Have your parents ever inspected your room to see if you cleaned it properly? Imagine having your entire houses, garage, and yard inspected at any time -- with no warning. Inspections were a regular part of lighthouse (灯塔) living, and a keeper's reputation depended on results. A few times each year, an inspector arrived to look over the entire light station.  The inspections were supposed to be a surprise, but keeper sometimes had advance notice.
           Once lighthouses had telephones, keepers would call each other to warn that the inspector was approaching. After boats began flying special flags nothing the inspector aboard, the keeper's family made it a game to see who could notice the boat first. As soon as someone spotted the boat, everyone would do last-minute tidying and change into fancy clothes. The keeper then scurried to put on his dress uniform and cap. Children of keepers remember inspectors wearing white gloves to run their fingers over door frames and  windowsills looking for dust.
           Despite the serious nature of inspections, they resulted in some funny moments. Betty Byrnes remembered when her mother did not have
 time to wash all the dishes before an inspection. At the time, people did not have dishwashers in their homes. In an effort to clean up quickly, Mrs. Byrnes tossed all the dishes into a big bread pan, covered them with a cloth and stuck them in the oven. If the inspector opened the oven door, it would look like bread was baking. he never did.
          One day, Glenn Furst's mother put oil on the kitchen floor just before the inspector entered their house. Like floor wax, the oil made the
 floors shiny and helped protect the wood. This time, though, she used a little too much oil. When the inspector extended his hand to
greet Glenn's mother, he slipped on the freshly oiled surface. "He came across that floor waving his arms like a young bird attempting
its first flight," Glenn late wrote. After he steadied himself, he shook Glenn's mother's hand, and the inspection continued as though
 nothing had happened.

    A student is learning to speak British English. He wonders: Can I communicate with Americans? Can they understand me? Learners of English often ask: What are the differences between British and American English? How important are these differences?

    Certainly! There are some differences between British and American English. There are a few differences in grammar. For example, speakers of British English say “in hospital” and “Have you a pen?” Americans say “in the hospital!” and “Do you have a pen?”. Pronunciation is sometimes different. Americans usually sound theirs in words like “bird” and “hurt”. Speakers of British English do not sound theirs in these words. There are differences between British and American English in spelling and vocabulary. For example, “color” and “honor” are British, “color” and honor” are American.

    These differences in grammar, pronunciation, spelling and vocabulary are not important, however. For the most part, British and American English are the same language.

    The story told to all American children about honesty is about the cherry tree that President George Washington cut when he was a boy. In China, every child knows the story of Lei Feng, the young soldier who helped others and was very honest. The stories of George Washington and Lei Feng help us understand the importance of being honest.

    Every teacher wants his or her students to be honest. If every student can be honest in their childhood, they will be honest when they become adults. The country will then be known as an honest country and it will be respected by everyone.

    Usually, it is the father and the mother who give the first lessons of honesty. George Washington learned honesty from his father.

    A favorite Chinese story is about a young man who went to the market to buy food for his mother. There was a very young girl there who was selling flowers. The young man stole one flower when the girl served her customer.

    When he went home, he began to think what he had done. He went back to the market to find the girl. He told her that he was sorry and that he wanted to pay her for the flower. The little girl refused and said, "You do not need to pay for the flower, elder brother. Since you took it, I thought you had a reason to take it so I did not worry about receiving money for it."The young man was ashamed that he stole the flower. He could never forget about the importance of being honest.

    Many people want to grow their own garden, but they simply do not have the room. Do not worry. There is a solution. Consider container gardening.

    The great thing about container gardening is that you can use a variety of different containers. You simply have to use your imagination. You could create a beautiful garden with things such as cement blocks, hanging baskets, clay pots, or window boxes. There are so many options when it comes to container gardening; it is only limited by your imagination.

    Of course, you will want to take the following into consideration when you are ready to begin container gardening, in order for it to be successful.

    First, you should avoid any containers that have been used to store chemicals, as well as treated wood. This could lead to the sudden death of your flowers and lead to the failure of your container gardening.

    With any container that you choose, you need to ensure that it allows the water in it to drain when necessary. So it may be essential for you to create holes in the container to help this along. You should also make sure the containers are placed on a raised surface, not upon the floor, to ensure the best possible drainage.

    Ensure that the containers you choose are appropriate in size for the plants you choose. You need to prevent the roots from overgrowing the container.

    If you like fresh veggies, you could consider container gardening with vegetables. This requires a process that differs from that of flower gardening. Talk to an employee at a supply store in your area. They can help you choose the right containers for the vegetables you are wishing to grow.

    A new study of 8, 000 young people in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior shows that although love can make adults live healthily and happily, it is a bad thing for young people. Puppy love (早恋) may bring stress for young people and can lead to depression. The study shows that girls become more depressed than boys, and younger girls are the worst of all.

    The possible reason for the connection between love and higher risk of depression for girls is "loss of self". According to the study, even though boys would say "lose themselves in a romantic relationship", this "loss of self" is much more likely to lead to depression when it happens to girls. Young girls who have romantic relationships usually like hiding their feelings and opinions. They won't tell that to their parents.

    Dr Marianm Kaufman, an expert on young people problems, says 15% to 20% young people will have depression during their growing. Trying romance often causes the depression. She advises kids not to jump into romance too early. During growing up, it is important for young people to build strong friendships and a strong sense of self. She also suggests the parents should encourage their kids to keep close to their friends, attend more interesting school activities and spend enough time with family.

    Parents should watch for signs of depression—eating or mood changes—and if they see signs from their daughters or sons, they need to give help. The good news is that the connection between romance and depression seems to become weak with age. Love will always make us feel young, but only maturity gives us a chance to avoid its bad side effects.

    Nowadays six Amazon Scout delivery robots rolled out in a pilot program in Snohomish County, Wash. The robots carry meals, groceries and packages to homes and offices in this region just north of Seattle. They have appeared on the sidewalks of London, Beijing and other cities and communities worldwide. These machines must overcome pedestrian legs, naughty dogs and broken pavement, which raises some questions.

    These services are gaining attraction as a growing number of city residents expect immediate or scheduled delivery for just about everything. Between 2017 and 2018 online retail sales in the U.S. increased by 16 percent. On the final step of all these deliveries, called the last mile, humans on bicycles, motorized scooters (电动车) or large delivery trucks typically deliver packages. All the vehicles compete for space on busy urban streets. "Deliveries are trending upwards in all crowded city centers, and if city and state leaders don't start thinking about creative solutions like robot deliveries, we can expect even worse traffic jams," says Paul Mackie, director of a transportation policy research center in Arlington.

    A study by this center found 73 percent of delivery vehicles in Arlington were parked outside of authorized areas, often blocking bike lanes and crosswalks. By moving the last step of deliveries from the road to the sidewalk, cities could reduce traffic jams and solve the parking problem entirely, Mackie says.

    Companies such as Amazon are not developing this delivery technology simply to clear up urban traffic. Self-driving vehicles and sidewalk robots could cut down last-mile delivery costs in cities by as much as 40 percent, according to a 2018 report by a consultancy firm. A delivery robot can cost thousands of dollars to manufacture, and most currently require human management and conservation. But in the long run companies that use autonomous delivery vehicles in the next several years could end up saving billions of dollars, the report stated.