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One day, a clergyman(牧师) was walking down the street when he came across a group of boys, all of whom were between ten and twelve years of age.

The group surrounded a dog. Thinking that the boys were hurting the dog, he went over and asked, “What are you doing with that dog?”

One of the boys replied, “This dog is just an old neighborhood stray(走失的狗). We all want him, but only one of us can take him home. So we have decided that whichever one of us can tell the biggest lie will get to keep the dog.”

Of course, the clergyman was surprised at this. “You boys shouldn’t have a competition of telling lies!” he said. He then began a ten-minute sermon(说教)about lying, starting with , “Don’t you boys know it’s a fault to lie?” and ending up with, “Why, when I was your age, I never told a lie.”

There was a dead silence. Just as the clergyman was beginning to think he had gotten through to them, the smallest boy gave a deep sigh and said, “All right, give him the dog.”

  Getting to work by bicycle has never been more popular. Governments and nations are changing their cities and highways to meet the needs of this new generation of cycling lovers, and in a world where green choices are the new must-have, average citizens are eagerly taking their chance to help make their bodies cleaner than ever before.

Become an EBTC Member.

  The Edmonton Bicycle and Touring Club (EBTC) is a recreational not-for-profit volunteer-run group devoted to promoting its members to cooperatively run bicycling trips during the spring, summer and fall, cross-country skiing trips in the winter, and social events all the year round. We welcome both road bike and mountain bike riders!

Benefits of Joining EBTC:

  Opportunity to create the kinds of events you like: enjoy dozens of events all year round, organized by members like you!

  Participation in the local cycling community.

  Use of club bicycle tools on tour and library materials.

  Discounts at various bicycle shops.

Why Cycle with a Group?

  It’s more FUN!

  It encourages you to come out often and get healthy exercise without going to a gym.

  Develop skills and gain through the experience of others.

  Meet new and interesting people with a common interest in cycling.

  Meet a fun-loving, energetic and different group of individuals who enjoy a healthy lifestyle.

  Enjoy the outdoor experience with the companionship and security of a group.

For more information on the EBTC:

  Phone the Club Hotline at 780-424-2453

  E-mail: jpri neau@edrnontion bicycle.com

  Mail us at: Edmonton Bicycle & Touring Club

  P. O. Box 52017

  Garneau Postal Stn.

  Edmonton, AB T 6G 2T5 Canada

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  People often talk as if shyness is a disease or mental condition that can be cured.  I prefer to think of it as an emotional（情绪的）disability. Itˈs something we are born with and something we carry with us in our entire lives. There are too many people, however, who seem to be determined to find some ways of doing away with their shyness. In my opinion, itˈs a waste of time. I donˈt mean that we should do nothing about it; quite the contrary, I think we need to separate the basic fact of shyness from our ability to take part in a social environment.       

Look at one of the most famous shy people of them all, Johnny Carson. This man is painfully shy, yet for decades(几十年)he made a living talking and associating with different people every night, in front of a national audience.  Carson has never done away with his shyness, but he has successfully found a way to deal with it to the extent that he could be, not just a talk show host, but a legend(传奇)among talk show hosts.  Look also at Sally Fields, who has recently admitted her problem with shyness. This is a woman who has appeared in many films, TV shows and interviews, yet in her early years she was so shy that she turned down a lunch invitation from Jane Fonda because she was terribly              afraid of meeting her.       

    I guess that our shyness is there because each of us is born with some insecurity(不安全感) and this insecurity prevents us from reaching out to others the way people with a more open personality do. As we grow up and become adults, we allow our social skills to grow and develop. But we are still stuck in kindergarten or elementary（初级的）school or wherever it was when our shyness took root in our soul.

About a year ago, a couple with three children moved into the apartment next door to me. I never heard any noise from the children, but the parents were always yelling at them.

   We often met and I always spoke to them, but the only answer I ever got was a hello from a four-year old girl. One day when I returned they were just coming back to their apartment and the little girl was holding the door in the hall open for the others. I remained in the car doing unnecessary things. The parents were telling her to hurry. I looked up and saw the little girl was still holding the door open, waiting for me.

   So I hurried as much as I could and thanked her. She was smiling from ear to ear.

   That afternoon I was at the K-Mart and I saw a white teddy bear. I thought of the little girl and said to myself, “I bet she would like it.” So I bought it for her.

   The next day there was a knock on the door and it was the little girl and her family. She was so proud of her bear and thanked me. Then I noticed her mother and the other children were there in the hall, too.

