Last year my summer holiday was spoiled by my bringing along a modern convenience that was too convenient for my own good: the iPad. Instead of looking at nature, I checked my e-mail. Instead of paddling a small boat, I followed my Twitter feed（推特简讯）. Instead of reading great novels, I stuck to reading four newspapers each morning. I was behaving as if I were still in the office. My body was on vacation, but my head wasn't.

    So this year I made up my mind to try something different: withdrawal from the Internet. I knew it wouldn't be easy, since I'm bad at self-control. But I was determined. I started by giving the iPad to my wife.

    The cellphone signal at our house was worse than in the past, making my at tempts at cheating an experience in frustration （沮丧）. I was trapped, forced to go through with my plan. Largely breaking away from e-mail, Twitter and my favorite newspaper websites, I had few ways to connect to the world except for the radio—and how much radio can one listen to, really? I had to do what Ihad planned to do all along: read books.

    This experience has had a happy ending. With determination and the strong support of my wife, I won in my vacation struggle against the Internet, realizing finally that it was I, not the iPad, that was the problem. I knew I had won when we passed a Star bucks and my wife asked if I wanted to stop to use the Wi-Fi.“I don't need it,” I said．

    However, as we return to post-vacation life, a harder test begins: Can I continue when I'mback at work?

    There are times when the need to know what's being said right now is great. I have no intention of giving up my convenience completely. But I hope to resist the temptation to check my e-mail every five minutes, which leads to checking my Twitter feed and a website or two.

    I think a vacation is supposed to help you rest your brain to become more productive. Here I hope this one worked.

    As a young girl growing up in the 1930s, I always wanted to fly a plane, but back then it was almost unheard of for a woman to do that. I got a taste of that dream in 2001, when my husband arranged for me to ride in a hot air balloon for my birthday. But the experience turned out to be very dull. Around that time, I told my husband that I wanted to skydive. So when our retirement community announced that they were having an essay competition and the topic was an experience of a lifetime that you wanted to have, I decided to write about my dream.

    In the essay, I wrote about my desire to skydive, stating George Brush Sr. did it at age 80. Why not me? I was just 84 and in pretty good health. A year went by and I heard nothing. But then at a community party in late April 2009, they announced that I was one of the winners. I just couldn't believe it. Inspired by this, I decided to realize my dream, even though some of my family members and my doctor were against it.

    On June 11, 2009, nearly 40 of my family and friends gathered in the area close to where I would land while I headed up in the airplane. My instructor, Jay, guided me through the experience. The plane was the noisiest one I had ever been in, but I wasn't frightened—I was really just looking forward to the experience. When we reached 13,000 feet, Jay instructed me to throw myself out of the plane. When we first hit the air, the wind was so strong that I could hardly breathe. For a second I thought, “What have I gotten myself into?” But then everything got calmer. We were in a free fall for about a minute before Jay opened the parachute（降落伞）, then we just floated downward for about five minutes. Being up in the clouds and looking at the view below was unlike anything I have ever felt—much better than the hot air balloon. I was just enjoying it.

    Skydiving was really one of the greatest experiences of my life. I hope other people will look at me and realize that you don't stop living just because you are 84 years old. If there's something you want to experience, look into it. If it's something that is possible, make it happen.

    It is back to school time in the United States, which for children is bittersweet. The bitter part is saying goodbye to carefree, unscheduled summer days. The sweet part is saying hello to a new school year and school friends.

    This exciting time is filled with smells of new books, paper and pencils. Children might be dressed in a new set of clothes and wear new shoes.

    However, going back to school can also be a stressful time for children and families. Everyone must make the change from easy summer life to routines, schedules and homework. Families might also feel stress about spending extra money for a new school year.

    Back-to-school stress is different for different grades of students. Younger children may feel scared to leave their families. Making new friends and dealing with bullying(欺负) can also cause stress for students. Older students may feel stressed about their appearances, grades and getting into college.

    However, teachers and children can all help to make the transition back to school easier. Lori Bambina has been a teacher for 22 years. She focuses on the class routine during the start of the new school year.

    "Well, for the students, I have my classroom set up with a very clear system. So I will introduce the system. Then I will revisit the system because at this young age they enjoy structure and predictability. And that routine is very comforting and will not cause them to feel stressed if they know exactly where things are located and what type of behavior is expected. That really reduces the stress and the anxiety because they have their own comfort level now," she said.

