Twelve years ago, I arrived in Central Florida from Puerto Rico. I had heard of a job opportunity and decided to pursue it. But it never became a reality. I quickly learned that being alone without resources in an unfamiliar city was not a comfortable situation to be in.

    Once my limited funds ran out I became homeless and spent a year and a half living on the streets of Orlando. Apart from feeling not being noticed and missing my family, I had to face another challenge—hunger.

    For the first time in my life, I, as a foreign man, who had lived my life in the relative comfort of the middle class, understood the desperation someone feels when they don't get enough to eat. I clearly remembered having run a distance of more than 7 miles on many occasions just to make it to a local feeding program before they closed at 7 pm.

    Once the need for food was met, the next challenge would arise—where to find a place to sleep for the night. Fortunately, local programs like the Coalition for the Homeless, Second Harvest Food Bank and the Wayne Densch Center were an important part of my ability to survive my painful experience.

    With the assistance of these programs, I was accepted by a college scholarship program through the Coalition and obtained two degrees from Valencia.

    My experience has helped me understand that devoting my life to helping others offers lasting rewards. Today, I am employed as Childhood Hunger Programs Manager at Second Harvest Food Bank and oversee the summer feeding, Hi-Five Kids Pack, and Kids Café programs. I am so proud to be able to distribute food resources to those wonderful programs and help hundreds more like me.

    The year 3700, Earth is far too hot for any human to call it home. On this planet at least, man is nothing more than a memory--if there is anything left to remember the "wise man". But what about our wisdom--will any of it survive us?

    The conventional answer is no. Knowledge requires a knower, and there will be no knowing minds around then. But if information survives, perhaps in books or hard drives, maybe the knowledge isn't quite dead but dormant(休眠), ready to become alive with the help of other minds that develop over time or come to visit Earth in the distant future.

    At first sight, that seems to be reasonable: after all, we have done similar things with past knowledge. For example, we saved an ancient computer from a ship destroyed at sea off the southern coast of Greece, and succeeded in finding the meaning of Egyptian hieroglyphics(象形文字). Careful work can bring previously lost wisdom back to life.

    However, the key point is that there is a certain cultural continuity with those ancient times that allows us to reason and make progress in the dark: we know we are dealing with the legacy(遗产)of other humans. Without that link, the survival of objects and raw data doesn't guarantee the survival of knowledge. And a lack of continuity in language with any future intelligence would be a barrier. Knowledge is closely connected with language. When a language dies out, we can lose systems of reasoning that they contain. If that's lost, then it can't be recovered.

    All this means that other minds might not be able to fully make human knowledge alive when we are gone. It is better to concentrate on not dying out in the first place.

    One morning more than thirty years ago, I entered the Track Kitchen, a restaurant where everyone from the humblest(卑微的) to the most powerful came for breakfast. I noticed an empty chair next to an elderly, unshaven man, who looked somewhat disheveled. He was wearing a worn-out hat and was alone. I asked if I might join him. He agreed quietly and I sat down to have my breakfast.

    We cautiously began a conversation and spoke about a wide range of things. We never introduced ourselves. I was concerned that he might have no money and not be able to afford something to eat. So as I rose to go back to the counter and buy a second cup of coffee, I asked,

    "May I get you something?"

    "A coffee would be nice."

    Then I bought him a cup of coffee. We talked more, and he accepted another cup of coffee, Finally, I rose to leave, wished him well, and headed for the exit. At the door I met one of my friends. He asked,

    "How did you get to know Mr. Galbreath?"

    "Who?"

    "The man you were sitting with. He is chairman of the Board of Churchill Downs."

    I could hardly believe it. I was buying, offering a free breakfast, and feeling pity for one of the world's richest and most powerful men!

    My few minutes with Mr. Galbreath changed my life. Now I try to treat everyone with respect, no matter who I think they are, and to meet another human being with kindness and sincerity.

