I was a bit of a bookworm as a child.For car journey,day trip or family holiday,many books were always packed to keep me busy.Since then,I've continued reading all kinds of books but I'll always love my childhood favorites.

    The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-timer—Mark Haddon

    This children's mystery novel is interesting,exciting,thought-provoking（发人深省的）,sad and happy all at the same time.The main character is a 15-year-old boy who has autism（自闭症）. The book gives you a window into his world, his thoughts, his hopes and his dreams. It's easy to read and both kids and adults love it.A must-read in my opinion.

    Secret Seven—Enid Blyton

    If you love adventures,this one is for you.The Secret Seven are a group of child detectives who make it their duty to solve crimes.They have many adventures along the way.It's a fun book that you won't want to stop reading. And in fact, there is more than.one book.There's a series of books about the Secret Seven's adventures so if you like the first one, you're in luck.

    Matilda—Roald Dahl

    It's now a film and show at the theatre,but we can't forget the original book.Matilda is about a loveable little girl who is very clever and,like me,loves to read.She goes to school and meets the very scary Miss Trunchbull who tortures（折磨）children,but thankfully makes friends with a kind teacher. The book will have you crying one, moment and laughing the next.

    The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe—C.S.Lewis

    As a kid I read the book, watched the film and listened to the tape.I really couldn't get enough of the book.It's an exciting story set in a magical land called Narnia. When you're reading it, you'll feel like you're really there.You'll get caught up in the adventures of the four children and the characters they meet.I can't rate it highly enough.

    Old age may not sound exciting.But recent findings offer good news for older people and for people worried about getting older.Researchers found that people become happier and experience less worry after they reach the age of fifty.In fact，they say by the age of eighty­five，people are happier with their life than they were when they were eighteen years old.

    The findings came from a survey of more than three hundred forty thousand adults in the United States.The Gallup Organization questioned them by telephone in 2008.At that time，the people were between the ages of eighteen and eighty­five.The researchers asked questions about emotions like happiness，sadness and worry.They also asked about mental or emotional stress.

    Arthur Stone in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at Stony Brook University in New York led the study.His team found that levels of stress were highest among adults between the ages of twenty­two and twenty­five.The findings showed that stress levels dropped sharply after people reached their fifties.

    The study also showed that men and women have similar feeling patterns as they grow older.However，women at all ages reported more sadness，stress and worry than men.

    Researchers say they do not know why happiness increases as people get older.One theory is that，as people grow older，they grow more thankful for what they have and have better control of their feelings.They also spend less time thinking about bad experiences.

    Professor Stone says the emotional patterns could be linked to changes in how people see the world，or maybe even changes in brain chemistry.

    The researchers also considered possible influences like having young children，being unemployed or being single.But they found that influences like these did not affect the levels of happiness and well­being related to age.

    A Canadian man is asking forgiveness for a birdbrained thing he did 17 years ago: inadvertently（无心地） encouraging seagulls to trash his hotel room.

    Back in 2001, Burchill checked into the Fairmont Empress Hotel in Victoria, B.C, for a business meeting. He brought a small suitcase full of Brothers Pepperoni from his hometown to share with former Navy buddies in the area. But his room had no fridge so he opened a window to keep it cool. And then he went for a long walk. That was when things got messy. Really messy. The result was such a housekeeping nightmare that the hotel permanently banned him.

    “I remember walking down the long hall and opening the door to my room to find an entire flock of seagulls in my room. There must have been 40 of them and they had been eating pepperoni for a long time.” Burchill said.

    When he walked into the room, Burchill recalled he frightened the birds. They “immediately started flying around and crashing into things as they desperately tried to leave the room.” The result was a tornado of seagull feathers, pepperoni chunks and fairly large birds whipping around the room. The lamps were     falling. The curtains were trashed. The coffee tray was just disgusting.

    Eventually, Burchill called the front desk and requested help cleaning up the room. “I can still remember the look on the lady's face when she opened the door. ”said Burchill. A short time later, he received a note from the hotel saying he'd been banned for life.

    Recently, Burchill visited the hotel to apologize in person, in hope of making amends with the woman who had to clean the seagull-and-pepperoni-trashed room, but was told she was no longer there.

    “When I was talking to the people at the desk and the manager, they did say that they had heard this story from a long-term employee that works there,” said Burchill, “I was just kind of in and out. I didn't     want to overstay my welcome.” So he apologized and was forgiven. Burchill left them a present of about a pound of Brothers Pepperoni as a peace offering. It seemed to have worked.

    Balancing work and school is not an easy task for me. My first term in college has come and gone and I've had to balance a job there, too. I want to cut one loose. Honestly, many times I thought I wanted to drop out of school and just do my job because I needed the money. For a long while I made myself believe that school was getting in the way of my job and money. Not only was I trying to do work and school, but also I was trying to have a social life. Many times I thought that there were not enough hours in the day but I wasn't managing my time right. Hanging out with friends may have been wonderful but it wasn't putting money in my pocket or knowledge in my brain. Friends would have to wait. I was back on the see-saw (跷跷板) of balancing work and school.

    Scheduling and planning became the key to my success. Setting deadlines and meeting them were important to my college experience. Planning was going well and I felt ready to try and throw a social life back there. I tried to make plans with friends that didn't conflict with my deadlines. That was actually harder than I thought. So once again my social life had to be put on hold (搁置). My friends were very understanding and encouraged me to do my work. The extra motivation really proved helpful in the end. Some friends would joke that I was all work and no play but sometimes that's what has to happen to get work done.

    As the last term came to an end I can say I learned a lot about college life. Planning is necessary for organization. Drawing up a list of all things I had to do at the beginning of the week and actually completing them made me feel good. Not only have I learned something new about organization, but also I acquired a new tool that I can take everywhere with me and use effectively.

    My wife and I spent two weeks in London last year. We went there in the autumn. We think it is the best season to visit England. The weather is usually good and there aren't too many tourists in October.

    We stayed in a small hotel in the West End. It was convenient as we did most of our sightseeing on foot. Taxis were too expensive, we couldn't understand the bus routes, and my wife didn't like traveling under the ground. She said it made her feel sick.

     We went to look at the places which all tourists visit. We saw Buckingham Palace and the National Gallery. We went shopping in Oxford Street and spent too much money. What we liked most, though, was going to the theatre. We didn't have the chance to see such wonderful plays at home. A lot of people say English food is bad. We didn't think so. It is true that most of the restaurants are French or Italian or Chinese, but we had some very good meals.

    In fact, we enjoyed our holiday so much that we have already booked again for this year. We are going to take our umbrellas, though. I'm sure we'll need them sometimes.

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    World Atlas

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