Like many thickly populated urban neighborhoods, Lincoln Park also has rats. A lot of rats. “Every night when I walk down the sidewalk, I see rats, ” says 36-year-oId Kelly McGee, who has come to accept this aspect of city living. “It's an urban area; I don't know what else we can expect.”

McGee lives just down the block from the old Children's Memorial Hospital, which is about to be torn down as part of a massive redevelopment project. “Construction all over the city often disturbs rats that are living underground,” says Lincoln Park's City Council representative, Alderman Michele Smith. “Every developer has to do active rat reduction on site, ”Smith says. Already, there are poisonous and inviting food boxes all around the old hospital complex. But the developer of the hospital site still warned residents in a recent community meeting that when digging begins later this month, the rat problem could be awful.

Victoria Thomas, who lives a few miles north of Lincoln Park in Chicago's Lake View neighborhood, says she tried everything from underground fencing to poison traps to wipe out rats, but nothing worked until she got some cats. From the first day she got the cats, Thomas says the rats started to disappear.

“The cats will kill off a great deal of the initial population of the rats, ”says Paul Nickerson, who manages the Cats at Work program for Tree House Humane Society. “And through spreading their pheromones, a chemical produced by an animal, the cats will keep other rats from filling their absence.” Nickerson says that is what makes the cat program so successful in keeping rats away for the long term. ” The rats are far from stupid. They smell the cats' pheromones so they'll stay out of the cats' territory(领域).”

    After Smith highlighted the program in a recent newsletter, Nickerson and Tree House Humane Society have been getting lots of calls from people seeking their own cat colonies. That means a lot more wild cats that might otherwise be killed out of pity will be cared for while doing something that they love: hunting rats.

    Do you find yourself reaching for just one more cup of coffee to get through the day?Are you tired of being tired?Instead of relying on things like coffee or sugar for energy,get happy by eating more foods that give you energy through nourishment.Here are four foods that can help improve your energy levels.

    Hemp Seed

    A complete protein,rich in fiber and omega-3s,hemp is a great low-glycemic（低胰岛素）addition to any diet.The glycemic index (GI) is a measurement of how fast the carbohydrates in food are broken down into glucose（葡萄糖）and how much it will affect your blood sugar.Fiber,fat and protein all lower the GI of a food,which is why hemp seeds (along with nuts,seeds,whole grains and legumes) are low-glycemic.Look for hemp seed oil for salad dressing,and hemp seeds to be added into salads.

    Soaked Almonds

    Raw almonds are nutrient dense,and soaking them releases（释放）higher nutrition potential.Soaking increases vitamin levels and removes the enzyme（酶）inhibitors that slow down digestion.I soak my almonds in water overnight (at least eight hours) and then dry them.

    Quinoa

    It is 20-percent protein,making it a balanced source of carbohydrates.Even though you feel like you're too busy to make home-made meals,quinoa is a fast food that cooks in less than 15 minutes.

    Green Tea

    Caffeine from green tea feels steadier and less sharp than the spike and crash with caffeine from coffee.This is likely because green tea contains L-theanine,a kind of acid found in tea that helps promote relaxation.      .

    Throughout history, music spread through common experiences among people of different cultures. In today technologically advanced society, however, people spread music online, sometimes without an artist's permission. This can lead to many problems, and music companies are now cracking down on this practice. Sharing music online without permission is theft.

    Sharing music online prevents recording companies from making money from their efforts. They say that online file sharing has resulted in a huge drop in profits and sales over the past 10 years. People who find music for free online are not charged for CDs or every MP3 download. To truly understand the impact of music piracy (盗版)on creators, one must understand how many people are involved in the recording process. For the sale of each album, profits must be shared between all parties: musicians, sound engineers, music producers, managers advertisers, and the company selling the product. Many people believe sharing music only affects the recording artist, but the reality is that sharing hurts business for all companies involved. Therefore, the sharing of music files is just as damaging as stealing a CD from Target.

    There are many people who don't see the harm in sharing music files online and even think they have the right to do it. One online blogger states that he originally paid for an entire CD and that he “should be able to do with the material whatever he wants”. While he may have legally paid for the music, he does not have the right to provide it to the world at no cost. Most music is copyrighted(有版权的). No one can legally hand out free copies without permission, which means people like the blogger are thieves.

