Next month, about 30,000 runners will take to the streets of Boston, Massachusetts, for one of the world’s oldest and most famous races, the Boston Marathon. Nearly half the competitors in the 26.2-mile race will be women. But for most of the race’s 119-year history, only men were officially allowed to compete.

A woman named Roberta “Bobbi” Gibb helped change that in 1966, when she secretly ran the marathon and finished ahead of most of the men. “Word went out around the world that a woman had done the impossible,” says Gibb. “It changed the way men thought about women.”

Gibb saw her first Boston Marathon in 1964, while running through her neighborhood. She was inspired to run the race herself. For nearly two years, Gibb trained to build the energy and strength she’d need to finish. But when she sent in an application for the 1966 race, it was turned down.

At the time, the longest official races for women were only 1.5 miles. Many people didn’t think women were physically capable of running longer distances. Running a marathon was also seen as “unladylike”.

But the 23-year-old Gibb refused to let go of her dream. She came up with a plan to run the race anyway. On April 19, she showed up at the marathon wearing her brother’s shorts and a sweatshirt to hide the fact that she was a woman.

Gibb hid in the bushes near the starting line. When the race began, she jumped into the pack. Shortly into the race, Gibb took off her sweatshirt. To her surprise, the crowd cheered when they realized she was a woman. Gibb finished the race in 3 hours and 21 minutes- faster than two thirds of the male runners.

Gibb opened the door for future female long-distance runners. In the years that followed, she and other women ran in the Boston Marathon, even though the rules still prohibited women from running in the race. Finally, in 1972, the marathon was officially opened to women.

Author Norman Mailer published an essay in which he declared the graffiti(涂鸦) of the New York subway to be "The Great Art of the 70s". But what happened to the artists and why is there no subway graffiti anymore?

"It started with someone just writing their name - someone saw that, and added on to it," recalls New York graffiti artist Nicer, born Hector Nazario."Letters going in front of letters, coming back through a letter, behind a letter, going across a letter... the subways became our playground," adds Riff170.

New York in 1974 was a city in crisis. The Mayor, Abe Beame, slashed the city's budget in a bid to stave off bankruptcy(破产), which meant laying off school teachers, police officers and subway staff.

"They were taking the money from the schools, there was a lot of corruption here, in this community, and so they took the after-school programmes away, and there was no outlets for this. So the outlet became our city," says Bronx-born designer Eric Orr.

"It was like an explosion. The graffiti explosion. All of a sudden it took over the whole city. I don't know what happened, but overnight in the early 70s it was from no graffiti to all graffiti," says another former artist, Flint Gennari.

Eric Felisbret, author and former graffiti artist, says graffiti culture was in a way a product of the civil rights movement. "It was never political," he says, "but many people were brought up with that, and to express yourself by breaking the law became a natural process for them."

The graffiti pioneers came from all races, however. "There were writers that were African American, Latino - Puerto Rico, Dominican, Cuban - Jewish, Asian, and it became one unit - one family," says another graffiti pioneer, Roberto Gualtieri.

Prof Gregory Snyder, sociologist and author of Graffiti Lives, says: "For lots of people, graffiti is ugly, vandalistic, and I'm not denying that. It's vandalism... now, oftentimes it's very clever vandalism. It can be written on a dumpster, like a garbage bin, and if someone's attempting to make a garbage bin look a little prettier maybe that's not the worst thing in the world."Although Mailer was not alone in welcoming the flowering of creativity, the authorities hated it, as did many passengers.

So when Mayor Ed Koch took office, he was determined to clean up the city and set about targeting graffiti.

"I remember in 1982 he brought everyone out to a train yard and there was a single train painted white," says former New York Daily News reporter Salvatore Arena. Trains were taken out of service and cleaned as soon as graffiti was spotted. Carriages were protected at night and the city agreed to ban the sale of spray cans.

If in 1984 80% of subway carriages contained graffiti by May 1989 the network was graffiti-free. “Graffiti has gone through an evolution, and it will continue to evolve. It’s now socially accepted in places where 20-30 years ago that would have been impossible. It’s now showcased(展示)in certain museums –and let’s say in another 30 years from now it may be hanging in the White House,” says Nicer.

