionable as the year was connected with all things advanced and modern. However, as we entered the new century, the fashion disappeared.

    In my bag I always carry the same essential items: my keys, my purse, some loose change, my mobile phone and my little blue vocabulary notebook. This year I am living abroad in Germany and I am trying to learn as much German as possible. I always knew that living abroad would be a great way to learn a foreign language but one thing I didn't realize was how many new words and phrases I would come across every day! I see and hear new words everywhere; the announcements in the train station; menus in cafes; on social media; on the local newspaper and of course from my German-speaking friends.

    At first I was slightly upset by the large amounts of German I didn't understand. Speaking German in Germany is definitely very different from that in the classroom; I kept on looking up new words and by the end of the day I had forgotten most of them already. It was very frustrating. After a month of worrying that I would never be able to improve my language skills, I went to the stationery shop and bought a small notebook which easily fit into my handbag or even into my back pocket! I set myself the goal of writing five new words or phrases a day into my little blue book and soon enough it became one of my most valuable language-learning tools.

    I don't have any rules about which words I write down. Most days I write down words that I learn from my colleagues at work, words that I don't understand in reading or words that I have learned from seeing them in context. For example, I have learned the names of many fruits and vegetables from looking at their labels in the supermarket (a very unexpected source of vocabulary!) and I have learned many words that I have heard on TV or on the radio. It doesn't even matter if I know how to spell a new word straight away. If I hear a word but I don't know how to spell it, I write down how I think it sounds and look it up later.

    My little blue vocabulary book is now like my close friend. We go everywhere together. Setting this small daily goal has made me feel much more in control of my language teaming and I am already seeing an improvement. I will continue to use it for the rest of my stay in Germany and also when I return to university at home in September.

    High school was a hard time for Me in the beginning because I had just moved to a small town and knew basically no one. I loved to play basketball but was afraid to go to tryout (选拔)for the school's team because I didn't know anyone. One day all that changed when I missed the bus home and decided to shoot baskets on the school playground to kill time. The coach Mr Colbath had been watching me make various baskets and was pretty impressed with my moves.

    He came up to me and asked me who had taught me to play like that. I told him that my dad had taught me how to play basketball. He asked me if he would see me at the tryout on Friday, but I said no and told him why. He told me to have a try because I played very well and would maybe make some friends on the court. After thinking for a few minutes. I finally decided to have a try.

    On the day of the tryout, the coach came, found me and helped me practice before the tryout. He helped me a lot and I did very well at the tryout and many members of the team were quite impressed. I did make the team and over the next few years the coach helped me both on and off the court. He helped me do my math which I had such a difficult time with and he even taught me how to live independently.

    I will never forget Mr Colbath. He really inspired me and changed my life. I would not be the person that I am today if he had not taken such an interest in me when I was in high school.

Lebanese filmmaker Nadine Labaki has become the first female artist in the Arab world to be nominated (提名)for an Academy Award, or Oscar.

Labaki directed the film Capernaum, a film about a Syrian refugee (难民) boy and a Kenyan baby who live without parents on the streets of Beirut. It was nominated for best foreign language film.

Labaki wil1 be one of the few female directors to compete for an Oscar this year. She told the Associated press "I wish there were a lot more women filmmakers this year represented, nominated in the Oscars. But I am sure in a few years we won't be having this problem anymore."

Unlike in the West, women filmmakers are industry leaders in Lebanon.

Capernaum received a 15-minute standing ovation (热烈欢迎) at this year's Cannes Film Festival. It won the Jury Prize—the third-highest award given at Cannes.

The United Nations has publicly praised the film. Lebanon's Foreign Minister said.

Capernaum put a Lebanese touch on the international film industry.

The Oscar nomination of Capernaum is the second for Lebanon in two years in the film group. It demonstrates the country's rising star power.

Labaki called making the movie a life-changing experience. She said Capernaum helps humanize the real struggles of refugees only briefly talked about in the news.

We can't help but acknowledge that there is a fear of refugees in general around the world and there are these walls we are building, and this fear that keeps growing," Labaki said.

Capernaum will compete against four other films for the Oscar, including awards season favorite Roma. Directed by Mexico's Alfonso Cuaron, it earned 10 Oscar nominations, including for best picture.