The end of the school year is in sight — Christmas cards, candy canes and of course, end of year reports.

    While most parents welcome an assessment of their kids' performance, they do not expect their own input to be evaluated. But a school in the UK is changing that. As well as assessing their students, they are dishing out grades to mums and dads. Parents that are really involved in their kids' education are rewarded with an A, and parents that haven't done their bit get a disappointing D.

    The school, Greasley Beauvale Primary in Nottinghamshire, uses standard such as whether mums and dads have attended school events such as plays and parent teacher evenings to decide on the grade. The school's principal, Donna Chambers, said that the scheme had been well received.

    “There were some critics. In spite of it, between 15 per cent and 20 per cent of parents started out in the lower categories but now that has been reduced to just two per cent,” she explained.

    Chambers hopes that the scheme will help motivate parental involvement. “The system is important because you have got to get the parents on board from day one. That one hour initial conversation saying they could improve will make a difference to the rest of that child's academic life”, she said.

    But while the scheme may be well intentioned, it is likely to be connected with parent shaming. There are lots of reasons why some mums and dads might not be involved in school activities such as work commitments, looking after younger children or caring for elderly relatives.

    And of course, being involved in your kid's education doesn't begin and end at school. There is a lot that goes on behind the scenes from helping with homework to keeping uniforms freshly laundered. And what about all the parents who stayed up sewing special costumes at the last minute? Surely that earns a gold star instead of a grade!

    Several years ago, my parents, my wife, my son and I ate at one of those restaurants where the menu is written on a blackboard. After a wonderful dinner, the waiter set the check in the middle of the table. That's when it happened：my father did not reach for the check.

    Conversation continued. Finally I realized that I should pick up the check! After hundreds of restaurant meals with my parents, after a lifetime of thinking of my father as the one with dollars, it had all changed. I reached for the check, and my view of myself suddenly changed. I was an adult. I was no longer a kid (child).

Some people mark off (区分) their lives in years, I measure mine in small events. I didn't become a young man at a particular age, like 16, but rather when a kid who wandered in the streets called me "mister". These events in my life are called "milestones"(里程碑).

    There have been other milestones. The cops (policemen) of my youth always seemed big, even huge, and of course they were older than I was. Then one day they were suddenly neither. The day came when I suddenly realized that all the football players in the game I was watching were younger than I was. They were just big kids. With that milestone gone was the dream that someday, maybe I, too, could be a football player. Without ever having reached the hill, I was over it.

    I never thought that I would fall asleep in front of the TV set as my father did. Now it's what I do best. I never thought that I would go to the beach and not swim, yet I spent all of August at the shore and never once went into the ocean. I never thought that I would appreciate opera, but now the combination of voice and orchestra attracts me. I never thought that I would prefer to stay home in the evenings, but now I find myself passing up parties. I used to think that people who watched birds were strange, but this summer I found myself watching them, and maybe I'll get a book on the subject. I feel a strong desire for a religious belief that I never thought I'd want, feel close to my ancestors long gone, and echo my father in arguments with my son. I'll still lose….

    One day I bought a house. One day－What a day!－I became a father, and not too long after that I picked up the check for my own father. I thought then it was a milestone for me. One day, when I was a little older, I realized it was one for him too, another milestone．

    Do women make BETTER astronauts? Russia locks an all-female crew in space simulator (太空模拟器) for eight days to find out. Six Russian women have been sent into a spaceship to begin a unique experiment testing how an all- female crew would relate to others on a trip to the Moon and back.

    "It's interesting for us to see what is special about the way a female crew communicates," said Sergei Ponomaryov, the experiment's leader." it will be particularly interesting in terms of psychology," said the institute's director Igor Ushakov. "I'd like to wish you a lack of conflicts, even though they say that in one kitchen, two housewives find it hard to live together," he added.

    The volunteers include scientific researchers, a doctor and a psychologist. The test period simulates (模仿) a flight to the Moon and back, with the women carrying out 10 experiments covering psychology and human biology. Russia sent the first woman into space, Valentina Tereshkova, in 1963 but has fallen behind since. Last year, it sent its fourth female astronaut into space, Yelena Serova. Serava complained of a great deal of media interest in how she would wash her hair aboard the International Space Station, pointing out that male astronauts did not face the same line of questioning.

