§ 1. Catherine Cassidy has every reason to be proud. This summer she graduated with a degree in Zoology from Queen's University, Belfast. She has ambitions to be a scientific journalist. She is also completely deaf. She can lipread. I interviewed Catherine via e-mail. She told me getting to university was an achievement in itself. She says: 'You have to work much harder than your peers (сверст­ни­ки) and have to be prepared to commit yourself.'

§ 2. The Disability Discrimination Act insists that universities increase their intake of special needs students. But there are difficulties. First, there are no reliable figures on the numbers of disabled in the community, so universities are unsure of the percentages they should be aiming to recruit. Second, some students might require specially adapted computers, or online learning support. Of all the disabilities, deafness is probably the one that is hardest to cope with at university. Universities run on talk. Knowledge is communicated in lectures, seminars, talking to fellow students  — reading is only secondary. For deaf students, casual spontaneous discussions are out.

§ 3. Fortunately for Catherine, Queen's University is a centre of excellence for the teaching of deaf students. The Joint Universities Deaf Education centre (JUDE) organised a special phonic earpiece (слу­хо­вой ап­па­рат) that enabled Catherine to listen to lectures. JUDE has been extended to the other higher education institutions of Northern Ireland. JUDE is setting an example in what can be achieved. Sharon Easton, deaf student support officer, says: "We visit schools to make deaf people aware that higher education is a possibility. Another part of our role is to talk with employers. We're offering them deaf awareness training  — how to adapt to the needs of deaf employees, and where to apply for grants.'

§ 4. Catherine's skill in lip-reading made communicating with her seem so effortless that many people did not believe she had a problem. At times this experience has been painful. Catherine says: 'People have labelled me "not really deaf". It is like telling me I don't count. And this can be very disheartening, very demoralising.'

§ 5. Catherine believes that excellent and well-focused special needs support should be available to all disabled students at university whatever the cost. She says: 'You are accepted by a university on the basis of your ability to carry out mental tasks. You have a right to be there - people should not judge a person by any physical disability.'

§ 1. Cruising over the pack-ice with our heavy snowmobiles, my guide, Arne, and I looked out across the dazzling expanse of snow. We had come to the tiny, remote island of Svalbard northeast of Greenland, to photograph polar bears, but now we were exhausted with searching. The day had been particularly frustrating, as every bear we'd slowly approached had run away from us. Fed up and hungry, we decided to abandon our search for the afternoon and stop for a snack beside one of the many tall, blue icebergs.

§ 2. As always, a good meal was followed by an intense desire to sleep, and we decided to give in to it, even though the temperature was down to −30 °C. Sleeping at the same time would be unwise with our furry friends around, so we decided to take it in turns. As Arne slept, I scanned the Snow with my binoculars, looking for anything moving. An hour passed. I was just about to wake my companion, when I noticed a dot on the horizon. I wiped the lens, but it was still there. I began to make out the typical mayonnaise colour and the striding walk  — it was a polar bear and it was heading in our direction. I awoke Arne instantly. For the next thirty minutes, the bear continued on its direct course towards us, which was strange because the wind was blowing our scent straight towards him, so he must have been aware of our presence.

§ 3. When he was a couple of hundred metres away, I decided to lie down in the snow so as to get a better photograph. "You realise you look like seal like that, don't you?" warned Arne, for once sounding a bit worried. ave for dinner. Onwards the bear came, and by now I could hear the crunching Seals are what polar bears like to sound of his feet on the ice. It struck me that this was a big bear, travelling at some speed. I turned to speak to Arne, and saw him pulling a gun from his bag. Polar bears are incredibly unpredictable animals, and to be in their environment without protection is foolish. But Arne had strict instructions from me only to use the gun to frighten the bear away, and then only if necessary.

§ 4. By now the animal was only 25 metres away and the atmosphere had changed. Arne sat up on the snowmobile calmly awaiting the bear's next move, while struggled to change the film in my camera with my cold, shaking hands. Then, just as I was thinking that there was no escape, as I tensed myself for the inevitable attack, the bear veered off (из­ме­нил на­прав­ле­ние) to one side and then went straight past us. "Look!" whispered Arne. "Behind us!" I turned and saw a second creamy head with two black eyes peering around the corner of an iceberg a few hundred metres behind us. A female bear. Our friend's goal had clearly been in his sight the whole time, and we were the only thing between him and his beloved.

§ 1. My parents always said I was born to be a sportsman. They said that even when I was in nappies, I wasn't happy unless I was kicking or throwing a ball. My first memory is of Dad and me playing football in our back garden. I recall my mum sitting down on the grass cheering me on as I clumsily kicked a football into the goal net my dad was 'defending'. The sense of achievement when I scored my first goal stuck with me, and my life has revolved around football ever since. As I grew up, I dreamed of becoming a football player. During class, I tried to stay focused on my studies; I knew that few people became professional sportsmen and it was crucial to get a good education. But I devoted every spare second to my passion. I knew that if I wanted to become a success, I would have to put all my energy into the game.

