John Sand was one of the most influential teachers I have ever met. During high school, he taught me more than any other teacher had been able to.

He developed unusual methods of teaching. He did not give us homework on the first day and have it due the next; instead, he gave us a homework schedule for the term and left it up to us to remember to do it. By doing so, he prepared us for life after high school, where it would be up to us to make our own work schedule.

Mr. Sand was a family man. He made use of whatever time we had left in class to show us his latest vacation videos or his children’s sports videos. It was nice to see a man who balanced his family and his career so nicely in a world where a broken home is the average home.

Mr. Sand always encouraged us to get out of our little close-minded society of Wethersfield and explore the cultures of the world. He would tell us stories of his travels across Europe and his adventures around the US. Many teachers just forced the idea of college and ignored our need to reach outside of what we know.

Many people may not ever have a teacher like Mr. Sand. I feel sorry for them. Mr. Sand taught me things that went beyond the curriculum(课程) and let me know how powerful a teacher’s influence could be.

Visiting Joshua Tree National Park, California

Joshua Tree National Park is nearly 800,000 acres large and surrounds parts of the Mojave and Colorado Deserts in South-central California. Although barren at first glance, the park is full of wildlife and provides a variety of entertainment activities from hiking to climbing. Within a three-hour drive, Joshua Tree National Park takes at least a full day to visit.

Things to do

l Hiking opportunities within the park include several choices, from 12 self-guided nature routines to all-day back-country hikes.

l Joshua Tree NP has nine camping grounds, and back-country camping is also allowed.

l Rock climbing is a popular activity in the park, which has 10 mountains greater than5,000 feet in height.

   When to visit

Joshua Tree NP is open 365 days a year, although the best time to visit is October through April, when temperature is milder. The peak season is when the wild flowers bloom, and the summer months are the least crowded.

What to bring

In addition to your camera and telescope, be sure to carry lots of water. Park and guiding maps can be picked up at any of the three visitor centers.

Fees

l Parking fees: You can buy a seven-day vehicle permit (周票) for $ 15, a single entry permit for $ 5, or Joshua Tree National Park annual（每年的）pass for $ 60.

l Camping fees: They vary（变化）by camping ground

 A store that sells husbands has just opened in Ottawa where a woman may go to choose a husband from many men.

   The store consisted of 6 floors and the men increase in positive attributes（品质，特点）as the shopper goes up the flights. There is, however, a catch（陷阱）. As you open the door to any floor you may choose a man from that floor, but if you go up a floor, you cannot go back down except to exit the building.

  So a woman goes to the shopping center to find a husband. On the first floor the sign on the door reads: Floor 1— These men have jobs. The woman reads the sign and says to herself, “Well, that’s better than my last boyfriend, but I wonder what’s further up?”

  So up she goes. The second floor sign reads: Floor 2 — These men have jobs and love kids. The woman remarks to herself, “That’s great, but I wonder what’s further up?”

  And up she goes again. The third floor sign reads: Floor 3 — These men have jobs, love kids and are extremely good-looking. “Hmm, better.” 

  The fourth floor sign reads: Floor 4 — These men have jobs, love kids, are extremely good-looking and help with the housework. “Wow!” exclaims the woman, “Very tempting. But, there must be more, further up!”

  And again she heads up another flight. The fifth floor sign reads: Floor 5 —These men have jobs, love kids, are extremely good-looking, help with the housework and have a strong romantic character. “ Oh, mercy me! But just think…what must be awaiting me further on?”

  So up to the sixth floor she goes. The sixth floor sign reads: Floor 6 –You are visitor 3, 456, 789,012 to this floor. There are no men on this floor. Thank you for shopping Husband Mart and have a nice day.

Students who date in middle school have significantly worse study skills. They are four times more likely to drop out of school and report twice as much alcohol and tobacco use as their single classmates, according to new research from the UniversityofGeorgia.

