I once had a friend who was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and the news that he might only live up to six months was a great shock to him, his family, and his friends. However, in spite of the serious illness, he was initially determined to look into all available treatments that might cure or extend his life. I think that when you find yourself in such situations, you tend to look up every possible way for hope of saving your life.

    As months went on and his health grew worse, I noticed an unexpected change in attitude that came over him. He had also been a happy person with a cheerful personality, but rather than give in to discouragement and self－pity, he took comfort in God and humanity. His talks focused on others rather than himself, and he spoke of the afterlife as something he was prepared for, believing that his concerned ancestors, including his mother and father, were there waiting for him.

    During the last few months, weeks, and days of his life, he was kindly cared for by family, friends, his loving wife, who looked after both his physical and emotional needs, and workers from a local hospice (安养院) came to the home to regulate his medication and provide any other needed support. He didn't complain about his fate, and he willingly allowed others to serve him.

    Indeed, one might think why God allows death and suffering in our world, but for me, such experiences taught me to value family more and kindness for others. You often can't learn these important attributes in the lap of luxury, and perhaps, such an experience is the greatest and final gift the illness can give those left behind.

    If you've ever owned a chimney, you know that it can get pretty dirty. There's a whole lot of soot(烟灰) that gets stuck on the inside. That stuff has to get cleaned, or you could have a serious fire risk. While nowadays we have easier ways of doing this dirty job, in the way back days somebody used to climb up the chimney and clean all that soot. And the thing is, not just anybody could do it.

    You had to be really small to fit up in the chimney, so they used to give the task to kids – some as young as four or five years old. They worked for their boss known as a master-sweep. They were often covered in soot, and were very likely to get burned. They often developed what became known as soot wart, a form of cancer.

    Are your unfairness bells ringing? William Blake's certainly were. The physical dangers and widespread unfairness of the chimney-sweeping job really stuck in his throat, so much so that he wrote not one, but two poems called “The Chimney Sweeper”.

    The first poem (the one we're discussing here)was published in 1789 in a book called Songs of Innocence. These little poems took children and the joys of childhood innocence as their subject. As you've probably guessed by now, many of the poems in Songs of Innocence, like “The Chimney Sweeper”, are about the ways in which childhood innocence is destroyed by unkind old adults. For Blake, innocence is, in many ways, a total joke. It doesn't exist, because it's always taken away by the realistic world – chimney-sweeping, death, poverty, etc.

    What does a five-year-old chimney sweeper in 18th-century England have to do with you? More than you might think. It is reported that 150 million kids are in child labor in developing countries. Many of them work long hours and face dangerous health risks. Like Blake's chimney sweeper, these kids are not even given a chance at innocence because experience keeps getting in the way.

    Pastime is a bi-monthly magazine for curious young minds. Many of the topics we write about won't be covered in the classroom. All the articles are written in a lively style, and each one is paired with drawings by some of the country's most talented artists.

    History focuses on archaeological (考古的) sites around the world where archaeologists work to unearth important finds.

    World includes stories about daily life, folk tales, and history and traditions of the people and places.

    Sport includes nutrition tips, information about up-and-coming young athletes, and sports events.

    Art stimulates a child's cultural life, from film to theatre through to writing and music.

    On top of all that, Pastime is packed with items to stimulate a youngster's imagination, including pages of puzzles and a step-by-step guide to creating their own impressive-looking drawings.

    In every issue, we review the latest books top authors write for youngsters. There are also short works of fiction written especially for Pastime by some of our best writers.

    We know that children at this age are dealing with many emotions and sometimes difficult feelings, so we have a personal advice page to reply to questions dealing with personal and moral problems.

    Unlike many of today's throwaway comics, Pastime is written and designed to be kept and treasured. We know children love going online — but we also know how much they enjoy holding a printed magazine in their hands, and the excitement they get when each new issue drops through the letterbox personally addressed to them.

    Subscription

    Pastime is published six times a year. An annual subscription costs just £20 and makes a great gift for any child aged eight to twelve.

    To order by phone: Dial 1-800-821-0156 and use Offer Code WEBSAVE86 for print-only subscriptions.

    You can cancel at any time for magazines that haven't shipped yet.

