People aren't walking any more—if they can figure out a way to avoid it.

    I felt superior(不为……所动) about this matter until the other day I took my car to mail a small parcel. The journey is a matter of 281 steps. But I used the car. And I wasn't in any hurry, either. I had merely become one more victim of a national sickness: motorosis.

    It is an illness to which I had thought myself immune(免疫的), for I was brought up in the tradition of going to places on my own two legs. At that time, we regarded 25 miles as good day's walk and the ability to cover such a distance in ten hours as sign of strength and skill. It did not occur to us that walking was a hardship. And the effect was lasting. When I was 45 years old I raced -–and beat-—a teenage football player the 168 steps up the Stature of Liberty.

Such enterprises today are regarded by many middle-aged persons as bad for the heart. But a well-known British physician, Sir Adolphe Abrahams, pointed out recently that hearts and bodies need proper exercise. A person who avoids exercise is more likely to have illnesses than one who exercises regularly. And walking is an ideal form of exercise— the most familiar and natural of all.

    It was Henry Thoreau who showed mankind the richness of going on foot. The man walking can learn the trees, flower, insects, birds and animals, the significance of seasons, the very feel of himself as a living creature in a living world. He cannot learn in a car.

    The car is a convenient means of transport, but we have made it our way of life. Many people don't dare to approach nature any more; to them the world they were born to enjoy is all threat. To them security is a steel river thundering on a concrete road. And much of their thinking takes place while waiting for the traffic light to turn green.

    I say that the green of forests is the mind's best light. And none but the man on foot can evaluate what is basic and everlasting.

My decision to travel around China lay merely with my curiosity about the place. Before coming here, China seemed alien to me —-a place that expected to be hugely dissimilar from my own British culture.

After travelling from Beijing up to Xi'an, I wanted to challenge myself by choosing a smaller town—-Xiahe in Gansu Province. I arrived in Lanzhou at around 5 am, but there were no buses to Xiahe. I managed to spot a policeman and attempted to explain my destination to him in simple English, praying that he would understand. I wasn't sure that he did but I just followed him anyway as I had no choice. He took me on a bus and I didn't know where I was going. Luckily, I met a student who explained to me in English that the policeman was taking me to another bus station where I could take a bus to Xiahe. During this conversation a third man said he was also a policeman and would help me buy tickets. But as he was not in uniform, I was a little doubtful. The uniformed policeman told me it was OK to go with the third man, so I got off the bus with the so-called policeman who at this point, disappeared and I was left in the middle of nowhere. I stood panicking. Around one minute later a police car came and stopped right by me. It was the un-uniformed policeman. I got into the car and he dropped me directly at the bus station, and helped me buy the ticket.

    This is one of many experiences that I have had in China. I realized that however different this culture was, there was one thing that would always stand out—kindness. In the west we seem to lack the foundation of trust, yet in China it seems that there will always be someone to answer your questions and lead you the right way.

    A cancer-stricken British teenager said on Thursday she had been moved by messages of support from around the world after writing an online “Bucket List” of things she wanted to do before dying.

    Alice Pyne, 15, created an Internet blog in which she described her fight against a cancer of the white blood cells. “I've been fighting cancer for almost four years and now I know that the cancer is gaining on me and it doesn't look like I'm going to win this one,” she wrote.

    For her list, at the site www. alicepyne. blogspot. com, she has included making everyone sign up to be a bone marrow donor (骨髓捐赠者), swimming with sharks, meeting boy band Take That and getting a purple iPad computer.

Messages of support and offers of help quickly flooded her webpage and it became one of the most talked about subjects on Twitter.

     “Oh dear! And I thought that I was just doing a little blog for a few friends!” she wrote after her site attracted huge attention. “Thank you so much for all your lovely messages to me.”

    Alice, who lives with her family in the northwest English town of Ulverston, said the manager of Take That had arranged for her to see the band after reading her blog. A group of local lawmakers have also made efforts with the Anthony blood cancer charity to encourage people to join its stem cell (干细胞) projects.

