Paris

Passengers carried per day: 4.4m

Cost of ticket: 80p flat fare

Length: 131 miles    Lines: 14   Stations: 297

    In Paris there are pleasures for those who use the Metro(地铁) — many of them artistic. The graceful Art Nouveau dragon-fly entrances are just the most noticeable on a Metro system which celebrated its 100^th anniversary by spending 30 million francs (£2.9million) on making its stations works of art. On my way home I pass Bonne Nouvelle station in the heart of Paris's cinema district. There, during the cinema festival this summer, special lighting effects dot the platforms and films are projected onto the large advertising boards.

    More than anything the metro is efficient. “When I worked on line 4”, says a retired driver, “we had exactly 30 minutes and 15 seconds to complete the journey. If it took any longer, they cut our pay.” But there are problems. Many Metro stations have too many stairs, and changing lines at big interchanges(交换) can be tiresome.

Moscow

Passengers carried per day: 9m

Cost of ticket: 12p

Length: 164 miles    Lines: 11   Stations: 162

    The first underground passage for the Moscow Metropolitan started in 1932. Three years later the trains started running. They haven't stopped since— every 90 seconds or two minutes during rush hour, every five minutes the rest of the time, from 6 a.m. till 1 a. m. There may be a crowd of people but there is seldom a wait.

    The trains take you through spacious and spotless stations. For tourists it's a major sightseeing attraction: from Russian Art Deco to neo-classical, the Metro stations are not to be missed.

Tokyo

Passengers carried per day: 7m

Cost of ticket: 90p ~ £1.68

Length: 177 miles    Lines: 12   Stations: 209

    Trains do not just arrive on time in Tokyo. They stop right on the platform mark so that passengers can line up knowing exactly where the doors will open. Train driving is a respectful job for life, for which the applicants must pass a strict screening of health checks, interviews and written exams before they can put on the enviable uniform, cap and white gloves.

    However, overcrowding means it is far from perfect. At rush hours, some stations employ part-time platform staff to push in passengers. Carriages can be filled to 184% of capacity(容量). The main reason for such conditions is that the Tokyo subway station system has only 15 miles of track for every 1 million people, compared to 36 on the London Underground. New lines are under construction, but at a cost of £500,000 per meter of rail. Progress has been slow.

Mexico City

Passengers carried per day: 4.2m

Cost of ticket: 11p flat fare

Length: 99 miles    Lines: 11   Stations: 175

    Fast, relatively safe, and very cheap, Mexico City's underground is an ideal place of order and efficiency compared to the disorders above. The Mexican capital's underground system is the biggest in the continent and one of the most subsidized (获得补助的) networks in the world.

    The first trains leave the station at 5 a.m. and the last after midnight as the crowd move from the outskirts of the 20 million-strong megacity (大城市). Mexico City's Metro also attracts a sizeable group of passengers who are unwilling to spend hours in traffic jams. There is a master plan to build new lines and extend existing one, but financial constraints (约束) complicated by the fact that the system runs through different jurisdicitons (管辖权) mean progress is slow.

Food festivals around the world

Stilton Cheese Rolling

    May Day is a traditional day for celebrations, but the 2,000 English villagers of Stilton must be the only people in the world who include cheese rolling in their annual plans. Teams of four, dressed in a variety of strange and funny clothes, roll a complete cheese along a 50-metre course. On the way, they must not kick or throw their cheese, or go into their competitors' lane（赛道）. Competition is fierce and the chief prize is a complete Stilton cheese weighing about four kilos (disappointingly, but understandably the cheeses used in the race are wooden ones). All the competitors arc served with beer or port wine, the traditional accompaniment for Stilton cheese.

Fiery Foods Festival—The Hottest Festival on Earth

    Every year more than 10,000 people head for the city of Albuquerque, New Mexico. They come from as far away as Australia, the Caribbean and China, but they all share a common addiction—food that is not just spicy（辛辣）,but hot enough to make your mouth burn, your head spin and your eyes water. Their destination is the Fiery Food and BBQ Festival which is held over a period of three clays every March. You might like to try a chocolate-covered habanero pepper—officially the hottest pepper in the world—or any one of the thousands of products that are on show. But one thing's for sure—if you don't like the feeling of a burning tongue, this festival isn't for you!

La Tomatina—The World's Biggest Food Fight

    On the last Wednesday of every August, the Spanish town of Bunol hosts Ea Tomatina—the world's largest food fight. A week-long celebration leads up to an exciting tomato battle as the highlight of the week's events. The early morning sees the arrival of large trucks with tomatoes—official fight-starters get things going by casting tomatoes at the crowd.