§ 2. My big break came when I was 18. Leicester City FC offered me a place in the team. It was there that I learned the true value of teamwork. I played with a fantastic group of guys there and we worked toward one common goal  — to win! I learned that every person has their own individual talents, and a great team brings these talents together. We enjoyed great success at Leicester, and I was lucky enough to become one of the UK's top scorers I was transferred to Everton and, while I was sad to leave my fellow team-mates, I was excited about working with new people and making new friends. My time at Everton was an outstanding experience. While I was there, I scored 38 goals in 52 games. It wasn't long until I was on a new journey, this time across the sea to Spain to play for FC Barcelona. I was nervous at first, but it turned out that there was no reason to panic. I felt great pride when I stepped into the stadium and onto the pitch in Barcelona.

§ 3. As you can imagine, the proudest I felt was when I played for my country, England, in the World Cup. The tournament raises the level of competitiveness for every player. Not only do you have to be mentally prepared, but you have to be at the peak of physical fitness  — so, as you can imagine, it didn't help that I had to play the tournament with my left arm heavily strapped up! But I was determined not to let one injury stop me and played anyway! Because we were astrong team, we got to the quarter finals, and I scored six goals during the entire competition and won the 'Golden Boot' award

§ 4. Football has taken me around the world, from England to Spain to Japan! I have become fluent in two other languages and have experienced other cultures. My career provided me with many happy memories that I wouldn't change for the world.

§ 1. The moment for Olympic glory and gold occurs once every four years - a moment which becomes the focus for the lives of athletes from all over the world. This one event is their main goal and in order to achieve their dream they are prepared to make any sacrifice. All athletes are selected by their national Olympic Committee to represent their country, and once selected they face two major demands. The first is the mountain of form filling, paperwork and administration. The second is to finalise their preparation for the Games. Most athletes have highly-developed training schedules which enable them to reach the height of their performance for a particular event. However, the Olympics, creates its own timetable and pressures.

§ 2. When I was selected to represent Great Britain, I had approximately a hundred days to prepare. This included finalising training plans, raising nearly £16,000 towards the costs, seeing to travel arrangements and entry forms, and having discussions with my employer about extra time off work to allow me to prepare fully. Throughout my sailing career I had never had the opportunity to become a full-time athlete, so I needed to pursue my business career at the same time as my sporting objectives. However, any top-class athlete in any sport needs a level of business skills when competing at Olympic standard. They need the ability to plan and arrange for all the expenses effectively as well as work towards definite aims.

§ 3. Once you arrive, you stay in the Olympic "Village', which is really a small town housing 15,000 people from every imaginable culture and background. It is fascinating to watch athletes from tiny gymnasts to huge weightlifters and basketball players, and best of all is the excitement at being part of such a select gathering. There are training facilities, souvenir shops, launderettes, a bank and post office, as well as the Village restaurant which seats over 3,000 at one time.

§ 4. So what does it feel like to go to an Olympics? It can be summed up in many ways by the opening ceremony, where thousands of athletes and officials parade wearing their team kit. To most it is an event they will never forget and the honour of just being there is almost magical. And perhaps winning a medal is one of life's major experiences. For me it was the thoughts of family and friends who had all played a part on my road to success, and it felt wonderful. I feel that it is important to try and repay everyone's faith in me by putting something back into the community. I want the younger generation of athletes to benefit in the ways that I did.

§ 1. While having lunch in an expensive restaurant, I tasted the wine I had ordered. I thought it might be spoiled, so I called the wine waiter. He was most unpleasant at the mere suggestion that something might be wrong. Unwillingly he tasted the wine  — and immediately apologized and brought another bottle. That's what I call power!' said my guest, but it helped that I knew I was right. As the customer, you have considerable rights.

§ 2. If a restaurant fails to provide a table you have booked, they will have broken their contract with you and you can politely threaten to take them to court for the cost of a spoiled evening. They will then usually find you a table. On the other hand, if you let them down, they can take you to court for lost business. In one case, a company booked a table for one o'clock for five people at a popular restaurant, then called to cancel at 1.35 p.m. on the day, saying their client did not want to eat. When the company refused to pay up, the restaurant owner took them to court and won: the judge decided that, since it was too late to re-book the table, the company should pay for the loss of profit on the meal.