Nowadays painted graffiti is largely gone from the New York subway trains themselves and is seen instead on the walls and tunnels of the city. It has been replaced by scratchiti(刮擦艺术) created onto carriage windows using keys, knives. Unlike the vivid images of 40 years ago, these ghostly patterns are somehow easy to ignore. After all, graffiti has faded quietly into the background.

I’m Emily Barr, a British journalist. One day, an idea of travelling around the world came into my mind. I was so scared at first that I thought about canceling the whole plan at least twice a day. But I finally made up my mind and left.

Travelling around the world is the most exciting thing I have ever done. During the first few months I saw the beautiful view of Miami’s South Beach. I crossed the United States by train and walked on a Fijian beach, and I was happy to visit New Zealand. Then I spent about a month in Australia.

When I arrived in China, I carefully copied the Chinese characters for the hotel I wanted to stay in onto a piece of paper, and handed it to a taxi driver. He frowned(皱眉), and then laughed at my ugly writing. In Chengdu, I rode out of town to see pandas at their reserve(保护区)．One evening when I spent my time in a bar, I met James, another tourist, who is my husband now by the way. We flew to Tibet together the next day.

James and I walked around in Lhasa, travelled on Indian trains, wandered around the Taj Mahal and slept on the floor at the Golden Temple in Amritsar. Then a year after I began my trip, I went back home.

Now James and I live in France with our two young sons and often make plans to travel with the boys. Once you have done it, anything seems possible.

  a. Travelling to China.    b. Crossing the United States.

   c. Visiting New Zealand.        d. Going to India.         e. Going on a trip to Australia.

I was born and raised in England in a culture where privacy and “keeping yourself to yourself” were valued traditions. Speaking to strangers was not encouraged. People were most hospitable and friendly—but only once they had been introduced to new people.

However, I have been lucky enough to spend some time in both Italy and the US，where I found traditions of hospitality and politeness to be very different.

I experienced Italian hospitality first-hand on a crowded railway carriage travelling, one afternoon，from Genoa to Florence. Sinking gratefully into an empty seat, I was berated(训斥) in rapid Italian by a gentleman who was returning to this seat—it had not been “spare” after all. I apologized in English，and got up to allow him back into the seat. The gentleman obviously had no understanding of the English language, but he, too，realized my genuine mistake. He smiled and gestured for me to remain in the seat，and he himself remained standing in the corridor for the remainder of the journey. The other occupants of the carriage smiled and nodded at me and made me feel quite welcome amongst them. I feel that if this had been in England, a foreigner who made a mistake would not always be so kindly treated.

Transport also featured in the differences I noticed between English and American culture. I flew to New York on a plane with mainly English passengers. We sat together in near silence. Nobody spoke to me nor, as I expected, to anyone else they did not know. They felt it was not polite to intrude on someone else’s privacy. However, when I travelled across the United States, whether by plane or Greyhound bus，I was never short of conversation. Conversation was going on all around me and whoever sat next to me was happy to introduce themselves and ask me about myself. They obviously felt it would have been rude not to speak to another person, whether they were strangers or not.

Before I had my son, I spent two years working with children with disabilities. I learned that shouting and threats of punishment would result in a disaster. Coming up against their behavior could only make the job harder and their behavior more extreme. I found something that worked, though.

    There was a very naughty boy in the nursery and a teacher who was generally very confident with the children was asked to take charge of him. One day the boy joined a session in the room next to mine. His appearance created an atmosphere of tension. He spent the entire session running around, hitting and kicking, and destroying property.

I was in the craft room working with some other children when my co-worker told me that this boy’s teacher was in tears, and could not get control of the situation. As we were talking, the boy ran in. I told my co-worker that I would take care of him.

I closed the door. He was full of energy, throwing things around and making a huge mess. But I could see that he was doing all these to annoy me. He needed connection, and this was the only way he knew how to ask for it. So I sat back down and kept quiet. Then he slowed and began making a rocket. I talked to him about it. We continued like this for a few minutes before I slipped into the conversation: “So what happened today?”

