The Come-back Coffeehouse   The sign in the window read "Carl's Coffee Shoppe," spelled the old-fashioned way. Hallie shook her head and wondered how many times she had suggested an alternative. She entered the shop and saw only one person.

    "I could help with the books, Dad", Hallie offered,"There's not much you could do." Her father signed. "How about if you clean the counters instead?" His statement made her feel like a little girl instead of a senior in high school. Hallie sprayed some cleanser and ran a cloth over the worn counter tops . After she had washed a few of the old eggshell-colored cups, she began her homework. At closing time, Hallie's parents sat beside her. "You know the shop has not been profitable lately," Mr. Rhodes began. "We need to decide if it is even worth keeping it open." "We're going to visit Uncle Harold over spring vacation." Mrs. Rhodes continued. "He can look over the books and tell us what our options are. You and AuntTess will run the shop for the week."

    By spring vacation Hallie was ready for an adventure. Hllie's parents gave some instructions, and said good-bye. Hallie stared absently out the window at the passersby: young people on their way to work, and kids on their school vacation. They were not the same people that her grandpa Carl had served. Suddenly Hallie had an idea. She confided in Aunt Tess, who approved. The two eagerly set to work.

At the end of the week, Hallie was coming out from the kitchen when she saw her parents standing in the shop, confused. She smiled asher parents stared at the teens around the counter and the young families seated at the tables.

    "Welcome back!" Hallie swept her arms to present there staurant's cheerful new decoration. Bright, attractive coverings spread over the tables, and modern posters hung on the walls, while, colorful mismatched dishes contributed to the pleasant atmosphere."

    "I brought board games from home," Hallie added excitedly, "and the bookstore down the street donated the posters. When we talked to our friends about what we were doing, they were happy to give us some dishes." Hallie held her breath as she waited for her parents' reaction.

    "Everyone certainly seems to like the changes," noted Mrs. Rhodes.

    "Speaking of changes," Mr. Rhodes said,"I see our name has changed, too."

    "Do you mind? I changed our name to 'Come-Back Coffeehouse'to make the shop sound welcoming, as in 'Please come back again'..."

    A smile spread across her father's face. "The newname is fitting. Thanks to you, this place certainly has made a come back!"

                                                                                             Three Boys and a Dad
      Brad closed the door slowly as Sue left home to visit her mother. Expecting a whole day to relax, he was thinking whether to read the newspaper or watch his favourite TV talk show on his first day off in months. “This will be like a walk in the park.” he'd told his wife. “I'll look after the kids, and you can go visit your mom.”

Things started well, but just after eight o'clock, his three little “good kids”—Mike, Randy, and Alex — came down the stairs in their night clothes and shouted “breakfast, daddy.” When food had not appeared on within thirty seconds, Randy began using his spoon on Alex's head as if it were a drum. Alex started to shout loudly in time to the beat(节拍) . Mike chanted “Where's my toast, where's my toast” in the background. Brad realized his newspaper would have to wait for a few seconds.

    Life became worse after breakfast. Mike wore Randy's underwear on his head. Randy locked himself in the bathroom, while Alex shouted again because he was going to wet his pants. Nobody could find clean socks, although they were before their eyes. Someone named “Not me” had spilled a whole glass of orange juice into the basket of clean clothes. Brad knew the talk show had already started.

    By ten o'clock, things were out of control. Alex was wondering why the fish in the fish bowl refused his bread and butter. Mike was trying to show off his talent by decorating kitchen wall with his color pencils. Randy, thankfully, appeared to be reading quietly in the sitting room, but closer examination showed that he was eating apple jam straight from the bottle with his hands. Brad realized that the talk show was over and reading would be impossible.

    At exactly 11:17, Brad called the daycare center(日托所).“I suddenly have to go into work and my wife is away. Can I bring the boys over in a few minutes?” The answer was obviously “yes” because Brad was smiling.

    We know that many animals do not stay in one place. Birds, fish and other animals move from one place to another at a certain time. They move for different reasons: most of them move to find food more easily, but others move to get away from places that are too crowded.

    When cold weather comes, many birds move to warmer places to find food. Some fishes give birth in warm water and move to cold water to feed. The most famous migration(迁移) is probably the migration of the fish, which is called “salmon”. This fish is born in fresh water but it travels many miles to salt water. There it spends its life. When it is old, it returns to its birthplace in fresh water. Then it gives birth and dies there. In northern Europe, there is a kind of mouse. They leave their mountain homes when they become too crowded. They move down to the low land. Sometimes they move all the way to the seaside, and many of them are killed when they fall into the sea.

    Recently, scientists have studied the migration of a kind of lobster(龙虾). Every year, when the season of bad weather arrives, the lobster get into a long line and start to walk across the floor of the ocean. Nobody knows why they do this, and nobody knows where they go.

    So, sometimes we know why humans and animals move from one place to another, but at other times we don't. Maybe living things just like travel.

    Children exposed to "safe" levels of air pollution in the womb(子宫) develop brain damage that damages their concentration, a study has shown.

    The research is the first too link common pollutants such as nitrogen(氮) dioxide and soot(油烟) to changes in the brains of unborn babies that mean they may struggle to focus at school in later life. The findings suggest that even comparatively clean city air could lead to worse academic performance and an increased risk of mental health problems such as addition or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder(缺陷多动障碍).

