Edison Park Community(社区) Church stood for 87 years in northwest Chicago before it was pulled down in 2016. Churches come and go, but what makes the passing of the church impressive is the beautiful way its members chose to go out.

    Edison Park Community had 300 active members in the 1960s. But by the time the most recent minister(牧师), Rev. Katherine Karch took over, 12 years ago, membership had shrunk unexpectedly. By last year, Edison Park Community was home to only 30 members. “We couldn't pay the bills anymore.” Karch says. The church's members had little choice but to sell their brick building. A developer paid $740,000 for the property(财产) and planned to tear down the church to make room for single-family homes.

    Yet the sale of the property created a major change. Edison Park Community is part of the United Church of Christ, in which each church is owned by its members. That means the church belonged to its members. They had the right to deal with the earnings from the sale as they wished.

    Yet almost a century of baptisms(洗礼) and Sunday socials had laid down strong community roots. Karch says there was only one idea considered from the start. “What they have chosen to do is donate(捐赠) that money to charities.” she says.

    Their first check, for $100,000, went to the Greater Chicago Food and provided more than 300,000 meals for the hungry. Other beneficiaries(受益者) include United Church of Christ's disaster-relief efforts, and a no-kill animal shelter. Let these extraordinary stories of generosity inspire you to give back to your community.

    One day, Mr. Arnold was teaching a lesson, and things were going as normally as ever. He was explaining the story of human being to his pupils. He told them that, in the beginning, men were nomads (游牧); they never stayed in the same place for very long. Instead, they would travel about, here and there, in search of food, wherever it was to be found. And when the food ran out, they would move off somewhere else.

    He taught them about the invention of farming and keeping animals. This was an important discovery, because by learning to cultivate (耕作) the land, and care for animals, mankind would always have food steadily. It also meant that people could remain living in one place, and this made it easier to set about tasks that would take a long while to finish, like building towns, cities, and all that were in them. All the children were listening attracted by this story, until Lucy jumped up:

    “And if that was so important and improved everything so much, why are we nomads all over again, Mr. Arnold?”

    Mr. Arnold didn't know what to say. Lucy was a very clever girl. He knew that she lived with her parents in a house, so she must know that her family were not nomads; so what did she mean?

    “We have all become nomads again,” continued Lucy, “The other day, outside the city, they were cutting the forest down. A while ago a fisherman told me how they fish. It's the same with everyone: when there's no more forest left the foresters go elsewhere, and when the fish run out the fishermen move on. That's what the nomads did, isn't it?

    The teacher nodded, thoughtfully. Really, Lucy was right. Mankind had turned into nomads. Instead of looking after the land in a way that we could be sure it would keep supplying our needs, we kept developing it until the land was bare. And then off we would go to the next place! The class spent the rest of the afternoon talking about what they could do to show how to be more civilized (文明的).

    The next day everyone attended class wearing a green T-shirt, with a message that said “I am not a nomad!”

    And, from then on, they set about showing that indeed they were not. Every time they knew they needed something, they made sure that they would get it using care and control. If they needed wood or paper, they would make sure that they got the recycled kind. They ordered their fish from fish farms, making sure that the fish they received were not too young and too small. They only used animals that were well cared for, and brought up on farms.

    And so, from their little town, those children managed to give up being nomads again, just as prehistoric men had done, so many thousands of years ago.

    As an oceanographer（海洋学家）, I've spent many years developing robots to explore the ocean, and now we're putting that technology to use in our JASON Project, a program that's designed to inspire students and get them interested in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. In theaters throughout the country, we bring kids together and send back to them on large screens our live explorations of large areas of the globe. Not only are the kids observers, but they can operate robots moving across the area while broadcasting images back to them. The kids have the sensation（感受） of really being at the site with us.

    I believe advances in robot technology will one day be the key to a new kind of travel. In the next 10 or 15 years, people will have rooms in their houses that will be able to simulate (模拟) other environment. I like to call this rooms “home domes” -- small theaters with screens and advanced equipment that can reproduce the sights, sounds, smells, and feel of a desert, or a forest. Hand in hand with these rooms, I can see a market for travel robots located in countries around the world. You could rent (租)a robot working in a rain forest, then go into your home dome, where you yourself operate the robot's movements. The equipment in the room will receive the sensations in the robot's environment and simulate them for you.

    Today, much of the world's population never travels more than 50 or 60 miles from home. And even a person with enough time can see only a part of the earth's sights. But this new way of travel will cost so much less in both time and money and allow people to see a lot more of the globe. And simulated travel will also help protect our planet. You can't take large groups of tourists to look at Dian Fossey's gorillas（大猩猩）. But a small robot, with no animal smell, can get very close to a gorilla and send the sights, sounds, and smells back to a million people.

