It is a tall tale（夸张的故事）that terrifies most young children. Swallow a piece of chewing gum and it will remain in your body for seven years before it is digested. An even worse tale is that swallowed（吞） gum can wrap itself around your heart.

    But what does happen if you should accidentally eat a stick of gum? Chewing gum is made out of gum base, sweeteners, coloring and flavoring. The gum base is pretty indigestible(难消化的)—it is a mixture of different ingredients (成分) that our body can't absorb.

    Most of the time, your stomach really cannot break down the gum the way it would break down other foods. However, your digestive system has another way to deal with things you swallow. After all, we eat lots of things that we are unable to fully digest. They keep moving along until they make it all the way through the gut (肠子) and come out at the other end one or two days later.

    The saliva (唾液) in our mouths will make an attempt at digesting chewing gum as soon as we put it in our mouths. It might get through the shell（壳） but many of gum's base ingredients are indigestible. It's then down to our stomach muscles—which contract(收缩) and relax, much like the way an earthworm moves—to slowly force the things that we swallow through our systems.

    Swallowing a huge piece of gum or swallowing many small pieces of gum in a short time can cause a blockage within the digestive system, most often in children, who have a thinner digestive tube than adults—but this is extremely rare.

    Mail lay scattered across the kitchen table. I couldn't put off sorting through it any longer. I checked the envelopes, putting aside the ones addressed to my husband.

    It had been over three years since Bob had died. To friends and family it looked like I had moved past the worst of my sorrow. I took care of my house, socialized and kept up with community. On the outside everything appeared to be normal. But inside I was anything but I worried I would never get better, never be myself again. They say sorrow has no set time limit, but I was so tired of feeling empty and hopeless. My sorrow was sharp and fresh as ever. It was like a wall of pressure in my chest, pressing my heart.

    I picked up a piece of Bob's mail and held it out to tear in half, but stopped myself from cutting up the envelope. The letter was from an organization that funded a Haitian orphanage called My Father's House. Its founder, Carol Hawthorne, had given a presentation at our church. Bob and I had donated, and Bob ended up on the mailing list to receive the newsletter (通讯) with updates on the children.

    I hadn't read one since Bob died. But just three months before, in January 2012, the country had been hit by a terrible earthquake. In my depressed state, it hadn't even occurred to me to wonder whether the orphanage had survived. I opened the newsletter and was surprised to find out that My Father's House was still standing. Of course now it was more crowded than ever. At the bottom of the page was an announcement about an upcoming trip to visit the orphanage in person. “I should go.” The thought wouldn't leave me. I contacted Carol Hawthorne.“What would I do if I go?” I asked.“Build houses?”

    “The Haitian people there are eager to work and they know what they're doing,” said Carol. “What they need are raw materials, and we provide them. We also visit with the children. We go to clinics and schools, pass out supplies. You'll be very busy, I promise!” I reserved a seat but didn't mention it to any of my friends. Just a few weeks later, I was at the airport with seven strangers, waiting to board a plane to Haiti. Even after takeoff I wasn't really sure of what I was doing.

    In Haiti we were met by Pastor Ronald Lefranc, the director of My Father's House. We piled into an old school bus and drove over uneven roads full of stones and mud. We passed women shaking under the weight of huge water buckets balanced on their heads. Piles of rubbish scattered across the landscape, and the land was covered with broken tents. Finally we pulled up to the orphanage. A crowd of children—52 in all—rushed up to greet us. I couldn't understand the words of the song they sang in Creole, but with the smiles on their faces I didn't need to. Each child planted a big kiss on my cheek.

    Carol and Pastor Ronald led us into the main building. “What are those over there?” I asked, pointing to a collection of thin tents. “Is there not enough room in the building for all the children?”

    “We have the room,” said Pastor Ronald. “But many of these children came here after the earthquake. They still don't feel safe sleeping under a roof.”

    There was no sign of fear in the playroom inside. I played dolls and other games. Children I'd just met presented me with pictures they'd drawn and letters written in Creole. In the evening the children gathered in the dining room. They took turns reading aloud and then they all joined in song. The words were strange, but the tune sounded familiar.

    They'd lost so much, yet were so joyful. In the evening the children gathered in the dining room. One of the older children stood up to speak and then they all joined in song. The words were strange, but the tune sounded familiar. The children settled down. In the silence, a quiet noise began.

    Studies show that you may be lied to every day anywhere from 10 to 200 times. We say, “Nice song.” “Honey, you don't look fat in that, no.” But another study showed that strangers lied three times within the first 10 minutes of meeting each other. We lie more to strangers than we lie to coworkers. Men lie eight times more about themselves than they do about other people. Women lie more to protect other people. If you're married, you're going to lie to your wife/ husband in one out of every 10 communications. If you're unmarried, that number drops to three. But look, if at some point you got lied to, it's because you agreed to get lied to. Truth about lying: lying's a cooperative act. Not all lies are harmful. Sometimes we're willing to get lied to for social dignity(尊严), maybe to keep a private secret.

