"Bill, you never miss!" Joe said admiringly. "Unless I'm in a real game," Bill complained. "Then I miss all the time." Joe knew that Bill was right. Bill performed much better when he was having fun with Joe in the school yard than he did when he was playing for the school team in front of a large crowd. "Maybe you just need to practice more," Joe suggested. "But I practice all the time with you!" Bill objected. He shook his head. "I just can't play well when people are watching me." "You play well when I'm watching," Joe pointed out.  "That's because I've known you since we were five years old," Bill said with a smile. "I'm just not comfortable playing when other people are around." Joe nodded and understood, but he also had an idea.

    The next day Joe and Bill met in the school yard again to practice. After a few minutes, Joe excused himself. "Practice without me," Joe said to his friend. "I'll be back in a minute."

    Joe hurried through the school building, gathering together whomever he could find—two students, a math teacher, two secretaries, and a janitor. When Joe explained why he needed them, everyone was happy to help. Joe reminded the group to stay quiet as they all went toward the school's basketball court. As Joe had hoped, Bill was still practicing basketball. He made five baskets in a row without noticing the silent people standing behind him.

    "Hey, Bill!" Joe called out finally. Bill turned. A look of surprise came over his face. "I just wanted to show you that you could play well with people watching you," Joe said. "Now you'll have nothing to worry about for the next game!"

    A thief entered the bedroom of the 30th President of the United States, who met him and helped him escape punishment.

    The event happened in the early rooming hours in one of the first days when Calvin Coolidge came into power, late in August, 1923. He and his family were living in the same third­floor suite (套房) at the Willard Hotel in Washington that they had occupied several years before. The former President's wife was still living in the White House.

    Coolidge awoke to see a stranger go through his clothes, remove a wallet and a watch chain.

    Coolidge spoke, “I wish you wouldn't take that.”

    The thief, gaining his voice, said, “Why？”

    “I don't mean the watch and chain, only the charm (表坠). Take it near the window and read what is impressed on its back.” the President said.

    The thief read, “Presented to Calvin Coolidge.”

    “Are you President Coolidge？” he asked.

    The President answered, “Yes, and the House of Representatives (众议院) gave me that watch charm. I'm fond of it. It would do you no good. You want money. Let's talk this over.”

    Holding up the wallet, the young man said in a low voice, “I'll take this and leave everything else.”

    Coolidge, knowing there was $80 in it, persuaded the young man to sit down and talk. He told the President he and his college roommate had overspent during their holiday and did not have enough money to pay their hotel bill.

    Coolidge decided to offer the man and his roommate two rail tickets back to the college. Then he counted out $32 and said it was a loan (借款)．

    He then told the young man, “There is a guard in the corridor.” The young man nodded and left through the same window as he had entered.

    Scotland has long been characterized as a land of romance. It contains ruins of many ancient castles and abbeys，and there is an attractive beauty in its mountains，long deep valleys，and ribbon lakes. Each year those things attract a great number of tourists.

    Numerous islands line the coast. In the north are two large groups，the Orkney Islands and the Shetland Islands. Close to the west coast are the Inner and Outer Hebrides groups，and the islands of Arran and Bute.

    The land may be divided into three regions: the Highlands in the north，the Central Lowlands and the Southern Uplands.

    The Highlands are wild and picturesque(如画的). A long valley called Glenmore crosses the Highlands from southwest to northeast.

    In the south of the Highlands are the Grampian Mountains，highest in the British Isles. Ben Nevis，the highest peak，rises to 1，243 meters. Ben Lomond rises from the shore of Loch Lomond，Scotland's largest freshwater lake.

    The Central Lowlands run from southwest to northeast and the greatest length is nearly 145 kilometers. The soil here is fertile，and there are four coalfields underlying the area. In the east is Edinburgh，Scotland's historic capital city，and in the west is Glasgow. Almost 90 percent of Scotland's population live in the Lowlands.

    In the Southern Uplands，the hills are generally less than 600 meters high. Their rounded or flat tops are often capped with dark peat(泥炭). Along the slopes are plants like grass and heather(石南花).

    Parents should stop blaming themselves because there's not a lot they can do about it. I mean the teenager problem, the one I want to talk about as a specialist. Whatever you do or however you choose to deal with it, at certain times a wonderful, reasonable and helpful child will turn into a terrible animal.