"Romantic relationships are a trademark of adolescence, but very few studies have examined how adolescents differ in the development of these relationships," said Pamela Orpinas, study author and professor in the CollegeofPublic Health and head of the Department of Health Promotion and Behavior.

Orpinas followed a group of 624 students over a seven-year period from 6th to 12th grade.

Each year, the group of students completed a survey indicating whether they had dated and reported the frequency of different behaviors, including the use of drugs and alcohol. Their teachers completed questionnaires about the students’ academic efforts. He found some students never or hardly ever reported dating from middle to high school, and these students had consistently the best study skills according to their teachers. Other students dated infrequently in middle school but increased the frequency of dating in high school.

"At all points in time, teachers rated the students who reported the lowest frequency of dating as having the best study skills and the students with the highest dating as having the worst study skills,” according to the journal article. Study skills refer to behaviors that lead to academic success such as doing work for extra credit being well organized, finishing homework, working hard and reading assigned chapters.

"Dating a classmate may have the same emotional complications of dating a co-worker," Orpinas said, "When the couple break up, they have to continue to see each other in class and perhaps witness the ex-partner dating someone else. It is reasonable to think this could be linked to depression and divert attention from studying.”

“Dating should not be considered a ceremony of growth in middle school,” Orpinas concluded.

Bicycle Safety

Operation Always ride your bike in a safe, controlled manner on campus. Obey rules and regulations. Watch out for walkers and other bicyclists, and always use your lights in dark conditions.

Theft Prevention Always securely lock your bicycle to a bicycle rack---even if you are only away for a minute. Register your bike with the University Department of Public Safety. It’s fast, easy, and free. Registration permanently records your serial number, which is useful in the possible recovery of the bike stolen.

Equipment

 Brakes Make sure that they are in good working order and adjusted properly.

 Helmet A necessity, make sure your helmet meets current safety standards and fit properly.

 Lights Always have a front headlight---visible at least 500 feet in front of the bike. A taillight is a good idea.

Rules of the Road

Riding on Campus As a bicycle rider, you have a responsibility to ride only on streets and posted bicycle paths. Riding on sidewalks or other walkways can lead to a fine. The speed limit for bicycles on campus is 15mph, unless otherwise posted. Always give the right of ways to walkers. If you are involved in an accident, you are required to offer appropriate aid, call the Department of Public Safety and remain at the scene until the officer lets you go.

Bicycle Parking Only park in areas reserved for bikes. Trees, handrails, hallways, and sign posts are not for bicycle parking, and parking in such posts can result in a fine.

If Things Go Wrong

If you break the rules, you will be fined. Besides violating rules while riding bicycles on campus, you could be fined for:

No bicycle registration---------------------------------------------------$25

Bicycle parking banned--------------------------------------------------$30

Blocking path with bicycle ---------------------------------------------$40

Violation of bicycle equipment requirement -------------------------$35

Do you know how it is when you see someone yawn（打哈欠）and you start yawning too? Or how hard it is to be among people laughing and not laugh yourself? Well, apparently it's because we have mirror neurons(神经元）in our brains.

      Put simply, the existence of mirror neurons suggests that every time we see someone else do something, our brains imitate(模仿)it, whether or not we actually perform the same action. This explains a great deal about how we learn to smile, talk, walk, dance or play sports. But the idea goes further: mirror neurons not only appear to explain physical actions，they also tell us that there is a biological basis for the way we understand other people.

      Mirror neurons can undoubtedly be found all over our brains，but especially in the areas which relate to our ability to use languages，and to understand how other people feel. Researchers have found that mirror neurons relate strongly to language. A group of researchers discovered that if they gave people sentences to listen to (for example: "The hand took hold of the ball"), the same mirror neurons weretriggeredas when the action was actually performed (in this example, actually taking hold of a ball).

      Any problems with mirror neurons may well result in problems with behavior. Much research suggests that people with social and behavioral problems have mirror neurons which are not fully functioning. However, it is not yet known exactly how these discoveries might help find treatments for social disorders.

