McElrah lost herfull-time job in January. Since then, she has spent her days doing what she loves-dancing in the street. Her message to people in hard times: do something that you enjoy, no matter what your circumstances. “ Life isn't that bad,” shesaid. “ If you're working 40 hours a week, you shouldn't be complaining.”

    McElrah graduated from parkway Central High School and has spent the past 21 years working as a nursing assistant, She began singing and dancing publicly on her days off a few years ago to help her through the pain of her second divorce.

    Her favorite spotis the northwest corner of Chouteau Avenue and South Grand Boulevard near St.Louis University. McElrah's mp3 player is loaded with hundreds of classic rockhits and 80's pop songs, including those by Joe Cocker, Tina Turner, NeilDiamond and Toto. But her favorite artist, by far, is Stevie Nicks.Videos of McElrah have appeared on YouTube, a video-sharing website on which users canupload, share, and view videos. “People think I'm crazy, but I don't care,” Shesaid. “ I can dance a little. I just go with the music.” Even a rude gesture from a passing motorist doesn't bother her either. “ I just smile and wave,”she said.

    McElrah's show of bravery recently earned her a job opportunity with Liberty Tax Service, which temporarily offered her a job as a dancer Statute of Liberty to promote a new place near Grand Center starting in January.

  “Just be happy anddo what you love,” she said. “The money will come.”

    Doctors in hospital emergency rooms often see accidental poisonings. A frightened parent arrives with a child who swallowed a cleaning liquid. Or perhaps the harmful substance is a medicine. Or it might be a chemical product meant to kill insects. These are common causes of accidental poisoning.

    In cases like this, seek medical help as soon as possible. Save the container of whatever caused the poisoning. And look on the container for information about anything that stops the effects of the poison. Save anything expelled from the mouth of the victim. That way, doctors can examine it.

    Millions of people know a way to save a person who is choking on something trapped in the throat. The method is commonly known as the Heimlich Maneuver or abdominal thrusts(腹部按压), which you can do by getting directly behind a sitting or standing person. Put your arms around the victim's waist. Close one hand to form a ball. Place it over the upper part of the stomach, below the ribs. Place the other hand on top. Then push forcefully inward and upward. Repeat the abdominal thrusts until the object is expelled from the mouth. For someone who is pregnant or very fat, place your hands a little higher than with normal abdominal thrusts.

    Red Cross experts say taking these steps can save many lives. But they also warn that abdominal thrusts are not for people who have almost drowned. They say use of the method could delay other ways to re-start breathing in the victim. Abdominal thrusts should be used only in cases where a near-drowning victim is choking on an object.

    To learn more about first aid, ask a hospital or organization like a Red Cross or Red Crescent Society for information. There may be training classes offered in your area.

    Sitting on the peaceful coast of Galapagos Islands. Ecuador, watching the sun move quietly into the sea, you shouldn't forget that Charles Darwin (1809-1882) arrived here in 1835. He stayed on the islands for five weeks, observing various animals. This finally inspired (启发) his famous work, On the Origin of Species. You can certainly follow Darwin's footsteps and enjoy a trip from four to seven days to the islands. The islands are certainly a paradise (天堂) for wildlife, as there are no natural killers on the islands and the number of boats and visitors is under government control. Though you cannot walk freely as Darwin did about 200 years ago, each day is as impressive as it could be. The most well-known animal of the Galapagos is the giant tortoise(巨型海龟), which can be seen moving slowly around the highlands of Sanra Cruz, the second largest island in the archipelago(群岛). Some of these creatures are so old that they might have been seen in their youth by Darwin himself. Despite strict control over activities and timing, your stay on the Galapagos will be remembered as a chain of incomparable pictures: diving with sea lions that swim and play within inches of you; feeling small sharks touch your feet as you swim; and, most magically, seeing a whale and her baby surface with a great breath of air. Travelling between the islands and observing the wildlife that so inspired Darwin, you will feel as though you are getting a special view of an untouched world. At night you will sleep on board the ship, leaving the wildlife in complete occupation of the islands, which are as undisturbed now as they have been since the beginning of time.

    College graduation brings both the satisfaction of academic achievement and the expectation of a well-paid job. But for 6, 000 graduates at San Jose State this year, there's uncertainty as they enter one of the worst job markets in decades. Ryan Stewart has a freshly-minted (新兴的) degree in religious studies, but no job prospects.