    After spending a long day driving the day before, Steinkamp left his hotel around 5:30 a.m. to a funeral in Green Bay, Wisconsin. About half an hour into his journey, he noticed a small strange sound coming from his front tire. By 7 a.m., he still had 70 miles ahead of him, but the noise was so loud that he knew he had no choice but to stop.

    Steinkamp figured there was little possibility that anyone in Wild Rose, Wisconsin-a tiny town with a population of 725-could help so early in the morning. Still, he look his chance at an auto repair shop. Luckily, Steinkamp spotted Glenn Geib stocking the shelves, and he asked for help.Giving Steinkamp a quick look, Geib asked why he was so dressed up, and Steinkamp explained his dilemma.

    The mechanic checked the car and told Steinkamp what he'd feared: the wheel bearing（轴承）was failing. Fixing it would take a few hours, but there was no chance the car would make it that distance without repairs.

    "I must have looked pretty stressed out at this time because Glenn then reached into his pocket, pulled out the keys to HIS vehicle and said 'Take my truck and get going,'" Steinkamp wrote in a Facebook post.

    The men had met just 10 minutes before and didn't know each other's names, but Geib insisted. Steinkamp made it to the funeral. When he came back to the garage seven hours later with a thankful heart, he stuck around to chat with Geib.

    "The 74-year-old mechanic turned a terrible day into a good one with a great lesson." Steimkamp wrote, "Just be kind and help if you can."

    The number of snow geese arriving in the Arctic each spring to breed has risen over the past few decades. At first, wildlife biologists saw this as an environmental crisis, pointing to marshes（湿地） where plants were eaten by the hungry birds. In response, the federal government loosened restrictions on snow goose hunting.

    But how do the Inuit, in whose backyard this is taking place, view the situation? A recent plan is giving Inuit wildlife experts the opportunity to lend their knowledge to managing the species. The snow goose study, which is supported in part by Polar Knowledge Canada and led by the Kivalliq Wildlife Board (an Inuit organization that manages hunting, trapping and fishing in central Nunavut), asked the experts to share their generations of knowledge about snow geese and their views on what should be done.

    “The community had concerns about controlling the population,” says Ron, a community officer of the Kivalliq Inuit Association, “and Inuit snow goose knowledge had never been recorded. People wanted to pass on what they knew.” Inuit experts disagreed with that, considering it wasteful and unnecessary. They felt hunting more snow geese in an organized way, such as paying local hunters a minimal amount of money and distributing the birds to disadvantaged families or operating a limited commercial hunt by employing local people, would be appropriate.

    Inuit wildlife experts will plan to call on scientists this fall. They say they hope to search for a common way forward and that while there may be too many snow geese in some areas, it's not a crisis. Biologists now generally agree that there seem to be plenty of undamaged marshes available and newer research shows that some damaged areas can recover.

    “Now that we have recorded and documented Inuit knowledge of snow geese,” says Ron, “when facing the crisis other people will be able to use the information to help manage the species, which is fundamental to dealing with it effectively.”

    As we all know, there are plenty of different parks to visit in the UK. All theme parks in Britain have cafes, restaurants, picnic areas and gift shops, so you'll still have plenty to see and do when you and the kids have been on enough rides. There are usually smaller "funfair" rides and games as well, so younger children won't get bored. Several theme parks also have other attractions next to them, e. g. water parks often open all year round, unlike the theme parks.

    Whenever you are in Britain, there's likely to be a theme park within one or two hours' drive, bus ride or train journey. Several theme parks even have accommodation(膳宿)so you can stay for a day for two if you want to make a trip into a short holiday.

    Prices for UK theme parks vary considerably; some have an entrance price which allows you to go on all the rides, while in others you have to pay for every ride individually. It can also make a difference whether you go during peak time or not. For example, tickets always cost more during school holidays and weekends than they do during the weekdays.

    Theme parks always get very busy during the summer months, so if you don't like crowds it's usually a good idea to go earlier or later in the year!

    If you're thinking of visiting a UK theme park, it's worth having a look for special offers on tickets. Products such as chocolate bars and cereals sometimes have "buy one get one free" offers on theme park tickets, so keep a look out in shops and supermarkets.