Peter Byford was born in a stone house in Honley，and when he was tiny his dad，a former miner，got a job in the textile trade and the Byford's moved to Skelmanthorpe.Life was tough but fun，and young Peter spent his days in the rolling countryside，rafting on the river，making tree camps or playing on his own with his model railway and soldiers.

     His world was rocked by tragedy when his mother died，which destroyed young Peter，a shy child who suddenly had to grow up fast.Though grieving，he went up the road to live with his aunt and uncle，and returned home much too young to face the next challenge，that of looking after his dad，who had lost an arm in an accident in a factory.

     By then he had taken the nickname as Biff.The younger Biff struggled at school because of his shyness，but loved the music lessons and became friends with a classmate whose brother had a guitar.At the same time a young man who had a banjo(班卓琴)moved into the house opposite where he lived and he taught young Biff how to play it.The seeds had been sown and music began to influence his life.

     But even so，his working career began，in typical fashion for 1960s West Yorkshire.After a short time as an apprentice(学徒)carpenter，he went to work in the local weaving factory.And this was where Biff Byford，soon to become a legend in the world of rock，first learned to sing.The machines would run all day，clickety­clack，clickety­clack.The noise was incredible，and the workers would spend their time trying to lip read each other.

     It was just so noisy in there.It was really heavy metal.The only thing to do was sing to yourself.So sing to himself he did，the melodies(旋律)locking in place in his head，not to be forgotten.His dream first exploded into a rocking reality.

    Going green seems to be fad (时尚) for a lot of people these days. Whether that is good or bad, we can't really say, but for the two of us, going green is not a fad but a lifestyle.

    On April 22, 2011, we decided to go green every single day for an entire year. This meant doing 365 different green things, and it also meant challenging ourselves to go green beyond easy things. Rather than recycle and reduce our energy, we had to think of 365 different green things to do and this was no easy task.

    With the idea of going green every single day for a year, Our Green Year started. My wife and I decided to educate people about how they could go green in their lives and hoped we could show people all the green things that could be done to help the environment. We wanted to push the message that every little bit helps.

    Over the course of Our Green Year, we completely changed our lifestyle. We now shop at organic(有机的)stores. We consume less meat, choosing green food. We have greatly reduced our buying we don't need. We have given away half of what we owned through websites. Our home is kept clean by vinegar and lemon juice, with no chemical cleaners. We make our own butter, enjoying the smell of home-made fresh bread. In our home office anyone caught doing something ungreen might be punished.

    Our minds have been changed by Our Green Year. We are grateful for the chance to have been able to go green and educate others. We believe that we do have the power to change things and help our planet.

    Ivy Granstrom

    Ivy Granstrom was born with impaired vision(弱视) and got a serious back injury at the age of 60 during a car accident. She participated in cold English Bay swimming events for 76 years and was therefore sometimes known as the Queen of the Polar Bear Swims.

    Gerry Hewson

    Gerry Hewson was a member of Australian Men's National Wheelchair Basketball Team. He won a gold medal in the 1996 Summer Paralympics. He coached for the West Sydney Razorbacks from 2004 to 2006.He was named as a lifetime member in recognition of the efforts he made for the promotion of wheelchair basketball. Discussing the appeal of wheelchair basketball, he commented that,“There is a coating at the edge of the rim(轮辋) that actually lights up like a spark(火花), and it stays for about two to three seconds. That is quite exciting and great fun.”

    April Holmes

    April Holmes lost her left leg below the knee because of a train accident in 2001. Remembering it she said, “I had a life-changing accident in January, 2001. And fortunately I have been able to get back to doing what I love, and that's track and field.” Through hard work, she made records in the 100, 200, and 400 meter events. To live her life to its full potential, she has set up a non-profit(非营利的) organization, the April Holmes Foundation, to help people with learning or physical disabilities while being a role model for them.

    Shauna Maria Whyte

    Shauna Maria Whyte was born in Canada in 1967. She has won many prizes in cross-country skiing competitions since 1975. In 1991, during a horseback riding competition, Shauna broke her back. She did not surrender to this change in her life, and she started using a sit sled(雪橇).

    Long before iPhone, the cigarette was the companion of choice for restlessness. And long before Facebook and WeChat, it was tobacco that promised to better your social life. Now, quitting smartphones has become the new quitting smoking.

