About 30 years ago, I left Cuba for the United States with my son. After getting settled finally in Brunswick, New Jersey, I enrolled(注册) my son in kindergarten. Several weeks later, my son's teacher asked me to meet him at his office.

In the teacher's office, and exchange of greetings was followed by his questions: “Is your son mentally retarded(弱智的)？Does he suffer from any kind of mental disability?”

Was he talking about my wonderful Scola? NO, no, it can't be. What a helpless, lonely moment! I told him that Scola was a quiet, sweet little boy, instead. I asked him why he was asking me all these questions.

My son could not follow the teacher's directions, he told me, and thus, Scola was disrupting the class, Didn't he know my son did not speak English yet?

He was angry; “Why hasn't your son been taught to speak English? Don't you speak English at home?”

No, I didn't speak English at home, I replied. I was sure my son would learn English in a couple of months, and I didn't want him to forget his native language. Well, wrong answer! What kind of person would not speak in English to her son at home and at all time? “Are you one of those people who come to this country to save dollars and send them back to their country, never wanting to be a part of this society?”

    Needless to say, I tried to tell him I was not one of “those people.” Then he told me the meeting was over, and I left.

    As I had expected, my son learned to speak English fluently before the school year was over. He went on to graduate from college and got a job, earning close to six figures. He travels widely and leads a well-adjusted, contented life. And he has benefited from being bilingual(双语的)。

    Speaking more than one language allows people to communicate with others; it teaches people about other cultures and other places—something very basic and obviously lacking in the “educator” I met in New Jersey.

    Throughout the history of the arts, the nature of creativity has remained constant to artists. No matter what objects they select, artists are to bring forth new forces and forms that cause change—to find poetry where no one has ever seen or experienced it before.

    Landscape is another unchanging element (元素) of art. It can be found from ancient times through the 17th­century Dutch painters to the 19th­century romanticists (浪漫主义艺术家 ) and impressionists. In the 1970s Alfred Leslie, one of the new American realists, continued this practice. Leslie sought out the same place where Thomas Cole, a romanticist, had produced paintings of the same scene a century and a half before. Unlike Cole who insists on a feeling of loneliness and the idea of finding peace in nature, Leslie paints what he actually sees. In his paintings, there is no particular change in emotions and he includes ordinary things like the highway in the background. He also takes advantage of the latest developments of color photography to help both the eyes and the memory when he improves his painting back in his workroom.

Besides, all art begs the age­old question: What is real? Each generation of artists has shown their understanding of reality in one form or another. The impressionists saw reality in brief emotional effects, the realists in everyday subjects and in forest scenes, and the Cro­Magnon cave people in their naturalistic drawings of the animals in the ancient forests. To sum up, understanding reality is a necessary struggle for artists of all periods.

    Over thousands of years the function of the arts has remained relatively constant. Past or present, Eastern or Western, the arts are a basic part of our immediate experience. Many and different are the faces of art, and together they express the basic need and hope of human beings.

    Discovering Tasmania

    The island of Tasmania a place of natural beauty and has more than 2,000 km of walking tracks and 18 national parks. If you go on a tour, you'll discover a wild and beautiful place where the people are friendly and the food is delicious. If you don't like walking, there are other tours you can choose from including a river cruise(巡游) and cycling. You can also enjoy fishing, sailing or sunbathing on the beach.

    The Tarkine coast is located in the northwest of Tasmania. It's such a wild and remote(偏僻) area that you can easily complete your walk without seeing anyone apart from the members of your group and your two guides. The area contains the largest rainforest in Australia which is home to more than 50 endangered species. It is also home to many Aboriginal Heritage Sites. During your tour, you'll come across rivers, mountain ranges, waterfalls, wildlife and long wild beaches.

    Tour Itinerary：

    Day 1：

    You're picked up from your hotel in Launceston and driven to the Tarkine. You then complete a three­hour walk through the forest before arriving at your camp at Mystery Creek. There you will enjoy a delicious meal cooked by your guides.

    Day 2：

    After breakfast, you continue deeper into the rainforest, passing some of the tallest trees in the world as you go, and stopping for lunch and then camp in the evening.

    Day 3：

    The exciting part of today's tour is the Tarkine Falls, a beautiful 15­metre waterfall.

