The Greatest Navigational Journey

    In 1787 Captain Bligh was given command of “The Bounty”, a three-year-old merchant ship. His mission was to transport breadfruit plants from the island of Tahiti to the West Indies. We know the popular story of this voyage and the rebellion, in which Bligh has been presented as hard, violent and thoroughly unpleasant captain. However, there is quite a lot of evidence to suggest that this picture is far from being true. He seems to have been unusually thoughtful about the health and welfare of his men. For example he made sure that his crew got exercise, insisted on cleanliness on his ship, and adopted the practice of giving them a drink which prevented scurvy every day.

    When Captain Bligh arrived in Tahiti, it became clear that it would be some months before the breadfruit trees were ready to be taken to the West Indies. Instead of going off right away, he gave his crew extended shore leave. This may have been a mistake as many were unhappy about leaving when the time came. Finally, on the return journey the rebellion took place. The ship was under the command of the rebels and Captain Bligh had to leave in a small boat.

    Captain Bligh's achievement was to get to dry land successfully. It is one of the supreme examples of seamanship. Apart from Bligh there were 18 members of his crew sailing in an open boat about 23 feet long and 7 feet wide. They took with them 25 gallons of water, 150 pounds of bread and 30 pounds of pork. They had no guns or other weapons. The boat was so low in the water that it seemed likely to sink at any time. On one occasion Captain Bligh tried to land on an island to get more water. He and his men were attacked by hostile natives and one of the crew was killed. At this point Bligh decided to sail directly to the Dutch settlement on the island of Timor without stopping. The distance was about 4,000 miles. The voyage took about 42 days and he had no advanced navigational equipment. However, his skill and commitment proved equal to the task and amazingly no one else died. It was truly a remarkable achievement.

    In the fall of 1985, I was a bright-eyed girl heading off to Howard University to study law, aiming at a legal career and dreaming of sitting on a Supreme Court bench somewhere. Twenty-one years later I am still a bright-eyed dreamer and one with quite a different tale to tell.

    My grandma, an amazing woman, graduated from college at the age of 65. She was the first in our family to reach that goal. But one year after I started college, she developed cancer. I made the choice to withdraw from college to care for her. It meant that school and my personal dream would have to wait.

    Then I got married with another dream: building my family with a combination of adopt and biological children. In 1999, we adopted our first son. To lay eyes on him was fantastic and very emotional. A year later came our second adopted boy. Then followed son No.3. In 2003, I gave birth to another boy.

    You can imagine how busy I became, raising four boys under the age of 8. Our home was a complete zoo--a joyous zoo. Not surprisingly, I never did make it back to college full-time. But I never gave up on the dream either. I had only one choice: to find a way. That meant taking as few as one class each semester.

    The hardest part was feeling guilty about the time I spent away from the boys. They often wanted me to stay home with them. There certainly were times I wanted to quit, but I knew I should set an example for them to follow through the rest of their lives.

    In 2007, I graduated from the University of North Carolina. It took me over 21 years to get my college degree!

    I am not special, just single-minded. It always struck me that when you're looking at a big challenge from the outside it looks huge, but when you're in the midst of it, it just seems normal. Everything you want won't arrive in your life on one day. It's a process. Remember: little steps add up to big dreams.

    We all need to eat. So, meals could be a chance to stop what we're doing and spend time with the people in our lives. A recent study from a team of South Korea suggests that eating together has many good effects on children and teenagers while frequently eating alone may lead to poor eating habits and poor food choices. People who eat alone more than twice a week have a greater risk of developing high blood pressure.

    There are benefits of family dinners on children and teenagers.

    In 2014, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) looked at data from nearly three-quarters of the world's countries. Among its findings is the fact that students who share a main meal with their families are less likely to hate school. Children who eat a main meal with their families are also less likely to take drugs (毒品).

    In the report, titled “The Importance of Family Dinners (VIII),'' researchers say that teens who have frequent family dinners are more likely to say their parents know a lot about what's going on in their lives.

    Another study from the University of Montreal finds that children who eat with their families experience long-term physical and mental health benefits. These children are physically in better shape and drink fewer sugary soft drinks. These children also seem to have better social skills and are less violent.

    One of the researchers, Pagani, involved in this study is a professor at the university. She says that mealtimes with parents possibly provide young children with firsthand social events, which helps them have better communication skills.

