The morning had been a disaster. My tooth was aching. And I'd been in an argument with a friend. Her words still hurt: “The trouble with you is that you won't put yourself in my place. Can't you see things from my point of view?” I shook my head stubbornly—and felt the ache in my tooth. I'd thought I could hold out till my dentist came back from holiday, but the pain was really unbearable. I started calling the dentists in the phone book, but no one could see me immediately. Finally, at about lunchtime, I got lucky.

    “If you come by right now,” the receptionist said, “the dentist will fit you in.”

    I took my purse and keys and rushed to my car. But suddenly I began to doubt about the dentist. What kind of dentist would be so eager to treat someone at such short notice? Why wasn't he as busy as the others?

In the dentist's office, I sat down and looked around. I saw nothing but the bare walls and I became even more worried. The assistant noticed my nervousness and placed her warm hand over my ice-cold one.

When I told her my fears, she laughed and said, “Don't worry. The dentist is very good.”

    “How long do I have to wait for him?” I asked impatiently.

    “Come on, he is coming. Just lie down and relax. And enjoy the artwork,” the assistant said.

    “The artwork?” I was puzzled.

    The chair went back. Suddenly I smiled. There was a beautiful picture, right where I could enjoy it: on the ceiling. How considerate the dentist was! At that moment, I began to understand what my friend meant by her words.

What a relief!

    In America, each of the states likes to promote itself with a slogan (口号). I currently live in Utah, where the slogan is '“Life Elevated”. It's a nod to outdoor entertainment in the hill country, including the ski industry. I previously lived in Colorado, a land with red dm. great mountains and golden plains. The slogan there is ''Colorful Colorado”. Years ago I lived in the “Peach State” of Georgia, and I grew up in New Mexico as a little boy, whose slogan is “Land of Enchantment (魔力)”.

    We never seemed to get away from dust in New Mexico, so I appreciate the story of a newcomer to the Land of Enchantment who learned about dusty wind. She was visiting an antique shop and the owner wiped down every item before showing it. The newcomer said, “Everything gets dusty here pretty quickly, doesn't it?” “That's not dust, honey,” the shop owner replied, “That's ENCIIANTMENT”. That made the problem more acceptable or at least can be live with. An escalator (自动扶梯) broke, so he posted a sign to warn customers. He chose not to use the traditional “Out of Order” or “Do Not Use” warnings. Instead, his sign read, “This Escalator Is Temporarily a Stairway”. He turned a minus into humor and made it a plus.

    And in fact there arc sonic things, like the weather, we can't change. All we can change is our ways that we think and feel about them. I believe one of the best techniques to do this is to find some humor in the situation. Finding something amusing or enjoyable of difficulty, a troublesome problem can be one of the most creative and effective things we can do. Sometimes the only sense you can make of a situation is a sense of humor.

    A ten-year-old from Howell, Michigan is being praised as a hero thanks to his persistence (坚持) that led to saving the life of an elderly neighbor. The event happened late in an evening when Danny DiPietro was being driven home from hockey practice by his mom.

    That's when the young boy noticed an open garage (车库) and a figure that he believed was a dog outside an apartment building near his house. Given the freezing cold weather, the young boy got a feeling that something was not right. But instead of dismissing it like most kids his age would have, he insisted that his mother, Dawn, find out what was going on. Dawn tried to make Danny believe that no one would leave a dog out in such cold weather, but he refused to take no for an answer.

    Dawn finally gave in and decided to drive to the area with the family dog and see if there was any truth to Danny's hunch (直觉). Sure enough, as she got closer to the apartment building she noticed a garage that was wide open and someone waving madly for help. Upon getting there, she realized that it was not a dog the young boy had seen, but Kathleen St. Onge. The 80-year-old had fallen down on some ice in her garage and had been lying there for two hours, unable to get up.

    Dawn rushed home to get her husband to help and called 911. The two then returned with some blankets to cover Ms. St. Onge, while they waited for the ambulance (救护车) to arrive. Though still in hospital, the elderly woman is recovering well and forever grateful to Danny, for following up on his hunch!

    Lemurs are cute animals that live on the island of Madagascar, the fourth-largest island in the world. Lemurs have big eyes, long noses, and long tails(except for the Indri) and live high in the trees of Madagascan forests. Lemurs are quite intelligent. They are the cousins of monkeys and look quite similar. They also swing through the trees and live in family groups.