    The women found themselves fielding questions at a press conference about how they would act without men or makeup for eight days, "We are very beautiful without makeup," said participant Darya Komissarova. Her colleague Anna Kussmaul was more direct: "We are doing work. When you're doing your work, you don't think about men and women." They plan to spend their 11/2 hours per day of free time watching films, reading and playing board games. Team leader Yelena Luchnitskaya said she expected the women to deal with any conflict.

    When we found him, he was a sorry sight. His clothes were torn, his hands bleeding. Before we reached him, we saw him fall. He lay a moment. Then he pulled himself to his feet, walked unsteadily a few yards through the woods and fell again. After we got him out, we went back to find the gun that he had thrown down. His tracks showed that for two days he had circled in the forest, within 200 yards of the road. His senses were so dulled by fear and tiredness that he did not hear the cars going by or see the lights at night. We found him just in time.

    This man, like others before him, had simply been frightened when he knew he was lost. What had been a near disaster might have turned out as only a pleasant walk, if he had made a few preparations before he stepped from the highway or off a known path.

    Whatever sense of direction that a man may have, it's still largely a question of observation. A skilled woodsman always keeps an eye on his surroundings. He notes the shape of a mountain, the direction water flows through a swamp, and the way a tree leans across a path. With these in mind, he is still likely to turn around many times, but he is seldom lost.

    There are exceptions, of course, and once in a while a man does come across some strange problem that puts him into the “lost” situation. A rainstorm may catch him without a compass in his pocket. Darkness may find him in a rough area, where travel is dangerous without a light.

    When this happens, the normal first reaction is the fear of being laughed at as a result of his poor knowledge in the woods. He may also be concerned about the inconvenience that he will cause his friends when he doesn't show up. This false pride may lead him to keep on the move in a false effort to find his way against all difficulties.

    The person who thinks ahead is seldom in great danger. He'll be safe if he observes carefully, thinks ahead, and remains calm.

    Before the 1830s, most newspapers were sold through annual subscriptions in America, usually $8 to $10 a year. Today $8 or $10 seems a small amount of money, but at that time these amounts were forbidding to most citizens. Accordingly, newspapers were read almost only by rich people in politics or the trades. In addition, most newspapers had little in them that would appeal to a mass audience. They were dull and visually forbidding. But the revolution that was taking place in the 1830s would change all that.

    The trend, then, was toward the "penny paper" ­a term referring to papers made widely available to the public. It meant any inexpensive newspaper; perhaps more importantly it meant newspapers that could be bought in single copies on the street.

    This development did not take place overnight. It had been possible(but not easy)to buy single copies of newspapers before 1830, but this usually meant the reader had to go down to the printer's office to purchase a copy. Street sales were almost unknown. However, within a few years, street sales of newspapers would be commonplace in eastern cities. At first the price of single copies was seldom a penny­usually two or three cents was charged­and some of the older well­known papers charged five or six cents. But the phrase "penny paper" caught the public's fancy, and soon there would be papers that did indeed sell for only a penny.

    This new trend of newspapers for "the man on the street" did not begin well. Some of the early ventures(企业)were immediate failures. Publishers already in business, people who were owners of successful papers, had little desire to change the tradition. It took a few youthful and daring businessmen to get the ball rolling.

    I remember the first time I got on a horse. When I was a little boy aged two, my mom agreed to let me take a short ride and that was it! From then on, I drove my parents crazy begging for a horse.

    When I was four, I had mutism, in which children stop speaking in certain social situations. I went days, weeks, months without a sound at school. At most, I might quietly whisper to a friend. I suffered silently through school until I was ten when a psychologist (心理学家) had an idea. He asked me what I wanted more than anything else in the world. He explained I was going to be given a chance to work for that. And I was permitted to whisper the answer in my mother's ear, "A horse."

    I was to get a pony, but I had to live up to my end of the bargain (讲价). I had a list of weekly tasks I had to finish. I had to answer the phone five times per week, something I had never done before. I had to say one word to my teacher at school and the list went on. For a child with mutism, saying one word to someone can be like climbing Mount Qomolangma. I did everything that was asked of me and the day came. His name was Sequoia, whom I fell in love with immediately. When I was in Sequoia's presence, I forgot all about my problems and felt strong and secure.

    I am a fully participating member of society these days. My horse and I made it through a master's degree. I may have made it otherwise, but I'm not sure. I feel I owe my life to the horse and I try to give it back to him. He has given me the best gift I could ever imagine, my life.