My school stood in a big square playground in southeastern South Dakota. One teacher taught all grades, first through eighth. Most grades had only two or three students.

    Our school day started with the flag pledge(宣誓). Then the teacher called one grade at a time to the recitation bench beside her desk. She'd check our work, explain the new lesson, and dismiss us to go back to our own desks and do our new work, all in less than ten minutes per grade.

    At noon we ate lunches we had brought. Our lunches consisted of homemade sandwiches and if we were lucky, dessert. My favorite dessert was a fresh pear, and a piece of Mom's delicious sour cream chocolate cake.

    The annual Christmas program was the most exciting part of the year. We hurried through our lessons during December to allow time to practise poems, songs, and plays.

    A few days before the performance, the school board members borrowed equipment from the town and set up a stage across one side of the classroom. We hung bed sheets for curtains.

    On the evening of the performance, petrol lanterns hanging along the walls cast a warm, though not very bright, light over the gathering crowd. We could hardly contain our excitement as we looked from behind the curtains to wave at our parents.

    On a spring Sunday in a new term, just before the last day of the school term, everyone in the neighborhood gathered for a picnic. Our moms set fried chicken, bowls of salads, and desserts on the teacher's desk and the library table. After the dinner, we played games. One of the school board members brought big buckets of ice cream in the afternoon to top off the picnic. How we looked forward to that treat!

    I was just nineteen years old when I started my first teaching position in a country school with thirteen students. I felt excited, nervous and happy as I prepared my lunch bucket the first morning of the term. I can't remember what kind of sandwiches I packed, but I do remember I put in a fresh pear and a piece of chocolate cake for dessert!

    On July 1, 2017, Canada turned 150. That day, more than half a million people visited Ottawa for the country's biggest birthday celebration ever. At the same time, hundreds of parties, fireworks displays, and performances took place across Canada to mark the occasion.

    As we all know, native people like the Inuit have lived in Canada for thousands of years. About 500 years ago. French and British people started arriving there. They claimed some of the land for their countries. The two countries often fought over control of the land. The British won full control of the area in 1763. But French remains one of the official languages, along with English. Canada became fully independent of Britain in 1982.

    Over the years, it is now the second-largest country in the world. At more than 5,500 miles, its border with the US is the longest border between the two nations.

    Canadians are proud of their country. Canada even made the list of the 10 happiest countries, according to a 2017United Nations report. Located not far from the North Pole, its cold and icy north is home to about two-thirds of the world's polar bears. Its icy and snowy land also helps explain why some of its popular sports are ice hockey, skiing and curling(冰壶)

    They are also very proud of the country's history of welcoming people from around the world and of the diverse population. “It reminds us of the values that unite us—openness, and deep respect for our differences,” says Prime Minister Trudeau. “Today, and every day, let us celebrate the differences that make Canada strong, diverse and proud.”

    If English means endless new words, difficult grammar and sometimes strange pronunciation, you are wrong. Haven't you noticed that you have become smarter since you started to learn a language?

    According to a new study by a British university, learning a second language can lead to an increase in your brain power. Researchers found that learning other languages changes grey matter. This is the area of the brain which processes(处理) information. It is similar to the way that exercise builds muscles(肌肉).

    The study also found the effect is greater when the younger people learn a second language. A team led by Dr. Andrea Mechelli, from University College London, took a group of Britons who only spoke English. They were compared with a group of “early bilinguals(双语使用者) ” who had learnt a second language before the age of five, as well as a number of later learners. Scans(扫描) showed that grey matter density(密度) in the brain was greater in bilinguals who learnt a second language at an early age. But the longer a person waited before mastering a new language, the smaller the difference. “Our findings suggest that the structure of the brain is changed by the experience of learning a second language,” said the scientists.

    It means that the change itself increases the ability to learn. Professor Dylan Vaughan Jones of the University of Wales, has researched the link between bilingualism and maths skills. “Having two languages gives you two windows on the world and makes the brain more flexible(灵活的),” he said. “You are actually going beyond language and have a better understanding of different ideas.”

