Every American family has its own traditions on Thanksgiving Day,and mine is no different.Once the national holiday arrives,my mum rises early to make the meal.She puts a turkey in the oven,chops carrots and bakes pies.I’m sorry to say that the men in the family—my dad,my younger brother and myself—rarely pitch in to help.Our job is to wash the mountain of dirty dishes after the meal is over.

Around 2 pm every Thanksgiving Day,family members seat themselves around the kitchen table.Plates of turkey,vegetables,salad,rolls and pies cover it.At this point,we can hardly keep ourselves from drooling (流口水)all over our fancy clothes,but it’s not yet time to eat.

First,we must bow our heads,close our eyes and say a prayer of thanks aloud to God for giving us everything we have.Under normal circumstances,I would have no problem making a list of things I am thankful for.I grew up in a loving family.My parents,who aren’t wealthy,took out loans to help me pay for university.

However,the funny thing is,every time I sit down for Thanksgiving dinner and try to say a prayer of thanks,my mind usually goes blank.I think it has something to do with my growling (咕咕叫)stomach and all of that food sitting right there under my nose.

Eventually,though,we all finish our short prayers and dig in.To be sure,the day includes other highlights—visiting with family and watching football.But usually around 6 pm we are all ourselves stuffed like turkeys and thankful to have a nice warm bed to sleep in.

Elizabeth Bishop is considered one of the best American poets of the 20th century. She was born in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1911. Her dad died when she was just a baby and her mom never recovered from the loss. She went to live with her grandparents in Nova Scotia, Canada when she was five. Eventually Bishop attended Vassar College, where she began to write poetry.

At Vassar she discovered Marianne Moore’s poetry and met Ms. Moore and began their life-long friendship. She later met poet Robert Lowell. She wrote tons and tons of letters to both of them, which is good for us because we would otherwise know very little of her personal life. Bishop published her first book of poetry in 1946 and wrote until her death in 1979. She would spend years working on a single poem. Her poems are not the result of hasty scribbling (匆忙乱写) on paper while eating breakfast. She would look through drafts of poems again and again and improve them until they were as close to perfect as she could get them.

Reading Elizabeth Bishop is like being transported to the very place, the very moment she’s writing about. She leads us to a microscope so we can see every smallest part of the scene. It seems that she’s always asking us to notice more, and more until the poem is so clear in our minds that it’s almost painful—like a light that’s too bright.

After finishing my teaching for a school year, I thought that I should go back to Montreal, Quebec, my hometown for a visit. My main goal was to relax in preparation for the challenges of my retirement in the coming year.

Through my stay in Montreal, I met lots of Chinese who were struggling to succeed and then led a better life in Canada.

Some travelled thousands of miles to get knowledge. When I spoke with some of them about the major barrier they had to face after they arrived in Canada, they all talked about the two official languages of Canada. But I was impressed by their ability to express their ideas while they switched between English and French.

Almost all of those people said they often felt homesick. They missed their families and friends. Though Montreal had lots of Chinese restaurants, they longed for a home-cooked meal.

I met some tourists who were trying to realize their childhood dreams of experiencing the life in a developed country. When I asked them if Montreal had lived up to their expectations, they hesitated. They said that reality never agrees with fantasies. However, they were glad to have the opportunity to visit Montreal and didn’t regret taking the trip.

Not all the Chinese people I met were happy. I once met a young lady who met a gentleman through the Internet. However, to her disappointment, he disappeared after he promised to marry her in Montreal.

I was served by another Chinese person who could not handle the challenges of studying in an English environment and ended up working in a restaurant with minimum pay.

Exploring different parts of the world, without any doubt, is an amazing experience. However, one should be realistic when it comes to leaving his hometown to set up a new life in a foreign country. One should take the time to examine the advantages and the shortcomings of the venture before they decide to chase an uncertain dream of achieving success or leading a better life.

As we continue to explore farther out into our solar system and beyond, the question of humans living on other planets often comes up. Manned bases on the Moon or Mars for example, have long been a dream of many. There is a natural desire to explore as far as we can go, and also to extend humanity’s presence on a permanent (永久的) or at least semi-permanent basis. In order to do this, however, it is necessary to adapt to different extreme environments. On the Moon for example, a colony must be self-sustaining (自立的) and protect its inhabitants from the airless, harsh environment outside.

Mars, though, is different. While future bases could adapt to the Martian environment over time there is also the possibility of modifying (改变) the surrounding environment instead of just co-existing with it. This is the process of terraforming (地球化)—adjusting Mars’ atmosphere and environment to make it more Earth-like. But the bigger question is, should we?

One of the main issues is whether Mars has any native life or not and if it does, should it be preserved (保护) as much as possible? If the answer is yes, then large-scale human settlements on Mars should be completely off-limits. Small colonies might be fine, but living on Mars should not be at the expense of any native habitats, if they exist. If Mars is home to any indigenous life, then terraforming should be a non-issue; it simply should not be done.

What if Mars is lifeless? Even if no life exists there, that untouched and unique alien environment needs to be preserved as it is as much as possible. We’ve already done too much damage here on our own planet. By studying Mars and other planets and moons in their current natural state, we can learn so much about their history and also learn more about our own world. We should appreciate the differences of other worlds instead of just transforming them to suit our own ambitions.