Warley Woods Community (社区) Trust

    Welcome to our third news letter of the year!

    Our main activity for March is our Walk for the Woods fundraising events on Saturday, 17th March, starting any time between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. We will be walking the distance between Warley Woods and Tipperary. It is indeed a long way — 80 miles. The more people that you can get sponsor you, the more money we can raise to helplook after our beautiful woodland. More information is available at ourwebsite.

    The Sunday volunteers planted two beeches and an oak last week. This was thanks to the money from the Big Tree Plant and to Lisa and Gordon Whitiker, whose friends gave money forthe big trees instead of for their wedding presents. Thanks to everyone who took part.

    There were 15 volunteersat the Oral History Training Day which was led very ably by Julia Letts. The group will be meeting again and will start to interview the local people whohave offered to tell their stories. We are happy to hear from others who would like to be interviewed about their memories of the Woods for the project. If you or anyone you know is interested, please call Viv Cole at the office. This project is financed by Heritage Lottery Fund.

    There was a huge response to the Forest Schools activities held at half term. These will be held again during the Easter holidays on the following dates: 4th April from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. for over 8s. On 12th April form 10 a.m. to 12 noon, there will be a Teddy Bears' Picnic for the under 8s. All these must be booked in advance.

    Finally, don't forget the Easter Egg Roll on Bank Holiday, 9th April, staring at 11 a.m. Bring your ownhard-boiled and decorated egg to roll down the hill in the woods. The firstpast the finishing line will win a large chocolate egg! This year, due to popular demand, there will also be an Adults' Easter Egg Roll following the children's competition.

    We look forward to seeing you all soon, at one of our many events.

    Cancer is a leading cause of death around the world.

    When it comes to cancer, the sooner you know you have it, the better your chances of surviving are.

    A new blood test could change the way doctors and researchers find cancer in patients. Researchers say the test could provide some hints of the early forms of the disease.

    Gareth Jenkins is a professor at the University of Swansea. He says he and his team did not look for cancer. They instead looked for a by-product of cancer, mutated (突变的) red blood cells. They looked for, what Jenkins calls, the collateral (附带的) damage of cancer—the damage left by the disease.

    “In this blood test we don't measure the presence of cancer，we measure the presence of mutated red blood cells which are the collateral damage that occurs—a by-product of the cancer developing.''

    The researchers used normal laboratory equipment to perform the tests. This equipment looks for changes in the structure of millions of red blood cells. Those mutated cells lack a surface protein (蛋白质) that healthy cells normally have.

    “The goal of the test is looking for very rare cells which have picked up a mutation. The number of mutated red blood cells in a healthy person is around 5 or so mutated cells per million; so, you have to look at millions of red blood cells to discover those rare events. The number increases in cancer patients—it goes up to 40 or 50 on average.”

    The researchers tested blood from about 300 people, all of whom have cancer of the esophagus (食管). Patients with esophageal cancer have high levels of mutated red blood cells. Jenkins says that at this point he is not sure if other cancers would produce similar results.

    The hope is that the new test could one day become part of commonly used medical methods to find out if a person has cancer. These new technologies could save millions of lives.

    Tang Dynasty poets sang for about three centuries in different tones. There were many famous poets living in the Tang period such as Li Bai, Du Fu, Bai Juyi and Li Shangyin. Poems of the Tang Dynasty edited in the Qing Dynasty is a collection of about 48,900 poems that were written by over 2,200 poets. But it didn't cover all the poems of the Tang Dynasty.

    During the Tang Dynasty, poems were recited when lovers walked under the moonlight. Poems were also recited when soldiers fought on the battlefield. People recited them in the open air or at temple fairs.

    In the Tang Dynasty scholars had to be poets. Their readers were not only people of high social position but also common people. Poets recited poems; women singers sang poems and other ranks of people, including old women and children, read Tang poems. This atmosphere affected foreigners who visited the country at that time. As a result, Tang poetry was introduced to some adjacent countries, like Japan and Vietnam.