§ 3. The menu is a vital legal document. The price should be included, together with the tax (налог), and the restaurant can be fined for not displaying it outside or immediately inside the door, so that customers know in advance what they are committing themselves to. It is illegal for any establishment to give a false description of their food. Everything must be what it claims to be: fresh fruit salad must consist only of fresh, not tinned, fruit; Welsh lamb must be an animal born or raised in Wales.

§ 4. You cannot rely on getting bread and butter free. A restaurant is allowed to make a cover charge  — which relates to linen, tableware, salt and pepper, Sauces and items like bread or olives  — provided it appears on the menu by the door.

§ 5. If the food is not cooked to your satisfaction, you can insist on the restaurant taking it back and supplying what you ordered. If it gives you food poisoning, the restaurant is obliged to pay for the suffering and inconvenience provided you have been to your doctor. If the food is not up to a reasonable standard for the money, you can either send it back or pay less than the bill demands. If you do not pay the full price, give your name, address and proof of identity so that you cannot be arrested for leaving without paying.

§ 1. Though he is, in many ways, unremarkable and we have never met before, and he hasn't given me any particular clues to help me pick him out, it's not hard to spot Steve Sires in the lobby of his hotel, simply because he's the only man here who looks exactly like Bill Gates, the computer millionaire and head of Microsoft. "I figured you'd recognise me," he says, rising from his chair to shake my hand, in his Bill Gates glasses, with his Bill Gates hair, Smiling his Bill Gates smile. Steve Sires is a civil engineering consultant who runs his own business and, twice a month or so, gets paid to jet across the continent and look like Bill Gates. He's hired for business functions mostly - product launches, industry seminars and conferences. He isn't the only professional Bill Gates lookalike in the world, but he is, by most accounts, the best.

§ 2. We walk over to a business-district restaurant. I'd made a reservation for two, under 'Gates'. I'm worried this might annoy Sires, but he just laughs and admits that it's something he's never tried himself. The hostess doesn't even blink when I drop the name. As she leads us to our table I imagine a few glances sent our way, but they're likely just that, my imagination. Sires assures me that he causes much more talk back in Seattle, where the real Gates is occasionally known to walk among the masses. "People have reported spotting Bill at Burger King or eating popcorn at a movie, Sires says. "I wonder how many times people see me and think "Why in the world would Bill Gates be shopping in a cheap supermarket?"'

§ 3. When Sires moved to the Seattle area he had no idea why people kept stopping him on the street or asking him for stockmarket tips in the checkout line. "I didn't know who this Gates guy was," he says. "Turns out I lived 20 minutes from his house.' Sires initially ignored the much-remarked-on resemblance. Then, his wife cut out a newspaper ad placed by a local agent who handles lookalikes. She'd called the agent. He got me a job at the grand opening of a performing arts centre. I did it for free. But my picture was picked up by Associated Press." Soon, Sires was travelling to events, his appearance fee running to several thousand dollars.

§ 4. So Steve Sires is famous. Actually, what he has is better than fame  — it's celebrity, without any of the complications of actually being Bill Gates. "I've got a great deal," he admits. "I get a little attention. It's fun to get a little attention. But at the end of the day, I can always go home to my real life."

1.  Margherita Taylor is the only female presenter at Capital Radio, one of London's top music radio stations. She got into radio while she was a student in Birmingham. Along with hundreds of other hopefuls, she and a friend queued for hours in the rain to take part in a 'Search for a Star' competition held by a local radio station, BRMB. "I had to read a travel script and a weather script, talk about myself for a minute, then introduce a record." Within days the phone call came to say that her voice had earned her a regular show on BRMB. Truly the stuff dreams are made of. After working there for 18 months, she was offered a job with Capital.

2.  Margherita claims never to get nervous before a show. "You can't get nervous because then you make mistakes, she says. Of course, there has been the odd disaster. "For instance, when I did my first live concert show at BRMB, I'd only done one programme. In front of a crowd of 50,000, I went on stage to introduce a certain well-known singer. I said: "Please welcome our next performer. You know her best for hits like." Then I just went blank. There was this silence from the crowd, and for the life of me I couldn't think what she'd sung. That's one occasion that will stay with me for ever."

3.  Margherita says that her own musical tastes are varied. But she doesn't pick her own music for the show. The Capital computer selects the records in advance from a list approved by the station managers. "The station has a certain sound, and if we all picked our own music, it wouldn't sound like Capital," she says."But for someone who likes music, this is a dream job. I get to go to concerts and meet the bands you can hear on my show. It's great to hear the "behind the scenes"gossip."

4.  Most people would expect that a presenter's most important qualities are a nice voice and huge amounts of confidence, but Margherita says that basic maths is handy as well. "You have to make sure that you've got an eye on everything that's going on in the studio, but you've got to be able to add and subtract and think in minutes and seconds," she says. "You're dealing with timed records, and you have to be ready to switch to the news at exactly the right second. If you're going over to a live event, you need to be ready for that on time, not a second earlier or later."