    Lying is complex. It exists in our daily and business lives. We're deeply disturbed by the truth. We explain it, sometimes for very good reasons, other times just because we don't understand the gaps between ideals and realities in our lives. We're against lying, but secretly we're for it in ways that our society has practiced for centuries and centuries. It's as old as breathing. It's part of our culture and history. Think the stories from Dante, Shakespeare, the Bible, News of the World.

    Lying has great value to the evolution of human beings. Researchers have long known that the more intelligent the species, the more likely it is to lie. We humans like to become leaders. It starts really early. How early? Well, babies will pretend to cry, pause, wait to see who's coming and then go right back to crying. One-year-olds learn hiding truth. Five-year-olds lie outright and try to control through flattery (奉承). Nine-year-olds, masters of covering up.

    So what do we do about lies? Well, there are steps we can take to guide our way through the bushes. Trained lie spotters (检测员) get to the truth 90% of the time. The rest of us, we're only 54% right. There are clever liars and stupid liars, but there're no real creative liars. While lying, we all make the same mistakes, and we all use the same techniques.

    When we think of a generation gap we usually think of conflicting tastes in music, or pastimes. But now the generation gap is handwriting. After one teacher in Tennessee discovered that she had students who couldn't read the assignments she was writing on the board, she posted it on the Internet saying handwriting should be taught in schools.

    Opponents claim that handwriting has become out of time in our modern world. Typed words have become a primary form of communication. Once a practical skill, handwriting is no longer used by the vast majority of Americans. It is no longer taught in schools, and some claim that the time that it would take to teach it could be put to better use, for instance, by teaching the technical skills.

    But even in today's world there are still plenty of reasons to pick up a pen and apply it to paper. Many American institutions still require original signatures, for instance, signing for a registered letter and buying a house. And original signatures are much more difficult to forge（伪造）than their digital counterparts. There is also strong evidence that writing by hand is good for the mind. It activates a different part of the brain, and improves fine moving skills in young children. People also tend to remember what they write by hand more than what they type, and the process of writing by hand has been shown to stimulate ideas. Not only that, studies have shown that kids who write by hand learn to read and spell earlier than those who don't. Not to mention, handwriting is pleasing, as is evidenced by the fact that no one has ever typed a love letter. And handwriting remains popular as an art form.

    Yes we live in a modern world, but we live in a modern world that is based on fundamental values.

    Nanjing and Hangzhou summer camps offered

    We are looking for hard-working and open-minded English teachers to join the Nanjing(Jiangsu Province) and Hangzhou (Zhejiang Province) summer camps!

    Both of the summer camps will run from the beginning of July to the end of August. You will be expected to teach spoken English to Chinese students of different ages. We encourage you to bring your own culture to the classes to make things more interesting.

    The information of the Nanjing camp:

    Working hours: 40 hours per week, 5 working days per week.

    Salary: about 7,000 RMB per month.

    Accommodation (食宿): free (single room).

    The information of the Hangzhou camp:

    Working hours: 5 hours per day (= 50 min. / class × 6 classes), one day rest per week.

    Salary: 20,160 RMB in total (420 RMB per day = 70 RMB / class × 6 classes).

    Accommodation: free (shared room).

    The requirements of the summer camps:

    Native English speakers (US, England, Canada, Australia, New Zealand).

    A university degree.

    Teaching experience.

    Please send us your resume (简历), copies of certificates (证书) and passport if you are interested in the camps. E-mail: teacher1324@sina.com.cn

    For more information you can visit our website at http://www.Englishsummercamps.com.cn/

    Look forward to hearing from you soon!

    Addyson Moffitt is an 8-year-old from Kansas City, Missouri. Maurine Ghelagat is a 9-year-old from a village in Kenya called Bartabwa. It might not seem as if the girls have much in common, but when they met at a dinner two years ago, in Kansas City, they immediately hit it off.

    "We had this one little red ball to play with," Addyson told TIME for Kids. "We didn't have any electronics or phones, no iPads or TV. It was just us playing." Addyson and Maurine still keep in touch now.

    The dinner was hosted by the nonprofit group World Vision International, which builds wells, pipelines, and rain catchers in communities where people find it hard to get clean water. Addyson, was at the dinner because her family supports World Vision. Maurine was there because her village had been without clean water. World Vision fixed that by building a water station there.

    "People helped Maurine so she could have clean water, and kids are dying because they don't have it," Addyson says. "I want to help."

    Races are one way World Vision raises money to pay for its water projects. Runners run a race, often a 26-mile marathon or 13-mile half marathon. They ask people to support them by donating(捐赠) to World Vision.

    Addyson decided to run the 2017 Kansas City Half Marathon for World Vision. At age 7, she was one of the youngest-ever runners in the race, and had to get special permission to take part.

    Addyson spent four months training with her parents, waking up before 6 a.m. to run. Meanwhile, she started fundraising(募捐)by asking friends to make donations as birthday presents and clearing tables at a restaurant for tips.

    By October 2017, when Addyson ran the race, she'd raised more than $20,000. She's the youngest person in World Vision history to raise more than $10,000. In 2018, she ran again and raised $36.000.

    But Addyson's work is not finished. "My goal is for every kid to have clean water," she says.