It was purely a question, no blame or anger in my tone. I believed that if I had criticized him, the gate that was slowly opening would have shut firmly closed. He told me that the teacher did what he disliked. He also admitted that he had enjoyed making her run around and saw it as a game. I explained that his teacher had not seen it as a game and was very upset. This again was stated simply as a fact. I suggested that next time he had a session, he talk about what he hoped to do at the start, which might be easier for everyone. He agreed and was quiet for a moment. Then he looked at me with tears in his eyes before quietly asking if he could go to find his teacher to apologize.

Teens and younger children are reading a lot less for fun, according to a Common Sense Media report published Monday.

    While the decline over the past decade is steep for teen readers, some data in the report shows that reading remains a big part of many children’s lives, and indicates how parents might help encourage more reading.

    According to the report’s key findings, “the proportion (比例) who say they ‘hardly ever’ read for fun has gone from 8 percent of 13-year-olds and 9 percent of 17-year-olds in 1984 to 22 percent and 27 percent respectively today.”

       The report data shows that pleasure reading levels for younger children, ages 2—8, remain largely the same. But the amount of time spent in reading each session has declined, from closer to an hour or more to closer to a half hour per session.

    When it comes to technology and reading, the report does little to counsel(建议) parents looking for data about the effect of e-readers and tablets on reading. It does point out that many parents still limit electronic reading, mainly due to concerns about increased screen time.

     The most hopeful data shared in the report shows clear evidence of parents serving as examples and important guides for their kids when it comes to reading. Data shows that kids and teens who do read frequently, compared to infrequent readers, have more books in the home, more books purchased for them, parents who read more often, and parents who set aside time for them to read.

    As the end of school approaches, and school vacation reading lists loom(逼近) ahead, parents might take this chance to step in and make their own summer reading list and plan a family trip to the library or bookstore.

A

Going green seems to be fad(时尚)for a lot of people these days. Whether that is good or bad, we can’t really say, but for the tow of us, going green is not a fad but a lifestyle.
    On April22, 2011, we decided to go green every single day for an entire year. This meant doing 365 different green things, and it also meant challenging ourselves to go green beyond easy things. Rather than recycle and reduce our energy, we had to think of 365 different green things to do and this was no easy task.
    With the idea of going green every single day for a year, Our Green Year started. My life and I decided to educate people about how they could go green in their lives and hoped we could show people all the green things that could be done to help the environment. We wanted to push the message that every little bit helps.
    Over the course of Our Green Year, we completely changed our lifestyle. We now shop at organic(有机的)stores. We consume less meat, choosing green food. We have greatly reduced our buying we don’t need. We have given away half of what we owned through websites. Our home is kept clean by vinegar and lemon juice, with no chemical cleaners. We make our own butter, enjoying the smell of home-made fresh bread. In our home office anyone caught doing something ungreen might be punished.
    Our minds have been changed by Our Green Year. We are grateful for the chance to have been able to go green and educate others. We believe that we do have the power to change things and help our planet.

There were two childhood friends who went through school and college and even joined the army together. War broke out and they were fighting in the same unit. One night, they were ambushed (伏击).

There was firing throughout the night. Bullets (子弹) were flying all over and out of the darkness came a voice, “Harry, please come and help me.”

Harry immediately recognized the voice of his friend, Bill. He asked the captain if he could go. The captain said, “No. I am already short-handed and I cannot afford to lose one more person.”

Again and again, the voice came. Harry could not contain himself any longer and told the captain, “Captain, this is my childhood friend and I have to go and help.” Harry crawled (爬行) through the darkness and found that Bill was dead.

Now the captain got angry and shouted at Harry, “Didn’t I tell you he was not going to survive? You could have been killed!”

Harry replied, “Captain, I did the right thing. When I reached Bill, he was still alive and his last words were, ‘Harry, I knew you would come.’”

Harry did not regret risking his life to see his friend for the last time.