5.  Margherita Taylor is very nice and very easy-going, but very much in control. She is so much a "Capital Radio girl" that you might think she is just doing a good job for the station's publicity department, although you know what she's saying really comes from the heart. She smiles a lot, laughs a lot and is generally a great advert for Capital.

§ 1. It is Saturday night at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in New York. In the galleries devoted to African art, children are playing hide-and-seek while the parents sip beer from plastic cups. Some teenage girls head through the sculpture exhibition to a temporary dance floor where a DJ is playing reggae music. Watching the scene is Bryan, a young teacher from a local school. What brings him out tonight? 'I'm here for the reggae, of course,' he says. When I heard they were playing that I thought, "I have to be there," and obviously a lot of people feel the same way.' Besides the DJ, the museum has laid on gallery talks, a Martin Scorsese film, a puppet show and a samba band.

§ 2. The Brooklyn Museum of Art wasn't always so trendy. For decades, it put on excellent exhibitions that few came to see. Had it been over in the city's fashionable Upper East Side, of course, the museum would have been packing them in. Even when they put on dull exhibitions, New York's top museums can count on a steady stream of visitors  — mostly tourists. But Brooklyn, one of New York's toughest districts, isn't on the standard tourist route. When the museum was built, it was in a wealthy suburb, but these days the surrounding streets are home to recent immigrants, mostly poor folk from the Caribbean.

§ 3. Two years ago, in an effort to revive itself, the museum appointed a new director, Arnold Lehman, who was born in Brooklyn. Lehman was convinced that the museum should forget about trying to attract visitors from the other side of town and try to appeal instead to people from the surrounding area.

§ 4. The free evening events, called 'First Saturdays', are Lehman's way of reaching out to people. The great thing for me is when you see teenage boys looking at art in the galleries without being handcuffed to their parents,' he says. What's more, the annual number of visitors to the museum has roughly doubled since the scheme was introduced. Similar institutions across the country are now calling, wanting to know how much it costs to throw a good party'. The answer, incidentally, is about $25,000 per event. 'And worth every penny,' says Lehman.

§ 5. The real achievement of First Saturdays is more significant and profound than the increased visitor numbers suggest. Most people visit art museums because they want to have a special 'artistic' experience. The Brooklyn Museum of Art has introduced thousands of people to the idea that museum-going can be a perfectly ordinary part of their lives.

This is what the famous musician Yehudi Menuhin writes about himself.

§ 1. Being a touring musician is a bit like being a sailor. It's constant motion, a continuous routine of settling into new hotels and meeting new people. So my ideal holiday is enjoying being alone with my wife.

§ 2. My earliest memory of a holiday was when I was five. We had just bought our first car, and drove joyously from San Francisco, exploring the most beautiful parts of California. It was a wonderful experience. I vividly remember the beautiful Yosemite valley, a place of waterfalls and beautiful mountains, a wilderness before we polluted it with cars and noisy stereo systems. As a child I collected photographs of those huge railway engines that pulled hundreds of goods wagons across America. These trains were like monsters, with groups of four wheels on each side. For Americans trains are hugely romantic. My first train journey across America was when I was eight years old. During the day I sat at the window watching the scenery fly past. At night I always had the top bunk bed in the sleeping compartment. I would scramble up to read in bed, feeling cosy and contented as the train rhythmically travelled over the rails through the night.

§ 3. Since then I've worked and studied for many hours on trains, enjoying the view and the sense of timelessness. I loved the smell of steel upon steel mixed up with the smell of the countryside. I loved the sound of the engine's horn, which used to remind me of the ferries which crept along in between the ships in San Francisco Bay on foggy nights. I have been lucky travelling all over the world and managing, just occasionally, to take a few days actually to see something more than just the airport, hotel and concert hall. When my wife and I were in Peru, we took three days off and flew in a small plane to the mountains where we spent a wonderful time walking and exploring in the jungle.

§ 4. Forty years ago we bought a small house on a Greek island and went there whenever we could. Initially there were just a few carts, and everything was transported on the back of a donkey or a man. We had a tiny cottage with a lovely garden of fruit trees where we used to pick grapes and oranges. We spent a lot of time on the beach  — as I love swimming  — and in the village getting to know people. After ten or fifteen years we were firmly involved in the community, able to share a totally different world, different language, different music.

§ 1. High up in the mountains of southeast Asia, you can find the Akha hill tribes living in their traditional villages and farming the land.

§ 2. The history of the Akha people goes back hundreds, if not thousands, of years. They originally came from Tibet and have maintained the physical characteristics of that region, being fairly short and dark in complexion. Today, they live in small villages in the mountainous parts of China, Laos and northern Thailand. The Akha people are rich in culture, history and tradition. But they are also among the world's poorest people. Akha women remain remarkably strong and cheerful in the face of such a hard life. Akha men are brave and strong.

