Sandra Cisneros was born in Chicago in 1954 to a Mexican American family. As the only girl in a family of seven children, she often felt like she had "seven fathers ", because her six brothers, as well as her father, tried to control her. Feeling shy and unimportant, she hid herself into books. Despite her love of reading, she did not do well in elementary school because she was too shy to participate.

    In high school, with the encouragement of one particular teacher, Cisneros improved her grades and worked for the school literary magazine. Her father encouraged her to go to college because he thought it would be a good way for her to find a husband. Cisneros did attend college, but instead of searching for a husband, she found a teacher who helped her join the famous graduate writing program at the University of Iowa. At the University's Writers' Workshop, however, she felt lonely—a Mexican American from a poor neighborhood among students from wealthy families. The feeling of being so different helped Cisneros find her "creative voice".

    "It was not until this moment when I considered myself truly different that my writing acquired a voice. I knew I was a Mexican woman, but I didn't think it had anything to do with why I felt so much imbalanced in my life, but it had everything to do with it! That's when I decided I would write about something my classmates couldn't write about."

    Cisneros published her first work, The House on Mango Street , when she was twenty-nine. The book tells about a young Mexican American girl growing up in a Spanish-speaking area in Chicago, much like the neighborhoods in which Cisneros lived as a child. The book won an award in 1985 and has been used in classes from high school through graduate school level. Since then, Cisneros has published several books of poetry, a children's book, and a shortstory collection.

    There once lived in China a very foolish king and queen. One day the queen had a baby daughter. When they saw their baby, they both cried out, “My goodness! How small it is! It's hairless and toothless! It's a monster!” they sent for all the doctors in the country and ordered them to prepare some medicine for her.

    “When she drinks your medicine, she must grow to the right size and have hair and teeth,” the king said, “If you don't do this, you'll have a beating.”

    The doctors thought it impossible, but they dared not say anything against the king's order. Just then and old doctor stepped forward. “Oh, we shall certainly obey your order,” he said, but it takes time. We have to dig a mineral from the KunLun Mountains when the snow melts for the second time. The snow melts on those mountains only once in six years. So we need twelve years.”

    At last the king agreed and the doctors took away the little princess. On her twelfth birthday, they brought her back to her parents with long black hair and beautiful teeth. The king and queen were very happy and gave the doctors expensive presents.

    Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is gaining global popularity. According to a government white paper, TCM has been introduced in 183 countries and regions around the world.

    Westerners' understanding of TCM, however, may be limited to acupuncture, cupping and massage(针灸，拔罐和按摩). For instance, the purple, injury-like marks left on U. S. swimmer Michael Phelps，back from cupping for the purpose of relaxing his muscles and reducing pain became the center of attention during the Rio Olympics in 2016.

    As a matter of fact, Chinese herbs play a more important role in getting rid of diseases and keeping the body in good condition in the TCM treatment system than physical treatment. It is therefore disheartening to know that while 103 World Health Organization member countries have given approval to the practice of acupuncture, not many recognize Chinese herbal medicine. TCM falls far behind Western medicine owing partly to the slow development of Chinese herbs.

    Herbs are made into pills, powder and soup, and the kind of herbs used, their quality and quantity, and the processing of the ingredients (原材料) jointly determine the effectiveness of the prescription. Compared with Western medicine, which has standardized drug production processes and treatment methods, TCM lacks standardization, with the chemical composition and functions of its medicines being unclear and their effects being unstable. Fortunately, standardization has improved in recent decades, with an increasing number of factories producing patented TCM drugs.

    Another factor that has prevented the development of TCM prescription drugs is the lack of creativity. While Western medicine-making companies come up with new products every year, TCM drug producers tend to make medicines according to prescriptions handed down from the past. Chinese chemist Tu Youyou's winning the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for her research into malaria (疟疾) treatment may drive creativity to some extent in China's TCM industry. However, the current state of affairs cannot be changed within a short time.

    An international team of researchers from the University of Oxford have found that the way people use the Internet is closely tied to the seasonal movements in the natural world. Their online species searches follow the patterns of seasonal animal migrations (迁徙).

    Migratory birds (候鸟) flood back to where they reproduce every spring. That migratory behavior is accompanied by some human behavior. "In English-language Wikipedia (维基百科), the online searches for migratory species tend to increase in spring when those birds arrive in the United States," said the lead author John Mittermeier.

