Two things changed my life: my mother and a white plastic bike basket. I have thought long and hard about it and it's true. I would be a different person if my mom hadn't turned a silly bicycle accessory into a life lesson I carry with me today.

My mother and father were united in their way of raising children, but it mostly fell to my mother to actually carry it out. Looking back, I honestly don'tknow how she did it. Managing the family budget must have been a very hard task,but she made it look effortless. If we complained about not having what another kid did, we'd hear something like, “I don't care what so –and –so got for his birthday, you are not getting a TV in your room a car for your birthday a lavish sweet-16 party.” We had to earn our allowance by doing chores around the house. I can still remember how long it took to polish the legs of our coffee table. My brothers canno doubt remember hours spent cleaning the house .Like the two little girls growing up at the White House, we made our own beds (no one left the house until that was done) and picked up after ourselves. We had to keep track of our belongings, and if something was lost, it was not replaced.

It was summer and ,one day ,my mother drove me to the bike shop to get a tire fixed—and there it was in the window, White, shiny, plastic and decorated with flowers ,the basket winked at me and I knew —I knew—I had to have it.

       “It's beautiful,” my mother said when I pointed it out to her,” What a neat basket.”

       I tried to hold off at first, I played it cool for a short while. But then I guess I couldn't at and it any longer: “Mom, please can I please, pleaseget it? I‘ll do extra chores for as long as you say, I'll do anything, but I need that basket, I love that basket. Please, Mom .Please?”

         I was desperate.

      “You know,” she said, gently rubbing my back while we both staredat what I believes was the coolest thing ever,” If you save up you could buy thisyourself.”

“By the time I makeenough it'll but gone!”

      “Maybe Roger here could hold it for you,” she smiled at Roger, thebike guy.

“He can't hold it for that long, Mom. Someone else will buy it .Please,Mom, Please?”

      “There might be another way,” she said.

And so our paying plan unfolded. My mother bought the beautiful basket and put it safely in some hiding place I couldn't find. Each week I eagerly counted my growing saving increased by extra work here and there (washing the car ,helpingmy mother make dinner, delivering or collecting things on my bike that already looked naked without the basket in front).And then ,weeks later ,I counted ,re-counted and jumped for joy. Oh, happy day! I made it! I finally had the exact amount we'dagreed upon….

       Days later the unthinkable happened. A neighborhood girl I'd played with millions of times appeared with the exact same basket fixed to her shiny, new bike that already had all the bells and whistles. I rode hard and fast home to tell my mother about this disaster. This horrible turn of events.

And then came the lesson. I've taken with me through my life: ”Honey,Your basket is extra-special,” Mom said, gently wiping away my hot tears.” Yourbasket is special because you paid for it yourself.”

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    Keeping the kids busy over the school holidays can be discouraging and cost parents a lot. But we've found some cheap and cheerful ways to enjoy family time this Easter from free days out to fun-filled theme parks which won't cost us much. We've done the homework so you can get started on having a great time.

Theme Parks

♦ Save from 10% to 25% off the price of tickets for Legoland in Windor by booking in advance online. A family of four can save up to ₤45.90 on a one-day ticket, paying ₤137.70.

♦Book seven days in advance and save ₤43 off the price of a family of four tickets for Drayton Manor Theme Park. Call 0844-472-1950 or book online and you'll pay ₤65 on the day.

♦ You can pick up a family of four ticket for a day at Alton Towers in Staffordshire for ₤43.80 off the day price.

♦ Save ₤16 off the price for a family trip to The Making of Harry Potter by buying a family ticket (two adults and two children) online. Family of four ₤101, compared to ₤117.

Activities

    Students looking for a cut-price trip to see the animals can save 15% off the ticket price at Bristol Zoo and pay ₤12.71 rather than the full adult price ₤14.53. Teens should show their identity as students.

Freebies(免费赠品)

    Let your kids discover what it's like to be an animal on the African Plain in the ocean. Or, they can learn to love leaf beetles（甲壳虫） or become a scientist for the day at the Natural History Museum in London.

Hidden London: the city's lesser-known delights Dulwich Picture Gallery

    As much an excuse to enjoy the village charm of Dulwich Village as to admire some delicate European masterworks,  this gallery is a southeast London charmer,  which was founded in 1811. Join a free guided tour to the permanent collection (3 pm Saturday and Sunday), catch the latest temporary exhibition and admire the lovely garden (open 1: 30 pm to 3: 30 pm Tuesdays).

Where: Gallery Rd SE21 7AD

Train: West Dulwich

Temple Church

    Featuring in the novel TheDaVinciCode and dating back to the late 12th century,  this is one of London's oldest and holiest medieval (中世纪的) treasures. Built by the Knights Templar,  the church is divided into the Round—which contains the statues of crusading knights,  who tried to recover the Holy Land from the Muslims in the Middle Ages—and the Chancel,  where the priests (牧师) and singers performing in church services sit.

Where: Temple EC4Y 7DE

Underground: Temple or Blackfriars

Chelsea Physic Garden

    Endlessly satisfying the green-fingered, the plain curious or those eager to discover botanical interests in central London, this delightful walled garden was founded by the Apothecaries' Society in the 17th century and is one of the oldest botanical gardens in London.

