【推荐1】It was Mother’s Day, but I knew there would be no celebration for me. I was a mother of a very active two-year-old child and my husband was Captain of a Navy ship. That morning I had been up early and had already taken several phone calls from both Navy wives and other people needing to be comforted (安慰). After one phone call, I leaned back in my chair and said to myself, “Oh, I am busying being a blessing to others, but what about me? Is there anything for me today?”

At that very moment the telephone rang. It was the voice of a little girl who said, “Miss Stephanie, I’ve been thinking of you!” It took my breath away! I had known this girl from another city, but at that moment it was to me the best voice in the world! I greatly valued the thoughtfulness of the little one and her family who knew my husband was out. But even greater than their kindness, I felt deeply touched by the timing of the call and felt that precious voice spoke to me of great love for me.

There have been many Mother’s Days since that one, but none so special, so deeply moving. I will never forget how it felt to know that I was loved and that I would never be forgotten.

In the United States and elsewhere, Mother’s Day has become synonymous (与……密切相关的) with lots of human expectations. If we’re not careful, the fulfillment of these expectations can become a false standard of feeling loved and a heavy burden (负担) on our family. When I think of that Mother’s Day long ago, tears come into my eyes, but not out of sadness. I’m delighted at the great love and care I felt and still feel to this day.

【推荐1】Kids and science seem to be made for each other!

The basic science is a combination of thought and experiment called the scientific method. It’s where you start with an idea, create a way to prove or disprove your idea, and show what you learned based on facts. Learning to follow this process helps you think logically (逻辑地) and carefully. These important thinking skills can be used in many areas of study. To give a child practice with these thinking skills is like giving vitamins to a developing mind.

One of the greatest things we can teach our children is to love learning. Learning science is a great way to do so. Children are easy to be interested in science. Because much of science is hands-on, it attracts most children. Nothing makes a child sit up and take notice like the “WOW!” of a great science showing.

Science opens doors to many subjects at school. Building love for science can be helpful in other areas of study. For example, one cannot love science for very long without becoming good at its language-math! So science encourages children to study math. An interest in science is an interest in how things were once understood compared to how they are understood now. Thus studying science lends itself easily to studying history. And after you do an experiment, you need to write a lab report. Therefore, writing becomes an important part of science.

Science is the basic thing for much of our life. The science of farming shows how our food is produced; biomedical science keeps us healthy; even our beds these days are designed according to scientific facts. We almost eat, sleep and breathe with the help of science! When we prepare the next generation of voters, creators and policy makers, it is important to make sure they are not only comfortable but also good at science.

【推荐1】It was on her 14th birthday that her first book, In the Forest of the Night, was accepted for publication. It was a huge success gaining the attention of millions of young readers. At 16, her second novel, Demon in My View, also reached the bookstores. Several books later, the teenage author still works away in her room, surrounded by shelves full of dark tales about vampires(吸血鬼) and witches(女巫). Amelia Atwater-Rhodes is widely seen as America’s finest teen writer and was named one of Teen People’s “20 Teens Who Will Change the World”.

Born in 1984, she began making up stories when she was about three years old. “I never stopped and said, ‘I want to write’,” Amelia remembers. “I loved stories and created stories before I was old enough to know how to write them down.”

In her family, reading was basic and fun. “My parents encouraged me to read—and to read anything I wanted, so long as I was reading,” she said, “They never limited what I read. Later, when I started writing, they never criticized what I did or said I was ‘too young’. They never said it was impossible for me to achieve what I have.”

In her short but successful career, Amelia has tried different styles. But vampires were the first characters to really come alive in her work. From them she has developed a whole world, one which she always enjoys learning more about.

As a published teen writer, Amelia’s advice to other teens who dream of being authors is: just do it! “I believe anything is possible. Don’t give up your dreams just because you fear failure. Getting a book published is difficult but if I can do it, others can too.”

【推荐2】There is no way they just drove into that water, thought Corion Evans. The 16-year-old was hanging out in a parking area underneath a Moss Point, Mississippi, highway in July when a car with three teenage girls inside rushed off a boat ramp and into the Pascagoula River. It came to rest some 20 feet from land, then sank. The driver, Evans would learn, had blindly followed wrong directions from her GPS.

It was around 2:30 a. m. by the time Evans got to the river’s edge. In the darkness, he could barely make out the girls clinging to the roof, the only part of the car still, barely, above water. But he could hear screaming.

Evans ripped off his shirt and shoes, tossed his phone down, then dived into the water, a river he knew alligators (鳄鱼) called home. He helped the first girl he saw and, keeping her head above water, led her ashore.

Just then, a man called out. Police Officer Garry Mercer had arrived. He dived into the river to help another of the girls. But halfway back to shore, she panicked and went underwater, pulling Mercer down with her.

Evans jumped back into the water and helped them until they could stand. “If he hadn’t been there, who knows?” Mercer told the Washington Post.

There was still one girl in the water. Cora Watson, 19, could not swim. She was gulping water, struggling to stay afloat. And scared.

“I heard Cora screaming ‘Help!’and I thought she was going to the dogs,” Caleb told WLOX in Biloxi.

“I just knew my last breath was coming,” Watson said. “My mind said, You’re slowly losing yourself.” She began to go under. Then, a jolt. “Corion had grabbed me.”

The three girls and Officer Mercer were taken to the hospital and released. They’re alive because Corion Evans risked his life to save them. They’re alive, says his mother, Marquita Evans, because Corion Evans broke his curfew.

But she’s not mad, she told the Post. “He had a good reason.”

【推荐3】My husband is more a kid at heart. He insists we find gifts for the grandkids while on a trip to Savannah.

I can be a kid at heart, too, but I also can be a mathematician — and even cheap, ugly gifts add up quickly when you have 11 grandkids.

Children like gifts and they want them. So we are digging through piles of cheap key fobs (钥匙链), plastic sun hats, chocolate treats that will melt in the heat, and funny T-shirts, finding nothing.

We go with two hats for the boys but are still empty-handed for the nine girls. Then I spot small bracelets (手链) in a rainbow of colors. He turns one over a couple of times and says, “Nice.”

The bracelets are made of small balls shaped like starfish and turtles. They all look like rock candy, which can be eaten and was popular when we were kids. We buy nine and make a mental note: tell the girls not to eat them.

As the clerk wraps the bracelets, I remember a gift I had as a girl. Once we could choose one thing in a shop to remember our trip. What I selected was a blue plastic soapbox with the lid (盖子) and topped with a pink flamingo (火烈鸟). It was cheap and tacky (俗气的) and I believed it was the loveliest thing a girl could own. It was too beautiful to put soap inside, so it sat in a dresser drawer year after year, slowly aging, yellowing, as a reminder of a family trip long ago.

The girls are married and have families of their own, and those gifts are still in the dresser drawers in their old bedrooms, but I have came to realize that every gift may have its worth and value, saying we are together even though we were apart. That’s always a good deal.