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    "There's Always a John" By Darla Boyd

    My first year of teaching, there was a kid named John in my class. John was difficult to control and he nearly drove me crazy. While talking about him one day, an old teacher put his hand on my shoulder and said, "There will always be a John. Your job is to learn to discover what makes him different and help him succeed." The next year, there was indeed another John. But that advice taught me that there is something to appreciate in everyone.

    "An Early Key Lesson" By Elaine West

    Before I began my first teaching job, my mother, a teacher of 30 years, gave me a very special gift, five simple words that have had an effect on my entire life." Make friends with the janitor（门卫）." Her wisdom taught me the respect for all types of characters and continues to enrich my life to this day. Just five little words but what an impact they can have when you take them to heart.

    “Raising Mommy” By Jan Davis

    Being a mother can always present challenges and rewards. Someone told me early that children will teach you everything you need to know. Being a mother is being raised. Our children become our advisers. Their dreams become our professors, as we are taking notes carefully. The sounds of their laughter and smiles are a great reward to us. Their tears remind us that it is okay to fail, and that we should wipe the tears away and try again.

    During my free time one day, I wandered down a lonely path into the woods and sat against a tree. Then I saw one of the camp counselors approaching me. "Oh great," I thought, since counselors were always trying to cheer you up or make you laugh.

    "Hey," he said, "mind if I have a seat?" I shrugged(耸肩). I wasn't going to encourage him, but I couldn't exactly stop him, either. He sat down alongside me and extended a hand. "I'm Gary," he said, "and you're Erica, right?" I nodded. "You don't exactly look like you're having a good time," he began.

    I crossed my arms and gritted my teeth. "Look," I said, "I didn't want to come to camp, I don't like it, I'm not having fun, and it basically stinks." I glared at Gary.

    "So there's nothing here at all for you, huh?" he asked.

    "Nothing," I answered.

    "Let me show you something," said Gary. He got up, and I followed him along the path until I heard a sound like a roaring freight train.

    "What's that?" I asked.

    "Wait and see," he replied, with a small smile.

    When we rounded the corner, I couldn't believe what I saw. There was the biggest waterfall I could ever imagine, right in front of me. "Cool!" I said, and I could feel my eyes getting bigger and a smile tugging at my mouth.

    "Still think there's nothing here for you?" asked Gary. "Because there's a whole lot more of this kind of 'nothing' around here." I had to admit, the waterfall was impressive.

    "Look," said Gary, "camp is what you make it. You can be sullen(阴郁的) and closed-minded and have a rotten four weeks, or you can take a look around you and see some of the incredible sights and appreciate the opportunity. It would be useless for me to try to make you have fun. You can only do that for yourself. But if you loosen up a little, you might actually have a good time." With that, he turned and walked away, leaving me on the path.

    That night, by the campfire, I found myself singing along with everyone else. By the time the four weeks were up, I didn't want to leave. I'd seen some amazing things and made some great friends.

    Beauty is where you find it. Life is what you make it. I think it's going to be a good year this year. I mean, I'm going to work to make it one. Maybe if I'm lucky, I'll get to go back to camp next year!

    Americans drove more miles in 2015 than any year since the U.S. government started keeping records 45 years ago. The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDT) recently reported that Americans drove a record of 3.148 trillion miles last year. In case you are wondering, that is enough to take 337 round trips from Earth to Pluto.

    There are a number of reasons why Americans are driving more miles. The social experts agree that the first is the price of gas, which has dropped to the level of the year 2004 in the past year. The American Automobile Association (AAA) said that the average price of gas was just $1.71 a gallon. That could be the lowest price since 2004.

    P.J. Sriraj, a director of the Urban Transportation Center at the University of Chicago, notes that the lower cost to fill up a car is just one reason. Another reason is that more Americans are back to work after the 2008 economic recession, and they drive to their jobs.

    Besides, more Americans have to travel a long distance every day between home and the office. There are a lot of Americans who must travel more than 45 miles per day for their jobs. And as for many, there is not enough public transportation.

    Because of the heavy traffic, roads are becoming more and more crowded. While modern cars are more fuel-efficient, the improvement is not enough to offset more cars on the road. “There is no doubt that driving more will make the air dirtier,” said P.J. Sriraj. And many Americans showed a great concern in a recent survey.

