One early morning, I went into the living room to find my mother reading a thick book called Best Loved Poems to Read Again and Again. My interest was aroused only by the fact that the word ＂Poems＂ appeared in big, hot pink letters.

    ＂Is it good?＂ I asked her.

    ＂Yeah,＂ she answered. ＂There's one I really like and you'll like it, too.＂ I leaned forward.

    ＂‘Patty Poem,'＂ she read the title. Who is Patty? I wondered. The poem began:

    She never puts her toys away,

    Just leaves them scattered^①where they lay,…           ^①散乱的

The poem was just three short sections. The final one came quickly:

    When she grows and gathers poise^②,         ^②稳重

    I'll miss her harum-scarum^③ noise,                   ^③莽撞的

    And look in vain^④ for scattered toys.                  ^④徒劳地

And I'll be sad.

    A terrible sorrow washed over me. Whoever Patty was, she was a mean girl. Then, the shock.

    ＂It's you, honey,＂ My mother said sadly.

    To my mother, the poem revealed a parent's affection when her child grows up and leaves. To me, the ＂she＂in the poem was horror. It was my mama who would be sad. It was so terrible I burst out crying.

    ＂What's wrong?＂my mother asked.

    ＂Oh Mama,＂I cried.＂I don't want to grow up ever!＂

    She smiled.＂Honey, it's okay. You're not growing up anytime soon. And when you do, I'll still love you, okay?＂

    ＂Okay,＂I was still weeping. My panic has gone. But I could not help thinking about that silly poem. After what seemed like a safe amount of time, I read the poem again and was confused. It all fit so well together, like a puzzle. The language was simple, so simple I could plainly understand its meaning, yet it was still beautiful. I was now fascinated by the idea of poetry, words that had the power to make or break a person's world.

    I have since fallen in love with other poems, but ＂Patty Poem＂ remains my poem. After all, ＂Patty Poem＂ gave me my love for poetry not because it was the poem that lifted my spirits, but because it was the one that hurt me the most.

    One of the newest words on the coffee stage is “shade grown coffee”. Shade grown coffee isn't new. In fact, until only a few years ago, shade grown coffee represented the major coffee beans sold on the world coffee market. The coffee plant is a natural shade lover, growing best in the shade afforded by an overgrowing canopy (树冠) of rain forest plants. That canopy protects the coffee plant from sunlight that reduces its production and kills it.

    Shade grown coffee is, however, more expensive to grow, at least in the short run. Growing coffee in the shade means that coffee growers also have to spend time working on the protectors. It means that less land is left to produce coffee beans. The arrival of technically engineered coffee plants that grow well in the sun represented a major development in coffee industry. Because there was no need to grow shade trees to protect the coffee trees, farmers could use more and more land to grow coffee trees, increasing their productivity and leading to more money for the coffee plantations (种植园) and farmers.

    However, it was not a good idea to move away from shade grown coffee. The sheltering canopy provided more than just shade for the coffee trees. Those plants provided shelter for birds and other animals who feed on pests.

    They help to fix nitrogen in the soil, and nitrogen is a natural fertilizer which makes plants grow more successfully. The increase in land used to grow sun loving coffee trees also had an unexpected effect on the law of supply and demand. The increased production resulted in a huge amount of coffee beans coming to the market, which brought down prices.

Moreover, most experts agree that shade grown coffee is better in taste than coffee grown in full sun. Plants grown in shade take longer to develop. The slower growing time helps to improve the coffee's taste. You can buy a can of shade grown coffee to replace your usual sun coffee. One cup of coffee a day—it's a small price to pay for a better world.

    The park bench was deserted as I sat down to read beneath the branches of an old tree, with good reason to frown, for the world was intended to drag me down. At this time, a boy approached me. He stood right before me, and said with great excitement, "Look what I found!"

    In his hand was a flower, and what a pitiful sight, with its petals(花瓣)all worn. Wanting him to take his flower and go off to play, I faked a small smile and then turned to the other side.

    But instead of leaving, he sat next to my side and placed the flower to his nose and declared, "It really smells pretty and it's beautiful, too. That's why I picked it. Here, it's for you."

    The flower before me was dying or dead. But I knew I must take it, or he might never leave .So I reached for the flower, and replied, Just what I need.

    But instead of placing the flower in my hand, he held it in mid-air. It was then that I noticed that the boy was blind.

    I heard my voice quiver(轻微颤抖) and at the same time my tears shone like the sun. As I thanked him for picking the very best one, he smiled and said, "you're welcome." And then he ran off to play, unaware of the impact he'd had on me.

