A Toronto man is offering a free round-the-world air to the right woman. But   1 apply. You must be named Elizabeth Gallahgher and have a Candian   2 .

    Jordan Axani, 28, said he and his then girlfriend, Elizabeth Gallagher, booked heavily discounted round-the-world air tickets in May, but their   3   ended and he did not want her ticket to   4    . The ticket had a strict no-transfer（不可转让）  5  , but since passport information was not required when    6  , any Canadian Elizabeth Gallagher can 7   it.

    “I just want to see the ticket go to good use and for someone to  8   a lot of joy,” said Axani. He posted his   9  on a social networking website, and received thousands of e-mails, including thirty from actual Elizabeth Gallagbers with the  10 passports, “More  11  , there are hundreds of Canadians who are interested in   12  their name to Elizabeth Gallagher,” Axani said. “It was absolutely out of   13  , thousands of e-mails, people around the world 14 their stories of travel.”

    Axani wrote in his post that he is not  15  anything in return and that the woman who uses the  16 ticket can choose to either travel with him or 17  the ticket and travel on her own.

    The  18  is scheduled to start on December 21 in New York City and continue on to Milan, Prague, Paris, Bangkok and New Delhi before 19  in Toronto on January 8. He said the  20  woman will be announced on the website and the trip will be shared online.

    Last month, I visited one of my old neighborhoods in New York. I had not been there for twenty years and as I walked along the street, my mind was 1 by memories of the past. I saw the old 2 building where I had lived and the playground where I had played. As I viewed these once 3surroundings, images of myself as a child there4 However, what I saw and what I remembered were not the same. I 5realized that the best memories were those kept6

    My old apartment building, as I remember, was bright and alive. It was more than just a place to live. It was a movie house, a space station, or whatever my young mind could 7 I would steal away with my friends and play in the 8This was always exciting because it was so cool and dark, and there were so many things there to 9among. There was a small river in the back of the building. We would go there to lie in the shade of trees and enjoy ourselves.

    However, what I saw was 10different. The apartment building was now in bad11What was once more than a place to live in looked hardly worth 12in. The windows were all 13The once clean walls were covered with dirty 14The river was hardly recognizable. The water was polluted and the trees and flowers were all 15The once sweet-smelling river now smelled16It was really heartbreaking to17all this.

    I do not18having seen my old neighborhood. However, I do not think my 19 childhood memories can ever be the same. I suppose it is20when they say, “You can never go home again.”

    On a road trip to California's breathtaking North Coast region, my husband Ken and I, my teenage daughter Lahre, and my nine-year-old son Shawn, stopped to have lunch and stretch our legs a bit.

    As we walked toward the 1 entrance, a man with an untidy beard and dirty hair jumped up from a nearby bench and opened the door for us. An old bike 2 with a sleeping bag and the rest of his 3rested against the bench, it was obvious that he was 4. But regardless of his 5, he greeted us as if we were his best friends, “Today's soup and sandwich special's a great deal.”

    Once inside, my teenager whispered to me, “Mom, he 6.” And Shawn asked questions about him, not quite understanding the 7 of a homeless person. Ken and I explained the best we could, telling the kids to look to the person underneath and within 8 the dirt and smell.

    With the windiest part of our trip just 9 us, the kids needed to take car-sick pills so I went back to the car to fetch them. As I 10 the front door, the “doorman” was opening it for an older couple, who rushed past him and didn't even acknowledge his 11. I let the couple12 first and then said a loud and gracious “thank you” to the doorman.

After going back inside, I asked our waitress, who was bringing the kids their dessert, to 13 one soup and sandwich special to our bill. Both the kids looked at me 14 —as we had already eaten but Ken knew exactly what I was doing.

    By this time, we had to get back on the road to stay on schedule. As we rounded the comer of the very full restaurant, the “doorman” was sitting at a table enjoying his 15. When seeing me, he jumped up and 16 his hand for a handshake. It was then that I17 he had tears in his eyes—tears of gratitude.

    18 we can't choose many things in life, we can choose when to show gratitude, and I was doing just that. Hopefully, when someone opens a door for Lahre and Shawn during their 19 through life, they will remember to say “20“ and have a great soup and sandwich special on the menu, too.

