Pat O'Burke was a poor Irishman with a large family, and one morning, waking up very early from cold and hunger, he decided to go shooting in a wood near his cottage. The wood belonged to Lord Northwood, a rich gentleman. Pat had no right to go there, but in it there were swarms of rabbits and flocks of birds that were good to eat, and Pat determined to take the risk. Suddenly he saw the owner, with a group of friends, coming towards him in the wood. There was a look of anger on Lord Northwood's face as he caught sight of the gun in Pat's hands.

    Pat's heart sank with fear, but he saw there was no hope of escape, so he walked boldly(大胆) up to the group and said to Lord Northwood, “Good morning, sir, and what has brought you out so early this morning?”

    Lord Northwood, rather surprised, said he and his friends were taking a little exercise to get an appetite(食欲) for their breakfast. Then, looking at Pat with suspicion(怀疑), he said, “but why are you out so early in the morning?”

    “Well, sir” said Pat, “I just came out to see if I could get a breakfast for my appetite.”

    The whole crowd burst into laughter at Pat's ready wit, and with a smile Lord Northwood walked on, leaving Pat to try his luck with the rabbits.

    In the fall of 1985, I was a bright-eyed girl heading off to Howard University to study law, aiming at a legal career and dreaming of sitting on a Supreme Court bench somewhere. Twenty-one years later I am still a bright-eyed dreamer and one with quite a different tale to tell.

    My grandma, an amazing woman, graduated from college at the age of 65. She was the first in our family to reach that goal. But one year after I started college, she developed cancer. I made the choice to withdraw from college to care for her. It meant that school and my personal dream would have to wait.

    Then I got married with another dream: building my family with a combination of adopt and biological children. In 1999, we adopted our first son. To lay eyes on him was fantastic and very emotional. A year later came our second adopted boy. Then followed son No.3. In 2003, I gave birth to another boy.

    You can imagine how busy I became, raising four boys under the age of 8. Our home was a complete zoo--a joyous zoo. Not surprisingly, I never did make it back to college full-time. But I never gave up on the dream either. I had only one choice: to find a way. That meant taking as few as one class each semester.

    The hardest part was feeling guilty about the time I spent away from the boys. They often wanted me to stay home with them. There certainly were times I wanted to quit, but I knew I should set an example for them to follow through the rest of their lives.

    In 2007, I graduated from the University of North Carolina. It took me over 21 years to get my college degree!

    I am not special, just single-minded. It always struck me that when you're looking at a big challenge from the outside it looks huge, but when you're in the midst of it, it just seems normal. Everything you want won't arrive in your life on one day. It's a process. Remember: little steps add up to big dreams.

    It's comforting to think if you were somehow swallowed by a whale, you'd simply hang out in his stomach until he eventually spat you out, unharmed and whole. Unfortunately, your chance of ending up in this type of situation is pretty low.

    In 2012 reporter Ben Shattuck read the records at the New Bedford Whaling Museum Research Library. Despite his extensive research at one of the most comprehensive whaling archives(档案), he failed to find a single report of anyone ever being swallowed alive by a whale. He found plenty of reports of whalers who were bitten or injured by the creatures, and several who died after fighting with a whale, but none related to swallowing.

    With whales' large mouths, it certainly seems possible that a whale could swallow someone whole, so why is it so unlikely? Baleen whales, or whales without teeth, are some of the largest creatures on the planet. Despite their massive size, baleen whales could never get you into their bellies thanks to their relatively small esophagus(食道). These whales are designed to eat small sea creatures, and the opening in their throat is only about as large as a basketball, so you'd never make it that far.

    But what about toothed whales? Sperm whales eat whole seals, so you could easily fit down their throats and into their stomachs. However, once you reached the first of the sperm whale's four stomachs, your journey would probably end quickly. Not only would the whale's stomach acid make quick work of you, but you'd experience a distinct lack of air on the inside. Actually, you're more likely to get eaten or injured as you try to make it past the sperm whale's sharp teeth. Plenty of whalers, have fought with sperm whales and lost their hands or lives due to these mean teeth.

    When an earthquake hit a small town，many houses fell down.After the earthquake，all the newspapers reported many stories about some of the families who were in trouble.

    One Sunday，when I was reading a newspaper，a special picture touched me.It gave the clothing sizes of each family member.I thought that this would be a good chance to teach my children to help those who were less lucky than themselves.I said to my seven years old twins，Brad and Brett，and three years old Meghan，"We have so much，and these poor people now have nothing.We'll share what we have with them."

    I filled a box with foods and clothes.While I was doing this, I encouraged the boys to choose their toys and donate some of their less favourite things.Meghan watched quietly as the boys took out their old toys and games and put them together.Then she walked away.A few minutes later she came back with Lucy，her much loved doll.She put the doll on top of the other toys. "Oh, dear," I said. "You don't have to give Lucy.You love her so much."Meghan said，"Lucy makes me happy，Mommy.Maybe she'll make another little girl happy, too."

    I looked at Meghan for a long moment.She taught me a lesson.It's easy to give something that we don't want any more，but hard to give what we cherish(珍爱)，isn't it?

    Mother Teresa (August 26, 1910-September 5, 1997) was a great woman, who did a lot to improve the social condition of mankind. Due to her contribution in serving the society, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize aged 69.

    She was brought up in a Catholic family. When she was only seven, she lost her father. Even as a young child, she was interested in the life of missionaries (传教士). At the age of 18, she decided that she would become a nun. She left her home and went to join the Sisters of Loreto. It was the first step that she made towards providing services for mankind.

    On the 7th of October in the year 1950, Mother Teresa received Vatican permission to start the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, the mission of which would be to take care of the needy, the homeless, and people who were shunned by the society. Then it had a number of branches all over the country. The journey of Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity started with the setting up of homes for "the Dying".

    In the year 1983, Mother Teresa suffered from a serious heart attack, while she was in Rome. However, she recovered. But, later in 1989, she again got an attack. Her health went worse and in the year 1991, she suffered from pneumonia. Taking her health problems into consideration, Mother Teresa decided to resign (辞职) from the post of head of the order.

    A secret vote was conducted in which all the nuns voted for the stay of Mother Teresa except herself. So, she agreed to continue serving as head of the Missionaries of Charity. Day by day her health was getting worse. On September 5, 1997, exactly nine days after her 87th birthday, this great soul departed for heaven.

    Nowadays women appear to have a positive image of themselves as safer drivers than men.

    In a survey done for insurer MetLife, 51% of women said they drive more safely. The evidence is on their side: Men are 3.4 times more likely than women to get a ticket for careless driving and 3.1 times as likely to be punished for drunk driving. "Women are on average less aggressive and more law abiding (守法的) drivers, which leads to fewer accidents," the report says. However, not all male drivers share the same opinion. Of the men surveyed by MetLife, 39% claimed male drivers were safer. The findings did back them up on one point: automotive knowledge. The report showed that more men are familiar with current safety equipment such as electronic stability control, which helps prevent rollover accidents.

    Auto safety unavoidably matters to money. Insurance companies focus on what classes of drivers have the lowest dollar amounts of claims, and for now, that mainly includes women. In general, women pay about 9% less for auto insurance than men. A study by the website Insweb also showed that auto insurance rates are lower for women in most states. Among individual states, women get the greatest advantage in Wyoming (where they pay 20% less), South Dakota and Washington, D. C. where their insurance costs are 16% lower.

    "More than 11, 900 male drivers died in U. S. traffic accidents in 2009, compared with just under 4, 900 women drivers," according to the study. "Based on miles traveled, men died at a rate of 2.5 deaths per 100 million miles traveled, VS 1.7 deaths for women."