Balloon Volleyball

    It's a rainy, dark day and there's nothing to do. You don't feel like sitting quietly but you are not allowed to make a lot of noise. What can you do for fun? Try balloon volleyball.

    Items needed for this game: a balloon (or two, in case the first one bursts), some ropes, two chairs, at least two people and a room.

    Set up the room. If you're in the living room, or a family room, be sure to move all the furniture out of the way. Get two chairs and set them in the middle, outer edges(边缘)of the room. They should be at the same place where you put a volleyball net. Turn them so that the seat is facing the wall, not the “playing” space. Tie the rope onto the top of the chair, and run the rest of the rope to the other chair. Now tie it on this chair at the same place as the first chair. You can decide the “out-of-bounds”(出界) lines, if you want to have them, but they really are not necessary in this game.

    Blow up the balloon. Choose sides. You will play this game on your knees (at least until they start hurting and you want to stand). Each side must get the balloon over the rope in three hits. If it does not get over, the other side gets the balloon and a point. This game becomes more difficult because you must play without talking.

    You can also add other rules to make it more difficult; for example, you can only use your left hand or only your right hand to hit the balloon.

    Continue playing until one side gets 10 points. You can make your game longer or shorter by changing the number of points it takes to win.

    This is a fun way to get your energy out, have fun, and not make too much noise on a rainy, stay-in-the-house day.

    Airport Express

    With the Airport Express, you are never far from town. There is a train every 10 minutes, ready to rush you between the airport and Hong Kong Station in the heart of the shopping and downtown district in about 24 minutes. Or travel to the Asia World-Expo in just 1 minute from the airport.
   airport Express service hours

    Mon.-Fri.: 5:50am to 1:15am

    Sat.-Sun.: 5:00am to 2:00am

    Tickets

    There are three types of ticket for travelling to and from the Airport: Single Journey, Round Trip and Same Day Return. Single Journey Ticket and Same Day Return Ticket are valid(有效的) on day of issue(发放). Round Trip Ticket is valid for 30 days from day of issue. You can also use the Octopus Card for the Airport Express. (The Octopus Card is an electronic store-value ticket and it can be used on most public transport. The fare will be deducted(扣除) from the stored value each time, so you do not have to carry heavy coins. The card is valid for three years after value has been added.)

    Travel tips

    Children under 3 travel for free.

    Passengers travelling on the Airport Express are now able to write email and do online searches with Wi-Fi service.

    For more information about Airport Express, please visit www.hongkongairport.com or call 00852-21818888.

    A black hole is created when a large star burns out. Like our sun, stars are unbelievably hot furnaces(熔炉) that burn their own matter as fuel. When most of the fuel is used up, the star begins to die.

    The death of a star is not a quiet event. First there is a huge explosion. As its outer layer is blasted off into space, the dying star shines as brightly as a billion suns.

    After the explosion, gravity pulls in what's left of the star. As the outside of the star sinks toward the center, the star gets smaller and smaller. The material the star is made of becomes tightly packed together. A star is so solid that a teaspoon of matter from it weighs billions of pounds.

    The more the star shrinks(收缩), the stronger the gravity inside it becomes. Soon the star is very tiny, and the gravity pulling it in is unbelievably strong. In fact, the gravity is so strong that it even pulls light into the star! Since all the light is pulled in, none can go out. The star becomes black when there is no light. Then a black hole is born!

    That's what we know about black holes. What we don't know is this: What happens inside a black hole after the star has been squeezed into a tiny ball? Does it keep getting smaller and smaller forever? Such a possibility is hard to imagine.

    But if the black hole doesn't keep shrinking, what happens to it? Some scientists think black holes are like doorways to another world. They say that as the star disappears from our universe, it goes into another universe. In other words a black hole in our universe could turn into a "white hole" in a different universe. As the black hole swallows(吞噬) light, the white hole shines brightly--somewhere else. But where? A different place, perhaps, or a different time--many years in the past or future.

    Could you travel through a black hole? Right now, no. Nothing we know of could go into a black hole without being crushed(挤压). So far the time being, black hole must remain a mystery.

Black holes are a mystery--but that hasn't stopped scientists from dreaming about them. One scientist suggested that in the future we might make use of the power of black holes. They would supply all of Earth's energy needs, with plenty to spare. Another scientist wondered if a black hole could some day be used to swallow earthly waste--a sort of huge waste disposal(处理) in the sky!

    Membership

    All you need to do is fill out the order form at the bottom of the page, select your first order from our book list and then post the completed form back to us.

