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    Two weeks before my 12th birthday, my teacher asked me to conduct an experiment. When I mixed some powder together, they exploded. Molten liquid hit me in the face, but I felt no pain.

    I vividly remember standing there in a state of calm. I thought I was in a dream, but however hard I struggled to swim to the surface of consciousness, I couldn't wake up. I didn't understand how terrifying it was until I heard people saying, ＂Who's that?＂ That's when I knew I was unrecognizable.

    I was taken to hospital, but the doctors didn't know what to do with me. Later I was flown to Houston for surgery. Between the ages of 13 and 16, I had 40 operations. As each operation came and went, my vision would come back, then fade again. Eventually, it faded completely and I had what was left of my eyes removed for cosmetic reasons.

    Since then, I have lived in total darkness. Most blind people, even if they don't have any sight they're aware of, are still able to sense light. That gives them a sense of day and night. But not me. I absolutely lost that sense of time passing.

    For many years, I felt my sight loss darkening my life like the loss of my parents from which I would never recover. But when I was in my 40s, I realized I had to find a way to live. I trained to become a counselor, and that has helped me see my experiences in a different way. I can't fix people's broken lives — just like I can't fix my sight — but I can help them find a way to manage.

    Sometimes it feels as if all the struggles and negative experiences I've lived through were in fact a kind of preparation for helping others to make their own way towards the light.

    Anne LaBastille was born in New York City and grew up in New Jersey. Her first experience with the wilderness was in the Adirondacks in the northeast of New York, where she worked at a summer resort to earn money for college tuition by caring for the horses, giving riding lessons, and working as a waitress. And she has many chances to begin her adventure in the Adirondack wilderness.

    Anne returned to school in the fall, but she continued to spend as much time as she could in the Adirondacks. She grew to love her time alone in the mountains. Anne graduated from college with a bachelor's degree in conservation of natural resources and began working for the National Audubon Society in Florida as a wildlife tour leader.

    Although Anne took great pleasure in showing people the animals living in the Florida Keys and the Everglades National Park, she longed for the mountains in the northern parts of New York. Eventually, she decided to build a cabin near Black Bear Lake. Over the years, however, more and more tourists began hiking near her cabin. As a result, Anne decided to build another cabin deeper in the woods at Lily Pad Lake.

    Anne lived in the woods for most of her life. She enjoyed living alone in the woods, and her life was far too busy for her to be lonely. When she was not writing books, she wrote articles for National Geographic, Reader's Digest, and other magazines. In her later years, Anne conducted research in Guatemala on an endangered bird called the grebe. She also lectured nationwide about ecology. Besides, Anne worked with a number of organizations dedicated to conservation.

    As a respected guide, author, and conservationist, Anne not only loved the land but also had found a way to become part of it.

    Metro Pocket Guide

    Metrorail(地铁)

    Each passenger needs a farecard(车票) to enter and go out.Up to two children under age five may travel free with a paying customer.

    Farecard machines are in every station.Bring small bills because there are no change machines in the stations and farecard machines only provide up to $5 in change.

    Get one day of unlimited Metrorail rides with a One Day Pass. Buy it from a farecard machine in Metro stations. Use it after 9：30 a.m. until closing on weekdays, and all day on weekends and holidays.

    Hours of service

    Open：5 a.m. Monday-Friday, 7 a.m.Saturday-Sunday.

    Close：midnight Sunday-Thursday, 3 a.m. Friday-Saturday.

    Last train times vary. To avoid (避免) missing the last train, please check the last train times posted in stations.

    Metrobus

    When paying with exact change，the fare is $1.35. When paying with a SmarTrip card the fare is $1.25

    Fares for senior/disabled customers

    Senior citizens 65 and older and disabled customers may ride for half the regular fare.On Metrorail and Metrobus，use a senior/disabled farecard or SmarTrip^® card.For more information about buying senior/disabled farecards，SmarTrip^® cards and passes，please visit MetroOpensDoors.com or call 202­637­7000 and 202­637­8000.

Senior citizens and disabled customers can get free guide on how to use proper Metrobus and Metrorail services by calling 202­962­1100.

    Travel tips

    Avoid riding during weekday rush periods—before 9：30 a.m.and between 4 and 6 p.m.

    If you lose something on a bus or train or in a station，please call Lost & Found （失物招领）at 202­962­1195.

    Children's books are everywhere. New ones, old ones, made-into-movie ones. It seems as if the children's publishing industry is developing rapidly. Here are some books every young child should have in their book diet.