    Last week I was riding my special motorbike and then stopped at a convenience store. As I was getting my wheelchair off the back, a man watched me from his car and I noticed a wheelchair in his back seat. We spoke for a moment and I asked him about the wheelchair. He answered that it was for his daughter. "Well, do you think she would like to go for a ride on my motorbike with me?" I asked. He seemed shocked that a total stranger would ask him this. He thought about it for a second and said, "OK, as long as I can follow you."

    He introduced me to Amy and he sat her on my back seat. Her father followed me for a few miles and she talked non-stop about what she wanted for Christmas. As we came back to the convenience store, she said, "This ride is the best Christmas present I could ever receive. I have been in a wheelchair my whole life and didn't know I could do this." I told her about some of the other things I do (ski, travel the world by myself, etc.). As her father was taking her off my bike, she turned to him and said, "Oh Daddy, I'm going to be OK. Mr. Bryant does all kinds of things, and I will too." Her father turned away as a tear of joy rolled down his cheek. He hugged me and said, "I was sitting here praying for a gift for Amy that would encourage her. She often felt that her life was dull compared to other children. God answered my prayer just now. Now I pray that God will bless you for your gift to Amy today." I believed what he said. Being kind and thoughtful to others, we can be an answer to prayer.

    In most situations, light helps us see. But when it comes to looking at the night sky, light is actually a kind of pollution. It prevents our view of some of life's most striking sights: stars, planets, and even galaxies (银河系).

    "When I was a little boy, I loved the night sky. I remember looking up and the sky was filled with stars. I became an astronomer because I was amazed by their beauty," says Robert Gent, "Now in most big cities kids can't see the stars like I did."

    Normally, about 2，500 individual (单个的) stars are visible to the human eyes without using any special equipment. But because of light pollution, you actually see just 200 to 300 and fewer than a dozen from some cities. Only one in three Americans can see our own galaxy with the naked eyes. Those people live far away from the lights of big cities, office buildings, and shopping malls.

    Fortunately, there's an inexpensive and useful way. If we shine lights down at the ground instead of up into the sky, and use lower brightness levels, we can save big amounts of energy and keep the beauty of the night skies. Many cities and towns have passed laws limiting lights at night, making sure enough shine for safety without creating much light pollution.

    Light pollution affects more than our view of the heavens and can harm wildlife. Migrating birds (候鸟) sometimes fly over cities and become confused by the brightness, flying in circles until they drop from exhaustion. Sea turtles need dark beaches for nesting and won't approach bright lights. Too much light at night may even affect human health. For all these reasons, researchers are working on ways to use lights only when and where they are truly needed. Everyone deserves to look up at the sky.

    Tiny microbes(微生物)are at the heart of a new agricultural technique to manage harmful greenhouse gas. Scientists have discovered how microbes can be used to turn carbon dioxide into soil­enriching limestone(石灰石), with the help of a type of tree that grows in tropical areas, such as West Africa.

    Researchers have found that when the Iroko tree is grown in dry, acidic soil and treated with a combination of natural fungi(霉菌)and other bacteria, not only does the tree grow well, it also produces the mineral limestone in the soil around its root.

    The Iroko tree makes a mineral by combining Ca from the earth with CO₂ from the atmosphere The bacteria then create the conditions under which this mineral turns into limestone. The discovery offers a new way to lock carbon into the soil, keeping it out of the atmosphere. In addition to storing carbon in the trees leaves and in the form of limestone, the mineral in the soil makes it more suitable for agriculture.

    The discovery could lead to reforestation(重新造林) projects in tropical countries, and help reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in the developing world. It has already been used in West Africa and is being tested in Bolivia, Haiti and India.

    The findings were made in a three­year project involving researchers from the Universities of Edinburgh, Granada, Lausanne and Delft University of Technology. The project examined several microbiological methods of locking CO₂ as limestone, and the Iroko­bacteria way showed best results. Work was funded by the European Commission under the Future&Emerging Technologies(FET)scheme.

    Dr. Bryne Ngwenya of the University of Edinburgh's School of GeoSciences, who led the research, said: "By taking advantage of this natural limestone­producing process, we have a low­tech, safe, readily employed and easily operating way to lock carbon out of the atmosphere, while improving farming conditions in tropical countries."