   Now when we meet in the hall we all speak in a friendly manner. Last night we had about 4 inches of snow. The temperature was below zero. When I opened the outside door, there was my car with all the snow removed. The man next door was the only person I knew in the whole building, so when I saw him the next day, I asked him if he was the nice person that removed the snow. He said NO. He wanted to, but his wife said she would do it.

   Isn’t it amazing that the small kind act of a 4-year-old girl can change so many things for the better?

       In our old neighborhood, neighbors chatted over fences. Newcomers were welcomed with chocolate and bread. It had been easy to find friends there. Our new community was different. It seemed that family roots grew deep, deep as the Mississippi River that flowed past the tiny river town.

       We’d moved to decrease my husband’s distance to work. Only thirty miles.

       After living there for six months, I was ready to move back home. I was lonely without a friend. My three boys were lonely. My husband, Lonny, seemed okay, but he spent his days at work.

       Lonny noticed my sinking disposition.

       “Shawnelle, you look unapproachable,” he said. He and I were sitting in lawn chairs. Samuel, our three-year-old son sat in his own little chair.

       “What do you mean?”

       “Body language. You placed our chairs fifteen yards away from everyone else.”

       “It doesn’t matter. I’m not going to have friends here.” Just then Samuel looked up. “Mom’s right, Dad. And we just want to go home.”

       That’s when I knew that I needed an adjustment. I didn’t want my boys to learn that the way to work through a tough time was to use a wounded and bitter attitude.

       Over the next few months I smiled when I didn’t feel like it. We signed up for reading programs at the library and often visited parks and the bike path along the river.

       One afternoon Samuel and I climbed up the stairs to the library activity room. A woman who I hadn’t seen before sat at a long table with a tiny boy.

       “Hi,” she said. “I’m Tammy. Do you need a seat? There’s one right here.”
       I sat down next to Tammy. Soon class was over, and we still had a lot to say. “Why don’t you come over later?” Tammy asked.     “I live on a farm. There’s plenty of room for the kids to run.” We went. And since that day, we’ve been back a million times.
       When I look back, I’m grateful for that tough time. I learned to persevere. I’m glad I didn’t give up.     And as for my boys, they learned a lesson, too. “Keep moving forward,” is what I tell them. “Your heart will follow.”

     A stream of art lovers has poured into an art gallery in Milton Keynes in the UK, spending hours studying the new exhibits carefully. The Swiss artists Silvia Bächli and Eric Hattan must be surprised at the success of their latest exhibition. But most visitors weren’t looking at the artwork.

     “No, nobody has found it yet,” Katharine Sorensen, the gallery’s communications director, said. She has the appearance of a woman who is slightly annoyed at having to spend so many days doing interviews with journalists from all over the world. This is all since the news spread that local artist Tomas Georgeson had hidden a signed cheque for $12,000 somewhere in the gallery.

      “We’ve had hundreds of people looking everywhere, and obviously we’ve all had a look, but nobody has seen it. If,” she added darkly, “it is actually there to find.”

       The gallery insists that it knew nothing about the cheque until it heard about it from the BBC last month.

        Georgeson is best known as an artist whose painting of his father was included in a 2011 National Portrait Gallery exhibition in London. He knows the 300-metre-square Milton Keynes Gallery well because he has previously worked there as a volunteer. He said that he had hidden the cheque “as something positive in a town eager to establish itself as a cultural destination”.

       Assuming the cheque does exist and nobody finds it, the artist has said he will reveal it on l^st March. Meanwhile the gallery has had to bring in extra staff to guard the displays, although Georgeson said it was not hidden “on or around” any of the works of art, and asked visitors to take great care not to cause any damage.

        Three years ago a flash of lightning almost destroyed Lyn Diana’s house in Aberdeen --- with her two children inside. "There was a huge rainstorm," she says, recalling the terrifying experience. "My brother and I were outside making every effort to stop floodwater from coming in the house. Suddenly I was thrown to the ground by a very large bang. When I picked myself up, the roof and the whole upper storey of the house had been destroyed. The door was blocked by broken bricks, but we forced our way in and found the children, thankfully unharmed. Later I was told that to be struck by lightning is a chance in million. In fact, it's at one chance in 600, 000. Even so, Dr. Mark Keys of AER Technology, an organization that monitors the effects of lightning, thinks you should be careful. He advises anyone who is unlucky enough to be caught in a storm to get down on the ground and bend into a ball, making yourself as small as possible.