    The Peter Rabbit books by Beatrix Potter

    It's best to have a copy of the original stories, with the original drawings done by Beatrix Potter herself. In The Tale of Peter Rabbit are the delightful tales of Peter Rabbit. Included in the series are also cute little stories about mice. These books have sweet stories that teach lessons.

The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss

    Dr. Seuss is, of course, the master of children's literature. Dr. Seuss teaches children to play with language and have a good time reading. The pictures are wonderful and inspire lots of fun questions. Big kids will like re-reading Dr. Seuss along with their younger sisters and brothers.

Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey

    The story of Mr. and Mrs. Mallard is shown by simple pencil drawings that help children use their imaginations. The story explores the city of Boston as the Mallards look for a place to get their ducklings safely across the city. Jack, Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack, Ouack, Pack, and Quack are good examples of obedience(顺从) as they follow Mrs. Mallard through the city.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar(毛虫) and other books by Eric Carle

    The Eric Carle books have delightful pictures, full of bright colors and interesting detail. In The Very Hungry Caterpillar, children see the life cycle of a butterfly through the eyes of a caterpillar that is hungry. The children will laugh at all the food the caterpillar eats and be overjoyed by the beautiful butterfly at the end. All the Eric Carle books are fun for kids and parents, with simple ideas and beautiful art.

    There are many children's books available, and this list is only the beginning. However, these are all essential to a good children's library.

    Kentucky Fried Chicken has filed a lawsuit（提起诉讼） against three companies in China, because their social media accounts spread false information about its food, including that its chickens have eight legs. The case comes as the Beijing government holds an activity to clean up rumours （谣言）on social media（媒体）. Internet marketers have been accused （指控） of trying to control online opinions of their customers by posting false information about their competitors.

    In an announcement posted on its Chinese website, KFC said one of the best-known false rumours was that chickens used by the company have six wings and eight legs. It is requesting 1.5 million yuan and an official apology from each of three companies. It is also asking for an immediate stop to their activities to hurt it by spreading rumours.

    The fried chicken chain is China's biggest restaurant operator and is a kind of fast food for young people in China. It has more than 4, 600 restaurants in the country, and on average, opens a new branch every day. KFC'S China chief executive officer（行政长官）, Qu Cuirong, said that it is difficult for companies to protect their brands（品牌） against rumours because it is hard for them to collect evidence. She added, "The efforts by the government in recent years to purify（净化） the online environment have offered us much more confidence."

    The companies are Shanxi Weilukuang Technology Company, Taiyuan Zero Point Technology Company and Yingchenanzhi Success and Culture Communication in Shenzhen, south-east China. Calls to numbers listed for the companies either rang unanswered or were not available. In fact, authorities（官方） began an activity two years ago to clean up what they called online rumours. Comments in state media have argued that a clean-up is needed.

    Until the 1990s coffee was rarely served in China except at luxury hotels aimed at foreigners. When Starbucks opened its first outlet there in 1999, it was far from clear that the country's avid tea-drinkers would take to such a different-and usually more costly- source of caffeine. Starbucks tried to attract customers unused to coffee's bitter taste by promoting milk and sugar-heavy concoctions(调和) such as Frappuccinos.

    But coffee has become fashionable among the middle class in China. Starbucks now has about 3, 800 outlets in China- more than in any other country outside America. Statista, a business-intelligence portal(门户网站), says the roast coffee market in China is growing by more than 10 % a year. Starbucks and its rivals see big opportunities for expanding there.

    So too, however, do home-grown competitors. A major new presence is Luckin Coffee, Beijing- based chain. Since its founding less than two years ago, it has opened more than 2,300 outlets. On May 17th Luckin's initial public offering on the Nasdaq stockmarket raised more than $570m, giving it a value of about $4bn.

    Luckin's remarkable growth is sign of change. No longer do Chinese consumers see coffee as such a luxury. Most of Luckin's outlets are merely kiosks where busy white-collar workers pick up their drinks, having ordered them online. Super-fast delivery can also be arranged through the company's app. Independent coffee shops are springing up. The growth is striking given the country's reputation for its tea-drinking culture where many residents like to relax in teahouses sipping tea served gracefully.

    But the two markets are different. The teahouses tend to cater to older people who like to spend long hours playing mahjong and gossiping. At the coffee shops it is rare to see anyone over 40. Young people use them for socialising, but much of their interaction is online -sharing photos of their drinks and of the coffee-making equipment. An option on the Chinese rating app Dianping allows users to search for wanghong ("internet viral") coffee houses: ones with particularly photogenic decor(照片装饰) where better to sip and We Chat?