      Research into mirror neurons seems to provide us with ever more information concerning how humans behave and interact(互动).Indeed, it may turn out to be the equivalent(相等物)for neuroscience of what Einstein's theory of relativity was for physics. And the next time you feel the urge to cough in the cinema when someone else does—well, perhaps you'll understand why.

For teenagers, itˈs great fun to explore new places and it feels like an adventure, even when you know youˈre not the first to have been there. But to make sure not to get lost or waste time going round in circles, the following tips may be helpful.

 ◆Do the map reading if youˈre being driven somewhere. Itˈll be easier if you keep the map following the direction you are traveling in. Keep looking ahead so that you can give the driver lots of warning before having to make a turn, or youˈll have to move to the back seat.

 ◆Get a group of friends together and go exploring. Youˈll need a good map, a compass(指南针) , a raincoat, a cell phone to call for help in case you get lost, and a bit of spare cash for emergencies(紧急事件) .Tell someone where youˈre going before you set out and let them know what time you expect to be back. The purpose of the activity is in not getting lost, not in seeing how fast you can go, so always stick together, waiting for slower friends to catch up.

 ◆See if your school or a club organizes orienteering（越野识途比赛）activities, in which you need a map and a compass to find your way. This can be done as a sport, with teams trying to find the way from A to B(and B to C, etc. ) in the fastest time, or simply as a spare-time activity. It enables you to be familiar with the use of maps and compass and gain some special skills. In some way, it’s not only good fun, but also a great way to keep fit.

When I was at school, our teacher often said,“You are what you eat.” She wanted us to eat the right food to be healthy.

Japanese people are said to be the healthiest in the world. They eat rice, fish and vegetables every day. They drink green tea or water when they’re thirsty, and snack on dried fish, fruit or nuts. So we can believe that you become what you eat. When you know the advantages of different kinds of food, you can use your knowledge well and eat what you want to become.

Have you ever heard any of the following advice?

*Lettuce or milk can make you sleepy while peanuts or dried fish will stop that feeling.

*To keep your teeth clean, you should eat apples often.

*Garlic(大蒜)helps to prevent colds.

Future restaurants might be named after what they hope to create. Let’s take the restaurant “Winners” as an example. Its menu would list dishes specifically designed to help you win sports games. There would be rich tomato sauce(调味汁)full of vitamin C and soft vegetables. All this would have a little fresh cheese on the top—just enough to help you get a good night’s sleep.

What will happen to junk food in the future? If ice cream is not good for children, can’t we give them fat-free, sugar-free tofu ice cream? We are told dried fruit is a healthier snack than biscuits, so some biscuit companies are making biscuits with more vitamins. So in the future, you might be able to eat your way to health!

The English language is changing fast, thanks to the rapid progress of technology. We all have a rapid choice: We can either bury our heads in the sand and spend the rest of our lives wishing Shakespeare were alive and well. Or we can embrace(拥抱)the new English, enter into the spirit of the Internet age called Weblish.

   “You can't keep away from it, for the simple reason that whenever a new variety of language comes along, it surely influences the language as a whole.” Says Dr David Crystal, professor of language at the UniversityofWales in BangoL, whose book Language and the Internet has just been published.

    The trouble with keeping up with the new English is that there are so many new words but that the old words no longer mean what we thought they did. In the past, if someone said they did not have Windows, you would have to suppose they lived in a cave. These days, it is probably because they use a Mac(which is a computer). Spam is as disliked as it ever was, but it once meant an uninviting canned meat. It now stands for unwanted “junk” email. Spellings are changing, too. Not only is text-messaging playing "hvc with vrbs" (havoc(混乱)with verbs), but the common rules of email communication pay little attention to "perfect speaking".    

    Weblish loves to see nouns happily become verbs ("please bookmark this site"), and verbs become nouns ("Send me the download"). Verbs and prepositions are regularly thrown together to become new nouns or adjectives (dial-up,log-on,print-on,pull-down,upload),while others are created from simply pairing nouns: cyberspace, emit Internet, hyperlink, netspeak.