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.

    In the past, people who graduated from college felt proud of their academic achievement and confident that their degree would help them find a good job.

     However, in the past four years the job market has changed dramatically. This year's college graduates are facing one of the worst job markets in years. For example, Ryan Stewart, a graduate of San Jose University, got a degree in religious studies, but no job prospects. He points out that many people already working are getting laid off and don't have jobs, so it's even harder for new college graduates to find jobs.

    Four years ago, the future looked bright for the class of 2013. There were many high-tech job opportunities. Graduates received many job offers, and they were able to get jobs with high salaries and benefits such as insurance and paid vacations. However, “Times have changed and it's a new market,” according to Cheryl Allmen- Vinnidge of the San Jose State Career Center.

    Allmen-Vinniage says students who do find jobs started preparing two years ago. They worked during summer vacations, they have had several internships（实习）, and they have majored in one of the few fields that are still hot, like chemical engineering, accounting, or nursing, where average starting salaries have actually increased over last year. Other popular fields (like information system management, computer science, and political science) have seen big reduction in starting salaries.

    Ryan Stewart (he had hoped to become a teacher) may just end up going back to school. “I'd like to teach college some day and that requires more schooling, which would be great in bad economy.” he said.

    In conclusion, these days, to some students a degree may not be a ticket to instant wealth. For now, they can only hope its value will increase over time.

    One day a professor entered the classroom and asked his students to prepare for a surprise test. They waited anxiously at their desks for the test to begin. The professor handed out the question paper, with the text facing down as usual. Once he handed them all out, he asked his students to turn the page and begin. To everyone's surprise, there were no questions but a black dot in the center of the page. The professor seeing the expression on everyone' face, told them the following, "I want you to write what you see there."

    The students were confused and got started on the inexplicable (令人不解的) task.

    At the end of the class the professor took all the answer papers and started reading each one of them aloud in front of all the students. All of them with no exceptions, described the black dot, explained its position in the middle of the sheet, imagined what the black dot stood for and so on.

    After all had been read, the classroom was silent. The professor began to explain, "I am not going to grade on you this time. I just wanted to give you something to think about. No one wrote about the white part of the paper. Everyone focused on the black dot and the same happens in our lives. We have a white paper to observe and enjoy, but we always focus on the dark spots. Our life is filled with love and care, and we always have reasons to celebrate—nature renewing itself every day, our friends around us, the job that provides our livelihood, the miracles we see every day…"

    In fact, we insist on focusing only on the dark spots—the health issues that bother us, the lack of money, the complicated relationship with a family member, the disappointment with a friend, etc. Take your eyes away from the black spots in your life. The dark spots are very small compared to everything we have in our lives, so enjoy each moment that life gives you.

    Elizabeth Blackwell was born in England in 1821, and moved to New York City when she was ten years old. One day she decided that she wanted to become a doctor. That was nearly impossible for a woman in the middle of the nineteenth century. After writing many letters asking for admission(录取) to medical schools, she was finally accepted by a doctor in Philadelphia. She was so determined that she taught school and gave music lessons to get money for the cost of schooling.

    In 1849, after graduation from medical school, she decided to further her education in Paris. She wanted to be a surgeon(外科医师), but a serious eye problem forced her to give up the idea.

    Upon returning to the United States, she found it difficult to start her own practice because she was a woman. By 1857 Elizabeth and her sister, also a doctor, along with another woman doctor, managed to open a new hospital, the first for women and children Besides being the first woman physician and founding her own hospital, she also set up the first medical school for women.

    People have different ways of dealing with a common cold. Some take over-the- counter(非处方的) medicines such as aspirin while others try popular home remedies(治疗)like herbal tea or chicken soup. Yet here is the tough truth about the common cold: nothing really cures it.

    So why do people sometimes believe that their remedies work? According to James Taylor, professor at the University of Washington, colds usually go away on their own in about a week, improving a little each day after symptoms peak, so it's easy to believe it's medicine rather than time that deserves the credit, USA Today reported.

    It still seems hard to believe that we can deal with more serious diseases yet are powerless against something so common as a cold. Recently, scientists came closer to figuring out why. To understand it, you first need to know how antiviral(抗病毒的) drugs work. They attack the virus by attaching to and changing the surface structures of the virus. To do that, the drug must fit and lock into the virus like the right piece of a jigsaw(拼图), which means scientists have to identify the virus and build a 3-D model to study its surface before they can design an antiviral drug that is effective enough.

    The two cold viruses that scientists had long known about were rhinovirus(鼻病毒) A and B. But they didn't find out about the existence of a third virus, rhinovirus C, until 2006. All three of them contribute to the common cold, but drugs that work well against rhinovirus A and B have little effect when used against C.

    "This explains most of the previous failures of drug trials against rhinovirus," study leader Professor Ann Palmenberg at University of Wisconsin-Madison, US, told Science Daily.

    Now, more than 10 years after the discovery of rhinovirus C, scientists have finally built a highly-detailed 3-D model of the virus, showing that the surface of the virus is, as expected, different from that of other cold viruses.

    With the model in hand, hopefully a real cure for a common cold is on its way. Soon, we may no longer have to waste our money on medicines that don't really work.

    Your next car could have two seats, three wheels—two in front and one in the back and a top speed of more than 100 miles per hour. Elio Motors plans to make such a tiny car named the Elio. Its two seats sit front and back instead of side by side. The driver is positioned in the center with the passenger directly behind.

    The starting price for the car is just $6,800. It has only one door, on the left side, which cuts a few hundred dollars off the manufacturing costs. Having three wheels also makes it cheaper. It has air conditioning, power windows and door locks and an AM/FM radio. More features can be ordered through Elio's long list of suppliers. Elio will also sell the cars directly through its own stores and not through franchised dealers (特约经销商).

    Paul Elio dreamed as a kid that he would one day own a car company called Elio Motors. In 2008, tired of high gas prices, he started working on a car that burns gas in a more effective way. Equally important to him was creating US manufacturing jobs and making the car inexpensive enough to attract buyers who might otherwise be stuck in their old, unreliable cars. "Whatever matters to you, this can move the needle on it, he said.

    Already, more than 27,000 people have reserved one. Paul hopes to make 250,000 cars a year by 2020. So far, reservation holders are those who will use the Elio as a second or third car for work. Paul Elio believes the car will interest college students as well as used-car drivers who want something newer and more reliable, though.