When the Normans built their first simple wooden castles in England，they built them on the top of small hills.The first permanent castles were made of stone and built with thick walls.The main building was usually surrounded by walls which overlooked the moat (护城河)．

     The entrance to the castle was usually over a drawbridge (吊桥) leading to the main gatehouse.The drawbridge could be raised or lowered and an iron grille (栅栏) could be lowered to shut off the entrance to the gatehouse.

     As time went on，the castle builders became more advanced in their techniques.Instead of building a strong central building and surrounding it with walls of lesser strength，they thought out the idea of surrounding a central area with huge walls which could contain all the main rooms of the castle.These walls usually had many towers and these towers were really a series of main buildings along the castle walls.In building these castles they used hill sites whenever possible in order to give the castle a better position.Because the outside world was shut off by a barrier or curtain of defences，they are called “curtain wall” castles.

     With the passing of time there was less need to build strong castles and nobles built manor (庄园) houses.These manor houses often had battlements and iron grilles，but they were built more for comfort and included many of the conveniences and luxuries of the large houses which were being built in the towns.

     Unfortunately，many English castles were damaged or destroyed completely during the Civil Wars of the 1600s.

    On a Friday night, a poor young artist stood at the gate of the New York railway station, playing his violin. The music was so great that many people stopped to put some money into the hat of the young man.

    The next day, the young artist came to the same place, and put his hat on the ground gracefully. Different from the day before, he took out a large piece of paper and laid it under his hat. Then he began to play the violin. It sounded more pleasant than ever.

       Soon he was surrounded with people who were attracted by the words on that paper. It said, “Last night, a gentleman named George Sang put an important thing into my hat by mistake. Please come to claim (认领) it soon.”

    After about half an hour, a middle-aged man rushed through the crowd to the violinist and said, “Yes, it's you. I knew that you were an honest man and would certainly come here.” The young violinist asked calmly, “Are you Mr George Sang?” The man nodded. The violinist asked, “Did you lose something?”“It's a lottery ticket,” said the man. The violinist took out a lottery ticket on which George Sang's name was seen. “Is it?” he asked. George nodded and took the lottery ticket and kissed it, then danced with the violinist.

    The violinist was a student at an arts college and had planned to attend advanced studies in Vienna. Later his classmate asked the violinist, “At that time you needed money to pay the tuition and you had to play the violin in the railway station every day to make money. Why didn't you keep the lottery ticket for yourself?”

    The violinist said, “Although I don't have much money, I live happily. But if I lose honesty I won't be happy forever.” Through our lives, we can gain a lot and lose so much. But being honest should always be with us.

    A few days ago my wife sent me out to buy something. When I came home, I handed her a paper bag and said, "Here are the apples you wanted." She looked in the bag, and then she looked at me. "I told you," she said slowly, "to buy some eggs."

    I felt worried about my absent-mindedness (心不在焉，健忘) , so I went to see a doctor. He was a very kind man. "I have seen many people like you. It's nothing to worry about," he said. "If you know you are absent-minded, you are all right. But if you do not know you're absent-minded, you may be really in trouble."

    "Many famous people were absent-minded," the doctor told me. "Thomas Edison was standing in line one day to pay his taxes. When he arrived at the window, he found that he had forgotten his own name. He had to ask the man who was behind him to tell him who he was."

    I felt much better and got up to leave. "Thank you, doctor," I said. "How much do I have to pay you?"

    "Ten dollars for the check-up," the doctor said.

    "But doctor, I did not have a check-up!"

    For a moment the doctor looked puzzled. Then he said, "Oh, yes, it was the patient before you who had a check-up. How absent-minded I am!"

    Road trip

    Motorhome delivery offers great family holidays. For just $1 a day, you can hire a fully﹣equipped motorhome, which you deliver to a specific destination within some days and kilometers. You then hire another one to get home or take a bus or train. Your only other expense will be fuel and about﹩20 a day for parking fees. To learn more, visit apollocamper.com.

    Plan ahead

    For a comfortable break, flexibility with times, dates and places helps lower the cost. Find a few hotels you like, ask about their vacant rooms, then wait a few weeks and call again. If they still have rooms, you're at an advantage to ask for a better price. Lots of last﹣minute deals are online. Watif （watif.com.au） has deals on hotels that have dropped their prices so slow. You don't know where you're staying until it's booked, but anywhere with four or five stars has to be fairly good.

    Back to nature

    Wild camping appeals to nature lovers and costs nothing. This is forbidden on beaches and parks in most urban areas, but you can turn up in more distant area as long as nobody owns the land. You'll need to take everything with you and may need to shop on eBuy （ebuy.com.au）.If you're a camping beginner, be aware of safety measures and get your questions answered on the Internet.

    Swap meet

    How about a home swap？For a $250 yearly joining cost, you can stay in someone's home in an international place of your choice while they or someone else stays in yours. Find out more at familylink.com.au.

    Children are starting on digital devices at ever younger ages, and opinions on the effects of children's digital-media habits are deeply polarised.(两极分化的).

    Jean Twenge, a psychology professor, thinks excessive use of the internet and social media makes children lonely and depressed and poses serious risks to their physical and particularly their mental health, sometimes to the point of driving them to suicide.

    However, Daniel Kardefelt-Winther of the Innocenti research office of Unicef examined various evidence and found less cause for alarm than is often suggested. Most of the studies he examined seem to show that the technology helps children stay in touch with their friends and make new ones.

    The relationship between the use of digital technology and children's mental health, broadly speaking, appears to be u-shaped. Researchers have found that moderate use is beneficial, whereas either no use at all or extreme use could be harmful.

    What worries some experts more is that screens are becoming part of the middle-class armoury(武器) for perpetuating(巩固) social advantage. Children from well-off homes are enrolled in private classes to learn skills like "How to be a YouTuber", which poorer parents cannot afford.

    It's not unusual to see an unreasonable child lying on the ground drumming his heels. Beside him is a desperate mother yelling at the top of her lungs. Raising a well-behaved kid is really a head-scratching thing.

    If you took all the parenting styles around the world and ranked them by their gentleness, the Inuit (因纽特人) approach would certainly rank near the top. All the moms mention one golden role: Don't shout or yell at small children. Inuit's no-yelling policy is their central component to raising cool-headed kids. The culture views scolding, or even speaking to children in all angry voice, as inappropriate, although little kids are pushing parents' buttons.

    Playful "storytelling" is another trick to sculpting kids' behavior. But this storytelling differs hugely from those fairy tales full of moral lessons. Parents "retell" what happened when a boy threw a tantrum(发脾气)by way of what Shakespeare would understand all too well: putting on a "drama". After the child has calmed down, the parents will review what happened when the child misbehaved, usually starting with a question: "Can you show us how to throw a tantrum?" Then the child has to think what he should do. If he takes the bait and performs the action, the mom will ask a follow-up question with a playful tone. For example: "Does that seem right?" or "Are you a baby?" She is getting across the idea that "big boys" won't throw a tantrum.

    Kids' brains are still developing the circuitry needed for self-control. What you do in response to your children's emotions shapes their brains. So next time, seeing your boy misbehave, try using the Inuit's storytelling approach. And don't forget to keep cool. After all, boys will be boys.