I had the meanest mother in the whole world. While other kidsate candy for breakfast, I had to have cereal, eggs or toast. When others hadcokes and candy for lunch, I had to eat a sandwich. As you can guess, my supperwas different from the other kids' also. But at least, I wasn't alone in mysufferings. My sister and two brothers had the same mean mother as I did.

My mother insisted upon knowing where we were at all times.You'd think we were on a chain gang. She had to know who our friends were andwhere we were going. She insisted if we said we'd be gone an hour, that we begone one hour or less — not one hour and one minute.

We had to wear clean clothes and take a bath everyday. The otherkids always wore their clothes for days. We reached the height of insultsbecause she made our clothes herself, just to save money.

The worst is yet to come. We had to be in bed by nine each nightand up at eight the next morning. We couldn't sleep till noon like our friends.So while they slept — my mother actually had the nerve to break the ChildLabor Law. She made us work. We had to wash dishes, make beds, learn to cookand all sorts of cruel things. I believe she laid awake at night thinking upmean things to do to us.

Through the years, things didn't improve a bit. We could not liein bed, "sick" like our friends did, and miss school. Our marks inschool had to be up to par. Our friends' report cards had beautiful colors onthem, black for passing, red for failing. My mother, being as different as shewas, would settle for nothing less than ugly black marks.

As the years rolled by, first one and then the other of us wasput to shame. We were graduated from high school. With our mother behind us,talking, hitting and demanding respect, none of us was allowed the pleasure ofbeing a drop-out.

My mother was a complete failure as a mother. Out of fourchildren, a couple of us attained some higher education. None of us have everbeen arrested or divorced. Each of my brothers served his time in the serviceof this country. She forced us to grow up into God-fearing, educated, honestadults. Using this as a background, I am now trying to raise my three children.I am filled with pride when my children call me mean. Why? Because now I thankGod every day for giving me the meanest mother in the whole world.

    Gadgets that make study fun

    Now in a world piled high with smart phones, tablets and e-readers, technology has entered the classroom in ways unimaginable. Taking classes can be fun too. All you have to do is swipe your fingers on your phone screen and download some apps, which can make your study more fun and efficient. Balancing study and play in a college setting has never been easy-and with the following few apps, it'll be tough to tell the two apart.

    Evernote

    Use: note-taking

    Can be used on: Phone/iPad/iPod touch, Android, BlackBerry, Palm OS and     Windows, Phone 7

    Price: free

It's hard to imagine that with all the magical gadgets, the eager, studious types would still take out a notepad, a pencil, and a highlighter—and take notes in class. While it's not an actual planner or a calendar App, if you take notes to stay organized, then Evernote is for you．The main thing about Evernote is that all of your notes are automatically sent into the cloud—and then you can access them from any web-connected computer via the Evernote app or a web browser. Evernote also supports audio and photo notes-rather handy if you want to record your lecture or take photos of any projected notes. But, of course, ask for permission first.

    Wikipanion

    Use: research database

    Can be used on: iPhone/iPad/iPod touch

Price :free ( Wikipanion Plus for $4.99,or 31.87 yuan )

    Now, you don't necessarily have to go to a library or anywhere with computer services to do research work for your paper anymore. You can get access to the research databases just on your smart phone or tablet. Wikipanion gives you a simplified version of Wikipedia without leaving out any of the site's extra features. The normal links that you'd see to each section of an article are no longer on the main screen. Instead, there's small icon located at the bottom of the App, which can be used to access all the sections of an article. You can also open the links in Safari(苹果浏览器). According to the developers' site, loading Wikipedia pages with Wikipanion is a lot faster than accessing the Wikipedia site from the iPhone's browsers. To be honest, we agree.

    Conquering Bilingual News Listening in 7 Days

    Use: English learning application

    Can be used on: iPhone/iPad/iPod touch

    Price: For a limited time you can get the App for only $0.99—half price.

    Still learning English with a workbook? If so, you are behind the times. Get 21st Century Newspaper's new iPhone App, “Conquering Bilingual News Listening in 7 Days”. When you download the App on your iPhone, you can listen to the hottest bilingual news selected from the newspaper's official website (w. w. w. i2lst. cn) and read by native speakers. User can enjoy the audio bilingual news with synchronized subtitles and fantastic pictures while immersed in an authentic language environment. With a simple tap, the sentence you choose will be repeated. “Conquering Bilingual News Listening in 7 Days” has ranked No 1 on the Chinese education App list.

    All too often, a choice that seems sustainable(可持续的)turns out on closer examination to be problematic. Probably the best example is the rush to produce ethanol(乙醇) for fuel from corn. Corn is a renewable resource —you can harvest it and grow more, almost limitlessly. So replacing gas with corn ethanol seems like a great idea. 

