After returning from her round trip, the angry woman stood outside the ticket office of the station. “The railway owes me 12 pounds，” she said to Harry Jenks, the young man working at the office. “You sold me a ticket for May 22nd, but there was no ship from Jersey that night. So my daughter and I had to stay in a hotel. It cost me 12 pounds.”

    Harry was worried. He remembered selling the woman a return ticket. “Come into the office, Madam，” he said politely. “I'll just check the Jersey timetable for May 22nd.”

    The woman and her little girl followed him inside. She was quite right, as Harry soon discovered. There was no sailing on May 22nd. How could he have made such a careless mistake? He shouldn't have sold her a ticket for that day. Wondering what to do, he smiled at the child. “You look sunburnt，” he said to her. “Did you have a nice holiday in Jersey？”

    “Yes，” she answered, shyly. “The beach was lovely. And I can swim too！”

    “That's fine，” said Harry. “My little girl can't swim a bit yet. Of course，she's only three ...”

    “I'm four，” the child said proudly. “I'll be four and a half.”

    Harry turned to the mother. “I remember your ticket, Madam，” he said. “But you didn't get one for your daughter, did you？”

    “Err, well ...” the woman looked at the child. “I mean …, she hasn't started school yet. She's only four.”

    “A four-year-old child must have a ticket, Madam. A child's return ticket from Jersey costs .., let me see ... 13.50 pounds. The law is the law, but since the mistake is mine ...”

    The woman stood up, took the child's hand and left the office.

    The Board Meeting had come to an end. Bob started to stand up and pushed the table, spilling his coffee over his notes. “How embarrassing! I am getting so clumsy in my old age.”

    Everyone had a good laugh, and soon we were all telling stories of our most embarrassing moments. It came around to Frank who sat quietly listening to the others.

    Frank began,“My Dad was a fisherman. He worked hard and would stay out until he caught enough to feed the family. Not just enough for our family, but also for his Mom and Dad and the other kids that were still at home.”

    Frank's voice dropped a bit. “When the weather was bad he would drive me to school. He would pull right up in front, and it seemed like everybody would be standing around and watching. Then he would lean over and give me a big kiss on the cheek and tell me to be a good boy. It was so embarrassing for me. Here I was twelve years old, and my Dad would lean over and kiss me good-bye!”

    He paused and then went on, “I remember the day I thought I was too old for a good-bye kiss. When we got to the school, he had his usual big smile. He started to lean toward me, but I put my hand up and said, 'No, Dad.' It was the first time I had ever talked to him that way, and he had this surprised look on his face. I said, 'Dad, I'm too old for a good-bye kiss. I'm too old for any kind of kiss.' My Dad looked at me for the longest time, and his eyes started to tear. I had never seen him cry. He turned. 'You're right,' he said. 'You are a big boy ... a man. I won't kiss you anymore.'”

    For the moment, the tears began to well up in Frank's eyes. “It wasn't long after that when my Dad went to sea and never came back.”

    I looked at Frank and saw that tears were running down his cheeks. Frank spoke again.“Guys, you don't know what I would give to have my dad give me just one more kiss on the cheek.”

    Superman, Spider-Man, Batman and Iron Man ... .There is no shortage of superheroes. You find them in comic books, on TV and the big screen.

    In a survey of fans by the sci-fi（科幻）and fantasy website, SFX.co.uk, Batman, 70 years old this year, was voted Britain's favorite superhero.

    Unlike many crime-fighting superheroes Batman has no special powers. He can't fly like Superman or shoot a sticky web like Spider-Man.

    Bruce Wayne is born to a wealthy Gotham City business family. However, when his parents are murdered his life changes completely.

    Wayne feels angry at their deaths and guilty that he did not prevent them. He travels around the world learning how to fight. Upon returning to Gotham, he creates a disguise (伪装) to enable him to fight crime without being recognized.

    A childhood fear of bats leads him to choose to dress as one. His idea is that through the bat persona (角色) he can prove to himself that he has overcome his childhood fears.

    Wayne is the CEO of the company he inherits from his father. He seems to live the lifestyle of a millionaire playboy. But this is a ruse (计策). He works hard at the image to allow himself the freedom he needs to do his work as a crime fighter. "Bruce Wayne, playboy" is the disguise; Batman is the real person.

