Marlene Dietrich is finally to be honored by her home city, Berlin.

    For more than half a century, the famous film star won huge fame in Hollywood, but remained a highly controversial（引起争议的） figure in Germany.

    When the city's new film museum is opened on September 26, three of its 15 rooms will show the star's possessions collected over a lifetime.

    In addition to various collections by Marlene, visitors will be able to see all Marlene Dietrich's movies. There will also be key except for a vast range of Germany-made films.

    Dietrich became a world star after her wonderful performance in a movie. After that, she turned her back on Germany, horrified by the sudden movement of Nazi in her hometown.

    A few years after the war, the star was persuaded to pay a short visit to Berlin. But the trip proved a disaster. At a city hall gathering in West Berlin, crowds turned out to see her, but not all friendly.

    She was attacked at times. She found herself being blamed for wearing an American uniform during the war to please U.S. troops in Europe. She was also scolded for "turning her back on the country".

    Dietrich, deeply hurt, decided she would never return to Berlin again. But she softened her judgment.

    When she died in Paris in 1972, it was at her express wish that her body should be sent back to Berlin for burial alongside her mother in a local cemetery.

Five years ago, when I taught art at a school in Seattle, I used Tinkertoys as a test at the beginning of a term to find out something about my students. I put a small set of Tinkertoys in front of each student, and said: "Make something out of the Tinkertoys. You have 45 minutes today - and 45minutes each day for the rest of the week."

    A few students hesitated to start. They waited to see the rest of the class would do. Several others checked the instructions and made something according to one of the model plans provided. Another group built something out of their own imaginations.

    Once I had a boy who worked experimentally with Tinkertoys in his free time. His constructions filled a shelf in the art classroom and a good part of his bedroom at home. I was delighted at the presence of such a student. Here was an exceptionally creative mind at work. His presence meant that I had an unexpected teaching assistant in class whose creativity would infect（感染）other students.

Encouraging this kind of thinking has a downside. I ran the risk of losing those students who had a different style of thinking. Without fail one would declare, "But I'm just not creative."

"Do you dream at night when you're asleep?"

"Oh, sure."

"So tell me one of your most interesting dreams." The student would tell something wildly imaginative. Flying in the sky or in a time machine or growing three heads. "That's pretty creative. Who does that for you? "

"Nobody. I do it."

"Really-at night, when you're asleep?"

"Sure."

"Try doing it in the daytime, in class, okay?"

    A fourth-grade teacher allowed one of her students to shave her head in the schoolyard, after bullies（仗势欺人者）teased him about his own short buzz cut（短寸头发型）. Tori Nelson got the idea after noticing that Matthew Finney, a shy boy from her homeroom at Winlock Miller Elementary School in Washington state, was standing outside his classroom crying and wearing a winter hat.

    Ms. Nelson could see the back of his neck had been shaved, and since Matthew usually had very thick brown curly hair, she realized that he'd had a haircut over the weekend. She asked him what was wrong, and he said he'd gotten a buzz cut for the summer. But this morning, a fifth grader on the bus made fun of him, and he didn't want to come to class and get teased by other kids. Ms Nelson tried to convince Matthew to come inside, but since school rules prohibit kids from wearing hats indoors he refused – explaining that he was afraid of showing his haircut to the other children in case they also made fun of him.

    Finally I said: "If you take off your hat and come to class, I'll let you give me a buzz cut, too," 'Ms Nelson told Yahoo Parenting. I figured it's just hair, and mine is already short anyway. I might as well get it shorter in time for the warm weather.'

    Matthew excitedly took her up on the offer, and Ms Nelson and another teacher gathered all the fourth graders together during break time. A school employee brought in scissors, which Matthew used to the cheers of his classmates, excitedly watching as his teacher's hair fell away onto the ground in the schoolyard.

    'It was a lot of fun for the kids, and it helped Matthew feel better about himself,' said Ms Nelson.' You have to do what it takes to reach children. Teaching isn't just about reading and writing, it's about self-esteem and accepting differences.'

