A Book Review—The Snake-Stone by Berlie Doherty

    The setting: Urban England (the cities), but also rural England (the countryside) including remote English villages.

    The theme: The main theme is a teenage search of self-discovery, in this case the search for a mother from whom the hero was separated at an early age. Its other concerns are love, getting on with others, being persistent and courageous and trying to deal with doubts, troubles and worries. As the book moves to a close, James' swimming coach says to him: “You are not like a kid obeying instructions any more. You are diving like a young man who knows where he is going.”

    The characters: James is the hero of the story. He is a championship diver, and has a comfortable life with his foster parents (养父母). Yet he also has the qualities to take him on a long journey to find his birth mother. The other characters in The Snake-Stone, James' parents, his diving instructor, best friend, the villagers, people he meets on his journey, are pictured realistically.

    The turning point: The turning point in the story comes while James' foster parents are away in London, and he wonders about the identity of his birth mother. The only clue he has is a fossil, “the snake stone” which she left behind along with a note on which she had written: “Take good care of Sammie. It was written on a torn envelope with parts of an address still there.

    The journey: Instead of going to London, James decides to find his birth mother. With help from his geography teacher, James sets out for the remote country village where his mother might be found. James has painful, challenging, but also humorous and happy travels. The mother he finally meets, Anne, has a minor yet powerful voice in the novel. He comes to understand why she left him at a stranger's door fifteen years before. Although the meeting is not long, it leaves him with a feeling of completeness. As a journey of self-discovery The Snake-Stone also provides its readers with a happy ending. Its hero says, on returning to his foster parents, “I was home.”

    Selena Gomez and I are scheduled to meet at a low-key coffee shop in Encino. Not wanting to keep the superstar waiting，I arrived at nine,20 minutes early. As I was catching up on e-mails，Selena quietly scooted into the seat next to me. No bodyguard. Not even a drop of make-up. She was ten minutes early and so inconspicuous that no one else in the restaurant looked up so much. Elena was wearing Bebe shorts. She had a baby face and ordered a hot chocolate.

    After making a small talk about what she wore for the shoot，she dived into the subject of her career. Elena declared 2012 the year of movies. She filmed three：SpringBreakers ， a drama；The  Getaway ， an action flick；and HotelTransylvania ， a comedy. Each is a marked move away from the teen style that made her a household name.

    Now that her Disney days are behind her，Selena is at that unstable point in a child star's career where she is trying to grow up—both as a person(she turned 20 in July) and as an artist. "Being part of the Disney Channel was such a blessing，and I'm super happy with what my show accomplished，but acting is something I would like to take on more seriously." She continued，"I don't necessarily feel accomplished. I want to create a whole different persona when it comes to acting."

    Selena has been working full-time since she was seven years old and scored a role on Barney & Friends. In 2007 when she was offered the lead in WizardsofWaverlyPlace ， Selena，her mother，and her stepfather uprooted from Grand Prairie，Texas，to L．A.，where they are settling now.

    US Space Agency Returns to Mars with InSight Lander

    The American space agency's lander InSight is to arrive on Mars at the end of November, 2018. Unlike NASA's Curiosity rover, InSight will not move across the planet's surface. Instead it will become the first spacecraft (航天器) used only for exploring underground. It will study the geography of Mars, searching for signs of Martian (火星的) quakes.

    InSight is a project of U.S. and Europe. It is 6 meters long and 1.5 meters wide. It weighs 360kilograms. InSight's 1 .8 -meter robotic arm will put two experiments in place. Both are designed toexplore underground of Mars to learn about the inside.

    Bruce Banerdt is the lead scientist for InSight. He viewed the spacecraft as a robot that can take care of itself. "It's got its own brain. It's got an arm. It can listen and feel things. It pulls its own power out of the sun," he noted.

    Thomas Zurbuchen, one of the heads in NASA, said the results of the InSight project could "change the way we think about the inside of our earth." But, first, InSight will have to land on Mars undamaged. Since Mars exploration started in the 1960s, only about 40 percent of the explorations have succeeded.

    Tom Hoffman is InSight's project manager. He said earlier successes do not lessen the concerns for each new exploration. "That we ve done it before doesn't mean we're not nervous and excited about doing it again," he said.

    InSight will enter the Martian atmosphere (大气层) traveling at 19,800 kilometers an hour. It will slow for landing on a wide flat area on Mars. If all goes well, InSight could carry out its experiments in about 10 weeks. The InSight project is expected to continue for one Martian year, about two years on Earth.

