In the old days, children were familiar with birth and death as part of life. Now this is perhaps the first generation of American youngsters who have never been close by during of the birth a baby and have never experienced the death of a family member.

    Nowadays when people grow old, we often send them to nursing homes. When they get sick, we send them to a hospital, where children are forbidden to visit terminally （晚期的）in patients— even when those patients are their parents. This deprives（剥夺）the dying patient of family members during the last few days of his life and it deprives the children of an experience of death, which is an important learning experience.

    Some of my colleagues and I once interviewed and followed about 500 terminally in order to find out what they could teach us and how we could be of more benefit, not just to them but to the members of their families as well. We were most impressed by the fact that even those patients who were not told of their serious illness were quite aware of its potential（潜在的）outcome.

    It is important for family members, and doctors and nurses to understand these patients' communication in order to truly understand their needs, fears and fantasies （幻想）. Most of our patients welcomed another human being with whom they could talk openly, honestly, and frankly about their trouble. Many of them shared with us their great need to be informed, to be kept up —to —date on their medical condition and to be told when the end was near. We found out that patients who had been dealt with openly and frankly were better able to cope with the coming of detach and finally to reach a true stage of acceptance before death.

    Ever wonder how much a cloud weighs? What about a hurricane? A meteorologist（气象学家） has done some estimates and the results might surprise you.

    Let's start with a very simple white puffy cloud—a cumulus cloud(积云). How much does the water in a cumulus cloud weigh? Peggy LeMone, senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, did the numbers. “The water in the little cloud weighs about 550 tons,” she calculates. “Or if you want to convert it to something that might be a little more meaningful...think of elephants.” Assume（假设） an elephant weighs about six tons, she says, that would mean the water inside a typical cumulus cloud would weigh about one hundred elephants.

    The thought of a hundred elephants' worth of water floating in the sky begs another question—what keeps it up there?

    “First of all, the water isn't in elephant-sized particles(微粒); it's in tiny tiny tiny particles,” explains LeMone. And those particles float on the warmer air that's rising below. But still, the concept of so much water floating in the sky was surprising even to a meteorologist like LeMone. “I had no idea how much a cloud would weigh, actually, when I started the calculations（计算）,” she says.

    So how many elephant units of water are inside a big storm cloud—10 times bigger all the way around than the “puffy” cumulus cloud? Again, LeMone did the numbers: About 200,000 elephants.

    Now, come to the calculations for a hurricane about the size of Missouri and the figures get really massive. “What we're doing is weighing the water in one cubic meter theoretically pulled from a cloud and then multiplying by the number of meters in a whole hurricane,” she explains.

    The result? Forty million elephants. That means the water in one hurricane weighs more than all the elephants on the planet. Perhaps even more than all the elephants that have ever lived on the planet.

    1990 was an important year in world events. In February, Nelson Mandela was set free after 27 years in prison. In October, East and West Germany became one country again. Then at the end of 1990, the World Wide Web was born. For this final event we have one man to thank. Tim Berners-Lee, the father of the Web.

    Berners-Lee was born on June 8, 1955 in London, England. His parents, both computer designers, encouraged him to think and work creatively as he grew up. He was an excellent student and naturally took an interest in computers and science.

    After graduating from Oxford University, Tim went to work at a science research centre in Switzerland. There he developed some of the different systems（系统）that would later become the Web. The first was HTML, the computer language used to make web pages. The second was an address system that let computers anywhere find each other and send and receive information. In 1990 he put them together to make the first Internet browser（浏览器）.

    Tim knew that the more people used the Web, the more useful it would be. He wasn't interested in money but knowledge, so he gave out his invention for free to anyone who was interested. Many were interested an the growth of the Internet began.

    Today Tim works as a professor at the MIT in America, studying new ways to use the Web. He has received many awards from governments and organizations for his efforts. He is still not very interested in money. That is why he is so liked by his students and workmates. It may also be one of the reasons that few people outside the world of technology know his name.

    I don't think I can recall a time when I wasn't aware of the beauty of the ocean. Growing up in Australia, I had the good fortune of having the sea at my side. The first time I went to Halfmoon Bay, I suddenly had the feeling of not being able to feel the ground with my feet anymore.

    For my 10th birthday, my sister and I were taken out to the Great Barrier Reef. There were fish in different colors, caves and layers of coral. They made such an impression on me. When I learned that only 1 percent of Australian's Coral Sea was protected, I was shocked. Australian marine life is particularly important because the reefs have more marine species than any other country on earth. But sadly, only 45 percent of the world's reefs are considered healthy.

    This statistic is depressing, so it's important for us to do everything to protect them. The hope that the Coral Sea remains a complete eco-system has led me to take action. I've become involved with the Protect Our Coral Sea activity, which aims to create the largest marine park in the world. It would serve as a place where the ocean's species will all have a safe place forever.

    Together, Angus and I created a little video and we hope it will inspire people to be a part of the movement. Angus also shares many beautiful childhood memories of the ocean as a young boy, who grew up sailing, admiring the beauty of the ocean, and trying to find the secrets of ocean species.

Music

    Opera at Music Hall: 1243 Elm Street. The season runs June through August, with additional performances in March and September. The Opera honors Enjoy the Arts membership discounts. Phone: 241-2742. http://www.cityopera.com.

    Chamber Orchestra: The Orchestra plays at Memorial Hall at 1406 Elm Street, which offers several concerts from March through June. Call 723-1182 for more information. http: //www.chamberorch.com.

    Symphony Orchestra: At Music Hall and Riverbend. For ticket sales, call 381-3300. Regular season runs September through May at Music Hall in summer at Riverbend. http://www.symphony.org/home.asp.

    College Conservatory of Music (CCM): Performances are on the main campus(校园) of the university, usually at Patricia Cobbett Theater. CCM organizes a variety of events, including performances by the well-known LaSalle Quartet, CCM's Philharmonic Orchestra, and various groups of musicians presenting Baroque through modern music. Students with I.D. cards can attend the events for free. A free schedule of events for each term is available by calling the box office at 556-4183. http://www.ccm.uc.edu/events/calendar.

    Riverbend Music Theater: 6295 Kellogg Ave. Large outdoor theater with the closest seats under cover (price difference). Big name shows all summer long! Phone: 232-6220. http://www.riverbendmusic.com.

    136 Crestview Circle

    Dover, Connecticut

    January 16, 2015

    Gander's Furniture Store

    Stamford, Connecticut, 09876

    Dear Sir,

    I am writing about your January bill, which I am returning with this letter. I am not going to pay this bill. Last month I bought a table and four chairs for $65.50. They were sent to me on December 18. That night one leg of the table broke while my wife was putting our dinner on it. It fell on one of the chair, and that broke, too. Our $ 2.50 steak landed on the floor, and the dog ate it.

    I spoke to the salesmen who had sold me the table and the chairs. He told me to write you a letter. I wrote you on December 20, saying that I was not going to pay for the furniture. On December 21 some men came and took it back to the store.

    Please do something about your records. I do not want to receive another bill for the furniture which I returned.

Yours truly,

Alberts Robbins