Two things changed my life: my mother and a white plastic bike basket. I have thought long and hard about it and it's true. I would be a different person if my mom hadn't turned a silly bicycle accessory into a life lesson I carry with me today.

My mother and father were united in their way of raising children, but it mostly fell to my mother to actually carry it out. Looking back, I honestly don'tknow how she did it. Managing the family budget must have been a very hard task,but she made it look effortless. If we complained about not having what another kid did, we'd hear something like, “I don't care what so –and –so got for his birthday, you are not getting a TV in your room a car for your birthday a lavish sweet-16 party.” We had to earn our allowance by doing chores around the house. I can still remember how long it took to polish the legs of our coffee table. My brothers canno doubt remember hours spent cleaning the house .Like the two little girls growing up at the White House, we made our own beds (no one left the house until that was done) and picked up after ourselves. We had to keep track of our belongings, and if something was lost, it was not replaced.

It was summer and ,one day ,my mother drove me to the bike shop to get a tire fixed—and there it was in the window, White, shiny, plastic and decorated with flowers ,the basket winked at me and I knew —I knew—I had to have it.

       “It's beautiful,” my mother said when I pointed it out to her,” What a neat basket.”

       I tried to hold off at first, I played it cool for a short while. But then I guess I couldn't at and it any longer: “Mom, please can I please, pleaseget it? I‘ll do extra chores for as long as you say, I'll do anything, but I need that basket, I love that basket. Please, Mom .Please?”

         I was desperate.

      “You know,” she said, gently rubbing my back while we both staredat what I believes was the coolest thing ever,” If you save up you could buy thisyourself.”

“By the time I makeenough it'll but gone!”

      “Maybe Roger here could hold it for you,” she smiled at Roger, thebike guy.

“He can't hold it for that long, Mom. Someone else will buy it .Please,Mom, Please?”

      “There might be another way,” she said.

And so our paying plan unfolded. My mother bought the beautiful basket and put it safely in some hiding place I couldn't find. Each week I eagerly counted my growing saving increased by extra work here and there (washing the car ,helpingmy mother make dinner, delivering or collecting things on my bike that already looked naked without the basket in front).And then ,weeks later ,I counted ,re-counted and jumped for joy. Oh, happy day! I made it! I finally had the exact amount we'dagreed upon….

       Days later the unthinkable happened. A neighborhood girl I'd played with millions of times appeared with the exact same basket fixed to her shiny, new bike that already had all the bells and whistles. I rode hard and fast home to tell my mother about this disaster. This horrible turn of events.

And then came the lesson. I've taken with me through my life: ”Honey,Your basket is extra-special,” Mom said, gently wiping away my hot tears.” Yourbasket is special because you paid for it yourself.”

    Most buildings are built to stand up straight, but these look as if they might fall over!

The church tower of Suurhusen

    Built in 1450, the 27-meter-high church tower lies in Suurhusen, Germany. It was built in wet land on foundations of oak tree trunks (树干). When the land was drained (排水) later, the wood broke down, causing one side of the tower to be a little lower than the other. In 1975, the tower became a real hazard and people were not allowed to enter until the foundations were made strong again. The lean (倾斜) of the tower is now about five degrees.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa

    The work of building the tower began in 1173, and was finally completed in 1372. In fact, it began to lean after just a couple of floors were built. And this condition continued in the centuries after its completion. The tower was finally closed to the public in 1990 after people failed to stabilize (使稳固) its foundations. In 2001, it was reopened after engineers removed soil from underneath its raised side. Now it leans just an angle of 3.97 degrees.

Capital Gate of Abu Dhabi

    Completed in 2011, the Capital Gate tower in Abu Dhabi was designed to lean eighteen degrees. The building stands next to the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre and contains, among other things, a fine hotel with wonderful views of the harbour. Also known as the leaning tower of Abu Dhabi, the tower is one of the tallest buildings in the city.

Big Ben of London

    The building leans 0.26 degrees to the northwest. This is mainly caused by the engineering projects that have been carried out in the ground below it since the late 1800s. The tower, which has been continuously open since it was completed in 1858, has nowhere near the lean of the Tower of Pisa and is still completely safe to enter.

    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.

