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    Every year, hundreds of millions of Monarch Butterflies(黑脉金斑蝶) from Canada and the United States journey as far as 2, 500 miles to the forests of Michoacan, Mexico, a place which has the world's largest insect migration(迁移). It's such a breathtaking sight, but as always, human greed is threatening to destroy it.

    The Monarch Butterflies start to arrive in Michoacan in late October to make their winter home in the trees high up in the mountains of the natural reserve. Once there, they gather together in large masses. These masses often become so heavy that they cause tree branches to bend or even break. But there's a purpose of all these massing — it allows the butterflies to survive in the low nighttime temperatures at these high altitudes.

    The Michoacan Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary is most impressive during the months of February and March, just before the winged insects begin their long journey home.

    Mexico's Butterfly Forest is a shelter protected by law, and one of the country's most popular sights, but that hasn't stopped people from slowly but steadily destroying it.

    Illegal woodcutting in the heart of the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve has been a longstanding problem, but criminals are rarely brought to justice. They are often set free after paying some money.

    Just last month, an even greater threat rose in Michoacan's butterfly home.  The country's largest mining corporation gained the right to reopen an old mine in the heart of the monarch reserve. Experts believe that if the mine is reopened, it will likely spell the end of this magical place.

    And as if all this wasn't bad enough, the increasing use of herbicides（除草剂） in the American corn belt has led to the decrease of  a plant which is essential to the monarchs' development from egg into butterfly.

    The English writer Samuel Johnson famously said, “You find no man who is willing to leave London. No, sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life, for there is in London all that life can afford.” More than two centuries have passed since Johnson's age, but his words still ring true. Here, you'll find the historic Tower of London and the Tate Modern both considered must-sees. Shakespeare's sonnets（十四行诗） are still being uttered by actors. Londoners most certainly still look up to the royals, but they also rock out to Coldplay and Lily Allen. And while they still sip tea, they now drink Starbucks, too.

How to Save Money in London

    Find the free attractions. Many of London's top things to do, including the National Gallery, Hyde Park and the Portobello Road Market, are absolutely free to enjoy.

    Ride the Tube. Taking taxis will add up quickly, so buy a pay-as-you-go Oyster Card and travel on London's underground system, nicknamed the “Tube”.

    Dine smart. Corridors like Brick Lane offer fantastic cultural food for bargain prices; fish and chip shops are a cheap standby and takeaway food costs less than dine-in.

London Culture & Customs

    London is one of the fashion capitals of the world, and its residents tend to reflect that. Practically, pack an umbrella for the rainy days and a scarf for the cold ones. As for tipping, restaurants and cafes will usually add a 10-to-15-percent service charge to the bill. If a service charge is not allotted（指定）, it's customary to tip the same (between 10 and 15 percent). If you're drinking at a pub or wine bar, tipping is flexible. And in a taxicab, tip the driver to the nearest pound or about 10 percent of the cost.

London Dining

    London used to be highly criticized for its heavy and common menu items. Now, London is considered as one of the most gourmet cities in the world. And with its melting pot of cultures, it's not difficult to see why. London offers everything from modern British to Malaysian. For Indian food, we suggest visiting the curry houses on Brick Lane. If you want a real high tea experience, book reservations at the Ritz, at Fortnum & Mason, or at the Dorchester — but be sure to dress the part. Pub culture is still alive and well, so if you have a hankering for fried fish and salty chips (or French fries), you'll still find them here. And for a quick bite, exchange a few pounds for a kebab, a quick sandwich or some to go sushi, which can be found in restaurants throughout the city.

    Adults are happy to tell their children that crusts (面包皮) will give them curly hair, carrots will help them see in the dark, and spinach will make them strong. Even though adults know it's not totally true, they think it's good for their children's health, a study had found.

    In a study about 31 per cent of adults said they once told their children the curly hair tale, and 36 per cent said they'd been told the same thing by their mother or father. Among the over-50s, almost half said they'd been promised curly hair if they ate their crusts. A quarter of the 2,000 adults questioned in the study told their children carrots would help them see in the dark. This could be true to some extent because of the high levels of vitamin A and beta-carotene in root vegetables.

    Another favorite among parents is that milk will make one strong. A third surveyed said their parents told them this, and about 29 per cent said they told their children the same thing. But while there is plenty of evidence to suggest milk is good for people's health, there are also a lot of scientific papers saying it isn't.

    Thanks to Popeye, spinach is also fed to children, along with the idea that it will make them strong. While there is also some truth in this one, scientists now believe it is not the iron, but the inorganic nitrates (无机硝酸盐) that improve physical power.

