This is a true story that happened in Japan. In order to repair the house, a Japanese tore open the walls. Japanese houses normally have an empty space between the wooden walls. When pulling down the walls, he found that there was a lizard(蜥蜴) staying there because a nail(钉子) from outside was hammered into one of its feet. He saw this, feeling pity and curious. When he checked the nail, he found it was nailed 10 years ago when the house was first built.

    What happened? The lizard had survived in such a position for 10 years! It has been in a dark wall partition(夹层) for 10 years without moving! Then he wondered how this lizard survived for 10 years without moving a single step—since its foot was nailed! So he stopped his work and observed the lizard: What has it been doing? What and how has it been eating? Later, he didn't know from where another lizard appeared, with food in its mouth. Ah! He was astonished and touched deeply. The free lizard had been feeding it for the past 10 years.

    Such love, a beautiful love! Such love happened with this tiny creature… What can love do? It can do wonders! Just think about it: one lizard had been feeding the other for 10 long years, without giving up hope on its partner. If a small creature like a lizard can love like this, just imagine how we can love if we try.

    Maybe you've heard about the saying, “A bird with a broken wing will never fly as high. I'm sure that T. J. Ware was made to feel this way almost every day in school.

    By high school, T. J. was the most famous troublemaker in his town. He got into lots of fights. He failed almost every exam but was passed on each year to a higher grade level. Teachers didn't want to have him again the following year.

    When I showed up to lead the first training for a leadership retreat, a program designed to have students become more involved in their communities, the community leaders told me about T. J. Ware, the boy with the longest arrest record in the history of town. Somehow, I knew that I wasn't the first to hear about T. J.'s darker side as the first words of introduction.

    At the start of the retreat, T. J, didn't readily join the discussion groups and didn't seem to have much to say. But when his group started a discussion about positive and negative things that had happened at school that year, he joined in and had clear thoughts on those situations, and the other students in his group welcomed his comments. Suddenly, T. J. felt like a part of the group, anti soon he was treated like a leader. He was saying things that made a lot of sense, and everyone was listening. By the end of the retreat he had joined the Homeless Project team. He knew something about poverty, hunger and hopelessness. The other students on the team were impressed (打动) with his ideas and love for the homeless. They elected T. J. vice-chairman of the team.

    Two weeks later, the Homeless Project team organized a communitywide service project—a giant food drive. Seventy students led by T. J. collected a school record: 2,854 cans of food in just two hours, enough to take care of poor families in the area for 75 days. The local newspaper covered the event with a full-page article the next day. T. J.'s picture was up there for doing something great.

    T. J. reminds us that a bird with a broken wing only needs mending. But once it has healed, it can fly higher than the rest.

    Anew international study shows that some peopled biological clock plays a powerful role for their life expectancy, regardless of lifestyle choices.

Published in the latest issue of Aging on Wednesday, the study has found the most definitive evidence to explain why some people keep healthy lifestyle but die younger than others.

    Geneticist Steve Horvath from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), led a team of 65 scientists around the world to record age-related changes to human DNA, analyse blood samples collected from 13,000 people and estimate their lifespan.

    A higher biological age, regardless of actual age, consistently predicts an earlier death, the study says.

    “You get people who are vegan, sleep 10 hours a day, have a low-stress job, and still end up dying young,” Horvath said in a statement. “We have shown some people have a faster innate aging rate.”

    The findings discovered that 5 percent of the population ages at a faster biological rate, which translated to a roughly 50 percent higher than average risk of death at any age.

    “The great hope is that we find anti-aging interventions that would slow your innate aging rate,” Horvath said, adding that “this is an important milestone to realizing this dream.

    Below are some best special interesting holidays─all are new for 2017 and have high quality guides or tutors and strong programmes.

    Holland in bloom river cruise (巡游) with Alan Titchmarsh

    Alan Titchmarsh is the star attraction on this river cruise. Alan joins you for a visit to the magnificent Keukenhof Gardens─home to 800 varieties of tulips (郁金香).The Telegraph's gardening expert will talk about the best new varieties and the garden's history.

    April 19, £1,495 including flights from the UK and some meals. Telegraph Tours (0161 236 2444; telegraph.co.uk/titchmarshtour).