    Today we talk about a time when half the world is waking from the dark, cold winter months. Spring! We often describe “spring” as a time of rebirth, renewal and awakening. Many trees are blossoming and early flowers are pushing through the earth. Things are coming to life!

    But the word “spring” is not just a season. It is also a verb that means something going on or coming out quickly. When you put “spring” and “life” together, you will get “spring to life”. This expression means something suddenly becomes very active or perhaps seems more alive! You may “spring to life” after hearing that a distant friend will be visiting you. Or maybe your favorite soccer team finally “sprang to life” in the second half, played well and won the match.

    Now, besides being a season and a verb the noun “spring” refers to a metal coil (线圈) that is wound tightly. When the coil unwinds, it often jumps. So, we often say a person “has a spring in his step” if he is lively and active. He might even appear to jump, or bounce a little when he walks.

    There is another way we use “spring” as a description. In the case of a “spring chicken”, “spring” means young. However, “spring chicken” is also an informal, humorous way to refer to someone who isn't young at all. So, we use this expression in the negative form, as in “no spring chicken”. For example, let's say you know an 85-year-old man who decides to run a marathon, even though he has never exercised before. You could say, “That's amazing! After all, he's no spring chicken.”

    But be careful when using this expression. It could be a little disrespectful. Let's say your boss shows you a picture of his wife, and you say, “Wow, she's no spring chicken.” That response would be disrespectful and a bad career move.

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    The animal kingdom lost a beloved friend when poachers（偷猎者）in Kenya killed the world famous elephant named Satao solely for his ivory（象牙）, experts say.

    Satao was considered by some to be the largest and oldest elephant left in Africa. His tusks having grown long enough to reach the ground. Wandering around Kenya's Tsavo National Park, he was easily recognizable（可辨认的）by staff and visitors. Sadly, despite conservation efforts, he was killed on May 30, his body identified by park staff on June 2. His head was severely damaged and there were two holes left where his great tusks had

    “There is no doubt that Satao is dead, killed by an ivory poacher's poisoned arrow to feed the seemingly greedy demand for ivory in far off countries,” wrote Richard Moller of The Tsavo Trust. “A great life lost so that someone far away can have a trinket（饰品）.

    Satao isn't the first elephant—and far from the last—to pay the ivory price. Just last month, Mountain Bull, another Kenyan elephant, was killed by poachers.

    Kenya Wildlife Service（KWS）says 97 elephants and 20 rhinos have been killed this year, but others say the real numbers are much higher.

    The national park in which Satao lived is roughly 386 square miles—a massive land for already thinly-stretched resources to cover. Reports indicate that Satao had started to migrate towards the park's border-areas known by conservationists（野生保护人士）to be highly active for poaching.

    In the late 1960s, more than 275,000 elephants lived in Kenya. Now, that number has dropped to around 38,000, and continues to fall fast.

    “If Satao's death can cause the focus on what's actually happening here in terms of poaching, then he won't have died in vain,” said nature documentarian Mark Decble, according to The Dodo.

    Every year from March to October, Christian Moullec, also known as "Birdman," takes to the skies aboard his adapted light aircraft. However, the 58-year-old Frenchman's daily 30-minute flight is not just to enjoy the impressive views, but to guide flocks (鸟群) of lesser white-fronted geese (小白额雁) through safe migration paths which the birds can teach future generations.

    His deed began in 1995 when he noticed their declining population in the wilds of Lapland, Sweden. To prevent their numbers from dropping further, Moullec tried to get the threatened species to follow him along migration routes that would protect them from bird hunters.

    However, getting grown geese to follow his lead proved challenging. As young geese imitate and follow whomever they view as their parent, Moullec decided to raise the geese from birth.

    To help raise funds and awareness of his job to protect not just the geese but birds worldwide, Moullec often allows paying tourists to join him on the 30-minute-long flights aboard his aircraft. In addition to the trained birds flying alongside them, visitors, who come from as far as a 15-hour plane flight away, are treated to a variety of crane and geese species as well as breathtaking views of castles and cities.

    He often brings his camera along for the flights, capturing photos not just for their beauty, but for what they describe. Moullec believes the use of agricultural chemicals has done harm to wild European birds, with more than a third disappearing in the last 30 years. "It's a disaster," he said. "My beautiful images with flying birds should be used to tell this story."