    I knew it was snowing before I opened my eyes. There was that special quiet in the air that comes when the city is heavily 1 with snow. My thirteen-year-old big brother, Lenny, came in and asked me if I wanted to go 2 with him in Madison Square Garden.

    I had no time to 3. I dressed myself in a hand-mc-down winter coat, put on the boots and 4 the clasps（搭扣）. Eventually, we 5on the twenty-block journey in the snow.

    The first twelve blocks weren't 6, but the long cross town street 7 to be terrible. The fierce winds made it almost impossible to 8 forward. I could no longer 9 my brother. My 10 was uncovered. My hands and feet ached with 11.

    We stopped in a doorway for a rest. Lenny took his hands out of his pockets and bent down to refasten the 12 metal clasps of my boots. 13 that Lenny had to take care of me, I stared straight ahead and 14 a man walking toward us through the snow.

    I was unable to 15 how old he was but he was tall, thin, and had a gentle, 16 face. He wore no hat. There was a 17 around his neck, and his overcoat, like ours, was caked with snow. He kneeled down before me and wrapped his soft wine-colored scarf 18 around my head.

    1don't remember ice-skating that day, or how we got home. All my19 holds is the snow, the 20 of a stranger, and my big brother, Lenny.

    Singing or listening to music during math class is usually not accepted. However, in Kurt's classroom, it's not the1 . Kurt is a math teacher in a high school. This former hip-hop artist is using his 2 background to make math a lot easier and less 3 for his students.

    As a child, he had difficulty 4 math. However, as he grew older, he realized that it wasn't completely his 5 and that the traditional education system just doesn't work for all the students. So he decided to come up with a new 6 which would make kids more interested in school. Finally a good idea 7 him.

    With the help of some friends, Kurt 8 60-second math tracks（跑道）. They are given a(an) 9 name, like “Van Guard” and she 10 multiplication tables（乘法表）to hip-hop beats. He also encourages dancing during class, 11 it helps the children get into the mood（情绪）and 12 them in their learning. So far, Kurt has only invented musical materials for the multiplications, but the13 have been so positive that he is now working on new learning materials.

    Even since Kurt 14 hip-hop into the classroom, he has had 15 trouble during class. And attendance（出勤率）is always at 100% and the students' grades have gone up greatly. What's more, the kids 16 love learning math now.

    Kurt wants to 17 the traditional way of teaching, but he's not saying that it doesn't work. It just doesn't work for 18, because not all students learn in the same way. He only 19 to show that we need to keep a(an) open mind when it 20 children's education.

Double Trouble

    When I was eight, I wanted a toy and needed $10 to buy it. But, as usual, I was broken. I decided to ask my 11-year-old sister, Kathleen, for a loan. I went to her room, 1her for the cash. Laughing, she agreed to2 me the money, but added, "I will charge you 10 percent compound interest every 3until you pay me back."

"Compound interest—what's that?" I asked.

    "Well, interest is what you call the4money borrowers have to pay back on a loan," she explained. "Compound interest means that the interest payments get bigger and bigger the5you take to pay back the loan. To repay the loan, you will need to give me $11 after one month. If you wait two months to pay me back, your6 will grow from $10 to $11. So I'll be charging you interest on $11. Then I will add that interest to the $11 you already owe me, for a 7of $12.10. That's what you'll owe after two months."

    "Sure. I get it," I said. Though truthfully, I was getting 8.

    Kathleen lent me the money, and I bought the toy. My birthday came a month later, and my mom gave me $10.  9, that was just the amount I needed to buy another toy I wanted 10. I put off paying my sister for a month. After another month, I11about the loan.

    Several months later, on Christmas morning, my sister and I each found a $02 bill in our stockings. I was just putting it into my pocket 12Kathleen tapped me on the shoulder.

    "Sorry, kiddo. That's mine. I'm 13on your debt."

    "Huh?" Then I remembered the loan. "Hey! How can it be that much? I 14borrowed $10."

    "True," she said, "but interest has been compounding for eight months. Now you 15me $21.43." She paused, then added. "You can pay me the $1.43."

    I 16to believe that a $10 loan could more than double so quickly. Much to my 17, my sister got her pencil and tablet and showed me exactly how it all added up.

    My head 18as I tried to keep track of Kathleen's 19, but this time, I got the basic idea of compound interest. I 20the hard way that borrowing money can be "double trouble" in no time.