【推荐2】It is one thing to visit a zoo as an ordinary member of the public but quite another to own a zoo and live in the middle of it; this at times can be a mixed thing. It certainly forces you to rush out at any time of the day or night to watch your charges (收费), but it also means that you are on duty 24 hours of the day and you can find that a fine little dinner party breaks up because some animal has broken its leg, or because the heaters in the snake house have failed. Winter, of course, is your least busy period and sometimes days pass without a single visitor.

But in the summer season the days are so full and the visitors so many that you can hardly seem to notice the passing of time and you forget how much you have in the bank.

【推荐3】Every time the holiday season approaches, my agony begins. Shall I go to Rome, Paris, the Andes, or Brighton beach? There is no lack of places, the difficulty is, shall I ever be able to decide? It is December now, but no sooner is Christmas over than the advertisements, the brochures, the Special Offers will start dropping through my letter-box. The media—television, radio, the newspapers—will be doing their best to attract me and my money, to lure me far-off places with high-sounding names or cozy farmhouses in the Cotswolds or steamer trips down the Rhine. The trouble is always that bewildering.

Psychology, too, will play its part. In case I am one of the those who feel guilty when I am lazy, I shall receive too many offers from travel agencies and associations of all kinds to improve my physique by hill-climbing, playing golf, surf-riding and a host of other activities. On the other hand, if I feel educationally at a disadvantage, I shall no doubt receive pressing invitations from Summer Schools to improve myself, study languages, ancient civilizations, lectures on music, drama, stamp-collecting. As a modest shorthand typist who spends her days pounding a typewriter in a quiet office, I’m afraid I shall become more and more distracted by these delights, more and more unable to choose.

Fortunately I shall not have to decide this year. I have just received notice of an increase in my rent and rates. Unless I get a rise in salary, it seems highly likely that I shall not be able to afford to go to anywhere.

【推荐1】Returning from an early-morning walk with my dog, I dug in my pockets for the keys to the front door but failed. I decided to return to find them.

I spent an hour looking for the keys, but the keys remained lost. At home again, I pulled the backup key from its hiding place, let myself in the house, and fell on the couch thinking. The house key wasn’t that important as I had an extra. I had a spare car key, but the iron heart made by my grandson was precious. For some reason, thinking of it being gone forever made tears come to my eyes. I blamed myself for not being more careful. In my head, I reflected on my steps but finally gave up. Life is too short to get worried over these things.

For some reason, I continued the day without beginning the various tasks of getting replacements. That night, it began to snow. I settled into a peaceful evening. It was peaceful until I heard the scream of my car alarm. I rushed to the car, opened it, and stopped the alarm. I felt red-faced as I imagined my next-door neighbors being annoyed.

I went back in the house, and the next sound was the front doorbell. Assuming it was a neighbor ready to complain, I opened the door with apologies ready.

In the light snow stood three neighbors from several streets away. One of them held out my keys with a smile! I wanted to hug her, but in a COVID world, all I could do was say. “Oh, my goodness! Thank you!” She said, “Sorry about the alarm. We had to press it to find your home!” Pressing the alarm until I heard a car alarm wouldn’t have occurred to me. I was astonished by her clever kindness and wished I could have hugged her. Instead, I hugged the keys.

【推荐2】As Teachers’ Day approached, I received an interview assignment to talk with a very special figure about teaching. President Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam talked with me about life’s toughest lessons and his mission of being a teacher to the Indian youth. He was now a leader and a wise old man. There was still a child in him though, and he was still curious about learning new things. To this day, he still remembered his first lesson in life and how it had changed his life.

“I was studying in fifth grade and must have been 10 years old. My teacher, Sri Sivasubramanialyer was telling us how birds flew. He drew a diagram of a bird on the blackboard, drawing the wings, the tail, the body and the head and then explained how birds flew into the sky. At the end of the class, I said I didn’t understand. Then he asked the other students if they had understood, but nobody had understood how birds flew.” he recalled.

“That evening, the entire class was taken to Rameshwaram shore by our teacher,” the President continued. “My teacher showed us sea birds. We saw wonderful formations of them flying and how their wings waved. Then my teacher asked us, ‘Where is the bird’s engine and how is it powered?’ I knew then that birds are powered by their own life and motivation. I understood all about birds’ dynamics. At last, he said to us with relief that we were very good.”

“That day from not understanding to the final understanding, as well as the gratitude to the teacher, has always impressed me. A proper education would help develop a sense of dignity (尊严) and self-respect among our youth,” said President Kalam.