Michael Jackson (1958-2009) spent many of his later years alone in a mansion called Neverland.The name “Neverland” is taken from the children's story Peter Pan.It's about boy who never grows up.Cruel critics of Jackson thought he was like Peter Pan,but that he was childish rather than childlike.They laughed at his taste,his clothes and his pet chimpanzee,Bubbles.

    But perhaps Jackson acted like a child because he hadn't had a proper childhood.He began to work as a professional singer at the age of 9, performing with a group made up of his brothers.Besides working with this group. The Jackson Five,be also had a solo career.He didn't choose to make music like this;he was under a lot of pressure from his father and the music business.He started young and began to sell lots of records while he was still young. With this kind of pressure,who can blame him for living in his own way once he'd become an adult and gotten rich enough lo do what he liked?

    His great originality came from the fact that he wrote,performed and recorded music that appealed to different communities.Before there had been “white” music and “black” music.But Jackson made “crossover” music,songs that had parts of funk,rock ‘n' roll and disco in them.He broke down a lot of barriers with this approach.A great example of this “crossover” style is the song Beat It.It has guitars like rock music,but it also has a beat like disco music.

    If you look up the Beat It video on the Internet,you'll understand another reason for his fame.He made imaginative music that went well with equally imaginative videos.Beat It is,in part,about a war between young gangs. Jackson and his team made a great job of showing the rival gangs facing each other.You also see great dancing,and Jackson shows off his strong sense of fashion.Jackson was as much a video artist as a music artist.

    This is why he was such a hit not just in the United States,but also globally.People loved his music and videos everywhere.He had a great effect on so many household names.Britney Spears,Justin Bieber and many others.In all of them you can find the combination of catchy danceable music and great videos that Jackson started.His music videos were must-see TV,and young would-be artists learned that it took more than just holding a microphone if they really wanted to make it big.

The Square

    Jack Dorsey, the co-inventor of Twitter, is promoting his latest invention called the Square. The square is a small plug-in attachment to your mobile phone that allows you to receive credit card payments.

    The idea starting from Dorsey's friend Jim McKelvey who was unable to sell some glass work to a customer because he couldn't accept a particular card being used.

    Accepting credit card payments for something you're selling isn't always easy, especially if you are mobile like a tradesman, or delivery service at a trade show.

    This latest invention uses a small scanner that plugs into the audio input item on a mobile device. It reads information on a credit card when it is swiped(刷卡). The information is not stored on the device but sent over secure channels to banks. It basically makes any mobile phone a cash register for accepting card payments.

    As a payer, you receive a receipt via email that can be instantly accessed securely online. You can also use a text message to authorize payment in real time. Retailers can create a payer account for their customers which speeds the payment process. For example, a cardholder can assign a photo to their card so their photo will appear on the phone for visual identity confirmation. Mobile devices with touch screens will also allow you to sign for goods.

    There are no contracts, monthly fees, or hidden costs to accept card payments using Square and it is expected the plug-in attachment will also be free of charge.

    As with Twitter, it's expected that Dorsey will direct the company based upon feedback from users. Square Inc. has offices in San Francisco, Saint Louis and New York and is currently beta testing the invention with retailers in the United States.

    Sweet or salty? What kind of tastes do you like? If like me, you have a sweet tooth and you probably can't resist eating cakes, biscuits or chocolate and will sweeten your tea or coffee with spoonfuls of sugar-delicious! But the taste makes it very easy to ignore the warnings that too much of the white stuff（东西）is bad for our health.

    Consuming sugar is an addiction-the more we eat, the more we want. Today's processed food, like ready meals, is related to the stuff and many fizzy（起泡的）drinks contain seven teaspoons of sugar in just one can. In the UK, statistics show that sugar consumption is at its highest level in history and the government is trying to get the food industry to cut the amount of sugar in popular products like chocolate bars by 20% by 2020.

    Of course, sugary food tastes nice, it can help lift our mood, and a part in it can refresh us. But there are dangers too :a high-sugar diet is linked to putting on weight, and being overweight can increase the risk of getting type 2 diabetes（糖尿病）. With these warning signs, I have considered changing my diet by replacing sugary snacks with fruit and salty biscuits-but that's boring!

I'm not alone. BBC journalist Radhika Shanghani, has gone one step further. Encouraged by some well-knowns and nutritionists promoting a 'zero tolerance' approach to sugar, she gave it up altogether, thinking it would make her healthier. Initially she says, “My first fortnight involves mood swings. I have disturbing headaches and feel permanently hung-over.” These symptoms disappeared but she still found food shopping hard as she was stressing about buying the right things.

    Her experiment wasn't a success. She eventually sought advice from Susan Jebb, professor of diet and population health at Oxford University who said: “Lots of people enjoy sugar and gain pleasure from it, so one has to find a balance between enjoyment and eating the right amount.”

    Although not as much as in the past, grandparents are the teachers of the Navajo (纳瓦霍人) youth. They make young people aware of life at an early age. The parents grant them the privilege of teaching the children, and the grandparents take great pride in raising the children or at least having a big part in raising them.

