It's just been three months after the first bike-sharing company arrived in Singapore, but reports of abuse and vandalism（故意破坏）of shared bikes in the city keep appearing on social media.

    The majority of these shared bikes are stationless, which means they don't need to be stopped at a designated（指定的）spot. They lock themselves after your ride is over, and you're meant to just leave the bike at the side of a road.

    But users have been chaining up bicycles outside their apartments, preventing others from using them. Some people bring them up to their apartment floors, so they can't be found easily by other users. Some people have removed the bikes' number plates or codes, and some even have painted over the bikes to claim the bikes for themselves. Most of the abused bikes belong to either Singapore-based oBike, or ofo, a bike-sharing giant based in China.

    ofo has encouraged Singaporean users to report issues. oBike said that the number of bicycles that were damaged made up less than one percent of its fleet. The company said in February that it planned to bring in “tens of thousands” of bikes by mid-2017. The company has yet to ban anyone from its service, but said that it would take appropriate action – including making reports to the police.

    oBike also introduced a shortcoming system, similar to that of its competitor, China-based Mobike. Users start with 100 points, which get taken away for errant（出格的）behaviour such as forgetting to lock the bike, or parking at non-designated areas. Users are banned from using oBike when their scores reach zero. oBike has an eight-man operation team that can remove bicycles parked casually.

    When approached for comment, Mobike said, “In China, just as in Singapore, there are always a tiny minority of people who abuse the bikes, so we designed our system to prevent this type of abuse.”

    North America tours

    Tour North America and discover how the New World became the culturally diverse civilization it is today: the world's greatest melting pot is in your own backyard.

Boston: Colonial History

    Days: 4

    Get your walking shoes ready to follow the footsteps of the American Founding Fathers in Boston. Journey through the landmarks of the American Revolution in this historical city by walking down the Freedom Trail with a Colonial tour guide. Get out of the city with detours to Salem. Lexington, Concord and Plymouth, where you will see where the first shots of the American Revolution were fired.

Civil Rights in the South

    Days: 5

    Journey back to a time of revolution and brotherhood in the heart of the Civil Rights Movement. Follow the path of the marches through Atlanta, Montgomery and Birmingham, as well as the town of Selma, where a peace l protest erupted into what is now called" Bloody Sunday. "Pay respect to the key contributors to civil rights by visiting the Rosa Parks Museum and the home and church of the most famous civil rights activist of them all. Dr Martin Luther King, Jr.

    IL MUNC in Philadelphia

    Days: 4

    The Ivy League Model UN Conference (ILMUNC) is known as a unique educational experience for its focus on international affairs and networking. Students from across the continent will come together to debate and discuss pressing global issues as UN delegates. You can also explore some of downtown Philadelphia's finest attractions including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Liberty Bell. Independence Hall before or after the conference.

    Quebec City &Montreal Four Day Spring Tour

    Days: 4

    Montreal and Quebec City are two of the most diverse, beautiful and exciting travel destinations in Canada. Your tour through Quebec's Upper Town includes the beautifully lit National Assembly, Dufferin Terrace, and Chateau Frontenac. Walk along the 17^th-century cobblestone streets of Lower Town, then continue on to Montreal for a visit to Mont Royal, which boasts breathtaking views from the highest point in the cit.

    Last April, on a Sunday, we took one of our “nowhere” drives. My husband was quietly driving along a back road. I was occupied in the front passenger seat watching the scenery.

    I noticed out of the corner of my eye that my husband was struggling to look out of my window. This frightened me, since his eyes should be on the road in front of him. I asked him what he was looking at out of the windows, and he quietly replied, “Nothing.”

    After a few minutes, I looked over at my husband and noticed a tear running down his cheek. I asked him what was wrong. This time he told me, “I was just thinking about Pop and a story he had once told me.” It had something to do with Pop, his friend from childhood, and I wanted to know the story, so I asked him to share it with me.

    He said, “When I was 8 years old, Pop and I were out fishing and he told me that the pine trees know when it is Easter.”

    I have no idea what he meant by that, so I pressed him for more information.

    He continued on… “The pine trees start their new growth in the weeks before Easter because spring is drawing near. If you look at the tops of the pine trees, you will see the yellow shoots. As the days get closer to Easter Sunday, the tallest shoot will branch off and form a cross. By the time Easter Sunday comes around, you will see that most of the pine trees will have small yellow crosses on all of the tallest shoots.”

    I turned to look out of the window and I couldn't believe my eyes. It was a week before Easter, and you could see all of the trees with the tall yellow shoots stretching to the sky.

    The tallest ones shone in the sunlight like rows of tiny golden crosses. May you find your Easter season filled with beautiful golden crosses!

