I walked to Mrs. Windsor's house and waited outside. She was working with another student, and I was not supposed to bother them by ringing the bell. I stood against the wall and daydreamed what I'd rather be doing. I had been tutored enough to read, understand, and even write some musical compositions, but I just didn't have a gift for it. Mrs. Windsor had offered to give me the lessons for free, so I felt my duty to try.

    The door opened and Wendy Barton came out. I walked in, sat down on the piano bench and began to sort through my sheet music. Today Mrs. Windsor introduced her niece Pasha to teach me. With a smile, Pasha sat beside me on the piano bench, opened my sheet music to the beginning page and asked me to play. I arranged my fingers on the keys. Then I frowned(皱眉) and concentrated to make the notes on the page match the finger movements. I had to admit I was a rather mechanical (呆板的) pianist.

    After about a page or two, Pasha gently put her hand on top of mine as if to calm my fingers. There was a long pause. "What are you hearing in the music?" I looked at her rather strangely and admitted I didn't know what she meant. "Like a story. Here, let me try and you listen," Pasha advised.

    She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, letting her fingers dance lightly over the keys. Then, she began to play. "See, it begins here beside some kind of river. Hear the water flowing beside you?"

    Her fingers rose and fell gently on the keys. "Now the princess appears and she's picking flowers from the water's edge." A happy piece of music filled the air in time to Pasha's dancing fingers. "Oh, but she slips!" The music changed. "And our princess is being carried off by the fast-flowing stream. Quickly, the princess' horse sees her plight (困境) and races to the river's edge where he swims out to let her catch hold of him. Luckily, they make it to the bank." Pasha said.

    I played many pieces of music that afternoon, finding the stories in the music and learning that sometimes it takes a friend to pull you out of the river onto dry land again.

Do you want to get home from work knowing you have made a real difference in someone's life?

If yes, don't care about sex or age! Come and join us, then you'll make it!

    Position: Volunteer Social Care Assistant

     (No Pay with Free Meals)

    Place: Manchester

    Hours: Part Time

We arc now looking for volunteers to support people with learning disabilities to live active lives! Only 4 days left. Don't miss the chance of lending your warm hands to help others!

    Role:

    You will provide people with learning disabilities with all aspects of their daily lives. You will help them to develop new skills. You will help them to protect their rights and their safety. But your primary concern is to let them know they are valued.

    Skills and Experience Required:

You will have the right values and great listening skills. You will be honest and patient. You will have the ability to drive a car and to communicate in fluent written and spoken English since you'll have to help those people with different learning disabilities. Previous care-related experience will be a great advantage for you.

    With the wide, application of the Internet, Uber, a new approach to your destination instead of taking an ordinary taxi, has become more popular recently. However, benefits won't come without its fair share of drawbacks. The ride-sharing experience is about to get awkward.

    Uber drivers are a part of the so-called sharing economy: They use their own vehicles, receive customer reviews via the app's five-star rating system and make their own hours and choices. Unlike other services, Uber claimed that drivers all over the country could dearly alert customers that tipping is not included. Those drivers that expect to be tipped can make their wishes known. But the company is holding to its official no-tip-required line. “Once you arrive at your destination, your fare is automatically charged to your credit card on file－there's no need to tip.” Although drivers value the freedom to push a button rather than punch a clock like ordinary taxi drivers, lack of a clear policy leaves Uber drivers m a vulnerable (脆弱的) and awkward position: If they ask a customer for a tip or put up a sign, that customer could give the driver a low star-rating, and the driver could finally be removed from the app.

    But has the company done a good job working with customers? Some observers say that this new grey area for tipping will create awkwardness about whether they should tip or not. Providing an option to tip on an app sends a clear message to customers to reach into their pockets. According to Guinn's 2015 survey of roughly 500 people, merely 30% people would be more likely to leave a tip if they were presented with a “no tip” button.

    If the service is twice as expensive during a rain storm or public transport delay, the customer has the right not to tip, However, if the driver is extra helpful or avoids traffic to reach your destination in a more timely manner, you could give an extra tip, says Uber, who will leave tipping options in the hands of the consumer rather than the app.

    On Sept. 19 the Westchase Elementary PTA（Parent-Teacher Association）will hold its Wizard Walk. The Wizard Walk is a locally organized, healthy alternative to traditional product sales that will raise money to support all PTA programs and events for the year. Remaining money will be applied to an on-going capital campaign to build a new playground.

