My 10-year-old Donna said, “Mom, I made a new friend at school today. Can she come over tomorrow?” Donna was a shy girl and I wanted her to make some friends to bring her out of her shell.

    “Sure, honey, that sounds great.” I said, thinking back to my own best friend, Lillian. We lived across the street from each other in Washington Heights, New York. We met at the age of 10, too. Like my daughter, I was shy, but Lillian drew me out. She was one of the friendliest people in school, with shiny black hair and a mile-wide smile.

    In senior high school, Lillian went on a trip to Florida. This was the first time we had to be away from each other for a few days. “I'll be back soon.” she told me. But three days later, Lillian's sister told me that she had fallen into a river and hadn't come out any more. Soon, my family moved to New Jersey. Whenever I thought of her, tears came into my eyes.

    The next day Donna brought her new friend home. “Hi, Mrs. Loggia.” the little girl said. Her hair was so shiny and black and she shot me a big smile. “My name is Laura.”

    My daughter's new friend was so much like Lillian. I was still puzzled (迷惑) when Laura's mom came to pick her up later that afternoon. I opened the door to let her in. “Judy!” she cried. “It's me, Lillian's sister, from Washington Heights.” Yes, my daughter's friend looked familiar. She was Lillian's niece.

    Hollywood is still seen as a “man's world”, but one woman is doing her best to change that.

    In May, 2017, U.S. director Sofia Coppola, 46, became the second woman in the history of the Cannes Film Festival to win the Best Director Award for her movie The Beguiled. The last time a woman won the award was 56 years ago.

    Coppola seemed to be born for a career in film. Her father is Francis Ford Coppola, who directed the famous movie The God father. Coppola first appeared as a, baby boy, Michael, in The God father.

    However, it didn't make her path to success easier. Instead, she grew up in the shadow of her father. People often criticized her for nepotism（裙带关系）and bad acting. She was named the “Worst Supporting Actress（配角）” and “Worst New Star” at the 1990 Golden Raspberry Awards for her acting in The God father Part III.

    After that, she turned to directing-what she really wanted to do all along. Her first film Lick the Star came out in 1998. And Lost in Translation soon won her an Academy Award in 2003. She gradually became famous for films focusing on women. “I just think, half the world is female,” she told Elle.com. She makes films with these females in mind. From the cute Lisbon girls in the Virgin Suicides to the teen queen Marie Antoinette, Coppola brings us into the amazing worlds of girls, rather than simply showing them as stupid, unimportant or useless, Deviant World noted.

    At the age of 83, I'm reading more and dusting less. I'm sitting in the yard and admiring the view without caring about the weeds in the garden. I'm spending more time with my family and friends and less time working.

    Whenever possible, life should be a pattern of experiences to savor, not to suffer. I'm trying to recognize these moments now and cherish them.

    I'm not "saving" anything; we use our good china and crystal for every special event such as losing a pound, or the first Amaryllis blossom. I wear my good clothes to the market. I'm not saving my good perfume for special parties, but wearing it for clerks in the hardware store and tellers at the bank.

    "Someday "and" one of these days" are losing their positions in my vocabulary. If it's worth seeing or hearing or doing, I want to see and do it now.

    I'm not sure what others would have done had they known they wouldn't be here for the tomorrow that we all take for granted. I think they would have called family members and a few close friends. They might have called a few former friends to apologize and mend fences for past quarrels. I like to think they would have gone out for a Chinese dinner or for whatever their favorite food was.

    It's those little things left undone that would make me angry if I knew my hours were limited. Angry because I hadn't written certain letters that I intended to write one of these days. Angry and sorry that I didn't tell my husband and parents often enough how much I truly love them. I'm trying very hard not to put off, hold back, or save anything that would add laughter and luster to our lives. And every morning when I open my eyes, I tell myself that it is special. Every day, every minute, every breath truly is a gift.

    As computers become more popular in China, Chinese people are increasingly relying on computer keyboards to input (输入) Chinese characters. But if they use the computer too much, they may end up forgetting the exact strokes（笔画）of each Chinese character when writing on paper. Experts suggest people, especially students, write by hand more.

    Do you write by hand more or type more? In Beijing, students start using a computer as early as primary school. And computer dependence is more wide-spread among university students. Almost all their assignments and essays are typed on a computer.

