England's highest main-line railway station is in serious trouble, deserted and unmanned since it was officially closed in 1970, Dent, located high in the hills of Yorkshire, wakes up on six summer weekends each year, when a special train unloads walkers, sightseers and people who simply want to catch a train from the highest station to its platforms.

    But even this limited being may soon be brought to an end. Dent station located on the Settel to Carlisle railway line, is said to be surrounded by the most beautiful scenery in the country. But no amount of scenic beauty can save the line because of the British Rail's money problems.

    It is now an open secret that British Rail sees no future for this railway line. Most of its trains disappeared some time ago. Bridges, built a century ago, are falling down. It is not alone. Half a dozen railway routes in the North of England are facing a similar threat. The problem is an old system and an almost total lack of cash to repair it. Bridges and tunnels are showing their ages, the wooden supports for the tracks are rotting（腐烂） and engines and coaches(车厢) are getting old.

    On main lines between large cities, the problem is not too bad. There lines still make a profit and cash can be found to keep them in good condition. But on the country branch line, the situation is different. As track wears out, it is not replaced. Instead speed limits are introduced, making the journey longer than necessary and discouraging travelers.

    If a bridge is dangerous, there is often only one thing for British Rail to do: go out and find money from another places. This is exactly what it did a few months ago when a bridge at Bridling station was threatening to fall down. Repairs were calculated at 200,000 pounds just for one bridge, so British Rail was pleased, and rather surprised when two local councils(理事会) offered half that amount of money.

    The students are having their chemistry class. Miss Li is telling the children what water is like. After that, she asks her students some questions, “Boys and girls! What is water? Can you tell me?" She waits for a few minutes, but no one answers her. Then Miss Li asks again. “Why don't you answer my question? I tell you what water is like, right?”

    Then a boy puts up his hand and says, “Miss Li, you tell us that water has no color and no smell. But I think that water is something that is black when I wash my hand in it.” All the students begin to laugh. Miss Li laughs too. Then another boy puts up his hand, Miss Li says “What do you think, Wang Bing?” The boy says:” Miss Li, where can we find water that has no color and no smell?”

    “Why do you say so?” Miss Li asks.

    “The water in the river behind my house is always black and it has a bad smell.” answers the boy. And most of the children think he is right.

 “I am sorry to hear that, children.” says the teacher. “Our water is getting dirtier. That is a problem. All of us must try our best to make it clean again.”

    I began cycling in 2004 when I was a poor student. It was dangerous, sure, but cycling is the fastest, cheapest point-to-point form of transport in Melbourne. I own a car now, but that's just for transporting the baby or groceries.

    I hate driving. So it's been quite encouraging watching the growth in cyclist numbers over the past decade. It is said that over 10,000 cyclists enter the CBD (Central Business District) each day, taking pressure off public transport. But as more people take to cycling as a way of transport, the number of cyclists seriously injured or killed keeps increasing. And that is a sign that our infrastructure (基础设施) is still not good enough.

    Melbourne was once a dream for cyclists—flat, long, wide roads, with plenty of paths along rivers. Now, cycling can be deadly, with roads taken up by cars. I have a friend who broke her back and was lucky to escape death and others with broken bones. In my time riding, I've been forced off the road by a truck, cut off by four-wheel drives, and told to get off the road. Drivers are a particularly rude to cyclists. And that's a sign of exactly one thing: inadequate infrastructure.

    We shouldn't need to be taught how to coexist in the same narrow space. Drivers and cyclists should be kept apart. Designing bike paths so riders are channelled between moving cars and parked cars is deadly. All it takes is one daydreaming driver to fling open the door and you are gone. That's what happened to the young university student James.

    This year, there are to be new cycling lanes (车道) built on Glen Road, where James died in 2010. But these lanes are not safe. Cyclists must still pass between two rows of cars.

    Happy, angry, amazed—these are some of the emotions we like to express these days when we're sending a message on our smart phones! That's why many of us now add little pictures to our texts to brighten up someone's mobile screen but we're also using them as a quick way of telling someone how we're feeling. Yes, emojis (表情符号) have become a popular tool for communication.

    The emoji was first invented in Japan in the late 1990s and the word "emoji" comes from the Japanese words for "picture" and "character". The number of different images has greatly increased since then and now we have a picture for nearly every mood or situation.

    Why are emojis widely used today? Professor Vyv Evans says, "Increasingly, what we're finding is that digital communication is replacing face-to-face talk in some ways. One of the reasons why emojis are so interesting is that they really do enable us to express our emotional selves much more effectively."

    Another advantage of emojis is that they are an international language—they don't use words but tell a message with pictures so they can be easily understood whatever your native language is.

    But as linguist (语言学家) Neil Cohn says, "To many, emojis are an exciting evolution (进化) of the way we communicate; but to others, they are linguistic Armageddon." It does show by using emojis, there is a lot more to our communication than words alone, but does this also mean that the traditional writing will die out one day?