A schoolgirl saved her father's life by kicking him in the chest after he suffered a serious allergic(过敏的) reaction(反应) which stopped his heart.

    Izzy, nine, restarted father Colm's heart by stamping(踩) on his chest after he fell down at home and stopped breathing.

Izzy's mother, Debbie, immediately called 999 but Izzy knew doctors would never arrive in time to save her father, so decided to use CPR.

    However, she quickly discovered her arms weren't strong enough, so she stamped on her father's chest instead.

    Debbie then took over with some more conventional chest compressions(按压) until the ambulance arrived.

    Izzy, who has been given a bravery award by her school, said: “I just kicked him really hard, my mum taught me CPR but I knew I wasn't strong enough to use hands. I was quite scared. The doctor said I might as well be a doctor or a nurse, my mum said that Dad was going to hospital with a big footprint on his chest.”

    “She's a little star,” said Debbie, “I was really upset but Izzy just took over. I just can't believe what she did. I really think all children should be taught first aid. Izzy did CPR then the doctor turned up, Colm had to have more treatment on the way to the hospital and we've got to see an expert.”

    Truck driver Clom, 35, suffered a mystery allergic reaction on Saturday and was taken to hospital, but was sent home only for it to happen again the next day. The second attack was so serious that his airway swelled, preventing him from breathing, his blood pressure dropped suddenly, and his heart stopped for a moment.

    He has now made a full recovery from his suffering.

    I'm Evan Ducker. I'm just like every other 15-year-old boy, except I was born with a red birthmark(胎记).

    Some birthmarks are signs of serious medical conditions. I'm very fortunate—mine isn't. I pretty much live a regular life, except for people asking me about it all the time, which can get annoying(恼人的) sometimes.

When I was about 4 years old, I asked my mom why there weren't any characters with birthmarks in the books she would read to me. When we went to the library, we realized there weren't any available for little kids. Worse than that, the books available to older kids and adults described characters with birthmarks as unattractive. So I decided to write my own.

    I based the story on all the real things that happened in my life. But instead of people, the characters in the book are real animals from the Galapagos Islands, including red-footed booby birds(鲣鸟). I picked a booby bird as the main character because the birds have red feet due to a vascular(血管的)condition, similar to a human birthmark!

    It was really tough to get my book published. It took a long time because a lot of publishers refused to publish it. They would say there wasn't a big enough market for a book about birthmarks.

But my mom never gave up trying to help make my dream come true. And in 2005, she finally took her own money and self-published “Buddy Booby's Birthmark”. After it was published, I got letters from readers all over the world. They all shared their stories and thanked me for sharing mine. Teachers wrote to tell me that my book changed the way classmates treated each other and that my book was helping kids to accept and appreciate their differences.

Then, as more teachers started reading my book, I created a free global reading event, the “International Buddy Booby's Birthmark Read—Along for Tolerance and Awareness.”

    One of the most important things in the world is friendship. In order to have friends, you have to be a friend. But how can you be a good friend at school?

    Listen — Listen when they are talking. Don't say anything unless they ask you a question. Sometimes it's not necessary for you to have anything to say; they just need someone to talk to about their feelings.

    Help them — If your friend is ever in need of something, be there to help them. You should try to put them first, but make sure you don't do everything they want you to do. Try to take an extra (额外的) pencil or pen with you to classes in case (以防) they forget one. Have a little extra money in your pocket in case they forget something they need.

    Be there for them — Try to make something for your friend to help make them feel better in hard times. Making cards and encouraging them are among the nicest things you can do for a friend. Marilyn Monroe, a famous U.S. actor, once said, “I often make mistakes. Sometimes I am out of control. But if you can't stay with me at my worst, you are sure not to deserve (值得) to be with me at my best.” Always remember this! If you don't want to stay with your friends when they're in hard times, then you don't deserve to be with them when they're having a good time!

    ______ — Try to make plans with your friends. Go shopping, go for ice cream, have a party, go to a movie and so on. Take time to know each other even better by doing something you both enjoy. By planning things together, you both can have a good time. And you'll remember these things when you're all old!

    For years, my time spent in the shower could have got me a mention in Guinness World Records as the shortest time taken to bathe. I hurried up during this process.

    One day, however, while at a party, I heard an artist friend telling everybody that his idea came while he was having a shower. “What about you?” he asked, “Don't you get your creative thoughts from the same place?”

    “I'm in and out in a hurry,” I told him proudly. “I have no time to waste!”

    “What a pity,” he said. “That's the place where you need to slow down; plenty of great thoughts come from there!” I tried it out. I slowed down the whole process, started enjoying the warm water, taking a little longer to soap myself and even spending more time just enjoying the process, and realized how much I had missed in hurrying up all these years.