    When men get together, they seldom talk about their feelings or inner thoughts. However, they talk about a lot, like their newest computer, how to repair their car, or even business.

    Talk might move to the best place to find fish or women, jump to computer games, then continue to the sport of the season. They also like to tell jokes each other and spend a fair amount of time playing one-up and boasting (吹牛). Men seldom call each other to chat.

    When man meets woman, he usually wants to make a good impression. Many single men try hard to carry on amusing, fun, and pleasant conversations. They use conversation to discover her interests and feelings in order to learn how to be attractive to her.

    Some men, either out of nervousness or ignorance, spend most of the time talking about themselves, often appearing to show off their achievements or talk endlessly about their problems or work. Even the quietest man talks to his woman when love is new.

    When women get together, they talk about feelings and relationships, their work and their family. They enjoy talking but also want the give and take of talk, then listen. Women often call each other to chat. Conversation is an important part of most women's lives.

    As relationships progress, however, many a man turns on the television and forgets how to talk. This raises anger and cry from his woman partner who says, “You never talk to me anymore.” Some men start talking. Many, however, mainly discuss their own achievements and problems.

    When the woman starts talking about her favorite subjects: feelings, family, relationships, friends and her work, many men lose interest or bring the conversation back to themselves. Pretty soon, the man is back to staring at the television each night, wondering where his relationship has gone. The woman is talking to her friends, mom, sister, or neighbor, often about that very relationship and how she is hurting.

    English is the most widely used language in the history of our planet. One in every seven human beings can speak it. More than half of the world's books and three quarters of international mail are in English. Of all languages, English has the largest vocabulary — perhaps as many as two million words.

    However, let's face it: English is a crazy language. There is no egg in an eggplant, neither pine nor apple in a pineapple and no ham in a hamburger. Sweet-meats are candy, while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat.

    We take English for granted. But when we explore its paradoes (探索它的矛盾), we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square, public bathrooms have no baths in them.

    And why is it that a writer writes, but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce, and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, should't the plural of booth be beeth? One goose, two geese — so one moose, two meese?

    How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? How can overlook and oversee be opposites, while quite a lot and quite a few are alike? How can the weather be hot as hell one day and cold as hell the next?

    English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of human beings. That's why, when stars are out, they are visible (能看见的); but when the lights are out, they are invisible. And why, when I wind up my watch, I start it; but when I wind up this essay, I end it.

    I was getting ready to go to bed when the phone rang. This could not be good. My mind raced through the list of family members who might need help, but the voice was hardly familiar.

    "Lindy, this is Lesley." I didn't know Lesley well. We did occasionally speak with each other, but to say we were friends was not appropriate. I asked what she needed. Perhaps something really awful caused her to reach someone she barely knew. Instead, she asked me, "Do you have room for a turkey? In your freezer?" We had lots of room in our freezer, and in fact, too much. Sure." I responded, "Did your freezer break down?" "Not exactly," Lesley replied, "but I will explain when I arrive."

    Minutes later came a huge freezer truck, Lesley stepped down and explained the lease(租约) of the grocery store her husband serviced had run out and that they had to empty all the freezers that very night. Thinking it was a shame to throw away all this good food, they decided to drop off food to anyone she could think of. Noticing our freezer was pretty empty, Lesley asked to fill it up. Our home was their last stop and anything left would have to be put in our freezer. An hour later, everything finished, I asked her, "When will you come back for all this T' Lesley laughed, "We don't want it back. It is yours! Thanks for helping us out!" Then they waved goodbye and drove away.

    "For helping them out?" We opened our freezer door. Inside were all expensive foods we never bought but often longed to try. We were struggling to buy groceries, yet it was not something we shared with anyone. However, our needs were met in an unexpected way, by that call, "Do you have room for a turkey?"