§ 3. The Akha have their own way of measuring time where one week lasts 12 days. Each village has its own leader or headman, and under his guidance people follow a code of behaviour known as the Akha Way. Thanks to the Akha Way, each person in these small communities knows their role in society. The men provide for their families by farming crops. They are also talented craftsmen. The women do spinning and weaving and make their own clothes. They wear colourfully decorated black shirts and skirts, and thick black leggings. Their headdresses are especially distinctive. As for the children, even though many of them don't attend school, they all know the names of every plant and animal in the forest. There is no written Akha language but the oral tradition is very rich.

§ 4. Akha villages all look quite similar. The bamboo houses with their thatched roofs stand on stilts (сваи) on the hillsides. Every village has two wooden frames that look like a doorway at its entrance and exit. These structures have spiritual significance and are called the 'spirit gates'. Artists cover the frames with carvings of both evil and smiling faces. This is to invite good spirits to enter the village and keep bad spirits out. Each summer the men build a swing in a public open space. Here the young children gather to play, but not just as a playground game  — it is part of the yearly ceremony to honour dead ancestors.

§ 5. Sadly, the Akha Way is slowly disappearing from many villages. A growing number of tourists are visiting them and introducing a taste of Western culture. The women and girls only dress traditionally when there are tourists around in the hope they will buy souvenirs. Some Akha have even decided to take things a step further: they are leaving their villages to seek their fortunes in the big cities.

1.  Margherita Taylor is the only female presenter at Capital Radio, one of London's top music radio stations. She got into radio while she was a student in Birmingham. Along with hundreds of other hopefuls, she and a friend queued for hours in the rain to take part in a 'Search for a Star' competition held by a local radio station, BRMB. "I had to read a travel script and a weather script, talk about myself for a minute, then introduce a record." Within days the phone call came to say that her voice had earned her a regular show on BRMB. Truly the stuff dreams are made of. After working there for 18 months, she was offered a job with Capital.

2.  Margherita claims never to get nervous before a show. "You can't get nervous because then you make mistakes, she says. Of course, there has been the odd disaster. "For instance, when I did my first live concert show at BRMB, I'd only done one programme. In front of a crowd of 50,000, I went on stage to introduce a certain well-known singer. I said: "Please welcome our next performer. You know her best for hits like." Then I just went blank. There was this silence from the crowd, and for the life of me I couldn't think what she'd sung. That's one occasion that will stay with me for ever."

3.  Margherita says that her own musical tastes are varied. But she doesn't pick her own music for the show. The Capital computer selects the records in advance from a list approved by the station managers. "The station has a certain sound, and if we all picked our own music, it wouldn't sound like Capital," she says."But for someone who likes music, this is a dream job. I get to go to concerts and meet the bands you can hear on my show. It's great to hear the "behind the scenes"gossip."

4.  Most people would expect that a presenter's most important qualities are a nice voice and huge amounts of confidence, but Margherita says that basic maths is handy as well. "You have to make sure that you've got an eye on everything that's going on in the studio, but you've got to be able to add and subtract and think in minutes and seconds," she says. "You're dealing with timed records, and you have to be ready to switch to the news at exactly the right second. If you're going over to a live event, you need to be ready for that on time, not a second earlier or later."

5.  Margherita Taylor is very nice and very easy-going, but very much in control. She is so much a "Capital Radio girl" that you might think she is just doing a good job for the station's publicity department, although you know what she's saying really comes from the heart. She smiles a lot, laughs a lot and is generally a great advert for Capital.

§ 1. It is Saturday night at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in New York. In the galleries devoted to African art, children are playing hide-and-seek while the parents sip beer from plastic cups. Some teenage girls head through the sculpture exhibition to a temporary dance floor where a DJ is playing reggae music. Watching the scene is Bryan, a young teacher from a local school. What brings him out tonight? 'I'm here for the reggae, of course,' he says. When I heard they were playing that I thought, "I have to be there," and obviously a lot of people feel the same way.' Besides the DJ, the museum has laid on gallery talks, a Martin Scorsese film, a puppet show and a samba band.

§ 2. The Brooklyn Museum of Art wasn't always so trendy. For decades, it put on excellent exhibitions that few came to see. Had it been over in the city's fashionable Upper East Side, of course, the museum would have been packing them in. Even when they put on dull exhibitions, New York's top museums can count on a steady stream of visitors  — mostly tourists. But Brooklyn, one of New York's toughest districts, isn't on the standard tourist route. When the museum was built, it was in a wealthy suburb, but these days the surrounding streets are home to recent immigrants, mostly poor folk from the Caribbean.