    Day 4：

    You can stay at the camp and bathe in the Tarkine Falls, or you can go for a walk for more fantastic views of the forest.

    Day 5：

    After a last journey through the forest, you are picked up at about 4：00 p．m. and you arrive in Launceston at around 7：00 p．m.

    The tour includes two professional guides, transport to and from the rainforest, all food while on the tours and all safety equipment. You should buy or hire(租用) recommended camping equipment including: backpacks, sleeping bags, rain coats and trousers.

    The students are having their chemistry class. Miss Li is telling the children what water is like. After that, she asks her students some questions, “Boys and girls! What is water? Can you tell me?" She waits for a few minutes, but no one answers her. Then Miss Li asks again. “Why don't you answer my question? I tell you what water is like, right?”

    Then a boy puts up his hand and says, “Miss Li, you tell us that water has no color and no smell. But I think that water is something that is black when I wash my hand in it.” All the students begin to laugh. Miss Li laughs too. Then another boy puts up his hand, Miss Li says “What do you think, Wang Bing?” The boy says:” Miss Li, where can we find water that has no color and no smell?”

    “Why do you say so?” Miss Li asks.

    “The water in the river behind my house is always black and it has a bad smell.” answers the boy. And most of the children think he is right.

 “I am sorry to hear that, children.” says the teacher. “Our water is getting dirtier. That is a problem. All of us must try our best to make it clean again.”

    Luke has always been my closest and constant companion these past five years. In fact, he is very friendly to me especially when I take care of other furry friends in our shelter.

    There have been a lot of forest fires during the summer season. Not far from our shelter, a forest caught fire during this hot summer. Luke rushed towards the forest where flames send out a terrible heat. There's no longer any hope at the moment to wait for Luke to come back to the shelter. In fact, I was waiting for the firemen to announce me his death in the forest. Suddenly, a fireman burst into my office and informed me that my dog Luke succeeded in saving four cats which were trapped by the flames. Luke seized the kittens, one by one moving them to a safe place.

    I immediately accompanied the fireman to the forest to pick up the rescued kittens, but Luke was not there. Then we heard the sound of a dog came from the forest barking furiously. The firemen followed the tracks of the dog until they found him barking loudly by the side of an injured fireman who was lying on the ground.

    That day, I was very proud of Luke for his two heroic actions. I paid a visit to the fireman accompanied with my adorable Luke. What a memorable scene when the fireman hugged Luke tightly to his chest! “One thousand thanks, Luke, for saving my life,” the fireman said.

    This true story of love shows us that pets are kind, loving, and caring. We should love and protect them. Don't belittle them. Little animals can make enormous things for humans.

Hazel Mayfield usually cooks the Thanksgiving meal for her extended family in Houston, Texas. She usually welcomes friends and neighbors who are eager to taste her fried turkey, green bean casserole, candied yams, homemade cornbread dressing, and dirty rice-just a few of her signature dishes. Known as Sugar Mama, because her grandchildren think she's so sweet, the 91-year-old typically likes to do her own shopping for the ingredients to make her special dishes.

"My mother is the head cook of the family," said Panulette Mouton, Mayfield's daughter. "Because of her reputation, you know, there're people in and out all day and every family comes through. They want to get some of Sugar Mama's cooking, and some of them would like to learn from her how to cook the food."

But Mayfield hasn't been to the grocery store since March. And there is little about Thanksgiving in 2020 that's usual. Because of Covid-19, the deadly virus that has killed millions in the U.S. and spoiled life around the world, everything is different. Since limiting close face-to-face contact with others is the best way to reduce its spread, hundreds of thousands of American families have re-imagined the holiday with virtual celebrations and canceled or delayed travel plans. There can only be small gatherings with people in their households in response to COVID-19.

This year, Mayfield's family members, without exception, are lamenting the absence of a big gathering. They've explained to their young children and grandchildren why this year's Thanksgiving is different. Mayfield's youngest daughter, Michelle Sanders, says it's tough to help her grandchildren understand why they can't see some of their other family members and why they have to stay at home, celebrating Thanksgiving all by themselves.

"It's really hard, trying to explain to them," Sanders said. "When-you're talking to them and they want to come over, you have to tell them no. They really don't know how to be careful." Sanders added, "And, they don't understand that, being three, four, and six, you know they don't really understand that. So, it's...it's really, really hard, and heartbreaking."