    In recent years scientists have found that children who grow up surrounded by air pollution are more likely to have a broad range of "neuro(神经)­developmental" difficulties, including autism and various kinds of cognitive(认知) damage. However, only a handful of studies have looked at the ways in which the poisonous gases and microscopic particles(微粒) that mothers and young children take in affect the brain during critical stages of its growth.

    A group led by Monica Guxens, of the Barcelona Institute for Global Health, found that exposure to air pollution before birth appeared to have slowed the development of several brain regions that play an important role in people's capacity for self­denial and sustained effort. This lack of inhibition could in turn cause "cognitive delays" when the children get older, the scientists argue in Biological Psychiatry.

    "We need this function in our daily life," Dr. Guxens said. "It controls our impulses(冲动) and our selective attention. Children need it to learn and for making decisions in later life. We're interested to see what will happen: is there going to be an impact on their academic work, are there going to be clinical implications? It might be that this will lead to problems later."

    The results were drawn from MRI scans of 873 children between the ages of six and ten in Rotterdam. Even though 99.5 percent of their mothers had lived with nanoparticle pollution levels well below EU legal limits while they were pregnant the pollution still appeared to have taken its toll(伤亡人数).

    Children who had been exposed to more pollution in the womb did worse on a test of their ability to block out irrelevant stimuli(刺激). They also had thinner outer layers in the precuneus(楔前叶) and the rostral middle frontal regions of their brains, both of which are involved in cognitive inhibition, which refers to the mind's ability to tune out stimuli that are irrelevant to the task at hand or to the mind's current state.

    Experiments on animals show that so­called fine particles are able to pass through the placenta and affect the brain of the fetus(胎儿). Dr Guxens said there were probably no such thing as a safe concentration of air pollution.

    Much older than the Great Wall, Stonehenge is one of the world's most fascinating (迷人的), but least understood historical sites (遗址). Every year, thousands of tourists come to admire Stonehenge's beauty and to wonder about how and why it was built.

    Stonehenge was produced by a culture that left no written records. Though there are many guesses, it is still a mystery why stone-age man moved such heavy stones over 380 kilometers from where they were made.

    At that time, people had only basic wooden tools. To move the stones they probably used tree trunks (树干) to roll them along.

    Some historians believe that Stonehenge was a temple, the site of ancient sacrifice(祭祀). Others believe it was perhaps a giant sundial (日冕) to tell the time. Stonehenge could have been a burial ground(墓地) from its earliest beginnings, because human bone dating from as early as 3000 BC was found there. Whatever its ancient use was, the stones have always been a source of fascination for British people. One record from 1135 said the great stones were carried to England by giant magical creatures!

    In modern times Stonehenge has become a huge hit with tourists. When Stonehenge was first opened to the public it was possible to walk among and even climb on the stones, but the stones were circled with ropes in 1977 as a result of serious erosion(侵蚀). Visitors are no longer allowed to touch the stones, but are able to walk around from a short distance away. What's more, visitors can make special bookings to get into the stones throughout the year.

Scholars in quest of demystifying the enigmatic depths of the subaquatic cosmos have been bestowed with a trove of invaluable data, courtesy of a conglomerate of international experts who have compiled a compendium delineating the fauna that emit or are anticipated to emit acoustic waves beneath the waterline.

Under the aegis of Audrey Looby, a luminary from the University of Florida, the Global Library of Underwater Biological Sounds consortium, in unison with the World Register of Marine Species, has meticulously chronicled 729 species of marine mammals, aquatic vertebrates, and invertebrates that generate either active or passive auditory signals. Furthermore, the register encompasses an additional 21,911 species presumed to be potential sources of sound.

"Given that the aquatic expanse envelops more than 70% of the Earth's terrestrial envelope, the majority of our planet's ecosystems are submerged, and it is a prevalent misconception that the majority of these aquatic entities exist in an auditory vacuum. The recently unveiled exhaustive digital repository, which catalogues the known sound-producing creatures, is unprecedented and has the potential to transform the domains of marine and aquatic science," elucidated the team of investigators.

"The act of eavesdropping on the subaquatic symphony can unveil a plethora of insights regarding the species that orchestrate these sounds and serves a multitude of applications, from the stewardship of fisheries, the detection of invasive species, to the appraisal of the imprint of human activity on the environment," remarked Looby, who is also the co-architect of FishSounds, a repository that curates a spectrum of research records on the acoustic emissions of fish.

The research of this collective was disseminated in the annals of Scientific Data and featured contributions from 19 scribes hailing from six distinct nations. "Comprehending the modalities of interaction between marine species and their environs is of paramount global significance, and the unrestricted availability of this dataset marks a monumental stride towards this aspiration," proclaimed Keran Cox, an affiliate of the investigative cadre.

"The majority of individuals are acquainted with the vocalizations of cetaceans or marine mammals, yet are frequently astonished to discover that a multitude of fish and invertebrates also utilize sound as a medium of communication," Looby stated. "Our database serves to exemplify the ubiquity of sound production in the subaquatic realm across a diverse array of creatures, yet our understanding remains in its infancy, with much yet to be uncovered."