§ 3. Two years ago, in an effort to revive itself, the museum appointed a new director, Arnold Lehman, who was born in Brooklyn. Lehman was convinced that the museum should forget about trying to attract visitors from the other side of town and try to appeal instead to people from the surrounding area.

§ 4. The free evening events, called 'First Saturdays', are Lehman's way of reaching out to people. The great thing for me is when you see teenage boys looking at art in the galleries without being handcuffed to their parents,' he says. What's more, the annual number of visitors to the museum has roughly doubled since the scheme was introduced. Similar institutions across the country are now calling, wanting to know how much it costs to throw a good party'. The answer, incidentally, is about $25,000 per event. 'And worth every penny,' says Lehman.

§ 5. The real achievement of First Saturdays is more significant and profound than the increased visitor numbers suggest. Most people visit art museums because they want to have a special 'artistic' experience. The Brooklyn Museum of Art has introduced thousands of people to the idea that museum-going can be a perfectly ordinary part of their lives.

§ 1. High up in the mountains of southeast Asia, you can find the Akha hill tribes living in their traditional villages and farming the land.

§ 2. The history of the Akha people goes back hundreds, if not thousands, of years. They originally came from Tibet and have maintained the physical characteristics of that region, being fairly short and dark in complexion. Today, they live in small villages in the mountainous parts of China, Laos and northern Thailand. The Akha people are rich in culture, history and tradition. But they are also among the world's poorest people. Akha women remain remarkably strong and cheerful in the face of such a hard life. Akha men are brave and strong.

§ 3. The Akha have their own way of measuring time where one week lasts 12 days. Each village has its own leader or headman, and under his guidance people follow a code of behaviour known as the Akha Way. Thanks to the Akha Way, each person in these small communities knows their role in society. The men provide for their families by farming crops. They are also talented craftsmen. The women do spinning and weaving and make their own clothes. They wear colourfully decorated black shirts and skirts, and thick black leggings. Their headdresses are especially distinctive. As for the children, even though many of them don't attend school, they all know the names of every plant and animal in the forest. There is no written Akha language but the oral tradition is very rich.

§ 4. Akha villages all look quite similar. The bamboo houses with their thatched roofs stand on stilts (сваи) on the hillsides. Every village has two wooden frames that look like a doorway at its entrance and exit. These structures have spiritual significance and are called the 'spirit gates'. Artists cover the frames with carvings of both evil and smiling faces. This is to invite good spirits to enter the village and keep bad spirits out. Each summer the men build a swing in a public open space. Here the young children gather to play, but not just as a playground game  — it is part of the yearly ceremony to honour dead ancestors.

§ 5. Sadly, the Akha Way is slowly disappearing from many villages. A growing number of tourists are visiting them and introducing a taste of Western culture. The women and girls only dress traditionally when there are tourists around in the hope they will buy souvenirs. Some Akha have even decided to take things a step further: they are leaving their villages to seek their fortunes in the big cities.

§ 1. 'Art for art's sake,' is a translation of a French quotation which expresses a philosophy about what art should be. What is meant by the phrase is that a true piece of art should be able to stand alone, to do nothing more than to please the eye. Bryant Holsenbeck, an artist from North Carolina, USA, takes the idea behind the quote a step further: while she does create art of great beauty, she also creates art that carries a valuable message.

§ 2. Through her work, Holsenbeck aims to show how wasteful people have become in today's society. She has been involved in many art projects, widely diverse in both theme and scope. Whatever her subject, all of Holsenbeck's art has one thing in common; it is all constructed from 'stuff that people simply throw away because they had thought it was rubbish.

§ 3. Holsenbeck's main philosophy is that nothing is really 'just trash'. She believes that the fact that American

landfill sites (му­сор­ная свал­ка) are so full of recyclable items says allot about American culture. She has said that, 'Americans create more garbage, perhead, than any other culture, yet we are blind to our waste.' Holsenbeck has made it her calling to 'make the blind see' and she does this through her art. By working within communities, she feels that she can open the eyes of people. She can also show them that the throw-away culture in which we live needs to change and if it doesn't, the world will soon find itself in a terrible situation indeed. Holsenbeck feels that when a person gets involved in her communal art projects, they become more aware of the fact that what they throw away has an impact on the environment. With Holsenbeck's designs, this impact is a positive one because from the garbage come works of great beauty.

§ 4. One of Holsenbeck's recent projects was a vast labyrinth created from old unwanted shoes. The labyrinth was a group effort and Holsenbeck had the children of the community where it was constructed write their concerns about the planet, and life in general, on the individual shoes. Once the labyrinth was completed, an open invitation was extended to community members of all ages to walkthrough the labyrinth, read the children's messages, and learn what it is that threatens today's world.

