Outside her shabby cottage, old Mrs. Tailor was hanging out laundry on a wire line, unaware that some children lay hidden in the leaves of a nearby tree watching her every move. They were determined to find out if she really was a witch.

    They watched as she took a broomstick to clean the dirt from her stone steps. But, much to their disappointment, she did not mount the broomstick and take flight. Suddenly, the old lady's work was interrupted by the cackling of her hen-a signal that an egg had been laid in the warm nest on top of the haystack.

    The old broomstick was put aside as she hobbled off towards the haystack followed by Sooty, a black cat she had rescued from a fox trap some time back. With only three legs, it was hard for Sooty to keep up with the old lady. The cat provided proof-the children were sure that only a witch could own a black cat with three legs.

    There, standing on a wooden box, was Mrs. Tailor, stretching out to gather her precious egg. Taking the egg in one of her hands, she began to climb down when, without warning, the box broke and the old lady fell.

    "We have to got and help her," whispered Amy.

    "What if it is a trick?" replied Ben.

    "Don't be silly, Ben. If she were a witch, she would have turned us into frogs already," reasoned Meg. "Come on Amy, let's go." The girls climbed down the tree and ran all the way to the haystack.

    Approaching carefully, they could see a wound on the old lady's face. She had knocked her head on a stone and her ankle was definitely broken. "Go and get Dad," Amy yelled to her brother. "Tell him about the accident."

    The boys did not need another excuse to leave. They ran as fast as they could for help, hoping that Mrs. Tailor would not wake and turn the girls into frogs.

A Book Review—The Snake-Stone by Berlie Doherty

    The setting: Urban England (the cities), but also rural England (the countryside) including remote English villages.

    The theme: The main theme is a teenage search of self-discovery, in this case the search for a mother from whom the hero was separated at an early age. Its other concerns are love, getting on with others, being persistent and courageous and trying to deal with doubts, troubles and worries. As the book moves to a close, James' swimming coach says to him: “You are not like a kid obeying instructions any more. You are diving like a young man who knows where he is going.”

    The characters: James is the hero of the story. He is a championship diver, and has a comfortable life with his foster parents (养父母). Yet he also has the qualities to take him on a long journey to find his birth mother. The other characters in The Snake-Stone, James' parents, his diving instructor, best friend, the villagers, people he meets on his journey, are pictured realistically.

    The turning point: The turning point in the story comes while James' foster parents are away in London, and he wonders about the identity of his birth mother. The only clue he has is a fossil, “the snake stone” which she left behind along with a note on which she had written: “Take good care of Sammie. It was written on a torn envelope with parts of an address still there.

    The journey: Instead of going to London, James decides to find his birth mother. With help from his geography teacher, James sets out for the remote country village where his mother might be found. James has painful, challenging, but also humorous and happy travels. The mother he finally meets, Anne, has a minor yet powerful voice in the novel. He comes to understand why she left him at a stranger's door fifteen years before. Although the meeting is not long, it leaves him with a feeling of completeness. As a journey of self-discovery The Snake-Stone also provides its readers with a happy ending. Its hero says, on returning to his foster parents, “I was home.”

    A serious problem for today's society is who should be responsible for our elderly and how to improve their lives. It is not only a financial problem but also a question of the system we want for our society. I would like to suggest several possible solutions to this problem.

    First, employers should take the responsibility for their retired employees. To make this possible, a percentage of profits should be set aside for this purpose. But when a company must take life-long responsibility for its employees, it may suffer from a commercial disadvantage due to higher employee costs.

    Another way of solving the problem is to return the responsibility to the individual. This means each person must save during his working years to pay for his years of retirement. This does not seem a very fair model since some people have enough trouble paying for their daily life without trying to earn extra to cover their retirement years. This means the government might have to step in to care for the poor.

    In addition, the government could take responsibility for the care of the elderly. This could be financed through government taxes to increase the level of pensions. Furthermore, some institutions should be created for senior citizens, which can help provide a comfortable life for them. Unfortunately, as the present situation in our country shows, this is not a truly viable answer. The government can seldom afford to care for the elderly, particularly when it is busy trying to care for the young.

    One further solution is that the government or social organizations establish some working places especially for the elderly where they are independent.

    To sum up, all these options have advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, it is reasonable to expect that some combination of these options may be needed to provide the care we hope to give to our elderly generations.