    I sat there and wondered how he managed to see a self-pitying woman beneath an old tree. Perhaps from his heart, he'd been blessed with true sight.

    Through the eyes of the blind boy, I could see the problem was not with the world; the problem was me. And for all of those times I had been blind. From now on I vowed to see beauty and appreciate every second that's mine. Then I held the flower up to my nose and breathed its fragrance and smiled as that young boy.

    Once an Englishman named Jack Brown went to Russia for a holiday. He stayed there for several months and then came home again. Some of his friends visited him a few days after he got back. "I had a very dangerous trip while I was in Russia," Jack said to them. "I wanted to see a friend of mine in the country and the bad weather made me very late. So I was still traveling through a forest in a sleigh(雪橇) when the sun went down. It was a long way from my friend's house when about twenty wolves began to follow my sleigh. It was very dark in the forest. There was thick snow on the ground. It was cold, and there were no houses for miles and miles. First I heard the wolves. The noise was terrible! The horses heard them, too. They were frightened and began running faster. Then I saw long, gray forms among the trees, and soon the wolves were near us. They were running very fast, and they didn't seem to get tired like the horses."

    "What did you do?" one of Jack's friends asked.

    "When the wolves got very near," Jack answered, "I put up my gun and shot the first wolf. The sleigh was moving about, but I hit the animal and killed it. Then all the other wolves stopped and ate it, so our sleigh got away from them for a few minutes."

    "Then they finished their meal, and I heard them coming again. The moon was shining brightly on the snow now, and after a few minutes I saw them running among the trees once more. They came nearer again, and then I shot another of them, and the others stopped once more to eat it."

    "The same thing happened again and again, and my horses became more and more tired and ran slower and slower until, after about two hours, only one wolf was still alive and following us."

    "Wasn't it too fat to run?" one of his friends asked.

    Summer is the most popular season to visit Texas since there is so much to see and to do. While visiting the Lone Star State this summer, don't miss visiting some of these attractions and taking part in some of Texas' best summer vacation activities.

    Visit SeaWorld

    There are sea life shows, adventure camps, thrilling rides and a water park. A great many activities are waiting for you at SeaWorld.

    Windsurf at South Padre

    With miles of shallow（浅的), calm water in the Lower Laguna Madre and strong winds coming off the Gulf of Mexico. South Padre Island is a windsurfer's dream.

    Swim at Barton Springs

    Barton Springs is in the famous Zilker Park. It was formed when Barton Creek was built. Since its opening. Barton Springs has become one of the most popular swimming pools in the state.

    Take part in an outdoor adventure

    In the scenic Texas Hill Country. Lake Buchanan Adventures offers different kinds of activities, including boating, hiking, camping and more.

    Camp and hike in Big Bend Park

    Big Bend offers a great number of outdoor activities in an old way. Backpacking. mountain biking fishing boating hiking nature watching and camping-you name it. If it can be done outdoors.it can be done in Big Bend.

    Enjoy saltwater fishing

    Saltwater fishing in Texas is as good as anywhere else in the USA. More and more fishermen have been discovering this in recent years and packing their bags and rods （鱼竿） to make good use of Texas' world-class saltwater fishery.

    Downloading music over the Internet is pretty common among high school and college students. However, when students download and share copyrighted music without permission, they are against the law.

    A survey of young people's music ownership has found that teenagers and college students have an average of more than 800 illegally copied songs each on their digital music players．Half of those surveyed share all the music on their hard drive (硬盘), enabling others to copy hundreds of songs at any one time. Some students were found to have randomly linked their personal blogs to music sites, so as to allow free trial listening of copyrighted songs for blog visitors, or adopted some of the songs as the background music for their blogs. Such practices may be easy and free, but there are consequences.

    Sandra Dowd, a student of Central Michigan University, was fined US $7,500 for downloading 501 files from Lime Wire, a peer-to-peer file sharing program. Sandra claimed that she was unaware that her downloads were illegal until she was contacted by authorities. Similarly, Mike Lewinski paid US $4,000 to settle a lawsuit（起诉）against him for copyright violation (违反). Mike expressed shock and couldn't believe that this was happening to him. "I just wanted to save some money and I always thought the threat was just a scare tactic(战术)." "You know, everyone does it," added Mike.

    The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), the organization that files lawsuits against illegal downloaders, states that suing (控告) students was by no means their first choice. Unfortunately, without the threat of consequences, students are just not changing their behavior. Education alone is not enough to stop the extraordinary growth of the illegal downloading practice.