【推荐1】 There is a famous story about how Walt Disney was inspired to build Disneyland. The story goes that during an afternoon visit to Griffith Pack located near the Burbank Studios, Walt took a scat while his two young daughters rode the merry-go-round. Walt thought there should be a place where both children and their parents could enjoy spending some time together in an environment that would be both entertaining and pleasing to the eye, so with this thought came the idea for Disneyland.

Walt’s original plan was to build an eight-acre park located near the Burbank Studios that would be a place for his employees and their families. Those plans were put on hold because of the start of World War Ⅱ. By 1952, Walt had created a special department to build the park.

Finally in 1953, the first steps in building the park happened when Walt hired the Stanford Research Institute to make a survey to determine the best possible location for the future park. Considering population growth and the future freeway construction, they finally found a location in Anaheim and 160 acres of land were bought for the site of the new park.

The building of the park was very expensive and to create funding for the project Walt developed the idea of the “Walt Disney’s Disneyland” television show. It turned out to be a marvelous idea — not only gaining the money to build the park but also presenting the park to the American public.

Construction officially began on July 21, 1954, and it was an ambitious (野心勃勃的) building schedule of less than one year to complete the new park for the projected opening day. Walt watched over the park’s construction and progress continued with just a few minor hold-ups. Finally, the park was ready for the Opening Day on July 17, 1955.

【推荐2】There was great excitement on the planet of Venus this week. For the first time Venusian scientists managed to land a satellite on the planet Earth, and it has been sending back signals as well as photographs. The satellite was directed into an area known as Manhattan. Because of excellent weather conditions and extremely strong signals, Venusian scientists were able to get valuable information about the feasibility of a manned flying saucer landing on Earth. A press conference was held at the Venus Institute of Technology. "We have come to the conclusion, based on last weeks satellite landing, "Prof. Zog said, that there is no life on Earth.”

“How do you know this? "the science reporter of the Venus Evening News asked "For one thing, Earth s surface in the area of Manhattan is composed of solid concrete and nothing can grow there. For another, the atmosphere is filled with carbon monoxide and other deadly gases and nobody could possibly breathe this air and survive. “Are there any other sources of danger that you have discovered in your studies?

“Take a look at this photo. You see this dark black cloud staying over the surface of Earth? We don' t know what it is made of, but it could give us a lot of trouble and we shall have to make further tests before we send a Venus Being there.”

“Over here you will notice what seems to be a river, but the satellite findings indicate it is polluted and the water is unfit to drink.”

“Sir, what are all those tiny black spots on the photographs?

We’re not certain. They seem to be metal particles that move along certain paths. They give gases, make noise and keep crashing into each other.

“Prof. Zog, why are we spending billions and billions of Zilches to land a flying saucer on Earth when there is no life there ?"

“Because if we Venusians can learn to breathe in the Earth atmosphere, then we can live anywhere.”

【推荐1】The moonlight poured in through the windows, lighting the room. Oliver was sitting at the table, totally absorbed in his book. Oliver was a book fan. He read books whenever he could. Grandma Agnes felt sorry for Oliver when she heard him talk enthusiastically about the books he read because they were poor. She knew the money she gave him for lunch was spent on those books instead.

The next day, on the bus, Oliver was reading his storybook again when he heard a noise and raised his eyes. He saw the bus driver shouting at a blind older woman. She explained to the driver that her daughter was ill in hospital, and that she forgot to bring her purse. The driver mistakenly believed that she was making excuses to avoid paying the bus ticket! Knowing she wouldn’t be able to persuade the driver, the older woman was about to get off the bus, when Oliver stepped in.

“I’ll pay for her fare, sir!” he said. Then Oliver helped the blind older woman into the seat next to him and paid her fare. When he returned to his seat, the woman said to him, “Thank you, little kid, you have a sweet voice!”

“I’m a big boy! And my name is Oliver, ” Oliver said proudly. “I’m Mary,” the older woman introduced herself and expressed her gratitude for helping her. Although Oliver had planned to use the money to buy the next book in the series he was reading, he couldn’t bear to see Mary in trouble.

They had a chat before Oliver’s stop arrived. Oliver liked Mary because she reminded him of the person he loved deeply. When he talked with her, she listened to him with the same patience as Grandma Agnes.

【推荐2】(A)

When I was growing up, my family kept chickens. We always had about a dozen of them at any given time and whenever one died off – taken away by hawk or fox or by some unknown chicken illness – my father would replace the lost hen.

He’d drive to a nearby chicken farm and return with a new chicken in a sack. The thing is, you must be very careful when introducing a new chicken to the general flock. You can’t just toss it in there with the old chickens, or they will see it as an invader. What you must do instead is to slip the new bird into the chicken farm in the middle of the night while the others are asleep. Place her beside the flock and tiptoe away. In the morning, when the chickens wake up, they don’t notice the newcomer, thinking only, “She must have been here all the time since I didn’t see her arrive.” And awaking within this flock, the newcomer herself doesn’t even remember that she’s a newcomer, thinking only, “I must have been here the whole time…”

My arrival in India does likewise. My plane lands in Mumbai on December 30. I find my luggage, and then find the taxi that will take me hours and hours out of the city to the destination, located in a remote rural village. I doze on the drive through streets, sometimes waking to look out the window, where I can see strange haunted shapes of thin women walking alongside the road with bundles of firewood on their heads. Buses with no headlights pass us, and we pass oxcarts. The banyan trees spread their elegant roots throughout the ditches.

【推荐3】When Amanda Lemay heard the story about a baker and his wife who were traveling around the United States in a van, learning from expert bakers, she wanted to do something similar. So she got rid of most of her possessions and made an old ambulance with her dad into a lovely home on wheels.

Lemay’s ambulance is actually a former emergency response vehicle for the US Navy, built on a 2006 Ford E350 Cutaway. Renovations were done by her and her dad. Now the dark blue vehicle has a lot of built-in cabinets on all sides, offering a lot of storage space, while the rooftop has 400-watts of solar power panels and a small roof deck where Lemay practices yoga. The inside is tastefully done to suit Lemay’s work and hobbies.

As Lemay mentions, not only did her father help, but so did the rest of her family. Lemay’s mother helped sew the decorations on the removable cushions, and her sister crafted the leather pulls. It was truly a family affair.

Her current nomadic lifestyle fits well with her work doing audiobooks, voiceovers, and publishing work. In the end, this unexpected path has Lemay rethinking what it means to be truly sustainable, now that van life has gotten her to become minutely aware of the water, electricity, and other daily resources that she uses. But all these day-to-day concerns are balanced with a greater sense of freedom.

“It’s almost mind-blowing, it feels like a completely different life because I’m doing the work online, and I can do things on my own schedule. Pretty much most of my days are mine — so by living in the van, I can be where I want to be, and do the things I want to do, and spend time outside.”