    Morocco Sketchbook

    Led by artist Maxine Relton, this tour takes in Marrakesh helping you develop your drawing skills. Rapid line and figure drawing and colour mixing are all covered and the eight-day holiday is based in Kasbah du Toubkal.

    May 8, £2,495 including some meals. Steppes Travel (01285 601 495; steppestravel.co.uk).

Ballroom and Latin American dancing in Tenerife

    This travel provides daily dance tuition with David Bowie who'll be on hand to teach dancing techniques. It is aimed both at the beginners and more experienced dancers looking to improve their skills. There'll also be time to explore the island on foot or play a round of golf.

    April 26, £769 full-board. Saga (0800 096 0084; travel.saga.co.uk).

    Fishing in Northern Argentina

    This nine-day fly fishing and conservation tour takes in the Iberá Marshlands, the world's second largest wetlands. Here expert fisherman, Charles Jardine, is the guide as you fish. Based in Estancia Rincon del Socorro, the holiday also includes opportunities for horse riding and bird-watching.

    October 15, £5,095 full-board. Cazenove + Loyd (02038135082; cazloyd.com).

    Chinese media and Internet users on Monday decried（谴责）a lack of morals in society after a child was struck twice by two different trucks and left bleeding on the road as more than a dozen bystanders did nothing to help the seriously injured girl.

    The incident, captured by a surveillance camera and aired by Southern Television Guangdong (TVS), showed the two-year-old girl was knocked down and run over by a white truck on a narrow market street on the afternoon of Oct. 13, in Foshan City of Guangdong Province.

    The driver fled the scene of the accident, leaving the girl to bleed on the sidewalk. Over the next six minutes, more than a dozen people walked by the girl, yet not one individual did anything to help her. The girl was then hit a second time by another van before an elderly trash collector came to her aid and brought the attention of the girl's mother, according to the video and eyewitnesses.

    Doctors said that the girl, who was put on life support after being hospitalized, remains in a deep coma. The girl's parents, who are migrants living in the city, are now with her.

    Police said the drivers of both vehicles have been arrested. However, the apathy(冷漠) of the bystanders shown in the video has shocked the public, and people are questioning the morality of society.

    High moral standards were once considered as national pride in China where individuals known for selflessly helping others were adored（崇拜） by the public.

    But in recent years, the perception（观念）of a decline of morals has become a hot topic as profit and materialism are perceived to be affecting society's values.

    On Sept. 2. an 88-year-old man in central China collapsed, his face striking the pavement. Yet, no one came to his aid, and he ended up choking to death on the blood from his nose.

    Some have linked the absence of good Samaritans (模范人物)to a previous case in which a man trying to help an elderly woman who fell was accused of harming her.

    A strong chorus of opinion on the Internet says laws should exempt（免除）Samaritans from liability（责任）, yet laws themselves cannot solve society's morality dilemma.

    Cao Lin, a China Youth Daily commentator, said in a signed article published on Monday that the worry of liability should not be an excuse for not helping, and this case exposes the decline of humanity in Chinese society.

    "You know, the soft subjects," says the boy in maths. "The easy ones: the stupid girls at the bottom take them. Like dance. It shouldn't even be a subject." We're choosing subjects for our A-level taster day at school. I see the raised eyebrows (眉毛) when I explain two of my GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) choices are dance and drama(戏剧).

    I was told by advisers that dance and drama wouldn't help me to get a suitable career. My friends told me I'd get bored of dance and switch to science within the first month.

    But taking GCSE dance was the best decision I ever made. Dance gives me something to pour my head and heart into. It gives me a feeling of belonging, creativity, security and freedom.

    The education secretary Nicky Morgan has put emphasis on (强调) science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM), saying that students who focus on the arts risk their careers. Stopping young people from expressing themselves at such a young age is not doing them any favours. Perhaps Nicky Morgan has forgotten to open the door of having a drive to study that subject day in, day out. It shouldn't matter what that subject is.

    I don't doubt the influence that STEM subjects can have on the people that love them. But to force children into one field is cruel. As much as I try, I'm not good at and don't love physics, biology or maths. I don't want a career in these areas.

    There has been a decrease in the number of state schools offering arts subjects taught by specialist teachers. I can't even imagine how it feels to be told that you don't teach a "real subject" by an 8-year-old boy.

    To the teachers, the parents, the government I say: Let children make their own decisions. Let them live in the present. Let them have a real, unlimited education.