A mouse looked through a crack inthe wall to see the farmer and his wife opening a package: What food might itcontain? He was astonished to discover that it was a mouse trap!

    Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse declared the warning, “There is a mouse trap in the house, there is a mouse trap in thehouse.”

    The chicken clucked and scratched,raised her head and said, “Mr Mouse, I can tell you this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me, I cannot be bothered by it.”

    The mouse turned to the pig and told him, “There is a mouse trap in the house.” “I am so sorry, Mr Mouse,”sympathized the pig, “but there is nothing I can do about it but pray; beassured that you are in my prayers.”

    The mouse turned to the cow, who replied, “A mouse trap, am I in grave danger, huh?”

    So the mouse returned to the house, head down and depressed to face the farmer's mouse trap alone.

    That very night a sound was heard throughout the house, like the sound of a mouse trap catching its prey. The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see that it was an evil snake whose tail the trap had caught. The snake bit the farmer's wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital. She returned home with a fever. Now everyone knew to treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup's main ingredient. His wife's sickness continued so that friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer but chered the pig. The farmer's wife did not get well, in fact, she died, and so many people came for her funeral. The farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide meat for all of them to eat.

    So the next time you hear that someone is facing a problem and think that it does not concern you, remember that when the least of us is threatened, we are all at risk.

A Blessed Teacher

    I remembered Ricky came back to see me ten years after he was in my class. He told me how I had inadvertently(不经意地) changed his life.

    Ricky often gazed out the window during one of my ninth-grade history classes early in my teaching career. He was quiet, and his good grades and mild manner were why I did not move him away from the seat by the window.

    One day, I leaned over his shoulder and quietly asked, “What are you looking at? You gaze out of this window during every class.”

    He said, “I am looking at the band.”

    According to Ricky, I said, “If you like the band so much that you have to look at them during this class every day, I want you to go down to Mr. Overby (the band teacher) and tell him that I sent you. Tell him that you want to be in the band. Now turn around and finish working before the bell rings.”

    The next day Ricky went to Mr. Overby and told him I had sent him and he wanted to be in the band. He added that he did not know how to play any instrument.

    When Ricky visited me ten years later, he thanked me for telling him to go to Mr. Over by because he fell in love with music and discovered his musical talent that had not been tapped. His musical talent resulted in him getting a scholarship to college and earning a degree that now allowed him to provide for his family. Most of all, music had brought great pleasure and satisfaction to his life.

    After Ricky thanked me, I pointed out that he did all of the hard work it took to become the wonderfully talented person that he was. I did not make him walk downstairs to join the band, practice his instrument, and get the good grades that led to his college scholarship.

    Ricky responded that I could have yelled at him for looking out the window. Instead, I gave him an alternative that changed his whole life.

    After he left, I thought about his words. I realized that I was teaching children with every word I said, every action I took, and with every decision I made. Ricky's story raised my teaching bar. Most of all, I have never forgotten the lesson Ricky taught me, a blessed teacher.

    One day a mime(哑剧演员) is visiting the zoo and tries to earn some money as a street performer. As soon as he starts to draw a crowd, a zookeeper pulls him into his office. The zookeeper explains that the zoo's most popular attraction, a gorilla(大猩猩), has died suddenly and the keeper fears that attendance(出席人数) at the zoo will fall off. He offers the mime a job to dress up as the gorilla. The mime accepts.

    The next morning the mime puts on the gorilla suit and enters the cage before the crowd comes. He soon discovers he can sleep, play and make fun of people and he draws bigger crowds than he ever did as a mime — the job he likes but loses.

    However, with days going by, he begins to notice that the people are paying more attention to the lion in the cage next to his. Not wanting to lose the attention of his audience, he climbs to the top of his cage, crawls across a partition(隔墙), and dangles(悬挂) from the top to the lion's cage. The lion gets angry at this. The scene is a fuel to the crowd.

    At the end of the day he is given a raise for being such a good attraction — well, this continues for some time. The crowds grow larger, and the mime's pay keeps going up.

