About this time every year, I get very nostalgic(怀旧的)．Walking through my neighborhood on a fall afternoon reminds me of a time not too long ago when sounds of children filled the air，children playing games on a hill, and throwing leaves around in the street below. I was one of those children, carefree and happy. I live on a street that is only one block long. I have lived on the same street for sixteen years. I love my street. One side has six houses on it, and the other has only two houses, with a small hill in the middle and a huge cottonwood tree on one end.When I think of home, I think of my street. Only I see it as it was before. Unfortunately things change. One day, not long ago, I looked around and saw how different everything has become.Life on my street will never be the same because neighbors are quickly grown old, friends are growing up and leaving, and the city is planning to destroy my precious hill and sell the property to contractors.

    It is hard for me to accept that many of my wonderful neighbors are growing old and won't be around much longer. I have fond memories of the couple across the street, who sat together on their porch swing almost every evening, the widow next door who yelled at my brother and me for being too loud, and the crazy old man in a black suit who drove an old car. In contrast to these people, the people I see today are very old neighbors who have seen better days. The man in the black suit says he wants to die, and another neighbor just sold his house and moved into a nursing home. The lady who used to yell at us is too tired to bother any more, and the couple across the street rarely go out to their front porch these days. It is difficult to watch these precious people as they near the end of their lives because at once I thought they would live forever.

    The “comings and goings” of the younger generation of my street are now mostly “goings”as friends and peers move on. Once upon a time, my life and the lives of my peers revolved around home. The boundary of our world was the gutter at the end of the street. We got pleasure from playing night games or from a breathtaking ride on a tricycle. Things are different now, as my friends become adults and move on. Children who rode tricycles now drive cars. The kids who once played with me now have new interests and values as they go their separate ways. Some have gone away to college like me, a few got married, two went into the army, and one went to prison. Watching all these people grow up and go away makes me long for the good old days.

    Perhaps the biggest change on my street is the fact that the city is going to turn my precious hill into several lots for now homes. For sixteen years, the view out of my kitchen window has been a view of that hill. The hill was a fundamental part of my childhood life; it was the hub of social activity for the children of my street. We spent hours there building forts, sledding, and playing tag. The view out of my kitchen window now is very different; it is one of tractors and  dump trucks tearing up the hill. When the hill goes, the neighborhood will not be the same. It is  a piece of my childhood. It is a visual reminder of being a kid. Without the hill, my street will be just another pea in the pod.

    There was a time when my street was my world, and I thought my world would never change. But something happened. People grow up, and people grow old. Places changes, and with the change comes the heartache of knowing I can never go back to the times I loved. In a year or so, I will be gone just like many of my neighbors. I will always look back to my years as a child, but the place I remember will not be the silent street whose peace is interrupted by the  sounds of construction. It will be the happy, noisy, somewhat strange, but wonderful street I knew as a child.

    Few laws are so effective that you can see results just days after they take effect. But in the nine days since the federal cigarette tax more than doubled-to $1.01 per pack-smokers have jammed telephone "quit lines" across the country seeking to kick the habit.

    This is not a surprise to public health advocates. They've studied the effect of state tax increases for years, finding that smokers, especially teens, are price sensitive. Nor is it a shock to the industry, which fiercely fights every tax increase.

    The only wonder is that so many states insist on closing their ears to the message. Tobacco taxes improve public health, they raise money and most particularly, they deter people from taking up the habit as teens, which is when nearly all smokers are addicted. Yet the rate of taxation varies widely.

    In Manhattan, for instance, which has the highest tax in the nation, a pack of Marlboro Light Kings cost $10.06 at one drugstore Wednesday. In Charleston, S.C., where the 7-cent-a-pack tax is the lowest in the nation, the price was $4.78.

    The influence is obvious.

    In New York, high school smoking hit a new low in the latest surveys-13.8%, far below the national average. By comparison, 26% of high school students smoke in Kentucky. Other low-tax states have similarly depressing teen-smoking records.

    Hal Rogers, Representative from Kentucky, like those who are against high tobacco taxes, argues that the burden of the tax falls on low-income Americans "who choose to smoke".

    That's true. But there is more reason in keeping future generations of low-income workers from getting hooked in the first place. As for today's adults, if the new tax drives them to quit, they will have more to spend on their families, cut their risk of cancer and heart disease and feel better.

    A drunken burglar（盗贼） in the Orrell Park area of Liverpool, ended up leaping out of a window after a 10-year-old girl asked him to prove he was a superhero.

    The drunken thief who pretended he was Superman to stop a child raising the alarm has been caught after he leapt from the apartment building in his pants to make the girl convinced.

    Thief Ethan Adamson, 25, told police that he had broken into a fifth-floor flat after a drinking session, believing it was empty.

    But he was horrified when the owner's 10-year-old daughter woke up while he was there.