    Young children often stay with their grandparents for years at a time developing a close and trusting relationship. The grandparents teach the children Navajo legends and the principle of life, emphasizing both new culture trends and the preservation of traditions.

    The grandparents are also often the leading figures in teaching the youth the arts of weaving, caring for the livestock, using herbal medicine, and other arts and crafts.

    The children are taught to respect their elders, to care for them, to help them whenever they are in need, and to learn from them. Young people are urged to listen with care to the words of their elders and to keep as much wisdom as possible. Grandparents often go to social gatherings and traditional events, and the young have opportunities to learn more about their culture and traditions.

    I live with my grandmother for thirteen years, and she raised me in the old ways of our people. Although I was going to school, she taught me as much as she could about our traditions. She was a beautiful woman. If I had a chance, I would listen again to her wise teachings, expressed with kindness in a soft voice that touched my heart.

    We used to plant corn and pumpkin every summer. They never grew big enough to feed us, but we planted them anyway. I asked my grandmother why. She said, "Grandson, our plants will be far more beautiful than the flowers outside the fence." I did not understand until one day I saw their beauty as I was coming over the hill with her. She said, "Anything that is a part of you is always far more beautiful than the things which you pass by." We had some beautiful years together. I am glad she is a part of me and I am a part of her.

    Children used to be well disciplined, possessing more respect for culture, tradition, and beliefs than they do now. The world of the Navajo has been influenced by the western world, and the grandparents have less control and influence than they used to. But the young people who have been touched by their teachings have glimpsed a way of life beyond what most people know today.

    At first, Michael Surrell didn't see the black smoke or flames shooting from the windows of his neighbors' home. He and his wife had just parked around the corner from their own house in Allentown, Pennsylvania, when they got a call from one of his daughters, "The house next door is on fire!" He went to investigate. That's when he saw two women and a girl hysterical (歇斯底里的)on their porch.

    "The baby's in there!" one of the women cried. Though the fire department had been called, Surrell, then 64, instinctively ran inside. "The baby" was 8-year-old Tiara Roberts, the woman's granddaughter and a playmate of Surrell's three youngest kids, then 8, 10, and 12. The other two on the porch were Tiara's aunt and cousin.

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 hazardous for anyone, but for Surrell, who has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (慢性阻塞性肺疾病), they were life-threatening. He was the last person who should have run into a burning building— he has lung disease. But that didn't stop him.

    After a few minutes in the smoke filled house, he retreated outside to catch his breath. "Where is Tiara?" he asked desperately." The second floor." her aunt shouted back.

    Surrell knew he couldn't hold his breath for long. So he uttered a little prayer, "Well, Lord, this is it. You gotta help me, because I'm not coming out without that little girl." Taking a deep breath, he went in a second time.

    The darkness was overwhelming. Yet because the house had a similar layout to his, he found the stairs and made it to the second floor. He turned to the right and was met by intense heat. He was already out of breath.

    "Baby girl, where are you?" His throat and lungs burned as if he'd inhaled fire instead of the smoke and soot in the air. Every blink stung his eyes. All he could hear was the crackling and popping of burning wood. ①.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. An ominous thought crossed his mind: I'm probably gonna die up here.

    Finally he touched something. A shoe, then an ankle. He pulled Tiara toward him. ②Her body was limp and she wasn't breathing. He scooped her into his arms and stood. He felt the heat of the flames on his cheeks. Turning, he fought through the smoke and ran blindly into the blackness. The next thing he knew, he was at the front door, then outside. Surrell put Tiara down on the porch.

    ③. A voice told him, "You have to breathe for her." He started CPR -the first time he'd ever done so. The women stood behind him, praying silently. Soon a soot-filled cough came from Tiara's throat. Surrell gave five more breaths. She coughed again. Her eyes flickered. He gave one final breath. She opened her eyes and took a breath on her own.

    ④.Their eyes met. Surrell hugged her tight and said, "Uncle's got you.^" Soon after, his throat closed off.

    Surrell woke up in the hospital a couple of days later, having suffered severe burns to his windpipe and the upper portion of his lungs. He spent over a week in the hospital. Tiara was released from the hospital after a few days. The fire exacerbated 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. Wouldn't give it a second thought."

    Ask any new college graduate about his immediate goals, and it is likely that he will tell you he wants a job. But it turns out that today's students are not going to be satisfied with any job. According to the latest survey, making a difference through their work is essential(必要的) to young people's happiness.

    The survey found that 72 percent of graduating college seniors believe being able to have a positive social influence through their work is essential to their happiness. Making a difference is so important to them that 45 percent say they would take a 15 percent pay cut to work at an organization that has a social or environmental influence, and 58 percent say they would take a pay cut to work for an organization whose values are the same as their own.

    Besides this, the survey found that female students are far more likely to put social influence in first place than their male classmates, echoing the results of a former study showing that female maths and science majors are more likely to say they go into those fields to make a difference.

    One reason for the emphasis(强调) on improving the world probably has to do with the culture of colleges, which encourages students to connect their studies back to real-world problems. Students are used to discussing important social issues(问题) with their friends and professors, and doing something about them in class or through volunteer activities. Once students develop those habits, they don't shut them off when graduation rolls around.