    The Wizard Walk will take place on Wednesday, Sept. 28, from 8 a. m. to noon at the Westchase Recreation Center Field.  Volunteers will be needed throughout the event.  Look for more Wizard Walk information and volunteer sign-up links in your student's folder, or contact（联系）Laura Kohler at president＠ westchasepta. org.

    The PTA is also holding a year-long Spirit Stick fundraiser（资金筹集活动）. Spirit Sticks are small and students can display them on a key ring on their backpacks, which represent a variety of interests and accomplishments. There will be many ways to earn a Spirit Stick （good grades, great behavior, exceptional attendance, etc.）and opportunities to purchase the limited edition sticks for just $1 every Friday in the courtyard. For more information, contact Nikki Pivnichny at fundraising@ westchasepta. org.

    In addition to new fundraising programs, the PTA is partnering with our Guidance Counselor, Mrs. Kiersten Rivenburg, on a new campaign called Kindness Counts. Look for new recognitions and rewards as we continue to promote kindness from our children, staff and parents throughout the year. For more information, contact Laura Smith at kindnesscounts@ westchasepta. org.

    Now in its eighth year, the After-School Enrichment Program（ASE）is bringing back some favorite programs and offering some new ones. Students will have the opportunity to explore and develop a variety of new interests. Class schedules will be available soon. Registration starts on Sept. 7. Fall session begins Sept. 21 -22. For more information, contact Jennifer Newman at ase@ westchasepta. org.

    You'll need to take a deep breath before hearing this news. An astonishing 93% of kids around the world live in environments with air pollution levels that are damaging their health, according to a new report by WHO.

    Air pollution is to blame for the deaths of 543, 000 kids under 5 in 2016, with more than one in four deaths of children under five years old being related to environmental issues. Exposure (暴露) to air pollution can damage the health of kids in a variety of ways, either causing or being associated with everything from low birth weight to childhood obesity and so on.

    "The large toll of disease and death revealed (揭示) by these new data should result in an urgent call to action for the global community especially for those in the health department WHO stated. "Strong action to reduce exposure to air pollution offers an opportunity to protect the health of children." The report stressed that health experts should communicate with families, communities and policy-makers about the serious risks of air pollution exposure. "Although more researches into how air pollution affects children's health will continue to be valuable, there is already evidence to justify strong, swift action to prevent the damage it clearly produces," WHO added.

    Disease caused by dirty air is more common in low-and-middle in some countries, especially those in Africa, South-East Asia, and Western Pacific regions. Poor countries in these areas have the highest levels of exposure to household air pollution due to the use of polluting fuels and technologies for basic needs like cooking, heating and lighting.

    Advised solutions include cleaner transport, cleaner cooking and heating fuels and technologies energy-efficient housing and urban planning, safer industrial technologies and better waste management.

    America is a mobile society. Friendships between Americans can be close and real, yet disappear soon if situations change. Neither side feels hurt by this. Both may exchange Christmas greetings for a year or two, perhaps a few letters for a while—then no more. If the same two people meet again by chance, even years later, they pick up the friendship. This can be quite difficult for us Chinese to understand, because friendships between us flower more slowly but then may become lifelong feelings, extending (延伸) sometimes deeply into both families.

    Americans are ready to receive us foreigners at their homes, share their holidays, and their home life. They will enjoy welcoming us and be pleased if we accept their hospitality (好客) easily, but truly can't manage the time to do a great deal with a visitor outside their daily routine. They will probably expect us to get ourselves from the airport to our own hotel by bus. And they expect that we will phone them from there. Once we arrive at their homes, the welcome will be full, warm and real. We will find ourselves treated hospitably.

    Another difficult point for us Chinese to understand Americans is that although they include us warmly in their personal everyday lives, they don't show their politeness to us if it requires a great deal of time. This is usually the opposite of the practice in our country where we may be generous with our time. Sometimes, we, as hosts, will appear at airports even in the middle of the night to meet a friend. We may take days off to act as guides to our foreign friends. The Americans, however, express their welcome usually at homes,

    For the Americans, it is often considered more friendly to invite a friend to their homes than to go to restaurants, except for pure business matters. So accept their hospitality at home!