    From his hospital bed, the thief told reporters, “To keep her quiet, I told her I was really Superman and I'd soon be flying off back to my secret headquarters.”

    “She called my bluff (吓唬) and told me, 'If you're Superman, show me you can fly or I'll scream'.

    “I had no choice so I stripped to my pants to look more like a superhero and went to the window. I saw another roof below and I thought I could make it but it turned out to be a lot further down than thought. I know it doesn't make sense but it did to me when I was drunk.”

    Police later found him on the roof in just his yellow pants, covered in cuts and bruises after a baffled neighbor heard his cries of pain.

    He now faces seven years behind bars for burglary.

    Police spokesman Frank Amado said, “He was in quite a serious state and couldn't move until we got up there using ladders. He was treated for his injuries and we got him some fresh clothes, before taking him to hospital where he is being kept under guard until he is well enough to be arrested.”

    Ireland has had a very difficult history. The problems started in the 16th century when English ruler tried to conquer(征服) Ireland. For hundreds of years, the Irish people fought against the English. Finally, in 1921, the British government was forced to give independence to the south of Ireland. The result in that today there are two “Irelands”. Northern Ireland, in the north, is part of the United Kingdom. The Republic of Ireland, in the south is an independent country.

    In the 1840s the main crop, was affected by disease and about 750,000 people died of hunger. This, and a shortage(短缺) of work, forced many people to leave Ireland and live in the USA, the UK, Australia and Canada. As a result of these problems, the population fell from 8.2 million in 1841 to 6.6 million in 1851.

    For many years, the majority of Irish people earned their living as farmers. Today, many people will work on the land but more and more people are moving to the cities to work in factories and offices. Life in the cities is very different from life in the countryside, where things move at a quieter and slower pace.

    The Irish are famous for being warm-hearted and friendly. Oscar Wilde, a famous Irish writer, once said that the Irish were “the greatest talkers since the Creeks”. Since independence, Ireland has revived(复兴) its own culture of music, language, literature and singing. Different areas have different styles of old Irish songs which are sung without instruments. Other kinds of Irish music use many different instruments such as the violin, whistles, etc.

    Can animals be artistic? Painting and music are part of efforts to keep animals happy at the Smithsonian's National Zoo.

    A sloth bear (长毛熊) called Francois is one of the National Zoo's artists. He began his artistic career two years ago. Francois has a very unusual way to paint. He uses his breathing to paint. His zookeeper, Stacey Tabellario, says that although the technique may look strange, it is actually a very natural behavior for sloth bears. The zookeepers fill one of those tubes full of paint and ask them to breathe through it. And they blow all of the paints onto the canvases (画布), making these really cool paintings.

    Animal artists come in all shapes and sizes at the Zoo. They use many kinds of techniques to create their works of art. Apes use paintbrushes. Many use their paws or claws—much like a human painter who would use his or her hands.

    Stacey Tabellario says Francois seems to enjoy expressing himself through his art. “When I set up the materials for painting activity, he comes and sits next to them and waits until they are ready for painting. He does that every time. I also see where his eyes go. He does see the paints come out of the tube and land on the canvas.”

    But not every animal wants to paint. Music is another part of the arts enrichment program. Physically and mentally stimulating activities are an important part of the daily care of the animals. Trainers have a lot of tools, from tablet computer to small toys.

    Kenton Kerns says the program helps the animals and the zookeepers in many ways. Every interaction between keepers and their animals creates some sort of connections. The one-of-a-kind works of art created by the animals are popular with zoo visitors. Many are sold at the zoo's fund-raising events.

    Mary Anning was an English fossil(化石)collector，dealer and paleontologist(古生物学家).Her fossil-hunting helped change the way people thought about the world.

    Mary was born into a poor family in England on May 21, 1799. She lived in the seaside town of Lyme Regis, in Dorset. The family had nine children. Only Mary and her brother Joseph grew up. Mary's father took his children along the beach. They picked up shells and stones to sell to visitors. Mary did not go to school much. Her family was too poor. And schools did not teach children about fossils. Mary could read and write. She taught herself. She learned about rocks and how bodies are made.

    In 1811 when Mary and Joseph were fossil hunting, Joseph saw a bone sticking out of the rock. Mary had a hammer to chip away at the rock. Very carefully she uncovered it. She found the first complete fossil of the ichthyosaur(鱼龙).

    Since then, Mary became crazy about fossil hunting. She liked to hunt on the beach after a storm. The wind, rain and waves made the rocks crumble. It was easy to spot fossils. Most days Mary went fossil hunting with her dog, Tray.

    Rich friends helped Mary by selling fossils for her. They sent her money. Scientists wrote letters and came to see her. One good friend was William Buckland, a professor at Oxford University. Mary also opened a shop to sell fossils, stones and shells. She chatted with visitors.

    Mary Anning died in1847. How evolution(进化)works was explained by Charles Darwin not long after Mary died. Her fossils had helped scientists understand how things began.