    In 1978, I was 18 and was working as a nurse in a small town about 270 km away from Sydney, Australia. I was looking forward to having five days off from duty. Unfortunately, the only one train a day back to my home in Sydney had already left. So I thought I'd hitch a ride (搭便车).

    I waited by the side of the highway for three hours but no one stopped for me. Finally, a man walked over and introduced himself as Gordon. He said that although he couldn't give me a lift, I should come back to his house for lunch. He noticed me standing for hours in the November heat and thought I must be hungry. I was doubtful as a young girl but he assured (使……放心) me I was safe, and he also offered to help me find a lift home afterwards. When we arrived at his house, he made us sandwiches. After lunch, he helped me find a lift home.

Twenty-five years later, in 2003, while I was driving to a nearby town one day, I saw an elderly man standing in the glaring heat, trying to hitch a ride. I thought it was another chance to repay someone for the favor I'd been given decades earlier. I pulled over and picked him up. I made him comfortable on the back seat and offered him some water.

    After a few moments of small talk, the man said to me, “You haven't changed a bit, even your red hair is still the same.”

    I couldn't remember where I'd met him. He then told me he was the man who had given me lunch and helped me find a lift all those years ago. It was Gordon.

    Here we introduce some rental houses to you.

    Apartment Levant in Komiza

    Overlooking one of the most beautiful fishing villages in Croatia, our two storey house also gives you a full view of Komiza bay as well as neighboring island of Bisevo. The apartment has a wide, covered balcony and a small garden with lemon trees. It is only 10 minutes'walk from the centre of the village, although it is on the edge of the village, with forests behind the house.

    Apartment Domina

    Located in the centre of the city, the apartment is protected as a historical site. All other facilities are at your fingertips such as restaurants, shops and museums. The apartment is fully equipped and air—conditioned, having a kitchen with a dishwasher, a satellite TV and the free Web access. It contains a bedroom with a double bed and antique furniture. Besides, the apartment offers pet-friendly accommodation.

    Apartment Tonka

    The apartment is located in an old stone house in the centre of Komiza. It offers two bedrooms, each with a separate bathroom, and a living room with a furnished kitchen. The house is only a couple of minutes away from the old harbor, along the old town's street where you can enjoy Komiza's rich cultural history. The bus stop is less than 200 meters away, near the fruit and vegetable market.

    Pearl of Issa

    This two-bedroom apartment is only a few minutes'walk from beautiful beaches, shops, restaurants, cafés and bars. It consists of two bedrooms, a fully equipped modern kitchen, a dining room and a resting area with a sofa, which can be used as an extra sleeping place for one person, a bathroom and a balcony with comfortable garden furniture and barbecue equipment.

    A society that lives by the plastic fork may very well die from it. That's how things are looking. Anyway, for a world so used to disposable(一次性的) habits, any hope for a solution(解决方案) also increasingly seems to be buried.

    Sure, there have been some hopeful ideas. Boyan Slat, the Dutch inventor developed a plan for Covering the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Not long after it started, Slat's system experienced "material fatigue(疲劳)"-likely the result of being strained(使受到压力) by all that trash-and the task was delayed.

    All the while, the plastic increases. Its growth is very fast, according to Linda Wang, a professor of chemical engineering at Purdue University. She says, "We'll have more plastic than fish by 2050." Yet Wang, along with other researchers at Purdue, may have a solution not only to this plastic problem, but also to the growing need for clean energy.  Her team has developed a system that turns waste, a durable, lightweight material that accounts for about a quarter of all plastic waste, into a highly pure form of gasoline.

    Publishing their findings in the journal Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering, the scientists' state that instead of making plastic go away, they can break it down and reuse it, using chemistry to destroy what chemistry brought to the world when plastic was developed back in 1907.

    The process uses "supercritical" water-heated to around 450 degrees Celsius (842 degrees Fahrenheit),beyond the key point at which distinct liquid and vapor phases(气液态) exist-to boil plastic waste into an oil, the researchers explain. It takes a couple of hours for the supercritical water to complete the transformation, but the result is a kind of oil that can be used as gasoline or fuel. It can also be turned into other products.

    The researchers have only made the transformation in a laboratory setting so far, but they suggest turning the process to a commercial scale(规模) may not be far off. And considering the 300 million tons of plastic into the environment every year, that day can't come soon enough. But it will come in time.