    A woman told me how much stress her friend was suffering from and how she sought to convince her that she needed to find ways to relax. She gave her a videotape on stress management and relaxation techniques, and encouraged her to watch it right away. Fifteen minutes later, her friend handed back the tape. “It was good,” she said,” but I don't need it.”

    “But it's a 70 - minute video,” the woman replied, “You couldn't have watched the whole thing.”

    “Yes, I did,” her friend said. “I put it in fast - forward!”

A major social problem of the 21st century is Hurry Sickness. We hurry through work. We swallow fast food. We complain that we don't have enough time. We race through the days and weeks until one day we look back in amazement and comment, “My god, how the years flew by!” Then we realize the heavy price we have paid for traveling fast.

    Symptoms of Hurry Sickness include stress and anxiety, bad relationships, lowered work performance and even disease. Some people don't survive it. What's the cure? Slow down, for life is so short and precious that we must live it well.

    GOING TO UNIVERSITY is supposed to be a mind-broadening experience. That statement is probably made in comparison to training for work straight after school, which might not be so encouraging. But is it actually true? Jessika Golle of the University of Tübingen, in Germany, thought she would try to find out. Her result, however, is not quite what might be expected. As she reports in Psychological Science this week, she found that those who have been to university do indeed seem to leave with broader and more inquiring minds than those who have spent their immediate post-school years in vocational (职业的) training for work. However, it was not the case that university broadened minds. Rather, work seemed to narrow them.

    Dr. Golle came to this conclusion after she and a team of colleagues studied the early careers of 2,095 German youngsters. The team used two standardized tests to assess their volunteers. One was of personality traits, including openness, conscientiousness（认真）and so on. The other was of attitudes, such as realistic, investigative and enterprising. They administered both tests twice—once towards the end of each volunteer's time at school, and then again six years later. Of the original group, 382 were on the intermediate track, from which there was a choice between the academic and vocational routes, and it was on these that the researchers focused. University beckoned for 212 of them. The remaining 170 chose vocational training and a job.

    When it came to the second round of tests, Dr. Golle found that the personalities of those who had gone to university had not changed significantly. Those who had undergone vocational training and then got jobs were not that much changed in personality, either—except in one crucial respect. They had become more conscientious.

    That sounds like a good thing, certainly compared with the common public image of undergraduates as a bunch of lazybones. But changes in attitude that the researchers recorded were rather worrying. In the university group, again, none were detectable. But those who had chosen the vocational route showed marked drops in interest in tasks that are investigative and enterprising in nature. And that might restrict their choice of careers.

    Some investigative and enterprising jobs, such as scientific research, are, indeed beyond the degreeless. But many, particularly in Germany, with its tradition of vocational training, are not. The researchers mention, for example, computer programmers and finance-sector workers as careers requiring these traits. If Dr. Golle is correct, and changes in attitude brought about by the very training Germany prides itself on are narrowing people's choices, that is indeed a matter worthy of serious consideration.

    Last year my children gifted me a stainless steel (不锈钢的) coffee plunger (法式按压咖啡壶). I love to start the day with a strong black coffee and couldn't wait to use it. I looked forward to the following morning's coffee making, knowing that I probably wouldn't smash (打碎) this plunger as easily as I had done so often in the past.

    But as I poured my first cup of coffee, the plunger spilled (洒出) all over the table. Thankfully no one was around to see my disappointed face! I kept trying, but each morning would see me wiping up the coffee. Then I realized that if I poured very slowly there would be no spilling.

    This was at first a very painful experience. My normal practice was to rush through breakfast so that I could get on with my day.

    But in time I learned not only to pour slowly but to enjoy the experience: the smell, the taste, and the stillness of a new day.

    It prompted (促使) me to reflect upon whether there were other areas of my life I was rushing through. Most of life, it seemed.

    I started to leave extra time to do even the most ordinary tasks. When shop owners would apologize for keeping me waiting, I'd say, "Not a problem, I'm not in a hurry." Even hanging out washing became pleasurable when a couple of extra minutes of standing still and listening to the birds singing in the trees around me became part of my routine.

    Besides, one of my favorite experiences living in the inner city for many years was sitting on the front doorstep of our home spending time with strangers. We sat on the steps, each of us with a cup of coffee in our hands, listening to each other's stories. It was one of the warmest things about living in a busy city. It was as if the world around us slowed to a pace (步伐) we could both handle.

    Stillness and quietness not only slow the pace of life, but also feed the soul, helping us to enjoy the world's small pleasures.