My family was gathered for a barbecue when the discussion arose about a celebrity who earned a large amount of money. The major criteria for receiving millions of dollars seem to be determined by how much the audience will pay to watch the performer achieve.

    The discussion led to a sudden self-questioning. Why did I choose teaching for a career? I half-listened to their conversation as I pondered the answer.

    I remembered my three children watching me spend nights planning for my class. I remembered how they intently listened to my frustrations concerning materials, procedures and the amount of responsibility that seemed to endlessly be thrust into the laps of classroom teachers. I remembered when it came time for each of my own children to choose a profession. How I waited to hear if any had plans to follow Mom into teaching. Long considerations held no mention of anyone becoming a teacher.

    Dessert was being served, and everyone was still involved in the discussion of the enormous salary of one individual, when the phone rang. My husband handed the phone to me.

"Hello, this is Bonnie Block," I said.

"Is this the Bonnie Block who used to teach kindergarten?"

    A nervous sensation swelled in me, and my mind raced with memories of those days long ago.

"Yes!" I exclaimed with a lump in my throat. It seemed like forever as I waited anxiously to hear what the caller would say next.

"I am Danielle—Danielle Russ. I was in your kindergarten class."

    Tears of surprise and joy rolled down my flushed cheeks.

"Yes," I uttered softly as I remembered that darling, wonderful child.

"Well, I am graduating from high school this year, and I have been trying to find you. I wanted you to know what a difference you made in my life."

She proceeded to give details. My influence on her wasn't limited to kindergarten but remained a strong motivating force when she needed a coach to help her meet a challenge. "I pictured you praising and encouraging me all the way."

    Why choose teaching?

    The pay is great!

    Which boy hasn't dreamed of being a cool secret agent (特工)? The wonderful fighting abilities and the world-saving adventures are much more colorful than most people's everyday lives. Well, Cody Banks is just like any other boy, except that he is not just dreaming. He has a big secret his friends never know about. He was trained to be a spy (间谍）by a special CIA programme, which was made to look like a summer camp. He learned high-speed driving, hand-to-hand fighting and the use of high-tech tools.

    After proving he could become a young hero by saving a baby from a runaway car, Banks gets his first real task. He must make friends with a popular girl at school, Natalie Connors. Then, he must spy on her father, a scientist who has developed a dangerous technology (技术).Banks must stop a group of bad people from forcing Natalie's father into using the technology to endanger the world.

    The CIA may have taught him first-class self-defense moves, but they didn't show him how to talk to girls. Banks has zero ability when it comes to dealing with girls. How can he get around his problem and get an invitation to the girl's upcoming birthday party? Will he finally become Natalie's boyfriend and find out whatever he can about her father's work?

    Agent Cody Banks has everything that young people are interested in: big explosions, breath-taking performances and funny girl-dating experiences. It was listed No.2 in the American box office last week.

    “This story is interesting and fun for the whole family to enjoy, and especially cool for young boys，” said Paul Perkins, a film reviewer in the US.

    The first Ferris wheel was built for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The people who planned the fair were looking for an attraction that would bring people to Chicago. The Eiffel Tower had been a great success for the fair in Pairs in 1889, and they wanted something like that.

    George Ferris handed in drawings of a giant wheel that people could ride on. At first everyone laughed at his strange idea. But Mr. Ferris didn't give up, and finally the idea was accepted. The ride opened in June of 1893.

    That first wheel had thirty six enclosed cars, each holding sixty passengers. When filled it carried 2,160 people. During that summer in Chicago one and a half million people rode the Ferris wheel, which was named after Ferris. Six platforms were used to pick up and drop off passengers. Each ride was two full turns of the wheel. On the first turn, it made six stops for loading. Then the second turn was a nonstop nine-minute ride. Each car had five large glass windows in front and in back, giving everyone a great view of Chicago and Lake Michigan.

    After the fair the ride was moved to a nearby amusement park built especially to show off the wheel. In 1904 it was moved again—this time to St. Louis for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. After the fair in St. Louis closed, the wheel stood unused. In 1906 it was finally sold to a company for scrap(废弃材料）metal. It took 200 pounds of dynamite to bring it down.

    Fortunately a Chicago bridge builder, W. E. Sullivan, figured out how to make a smaller Ferris wheel that could easily be taken apart and put together. In 1906 he started the company that still makes many of the Ferris wheels used today.

    But whenever you ride one remember that it all began with George Ferris' very strange idea.

    The Humane Society of Utah,a non-profit organization,is the largest shelter in the state because it takes every animal that can be lawfully accepted.The shelter employed photographer Guinevere Shuster,from New York,who came up with a creative way to find new homes for the dogs.She took lively photos for them.