    Whether you are in the 1st grade or 10th grade, knowing what your teachers expect is a good way to reduce stress.

    In many countries, authority is seldom questioned, either because it is highly respected, or because it is feared. Because rank has been important in certain societies for a long time, people have been trained never to question those in authority. For example, children are not expected to question their teachers in school. It may be considered improper for young businessmen to suggest ideas that differ from those of older, more experienced members of the business.

    In other countries, including America, children are trained to question and search for answers. When a child asks a question, he will often be told to go to the library and find the answer for himself. By the time students reach the age of 14 or 15, they may be developing exciting new ideas in all fields of science and arts. To encourage such creativity, there are many national prizes offered to students every year for their scientific discoveries and artistic accomplishments.

    This interest in questioning and searching may be considered by some people as bad for young people's manners, that young people lack respect for authority. This impression may be created when visitors notice young Americans asking questions and arguing with older people. However, this is because many Americans have a different attitude toward authority than may exist in other areas of the world. In a work or business situation, ideas are freely and openly discussed and argued. It is important to remember that it is the person's ideas that are being questioned, not the individual himself. The two are quite separate. The purpose of the searching, questioning, and arguing is to find the facts in a particular situation, and therefore a solution, so that the work of the business can progress in the most effective manner possible.

    As was mentioned earlier, you may notice the same questioning in social conversations. Although some individual may think that Americans are rude because of the direct manner with people, they are merely trying to learn more about your ideas.

    When you visit America, you will see the word Motel on signs and notice boards. It is made up of "motor" and "hotel" and it is really a hotel for people who arrive by car (however, you don't need a car to stay at one). You have to pay when you arrive for your room, which usually has a bath. Meals are not provided, but there will certainly be a cafeteria (自助餐馆). Americans eat a lot of salads and sandwiches. Along the main roads there are a lot of motels. Each tries to offer more than next. Some provide television in every bedroom; others have swimming pools; and so on. Motels are especially useful when you are in the country, far from a town or city. You will also find them in the big National Parks.

    In these great National Parks, you may meet guests you don't expect to see. An American friend told me a little story. In the middle of a moonless night she heard strange noises outside her motel window in the Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. Thinking it might be a thief, she jumped out of bed, opened the door and crept towards a dark shadow. As she got close, she saw the thief. She was dreadfully frightened: it wasn't a human thief ­ it was a big black bear. The bear was turning over some empty tins with its paw, looking for tasty bits of food. My friend decided to leave that particular thief alone!

    There are also, of course, places called "rooming houses", where they receive lodgers (房客). You will see such signs as Tourists or Rooms Rent, and you could try one of these. A word of warning ­ looking for a room in New York during the tourist season is like looking for gold on the moon!

Three Feet From Gold

    Darby's uncle was caught by the "gold fever" in the gold—rush days, and went west to dig and grow rich. After months of labor, he was rewarded by the discovery of the shining ore (矿石). He needed machinery to bring the ore to the surface. So, with the "strike", he returned home. And with the help of Darby, he borrowed a lot of money. After buying the machinery and having it shipped, Uncle and Darby went back to work the mine.

    The first car of ore was mined. And the returns proved they had one of the richest mines in Colorado! Down went the drills! Up went the hopes of Uncle and Darby!

    Then something happened! The vein (矿脉) of gold ore disappeared! They drilled on, but all in vain. Finally, they decided to quit and sold the machinery to a junk man for a few hundred dollars. The junk man called in a mining engineer to look at the mine and do a little calculating. The engineer's calculations showed that the vein would be found just three feet from where the Darbys had stopped drilling! The junk man took millions of dollars in the vein, because he knew enough to seek experts' advice before giving up.

    Most of the money which went into the machinery was borrowed through the efforts of Darby, who was then a very young man. The money came from his relatives because of their faith in him. He paid back every dollar of it, although he was years in doing so.

    Long afterwards, Mr. Darby made another discovery that desire can be changed into gold. This discovery came after he went into the business of selling life insurance. Remembering that he lost a huge fortune, for he stopped three feet from gold, Darby profited by the experience in his chosen work, saying to himself, "I stopped three feet from gold, but I never stop because men say 'no' when I ask them to buy insurance."

    Darby sold more than million dollars in life insurance annually. He owes his "stick-ability" to the lesson he learned from his "quit-ability" in the gold mining business.