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 favour 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.

    Bored? Lonely? Out of condition? Why not try the SPORTS CENTER?

    TENNIS

    Indoor and outdoor courts. Coaching from beginners to advanced. Children only. Mornings.

    SKIING

    Gentle slopes. 3 levels instructors at weekends and Fridays. Daytime practice.

    8-year-old upwards.

    SWIMMING

    2 pools, heated, Olympic length.

    Women: Tuesday and Thursday.

    Men: Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

    Children: Saturday.

    GOLF

    9 hole practice course. Professional Coaching. Lessons must be booked in advance in daytime. Evening practice. Minimum age — 9 years.

    GYMNASTICS

    Maximum age —18 years.

    Children aged 5-10. Mondays and Wednesdays. 4:00-6:00 p.m.

    10—18 year olds. Friday evenings.

    AND MANY MORE

    Table Tennis, Snooker (台球), Darts (标枪), Café (all day), Bar (lunch time and evenings), Nursery (weekdays and weekends, not evenings).

    Centre open 10:00 a.m.—10:00 p.m. Daily.

    Interested? More details, call 800-1234-5678.

    At first, Michael Surrell didn't see the black smoke or flames shooting from the windows of his neighbors' home. Then they got a call from one of his daughters: "The house next door is on fire!" He went over and saw three women crying madly on their porch (门廊).

    "The baby's in the second floor!" one of the women cried. Though the fire department had been called, Surrell, then 64, bravely ran inside. "The baby" was Tiara Roberts, the woman's granddaughter and a playmate of Surrell's three youngest kids.

Entering the burning house was like "running into a bucket of black paint," Surrell says. The thick smoke caused him to stumble blindly around, burned his eyes, and made it impossible to breathe. The conditions would have been dangerous for anyone, but for Surrell, who has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(慢性阻塞性肺病), they were life-threatening.

    Taking a deep breath, he moved around in the overwhelming darkness. Because the house had a similar layout to his, he found the stairs and made it to the second floor. Then he heard a soft but clear moan. Still unable to see, Surrell fell to his knees on the hot wood floor. He crawled toward the sound, feeling around for any sign of the girl. Finally, he touched something. A shoe, then an ankle. He pulled Tiara toward him, scooped her into his arms and stood. Turning, he fought through the smoke and ran blindly into the blackness…

    Surrell woke up in the hospital a couple of days later and spent over a week in the hospital. Tiara was released from the hospital after a few days. The fire worsened Surrell's pulmonary condition, and he feels the effects even two years later. As a result, he takes extra medication that helps open his airways. "It's a small price to pay," he says. "I'd do it again in a heartbeat. I wouldn't give it a second thought."

    Like all big cities, Paris has a traffic problem: lots of cars, lots of traffic jams (阻塞) and lots of pollution from exhaust fumes (废气). So the city began a scheme (计划) to improve the situation.

    Under the Velib scheme ('Velib' comes from vélo liberté, or 'bicycle freedom') people can take a bicycle, use it for as long as they want, and then leave it at the same or another bicycle station. The first half-hour on the bike is free, but if you don't return it after 30 minutes, you have to pay. But it's only €1 a day or €29 a year! The bicycles are heavy (25 kg), and they are all grey and have baskets. There are about 20,000 of them in the city, and around 1,450 bicycle stations. So there are a lot more Velib stations than the 298 subway stations!

    Paris is not the first city to have a scheme like this. But not everybody thinks it's a great idea. One Parisian said, 'These bicycles are only for short journeys. If people want to travel across the city, they won't use a bicycle—they'll still use their cars.'

    A city spokesman said, "The bicycle scheme won't solve all our traffic problems, of course. But it might help reduce air pollution. Traffic, together with factory fumes, is a big problem. There aren't any simple answers to traffic problems and pollution in cities. But unless we do something now, there will be more traffic jams and temperatures will continue to rise, so the problems in our environment will get worse. The bikes might help people to lead a healthier life, too."

In summer holiday, the kids are out of school, so it is a good time to plan for a family travel. However, it's not easy to prepare for a family travel. Here are four travel apps(应用程序) to make your trip more relaxing.

Yuggler

Search nearby for family-friendly activities, from free events to worthwhile attractions. Use Yuggler to plan for what to do each day, based on the weather or the type of entertainment your kids want or need, and look through reviews written by parents who've been there. So instead of paying $20 per person for entrance to the big museum, you can locate just-as-fun spots with zero admission, saving a family of $80.

Sit or Squat

Held by Charmin, this app uses your phone's built-in location finder to find out the closest public restrooms. Perhaps more importantly, Sit or Squat provides the restrooms'cleanliness scores, which are made by the users who have been there. It is quite convenient.

My Disney Experience

The official Walt Disney World app's interactive map(互动地图), which uses your tool's GPS, helps you find restaurants, restrooms, and attractions nearby. You can also access real-time wait times for popular rides and character appearances, meaning you're making the most of your time.

Wi-Fi Finder

Find free Internet near your current location in a minute. Wi-Fi Finder works offline too. Before you head out, download the offline database(数据库) to your phone, so you won't waste data while searching for a hotspot, which is key during an international trip. You'll save as much as $15 off the hotel Wi-Fi cost.

Two women going on a journey to green their city is the best way to describe the founders of Utility, Portland's low-waste and reuse company. It started in January 2019 and opened its first retail shop in April. Its founders, Rebecca Rottman and Nadine Appenbrink, are deeply committed to sustainability and supporters of zero waste.

They started Utility as a second job for both and as a personal journey, looking for clean products that didn't come in plastic. Their goal is to reduce the amount of single-use plastics by allowing people to bring their own reusable containers when they buy environmental friendly home and personal care items.

Every week the women teamed up with local stores to sell their goods and to refill products for returning customers. Now they are operating only online for pickup or local delivery in the Portland area. It is really easy, the company said. Just shop online and choose a container. Then select pickup or delivery. The products include all-natural dish bar soap and a wide variety of plastic-free kitchen tools.

While not completely zero waste, Utility is striving to get extremely close. Appenbrink said, "We are all on a journey. And we want to be as approachable as possible. Utility is to raise awareness about this lifestyle." They are focused on careful growth because Utility will never ship products because of the carbon footprint involved in shipping.

There are zero waste stores in other communities, like Clean Kilo in Birmingham UK, but they are real brick and mortar (实体的) buildings. Utility's concept is so simple that it can be followed almost anywhere. Zero waste markets are the way to the circular economy that is needed to stop plastic waste, reduce our carbon footprint and have a sustainable future.