§5. Holsenbeck's work has been recognised across the US. Wherever she goes, and whatever she does, her message remains the same, 'My installations are both meditations and questions. Where does all this 'stuff' come from? Where does it go? What do we do with it? Why is it here? Let's hope people start getting Holsenbeck's message.

§ 1. If you walk into any bookstore there is an entire shelf dedicated to books about people who decide to change their lives by relocating to another country. I used to laugh at those kinds of books and wonder why anyone would put themselves through the discomfort of going to live in a foreign country  — all in search of a simple lifel

§ 2. One day, instead of walking straight past this section, I selected a book to read on the train. It was about an accountant who realised one day how boring her life was, so she bought a ticket to Italy. After reading the book, the idea of moving abroad had lodged (за­се­ла) itself in my mind and was turning into a magnificent possibility.

§ 3. I resigned from the hospital where I worked, sold my apartment and moved to the region of Umbria in Italy. Once there, I rented an apartment and hired a little motorbike. I loved sampling the local cuisine and I signed up for a short cooking course. A very charming local man called Francesco ran the course. Each lesson not only did we learn how to prepare an authentic Umbrian dish, we were also rolling around the floor in fits of laughter, since Francesco was a natural storyteller and we enjoyed his talent for imitating people.

§ 4. I also took a three-month Italian language course. It is fair to say that my attempts at cooking were more successful than my attempts to acquire a new language. I tried hard, however, and after a few weeks of lessons I actually had a short conversation with a local  — OK, I only asked for directions to the train station. In my mind, though, this was a triumph of communication and I was satisfied with my modest progress.

§ 5. It was at one of these language classes that I heard a fellow student, John, mention that his neighbour, Sandro, was moving to Rome and selling his farmhouse very cheap. John said he wished he had the money to purchase it himself, as the property was sure to be snapped up soon. I couldn't believe that it cost less than half the amount that I had sold my tiny apartment for. Would I dare to copy the writers of all those books? I had to go and have a look, of course. The farmhouse was located on the top of a hill, and although it was very run-down, it possessed charm. I bought it straight away.

§ 6. The project wasn't without its difficulties, though. The farmhouse was collapsing in several places. My first priority, therefore, was to hire some local workers to add supports to the building. I also strengthened the foundations, installed a new kitchen and renovated the rest of the property. In the end, all the cost and effort were worthwhile, because I felt I belonged here as much as I did anywhere in the world, and I was determined to make it my home. I must say I sometimes look at my collection of books on Italy and think I'd like to have a goal writing one myself I'd like to share my experience and let other dreamers out there know that the difficulty is worth it. I didn't quite find the simple life, but I did find what the Italians call the sweet life  — la dolce vita.

§ 1. Claudio Bonifacio is a modern day treasure hunter. For most people, the title 'treasure hunter' more than likely brings to mind images of brave explorers fighting pirates to find a chest (сун­дук) full of sparkling jewels. But contrary to this stereotype, Bonifacio finds most of his bullion (gold and silver) in libraries full of ancient shipping records rather than with the help of the ancient magical map you might expect. He has spent many years searching the naval archives in Seville, from which he has located the positions of more than 2,500 sunken galleons  — the ships the Spaniards used to sail the high seas from the 15th to the 18th centuries.

§ 2. Bonifacio has turned his activities into a very profitable career. Such is his fame as a marine archeologist that he can demand very large fees. He provides the information he gathers out from his research to companies with the resources to raise the bullion from the wrecks. Bonifacio has worked for several Latin American governments, the Spanish government and the Italian national council.

§ 3. However, Bonifacio is unwilling to reveal the names of his private clients, or say how much money they have made from the wrecks. The reason for this is that they wish to remain anonymous due to uncertainty about ownership of the ocean floor (дно). Countries such as Honduras, where Bonifacio has discovered many wrecks, insist on their right to take all the treasures found in their territorial waters.

§ 4. Bonifacio is unsure of exactly how much bullion has been found by others as a result of his years of hard work, but he is sure that it must be many millions of dollars worth. "I hear reports," he says, "but in this type of work there is a great amount of secrecy, not only because of governments claiming the entire treasure, but also for tax reasons."

§ 5. Bonifacio's passion has also stimulated the discovery of old Spanish and Portuguese gold mines in South America, Mexico and the Caribbean. "In the 1560s and 1570s, he explains, "most of the gold and silver transported to Europe was stolen from the Incas and the Aztecs; but later, mines provided the main source of bullion. Mining technology in those days, however, was naturally very basic and the mines were not worked very efficiently. Most were eventually abandoned because it was believed there was no more gold to be found. Now, though, with modern day techniques, the world's mining companies are of course only too happy to pay me to search the records and find them! They know only too well that there is more than likely still plenty of gold just waiting to be discovered."

