“I see you've got a bit of water on your coat,” said the man at the petrol station. “Is it raining out there?”“No, it's pretty nice,” I replied, checking my sleeve. “Oh, right. A pony(马驹) bit me earlier.”
        As it happened, the bite was virtually painless: more the kind of small bite you might get from a naughty child. The pony responsible was queuing up for some ice cream in the car park near Haytor, and perhaps thought I'd jumped in ahead of him.
        The reason why the ponies here are naughty is that Haytor is a tourist-heavy area and tourists are constantly feeding the ponies foods, despite sighs asking them not to. By feeding the ponies, tourists increase the risk of them getting hit by a car, and make them harder to gather during the area's annual pony drift(迁移).
        The purpose of a pony drift is to gather them up so their health can be checked, the baby ones can be stooped from feeding on their mother's milk, and those who've gone beyond their limited area can be returned to their correct area. Some of them are also later sold, in order to limit the number of ponies according to the rules set by Natural England.
        Three weeks ago, I witnessed a small near-disaster a few mils west of here. While walking, I noticed a pony roll over on his back.       “Hello!” I said to him, assuming he was j  ust rolling for fun, but he was very still and, as I got closer, I saw him kicking his legs in the air and breathing heavily. I began to properly worry about him. Fortunately, I managed to get in touch with a Dartmoor's Livestock Protection officer and send her a photo. The officer immediately sent a local farmer out to check on the pony. The pony had actually been trapped between two rocks. The farmer freed him, and he began to run happily around again.
      Dartmoor has 1,000 or so ponies, who play a critical role in creating the diversity of species in this area. Many people are working hard to preserve these ponies, and trying to come up with plans to find a sustainable(可持续的) future for one of Dartmoor's most financially-troubled elements.

    Every man wants his son to be somewhat of a clone,not in features but in footsteps.As he grows you also age, and your ambitions become more unachievable.You begin to realize that your boy,in your footsteps,could probably accomplish what you hoped for.But footsteps can be muddied and they can go off in different directions.

    My son Jody has hated school since day one in kindergarten.Science projects waited until the last moment.Book reports weren't written until the final threat.

    I've been a newspaperman all my adult life.My daughter is a university graduate working toward her master's degree in English.But Jody? When he entered the tenth grade he became a “vo-tech” student(技校学生).They're called “motorheads” by the rest of the student body.

    When a secretary in my office first called him “motorhead”,I was shocked.“Hey,he's a good kid,” I wanted to say.“And smart,really.”

    I learned later that motorheads are,indeed,different.They usually have dirty hands and wear dirty work clothes. And they don't often make school honor rolls(光荣榜).

    But being the parent of a motorhead is itself an experience in education.We who labor in clean shirts in offices don't have the abilities that motorheads have.I began to learn this when I had my car crashed.The cost to repair it was estimated at $800.“Hey,I can fix it,” said Jody.I doubted it ,but let him go ahead,for I had nothing to lose.

    My son ,with other motorheads,fixed the car.They got parts(零件）from a junkyard,non-toasting toaster have been fixed.Neighbours and co-workers trust their car repair to him.

    Since that first repair job,a broken air-conditioner,a non-functioning washer and a non-toasting toaster have been fixed.Neighbors and co-workers trust their car repairs to him.

    These kids are happiest when doing repairs.They joke and laugh and are living in their own relaxed world.And their minds are bright despite their dirty hands and clothes.

    I have learned a lot from my motorhead: publishers need printers,engineers need mechanics,and architects need builders.Most important,I have learned that fathers don't need clones in footsteps or anywhere else.

    My son may never make the school honor roll.But he made mine.

    Metro Pocket Guide

    Metrorail(地铁)

    Each passenger needs a farecard(车票) to enter and go out.Up to two children under age five may travel free with a paying customer.

    Farecard machines are in every station.Bring small bills because there are no change machines in the stations and farecard machines only provide up to $5 in change.

    Get one day of unlimited Metrorail rides with a One Day Pass. Buy it from a farecard machine in Metro stations. Use it after 9：30 a.m. until closing on weekdays, and all day on weekends and holidays.

    Hours of service

    Open：5 a.m. Monday-Friday, 7 a.m.Saturday-Sunday.

    Close：midnight Sunday-Thursday, 3 a.m. Friday-Saturday.

    Last train times vary. To avoid (避免) missing the last train, please check the last train times posted in stations.

    Metrobus

    When paying with exact change，the fare is $1.35. When paying with a SmarTrip card the fare is $1.25

    Fares for senior/disabled customers

    Senior citizens 65 and older and disabled customers may ride for half the regular fare.On Metrorail and Metrobus，use a senior/disabled farecard or SmarTrip^® card.For more information about buying senior/disabled farecards，SmarTrip^® cards and passes，please visit MetroOpensDoors.com or call 202­637­7000 and 202­637­8000.

Senior citizens and disabled customers can get free guide on how to use proper Metrobus and Metrorail services by calling 202­962­1100.

