【推荐1】There was once a famous scientist who made several important discoveries. Once he was asked how he could be so creative. He replied that it all came from an experience he had with his mother when he was 2 years old. He was trying to take a bottle of milk out of the refrigerator. But the bottle was too slippery（滑的）and he dropped it. The kitchen floor was covered in milk.

Instead of shouting at him or punishing him, his mother said, “Robert, what a great and wonderful mess you have made! I have never seen such a huge puddle of milk. Would you like to play in the milk for a few minutes before we clean it up?”

So he did. After a few minutes, they cleaned it up together. Then his mother said, “This was a failed experiment in how to carry a big bottle of milk with two tiny hands. Let’s fill the bottle with water and see if you can find a way to carry it without dropping it.”

The little boy learned that if he held the bottle at the top near the lip with both hands, he could carry it without dropping it. What a wonderful lesson!

The scientist then added that it was at that moment that he knew he didn’t need to be afraid to make mistakes. He learned that mistakes are just opportunities to learn something new.

【推荐3】For Canaan Elementary’s second grade in Patchogue, N.Y.，today is speech day, and right now it’s Chris Palaez’s turn. The 8-year-old is the joker of the class. With shining dark eyes, he seems like the of kid who would enjoy public speaking.

But he’s, nervous. “I’m here to tell you today why you should … should…” Chris trips on the“-ld,” a pronunciation difficulty for many non-native English speakers. His teacher, Thomas Whaley, is next to him, whispering support. “…Vote for …me …” Except for some stumbles, Chris is doing amazingly well. When he brings his speech to a nice conclusion, Whaley invites the rest of the class to praise him.

A son of immigrants, Chris stared learning English a little over three years ago. Whaley recalls (回想起) how at the beginning of the year, when called upon to read，Chris would excuse himself to go to the bathroom.

Learning English as a second language can be a painful experience. What you need is a great teacher who lets you make mistakes. “It takes a lot for any student，” Whaley explains，“especially for a student who is learning English as their new language，to feel confident enough to say，’I don’t know，but I want to know.’”

Whaley got the idea of this second-grade presidential campaign project when he asked the children one day to raise their hands if they thought they could never be a president. The answer broke his heart. Whaley says the project is about more than just learning to read and speak in public. He wants these kids to learn to boast (夸耀) about themselves.

“Boasting about yourself，and your best qualities,” Whaley says，“is very difficult for a child who came into the classroom not feeling confident.”

【推荐1】One day in summer,little Jack was playing on the beach with his father.Suddenly,he saw a little tortoise moving slowly on the sand.He started to look at it carefully and began to touch it with his hand.To his surprise,the tortoise stopped moving.It pulled in its head and legs,and closed its shell tightly.He touched it again but the tortoise didn’t move at all.Jack became angry.He used a stick and tried to force it to open.

When his father saw this,he stopped him and said,“No,son,you mustn’t do that!You will kill the tortoise.You won’t get it open with a stick.”Jack was curious and asked,“Why?”

“Just wait and see,”his father replied.Then he picked up the tortoise and put it in a bag.

After they came back home,the father took the tortoise out of the bag.He put it near the fireplace.After a few minutes,the tortoise began to move a little.The tortoise stretched out its head and legs.At last,the tortoise began to crawl across the room.How excited Jack was when he saw this.

“Son,now you see,”said his father,“sometimes,you can’t force someone to do things he doesn’t like.But if you get him warm first,he will do what you want him to do.”

【推荐2】Happiness is for everyone. You don’t need to care about those people who have beautiful houses with large gardens and swimming pools or those who have nice cars and a lot of money and so on. Why? Because those who have big houses may often feel lonely and those who have cars may want to walk on the country roads at their free time.

In fact, happiness is always around you if you put your heart into it. When you are in trouble at school, your friends will help you; when you study hard at your lessons, your parents are always taking good care of your life and your health; when you get success, your friends will say congratulations to you; when you do something wrong, people around you will help you to correct(改正) it. And when you do something good to others, you will feel happy, too. All these are your happiness. If you notice them, you can see that happiness is always around you.