The 31-year-old created sets of four pictures showing the playful and serious sides of each animal.Guinevere Shuster tried her best to show these dogs the way they'd really look if you allowed them into your life.She said,"I'm always trying to imagine better ways to make the poor animals attractive to the public.The photos show their great personalities and are a much better way than presenting them as the sad dogs waiting to be taken home.I'm lucky because I get to connect the two things I love most,animals and photography."

Guinevere says she finds it easy to work with dogs.She said,"It's just me and the dog in the office so they can pay their attention to the photo-taking.I use a lot of treats and some funny noises I've learned to get the dogs' attention. A fun method is to throw treats at the dogs-it's useful for getting unusual looks from them."

    Since starting the project,a number of dogs have been taken home by dog lovers after they saw Guinevere's pictures on the Humane Society of Utah's Facebook page.In the last three years,she has photographed more than 4,000 animals.This year,the shelter has placed nearly 9,000 homeless pets into their permanent homes.

    Tomato Festival

    Started in 2005, the Tomato Festival has grown into a local tradition in Malta. In recent years, the festival has added amusement park-style rides and a yearly Creature Feature, which screens old horrible movies. There are also dance competitions, parades and pancake breakfast. Third weekend in August.

Address: 833 Tinkham Rd, Fountain Park, Wilbraham, Massachusetts 01095 Phone：(413)599-0010

    Brat Days

Don't mistake this festival for a day filled with poorly behaved children. Begun in 1953, the gathering is the biggest festival in the city each year and features more than 50 stands (摊位) selling the sausage, as well as a contest to see who can quickly eat the most bratwurst (德国式小香肠) in ten minutes. Early August.

    Address: 17th and New Jersey sts, Kiwanis Park, Sheboygan, Wisconsin 53081

Phone: (920)457-9491

    Hope Watermelon Festival

    The festival dates back to the 1920s, when many trains went through this small town and local watermelon growers would sell their watermelon to parched travelers. These days, the festival sees a Watermelon Queen crowned(加冠的) and sometimes a world-record watermelon grown. There are also more than 300 stands selling arts and crafts from a six-state area, as well as a car show and the Watermelon Olympics. Early August.

Address: 108 W 3rd St, Hope, Arkansas 71801 Phone: (870) 777-3640

    Oyster Festival (牡蛎节)

Featuring appearances from tall ships and oyster boats, this festival has regularly drawn 60,000 visitors a year since it began in 1978.More than 3,000 volunteers make the festival possible each year. Norwalk is less than a two-hour drive from many of New England's larger cities, making it easy to attend the festival during a trip to New York or Hartford. Weekend after Labor Day.

Address: Sea view Ave, Veteran's Park, East Nor-walk, Connecticut 06855 Phone: (800) 866-7925

    Summer's here and it won't be long before school-aged kids across America start complaining that they're tired of riding their bikes, playing at the park, swimming in the pool...and all the other awesome activities their parents hoped would keep them pleasant for the next 10 weeks. Well, if it's any comfort, such rapid boredom could suggest that the kids have amazing powers of memory. A new study shows that the better your short-term memory is, the faster you fed sated (过饱的）and decide you've had enough.

    "Though satiation can be physical, like when you feel full after eating too much, we were interested in the psychological (心理学的）side of satiation. Like when you're just tired of something," Noelle Nelson, assistant professor of marketing and consumer behavior. She and her colleague Joseph Redden at the University of Minnesota tried to think outside the lunch box." Something that was interesting to me is that some people get tired of same things at very different speeds. So if you think about pop songs on the radio, some people must still be enjoying them and requesting them even after hearing them a lot. But a lot of other people are really sick of those same songs."

    The difference, the researchers thought, might have to do with memories of past experiences. For example, studies show that people push away from the dinner table sooner when they're asked to describe in detail what they ate earlier for lunch.

    So the researchers tested the memory capacity (能力） of college students, The students then viewed a repeating series of three classic paintings…like The Starry Night, American Gothic, and The Scream...or listened and re-listened to a series of three pop songs...or three pieces of classical music. Throughout the test, the students were asked to rate （定等级） their experience from zero to tan. And the better a participant scored in the memory test, the faster they got bored." We found that people with larger capacities remembered more about the music or art, which led to them getting tired of the music or art more quickly. So remembering more details actually made the students feel like they'd experienced the music or art more often."

    The findings suggest that marketers could control our desire for their products by figuring out ways to keep us from fully remembering our experiences. We could also trick ourselves into eating less junk food by putting ourselves in the memory of a previous (之前的) snack. As for kids easily bored, just tell them to forget about it—it might help them have more fun.