    All the students interviewed say they usually use a computer.

    It's faster and easier to correct if using a computer. And that's why computers are being applied more and more often to modern education.

    "When I'm writing with a pen, I find I often can't remember how to write a character, though I feel I'm familiar with it."

    "I'm not in the mood to write when faced with a pen and paper."

    Many students don't feel this is something to worry about. Now that it's more convenient and efficient to write on a computer, why bother to handwrite?

    Many educators think differently. Shi Liwei, the headmaster of a famous primary school in the capital, said, "Chinese characters enjoy both practical and aesthetic（审美的）value. But those characters typed with computer keyboards only maintain their practical value. All the artistic beauty of the characters is lost. And handwriting contains the writer's emotion. Through one's handwriting, people can get to know one's thinking and personality. Beautiful writing will give people a better first impression of them."

    To encourage students to handwrite more, many primary schools in Beijing have made writing classes compulsory（必修的）and in universities, some professors are asking students to turn in their homework and essays written by hand.

    Jim Denevan is an amazing artist whose work is admired by all, but owned by none--that's because all of Jim's art is created on an unusual canvas（画布）--the soft sand. He sometimes spends days working on a piece, only to see it washed away by the sea or a storm and that is just the way he likes it.

    Denevan discovered his artistic talents about ten years ago, when he was wandering aimlessly on the beach with a stick. He ended up drawing a 12-foot-long fish. Since then, Jim has traveled over 1,800 miles while creating over 600 pieces of sand art.

    Over the years, his drawings have become bigger, but the tools he uses haven't changed--All he needs is a stick, a garden rake（耙子）and most importantly, his lively imagination!

    Just like any good artist, Jim is quite particular about the “quality" of his canvas, sometimes walking for miles, looking for perfect sand. His latest piece of work, which is also the world's largest freelance（自由职业的）drawing, was created in the desert sand of Nevada. It took Jim three trips, eight days and over 100 miles of walking to create this 3-mile work of art. It took the storm just one night to destroy it! However, Jim says he actually enjoys watching the waves or rain, wash his paintings away.

    Jim's art has become very popular over the years and was even the topic of a documentary' （记录片）named “Sandman” in 2015. Jim Denevan is not just about art in the sand — he is also an excellent chef （厨师）and founder of an organization called“Outstanding in the Field”，whose motto（座右铭）is to celebrate food at its source. Accordingly, group dining events are held outdoors on farms, with the diners being treated to a delicious meal. The events, which are held in different farms throughout America, are always sold out the minute the schedule is announced.

    When asked about her childhood in the documentary Alive Inside, a 90-year-old woman with dementia(痴呆) replies, "I've forgotten so much." Filmmaker Michael Rossato-Bennett then plays music from her past for her. “That's Louis Armstrong,” she says. “He's singing When the Saints Go Marching In and it takes me back to my school days.” She then recalls exact details from her life.

Why does it happen? Music tends to accompany events that arouse emotions or otherwise make strong impressions on us — such as weddings and graduations. These kinds of experiences form strong memories, and the music and memories likely become intertwined(紧密相连) in our neural(神经的) networks, according to Julene Johnson, a professor at the University of California. Movements, such as dancing, also often pair with our experience of music, which can help form memories. Even many years later, hearing the music can bring back memories of these long-past events.

    As Alive Inside shows, music has this power even for many people with dementia. Researchers note that the brain areas that process and remember music are typically less damaged by dementia than other areas, and they think it may explain the phenomenon.

    They also pay attention to elderly people with dementia, especially those in nursing homes. "It's possible those long-term memories are still there," Johnson says, “but people just have a harder time accessing them because they're in a strange place and there are not a lot of circumstances in which someone could pull out those memories.”

    Johnson also notes that music is not universally useful for all people with dementia since there are some people with dementia whose brain area that recognizes music is damaged.

    Despite music's apparent benefits, few studies have explored its influence on memory recall in people with dementia. “It's really an untapped area,” Johnson says. Petr Janata is one researcher investigating the topic of music and memory. He says that scientists still do not have the answers for why and how music reawakens memories in people with dementia, but this phenomenon is real and it's just a matter of time before it's fully borne out by scientific research.