Joe is interested in getting exercise and competing (竞争) on a team. He reads about the events at the local pools and finds the perfect activity.

                                                                           Swimming Programs

     Summer Swim Team

     Join a Summer Swim Team and compete with other swimmers! The program is offered at eight different local pools for youths to 17 years old. The season runs June 21-August 21. Practices are daily (Monday through Friday) throughout the summer. Cost: $50.00.

     Junior Swim Instructor (少年游泳教练)

     Two weeks, 20 hours of instruction, two hours per day for children 11-14 years old. Pre-training for youths interested in becoming swim instructors ($45 per child).

     Junior Lifeguard (救生员)

     Two weeks, 30 hours of instruction, three hours per day for children 11-14 years old. Pre-training in lifeguarding, and customer (消费者) service ($45 per child).

     Junior Swim Instructor & Junior Lifeguard Training Dates

     Special Offer

     Anyone who takes part in both junior swim instructor and junior lifeguard programs at the same time need only spend $75 instead of $90 for 50 hours of training.

     Register(注册) Online

     You can now register online! Visit our website at http://www.example.com. You can choose an area of town, a specific local center, a program, or search for classes which can meet the needs of students of different ages. Just visit our website, and you're on your way!

    It was a Saturday morning, a day I believed would end in victory. For weeks, I had been preparing for the match at the county fairgrounds, sponsored(赞助) by our local riding club. My horse, Tonka, and I could run faster than any kid in the county, and I hoped to bring home a blue ribbon.

    My mother usually drove me to the riding events, but on this day, my father planned to drop us off at the fairgrounds with the horse trailer(马车) .

    Although we never discussed it, my father's struggle with alcoholism had become the silent center of our family life. My mother was paralyzed with fear and indecision. Her salary as a part-time nurse couldn't possibly support four children. No one talked about alcoholism in those days, and it was my family secret.

    We climbed on the trailer and my father pulled out of our driveway and headed toward the fairgrounds, picking up speed once we hit the main road. It wasn't until we felt a big bump that I realized the trailer was out of control. The dream of my riding winner disappeared. Tonka lay on the floor, completely still. No words were possible. I knew he was dead.

    Suddenly a man appeared. "Are you all right?" he asked. "Yes." I answered, although I knew that nothing was all right. "Sit here on the grass," he said. He bent down to look into the trailer. Tonka remained still. He touched Tonka and then turned to face me. "He is going to be OK. He has just been knocked unconscious." He rubbed Tonka's cheeks and gently pulling his ears. Tonka rose to his feet.

    Our father was talking to a police officer. He was upset and in pain and took little notice of me. I looked back; the man was gone.

    I never forgot him. He gave me strength and a sense of hope in a dark and frightening moment.

    Even before my father left us, my mother had to go back to work to support our family. Once I came out of the kitchen, complaining, "Mum, I can't peel (去皮)potatoes. I have only one hand. "

    Mum never looked up from sewing. "You get yourself into that kitchen and peel those potatoes," she told me. "And don't ever use that as an excuse for anything again!"

    In the second grade, our teacher lined up my class on the playground and had each of us race across the monkey bars, swinging from one high steel rod to the next. When it was my turn, I shook my head. Some kids behind me laughed, and I went home crying.

    That night I told Mum about it. She hugged me, and I saw her determined look. The next afternoon, she took me back to school. At the deserted playground, Mum looked carefully at the bars.

    "Now, pull up with your right arm," she advised. She stood by as I struggled to lift myself with my right hand until I could get the bar with my other elbow (月寸）.Day after day we practiced, and she praised me for every rung (梯级）I reached.

    I'll never forget the next time, crossing the rungs； I looked down at the kids who were standing with their mouths open.

    One night, after a dance at my new junior high, I lay in bed crying. I could hear Mum came into my room. "Mum," I said, weeping, "None of the boys would dance with me."

    For a long time, I didn't hear anything. Then she said, "Oh, honey, someday you'll be beating those boys off with a bat." Her voice was slight and cracking. I looked out from my covers to see tears running down her cheeks.

