1 . One of my wonderful memories is about a Christmas gift. Unlike other gifts, it came without wrap (包装).

On September 11th, 1958, Mum gave birth to Richard. After she brought him home from hospital, she put him in my lap, saying, “I promised you a gift, and here it is.” What an honour! I turned four a month earlier and none of my friends had such a baby doll of their own. I played with it day and night. I sang to it. I told it stories. I told it over and over how much I loved it!

One morning, however, I found its bed empty. My doll was gone! I cried for it.Mum wept and told me that the poor little thing had been sent to a hospital. It had a fever. For several days, I heard Mum and Dad whispering such words as “hopeless”, “pitiful”, and “dying”, which sounded ominous.

Christmas was coming. “Don’t expect any presents this year,” Dad said, pointing at the socks I hung in the living room.“If your baby brother lives, that’ll be Christmas enough.” As he spoke, his eyes filled with tears. I’d never seen him cry before.

The phone rang early on Christmas morning. Dad jumped out of bed to answer it. From my bedroom I heard him say, “What? He’s all right?” He hung up and shouted upstairs. “The hospital said we can bring Richard home!”

“Thank God!” I heard Mum cry.

From the upstairs window, I watched my parents rush out to the car. I had never seen them so happy. And I was also full of joy. What a wonderful day! My baby doll would be home. I ran downstairs. My socks still hung there flat. But I knew they were not empty; they were filled with love!

2 . The United States is a sports-loving nation. Sports in America take various forms: organized competitive struggles, athletic games, hunting and fishing. Most sports are seasonal, so that what is happening in sports depends upon the time of year.

Baseball is the most popular sport in the US. It is played throughout the spring and summer, and professional baseball teams play well into the fall.

Football is the most popular sport in the fall. The game originated as a college sport more than 75 years ago. It’s not the same as European football or soccer. In American football there are 11 players as well on each team, and they are dressed in padded uniforms and helmets because the game is rough and injuries are likely to occur. It is still played by almost every college and university in the country.

Basketball is the winner sport in American schools and colleges. Like football, basketball originated in the US, many Americans prefer it to football because it is played indoors throughout the winter and because it is a faster game. And the famous NBA games are considered the best of this game.

Other sports attracting a great many people include wrestling, boxing and horse racing. Although horse-racing fans call themselves sportsmen, the exactness of the term is questionable, as only the jockeys who ride the horses in the races can be considered athletes. The so-called sportsmen are the spectators, who do not come primarily to see the horses race, but to bet (打赌) upon the outcome of cach race. Gambling is the attraction of horse racing.

3 . “Barefoot Mike” gets a lot of attention when he shows up at the beginning of a race. He loves to run and has been running since he was a kid. He loves to and often competes in 10K races. But That’s not the reason he gets so much attention. People notice him because when he runs, “Barefoot Mike” runs barefoot.

Running barefoot has become a huge trend in the world of running. “I didn’t set out to be a trend setter,” laughed “Barefoot Mike”, otherwise known as Mike Whitaker. “I’ve always been a runner, but until a few years ago, I always wore shoes. Then one day I was running after a rainstorm. I stepped off into the grass to avoid a puddle (水坑) on the sidewalk, and accidentally stepped into a huge muddy puddle that had been hidden in the grass. I tried to keep running, but the wet and dirty shoe made it really hard. I figured the best solution was to just get rid of the shoes.”

Mike took off his shoes and dropped them into the nearest trash can. “Then I started running. At first I went really slowly because I was watching out for rocks or other things that could hurt my feet, but there really weren’t any problems.” He started going faster. “It felt so good!” Mike said. “My knee, which always ached, didn’t ache. My foot was able to spread out so I had better balance. And my feet didn’t feel all hot and sweaty. It was awesome!”

“There are actually potential health benefits to running barefoot” said Dr. Nancy Bower, a podiatrist (足科医师).

A recent study agrees. A team of researchers recently videotaped several people running—first wearing shoes and then barefoot. In almost every case, when wearing shoes, the runners tended to land on the heel of their foot, which they call “heel-striking.” Many runners have impact injuries such as knee pain. Heel-striking may be the cause of these injuries or may make an existing injury worse. When running barefoot, the runners tended to land on the middle part of the foot. The force is spread out throughout the foot. The ankle, shin (胫部), knee and hip don’t get the shock of a hard landing with every step.

5 . Do you have a talented young artist, photographer, or designer in your life? It’s never too early to start helping them get their work out there! We’ve rounded up the top art contests for kids and teens that can help these young creators share their first masterpieces with the world. Best of all? Most of them are totally free to enter!

Global Canvas Art Competition

Ages: 16 and under

Mediums: Drawing, painting

Global Canvas is all about the environment. Launched by the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation, this art competition wants to inspire the next generation to be more mindful of how we take care of the earth. The judges are looking for artists to capture the wonderful places that wildlife call home.

Toyota Dream Car Art Contest

Ages: Four to 15

Mediums: Drawing, painting

Time to design a dream car! Toyota wants to get junior artists thinking about what the future of transportation might look like. Prizes include cash and a chance to tour one of the Toyota manufacturing plants.

