[1] Ashley Power's mother bought a computer for her when she was eight. When she was thirteen, she was surfing the Internet regularly, but she couldn't find anywhere for teenagers to meet and talk. And one day she thought, “If I had my own website, I'd make it a really interesting site for teenagers.”

     [2]So, when Ashley was sixteen, she launched her own website, called Goosehead. She had no idea how big a success it would be, but three years later, the site was the most successful teen site in the USA! It was getting 100,000 hits every day, and Ashley had about 30 employees.

     [3] After a few years, the website closed down. Then Ashley, who lives in Los Angeles, was asked to write a book called The Goosehead Guide to Life. The book is about how to design a website and start a business. It begins with a section called “All About Ashley,” where Ashley tells readers what it is like to be the boss of a company when you are only sixteen. “ I was so happy. But it was crazy in a lot of ways. I got very stressed. I mean, I was only sixteen — I didn't even have a car! If you were sixteen and you had your own company, you'd be stressed, too！“

     [4] In an interview Ashley gave advice to teenagers who wanted to start their own business, “Just be strong and have your dreams and work hard at them. And don't listen when ___.____, because I heard ‘no' a lot. Just keep going until you hear ‘yes'!”

A nurse of 78 this weekend celebrates 60 years of walking the wards - and she has no plans to retire.

Jackie Reid was 18 when she started work in 1953 - when the National Health Service (NHS) was just five years old - and is believed to be the oldest nurse in Britain.

The diabetes(糖尿病) specialist had to retire at 65 but returned as a nurse within two weeks and still does up to four seven-and-a-half hour shifts(轮班）each week.

Mrs. Reid said: "Nursing is hard if you do it correctly but I love my job. Working for the NHS has been my life. I have no other hobbies because I have worked all my life.

Jackie has worked at a number of different hospitals--including one in Scotland.

Her specialist field has been diabetes for the past 40 years. She retrained after her 12-year-old daughter Michelle developed the disease. She currently works at Southend Hospital, Essex.

    Over the last 60years she has treated tens of thousands of patients.

    Jackie believes nursing should be protected from government cuts. She said: "There're lots of things I would say to the government. If you are going to get good care you have to have the resources(资源), you can't do it without enough money. They shouldn't need the cuts that there are in the NHS. It's hard now because there's a shortage of staff."

Jackie has lived alone in Grays, Essex, since her husband did three years ago.

    The couple have two daughters Michelle, 50, and Karen, 54. Jackie added: "My youngest daughter worried about me - she doesn't think I should work as much as I do. I constantly say 'don't worry about me, I'm fine', but she never believes me. I don't like the thought of giving it up and will try to keep going forever."

    [1] Nowadays the cost of a new car has fallen in real terms so that it is cheaper than ever to own one, and better road conditions have also attracted more drivers. The result is overcrowding on the road system, which is one of the problems the local governments are faced with.

     [2] When people travel to other towns, the problem might be relieved by getting them to park outside the town. Buses could be provided to take them into the centre. These Park and Ride projects are increasingly popular in the UK. At Southerton, for example, a council-funded project led to a 15% drop in city centre traffic over five months.

     [3] What the council found, though, was that the project proved somewhat unpopular with shop owners in the area outside the centre. Many of their shops relied on passing car drivers for some of their trade. As the number of people driving past dropped, so did their incomes.

     [4] Making car driving expensive is another way of ____________. Road taxes tend to mean that people use their cars less. Fining drivers who are in areas where cars have been banned can also tend to encourage them to leave their cars behind.

     [5] However, one thing has to be got right for any solution to succeed. If we expect people to give up the habit of driving, we must give them an alternative they can rely on. Constant delays, unannounced changes to the timetable and sudden cancellations all discourage people from using public transport. People will only see it as a real choice if the buses and trains are on time.

    When my father was celebrating a milestone (里程碑) birthday, I pulled together a surprise gift that he would never forget.