    Special offers for new members

    As a special offer, you may choose any reduced-price books from our new members' book list, to the value of 100 yuan in total. Tick the box on your form to order a free watch. Join before the end of this month and you receive another free book carefully chosen by our staff. Order an audio-book from the many on offer, at half the recommended retail price.

    When you've joined

    As a member you get around 50% off the publisher's price of every book you buy, and what's more, they come straight to your door. Your free club magazine arrives once a month to keep you up to date with the latest best-sellers we've added to our list. On the Internet, you can find all our titles for the year at our exclusive members' website. Our website also has a book swap service where members can request or offer books for exchange.

    Being a member

    All you have to do is order four books during your first year. After that, you can decide on the number of books you wish to take. In each of your monthly club magazines, our experienced staff choose a "Book of the Month" for you, which is offered at an extra-special price. If you do not want this book, just say so in the space provided on the form and send it back to us. We always send the book if we do not receive this form.

    Once we receive your order, your books are delivered within one week. And remember, you have up to a fortnight to decide if you wish to keep the books you have ordered. If they aren't what you expected just end them back!

    When you think of a jungle adventure, what comes to mind? Are they gorgeous birds flying through the air or monkeys jumping through the forest? Do you think of plants? Probably not. After all, plants aren't the most exciting living things in the world. They just sit there and absorb water and nutrients from the soil and the sun. But actually there are also some plants that eat insects and even small animals from time to time. We call these unusual things carnivorous(食肉性) plants. Although most carnivorous plants eat small insects, larger carnivorous plants in some hot and wet areas have been known to capture rats, birds, and frogs.

    One carnivorous plant many people are familiar with is the Venus flytrap. Its unique “jaws” will function when flies and other small insects touch it. Once its jaws close on its victim, it produces a chemical substance that breaks down the insect and absorbs the insect's nutrients.

    There are several other examples of carnivorous plants. For example, some plants can catch insects with their leaves, which are like a tall narrow wineglass, while some trap their victims with sticky tentacles(触手). And some growing in ponds and streams absorb their victims like underwater cleaners. Carnivorous plants tend to grow in areas where the soil is very thin and lacks necessary nutrients. These plants must find other sources for the nutrients they need.

    Trapping and eating insects allows these unique plants to survive. Unfortunately, human and environmental factors continue to threaten the limited environments where you can find wild carnivorous plants.

    Still for many people, the thought of a plant eating an animal seems very strange. In fact, more than one person has turned the idea into a scary story or movie. Carnivorous plants don't pose any danger to humans, though. Unless you're the size of a tiny insect, you don't have to worry about falling prey to a Venus flytrap.

Growing up, I understood one thing about my dad: He knew everything. In my teen years, he taught me things I'd need to know to survive in the real world. How to drive a stick shift. How to check your car tyre's pressure. The correct knife to use to cut a cantaloupe.

When I moved out on my own, I called him at least once a week, usually when something broke in my apartment and I needed to know how to fix it: the toilet, the air-conditioning, the wall, once, when I threw a shoe at a terrifying spider.

But then, eventually, I needed him less. I got married, and my husband had most of the knowledge I lacked about gutter cleaning and water heaters and nondestructive insect removal. For everything else, we had Google. I don't know when it happened, but our conversations when I called turn into six words. Me: "Hi, Dad." Him: "Hi, sweets. Here's Mom."

I loved my dad, of course, but I wondered at times if maybe he had already shared everything I needed to know. Maybe I'd heard all his stories. Maybe, after knowing a man for 40 years, there's nothing left to say. Then, two summers ago, my husband, our four kids and I moved in with my parents for three weeks while our house was being painted. They owned a lake house, and my dad asked me to help him rebuild the bulkhead （舱壁）. It was hard, manual job. We got wet and sandy. But as we put the new bulkhead together piece by piece, my dad knew exactly what went where, I looked at him. "How do you know how to build a bulkhead?" "I spent a summer in college building them on the Jersey Shore.

"You did?" I thought I knew everything about my dad, but I never knew this. I realized that maybe it's not that there's nothing left to say. Maybe it's just that I've spent my life asking him the wrong questions. That day, my dad talked about what he had learned and what he could do excitedly. We chatted and chatted for a long time.

A few weeks later, after my family and I moved back into our painted house, I called my parents. "Hi, sweets," he said. "Here's Mom." "Wait, Dad," I said. "How are you?" We ended up talking about everything he was working on. To anyone else, it would sound like a normal conversation between a dad and his daughter. But to me, it was novel. A new beginning. I spent the first part of my life needing to talk to my dad. Now I talk to him because I want to.