    Travel tips

    Avoid riding during weekday rush periods—before 9：30 a.m.and between 4 and 6 p.m.

    If you lose something on a bus or train or in a station，please call Lost & Found （失物招领）at 202­962­1195.

    CREATIVE KIDS

    FILM MAKING

    Become a director, scriptwriter(编剧), editor(编辑) and more … all in a week?

    Six half days of film making + six half days of fun activities.

    What's it all about?

Imagine yourself as the new Steven Spielberg or Ridley Scott? Love the cinema, but think you could do better? Or do you dream of being the next Keira Knightley or Johnny Depp? If so, then this is your holiday! You and your group will choose the type of film to make — adventure, fantasy, thriller or comedy. Then you'll create your own film to show at the end of the week. What's more, you'll also take your film home on DVD too!

    Can I do other activities as well?

Yes — every day there's also half a day of activities from our great activity programme, and different entertainment every evening. So you can pack in lots of other new experiences too!

    What do I learn?

    You'll learn the basics of film and sound recording, performing, and script-writing; and how to use sound effects, visual effects and music.

    You'll also learn about the work of a director, before editing your own film.

    Do I need any experience?

    No, our fantastic trained instructors and film industry experts will guide you through the whole process, and give you tips from the professionals.

    Do I need any specialist equipment?

    No, we'll provide all the equipment, from top spec digital video cameras and editing equipment, to costumes and make-up. Just bring your imagination!

    Only￡695 per child!

    The conclusion of the Paris Agreement in 2015, in which almost every nation committed to reduce their carbon emissions(排放), was supposed to be a turning point in the fight against climate change. But many countries have already fallen behind their goals. Meanwhile emissions worldwide continue to rise.

    The only way to catch up is to aggressively pursue an approach that takes advantage of every possible strategy to reduce emissions. Wind and solar energy are usually part of this effort, but it must also include investing heavily in carbon capture(碳捕捉), utilization(应用)and storage(CCUS)—a range of technologies that pull carbon dioxide from the air, and transform it into useful materials or store it underground. Although CCUS has been opposed as too expensive and unproved, recent gains have made it far more effective. Improvements such as chemical compounds could drive the cost down from $1 00 per ton of captured carbon in 20 16 to $ 20 per ton by 2025, according to a 2016 article in Science.

    Three primary CCUS paths lead to the reduction of carbon emissions: retrofitting(改装)existing power plants; reducing emissions in industries that cannot run on renewable energy; and directly removing carbon from the air. Cutting emissions from existing electric power stations with CCUS could be made more appealing in a future with a circular carbon economy, in which captured carbon could be resold and recycled for other uses——for instance, serving as a raw material for making concrete or plastics.

    The basic idea of carbon capture has faced a lot of opposition. Skepticism has come from climate change deniers, who see it as a waste of money, and from passionate supporters of climate action, who fear that it would be used to justify continued reliance on fossil fuels. Both groups are ignoring the recent advances and the opportunity they present. By limiting investment in decarbonization, the world will miss a major avenue for reducing emissions in a variety of industries. CCUS can also create jobs and profits from what was previously only a waste material by creating a larger economy around carbon.

    The transition to clean energy has become necessary. But that transition's ability to achieve deep decarbonization will become less effective without this wide range of solutions, which must include CCUS.

    Tiny microbes(微生物)are at the heart of a new agricultural technique to manage harmful greenhouse gas. Scientists have discovered how microbes can be used to turn carbon dioxide into soil-enriching limestone(石灰石), with the help of a type of tree that grows in tropical areas, such as West Africa.

    Researchers have found that when the Iroko tree is grown in dry, acidic soil and treated with a combination of natural fungi(霉菌)and other bacteria, not only does the tree grow well, it also produces the mineral limestone in the soil around its root.

    The Iroko tree makes a mineral by combining Ca from the earth with CO2 from the atmosphere. The bacteria then create the conditions under which this mineral turns into limestone. The discovery offers a new way to lock carbon into the soil, keeping it out of the atmosphere. In addition to storing carbon in the trees, leaves and in the form of limestone, the mineral in the soil makes it more suitable for agriculture.

    The discovery could lead to reforestation(重新造林)projects in tropical countries, and help reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in the developing world. It has already been used in West Africa and is being tested in Bolivia, Haiti and India.

    The findings were made in a three-year project involving researchers from the Universities of Edinburgh, Granada, Lausanne and Delft University of Technology. The project examined several microbiological methods of locking CO2 as limestone, and the Iroko-bacteria way showed best results. Work was funded by the European Commission under the Future Emerging Technologies (FET) scheme.

    Dr Bryne Ngwenya of the University of Edinburgh's School of GeoSciences, who led the research, said: "By taking advantage of this natural limestone-producing process, we have a low-tech, safe, readily employed and easily operating way to lock carbon out of the atmosphere, while improving farming conditions in tropical countries?