    And not just birds. Mittermeier and his team surveyed nearly 2.5 billion Wikipedia search records, for 32,000 species, across 245 languages. They also saw variable search rates for insects, horsetails and flowering plants. Seasonal trends seemed to be widespread in Wikipedia behavior for many species of plants and animals.

    This finding suggests new ways to monitor changes in the world's biological diversity. It also shows new ways to see how much people care about nature, and which species and areas might be the most effective targets for conservation.

    Mittermeier is encouraged by the search results. He commented, "I think there's a concern among conservationists (生态环境保护者) that people are losing touch with the natural world and that they're not interacting with native species anymore. And so in that sense, it was really exciting and quite unexpected for me to see people's Wikipedia interest closely related to changes in nature."

    Richard Grenyer, Associate Professor from the University of Oxford, says search data is useful to conservation biologists, "By using these big data approaches, we can direct our attention towards the difficult questions in modern conservation: which species and areas are changing, and where are the people who care the most and can do the most to help."

    An 8-year-old southeast Kansas girl is being praised for her quick, calm thinking. She grabbed the steering wheel(方向盘) and drove the family's SUV when her mother fell unconscious on their highway ride to school.

    Abby Porter and her mom, Shelly, were heading for her school in Riverton when Shelly had a medical emergency. She passed out(昏倒) behind the wheel.

    Abby is a second-grader whose father sometimes lets her drive their tractor. With her mother falling down heavily, Abby leaned over and took the wheel. At some point, Abby even successfully performed a U-turn on the four-lane highway, because she was going home to her daddy, according to Galena Police Chief Larry Delmont.

    "That was at 8:37 in the morning, and there was a lot of traffic," Delmont said. Officer Jimmy Hamilton noticed the SUV going about 20 mph and weaving a bit between the two lanes. He suspected someone was driving under the influence. As he got closer, he noticed the woman fell over in the driver's seat and saw Abby at the wheel.

    Hamilton tried to get in front of Abby's car to slow her down, but she kept switching lanes to avoid bumping into his car. Hamilton got alongside her and told Abby to stop the vehicle, but she didn't know how. He then told her she needed to bump into him to stop the car, but Abby said she didn't want to because she was afraid. He convinced Abby bumping into his car was OK.

    "I never saw her cry," Hamilton said. "From just the expression on her face and the tone of her voice, you could tell she was scared. But she stayed with it."

    Emergency crews got Abby's mother to the hospital, but Delmont said he didn't know what caused her to lose consciousness.

    The police department in Galena, a town of about 3,000 residents about 150 miles south of Kansas City, planned to present Abby with a plaque(匾牌) for "outstanding bravery in a life-threatening situation".

Many people might feel lost during a major transition (转折) in life. Life coaching, however, is the best choice for anyone who is looking for ways to get through the tough path of life.

{#blank#}1{#/blank#} Some life coaches might focus only on certain types of situations, like advancing careers, while others may be willing to help with nearly any life transition.

A life coach will often act as an advisor for his clients (客户). {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Many times, he will also be able to look at a client's life with a fair eye and offer fresh ideas on certain situations. In doing so, the life coach will usually be able to help his client work through any problems he may face.

{#blank#}3{#/blank#} During this interview, the life coach should find out what the client's wants, needs and goals are in life.

How to help each client is different to everyone, and it is a very individualized process. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Because of this, a life coach must develop plans based on each client's strengths, weaknesses, abilities and so on. A life coach will also usually take each client's morals and values into consideration.

Some life coaches may be able to find employment with a few select universities and corporations. There are also a handful of large life coaching firms that hire life coaches as well. The majority of life coaches, however, work for themselves, opening their own life coaching practices.

{#blank#}5{#/blank#}

A. Methods that work for one client may not work for another.

B. A good life coach should try to satisfy all the needs of his clients.

C. He is often expected to listen closely to their concerns and problems.

D. Before a life coach can help a client, he first needs an in-depth interview.

E. Life coaches offer guidance to all types of people in different stages of their lives.

F. In some cases, life coaches may work together and offer a wider range of services.

G. Generally, there are no strict education requirements for starting a life coaching career.