    The battle lasts little more than half an hour, in which time around 50,000 kilograms of tomatoes have been thrown at anyone or anything that moves, runs, or fights back. Then everyone heads down to the river to make friends again—and for a much-needed wash!

    Does Fame Drive You Crazy?

    As you enter university, you are likely to be confused by new demands and challenges. You need to decide for yourselves what you want to achieve when you graduate. It is important that you have appropriate and realistic expectations of a university education and know how far you can go towards achieving your personal and academic goals, so that you will have a sense of achievement at the end of your first year as well as when you graduate.

        This website aims to be a quick one stop information hub to help you understand more about learning at HKU and make better use of HKU's support services.

    University Life is an adventure that—literally everyone here is a key player.

    Your strategic moves at each stage have a direct impact on the outcomes of this adventure. The key to winning is mainly about how you manage your resources, especially your time. Most successful players engage themselves in activities that meet their needs and goals.

    First Year Experience

    As a new player, you may find yourself standing at the crossroads and wondering which directions you should go. An open mind for handling new challenges and a roadmap or planning and setting priorities during your stay at     HKU are what you need to start your journey.

    And don't forget to check out the following to familiarize yourself with the 'game rules', 'support and resources' and 'opportunity cards' on hand:

    * HKU Education aims to help to fulfill what you are expected to achieve.

    * The key cards that contribute to your academic, professional and social excellence, e. g. Horizons Office, Common Core, Centre for Sports and Exercise (CSE), Centre for Applied English Studies (CAES).

    I found the last outdoor table at my favourite cafe. Reading as I ate my breakfast slowly, I was enjoying the feeling of the cool wind and the warm sun when a table next to me opened up. A woman, who had been standing nearby, clearly waiting for a seat, stepped towards the table. But from the other direction, straight from the parking lot, came a man who got to the table first.

    The woman, with a smile on her face, explained that she'd been keeping her eye on that table for several minutes and had been on her way over. The man, also smiling but determined, told her she was out of luck.

    She stood off the side, clearly disappointed, and greeted her friend with the disappointing news. I sat at my table, taking in the scene, and suddenly I realized that I had an opportunity to be kind.

    I stood up and asked her to come to my table. Quietly, I told her I had seen what had happened, and I was happy to give her my table. I was only going to be there a few more minutes anyway, so I was happy for her and her friend to have the seat.

    "But where will you sit?" she asked. I was almost done eating, I said, and I would find a seat at the counter (柜台) inside. She thanked me and beamed with delight as she invited her friend to sit down.

    Thinking about it as I finished up, I realized that whether or not the woman had acceptable demand for the table was unimportant. The feeling of the situation -- the look of hurt on her face -- had struck me, and I had the ability to do something about it.I just hope that woman's morning at the cafe was great. I know mine was.

    A week ago at Compton Elementary School, Georgia, something wonderful happened. Band students from Hillgrove High School arrived to hang out with and talk to the little guys. They wanted to make sure the school's youngest had food in their homes that week.

    The thing that thrilled people was that this generous idea came from 17-year-old Nathan Jones, not an adult. Jones is a good trumpet (小号) player with the Hillgrove Hawks band. The idea, he said, came to him two years ago during a discussion about community service in a freshman leadership class. Serving the community was nothing new to Jones. For years, he and his family, who recently moved from Orlando, Florida, had been active community volunteers.

    Last year, Jones thought it was a good idea to get the school band involved in community service, only for the young kids in the school. Band director Patrick

    Erwin agreed but decided they had neither the time nor the resources to do it. "It got put on the back burner," Jones said. "This year, I decided to try again." This time, Erwin encouraged Jones to take charge and he did.

    Back in August, Jones challenged the band to raise $5, 000 to help with the cost of packing the meals. Within two weeks, they'd collected $6, 000 in donations, enough to provide 2,500 family meals, including bags of rice, soy protein, vitamins and vegetables. By the end of the month, when poor families are struggling, a bag of food can mean the difference between a full stomach and an empty one for many of those students.

    But HiHgrove's effort isn't just about feeding the body. It's about feeding souls, too.

    Early on, the band's goal was to direct students' focus from getting "likes" on social media to building relationships with the people around them. So the band decided on the message, "What the world needs now is love, not likes" for its half-time show.

    "That means actually going into the community and actually showing love," Jones said. "We're going out and doing what we're telling people to do."