    A newly-published study has shown that loneliness can spread from one person to another, like a disease.

    Researchers used information from the Framingham Study, which began in 1948. The Framingham Study gathers information about physical and mental( 心 理 的 ) health, personal behavior and diet. At first, the study involved about 5,000 people in the American state of Massachusetts. Now, more than 12,000 persons are taking part.

    Information from the Framingham Study showed earlier that happiness can spread from person to person. So can behaviors like littering and the ability to stop smoking.

    University of Chicago psychologist (心理学家) John Cacioppo led the recent study. He and other researchers tried to show how often people felt lonely. They found that the feeling of loneliness spread through social groups.

    Having a social connection with a lonely person increased the chances that another person would feel lonely. In fact, a friend of a lonely person was 52% more likely to develop feelings of loneliness. A friend of that person was 25% more likely. The researchers say this shows that a person could indirectly be affected by someone's loneliness.

    The effect was strongest among friends. Neighbors were the second most affected group. The effect was weaker on husbands and wives, and brothers and sisters. The researchers also found that loneliness spread more easily among women than men.

    The New York Times newspaper reports that, on average, people experience feelings of loneliness about 48 days a year. It also found that every additional friend can decrease loneliness by about five percent, or two and a half fewer lonely days.

    Loneliness has been something to do with health problems like sadness and sleeping difficulties. The researchers believe that knowing the causes of loneliness could help in reducing it.

    The study suggests that people can take steps to stop the spread of loneliness. They can do this by helping individuals they know who may be experiencing loneliness. The result can be helpful to the whole social group.

    Art museums are places where people can learn about various cultures. The increasingly popular “design museums” that are opening today, however, perform quite a different role. Unlike most art museums, the design museums show objects that are easily found by the general public. These museums sometimes even place things like fridges and washing machines in the centre of the hall.

    People have argued that design museums are often made use of as advertisements for new industrial technology. But their role is not simply a matter of sales—it's the honouring of excellently invented products. The difference between the window of a department store and the showcase in a design museum is that the first tries to sell you something, while the second tells you the success of a sale.

    One advantage of design museums is that they are places where people feel familiar with the exhibits. Unlike the average art museum visitors, design museum visitors seldom feel frightened or puzzled. This is partly because design museums clearly show how and why mass－produced products work and look as they do, and how design has improved the quality of our lives. Art museum exhibits, on the other hand, would most probably fill visitors with a feeling that there is something beyond their understanding.

    In recent years, several new design museums have opened their doors. Each of these museums has tried to satisfy the public's growing interest in the field with new ideas. London's Design Museum, for example, shows a collection of mass－produced objects from Zippo lighters to electric typewriters to a group of Italian fish－tins. The choices open to design museums seem far less strict than those to art museums, and visitors may also sense the humorous part of our society while walking around the exhibits.

We were on the way from Hutchinson to Chicago for a short spring break. For many years I had wanted to take my family on the train. We all went to Chicago four years ago, and the kids loved it. Chicago is one of my favorite cities, too, so the thought struck me again last fall to ride the train to Chicago. Of course, flying would have been faster. But I don't think flying is easier, especially these days, with all the security and waiting in lines at airports.

Though we were tired in the middle of the night, the kids got on the train with the exhilaration of this adventure. "We're moving," my son William shouted happily with big eyes as the train began to pull away from the Hutchinson station.

I removed my shoes and lay down to try to finish my night's sleep. The sleeper car would have better enabled that, but the ordinary train seats were not too bad. An airline flight is a more miserable experience for me：not enough room, two hours of pain with my knees almost touching my chin, the hard seatback in front cracking my kneecaps (膝盖) with every move of the body planted in front of me. On the train I could almost outstretch all of my 6­foot­2­plus body in the generous legroom.

The journey didn't feel at all as long as it was. We all found the train ride a joy. The car ride would have felt every minute of 13 hours. But on the train you are free to walk around, sit in the observation carriage for a while and enjoy the scenery out the windows, have a nice meal in the dining car, read a book, or play a board game.

In short, the train is all about enjoying the trip, which isn't something I do so much when travelling by airline or by car, when the trip seems more of a mission (任务) to get there than an experience to enjoy along the way.

Chicago offers much to do for a family. This time, getting there was half the fun.