Happiness is not the same as money. It is a feeling of your heart. When you are poor, you can also say you are very happy, because you have something else that can’t be bought with money. When you meet with difficulties, you can say loudly you are very happy, because you have more chances(机会) to challenge yourself. So you cannot always say you are poor and you have bad luck. As the saying goes, life is like a revolving(旋转)door. When it closes, it also opens. If you take every chance you get, you can be a happy and lucky person.

【推荐3】A long time ago, there was an emperor who told his horseman that if he could ride on his horse and cover as much land area as he liked, then the emperor would give him the area of land he would have covered.

Sure enough, the horseman quickly jumped onto his horse and rode as fast as possible to cover as much land area as he could. He kept on riding and riding, whipping the horse to go as fast as possible. When he was hungry or tired, he did not stop because he wanted to cover as much as possible.

Finally, the horseman was exhausted and dying. He asked himself, “Why did I push myself so hard to cover so much land area? Now I am dying and I need only a very small area to bury myself.”

The story above is similar with the journey of our life. We push very hard everyday to make more money, to get power. We don’t pay attention to our health, time with our family and to appreciate the surrounding beauties and the hobbies we love. One day when we look back, we will realize that we don’t really need that much.

Life is not only about making money, getting power. Life is definitely not only about work! Work is only necessary to keep us living so as to enjoy the beauties and pleasures of life. Life is a balance of work and play. Happiness is also the meaning and the purpose of life.

So, take it easy! Do what you want to do and appreciate nature. Life is fragile and short.

【推荐1】Five weeks ago I had total hip replacement surgery (髋关节置换手术). In Canada, we have a great healthcare system. That means we get our new hips for free.

My hip had been hurting me for years before I went to the doctor. Of course, it was free. She referred me to a surgeon, but the earliest appointment was in 10 months. That is what being free gets you. Ten months later, after some free X-rays, the surgeon told me I needed surgery, which was about an 18-month wait, for some senior citizens had been on the operation list. Another 18 months! I dragged myself out of the surgeon’s office.

Walking through the hospital, I thought about the situation. As the breadwinner of a large family, I couldn’t wait that long, so I had to get to the front line. I was fully aware of what a Canadian should be like (Canadians are usually considered gentle and ca-ring), but this time I really needed to fight for myself. At that very moment, in the shop window of the hospital, I saw a sign which read, “Volunteers Needed.” Suddenly, an idea occurred to me—I would get the job. Fortunately, they signed me up immediately because the average age of the volunteers at the shop was 75. They were desperate for some young blood.

Every Friday morning, I was at the shop. While seeing the hospital staff, I’d casually be asked, What do you do? Then I'd tell them, Well, I'm getting my hip replaced—in 18 months. It’s going to be so great when the pain stops. Soon, all the staff got to know me. Naturally, in my next appointment, the surgeon recognized me. Moments later, I had a surgery date just weeks away.

I had to say it was actually my volunteering that got me to the front of the line. And I’m not ashamed of it, for I intend to stick with the volunteering. Also, even when I cheated the system, I did it in a way that benefits society.

【推荐2】“Cleverness is a gift while kindness is a choice. Gifts are easy – they’re given after all. Choices can be hard.” ---Jeff Bezos.

I got the idea to start Amazon 16 years ago. I came across the fact that the Internet usage was growing at 2,300 percent per year. I'd never seen or heard of anything that grew that fast, and the idea of building an online bookstore with millions of titles was very exciting to me. I had just turned 30 years old, and I'd been married for a year. I told my wife MacKenzie that I wanted to quit my job and go to do this crazy thing that probably wouldn't work since most start-ups don't, and I wasn't sure what to expect. MacKenzie told me I should go for it. As a young boy, I’d been a garage inventor. I'd always wanted to be an inventor, and she wanted me to follow my passion.

I was working at a financial firm in New York City with a bunch of very smart people, and I had a brilliant boss that I admired very much. I went to my boss and told him I wanted to start a company selling books on the Internet. He took me on a long walk in Central Park, listened carefully to me, and finally said. “That sounds like a really good idea, but it would be an even better idea for someone who didn't already have a good job.” That logic made some sense to me, and he convinced me to think about it for 48 hours before making a final decision. Seen in that light, it really was a difficult choice, but eventually, I decided I had to give it a shot. I didn't think I'd regret trying and failing. And I suspected I would always be haunted by a decision not to try at all.

