A Book Review—The Snake-Stone by Berlie Doherty

    The setting: Urban England (the cities), but also rural England (the countryside) including remote English villages.

    The theme: The main theme is a teenage search of self-discovery, in this case the search for a mother from whom the hero was separated at an early age. Its other concerns are love, getting on with others, being persistent and courageous and trying to deal with doubts, troubles and worries. As the book moves to a close, James' swimming coach says to him: “You are not like a kid obeying instructions any more. You are diving like a young man who knows where he is going.”

    The characters: James is the hero of the story. He is a championship diver, and has a comfortable life with his foster parents (养父母). Yet he also has the qualities to take him on a long journey to find his birth mother. The other characters in The Snake-Stone, James' parents, his diving instructor, best friend, the villagers, people he meets on his journey, are pictured realistically.

    The turning point: The turning point in the story comes while James' foster parents are away in London, and he wonders about the identity of his birth mother. The only clue he has is a fossil, “the snake stone” which she left behind along with a note on which she had written: “Take good care of Sammie. It was written on a torn envelope with parts of an address still there.

    The journey: Instead of going to London, James decides to find his birth mother. With help from his geography teacher, James sets out for the remote country village where his mother might be found. James has painful, challenging, but also humorous and happy travels. The mother he finally meets, Anne, has a minor yet powerful voice in the novel. He comes to understand why she left him at a stranger's door fifteen years before. Although the meeting is not long, it leaves him with a feeling of completeness. As a journey of self-discovery The Snake-Stone also provides its readers with a happy ending. Its hero says, on returning to his foster parents, “I was home.”

    Drive through any suburb in the U.S. Today, and it's hard to miss the recycling bins that have become companions to America's trash cans. Recycling has become common, as people recognize the need to care for the environment. Yet most people's recycling consciousness extends only as far as paper, bottles, and cans. People seldom find themselves facing the growing problem of e-waste.

    E-waste rapidly increases as the techno- fashionable frequently upgrade to the most advanced devices, and the majority of them end up in landfills (垃圾填埋地). Some people who track such waste say that users throw away nearly 2 million tons of TVs, VCRs, computers, cell phones, and other electronics every year. Unless we can find a safe replacement, this e-waste may get into the ground and poison the water with dangerous toxins (毒素), such as lead, mercury, and arsenic. Burning the waste also dangerously contaminates the air.

     However, e-waste often contains reusable silver, gold, and other electrical materials. Recycling these materials reduces environmental problems by reducing both landfill waste and the need to look for such metals, which can destroy ecosystems.

    A growing number of states have adopted laws to ban dumping e-waste. Still, less than a quarter of this waste will reach lawful recycling programs. Some companies advertising safe disposal in fact merely ship the waste to some developing countries, where it still ends up in landfills. These organizations prevent progress by unsafely disposing of waste in an out- of- sight, out- of- mind location.

    However, the small but growing number of cities and corporations that do handle e- waste responsibly represents progress toward making the world a cleaner, better place for us all.

    The BeiDou Navigation Satellite System（BDS）is a Chinese satellite navigation system. It consists of two separate satellite constellations（星座）. The first BeiDou system, officially called the BeiDou Satellite Navigation Experimental System and also known as BeiDou-1, consists of three satellites, which since 2000 has offered limited coverage and navigation services, mainly for users in China and neighboring regions. Beidou-1 was decommissioned at the end of 2012.

    The second generation of the system, known as COMPASS or BeiDou-2, became operational in China in December 2011 with a partial constellation of 10 satellites in orbit. Since December 2012, it has been offering services to customers in the Asia-Pacific region.

    In 2015, China started the build-up of the third generation BeiDou system（BeiDou-3）in the global coverage constellation. The first BDS-3 satellite was launched on 30 March 2015. Up to January 2018, nine BeiDou-3 satellites have been launched. BeiDou-3 will eventually consist of 35 satellites and is expected to provide global services upon completion in 2020. So far, China has sent 27 BeiDou satellites into space. When fully completed, BeiDou, the world's fourth navigation satellite system, following GPS in the United States, GLONASS in Russia and Galileo in the European Union, will provide an alternative global navigation satellite system to the United States owned Global Positioning System（GPS）, and is expected to be more accurate than the GPS. It was claimed in 2016 that BeiDou-3 will reach millimeter-level accuracy（with post-processing）, which is ten times more accurate than the finest level of GPS.

    According to China Daily, in 2015, fifteen years after the satellite system was launched, it was generating a turnover of $31.5 billion annually for major companies such as China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp, AutoNavi Holdings Ltd, and China North Industries Group Corp.

    Sports are the base of my life, next to my mother who raised me when my dad left us. I have been into sports since I was six years old. I have known many coaches and heard hundreds of their tips, but they usually focused on drills to develop my skills and reach the next level of play.

    When I was in Senior Two, I met the new school basketball coach, Brian Pawloski. I thought I was certain to be selected for the school team since I had been in it the year before. I showed up to the tryouts and put out about 90% effort since I thought I'd make it with no problem. That was a big mistake.

    Brian Pawloski is the hardest-working coach I have ever met. He didn't expect 100% effort, he expected 200% effort. One example: he once made us do 40 suicide drills for the 40 lay-ups (投篮) we missed in a game. Some think this is crazy, but it isn't. After this conditioning practice, as we were getting a cup of cold water to drink, I said, "coach, that was the best practice I ever had." I was completely sincere. This man was and is the person who influenced me most at my high school. He expects us to be excellent not just on the court but in the classroom. If I am not working on basketball, I am reading a book that he thinks will help us better understand life's challenges, including Wooden, Coach, and The Screwtape Letters.

    In the first two years I slacked off, not putting forth my full potential. Now, unlike the coaches of my youth, this man was interested in how he did off the court. He always made sure I kept up with my studies and was able to be trusted. I can honestly say that on other coach has given me so much advice on how to succeed in basketball, but more importantly, in life. My school is lucky to have such a great person to teach, coach and influence their students. I will always remember my high-school basketball days as one of the hardest times I have ever worked in my life not only in basketball but in my growth as an individual.

    British children generally learn how to ride a bike at a young age. I am an exception to that rule. It's not my dad's fault—he tried to teach me. I remember cycling around the neighborhood. To be honest, though, I never saw the appeal. One of my earliest memories is falling from my bike and into some spiny(多刺的) plants. I definitely didn't want to repeat that.

    So I stopped learning. My dad wasn't going to waste his time teaching someone who didn't want to be taught. Time passed and I accepted that I couldn't ride a bike. It never affected my life in high school because I lived close enough to walk.

    I never felt like I was missing out until I couldn't go on a bike ride with friends in Byron Bay because I was only confident that I could go on a flat surface in a generally straight line. So when the opportunity came up to bike the wall of Xi'an, I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it and make up for missed time. So, with a friend who is very patient, I got on the bike. Instantly nothing came flooding back to me, I had absolutely no idea how to start! "Push off with one foot hard" was my instruction. It sounded simple enough but it just would not happen. Until something clicked and suddenly I was off, going in a straight line on a flat surface and managing to avoid the Chinese tourists who obviously found exaltation on my face.

    At 22 years old, I finally learnt how to ride a bike, and nothing can hold me back.

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