I once had a friend who was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and the news that he might only live up to six months was a great shock to him, his family, and his friends. However, in spite of the serious illness, he was initially determined to look into all available treatments that might cure or extend his life. I think that when you find yourself in such situations, you tend to look up every possible way for hope of saving your life.

    As months went on and his health grew worse, I noticed an unexpected change in attitude that came over him. He had also been a happy person with a cheerful personality, but rather than give in to discouragement and self－pity, he took comfort in God and humanity. His talks focused on others rather than himself, and he spoke of the afterlife as something he was prepared for, believing that his concerned ancestors, including his mother and father, were there waiting for him.

    During the last few months, weeks, and days of his life, he was kindly cared for by family, friends, his loving wife, who looked after both his physical and emotional needs, and workers from a local hospice (安养院) came to the home to regulate his medication and provide any other needed support. He didn't complain about his fate, and he willingly allowed others to serve him.

    Indeed, one might think why God allows death and suffering in our world, but for me, such experiences taught me to value family more and kindness for others. You often can't learn these important attributes in the lap of luxury, and perhaps, such an experience is the greatest and final gift the illness can give those left behind.

    Do you have any problem with time? Start doing these and you will see the difference.

●Write it down

    Don't rely on your memory to keep track of every little detail. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Write down the things you need to do in a small notebook, or use online tool to create and update your “to-do” list.

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    Working for long periods without a break can waste your time. It is more efficient to work or study for a shorter period of time, take a break, and then go back to work. You may get more done in tow focused 45-minute sessions.

● One thing at a time

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Do one thing at a time, and do it well. As the Chinese proverb says, “One cannot manage too many affairs. Like pumpkins in the water, one pops up while you try to hold down the other.”

● Schedule email time

    On your cell phone you get a notification every time someone sends you an email. If so, you have to check your email many, many times a day. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Schedule time to check your email. It doesn't matter when.

● Choose to say “No”.

    It's easy to become overwhelmed if we say “yes” to everything. Think about the task before you commit to it. Do you need to do it? Can someone else do it? Avoid saying “yes” to every request. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

● Keep a goal journal

    Write down your goals in a journal and evaluate them regularly. Mark your progress for each goal. Be sure you take the necessary step to achieve your goals.

    If you go into the forest with friends, stay with them. If you don't, you may get lost. If you get lost, this is what you should do. Sit down and stay where you are. Don't try to find your friends—let them find you. You can help them find you by staying in one place. There is another way to help your friends or other people to find you. You can shout or whistle(吹口哨) three times. Stop. Then shout or whistle three times again. Any signal given three times is a call for help.

    Keep up shouting or whistling. Always three times together. When people hear you, they will know that you are not just making a noise for fun. They will let you know that they have heard your signal. They will give you two shouts or two whistles. When a signal is given twice, it is an answer to a call for help.

    If you don't think that you will get help before night comes, try to make a little house with branches(树枝). Make yourself a bed with leaves and grass.

    When you need some water, you have to leave your little branch house to look for it. Don't just walk away. Pick off small branches and drop them as you walk in order to go back again easily. When you are lost, the most important thing to do is to stay in one place.

    Throughout much of human history, man has been the measure of many, if not all, things. Lengths were divided up into feet and smaller units from the human hand. Other measures were equally characteristic. Mediterranean traders for centuries used the weight of grains of wheat to define (定义) their units of mass. The Romans used libra, forerunner of the pound, by referring to the weight of a carob (角豆树) seed.

    The sizes of similarly named units could also differ. The king's foot, used in France for nearly 1, 000 years after its introduction by Charlemagne in around 790 AD, was, at 32.5cm, around a centimeter shorter than the Belgic foot, used in England until 1300.Greek, Egyptian and Babylonian versions of water in a fixed container varied from one another by a few kilos, Nor was there agreement on such things within countries. In France, where there was no unified (统一的) measurement system at the national level, the situation was particularly terrible. The lieue (former measure of distance), for example, varied from just over 3 km in the north to nearly 6 km in the south.