    Today show's Kathie Lee Gifford is hoping to bring the story of David to a new generation with her latest musical project, The Little Giant.

    The 13-song album tells the story of the shepherd (牧羊人) boy who defeated a giant with five stones and a slingshot and became a king. The idea of the record came after Gifford and her husband Frank went on a life-changing trip to the Holy Land in 2012.

    Gifford hoped to shine light on David's story to help a new generation find their own purpose; it's why she decided to compose this album that invites kids to hear the tale of the shepherd in a fun and educational way. Gifford based the record's opening track "What is Your Stone" on bravery and faith. She hopes the songs can help children find confidence in themselves.

    Though the album is aimed towards families and children, Gifford found recording the story of David to be an exercise in healing after the death of her beloved husband Frank who passed away two years ago.

    "I catch myself saying that I lost him sometimes," Gifford says, "No, he hasn't been gone. The trip took root in my husband's life, because he truly came to understand exactly what David did. "

    Gifford says the trip and the teachings stayed with her husband until his death. 66For the next three years, when people came to visit us, they'd always see Frank's trophy (奖杯) room because it's like a museum," Gifford explained. "He would take them over. Instead of all of his trophies, he would point to the stones we brought back from the travelling destination and talk a out them. "

    Gifford expects her own journey, her new album and her commitment to bringing a bit of joy to people through her show can help inspire children to discover their own faith and purpose.

    If conditions get bad enough, almost any kind of weather can become a storm.

Stormy weather can cause people to cancel their plans. It can cause major events to be postponed. And severe stormy weather can be dangerous to people, fortune and anima1.

    If you weather the storm, or ride out the storm, you survive and move on without harm or injury. For example, 1et's talk about Tornado Alley, the name for part of the central United States. During springtime, this area often has a large number of powerful tornadoes. People who live there are taught to shelter in the safest place they can find and wait for the storm to pass. People who live in Tornado Alley are used to weathering many storms!

    You can also weather a storm, but it doesn't involve actual weather. “To weather the storm” can also mean to make it through a difficult experience or trying times. So, if the stock market(股市)crashes, you might have to weather a financial storm.

    Often before a big storm, conditions are calm. The calm before the storm can happen anytime. It is the time before something bad happens. For example, at the beginning of a family reunion, the adults were all talking happily. But the older children knew it was just the calm before the storm. They've seen it happen before. The adults talk happily for about an hour. Then they start arguing about events from the past—things that should really stay buried!

    But after the storm begins and you find yourself in the middle of it, you are in the eye of the storm. In the world of weather, the eye of the storm is the calmest part, in the center of a hurricane, for example. However, in the English language, if you are in the eye of the storm, you are in the most intense part of a conflict. For example, she had no idea that walking into the meeting would put her in the eye of the storm.

    However, a brainstorm does not exist in the world of weather. To brainstorm means to try to solve a problem by talking with other people. And don't worry. If we have trouble thinking of an idea for the next program, we can always brainstorm with you!

    Australia was first used as an island prison by Britain to solve their problem of having a fast growing prison population. These early settlers were those who were sent from all over Great Britain, including Ireland, Wales, and Scotland. Later events, such as the gold rush, caused several waves of immigration (移居) from Europe, Asia and other parts of the world. It is commonly thought that Australians are offspring (后代) of those criminals (罪犯)! In fact, only a part of Australians are those criminals' offspring. Also, in those days, people could be put into prison or sent to Australia for small crimes, like stealing a loaf of bread. Today Australia is home to the largest Greek and Italian communities in the world, outside Greece and Italy. This has helped the Australian accent develop.

    Australian English was created by the first generation of children born in the new area. Since they talked with people who have different accents, they began to speak a distinct dialect of English that was to become the language of the nation. These differences were first noted by late arrivals in the early 1800s, and the language sounds like Cockney English, spoken by the working­class in London.

    Soon, words from native languages were to become part of the Australian English. Here are some words you may consider them to be Standard English. In fact, they are from native Australian languages!

    The names of many places and animals, including Canberra (the Australian capital, meaning "meeting place" in a local language).

    Hard yakka — meaning "hard work", coming from the language of the Brisbane area.

    Cooee — a call used traditionally by native Australians to attract attention, because the sound can travel long distances.

    Bung — meaning "dead", but also used to mean broken or useless, for example, "He has a bung eye".