    Literature is an important part of a total language arts program at all grade levels because of the many benefits it offers.

    Literature provides pleasure to listeners and readers. It is a relaxing escape from daily problems, and it fills leisure moments. Making time for recreational reading and using high-quality literature help to develop enthusiastic readers and improve achievement. Developing a love of literature as a recreational activity is possibly the most important outcome of a literature program.

    Literature builds experience. Through reading, children expand their horizons through vicarious(引起共鸣的)experiences. They visit new places, gain new experiences, and meet new people. They learn about the past as well as the present and learn about a variety of cultures, including their own. They discover the common goals and similar emotions found in people of all times and places. Nory Ryan's Song by Patricia Reilly, Giff, a hard survival story, is set in Ireland during the potato hunger of I845,and Patricia Polacco's The Butterfly, deals with Nazis, resistance, and Jewish persecution(迫害)during World War II.

    Literature provides a language model for those who hear and read it. Good literature exposes children to correct sentence patterns, standard story structures, and varied word usage. Children for whom English is a second language can improve their English with the interesting context, and all children benefit from new vocabulary that is woven into the stories.

    Literature develops thinking skills. Discussions of literature bring out reasoning related to sequence; cause and effect; character motivation; predictions; visualization of actions, characters, and settings; critical analysis of the story; and creative responses.

    Literature helps children deal with their problems. By finding out about the problems of others through books, children receive insights into dealing with their own problems, a process called bibliotherapy. Children might identify with Gilly, living angrily in a foster home in Katherine Paterson's The Great Gilly Hopkins, or with Mary Alice, a city girl forced to live with her grandma in a "hick town" in Richard Peck's A Year Down Yonder.

    Luo Jingyu, 19, has four years of experience of running business. He is also a freshman in the arts department of Hubei University.

    Luo Jingyu is from an ordinary family. He said, "My parents told me if I wanted something I should make an effort to get it, so I earned pocket money by doing housework when I was little." The dream of running his own business grew in his heart. He said, "I want to be a successful person, like Alibaba's Ma Yun."

    When Luo was a junior student, he had the idea of selling lanterns when he saw many people flying Chinese lanterns in a square. Luo bought some lanterns from a store, but the sales were not as good as he had expected. Then he found another way to do business. He bought lanterns on the Internet at a very low price. Finally he easily made 5,000 yuan in two days.

    With a happy beginning, Luo planned to open a dress shop. "My parents didn't support me opening a dress shop, so I had to borrow 120,000 yuan for it." Although he did market research before starting, the business wasn't very good because his taste in fashion wasn't accepted by customers. The shop eventually closed down after half a year.

    After experiencing a big loss, he decided to do something he was familiar with—selling painting tools. As a fine arts student, he knew the market. He convinced his friends to invest one million yuan in his shop. With a good business mind and a lot of effort, the sales of the shop reached six million yuan in a year.

    Even though Luo is rich, he uses a cheap cell phone and does not wear luxury clothes. He has a simple lifestyle. "It isn't easy to make money, so money should be used on something worthwhile," he said.

    A recent study led by researchers from the National University of Singapore(NUS)has found a clear link between the color of a taxi and its accident rate. An analysis of 36 months of detailed taxi, driver and accident data from two fleets of yellow and blue taxis in Singapore suggested that yellow taxis have fewer accidents than blue taxis. The higher visibility (能见度)of yellow makes it easier for drivers to avoid getting into accidents with yellow taxis, leading to a lower accident rate.

    The study was led by Prof Ho. To test whether there was a causal relationship between the color of a taxi and the number of accidents the taxi had, the research team analysed data collected by the largest taxi company in Singapore. The researchers found that yellow taxis have about 6.1 fewer accidents per 1,000 taxis per month.

    The researchers also studied the economic effect of changing the color of the entire fleet of taxis to yellow. The Singapore taxi company involved in the study owns about 16,700 taxis in a ratio(比例) of one yellow to three blue taxis. If a commercial decision is made to switch from blue to yellow taxis, 76.6 fewer accidents would occur per month or 917 fewer accidents per year. Assuming an average repair cost of $1,000 per car and a downtime of six days, switching the color of all taxis to yellow could produce an annual savings of $2 million.

    “We are eager to continue to validate(证实) the findings of our study by looking at the use of yellow in other types of public transport, such as school buses. For instance, we hope to compare the accident rates of yellow school buses against other colors to find out if yellow is indeed a safer color for school buses. Besides, we are also interested to look at private-hire vehicles and do a comparison of the accident rates of vehicles that are of different colors,” explained Prof Ho.