Not all bodies of water are so evidently alive as the Atlantic Ocean, an S-shaped body of water covering 33 million square miles. The Atlantic has, in a sense, replaced the Mediterranean as the inland sea of Western civilization. Unlike real inland seas, which seem strangely still, the Atlantic is rich in oceanic liveliness. It is perhaps not surprising that its vitality has been much written about by ancient poets.

     “Storm at Sea”, a short poem written around 700, is generally regarded as one of mankind's earliest artistic representations of the Atlantic.

    When the wind is from the west

    All the waves that cannot rest

    To the east must thunder on

    Where the bright tree of the sun

    Is rooted in the ocean's breast.

    As the poem suggests, the Atlantic is never dead and dull. It is an ocean that moves, impressively and endlessly. It makes all kinds of noise—it is forever thundering, boiling, crashing, and whistling.

    It is easy to imagine the Atlantic trying to draw breath—perhaps not so noticeably out in mid-ocean, but where it meets land, its waters bathing up and down a sandy beach. It mimics(模仿) nearly perfectly the steady breathing of a living creature. It is filled with symbiotic existences, too: unimaginable quantities of creatures, little and large alike, mix within its depths in a kind of oceanic harmony, giving to the waters a feeling of heartbeat, a kind of sub-ocean vitality. And it has a psychology. It has personalities: sometimes peaceful and pleasant, on rare occasions rough and wild; always it is strong and striking.

    A shopping center is a place where many different shops and stores are collected under one roof. You can buy everything there and there are also banks, restaurants and, sometimes, a post office.

    There are other places in the United States which are called five-and–ten-cent stores because they used to sell things for 5 to 10 cents. Today they sell almost anything and some of the things cost several dollars. Supermarkets are found in all the cities. They sell food and many other goods. You walk around the supermarket, choose the things you want, put them into a special basket prepared by the store and pay for them all together at the door. Supermarkets often stay open later than other stores.

    Stores are usually open every day of the week except on Sunday. Some close on Saturdays in July and August.

    When Johnnie Martin was in the second grade in high school, one day a psychologist of the school called him into his office.

    “Johnnie, I've made a very careful study of you. And I feel sorry to have to tell you… Though you have worked very hard, it has not helped. You're just not fit for it.”

    The boy buried his face in his hands, “This will be hard on my parents,” he said. “Their one idea is for me to be a college man.”

    The psychologist laid his hand on the boy's shoulder and said, “People have different kinds of talents. Some day you will find what your special gift is and when you do, you will make your parents very proud of you.”

    Johnnie never went back to school. Jobs were scarce in town, but he managed to keep busy mowing the lawns of the householders and puttering in their flowerbeds. Before long he discovered he had an eye for color.

    One day while he was downtown, he happened to notice a stretch of unused land behind the city hall. Chance or fate or whatever you may like to call it brought one of the town's aldermen（市政委员会委员）round the corner just at that moment. The boy said, “I can make a garden out of this dump, if you'll let me do it.”

    “The town's got no money for it,” said the alderman.

    “I don't want any money for it,” said the boy. “I just want to do it.”

    The alderman was shocked to find someone who did not want money. He took Johnnie into an office, and when the young man came out he had the authority to clean up the public eyesore. Before long the old dump became a little beautiful park.

    It was also a kind of show window for Johnnie. People saw the result of his skill and knew him as a natural landscape gardener.

    That was twenty-five years ago. Today Johnnie is the head of a successful business in landscape gardening. His aging parents are proud of Johnnie, for he is not only a success, but he has also made his part of the world a lovelier place to live in.

    I have been unusually silent these past ten months. I had thought that silence would soon be coming to an end,, but I'm afraid I must tell you now that fate（命运）has decided on a different course for me.

    In August of last year, I underwent surgery to remove a cancerous tumor in my abdomen. That operation was thought to have been a success, but it caused a series of secondary complications – which I have been fighting in hospital ever since. It was along and hard fight with many setbacks, but I was steadily, if slowly, overcoming each obstacle along the way and gradually making my way back to health.

    However, recent tests have revealed that the cancer has returned. There was no sign or it as recently as a month ago, which means it is aggressive and spreading rapidly. My doctors tell me their best estimate is that I have only a few weeks left to live. This is the final conclusion. My fight is over.

    I wish to thank my doctors and caregivers, who efforts have been magnificent. My dear friends, who have given me a lifetime of memories and whose support has sustained me through these difficult months. And all of my partners at The Washington Post, Fox News, and Crown Publishing.

    Lastly, I thank my colleagues, my readers, and my viewers, who have made my career possible and given consequence to my life's work. I believe that the pursuit of truth and right ideas through honest debate and thorough argument is a noble undertaking. I am grateful to have played a small role in the conversations that have helped guide this extraordinary nation's destiny.

    I leave this life with no regret. It was a wonderful life – full and complete with the great loves and great endeavors that make it worth living. I am sad to leave, but I leave with the knowledge that I lived the life that I intended.

    Starbucks will stop using plastic straws from its stores globally by 2020, in a nod to the growing push for businesses to be more environmentally friendly. The Seattle-based company said on Monday it will instead use straws made from other materials, and lids designed not to need straws. McDonald's also recently said it would switch to paper straws in the UK and Ireland by next year, and test alternatives to plastic straws in some US locations. In February, Dunkin' Donuts said that it would refuse polystyrene foam (塑料泡沫) cups from its stores by 2020.

    Environmental activists have been pressuring businesses to ditch plastic straws because they can end up in the ocean and hurt marine life. The push gained great support after a video in 2015 showed rescuers removing a straw from a sea turtle's nose in great detail. Local governments have also been looking at the issue. Last week, Seattle's ban on single-use plastic straws and utensils in food service outlets took effect, and Starbucks says it already offers alternative straws there. Similar proposals are being considered elsewhere, including New York and San Francisco.

    While straws have become a highly-concerned issue, they make up only about 4% of the plastic trash by number of pieces, and far less by weight. Straws add up to only about 2,000 tons of the nearly 9m tons of plastic waste that hits waters each year.