D

    I read somewhere that we spend a full third of our lives waiting. But where are we doing all of this waiting, and what does it mean to an impatient society like ours? To understand the issue, let's take a look at three types of “waits”.

    The very purest form of waiting is the Watched-Pot Wait. It is without doubt the most annoying of all. Take filling up the kitchen sink(洗碗池) as an example. There is absolutely nothing you can do while this is going on but keep both eyes fixed on the sink until it's full. During these waits, the brain slips away from the body and wanders about until the water runs over the edge of the counter and onto your socks. This kind of wait makes the waiter helpless and mindless.

    A cousin to the Watched-Pot Wait is the Forced Wait. This one requires a bit of discipline. Properly preparing packaged noodle soup requires a Forced Wait. Directions are very specific. “Bring three cups of water to boil, add mix, simmer three minutes, remove from heat, let stand five minutes.”I have my doubts that anyone has actually followed the procedures strictly. After all, Forced Waiting requires patience.

    Perhaps the most powerful type of waiting is the Lucky-Break Wait. This type of wait is unusual in that it is for the most part voluntary. Unlike the Forced Wait, which is also voluntary, waiting for your lucky break does not necessarily mean that it will happen.

    Turning one's life into a waiting game requires faith and hope, and is strictly for the optimists among us. On the surface it seems as ridiculous as following the directions on soup mixes, but the Lucky-Break Wait well serves those who are willing to do it. As long as one doesn't come to rely on it, wishing for a few good things to happen never hurts anybody.

    We certainly do spend a good deal of our time waiting. The next time you're standing at the sink waiting for it to fill while cooking noodle soup that you'll have to eat until a large bag of cash falls out of the sky, don't be desperate. You're probably just as busy as the next guy.

    One of the greatest soccer players of all time is Pelé. He was born in 1940 in Tres Coracoes, Brazil. His first soccer ball was a grapefruit. He also used an old sock and filled it with newspaper. Pelé left school at a young age to play soccer and work to help his family. Later in life, he finished high school and college.

    Pelé scored 1,281 goals—more goals than any other player in the world. He helped Brazil win three World Cup titles.

    Pelé retired from soccer in 1971. People all over the world admired Pelé. Presidents and world leaders invited him to their countries. Nigeria once stopped its war for three days to let Pelé play. His talent is very unusual. Doctors once tested Pelé to find out why he played soccer so well. They found that he had excellent eyesight. He is also very intelligent. Pelé liked to do math problems and play chess. He said these activities helped him play better.

    Pelé is married and has three children. He likes to be with his family. He also plays the guitar and writes songs. Pelé cares about people, especially children. He gives money to help poor children. He never advertises for tobacco or liquor companies. He knows that he has a great influence on young people. Pelé once said that he wants to “unite people, never to separate them.” He is loved and admired all over the world.

    The most exciting storms are the ones with flashes of lightning.Unfortunately,those are scarce,unless you are near the Catatumbo River in Northwestern Venezuela.Here,nature's grandest sound and light show is often seen, because it happens about 160 nights a year.And it lasts for as long as 10 hours at a time.And unlike other lightning storms that cause just one or two flashes,this one is with as many as 280 per hour.It is the highest in the world. Besides,each one of them is so powerful that each can power every light bulb in South America.Not surprisingly,they can be seen for almost 250 miles.Fishermen and sailors often use them to guide them across the waters during dark nights.

    What's even more surprising is that the lightning has been happening above the same spot where the Catatumbo River meets Lake Maracaibo for thousands of years.The best part is that the show is different every night.That's because the color of the lightning changes,depending on the amount of water in the atmosphere.On dry nights,the lightning appears white.When the air is not dry,it helps split up the bright light into red,orange and even purple.

    Strangely enough,though this has been going on for centuries,scientists have still not been able to figure out the cause of this phenomenon.Some say that the storms are the result of the interaction of the area's unusual topography（地貌）,wind and heat.Others,however,believe that the storms are caused by a kind of gas in the area.The locals simply think that it is the "spirit of Catatumbo" that lights up the night sky.