Where: 66 Royal Hospital Rd SW3 4HS

Underground: Sloane Square

Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art

    Built between 1953 and 1958, the Estorick is Britain's only gallery devoted to Italian art. It draws together a fascinating collection of Futurist masterpieces from Umberto Boccioni, Giacomo Balla, Carlo Carra and others, who emphasized the importance of modern things, especially technology and machines.

Where: 39a Canonbury Sq N1 2AN

Underground: Highbury or Islington

    Pakistan should be everyone's tourist destination for 2018, but what if you already live there? Then perhaps you should consider visiting these five must-visit places for this year.

    Lake Saiful Muluk

    At an altitude of 3, 224m, surrounded by snowy mountains, the lake rewards those that make the three-hour uphill walk from Naran. You will find the pathway just above the free market, but the best choice is to get a jeep and share the costs with some other tourists; expect to pay about 700 rupees, worth it to view this natural beauty.

    Deosai National Park

    As another high point in Pakistan, it has an average altitude of 4,114m－the Deosai Plains are one of the highest plateaus (高原) in the world. If you make it to the park, you expect to find rich plants and wild animals. The breathtaking scenery on show at the plains is enough to make 2018 a memorable year.

    Naltar Valley

    Accessible via a 2.5-hour drive from Gilgit, well worth visiting. Covered with pine trees and other plants, it has a dreamlike feel about it. Various colors all year around make you fall in love.

    Shangrila Resort

    Right in the north of Pakistan in the central valley of Gilgit Baltistan. Locals call this a paradise (乐园), and that's what it feels like. No visit is complete without checking out the restaurant which is built in the structure of an aircraft.

    Rama Meadow (牧场)

    Doesn't feel like Pakistan at all, more like somewhere in Minnesota. Watch the sheep and cows feeding while clear water flows in streams from high in the mountains. Against Chongra's ice-covered peak, this little meadow is a piece of art.

    HONG KONG-Cross-border buses operated by Hong Kong companies on Friday started trial runs on the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge (HZMB) in preparation for the bridge's upcoming opening.

    "The trial runs, arranged by the governments of the Chinese mainland, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) and the Macao SAR, would last for three days and aimed at testing the readiness of boundary crossing facilities (设施) of the three places," the Hong Kong SAR government's Transport and Housing Bureau told Xinhua.

    Two major cross-boundary coach trade associations in Hong Kong were invited to send buses and members to participate in the trial runs.

    Freeman Cheung, secretary of Hong Kong Guangdong Boundary Crossing Bus Association, said his association would run one bus with about 10 passengers on Friday and Saturday respectively as part of the trial runs.

    "Our bus started at noon from the Hong Kong Boundary Crossing Facilities and ran all the way to Zhuhai in about 40 minutes," he said, adding that "the journey was smooth."

    Alan Chan, secretary of another trade association who participated in the trial runs as a passenger, said the clearance procedures at boundary crossing facilities of the three places all went on well and smoothly.

    "The boundary crossing facilities of Zhuhai and Macao, in particular, are operated in a collaborative (合作的) way, which helps remarkably shorten the time needed for the clearance procedures," he said.

    The HZMB, situated at the waters of Lingdingyang of Pearl River Estuary, is a mega-size sea crossing linking the Hong Kong SAR, Zhuhai city of Guangdong Province and the Macao SAR.

    The 55-km bridge is the longest bridge-and-tunnel (隧道) sea crossing in the world.

    The bridge is meant to meet the demand of passenger and freight land transport among Hong Kong, the Chinese mainland and Macao, and to establish a new land transport link between the east and west banks of the Pearl River.

"Given that signs of Alzheimer's disease (老年痴呆症) start to accumulate in the brain several decades before the disease begins, understanding the connection between sleep and cognition (认知) earlier in life is critical for understanding the role of sleep problems as a risk factor for the disease," said study author Yue Leng, PhD, of the University of California, San Francisco.

The study involved 526 people with an average age of 40. They were followed for 11 years. Researchers looked at participants' sleep duration and quality. Participants wore a wrist activity monitor for three continuous days on two occasions approximately one year apart to calculate their averages. Participants slept for an average of six hours. Participants also reported bedtime and wake-up time in a sleep diary and completed a sleep quality survey with scores ranging from 0 to 21. A total of 239 people reported poor sleep with a score greater than five.

Researchers also looked at sleep fragmentation (碎片化), a measure of restlessness during the sleep period expressed as a percentage. The higher the value, the more sleep is interrupted. Participants were divided into three groups based on their sleep fragmentation score. Of the 175 people with the most interrupted sleep, 44 had poor cognitive performance 10 years later, compared to 10 of the 176 people with the least interrupted sleep.

After adjusting for age, sex, race, and education, people who had the most interrupted sleep had more than twice the possibility of having poor cognitive performance when compared to those with the least interrupted sleep. There was no difference in cognitive performance at midlife for those in the middle group compared to the group with the least interrupted sleep.

However, due to the small sample size, the researchers were unable to fully investigate potential race or sex differences. "More research is needed to assess the link between sleep disturbances and cognition at different life stages and to identify if critical life periods exist when sleep is more strongly associated with cognition," Leng said.