LakeLander                                                                                                                    2 hours ago

                Today, a man talked very loud on his phone on a train between Malvern and Reading, making many passengers upset. I wonder how he would react if I were to read my newspaper out loud on the train, I have never had the courage to do it, though.

Pak50                                                                                                                        ···     ·57 minutes ago

     Why not give it a try? Perhaps you should take lessons on a musical instrument. The late musician Dennis Brian is said to have

asked a fellow train passenger to turn off his radio. When his request was refused, he took out his French horn(号) and started

                   to practice.

Angie O'Edema ·42 minutes ago

I don't see how musical instruments can help improve manners in public. Don't do to others what you wouldn't like to be done to yourself. Once, a passenger next to me talked out loud on his mobile phone. I left my seat quietly, giving him some privacy to finish his conversation. He realized this and apologised to me. When his phone rang again later, heleft his seat to answer it. You see, a bit of respect and cooperation can do the job better.

Taodas                                                                                                                                    ·29 minutes ago

                  I did read my newspaper out loud on a train, and it turned out well. The guy took it in good part, and we chatted happily all the way to Edinburgh.

Sophie 76                                                                                                                                 ·13minutes ago

                 I have not tried reading my newspaper out loud on a train, but ,several years ago, I read some chapters from Harry Porter to my bored and noisy children. Several passengers seemed to appreciate what I did.

    My mother loves flowers. As soon as warm weather comes around, you will find her planting, watering and weeding over everything. For many years we lived next door to each other, and she spent as much time in my garden as she did her own. After the flowers became plentiful each summer, she would cut colorful bouquets (花束) to enjoy inside the house－both hers and mine. I would often come home from work and find a beautiful arrangement (布置) of fresh flowers on my coffee table.

    Shortly before Christmas one year, a local flower shop offered a bouquet month special. It seemed to be a great way to thank her for all of the flowers she had given me through the years. After the holidays, in early January, I drove her to the flower shop to pick up her first month's bouquet. The small fresh colorful bouquet would hardly fill a small vase (花瓶).

    I was so embarrassed(尴尬的). However, after we returned home, she began to arrange the flowers she had received. “Mom, I'm sorry,” I told her. “I can't believe how skimpy that bouquet is.” She looked at me and smiled. “It's okay,” she said. “It allows me to better enjoy the beauty of each one.”

    Mom's words helped me to realize something bigger and more important－when we have too many good things, we often fail to enjoy the beauty of each one.

      Thanks, Mom, for helping me understand that less is sometimes more.

    Parents often believe that they have a good relationship with their teenagers. But last summer, Joanna and Henry noticed a change in their older son. Suddenly he seemed to be talking far more to his friends than to his parents. "The door to his room is always shut." Joanna noted.

    Tina and Mark noticed similar changes in their 14-year-old daughter. "She used to sit in my arms on the sofa and talk with me," said Mark. "Now we joke that she does this only when she wants something. Sometimes she wants to be treated like a little girl and sometimes like a young lady. The problem is figuring out which time is which."

    Before age 11, children like to tell their parents what's on their minds. "In fact, parents are first on the list." said Michael Riera, author of Uncommon Sense for Parents with Teenagers. "This completely changes during the teen years." Riera explained. "They talk to their friends first, then maybe their teachers, and their parents last."

    Parents who know what's going on in their teenagers' lives are in the best position to help them. To break down the wall of silence, parents should create chances to understand what their children want to say, and try to find ways to talk and write to them. And they must give their children a mental (思想的) break, for children also need freedom, though young. Another thing parents should remember is that to be a friend, not a manager, with their children is a better way to know them.

    It was the final climb on his search to reach the highest top on all seven continents. When Christopher Kulish finally reached Mount Everest's 29,035-foot peak, he joined an elite group known as the "Seven Summits Club"(七峰俱乐部). But the 62-year-old Colorado attorney died suddenly Monday after returning to the first camp below the mountain's summit. He's the second American to die in the past week after reaching Everest's highest point. His family believes the cause was a heart attack, according to theDenver Post. "He saw his last sunrise from the highest peak on Earth," his brother, Mark Kulish, said in a statement to the Denver Post. "We are heartbroken at this news."

    Last week, 55-year-old Donald Lynn Cash of Utah collapsed and died just after reaching the Everest peak. He too had reached the highest point on all seven continents. Including Christopher and Cash, at least 11 people have died on Mount Everest this year.

    The deaths come among reports of overcrowding on the popular mountain. The Nepali government granted a total of 381 permits to climb Everest this year, a number that doesn't include guides who are on the mountain as well. For some climbers, that traffic has meant longer wait times — some told the Himalayan Times the wait has been over two hours between the last camp and the peak. Mountaineer Vanessa O'Brien, who has also climbed the seven summits, said when there's a crowd, being a more experienced climber won't help you. "It doesn't matter if you're the best racecar driver in the world. If you're stuck in traffic, you're stuck in traffic," she said in an interview.

    And when a climber is stuck in that traffic, "their body is starting to deteriorate(恶化)." O'Brien, who set a record as the fastest woman to reach the highest peak on every continent, also said the descent(下降) is often harder than the climb.

    Climbing expert Alan Arnette said there's no simple explanation for the string of deaths. He said weather that has led to a shorter climbing season is one factor causing overcrowding. He also said the cost to climb Mount Everest has decreased, which means more people are making the journey. He urged the governments in charge of granting(同意)permits to limit how many people can be on the mountain at once.

    Still, Christopher was no beginner. His family said he'd been mountain climbing for five decades. He arrived at the base camp nearly two months before his climb so he could give himself time to adapt to the conditions. When he made his journey, his family said he was climbing with a small group in almost ideal conditions after some of the overcrowding had cleared.

    His brother described being a lawyer as a "day job" for Christopher. Climbing was his love. "He was an inveterate climber of peaks in Colorado, the West and the world over," Mark Kulish said. "He passed away doing what he loved."

In the early 1990s, Ashok Kumar and I ran TRAFFIC-India, an organisation that worked to stop illegal wildlife trade in India. That was when the first letter from the famous American conservationist (自然环境保护主义者), George Schaller, arrived on our desk. Tibetan antelopes were being killed in their thousands, he wrote, and their wool (毛) was taken illegally to India. "No use in India for antelope wool," we wrote back, not knowing the seriousness of the illegal trade here. Schaller sent us back pictures to prove it and asked us to begin a Tibetan investigation.

We dug around and found that Schaller was right. We realised that antelope wool was the same as shahtoosh, the famous Kashmiri shawl (披肩). The shawl was made from the underwool of Tibetan antelopes, considered the warmest and softest wool in the world. A single shawl needed the wool of three to five antelopes. We had to save the animal.

Then began India's first campaign (运动) to protect Tibetan antelopes. A lot of designers and models joined us. Slowly, the message was being driven home: shahtoosh was out of style, shahtoosh was illegal and alternative (可替代的) shawls would save the antelopes from extinction.

There were, of course, those who tried to buck the campaign. The wife of a well-known army officer of India refused to give up her shahtoosh till she was forced out of it. She said: "I know the lovely antelope is dying and I so want to save it. But, the shawl is so light on my shoulders!"

Someone suggested farming the antelopes, but studies showed that it was an impractical idea. The antelopes could not even survive in low altitude zoos. The underwool is nature's gift to the animal to keep it warm at great heights. Later, we set up a business to process high quality pashmina wool and make an alternative shawl.

In 2000, good news came in from China. With strict policies in place, the number of Tibetan antelopes was on the rise again.