    A little boy discovered what looked like a map to an unknown place. He soon realized it was the beginning of an exciting treasure hunt.

    He found two pieces of paper along with the mysterious map. One was written with the instructions, “FIND THE WORDS.” The other piece of paper had several strange symbols scattered all over it.

    Dad, fortunately, was there to help his son figure out the mystery. He folded up the paper with the symbols on it, and together they formed a message, which had another set of instructions, “UNDER STEPS.” The smart little boy knew exactly what to do so he went to look under the steps of his house. Without too much effort, he found a box below the staircase.

    It didn't take him long to figure out what to do next: open it up! Inside the box were some very interesting objects, including another piece of a treasure map and two broken pieces of paper. These were the most interesting finds because they contained what appeared to be a collection of letters on them. Finally, they knew where the treasure was from the letters: IN THE BUSH UNDER YOUR YARD.

    After searching all over the yard, following several clues and wondering where everything would lead, the pair finally found what they had been looking for. And it was exactly what you would want after such an adventure: a treasure box!

    The pair pulled it out of the ground and cleaned away all the dirt. The dad put the box in front of his son, and the little boy couldn't contain his excitement. So he opened it up and finally found out what was inside.

    Inside was more treasure than any little boy could ever want. There were hundreds of coins and all sorts of pirate treasure, including what looks like a pearl necklace and some silver dishes.

    My daughter Kelly is a cautious person. She needs to warm up to situations, and is hesitant to try new things. When with close friends, she becomes a leader who laughs loudly and chants, "Girls rule, boys drool." But when that comfort zone is not around her, she is shy and nervous.

    This has been challenging for me at times. "Shy" is not a word that I think has ever been used to describe me. But this has been a year of firsts for my girl that has filled her with a new sense of confidence. This year she moved to lap lane in swimming where she was preparing for a swim team. This year she learned to ride a bike without training wheels. And this year she completed her first kids' triathlon(三项全能).

    On Saturday, with a thunderstorm coming soon and my son's birthday party later in the day, we all went out in the dark of the morning for Kelly to participate in her first triathlon. We practiced transitions from swim to bike to run with her, we got all the equipment she'd need, and we kept talking about the race. But as we waited the two hours for the older kids to finish before her turn, she held my leg a little harder and told me she loved me a few too many times. She was nervous but trying to keep it together.

    And then it was her turn. From the second she jumped into the water, my heart soared. My daughter transformed into the most confident human being I had ever seen. She dominated that swim, crushed that bike ride and ran to the finish with the biggest smile on her face.

    I can honestly say that I never felt so proud of someone in my entire life. It wasn't because she did a sport or anything like that. It was because she was afraid of something and conquered that fear with confidence and a fire I hadn't seen before.

    All day I would find myself just looking over at her and smiling. She might be wearing the finalist medal but I felt like I won that day. I won the chance to see my girl shine.

    Shine on, sweet baby.

    One of the biggest social issues in Japan is the increasingly low marriage rate among young people and the small birth rate, which led to an aging and eventually shrinking（萎缩） population. Most young Japanese women simply don't seem interested in having many children.

    Now what began in Japan is happening globally. As David Brooks wrote, birth rate is becoming smaller in much of the world, from Iran — 1.7 births rate per woman — to Russian, where low birth rates connected with high death rates mean the population is already shrinking. And this includes US, which has long had higher birth rates than most developed nations. Aging countries will face the burden of caring for large elderly populations without a larger resource of young workers.

    It's true that global aging is going to present some major challenges. Who will take care of the elderly? Will an older world be less active and slower to change and adapt? It's all true. Sometimes I worry about a coming generational war over resources, just as I worry about how I will take care of my own parents in their old age, just as I worry about who might take care of me.

    But here's the thing: an older world may have less pressure on the environment. As we all know, the environment is the real victim of overpopulation.

    So maybe a world that grows slower and grows older will put less pressure on the environment, and buy us a few more years to ensure our energy use, along with our birthrates, reaches a sustainable（可持续的）level. After all, we're supposed to get smarter as we got older. Hopefully that holds true for the planet as well.