    There are different species of lemurs. Some lemurs (the Indri) sing like a whale, and some (the Sifaka) walk like a ballet dancer. Some lemurs are very small, like the Pygmy Mouse Lemur which weighs only 25-30 grams. Others, like the Indri, can weigh up to ten kilograms. Some lemurs are nocturnal, being awake at night and sleeping during the day, and some are not nocturnal but diurnal. Generally, the smaller lemurs are nocturnal, while the bigger ones are diurnal. All the species are unique to Madagascar.

    However, all of the lemurs are endangered species. Many species have already disappeared in the last few centuries. There are not many of lemurs left. People in Madagascar have been destroying the forests where lemurs live. Local people also hunt lemurs for food. Some of the local people see lemurs as bringers of bad luck, so they kill lemurs.

    At the moment, there are about 85 lemur species left. But many people fear that the number of species will fall quickly. Soon there may be no lemurs left if we do not make serious efforts to protect them.

    In some countries where racial prejudice is acute, violence has so come to be taken for granted as a means of solving differences that it is not even questioned. There are countries where the white man imposes his rule by brute force; there are countries where the black man protests by setting fire to cities and by looting and pillaging. Important people on both sides, who would in other respects appear to be reasonable men, get up and calmly argue in favor of violence—as if it were a legitimate solution, like any other. What is really frightening, what really fills you with despair, is the realization that when it comes to the crunch (关键时刻), we have made no actual progress at all. We may wear collars and ties instead of war-paint, but our instinct remain basically unchanged. The whole of the recorded history of the human race, that tedious documentation of violence, has taught us absolutely nothing. We have still not learned that violence never solves a problem but makes it more acute. The sheer horror, the bloodshed (流血), the suffering mean nothing. No solution ever comes to light the morning after when we dismally contemplate the smoking ruins and wonder what hit us.

    The truly reasonable men who know where the solutions lie are finding it harder and harder to get a hearing. They are despised mistrusted and even persuaded by their own kind because they advocate such apparently outrageous things as law enforcement (执行). If half the energy that goes into violent acts were put to good use, if our efforts were directed at cleaning up the slums and ghettos, at improving living standards and providing education and employment for all, we would have gone a long way to arriving at a solution. Our strength is sapped by having to mop to the mess that violence leaves in its wake. In a well-directed effort, it would not be impossible to fulfill the ideals of a stable social programme. The benefits that can be derived from constructive solutions are everywhere apparent in the world around us. Genuine and lasting solutions are always possible, providing we work within the framework of the law.

    Before we can even begin to contemplate peaceful co-existence between the races, we must appreciate each other's problems. And to do this, we must learn about them: it is a simple exercise in communication, in exchange information. "Talk, talk, talk" the advocates of violence say, "all you ever do is talk, and we are none the wiser." It's rather like the story of the famous barrister who painstakingly explained his case to the judge. After listening to a lengthy argument, the judge complained that after all this talk, he was none the wiser. "Possibly, my lord," the barrister replied, "none the wiser, but surely far better informed." Knowledge is the necessary prerequisite to wisdom: the knowledge that violence creates the evils it pretends to solve.

After a long and hard journey that made international headlines, China's famous herd of wandering elephants appears to finally be heading home.

In August, the 14 Asian elephants of various sizes and ages were guided across the Yuanjiang river in Yunnan and a path was being made for them to return to the nature reserve in the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture.

The elephants' return completes a more than 500km odyssey that caught the attention of the country. The highlights of their trip included the birth of a calf in Pu'er in last November; and going viral for taking a nap. If they were just taking a walk in the forest, it wasn't a big deal. But the fact is, they left whatever they stepped on in ruins, causing great damage to local residents.

Local wildlife experts have been unable to pinpoint the reason the herd decided to move. One reason is given that the population of elephants in the nature reserve in the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture is so large, which has increased from 190 to over 300 since 40 years ago, that there is not enough food for them. Some say that their move is due to the influence of the magnetic field of the earth and there is another story saying maybe that lead elephant lost its way, thus leading the herd out of the way. But Zhang Li, a professor on conservation biology at Beijing Normal University, told the Global Times in June that large-scale human engineering developments have sped up the ‘islanding'of elephant habitats.

This meant "the traditional safe zones between humans and elephants are gradually disappearing, and the chances of elephants encountering humans naturally increase greatly".