    Congratulations on having been offered, and accepting, a place to study at Cambridge! This page offers some tips that will hopefully make your arrival at Cambridge as stress-free as possible.

    Before you arrive

    Your College or Department will send you all the information you need to prepare yourself for your time in Cambridge, including College information, for example, accommodation, course information, and similar related details. You will be sent an email asking you to complete the University's Student Registration exercise. It will only take a few minutes.

    Pre-arrival Freshers' Events this summer

    Around the world in August and September, Cambridge Alumni（毕业生）Groups will be hosting pre-arrival Freshers' Events for new students coming to Cambridge this autumn. These events are a great opportunity to prepare for university and make some friends before you arrive. There will be the chance to meet current students and alumni from whom you can get tips and advice for living and studying in Cambridge.

    Arrival and registration

    Most courses start in October. The term between October and December is known as Michaelmas Term in Cambridge. Officially, the first day of the Michaelmas Term is 1 October and this date will be shown on your offer letter. Your College or your Department will advise you about when to arrive. Ceremony activities begin around 1 October for most students. When you arrive in Cambridge, you should go first to your College. They will be glad to know that you have arrived safely and will advise you on what to do next.

    Matriculation

    Matriculation marks the formal admission of a student to membership of the University, and a College may not normally allow an unmatriculatied student to be a resident member of the College. Every freshman for matriculation must agree with the following belief by signing the Matriculation Registration Form:

    I promise to observe the Statutes and Ordinances of the University as far as they concern me, and to pay due respect and obedience to the Chancellor and other officers of the University.

    These days, North Kickapoo Street in Shawnee, Oklahoma, is a four-lane road leading out to the highway, and lined with all kinds of places to eat and shop. But in the mid-1950s, it was just a gravel(砂砾) country road, the perfect place for our daddies to teach us how to drive.

We didn't have driver's education at Shawnee High School. We were on our own. Mom took me to pick up an instruction handbook. I was the oldest of my friends, so we were excited at the prospect of a whole new world opening up. We'd have freedom to get around. Best of all, we could go to the Starlite Drive—In theater on 50-cents-a-carload night. We'd have it made.

    Mom let me back our 1949 Ford out of the garage a few times to get used to the clutch (离合器) and gearshift (变速排挡杆). I got familiar with the motion but was hardly ready for my road test.

    Finally, the day came for Daddy to give me a real lesson. He drove out to the end of the paved section of Kickapoo Street and across to where the gravel started. My daddy had come from a family of 10, and they had been farmers in a poor area in Oklahoma. There was only one way to do things, and that was the right way.

Praises were rare, so when he expressed his approval it was special. I didn't want to experience his glare if I ground the clutch or the car shook as I tried to get it going.

    I took a deep breath, slowly let out the clutch, pushed the stick into second gear, eased down the road, and then carefully moved into third gear. He had me stop and repeat the procedure two or three more times until I came to the end of the section. I was feeling pretty good as I came to a stop and looked to Daddy for approval.

He glared at me and then barked, “You've been driving, haven't you?” He must have thought I'd been practicing in somebody else's car. I quickly explained that my training was all done on the Ford.

    That was 60 years ago. I can still see the nod he gave me when he said, "Well, you did a good job."

    People who like travelling have their reasons. They believe that travelling can help them expand their field of view, especially in the geographical and historical sense. They also think that touring will give them more chances to enjoy different kinds of food and experience new things that would never be brought by other activities. But those who dislike travelling also have some reasons.

    Travelling, in my opinion, does more good than harm. Most importantly, it broadens our mind. We can get in touch with other civilizations, cultures, customs and ideas.

Through history, most people travelled because of necessity (必要性)—not for pleasure. People travelled just in order to remain alive. They searched for food to eat or places to live in. They sometimes ran away from enemies. This is not to say that no one ever travelled just for the fun of it. In ancient times, for example, rich Romans travelled all the way to Greece to take part in the Olympic Games, and festivals. Of course, some people decided to travel just out of curiosity (好奇心). They wanted to find out what it looked like beyond the horizon (地平线). Also business travel has been going on for centuries. Traders could not only make money but also learn to speak several languages and be introduced to different cultures.

    So, travelling does enrich our mind and draw new ideas to us. There is no doubt that we can get much from it.