    Feeling down? Why not visit one of these four websites?

    Collegehumor.com

    This site was created in 1999 and gets about seven million visitor per month. Two of its videos have been chosen as winners for the Webby Awards: Pixar Intro Parody and Web Site Story. Other funny videos to looks out for include a debate on the advantages and disadvantages of going to college.

    Funnyordie.com

    This site has lots of really funny videos And as the name suggests, users vote on videos, choosing the options “funny” or “die”. If the video receives too many “die” votes, it's sent to the site's “crypt”. But if it gets enough “funny” votes, it goes into the Hall of Fame. The site was created in 2006 by comedians Will Ferrell and Adam McKay. The site's first video. The Landlord has had over 70 million views Videos to watch out for include Just a Tip: Taxi, with some valuable advice on how to catch a taxi, and Over Analyzing Texts, with some tips on how to respond to text messages

    Reddit.com

    Founded in 2005, Reddit.com is a social news and entertainment website. Registered users put funny content in the form of the video link or texts on the website. Other users then vote these things “up” or “down”. The most recent and well-liked content appears at the top on the front page of the site.

    Theonion.com

    First appearing as a satirical newspaper in 1988, Theonion.com has hundred of videos and articles on news and current affairs, and receives an average of 7.5 million visitors a months. It's famous for its amusing items, such as Michelle Obama Seen Outside Walking Family Rhinoceros or Dad Can't Believe Lawn.

    Britain and France are two important countries in Europe. They are neighbors, separated only by the 20-mile seaway of the English Channel. And for most of the time that the two countries have existed, the French and the British have been rivals or even enemies. One conflict between the two countries lasted over 100 years, and the British and French were at war through the 18th century.

    There is no fighting now, of course. But there is still a strong sense of rivalry (敌对) between the two nations. That's why a recent survey in the UK caused a major shock.

It revealed (揭露) that one third of the British people would like to live in France. It also showed that twenty-one percent of British people would actually prefer to have been born in France.

    Many reasons were given. France has a better climate and a more relaxed lifestyle, with some of the longest holidays in Europe. It is thought to have better public services in every area from health to transport. People in France work shorter hours and enjoy longer vacations. And think of the food and wine!

    Estimates (估计) of the numbers of Britons living in France range from 100,000 to half a million. But it is not one-way traffic. Around 15,000 French people per year come to live in Britain, mainly settling in London. They are attracted by higher pay in Britain, lower taxes, a more dynamic lifestyle. Now it seems that people can go to the place that suits them best.

    I became a magician by accident. When I was nine years old, I learned how to make a coin disappear. I'd read The Lord of the Rings and risked coming into the adult section of the library to search for a book of spells (魔法) — nine being that curious age at which you're old enough to work through more than 1, 200 pages of mysterious fantasy literature but young enough to still hold out hope that you might find a book of real, actual magic in the library. The book I found instead taught basic sleight-of-hand (戏法) technique, and I devoted the next months to practice.

    Initially, the magic wasn't any good. At first it wasn't even magic; it was just a trick — a bad trick. I spent hours each day in the bathroom running through the secret moves in front of the mirror. I dropped the coin over and over, a thousand times in a day, and after two weeks of this my mom got a carpet sample from the store and placed it under the mirror to eradicate the sound of the coin falling again and again.

    I had heard my dad work through passages of new music on the piano, so I knew how to practice — slowly, deliberately, going for precision rather than speed. And then I tried the illusion (错觉) in the mirror and an unbelievable scene took place. It did not look like a magic trick. It looked like a miracle. I knew that I had got what I wanted.

    One day I made the performance on the playground. We had been playing football and were standing by the backstop in the field behind the school. A dozen people were watching. I showed the coin to everyone. Then it disappeared. The kids screamed. They yelled, laughed, scrambled away. Everyone went crazy. This was brilliant.