（1）Each spring brings a new blossom of wildflowers in the ditches (路沟) along the highway I travel daily to work.

（2）There is one particular blue flower that has always caught my eye. I’ve noticed that it blooms only in the morning hours, for the afternoon sun is too warm for it. Every day for approximately two weeks, I see those beautiful flowers.

（3）This spring, I started a wildflower garden in our yard. I can look out of the kitchen window while doing the dishes and see the flowers. I’ve often thought that those lovely blue flowers from the ditches would look great in that bed alongside other wildflowers. Every day I drove past the flowers thinking, “I’ll stop on my way home and dig them.” “Gee, I don’t want to get my good clothes dirty…” Whatever the reason, I never stopped to dig them. My husband even gave me a folding shovel (铲子) one year for my trunk to be used for that expressed purpose.

（4）One day on my way home from work, I was saddened to see that the highway department had moved the ditches and the pretty blue flowers were gone. I thought to myself, “Way to go, you waited too long. You should have done it when you first saw them blooming this spring.”

（5）A week ago we were shocked to know that my oldest sister-in-law has a terminal brain tumor (脑瘤晚期). She is 20 years older than my husband and unfortunately, because of age and distance, we haven’t been as close as we all would have liked.

（6）I couldn’t help but see the connection between the pretty blue flowers and the relationship between my husband’s sister and us. I do believe that God has given us some time left to plant some wonderful memories that will bloom every year for us.

（7）And yes, if I see the blue flowers again, you can bet I’ll stop and transplant them to my wildflower garden.

On Thanksgiving, Scott Macaulay is preparing a full turkey dinner for a whole bunch  of people he’s never met. His 70guests----elderly people, low-income people, at-risk teens, and others—have one detail in common: without Macaulay, they’d be alone on Thanksgiving.

“What I do isn’t a big deal, really,” the 52-year-old said. “I just cook some food.”

Macaulay’s unconventional Thanksgiving tradition began in 1985, right around the time his parents decided to get divorced. The holidays got messy that year, and Macaulay, who was 24 at the time, sensed he’d be spending Thanksgiving alone. It was a terrible feeling.

“Thanksgiving isn’t about fireworks(烟火) or band concerts,” he said. “It’s a celebration around a table with food. It’s not fun to do that by yourself.”

Macaulay placed an ad in his local paper with a simple message: If people thought they might be alone on Thanksgiving, they could give Macaulay a call.

A few people showed up at Macaulay’s place that first year. It was nice. So he placed another ad the following year, and the year after that.

In recent years, Macaulay has been hosting his Thanksgiving dinners at local churches with lots of space. He still buys and prepares all the food himself and spends about 40 hours putting the whole affair together. On Thanksgiving Day, he runs around nonstop from about5a.m. to 8p.m. Macaulay said he’d love to see other people hold similar dinners all over the country. “I think someone in every town should do this,” he said, “so nobody has to be alone.”

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For most Americans, a clean glass of water is just a faucet(水龙头) away. But for many of the world’s poorest people, it’s hard to get.

On Wednesday, the United Nations(UN)marked World Water Day by trying to cut the number of people without good drinking water—one billion human beings worldwide –in half．In the next ten years, the UN will work with governments around the world to reduce the shortage.

   Without clean water nearby, many people use water that is not clean. In India, many people bathe and wash their clothes in rivers that are polluted by human waste.

   According to the UN, not having enough clean water and sanitation(卫生设施) causes more than three million deaths a year.

   The links between water and human health are powerful,said Dr Lee Jong Wook, director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO)．—We cannot live without clean water.

   In fact, the International Federation of the Red Cross said that quick reaction after last year’s Asian tsunami had stopped disease．The agency provided clean water to nearly 500,000 people in Indonesia and Sri Lanka after the tsunami.

World Water Day was first celebrated in 1993. Since then, it is celebrated each year on March 22 

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 American pilot Frank Webb first flew a glider at the age of 14, made his first flight alone on his 16^th birthday and got his commercial pilot’s license(执照) on his 18^th birthday.

After serving in the US Navy for 20 years, being a Boeing flight instructor and working with Alaska Airlines for more than three years, Webb signed a contract with Shenzhen Airlines last May to captain domestic(国内的) routes in China. As an experienced pilot, he still feels the same nervousness as he felt on his first flight.

Captain Webb said that the “Sep. 11” incident did not have a direct influence on his decision to move to China to work. “Safety is in fact tighter in the United States and I am not worried about a terrorist attack,” he said. “The main reason I came to China was that my children would have a chance to see the world and experience international living.”

Webb has not experienced any in-flight emergencies(紧急情况) during his term in China although he said the weather here was generally more changeable than in the US. “The weather changes tend to be great from north to south. We may be flying in a snow storm in Harbin, and then later that same day we may be flying through a tropical rain shower approaching Shenzhen,” Webb said.

While Webb had more flexibility(灵活性) to deal with the weather in the US, he said air traffic control in China was more strict and allowed fewer deviations(偏离).

Speaking of planes often being late in China, Webb said that in America, being late was one of the few things that would get him in trouble. “In China, on the other hand, it seems there are many things that can get you in trouble with the boss, but being late is not one of them.” Webb does everything in his power to keep his flights on time.

“They provide really excellent service during flights. Western flight attendants(服务员) just serve passengers. But the Chinese attendants will also check on the crew to see if we need anything,” Webb said.

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