If you are a fruit grower—or would like to become one—take advantage of Apple Day to see what's around. It's called Apple Day but in practice it's more like Apple Month. The day itself is on October 21, but since it has caught on, events now spread out over most of October around Britain.

Visiting an apple event is a good chance to see, and often taste, a wide variety of apples. To people who are used to the limited choice of apples such as Golden Delicious and Royal Gala in supermarkets, it can be quite an eye opener to see the range of classical apples still in existence, such as Decio which was grown by the Romans. Although it doesn't taste of anything special, it's still worth a try, as is the knobbly(多疙瘩的) Cat's Head which is more of a curiosity than anything else.

There are also varieties developed to suit specific local conditions. One of the very best varieties for eating quality is Orleans Reinette, but you'll need a warm, sheltered place with perfect soil to grow it, so it's a pipe dream for most apple lovers who fall for it.

       At the events, you can meet expert growers and discuss which ones will best suit your conditions, and because these are family affairs, children are well catered for with apple-themed fun and games.

Apple Days are being held at all sorts of places with an interest in fruit, including stately gardens and commercial orchards(果园). If you want to have a real orchard experience, try visiting the National Fruit Collection at Brogdale, near Faversham in Kent.

    To the people who came to Christopher Morley Park in Roslyn, he had no name. To them, he was “the ice cream man”. He was just two hands and a smile handing back ice cream from the van（面包车）window. To me, he was my older brother, Andrew.

    Once, he worked on Wall Street. But later he spent his days selling ice cream to an endless line of kids, moms and dads in swimming suits, perhaps daydreaming of a beach faraway.

    All day long, while he sold bags of potato chips, cans of soda, and all types of ice cream, he would do this sort of robotic motion—turn to the right, stoop down, hand the item out of the window and collect the money.

    His drinking days were over now. They neared their end one night after he took a severe beating when someone followed him home and robbed him when he was drunk. It left him memories of pain and misery. He was determined he would never take another drink again.

    One day years later, I went to look for him. I slipped into the high driver's seat and sat quietly watching him work. Occasionally, he would ask me to hand him a diet root beer or a bag of chips for sale, all the time bending over as he worked the long line.

    As I watched him sell ice cream from a van window, he taught me something about living this life that we all pass through too quickly. It was a lesson about trying to live it with grace and dignity and style, no matter what.

    He died in March 1999. He had served in the Army for two years in Europe in the 1950s. They gave him a soldier's funeral with a folded flag.

    I went through a training program and became a literacy volunteer(扫盲志愿者)last summer. The training I received, though excellent, did not tell me how it was to work with a real student. When I began to discover what other people's lives were like because they could not read, I realized the true importance of reading.

    My first student Marie was a 44-year-old single mother of three. In the first lesson, I found out she walked two miles to the nearest supermarket twice a week because she didn't know which bus to take. When I told her I would get her a bus schedule, she told me it would not help because she could not read it. She said she also had difficulty once she got to the supermarket because she couldn't always remember what she needed. Since she did not know words, she could not write out a shopping list. Also, she could only recognize items by sight, so if the product had a different label(标识), she would not recognize it as the product she wanted.

    As we worked together, learning how to read built Marie's self-confidence, which encouraged her to continue her studies. She began to make rapid progress and was even able to take the bus to the supermarket. After this successful trip, she reported how self-confident she felt. At the end of the program, she began helping her youngest son, Tony, a shy first grader, with his reading. As she described this experience, I was proud of myself as well. I found that helping Marie to build herself-confidence was more rewarding than anything I had ever done before.

    As a literacy volunteer, I learned a great deal about teaching and helping others. In fact, I may have learned more from the experience than Marie did.

    While the start of a new school year is always exciting, this year was even more so for some elementary school students in Auckland, New Zealand. They became the world's first kids to be" taught" by a digital teacher, Will. Will is just an avatar(用户头像)that appears on the student's desktop, tablet, or smartphone screen, not a human-like robot walking around the classroom.

    Auckland energy company Vector and AI company Soul Machines worked together to develop Will, which has been modeled after the human brain and nervous system, allowing it to perform human-like behavior. The digital teacher is currently assigned to teach Vector's" Be sustainable with energy, "a free program for Auckland elementary schools.