    Then I knew how much she suffered on my behalf. She had never let me see her tears.

    Many people find that music lifts their spirits. Now a new research shows that music therapy (疗法) can be a useful treatment for depression.

    The finding that music therapy offers a real medical benefit to depression sufferers comes from a review by the Cochrane Collaboration, a non-profit group that reviews health care issues. Some studies looked at the effects of providing music therapy to patients who were receiving drug treatment for depression. Others compared music therapy to traditional talk therapy. In four out of five of the trials, music therapy worked better at easing depression symptoms than therapies that did not employ music, the researchers found.

    “While the evidence came from a few small studies, it suggests that this is an area that is well worth further investigation.” said lead author Anna Maratos. Ms. Maratos notes that music therapy might be particularly useful for adolescents who may reject a traditional form of counseling. Some older patients also may not be comfortable talking about their feelings but do tend to express themselves through songs.

    There are two main types of music therapy. Sometimes, a therapist will listen to music with a patient and talk about the feelings or memories that it arouses. In another form, the therapist is a skilled musician and will improvise (即兴创作) music with the patient. If the patient doesn't play an instrument, he or she might be given a simple percussion (击打) instrument and the therapist will play along.

    Other studies have shown a benefit from music therapy in the treatment for dementia, learning disabilities, strokes and pain management during labor and birth. The problem is that there isn't very much high-quality research. "It doesn't easily attract serious research funding. It's difficult to do high-quality, large-scale trials." said Ms. Maratos.

    Some things should just be common knowledge by now. The Earth isn't flat. Nope, your hair and nails don't grow after you die. The holes at the top of Bic biro pens are there so that, if you swallow one accidentally, you can still breathe and won't choke to death. It's debatable whether that last one there is common knowledge or not. A quick Google search of the fact, rewritten as a question, shows articles addressing this point going back several years, with the latest (re)appearing just this week over on ScienceAlert. We suppose it's one of those things that come up from time to time, like what would happen if you attack Yellowstone with a nuclear weapon (not much, as it turns out).

    If you jump over to Bic's website, under their FAQs (frequently asked questions), it quite clearly states: "The reason that some BIC® pens have a hole in their cap is to prevent the cap from completely obstructing the airway if accidentally breathed in. This is requested by the international safety standards ISO11540, except for in cases where the cap is considered too large to be a choking risk."

    That's rather lovely of them. In appreciation of their want to not kill off their more clumsy customers, we thought we'd share a few more random facts about Bic that are probably going to come up in a pub quiz one day. Did you know, for example, that each Bic ballpoint pen can produce at least 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) of ink before it begins to run out? In fact, in 2018, 7,250 kilometers (4,505 miles) of writing tests on such pens were carried out on ballpoint pens, gel pens(中性笔), and rollers to make sure they worked to the highest standard.

    The best part of the Bic site, however, is this rather curious fact: "100 percent of pen balls are made through a highly-controlled process." As opposed to a highly uncontrolled process, involving explosions and bouncy castles and total chaos, we suppose.

October 15th is Global Handwashing Day. Activities are planned in more than twenty countries to get millions of people in the developing world to wash their hands with soap.

Experts say people around the world wash their hands but very few use soap at so-called extremely important moments. These include after using the toilet, after cleaning a baby and before touching food.

Global Handwashing Day is the idea of the Public Private Partnership for handwashing with soap. The goal, they say, is to create a culture of handwashing with soap. The organizers say all soaps are equally effective at removing disease-causing germs. They say the correct way to wash is to wet your hands with a small amount of water and cover them with soap. Rub it into all areas, including under the fingernails.  Then, wash well under running water. Finally, dry your hands with a clean cloth.

The Partnership says soap is important because it increases the time that people spend washing. Soap also helps to break up the dirt that holds most of the germs.  And it usually leaves a pleasant smell, which increases the chances that people will wash again.

It also says that washing hands with soap before eating and after using the toilet could save more lives than any medicine. It could help reduce cases of diarrhea, which is the second leading cause of child deaths, killing more than one and a half million children a year, by almost half.