Advena World’s art   Competition

Ages: 15 and under

Mediums: Drawing, painting

Advena World’s art competition aims to promote creativity and self-expression. Instead of a theme, they ask the participating artists to simply express their feelings — anything from sadness or joy to anger or excitement — through their chosen medium,.

Progressive Young Artist Awards

Ages: 13 to 19

Open to: All international applicants

Mediums: Painting, drawing, photography, mixed media, sculpture

Cost to enter: $5 USD

PYAA is all about expressing and celebrating progressive values. So, if there is a creative teen in your life who wants to do good in the world, sign them up for this art contest for teens. The prize is a scholarship which they can put toward their post-secondary schooling.

7 . The following four famous paintings—from Jan van Eyck’s portrait to Pablo Picasso’s masterpiece—have stood the test of time.

The Arnolfini Portrait

The Arnolfini Portrait of Jan van Eyck, an oil painting on wood produced in 1434, in which a man and a woman hold hands with a window behind him and a bed behind her, is undoubtedly one of the masterpieces in the National Gallery, London. This painting is as visually interesting as it is famed. It is also an informative document on fifteenth-century society, through Jan van Eyck’s heavy use of symbolism—while husbands went out to engage in business, wives concerned themselves with domestic duties.

The Starry Night

During his 12—month stay at the mental hospital near Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France between 1889 and 1890, Vincent Willem van Gogh painted The Starry Night, an oil on canvas(帆布), a moderately abstract landscape painting of an expressive night sky over a small hillside village. When the Museum of Modern Art in New York City purchased the painting from a private collector in 1941, it was not well known, but it has since become one of Van Gogh’s most famous works.

The Harvesters

The Harvesters is an oil painting on wood completed by Pieter Bruegel the Elder in 1565. It depicted the harvest time which most commonly occurred within the months of August and September. Nicolaes Jonghelinck, a merchant banker and art collector from Antwerp, commissioned this painting. The painting has been at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City since 1919.

Guernica

Guernica, a large black-and-white oil painting, was painted by the Cubist Spanish painter, Pablo Picasso in 1937. The title “Guernica” refers to the city that was bombed by Nazi planes during the Spanish Civil War. The painting depicted the horrors of war and as a result, has come to be an anti-war symbol and a reminder of the tragedies of war. Today, the painting is housed at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid.

9 . What’s On?

Electric Underground

7.30pm－1.00am   Free at the Cyclops Theatre

Do you know who’s playing in your area? We’re bringing you an evening of live rock and pop music from the best local bands. Are you interested in becoming a musician and getting a recording contract? If so, come early to the talk at 7.30 pm by Jules Skye, a successful record producer. He’s going to talk about how you can find the right person to produce your music.

Gee Whizz

8.30pm-10.30pm   Comedy (喜剧)at Kaleidoscope

Come and see Gee Whizz perform. He’s the funniest stand-up comedian on the comedy scene. This joyful show will please everyone, from the youngest to the oldest. Gee Whizz really knows how to make you laugh! Our bar is open from 7.00pm for drinks and snacks(快餐).

Simon’s Workshop

5.00pm-7.30pm   Wednesdays at Victoria Stage

This is a good chance for anyone who wants to learn how to do comedy. The workshop looks at every kind of comedy, and practices many different ways of making people laugh. Simon is a comedian and actor who has 10 years’ experience of teaching comedy. His workshops are exciting and fun. An evening with Simon will give you the confidence to be funny.

Charlotte Stone

8.00pm-11.00pm     Pizza World

Fine food with beautiful jazz music; this is a great evening out. Charlotte Stone will perform songs from her new best-selling CD, with James Pickering on the piano. The menu is Italian, with excellent meat and fresh fish, pizzas and pasta(面食). Book early to get a table. Our bar is open all day, and serves cocktails, coffee, beer, and white wine.

10 . Take a look inside a high school classroom. You will most likely find a teacher at the front of the class and students sitting at their desks. Yet, look closer, and you might notice a familiar scene: many of these students are not paying attention. Instead, they are dozing off (打盹) or even completely asleep.

Today, the majority of high school students are not getting enough sleep. This is a serious problem, especially as students are doing more than ever with their time. They come to school early, spend hours listening to teachers and taking tests, then run off to practices and meetings, and come home to be faced with even more work. And the homework load these days is not light; teachers give hours’ worth of homework each night.

Most kids need at least nine hours of sleep per night in order to function properly. Yet the period of this nine hours shifts as a child gets older. After puberty (青春期), the body’s internal clock changes so that it is difficult for teens to fall asleep before 11 p.m. So even if a student falls asleep at eleven, they would need to sleep until at least 8 am, to get a full night’s sleep. Considering the time at which most high schools in this country begin, those nine hours are clearly being shortened. Few high schools start after 8 a.m.

However, there are schools that have paid attention to this research and pushed backward the start of their school day. In schools where the start time is after 8:30 in the morning, the teachers believe that there has been a real change in their students. They note that the students miss class less, pay more attention in class, perform better in class, and report lower levels of depression. The researchers of these studies say that the results are quite important and that more schools should consider pushing backward their start time of their school day.