    As he was approaching 60,1 had a firm idea: What if I could get the memories people had of him, put each one into an envelope - 60 in total - and have him open them, one by one, on his birthday? So I wrote an e-mail to family and friends, explaining my idea.

    I sent the e-mail and waited. And then the replies started coming in and I was very, very surprised. There were so many memories, and they were all so lovely. They came from the '50s, '60s, '70s, from every decade（十年） between now and the day my dad was born. They came from my mother, my siblings, my grandma, my dad's friends from high school, his sister, my dad's first boss, a colleague at his first job, from people who hadn't seen my dad in 40 years, from people I myself hadn't even informed. They typed them and handwrote them. They mailed them and e-mailed them.

    The night before Dad's birthday, my sister and 1 stayed up late, putting everything together with some

    The next morning, after breakfast and presents and cake, we gave the pile of envelopes to him. "Just one more thing for you," we said.

It took him a long time to open them and read. Each one was a brief ticket to another time, a leap (跳跃) backward over years and decades. There was a lot of laughter and a few tears, too.

    I was kind of sad when the project was over because it was great fun to collect these memories. It gave me a different picture of my dad.

    Have you heard an old saying “The grass looks greener on the other side of the fence”? It means other places often look better, more interesting than the place where you live. “Let's go to KFC for dinner and then watch some Japanese cartoons!” We all know it: more and more Chinese kids love American and Japanese food and movies. Some people worry that young Chinese are beginning to feel that way. They see young Chinese ignoring（忽视）Chinese culture and, instead, buying Japanese cartoon books, watching Korean soap operas and even celebrating western holidays.

    Foreign books and soap operas are good, but Chinese writers and actors are just as good. As for holidays, Christmas is nice, but it can never have the meaning for Chinese that Spring Festival has, and the West has nothing to compare with the Mid-Autumn Festival. China has lots of cool things in its culture: calligraphy, Beijing Opera, quick meals on the streets, and even Jay Chou! And let's not forget the part of Chinese culture I like best: its friendliness. Not all countries are as warm as China.

    It's good to enjoy other cultures and learn from them, but they can never replace your own culture. It's good to look on the other side of the fence, but make sure you take a good long took. You will find that the grass isn't always greener.

    Although some people become worried about that, I don't think they should. Will we get more powerful without learning from other countries? Will Chinese people live more happily without American fast food? Besides, it's fun to learn about different cultures. Chinese kids can learn about other cultures and have fun, but they also need to learn more about their own culture. Be proud of Chinese culture and of being Chinese!

Desertification

    Desertification is one of the world's most alarming processes of environmental degradation(退化). The issue is often unclear, however, by a common misperception: that it's a "natural" problem of advancing deserts in faraway developing countries. In fact, desertification is about land degradation: the loss of the land's biological productivity, caused by man-made factors and climate change.

    Each year, desertification and drought cause an estimated $42 billion in lost agricultural production. The risks of desertification are sufficient and clear. It contributes to food insecurity, hunger and poverty, and can give rise to social, economic and political tensions that can cause conflicts, further poverty and land degradation. The great urgency of this challenge led the United Nations General Assembly to state 2006 to be the International Year of Deserts and Desertification (IYDD). It is a strong reminder of the urgent need to address the far-reaching implications of this problem. United Nations General Secretary recently summarizes in this way: "I look forward to working with Governments, civil society, the private section, international organizations and others to focus attention on this crucial issue, and to reverse the trend of desertification and set the world on a safer, more sustainable path of development."

    The IYDD also presents a golden opportunity to get the message across strongly and effectively that desertification is a global problem which we ignore at our risk. It is important to recognize that dry-lands are home to some of the most magnificent ecosystems of this world. These unique natural habitats have been home to some of the world's oldest civilizations. They stand like open-air museums, bearing witness to bygone eras. The Year will therefore also celebrate the delicate beauty and unique inheritance of the world's deserts.