    Then one day when he is dangling over the lion he slides and falls. The mime is terrified. He starts screaming “Help me!”, but the lion is quick. The mime soon finds himself flat on his back looking up at the angry lion and the lion says, “Shut up you fool! Do you want to get us both fired?”

    Often people use laptops(手提电脑) on trains and airplanes, in airports and hotels. These laptops connect people to their workplace. In the United States today, laptops also connect students to their classrooms.

    Westlake College in Virginia will start a laptop computer program that allows students to do schoolwork anywhere they want. Within five years, each of the 1500 students at the college will receive a laptop. The laptops are part of a $10 million computer program at Westlake, a 110-year-old college. The students with laptops will also have access to the Internet. Besides, they will be able to use e-mail to "speak" with their teachers, their classmates and their families. However, the most important part of the laptop program is that students will be able to use computers without going to computer labs. They can work with it at home, in a fast-food restaurant or under the trees—anywhere at all!

    Because of the many changes in computer technology, laptop use in higher education, such as colleges and universities, is workable. As laptops become more powerful, they become more similar to desktop computers. Also, the portable(便携式的)computers can connect students to not only the Internet, but also libraries and other resources. State higher-education officials are also testing laptop programs at other universities, too.

    The Franklin Institute is one of the oldest and most beloved science museums in the United States.

    Why visit

    In 1824, the Franklin Institute opened in Independence Hall in memory of Benjamin Franklin and his scientific achievements. In 1934, with the construction of the current building and the nearby Eels Planetarium, it became a hands-on science museum.

    Today, it holds the distinction (荣誉) of being Pennsylvania's most visited museum. In the museum's rotunda (圆形厅), a 20 foot-tall marhle statue pays respect to the Founding Father and famous scientist.

    Must-See

    While the entire museum offers interactive (交互式的) fun, highlights include the high-tech Your Brain exhibits (展品), which offers a glimpse into the inner workings of the human brain; Sports Zone, which focuses on the scientific aspects of sports; Two Escape Rooms, where participants solve puzzles and riddles before lime runs out; and the on site Virtual Reality Demonstration Space.

    Pricing

    General Admission to the Franklin Institute includes access to three floors of hands-on science exhibits including permanent (永久的) interactive exhibits, Live Science programs, the Joel N. Bloom Observatory, and one show in the Fels Planetarium. Discounts are given for groups of 15 or more.

    To buy tickets, please click the ticket price to be directed to our online ticketing page where all the ticket prices are available. If you prefer to order tickets over the phone, please call 215-448 1200 (9: 00 a. m.—5: 00 p. m.)

    Member Tickets

    Members of the Franklin Institute receive exclusive (独有的) ticketing benefits, including discounted prices and no service fees. Please select your Membership level before buying member tickets.

Despite its short history, there is a lot of good English poetry around. The earliest English poetry was written in a kind of English that is now difficult to understand. Modern English started around the time of William Shakespeare, towards the end of the 16th century. The 17th century was a great time for English poetry. Shakespeare is famous for his plays. His sonnets, however, belong to the best English poetry. In the next generation of great English poets, we met John Donne. Chinese readers admire his works because of his use of surprising images that reminds them of the works of poets such as Su Dongpo. Before the end of the century, there was another famous writer, John Milton. Once published, his works became famous for the absence of rhyme at the end of each line. In the 18th century, it was Alexander Pope who wrote the finest poetry in England. 

The next period that produced a great number of fine poets was the 19th century. Greatly loved in China were the English romantic poets. The style and atmosphere in poems by William Wordsworth, George Gordon Byron and John Keats have often led us to think of some poets such as Du Fu and Li Bai. 

Finally, modern poets have their special attraction because they stand closest to us both in the language and images they use. Among them we find American poet Robert Frost. 

The introduction of English poetry to China came late. Towards the end of the 19th century, Chinese writers started reading more foreign poetry. The great moment for European literature to come to China was between 1910 and the late 1930s when famous writers such as Lu Xun and Guo Moruo translated both poetry and novels from English into Chinese.