    Tang poetry is a most brilliant page in the history of ancient Chinese literature. It's a miracle in the cultural history of mankind. The Tang Dynasty was a powerful empire with a vast territory. It inherited Chinese civilization that went back to ancient times, and was combined with the best of other cultures and adopted the benefits of other nations in the world. Tang poetry wasn't the only spiritual wealth created by the Tang Dynasty people. Philosophy and religion, handwriting and painting and music and dance all gained new peaks of development. Tang poetry, however, was the jewel in the crown and its greatest achievement.

    A rabbit and two ducks were good friends. They used to meet on the bank of a river and play together. One day the ducks told the rabbit that they had found a carrot farm on the other bank of the river. The rabbit was excited and quickly asked for the help of his friends to cross the river, reach the farm and enjoy the carrots. The ducks agreed to carry him across the river.

    They made a wonderful plan to cross the river. The two ducks entered the river and stayed close to each other. The rabbit carefully got on their backs and stayed still. Then the ducks slowly swam across the river, staying close to each other. The rabbit cautiously stayed on top of the moving birds.

    Right before they reached the center of the river, the ducks suddenly saw a large number of fishes swimming together. In the excitement of finding a delicious meal in the water, the ducks quickly swam to either side to catch the fishes. They forgot about the poor rabbit on their backs, who fell down into the deep river as the ducks moved away. The ducks remembered their job only after they finished their meal. However, by that time the poor rabbit had already drowned (淹死). The foolish ducks were sorry to miss their good friend.

    From this short story, we know love should not be just words and talk; it must be true love, which is shown it in action.

    Teenagers who spend hours in front of the television may have a poorer diet as young adults.

    A study, which included nearly 1,400 high school students, found those who watched TV for five hours or more per day had less healthy diets than peers(同龄人）five years later. Why does this happen? Should the parents take any measures?

    On the one hand, people who spend a lot of time in front of the TV, especially teenagers, may snack more, and that may affect their long-term diet quality.

    On the other hand, TV ads for fast food, sweets and snacks tempt teenagers to eat more of those foods. And TV time might also replace exercise time for some kids.

Lead researcher Dr. Daheia J. Barr-Anderson, of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, told Reuters Health a clear correlation between TV time during high school and diet quality in young adulthood. While the heaviest TV viewers were eating the most junk food , those who'd watched less than two hours per day had the highest intake(吸收)of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and high-calcium food. In her opinion, parents should limit and monitor TV viewing.

    As far as I am concerned, children should watch no more than two hours of television per day. And parents should set a good example by eating right, being physically active and curbing their own TV time.

    If you have a chance to go to Finland, you will probably be surprised to find how "foolish" the Finnish people are.

    Take the taxi drivers for example. Taxis in Finland are mostly high-class Benz with a fare of two US dollars a kilometer. You can go anywhere in one, tell the driver to drop you at any place, say that you have some business to attend to, and then walk off without paying your fare. The driver would not show the least sign of anxiety.

    The dining rooms in all big hotels not only serve their guests, but also serve outside diners. Hotel guests have their meals free, so they naturally go to the free dining rooms to have their meals. The most they would do to show their good faith is to wave their registration card to the waiter. With such a loose check, you can easily use any old registration card to take a couple of friends to dine free of charge.

The Finnish workers are paid by the hour. They are very much on their own as soon as they have agreed with the boss on the rate. From then on they just say how many hours they have worked and they will be paid accordingly.

    With so many loopholes in everyday life, surely Finland must be a heaven to those who love to take "petty advantages". But the strange thing is, all the taxi passengers would always come back to pay their fare after they have attended to their business; not a single outsider has ever been found in the free hotel dining rooms. And workers always give an honest account of the exact hours they put in. As the Finns always act on good faith in everything they do, living in such a society has turned everyone into a real "gentleman".