    Although we do not spread today's music the same way we did historically, there's no doubt that people around the world love to share music. However, internet piracy could prevent musicians from wanting to continue producing albums for fear of theft. Therefore, if people want to continue listening to their favorite artists, they need to buy their music so that artists will make enough profit to continue their music careers.

Holidays are the main times to see both sides of my family.

    At Thanksgiving, my mom, dad, brother and I go to my dad's side of the family, my grandpa's. When I was in 2nd grade, my grandma got in a car accident only miles from their house. At the time, I was in school. I was checked out and brought to church. Since then, holidays have never been the same. However, Thanksgiving is still good, although it would be better with grandma. At my grandpa's house, my uncle, aunt, dad and mom all get the dishes prepared for the feast. When the final family members arrive, and the food is downstairs, we dig in, the little ones first.

    Christmas is a little different. We have Christmas with my mom's side at my uncle's house, usually on Christmas Eve. We have dinner with homemade cupcakes for dessert, and relax until it is time to open presents. The kids get the most and we usually take a family photo. After everybody's gifts have been opened, my family say goodbye and go home.

    Easter has been a little different in the past few years. It started 3 years ago, when my family hosted my mom's side of the family. We put our dishes we made for the day on the counter. We kids go downstairs and play ping-pong or football. We are called up when everything is ready and begin eating. The kids go to a table in the living room, and the adults use the kitchen table. That is usually the Easter day for us.

    Each tradition gets better and better each year for some reason. I wonder what new traditions my family might come up with in the coming years.

    The days of the hunter are almost over in India. This is partly because there is practically nothing left to kill, and partly because some steps have been taken, mainly by banning tiger-shooting, to protect those animals which still survive.

    Some people say that Man is naturally a hunter. I disagree with this view. Surely our earliest forefathers, who at first possessed no weapons, spent their time digging for roots, and were no doubt themselves often hunted by meat-eating animals.

    I believe the main reason why the modern hunter kills is that he thinks people will admire his courage in overpowering dangerous animals. Of course, there are some who truly believe that the killing is not really the important thing, and that the chief pleasure lies in the joy of the hunt and the beauties of the wild countryside. There are also those for whom hunting in fact offers a chance to prove themselves and risk death by design; these men go out after dangerous animals like tigers, even if they say they only do it to rid the countryside of a threat. I can respect reasons like these, but they are clearly different from the need to strengthen your high opinion of yourself.

    The greatest big-game hunters expressed in their writings something of these finer motives. One of them wrote.

    "You must properly respect what you are after and shoot it cleanly and on the animal's own territory(领地)。You must fix forever in your mind all the wonders of that particular day. This is better than letting him grow a few years older to be attacked and wounded by his own son and eventually eaten, half alive, by other animals, Hunting is not a cruel and senseless killing - not if you respect the thing you kill, not if you kill to enrich your memories, not if you kill to feed your people."

    I can understand such beliefs, and can compare these hunters with those who hunted lions with spears(矛) and bravely caught them by the tail. But this is very different from many tiger-shoots I have seen, in which modern weapons were used. The so-called hunters fired from tall trees or from the backs of trained elephants. Such methods made tigers seem no more dangerous than rabbits.

    People who like travelling have their reasons. They believe that travelling can help them expand their field of view, especially in the geographical and historical sense. They also think that touring will give them more chances to enjoy different kinds of food and experience new things that would never be brought by other activities. But those who dislike travelling also have some reasons.

    Travelling, in my opinion, does more good than harm. Most importantly, it broadens our mind. We can get in touch with other civilizations, cultures, customs and ideas.

Through history, most people travelled because of necessity (必要性)—not for pleasure. People travelled just in order to remain alive. They searched for food to eat or places to live in. They sometimes ran away from enemies. This is not to say that no one ever travelled just for the fun of it. In ancient times, for example, rich Romans travelled all the way to Greece to take part in the Olympic Games, and festivals. Of course, some people decided to travel just out of curiosity (好奇心). They wanted to find out what it looked like beyond the horizon (地平线). Also business travel has been going on for centuries. Traders could not only make money but also learn to speak several languages and be introduced to different cultures.

    So, travelling does enrich our mind and draw new ideas to us. There is no doubt that we can get much from it.