After much consideration, I took the less safe path to follow my passion, and I’m proud of that choice. For all of us, in the end, we are our choices.

【推荐1】Anyone who commutes（通勤）by car knows that traffic jams are an unavoidable part of life. But humans are not alone in facing potential backups.

Ants also commute-between their nest and sources of food. The survival of their colonies depends on doing this efficiently.

When humans commute, there's a point at which cars become dense（稠密）enough to slow down the flow of traffic, causing jam. Researchers wanted to know if ants on the move could also get stuck. So they regulated traffic density by constructing bridges of various widths between a colony of Argentine ants and a source of food. Then they waited and watched, trying to find out at what point they are going to have a traffic jam.

The researchers then took a closer look at how the behaviour of individual ants impacted traffic as a whole. And they found that when ants sense overcrowding, they adjust their speeds and avoid entering high-density areas, which prevents jams. These behaviors may be promoted by pheromones, chemicals that tell other ants where a trail is. The ants also manage to avoid colliding（碰撞）with each other at high densities, which could really slow them down.

Can ants help us solve our own traffic problems? Not likely. That's because when it comes to getting from point A to point B as fast as possible, human drivers put their own goals first. Individual ants have to be more cooperative in order to feed the colony. But the research could be useful in improving traffic flow for self-driving cars, which can be designed to be less like selfish humans—and more like ants.

【推荐2】The Laterooms. com Price Promise

The Laterooms. com Price Promise is our little way of giving you the peace of mind that you're always getting a great hotel deal on Laterooms. com. If you do spot the same hotel room cheaper elsewhere online, we'll do the decent (适当的) thing and refund the difference.

How our Price Promise works：

We'll look into any Price Promise claim (索赔) as long as it's for a current booking with Laterooms. com and the situation is among the following:

*The lower rate found is available for booking the exact same room online （the same room type, the same hotel, the same check-in and check-out dates, and the same booking conditions, like breakfast and parking etc. ）.

*The lower rate is in the same currency.

*The lower rate does NOT include membership rates, frequent stay or loyalty points or “reward" type programmes.

*You let us know about the claim within 24 hours of completing your Laterooms. com booking.

We can^’t offer our Price Promise when：

*The lower rate is no longer bookable when we look into your claim （within 24 hours）.

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【推荐3】Summer Vacation Fun 2020

The summer holidays are upon us again. Here is our guide to summer holiday fun in Peterborough!

Peterborough Museum

The Age of the Dinosaurs’ is the museum’s main attraction this summer. Get up close to prehistoric creatures via some great hands-on exhibits! Watch out for monsters lurking around every ember! The museum is open from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm Monday to Saturday, and from 12:00 pm to 4:00 pm on Sundays in August.

Call 01733 864663 for details.

Saxon Youth Club

School holiday fun: Young people aged 13-19 will be able to produce their own music, compete in sports activities, or try their hand at cooking at Saxon Youth Club, Saxon Community Centre, Norman Road. Peterborough every Monday and Wednesday from 3:00 pm. PLUS an aero ball tournament will take place on Thursday 12th August between 3:30pm and 6:30pm.

Call 01 353 720274 for details.

Houghton Mill

Alice through the Looking Class—a new production of the family favorite on Monday 30th. August. Bring rugs or chairs to sit on and a picnic if you wish to eat during the play. Gates open 5:30 pm, performance 6:30 pm--8:30 pm. Tea room will be open until end of the interval. Adult £ 10. Child £7. Family £20.

Booking advisable on 0845 4505157.

Farmland Museum and Denny Abbey

Farmland Gaines: From Wellie Wanging to Pretend Ploughing matches, come and join the Farmland Team. Collect your sporting stickers and create a colorful rosette that is it for a winner! No need to book, just turn up between 12:00 pm and 4:00 pm on Thursday 19th August. Suitable for children aged four and above. Each child should be accompanied by an adult and all activities are included in the normal admission price. Tickets Cost £ 7 per child.

For further information, call 01223 810080.