    Just like the humans it replaced, Will is able to instantly react to the students' responses to the topic. Thanks to a webcam(网络摄像头)and microphone, the avatar not only responds to questions the kids may have, but also picks up non-verbal cues(非口头提示).For instance, if a student smiles at Will, he responds by smiling back. This two-way interaction not only helps capture the students' attention, but also allows the program's developers to monitor their engagement, and make changes if needed.

    Vector's Chief Digital Officer, Nikhil Ravishankar says," What was fascinating to me was the reaction of the children to Will. The way they look at the world is so creative and different, and Will really captured their attention."

    Will, in place since August 2018,has been a great success thus far. However, regardless of how popular it becomes, Will is unlikely to replace human educators any time soon .For one, the avatar's knowledge base is severely restricted. But more importantly, even the smartest digital avatars could never predict and react to all the unexpected situations that educators have to deal with on a daily basis. However, it could come in handy as a" personal tutor", providing kids with one-on-one help on specific subjects or even topics.

    Around the world, 62 million girls are not in school. The White House's Let Girls Learn effort aims to change that.

    At 13, Hawa Abdulai Yorke left her family's home, in Ghana, Africa, to live with an aunt who promised to send her to school. Instead, the aunt put Yorke to work as her maid. Determined to go to school, Yorke returned home and began selling water in a nearby city to raise
money for her education. She did that for three years. What hurt most was that her father had the money to pay the school fees. But he chose to spend the money on a motorcycle.

    Yorke's story is familiar to girls growing up in Ghana. There, a girl's place is in the home. Educating girls is considered a waste of money.

    “It happens more than it should, where parents have money to send their girls to school but choose not to,” says Ryan Roach, a Peace Corps volunteer in Ghana, where nearly 55% of girls are not enrolled in secondary school. “Cultural beliefs say education is not a wise investment(投资)”

    The White House's Let Girls Learn is working to change this view of girls' education, in Ghana and in countries worldwide. First Lady Michelle Obama says parents have to be persuaded that girls' education is a better investment than marriage or household labor. A World Bank study backs that up. It shows that for every year of secondary-school education, a girl's earning power increases by 18%.

    Today, Let Girls Learn works in 13 countries, and there are plans to expand the program. Recently, Let Girls Learn hosted a 24-hour event at which girls in different parts of Ghana joined Peace Corps volunteers, tech experts, and university students to brainstorm creative solutions for the barriers to girls' education. Yorke's team came up with an idea for an app that sends a recorded message to parents' phones from a Ghanian celebrity about the benefits of girls 
attending school.

    Yorke, now 22, is about to finish high school. Thanks to Let Girls Learn, she plans to attend college and study computer science. She says working alongside women college students at the Let Girls Learn event strengthened her determination. “I'm focused on my books,” says Yorke. "I know if I study hard, I, too, can go to the university and live a happy life."

    More than great drinks, great rewards

    Enjoy all the benefits and more with your membership to our Loyalty Program!

    Whenever you pay with your membership account, you'll earn a Star.

    Collect more Stars, earn more rewards.

    Three ways to join us

    Buy a Starbucks Card handy to create an account

    Track your Stars online or through the mobile app, and we'll send an email when you've earned a reward.

    You can also join from your phone.

    Download the Starbucks App.

    One of the most exciting benefits of being a member is using our mobile app to: pay for purchases; view your Stars and rewards; access iTunes Pick of the Week; see current offers.

    Or you can join with specially marked coffee purchased at the grocery store.

    Enter your Starcode (limit: 2 per day)

    Look for the Starcode symbol on specially marked Starbucks products where you buy groceries.

    Three levels with increasingly greater rewards

    To reach each level in our Loyalty Program, you need to collect more Stars. (Remember: to earn a Star, you must pay with a registered Starbucks Card.)

    Welcome level

    To earn your first rewards, just register a Starbucks Card.

    Birthday drink or treat on us, birthday coupon (优惠券) for 15% off a purchase at StarbucksStore.com.

    Green level

    Collect 5 Stars within 12 months and you'll be in the Green level.

    What is included in the Welcome level plus

    Free in-store refills (续杯) on hot or iced brewed coffee or tea

    Gold level

    Collect 30 Stars within 12 months and you'll be at the Gold level.

    What is included in the Green level plus

    A free food or drink item after another 12 Stars earned

    Personalized Gold Card