Welcome to your future life!

    You get up in the morning and look into the mirror. Your face is firm and young-looking. In 2035, medical technology is better than ever. Many people your age could live to be 150, so at 40, you're not old at all. And your parents just had an anti-aging(抗衰老的) treatment. Now, all three of look the same age!

    You say to your shirt, “Turn red.” It changes from blue to red. In 2035, “smart clothes” contain particles(粒子) much smaller than the cells in your body. The particles can be programmed to change clothes' color or pattern.

    You walk into the kitchen. You pick up the milk, but a voice says,“ You shouldn't drink that!” Your fridge has read the chip (芯片) that contains information about the milk , and it knows the milk is old . In 2035, every article of food in the grocery store has such a chip.

    It's time to go to work. In 2035, cars drive themselves. Just tell your “smart car” where to go. On the way, you can call a friend using your jacket sleeve. Such “smart technology” is all around you.

    So will all these things come true? “For new technology to succeed,” says scientist Andrew Zolli ,”it has to be so much better that it replaces what we have already.” The Internet is one example—what will be the next?

    For the last eight years, Jo Meade rode her bike each Sunday on a 16-mile round trip to her job washing dishes. It took more than an hour each way. Other days of the week she would spend two hours on three buses from her apartment to get to the other work, for a four-hour round trip.

    That was the “before” part of her life. The “after” part of her life was started by the community Police Officer Trevor Arnold, who delivered a used car to her with the help of a car dealer and other donors.

    Arnold, who spotted Meade, red and sweaty, riding her bike in the worst heat this summer, decided he would get her a car. He intended to quietly buy her a used car out of his own pocket so he turned to his friend Kody Slaght, a car salesman to ask about a car priced $1,000. That wasn't enough for a reliable ride, Slaght said, but the dealership said they would find a good car for her at a good price. Soon others were donating. Slaght and Arnold wouldn't say how much the car cost, but the value is about 4,000.

    Arnold said he was motivated by Meade's work ethic（职业道德）to help. “I see a lot of hardworking people nut that's when they are at work. Can you imagine spending four hours of your day getting to and from work?” he said.

    Meade's boss said she was awesome and really reliable when she worked and she got along with others. “She's willing to rise the three buses to get in here on her day off if we need her too.”

    Meade said she was planning to buy a car, “but I haven't been able to afford it,” she said. “Trevor, he is a very good guy. I did not expect this.”

    Few of us haven't read Cinderella, the story of a young woman living in poverty who meets the prince of her dreams. Some might not want to admit it, but there is a hidden Cinderella in everyone's heart—we all wish we could achieve recognition or success after a period of obscurity or neglect.

    Mary Santiago has that secret dream, too. Her story is featured in Another Cinderella Story, a film set in a US high school.

    Mary is shy but loves to dance. Compared with other girls, she is invisible. However, her world changes completely when a famous teenager pop singer, Joey Parker, appears.

    Joey is everything that the rest of the boys in her class are not — kind, handsome and desirable. Mary and Joey's paths cross at a ball. They meet and fall in love with each other. But when Mary has to rush back home, she leaves behind her MP3 player, which becomes the only clue Joey has to find the girl of his dreams. Of course, there is a wicked(邪恶的) stepmother, who turns out to be Dominique Blatt and she takes in Mary after her dancer mother dies. Dominique treats Mary like a maid and does everything she can to make sure Mary doesn't get into the top dance school. Her two daughters are equally determined to stop Joey falling for Mary, even if that means embarrassing her.

    The story, though it mostly follows Cinderella, does add a few modern day twists to the classic fairy tale. Refreshingly, the film, unlike many high school films, does not focus on looks, although the actors are all beautiful. There is also a lot less materialism in Another Cinderella Story than in many similar movies.

    “The movie takes the Cinderella fairytale as its jumping off point,” writes the movie critic Amber Wilkinson. “The focus is firmly on following your dream.”

    The writer Margaret Mitchell is best known for writing Gone with the Wind, first published in 1936. Her book and the movie based on it, tell a story of love and survival during the American Civil War. Visitors to the Margaret Mitchell House in Atlanta, Georgia, can go where she lived when she started composing the story and learn more about her life.

    Our first stop at the Margaret Mitchell House is an exhibit area telling about the writer's life. She was born in Atlanta in 1900. She started writing stories when she was a child. She started working as a reporter for the Atlanta Journal newspaper in 1922. One photograph of Ms. Mitchell, called Peggy, shows her talking to a group of young college boys. She was only about one and a half meters tall. The young men tower over her, but she seems very happy and sure of herself. The tour guide explains: “Now in this picture Peggy is interviewing some boys from Georgia Tech, asking them such questions as 'Would you really marry a woman who works?'

    And today it'd be 'Would you marry one who doesn't?' ”

    The Margaret Mitchell House is a building that once contained several apartments. Now we enter the first floor apartment where Ms. Mitchell lived with her husband, John Marsh. They made fun of the small apartment by calling it “The Dump”.

    Around 1926, Margaret Mitchell had stopped working as a reporter and was at home healing after an injury. Her husband brought her books to read from the library. She read so many books that he bought her a typewriter and said it was time for her to write her own book. Our guide says Gone with the Wind became a huge success. Margaret Mitchell received the Pulitzer Prize for the book. In 1939 the film version was released. It won ten Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

    Kirby Wildlife Park — Keeper Experience

    Due to the large number of inquiries from people interested in working with animals, Kirby Wildlife Park has set up the unique 'Keeper Experience' package. The fantastic experience is available to anyone over the age of 18 who is reasonably fit. We regret that for health and safety reasons, participants who are pregnant, in a wheelchair or suffering from illnesses cannot take part.

A typical day

9:15        Arrival

9:30         Health and Safety Briefing

10:00        Apes and Monkeys

    While cleaning out the enclosure (围场) you will find out about how enclosures are enriched with novel items and new smells to stimulate (刺激) the animals' senses and imitate their natural environment.

12:00       Lunch

14:00        Big Cats

    On the highlight of most volunteers' day, you will feed the cats and learn about their nutritional needs. The keeper will give you an introduction to how cat behaviour can be read to get an idea of their welfare and health.

16:30        Meet the Team

    Meet more of the staff and learn how you can get further involved with work at the park. Learn about our animal adoption plan, what it takes to be a good keeper and where to obtain the right qualifications for a career in animal welfare.

Booking and cancellation

    The Keeper Experience is available on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays throughout the year, and must be booked at least two weeks in advance. Full payment is needed when booking.

    Cancellations must be made more than fourteen days before the event, or you won't receive a full refund.