    One might get a bit more energy out of the ethanol than that used to make it, which could still make ethanol more sustainable than gas generally, but that's not the end of the problem. Using corn to make ethanol means less corn is left to feed animals and people, which drives up the cost of food. That result leads to turning the fallow land –including, in some cases, rain forest in places such as Brazil—into farmland, which in turn gives off lots of carbon dioxide (CO) into the air. Finally, over many years, the energy benefit from burning ethanol would make up for the forest loss. But by then, climate change would have progressed so far that it might not help.

    You cannot really declare any practice “sustainable” until you have done a complete life-cycle analysis of its environmental(环境的) costs. Even then, technology and public keep developing, and that development can lead to unforeseen and undesired results. The admirable goal of living sustainably requires plenty of thought on an ongoing basis.

    The islands of Malta and Gozo are brilliant for a family holiday, packed with fun places to visit whatever your children's ages. The islands' small size means everywhere is within easy reach.

    Sandy beaches and swimming spots

    One of Malta's best beaches for families is soft-sanded, sheltered Golden Bay. Older children can try activities such as stand-up paddle boarding, sailing or windsurfing, while the gentle slope of the beach makes it easy for younger kids to safely paddle in the sea.

    Eating out

    Children are welcome at most restaurants, though more upmarket places often only accept older kids. There are often kids' menus that tend to offer pizza, but you can always ask for a half portion of a starter dish (portions are huge in Maltese restaurants). With a wide range of cuisines on offer, children are bound to find something they'll like, Maltese food is strongly influenced by Italian cuisine, so there's pizza and pasta galore, and some kids will love the national dish-fried rabbit

    Accommodation

    Try to schedule at least a few days on Gozo as there are lots of self-catering farmhouses with pools to rent and it's even easier to get around than Malta. Smaller hotels in Valletta usually only accept older children.

    Transport and other tips

    The easiest way to get around Malta and Gozo is to drive, but the local bus service is reliable, easy to use, and fairly inexpensive. Buses are frequent between major towns, but only roughly hourly to and from smaller places. Ferries run between Malta and Gozo, and you can take tourist boats over to Comino.

    I traveled to London, England in the spring of 2016. Actually, I traveled with CAPA International Education on a study program. At that time, I did a full three­month program but I traveled on weekends and during breaks.

    I used to live in a small town outside New York. The idea of big cities has always excited me and I wanted to take advantage of that once­in­a­lifetime opportunity. It was a great opportunity for me to see how independent I could be in another country, because I hope to travel a lot more in the future.

    I lived in a flat in Ealing Broadway with several other students from different American schools. The biggest surprise I found there was the culture shock I experienced. I had expected traveling to London to be an easy transition (转变) for me because I thought their culture was close to that of America. But you know the language and the people were greatly different from what I had expected. They had different accents. In fact, they were noisy and more free­thinking than most Americans I knew.

    However, I tried to take part in their giant Chinese New Year celebration in Trafalgar Square. I went to several Jewish society holiday celebrations and actively participated in any cultural activities I knew at that time. It was great to be able to truly put myself in their culture. These are experiences I couldn't get anywhere else.

    I would suggest people hoping to follow in my footsteps not let anything hold them back from exploring the foreign cultures presented to them. Yes, you are there for school, but your number one priority (优先) is yourself. So make sure you go home with no regrets. Do not miss anything!

    One of my wonderful memories is about a Christmas gift. Unlike other gifts, it came without wrap(包装).

    On September 11^th, 1958. Mum gave birth to Richard. After she brought him home from hospital, she put him in my lap, saying. "I promised you a gift, and here it is." What an honor! I turned four a month earlier and none of my friends had such a baby doll of their own. I played with it day and night. I sang to it. I told it stories. 1 told it over and over how much I loved it!

    One morning, however, I found its bed empty. My doll was gone! I cried for it. Mum wept and told me that the poor little thing had been sent to a hospital. It had a fever. For several days, I heard Mum and Dad whispering such words as "hopeless", "pitiful", and "dying", which sounded ominous.

    Christmas was coming. "Don't expect any presents this year." Dad said, pointing at the socks I hung in the living room. "If your baby brother lives, that'll be Christmas enough." As he spoke, his eyes filled with tears. I'd never seen him cry before.

    The phone rang early on Christmas morning. Dad jumped out of bed to answer it. From my bedroom I heard him say. "What? He's all right?" He hung up and shouted upstairs. "The hospital said we can bring Richard home!" "Thank God." I heard Mum cry.

    From the upstairs window, I watched my parents rush out to the car. I had never seen them happy. And I was also full of joy. What a wonderful day! My baby doll would be home. I downstairs. My sacks still hung there flat. But I knew they were not empty; they were filled with love!