    Of course, technology does not yellow your teeth, cause disease or lead to cancer. But some individuals are so concerned that device addiction is damaging their mental health. In order to reduce their dependence, even in Silicon Valley, people are turning off the messages that constantly buzz for their attention, banning smartphones from the bedroom and, curiously, changing the colors on their screens to a less tempting scale of gray.

    The big tech companies will have to work out how to respond to this new generation of quitters. Facebook is the first to go public with its attempt, hoping its recent move can make the social network more homely.

Last year the tech industry got a bad name —Big Tech—with unfortunate echoes of other industries that have faced fierce opposition, including Big Tobacco. Like them, the tech industry has to reduce concern from a new generation of activist shareholders （股东） that are questioning its role in the world. These campaigns are never as fierce as those faced by Big Tobacco. In the 1990s, socially responsible investors refused to put money in tobacco stocks.

    It is far difficult for investors to challenge Big Tech and hard to separate the good these companies do in the world-connecting old friends and giving space for people to share their ideas-from the bad. In the meantime, stopping using technology remains problematic. In The World Without Mind: The Existential Threat of Big Tech, Franklin Foer argues that tech should be seen in a similar way to junk food: a convenience that some reject for more continuing nutrition.

    So we need to do more to turn the tide. In the same way that public service announcements made smoking around your children taboo （禁忌）, we can warn parents against losing themselves in their smartphones while taking care of kids. We can also create no-smartphone zones at dinner. Eventually smartphones could be banned from all public places and help us give our attention to the people around us instead.

    When I was a boy there were no smart phones. Computers were something you saw on STAR TREK(星际航行), and our television only got one channel clearly. Still, I was never bored. The fields, hills, and woodlands around my house were the nature ready-made playgrounds.

    I can remember once hiking to a nearby lake and slowly walking around it. At the backside of it I was amazed to find an old, one-lane, dirt road that I had never seen before. I immediately set out to travel it. It was full of holes and muddy tracks and deep woods bordered it on both sides, but exploring it still seemed like a fine adventure.

    I walked on and on for what seemed like hours. I was sure my guardian angel was whispering in my ear to turn around and head back home but I was stubborn and even a bit stupid, so I walked on.

    The dirt road give way to a rock one and then a paved one, yet there was still neither a car nor a house in sight. My legs were getting tired. I noticed that the sun was starting to go down and I grew scared. I didn't want to end up trapped on this road in the dark of night, but I was sure it would be dark before I could make my way back to the lake again.

    I was almost in tears when I turned one last curve(弯曲处) and saw something in the distance. It was a house that I recognized. My heart leapt up! I jumped up and down and laughed out loud. I knew the way home! It was still over a mile away but my legs felt like feathers and I hurried back to my house in no time. I walked in with a big smile on my face just in time for dinner.

    I remembered this recently when I saw a sign that said, “All roads lead Home.” This is true. In this life all roads no matter what their twists(弯曲) and turns are can lead us home again. They can lead us to our homes here on Earth. They can lead us to our homes in our heart, if we can insist.

    Poetry is the artistic expression of the human thoughts and feelings in rhythmical and emotional language. Compared with prose (散文) , it lays more stress on rhythm, imagery (意象), emotion, and imagination. As its language is rhythmical, its sound is highly musical. We may say, "No rhythm, no poetry", no matter the rhythm of poetry is traditional as in metrical (格律的) style or "natural" as in free verse.

    So the poet must write carefully and reflectively in order to find words that not only fulfills the demands of meter and rhyme, but also expresses the meaning in a manner that complements the imagery and tone of the rest of the poem. This careful use of language is the most significant difference between ordinary prose and poetry.

    The ordinary prose writer neatly builds an argument using words the way a mason (石匠) builds a house using bricks; the poet is an artisan who creates a fieldstone hearth (大卵石壁炉炉床) — each stone or each word is turned over  examined, and often laid aside until it can be placed where its shape, weight, and color will contribute to the strength and beauty of the whole. Prose, according to Samuel Taylor Coleridge, is "words in their best order", and poetry is "the best words in their best order".

    The reader's chief delight in reading poetry comes from his response to its musical effect, which comes from many metrical patterns represented in conventional iambic (抑扬格) feet or from repetitions and parallel phrasing shown in free verse and from other elements of poetry.