    "You look at everybody's parents and neighbours, and they're getting laid off and don't have jobs," said Stewart. "Then you look at the young people just coming into the workforce... it's just scary."

    When the class of 2003 entered college, the future never looked brighter. But in the four years they've been here, the world outside has changed dramatically.

    "Those were the exciting times, lots of dot-com opportunities, exploding offers, students getting top dollar with lots of benefits," said Cheryl Allmen-Vinnidge of the San Jose State Career Center. "Times have changed. It's a new market."

    Cheryl Allmen-Vinnidge ought to know. She runs the San Jose State Career Center, sort of a crossroads between college and the real world. Allmen-Vinnidge says students who do find jobs after college have done their homework.

    "The typical graduate who does have a job offer started working on it two years ago. They've postured (定位) themselves well during the summer. They've had several internships (实习)," she said. And they've majored in one of the few fields that are still hot, like chemical engineering, accounting, or nursing, where average starting salaries have actually increased over last year. Other popular fields (like information systems management, computer science, and political science) have seen big declines in starting salaries.

    Ryan Stewart (he had hoped to become a teacher) may just end up going back to school. "I'd like to teach college some day and that requires more schooling, which would be great in a bad economy," he said.

    To some students, a degree may not be a ticket to instant wealth. For now, they can only hope its value will increase over time.

At thirteen, I was diagnosed (诊断) with a kind of attention disorder. It made school difficult for me. When everyone else in the class was focusing on tasks, I could not.

    In my first literature class, Mrs Smith asked us to read a story and then write on it, all within 45 minutes. I raised my hand right away and said, "Mrs Smith, you see, the doctor said I have attention problems. I might not be able to do it."

 She glanced at me through her glasses, "You are not different from your classmates, young man."

 I tried, but I didn't finish the reading when the bell rang. I had to take it home.

    In the quietness of my bedroom, the story suddenly all became clear to me. It was about a blind person, Louis Braille. He lived in a time when the blind couldn't get much education. But Louis didn't give up. Instead, he invented a reading system of raised dots (点), which opened up a whole new world of knowledge to the blind.

    Wasn't I the "blind" in my class, being made to learn like the "sighted" students? My thoughts spilled out (涌出) and my pen started to dance. I completed the task within 40 minutes. Indeed, I was not different from others; I just needed a quieter place. If Louis could find his way to solve his problems, why should I ever give up?

    I didn't expect anything when I handed in my paper to Mrs Smith, so it was quite a surprise when it came back to me the next day—with an "A" on it. At the bottom of the paper were these words: "See what you can do when you keep trying?"

It's breathtaking to watch the delicate spring wildflowers come out from their blanket of leaves, bloom, develop and disperse (传播) fruit, all in a matter of a few short days or weeks.

Although they look fragile, these are tough little plants, each focusing its efforts on spreading its species. They have evolved to have a wide range of flower structures and colors, some with fragrances, attracting many different insect species to assist them in pollination (授粉).

There is one strategy that a surprising number of spring blooming native plants have evolved in common: seed dispersal by ants. As many as thirty percent of the spring flowering plant species in the forests of eastern North America have evolved to take advantage of this situation to benefit themselves. These species have evolved to provide food attached to their seeds to encourage ants to disperse those seeds. This food, called an elaiosome（油质体）, is a specialized fat body whose chemical composition more closely matches that of the insects that ants prefer than it does that of a seed.

When a fruit opens to disperse its seeds, the elaiosomes are an instant attraction for ants. They take the seed with its attached elaiosome back to their nests for consumption there, but they just eat the elaiosome, their preferred food, and dispose of the seed on their trash pile. This tends to be an environment that is rich in nutrients, and will benefit the growth of the new plant. Just to make sure the ants don't eat the seeds in addition to the elaiosome, some plant species have hard seed coatings that ants can't really bite through.

This evolutionary adaptation is somewhat similar to the strategy of plants that have evolved to surround their seeds with fleshy fruits to attract birds to assist them with seed dispersal. Given the fact that there are fewer birds available in early spring to help with seed dispersal, it makes sense that the early blooming plants evolved to partner instead with the ants for this service.

Did you ever wonder how your Spring Beauty managed to pop up in new locations in your lawn or garden? Thank an ant!