        Nancy Wilder was playing golf at a club in Surrey when she was hit by a flash of lightning. Mrs. Wilder's heart stopped beating, but she was brought back to consciousness and, after a few days in hospital, where she was treated for burns to her head, hands and feet, she was pronounced fit again. Since that time, she has been a completely fair-weather golfer. In fact, a golf course is one of the most dangerous places to be during a thunderstorm. The best place to be is inside a car!

        Harold Deal, a retired electrician from South Carolina, USA, was struck by lightning 26 years ago. He seemed to be unhurt, but it later turned out that the strike had damaged the part of the brain which controls the sensation of temperature. Since then the freezing South Carolina winters haven't bothered Harold.

A few years ago, when I walked in the street, I picked a wallet, no identification (身份) inside except for a letter that looked as if it had been carried around for years. I opened it and saw it had been written in 1944, just 60 years ago. I read it carefully, hoping to find some-thing about the wallet's owner.

    It was a love letter. The writer Hannah told the receiver Michael that her mother didn't allow her to see him again. However, she would always love him.

    It was a beautiful letter. But there was no way to find Hannah. Anyway, I managed to get the phone number for the address shown on the envelope from the operator. When I called, a woman told me Hannah had to place her mother in a nursing home years ago. “May-

be the home could help you track down the daughter. ” the woman suggested. I went there according to the address, the director greeted me and led me to the day room, where Hannah was watching TV.

    She was a sweet, silver-haired old lady with a warm smile and friendly eyes. I told her about the wallet and showed her the letter. She saw it again and took a deep breath. “Young man,” she said, “this letter was the last contact I had with Michael.” She looked away for a moment, saying thoughtfully, “I loved him very much. But I was only sixteen and my mother felt I was too young…”“Yes, Michael was his name. If you find him, tell him I still think of him often. I never did marry,” she said, smiling through tears that welled up in her eyes. “I guess no one ever matched up to Michael…”

Although he's been homeless for two years，this Sacramento (萨克拉门托) man refuses to accept money from anyone．Instead，Frederick Callison gives people copies of his resume in crisp white envelopes outside Smart & Final store at Watt Avenue and Arden Way．ask—ing them to help him find a job if they really want to help him．

    Callison，a former line cook with years of experience at several restaurants，also carries a Food Handlers certificate and Social Security card．in order to show people that he's seri-ous about wanting to work．

    A nearby business apparently allowed him to use their supplies to print copies of his resume，which he hands out to people willing to help．Apart from a list of restaurants he has worked at in the past and his various qualifications，the 52-year-old's resume also re-veals his work rules．“I am a firm believer in active productivity rather than reactive，”the piece of paper mentions．

    Sacramento resident Michael Marteen said．“He's not at downtown moving steps try-ing to get some help．He's out here trying to work for it．It's something we all try and get，just a chance．”In fact，Marteen was so moved that he shared Callison's story on Facebook，asking people to help the man in his quest for a job．

    To avoid any complaints regarding his constant presence outside Smart & Final．Calli—son moves carts from the parking outside，for free．At night，he tries to find a business open 24／7 with good lighting and video surveillance (视频监控) to make sure no one tries to steal his belongings while he sleeps．It's a tough life，but apparently not tough enough to make him break his rule about begging for money．

     This year 2,300 teenagers from all over the world will spend about ten months in U.S. homes. They will attend U.S. schools, meet U.S. teenagers, and form impressions of the real American teenagers. American teenagers will go to other countries to learn new languages and have a new understanding of the rest of the world.

     Here is a two-way student exchange in action. Fred, nineteen, spent last year in Germany with George's family. In return, George's son, Mike, spent a year in Fred's home in America.

     Fred, a lively young man, knew little German when he arrived, but after two months’ study, the language began to come to him. School was completely different from what he had expected — much harder. They took fourteen subjects instead of the six that are usual in the United States. There were almost no outside activities.

Family life, too, was different. The family's word was law, and all activities were around the family rather than the individual (个人). Fred found the food too simple at first. Also, he missed having a car.

       “Back home, you pick up some friends in a car and go out and have a good time. In Germany, you walk, but you soon learn to like it.”

        At the same time, in America, Mike, a friendly German boy, was also forming his idea. “I suppose I should criticize American schools,” he says, “It is far too easy by our level . But I have to say that I like it very much. In Germany we do nothing but study. Here we take part in many outside activities. I think that maybe your schools are better in training for citizens . There ought to be some middle ground between the two.”