    "Wayne is not a born superhero. Instead, he is a real, complex person," said Dace Golder, editor of the website. "He is the most realistic of all the superheroes. I am particularly interested in the emotional process by which a boy becomes a hero. His superhero qualities come from within."

    A child who suffers bullying (霸凌) usually has low self-respect and their ability to learn and be successful at school is greatly lessened. Therefore, bullying must be stopped.

    The best and most obvious way to stop bullying in schools is for parents to change the way they treat their children at home. Of course, this is much easier said than done and everyone treats their children differently. Bullies, however, come from homes where physical punishment is used and children have been taught that physical violence is the way to handle problems and “get their way”. Bullies usually also come from homes where the parents fight a lot, so they have been modeled on such violence. Parental involvement is often lacking in bullies' lives and there seems to be little warmth.

    Early intervention (干预) is truly the best way to stop bullying, but parents of the victims or therapists (治疗师) cannot alter the bully's home environment. Some things can be done at the school level, however.

    Most school programs that address bullying use a multi-faceted (多方面的) method to the problem. This usually involves the advice of some sort, either by peers, a school adviser, teachers, or the principal.

    Hand out questionnaires to all students and teachers and discuss if bullying is occurring. Define exactly what constitutes (构成) bullying at school. The questionnaire is a wonderful tool that allows the school to see how widespread bullying is and what forms it is taking. It is a good way to start to solve the problem.

    Get the children's parents involved in a bullying program. If parents of the bullies and the victims are not aware of what is going on at school, then the whole bullying program will not be effective. Stopping bullying in school takes teamwork and concentrated effort on everyone's part. Bullying also should be discussed during parent-teacher conferences and PTA meetings. Parental awareness is the key.

    In the classroom setting, all teachers should work with the students on bullying. Oftentimes even the teacher is being bullied in the classroom and a program should be set up to teach about bullying. Children understand modeling behaviors and role-play and acting out bullying situations is a very effective tool. Have students role-play a bullying situation.

    Skeptics are a strange lot. Some of them refuse to admit the serious threat of human activities to the environment, and they are tired of people who disagree with them. Those people, say skeptics, spread nothing but bad news about the environment. The “eco-guilt” brought on by the discouraging news about our planet gives rise to the popularity of skeptics as people search for more comforting worldviews.

    Perhaps that explains why a new book by Bjorn Lomborg received so much popularity. That book, The Skeptic Environmentalist, declares that it measures the “real state of the world” as fine. Of course, another explanation is the deep pockets of some big businesses with special interests. Indeed, Mr. Lomborg's views are similar to those of some Industry-funded organizations, which start huge activities through the media to confuse the public about issues like global warming.

    So it was strange to see Mr. Lomborg's book go largely unchallenged in the media though his beliefs were contrary to most scientific opinions. One national newspaper in Canada ran a number of articles and reviews full of words of praise, even with the conclusion that “After Lomborg, the environmental movement will begin to die down.”

    Such one-sided views should have immediately been challenged. But only a different review appeared in Nature, a respected science magazine with specific readership. The review remarked that Mr. Lomborg's “preference for unexamined materials is incredible(不可信的)”.

    A critical (批判的)eye is valuable, and the media should present information in such a way that could allow people to make informed decisions. Unfortunately, that is often inaccessible as blocked by the desire to be shocking or to defend some special interests. People might become half-blinded before a world partially exhibited by the media. That's a shame, because matters concerning the health of the planet are far too important to be treated lightly.

    Getting around in Canada is fairly easy. Most cities have urban transportation systems, including buses, streetcars, and trains, and some of the larger cities also have subways.

    You can board the transportation at regular stops along the routes. Some let you pay in cash, others require tickets. If you don't have a ticket for the bus, you must pay the right amount of money. This is because the driver does not carry any change. Once you get settled, you may want to buy a monthly pass or a package of tickets to save money. You can buy subway tickets at the subway station.

    If you have to take several buses or change subways on a single trip, you do not need to pay money each time. Simply ask the driver for a transfer, or pick one up from the machine on the subway platform.

    If you are not sure where to board the bus or the streetcar, just ask someone, or follow the crowd. It's usually at the front of the bus, where you show your pass to the driver. When using public transportation, Canadians line up. First come, first served, is a common approach to many activities in Canada.

    Maps of routes and schedules are usually available from the public transit company in your area, and there may also be a telephone information line. You may want to ask someone for the name of the transit company in the area where you live, and then look it up in your telephone book.