    Although John Wilkins, an Englishman, first put forward a decimal system (十进制) of measurement in 1668, it was the French who in 1799 made it law. The Système International d'Unités (SI, or the metric system, as it is better known) developed from it and became the official measurement in all countries except Myanmar, Liberia and the United States. Now the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in Paris is set to give the metric system its biggest shake-up yet.

    At a meeting in Versailles, France, on November 16th, 2018, the world's measurement bodies are almost certain to approve a decision that will mean four out of the seven base SI units, including the kilogram, will follow the other three, including the metre, in being redefined in terms of the values of physical constants (物理常数).Each of the chosen constants has been measured incredibly precisely, which would mean that from May 20^th 2019 the constants will themselves be fixed at their current values for ever. Any laboratory in the world will then be able to measure, for example, the mass of an object as precisely as the accuracy of their equipment will allow.

Swimming and English Learning

    Can you swim? Do you like swimming? Yes? Well, how can you learn to swim? I think the best way is to go into the water and learn. I'm afraid you'll never learn to swim just by reading books about swimming or looking at others swimming. It's the same with the English study. We must practice, practice and practice.

    Listening and speaking are very important for beginners. The children in English-speaking countries first listen to others. Then they try to imitate and speak. We can listen to English programs on radio. You may just understand a few words. It doesn't matter. Just be relaxed, try to catch every word.

    Somebody may be a good listener. But he dare not speak. He's afraid of making mistakes. You know we sometimes make mistakes when we speak Chinese. Don't be afraid. We must be brave. If you really want to learn English well, you must try to speak with everyone so long as he knows English. Whether you know him or not is not important when there's nobody to talk with, you can talk to yourself in English. It's interesting and also a good way to practice your spoken English. Remember, the more you speak, the fewer mistakes you'll make.

    Reading and writing are more important for senior school students. First we must choose the books we're interested in. A lot of reading will improve your language sense. This is the most important.

    Keep writing English diaries. We can also write English articles. You may even post them to English magazines. Don't be afraid of failure. Failure is the mother of success.

    Easier said than done. Well, let's do more practice from now on. I'm sure you'll learn English well in this way.

    Each year, hundreds of thousands of wild animals around the world are killed in trophy hunting—the organized shooting of animals for pleasure. The hunters then bring parts of the animal home with them as their "trophy" to remember the hunting.

    Trophy hunters pay big money to kill animals. Some of the money goes to helping wildlife protection. Trophy hunting also attracts business, which encourages people to preserve land and breed(饲养) animals that would otherwise be endangered. Cathy Dean, head of the Save the Rhino Charity, says that at the start of the 1900s there were only 50–100 southern white rhinos. Now, there are around 18,000. This is partly because some of them were raised specially for trophy hunting.

    But things don't usually go on one way. According to WWF, elephant populations have fallen from 1.3 million to just over 400,000 since the 1980s. Over the same period, hunters from around the world have taken home more than 100,000 African elephant trophies. Trophy hunting is not illegal(非法的) but unfair on the animals. In 2015, Cecil the lion was shot by a US trophy hunter. Cecil was a beloved lion in Zimbabwe, Africa. Cecil was lured with bait(诱饵), shot with an arrow and struggled in blood for more than ten hours before his hunters tracked and finished killing him. His son, Xanda, met a similar fate two years later.

    Cecil's death caused worldwide outrage and protests(反抗) against trophy hunting. Countries including Australia, France and the Netherlands banned(禁止) the import of lion trophies—they stop hunters from being allowed to bring home parts of the animal they kill. They believe that people will stop trophy hunting because the activity might lose its attraction if hunters can't bring their trophies home.

    The UK Government said that it would consider a ban on trophy-hunting imports by 2017, but no action had been taken. In April 2019, a letter by protesters against trophy hunting was sent to the UK government asking to ban trophy-hunting imports. On 7 May, the official in charge of the environment, Michael Gove, said that the UK would not ban the imports for the time being. This left the world in a state of a shock. Hopefully the UK will place a ban on trophy-hunting imports, which would be an important message and inspire others to treat animals better. We're waiting for the day to come.