    I've seen friends deal with it in all kinds of different ways. One strict mother insisted that her son, right from a child, should stand up whenever anyone entered the room, open doors and shake hands like a gentleman. I saw him last week when I dropped in on them. Sprawling himself (懒散地躺) on the sofa in full length, he made no attempt to turn off the loud TV he was watching as I walked in, and his greeting was no more than a quick glance at me. His mother was ashamed. "I don't know what to do with him these days," she said. "He's forgotten all the manners we taught him."

    He hasn't forgotten them. He's just decided that he's not going to use them. She admitted that she would like to come up behind him and throw him down from the sofa onto the floor.

    Another good friend of mine let her two daughters climb all over the furniture, reach across the table, stare at me and say, "I don't like your dress; it's ugly." One of the daughters has recently been driven out of school. The other has left home.

    "Where did we go wrong?" her parents are now very sad. Probably nowhere much. At least, no more than the rest of that unfortunate race, parents.

A hybrid electric vehicle (混合动力车) or HEV is a vehicle driven by the combination of petrol engine and electric motor. Terrence has been driving a HEV for five years. He really doesn't understand why more people aren't accepting them. "I probably spend about $ 7 a day on petrol," the taxi driver told news. com. au. In his previous conventional vehicle Terrence said he was spending up to $ 30 a day on petrol, meaning he saves almost $ 6000 every year.

The Toyota spokesman said this was quite a high saving and official tests estimate (估计) an average driver would only save about 33 percent off their current bill. This means a driver paying $ 30 a day on petrol would see their bill drop to about $ 20 using the hybrid. "A taxi driver that drives in built-up areas and spends little time on highways will notice a higher fuel saving," he said. "Low speeds allow the electric motors to be used more and the petrol engine used less."

While some people are skeptical about how reliable hybrids are, Terrence said he had never run out of power. His Camry cost about $ 34,000 and so after five years, it's nearly paid for itself. "For cab drivers, it's a real advantage because of the cost-effectiveness," he said. Terrence has no complaints about the car. "I love it, the calm and quietness of it, the simplicity of it—you just jump in and go. The maintenance（保养）is really low. But the only difficulty is finding someone to service the car as there are not many experienced mechanics（机修工）."

Terrence said it's "extraordinary" that more drivers aren't buying more hybrid electric vehicles and that governments are not encouraging this more. "I think people have a view that you have to plug it in, which is not true. A lack of information about the cars may be stopping people from taking the plunge. It's not promoted at all for the public to understand—it's simplifying the actual owning of a car—you don't have to do so many things to own it and run it, it's just so much simpler. Why wouldn't the government promote such a thing?"

The teenage Snowboarder.

I was born in Denver, USA. and started snowboarding aged eight when my dad took me to a resort in the mountains. About two hours from Denver. The hill looked unbelievably steep and scary. So My dad had to do a lot of persuading to get me on a board. Because I was so young. I hadn't even thought of asking him if I could start snowboarding? But he was already into it and wanted me to love it, too—-He made it look so simple, and in the end I managed just fine.

After this experience, it wasn't long before I'd developed a love of sport and had improved my ability too. I started competing aged ten. Some people entered loads of competitions and ended up getting bored of snowboarding. But my love of taking part and winning got stronger as I got older, which always help me to push myself harder. I enjoyed not having a fixed plan and sometimes this went well, like when I became the first female ever to get a perfect 100 at a local competition. I wasn't sure I'd even attempted the jumps that got me the score until I actually set off. That achievement increased my trust in my own abilities.

During the summer I focused on training and my studies while there's no snow. Although I trained daily, it's nice not having to stick to quite a strict diet like I did in the winter. I also got to spend lots of time with my friends then. It's the best way of dealing with not being able to do what I loved so much and what I was really good at.

Now. I have to think carefully about my future. Snowboarding is such a huge part of my life now. But I also feel it's important to have something else I can do. just in case I don't succeed as a professional snowboarder or I get injured. I'm wondering whether becoming a doctor is a possibility. if my active life allows time for doing a college degree, it's impossible to imagine myself growing tired of the sport. But I can't go on snowboarding my whole life.