    One in seven of the surveyed admitted telling their little ones that runner beans will make them run faster, which is nothing more than wordplay and has no basis in science. Almost one in five adults were subjected to the same tale in childhood.

    Just over one in 10 parents told their children green food would turn them into a superhero, and a quarter admitted hiding vegetables in meals.

    Lyndsay Jones, spokesman for Persil Washing Up Liquid, said, "It's clear that the most persuasive stories about food are passed on from generation to generation. Our research shows that the ideas continue, and we tell our kids the same things our parents told us, even if they're not always entirely true."

    Crusts may not make your hair curly, but there's plenty of research that says crusts contain more of the goodness than the rest of a loaf. Hopefully, as a result of our Cook with Kids promise, more parents will be encouraged to spend time with their children in the kitchen and teach them the truth about food.

    What do you think of cats? Some people think very lovely. But not all people love cats. Compared with dogs, cats seem to be very lazy and unfriendly. Besides, cats are not known for acts of selflessness (无私). But maybe we're wrong about them. Don't believe it? Then meet Pippa, a very unusual cat.

    The black-and-white cat was left in a box outside a shop and taken by the British RSPCA to the Jansa family in Whitstable, Kent. They really loved her character (性格) and decided to adopt (收养) it，but they never guessed she'd become a lifesaver.

    Eight-year-old Mia Jansa had diabetes and had become good at testing her blood during the day, as well as having something to eat or drink to bring her blood sugar levels back. But the danger was at night. Mia could easily experience hypoglycemic (低血糖症的) situations when she was asleep, which could cause even death.

    Soon after she was adopted, Pippa went into Mia's bedroom in the middle of the night and woke her up. When the child tested her blood sugar levels, she found they were dangerously low. Ever since, Pippa always visits Mia at night. If she can't get her to wake up, she raises the alarm.

    “Pippa does this of her own accord,” says Mia's mother Laura. “We don't make a request for caring because we don't want to encourage wrong alarms. She gets plenty of hugs. It gives me peace of mind and I know someone else is keeping an eye on Mia.”

    Now the family is so happy that they've chosen to adopt it in the first place.

    In his research work, Philosophical Investigations（哲学调查）, Ludwig Wittgenstein tries to clarify（澄清）some of the problems in people's thinking about how the mind works.

    Imagine, he says, that everyone has a small box in which they keep a beetle（甲壳虫）. No one is allowed to look in anyone else's box, only in their own. Over time, people talk about what is in their boxes and the word “beetle” comes to stand for what is in everyone's box. Through this example, Wittgenstein point out that the beetle is very much like an individual's（个体的）mind; no one can know exactly what it is like to be another person or experience things from another's point of view—look in someone else's “box”—but it is general considered that the mental working of another person's mind is very similar to that of our own. However, it does not really matter—he argues—what is in the box or whether everyone indeed has a beetle, since there is no way of checking or comparing. In a sense, the word “beetle” simply means “what is in the box”. From this point of view, the mind is simply “what is in the box”, or rather “what is in your head”.

    Wittgenstein considers language to have meaning because of public usage. In other words, when we talk of having a mind—or a beetle—we are using a term that we have learned through conversation. The concept might be perceived（感知）differently in each of our minds, so the word “mind” cannot be used to refer specifically to some entity（本质）outside of our own conception（概念）, since we cannot see into other people's boxes.

    A mixture of deep sorrow and anger has swept Brazilians across the country — particularly in the city of Rio de Janeiro — with the burning of their beloved Museu Nacional, or National Museum.

    By Monday morning, when I visited the site, the firemen were busy trying to enter the huge, early 19th-century neoclassical building. For all we know, everything may have been burned to ashes. Fortunately, no one, not even the four security guards who witnessed the beginning of the fire, has been injured.

    Nobody yet knows the cause of the fire, but it is the officials' irresponsibility and the funding shortages in particular, which are being blamed for this tragedy.

    Some of the museum's researchers told the press that they had been able to save some things from the exhibition rooms before the fire moved in. However, we Brazilians have lost much of the material memory of our short past. A good part of our 518 years of history, or that which had been transformed into storable objects, disappeared in just a few hours.

    The people of Rio de Janeiro were fond of taking their children  or grandchildren to the museum to show off their knowledge of the odd-looking mummies brought in from Egypt by the Emperor Dom Pedro II, a huge skeleton of a humpback whale, or the brightly coloured feathers of a headdress of the Kayapo tribe.

    When I think that I can no longer take my youngest daughter to the Museu Nacional — that is what gets me emotional. It is this feeling that has penetrated (穿透) our souls and may leave Brazilians feeling empty for a long time to come.