    When a child says their first word, it's an event to remember. But when a girl with nonverbal autism (自闭症) does it, it's a reason to ugly cry in a parking lot. And that's exactly what happened to Briana Blankenship from Athens, Alabama. Doctors said her daughter, Taylor, might never speak. But just days ago, the 5-year-old girl challenged it and proved them wrong.

    “I had basically accepted that I would never hear her voice,” Briana said.

“We communicate with limited sign language and gestures,” Briana said, “We also have an iPad that is locked so that the only program she can access is a communication program called LAMP. LAMP is what she uses to complete work in school and because of this, she is excellent at spelling especially for a 5-year-old.” Taylor is also in the “inclusion” Kindergarten class where she receives occupational therapy (治疗) to help with her fine motor skills. “Her dad and I also pay for her to go to gymnastics every week and it has helped her stop her tiptoe walking”.

    However, when Briana was taking her daughter to a gymnastics class, the impossible happened. “We were on our way there- running late- so I had to go through the closest drive-thru to grab her something that she would actually eat We rarely eat fast food so she recognized that she was about to get her favorite food, French fries, and started getting excited and giggling (咯咯笑) in the back seat. That's when I heard her say it. I whipped my head around and asked “Did you just say Momma?” and she looked at me and said it again.

    I broke down into tears. “I parked my car after getting our food and immediately called my husband and then my mother. I didn't have time to call anyone else before class started so I quickly posted the video to my Facebook page.” Instantly, people flooded Briana's inbox. “We have had so many messages from people that we are giving them light for their loved ones, or that we are making them feel less alone in the daily battles of parenting a nonverbal child.

    TV, iPads, and computers are fun and sometimes educational, but many people think the technology is bad. My parents let me watch one or two shows or play a game on the iPad for an hour, but then make me find thing else to do, like read or draw a picture. They say that too much screen time won't help me become smarter.

    I think that it is okay to watch TV, but not too much. And some of my friends agree.

    "A tiny bit of screen time is okay," Mateo J., 7, said. "But too much of it is not good for your brain."

    Though my friends and I sometimes complain (抱怨), we think that it's good our parents limit our screen time.

    "Our parents should limit our technology time because otherwise you might get carried away and not even know that you've stayed inside all day watching TV," Naomi J. , 9, said.

    The American Academy of Pediatrics(AAP) used to recommend (推荐) that parents let kids have about two hours of screen time per day, but in 2016, they started recommending that parents of kids 6 and older decide for themselves how much time is okay, as long as the shows and games are appropriate. The AAP still says that kids 2-5 years old should have only about one hour of screen time per day, and kids under 2 no screen time at all. The AAP says that media you've stayed inside all day in all forms, including TV, computers, and smartphones, can affect how children feel, learn, think, and behave. However, parents are still the most important influence.

    I think TV shows like Brain Games and Cupcake Wars are inspiring. I've even learned some magic while watching Brain Games! Video games can be educational, as some TV shows are about nature, and other shows have useful messages. But some games and shows have bad things in them, like smoking.

    You can play outside instead of watching TV. Find other things to do. You don t have to be or screens all day.

Something Fun

    A person is on trial for murder in a court room in Oklahoma. There is strong evidence indicating that he is guilty（有罪的）. However, the body is not found.

    In the defense's (辩护方) closing speech, the lawyer, knowing that his client (委托人) is guilty and that it looks like he'll probably be seriously punished, decided to play a clever trick.

    "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury (陪审团), I have a surprise for you all," the lawyer says as he looks at his watch. "Within one minute, the person assumed dead in this case will walk into this court room," he says and he looks towards the court-room door. The jury, somewhat surprised, looks at the door eagerly. A minute passes. Nothing happens.

    Finally the lawyer says, "Actually, I made up the previous statement. But you all waited with expectation. I, therefore, put it to you that there is a reasonable doubt in this case as to whether anyone was killed and insist that you pass a judgment of not guilty."

    The jury, clearly confused, back off to discuss.

    A very few minutes later, the jury returned and one of them pronounces a verdict (裁决) of guilty.

    "But how?" asks the lawyer in surprise  "You must have had some doubt; I saw all of you stare at the door."

    Answers the jury member, "Oh, we did look. But your client didn't."