    The findings had the same result in a study of native Italian speakers who had learned English as a second language between the ages of two and thirty-four. Reading, wiring, and comprehension were all tested. The results showed that the younger they stared to learn, the better. “Studying a language means you get entrance to another world,” explained the scientists.

    The legal age for drinking alcohol（酒精饮料） in the US is twenty-one. Underage drinking is not only a crime but also a common part of college social life. This week in our Foreign Student Series, we look at alcohol policies at American colleges and universities.

    The United States has more than 17 million students in higher education. Each year, 1,700 of them aged 18 to 24 die from alcohol-related road crashes and other injuries. 600,000 more are injured because of alcohol. And almost 700,000 are attacked by another student who has been drinking.

    Now, many schools have begun to strengthen（加强）their rules and college officials are trying to prevent too much drinking. Some researchers have found that students who think heavy drinking is normal often think that other students really drink much.

    At the University of Oklahoma, new policies came into effect after a nineteen-year-old student died from drinking too much at a party. Now alcohol is banned（禁止） from all university housing. Student organizations can serve alcohol at events but only on Friday and Saturday nights. And they must provide for transportation to and from off-campus parties. Other new requirements include an alcohol educational program that first-year students take online.

    The policies govern behavior on campus and off. With the first violation（违规）, students pay

75 dollars and their parents are told. They must also take an alcohol education class. They have to pay double if the behavior happens again. Those who violate a third time will have to be driven home for at least one term. The president of Oklahoma says the aim is not just to punish but to change the behavior and the culture at the university.

    Brecon Beacons YAC has an amazing opportunity for budding (崭露头角的) archaeologists of all ages, in Sunderland in Tyne and Wear. Thanks to funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund, professional archaeologists from Wardell Armstrong will be investigating an archaeological mystery and they need your help.

    Romans?

    "The site is a bit of a mystery", Frank Giecco from Wardell Armstrong said. "There is a very nice cropmark recorded on the site that has got lots of people very excited. Geophysicists failed to find anything relating to the cropmark. There is anecdotal evidence of Roman material being found, but nothing is officially recorded. We hope to finally answer the question of what is in this field, during the two weeks on site. Is there evidence of any Roman occupation on the site? Can you help us find out?"

    Get involved

    This is an opportunity for both adults and children to take part in field walking and trial trenching (small hand-dug test pits for children). No experience is necessary, training will be provided by the professional archaeologists from Wardell Armstrong, and all equipment will be provided. Volunteers can attend for as few or as many days as they wish, but they do need to book a place.

    For more information, and to book your place, please contact Norman Kirtlan at sunderlandforgottenstones@gmail.com.

    The U. S. Thanksgiving holiday is symbolized (象征) by its traditional food-roast turkey. But turkey is certainly not from Turkey. In fact, its English name is based on one big mistake. We could say it is a case of mistaken identity. The word "Turkey" has meant "the land of the Turks" since ancient times. In the mid-1500s, the word "turkey" was first used to refer to the bird in the English language.

    The misunderstanding over the word happened because of two similar-looking kinds of birds.

    There is an African bird called the guinea fowl(珍珠鸡). It has dark feathers with white spots and a patch of brown on the back of its neck. Traders brought the guinea fowl to Europe through North Africa. This foreign bird came to Europe through Turkish lands. So, the English thought the bird as a "Turkish chicken".

    When Europeans came to North America, they saw a bird that looked like the guinea fowl. This bird was native to the North American continent. But they thought that it was the guinea fowl, which at that time, was called the "turkey cock", so they gave it the same name.

    Hundreds of years later, we continue to call this North American bird "turkey", even though it has no connection at all with the country Turkey, or even with Europe.

    But English is not the only language with interesting names for this North American bird.

    The Turkish call turkey "hindi", the Turkish name for India. The reference(涉及)to India probably conies from the old wrong idea that the New World was in Eastern Asia.

    The French call it "dinde", a name that also connects the bird to India. "Dinde" means "from India" in the French language. "Turkey" has similar names in several other languages.