Everyone, whatever their age, can share in the joy and fulfillment of learning, as June Weatherall found out.

§ 1. When I first retired, I thought I'd love spending more time on the gardening, needlework, and other creative activities I'd found so relaxing after my demanding job. But it didn't turn out that way. I found that I didn't want, or need, that kind of relaxation anymore, I wanted to stimulate my mind instead.

§ 2. So, with a couple of friends, I went along to an art appreciation evening class at our local regional college. It was wonderful, but only lasted a year. At the end, I asked my tutor, "What next?' He suggested I attend his history of art access course. "Whatever's that?' I asked. The college had an open evening coming up, so I went along to find out. A full-time access course takes one year and gives you access to university if, like me, you left school without any qualifications, and it's free if you do it full-time. I only wanted to do the art history bit.

§ 3. Lyn, who organises the courses for the college, was enthusiastic. "Why don't you do the whole course? You could start in the spring term with art history, do another module in the summer, then go full-time in the autumn and do all the subjects." It sounded wonderful, but wasn't I a bit old, at 63, to start being a student? A definite 'no'. One of the students that year was 82. That decided it. It must be worth having a go.

§ 4. The art history part of the course, which I've just completed, was stimulating. The tutors are enthusiasts and infect us all with their enjoyment of the subjects they teach. "Lively' would be the word to describe the classes. My fellow students, who are also doing subjects like psychology, maths, biology, etc., are good company. They're mainly people in their thirties with children, taking a second bite at the educational cherry.

§ 5. We have homework and have to do an essay each term for each subject, and sit exams. For art history, we had to produce a journal about all the painters we'd learnt about  — which was fun, but rather time-consuming. Occasionally, I envy the more typical mature students, who just do courses for fun and don't have to do exams or essays, but really I'm a very happy lady. There are drawbacks, however. The main one is you have to make a commitment. During term time, you can't just drop everything and go out for the day if the sun shines  — one of the supposed joys of retirement.

§ 6. Will I go on to university if I'm successful? I'll see how next year goes. Meanwhile, exercising my brain cells is working well for me. I feel alive. The garden's getting a bit out of control, but that's the least of my worries!

§ 1. My trip around Italy gave me the chance to try some of its regional cuisine. It was such a whirlwind that it is sometimes hard to separate one place from another in my mind. My time in Bologna, however, is perfectly imprinted in my memory. There, I had a lunch date to eat the most famous of Italian exports  — spaghetti Bolognese!

§ 2. My friend Marco had invited me to Bologna. He always said one day I should visit his home city and eat the well-known Bolognese dish, but, he added, "as you've never tasted it before." I had no idea what he meant, but about one thing I was sure; I had read in my guidebook that the Bolognese sauce, which includes beef, onions, carrot, celery, tomato paste, meat, milk, salt and pepper, dates back to the 5th century!

§ 3. After my train pulled into Bologna station, I wandered towards the famous Piazza Maggiore, the very heart of the city. Passing by a shoe shop window display, a pair of elegant shoes caught my eye immediately. "I must try those on," I thought. Upon entering the shop, an assistant stepped forward to greet me. I began my request in faltering Italian, but the assistant smiled and quickly replied, "I speak English, how can I help you?" "Thank you," I said, "I'd like to try on a pair of shoes in the window." The shop assistant said, "Well, of course, you can try them on in the window, but everyone in the street will be able to see you!" I realised she had taken my words very literally! I Smiled, "Sorry, I meant the shoes I'd like to try on are in the window display, but I'll try them on here," I said, sitting myself down on a chair, "in size 6, please." "Size 6? We have sizes 34 to 42." Suddenly, I remembered that sizing on the continent is different to that in the UK. "I'm sorry, that would be size 39, please." I was happy to find that the shoes fitted perfectly.

§ 4. After shopping it was time to head for food I found myself back at the piazza to find Marco had already arrived. We made our way to his grandmother's home for lunch. She was waiting to greet us at the door. I could smell the aroma of home cooking. "I can't wait for the spaghetti Bolognese," I exclaimed.

§ 5. Grandma looked confused. "Spaghetti? In Bologna, we never serve spaghetti with Bolognese sauce. We use thick pasta like fettuccine or tagliatelle." Smiling, Marco said, "I told you you'd be surprised. Bolognese sauce might be eaten with spaghetti all over the world, but never in Bologna!" I must say, Grandma's Bolognese was perfect. It had been a lovely day with smart new shoes, great company and delicious food. I could hardly complain!

Everyone, whatever their age, can share in the joy and fulfillment of learning, as June Weatherall found out.

§ 1. When I first retired, I thought I'd love spending more time on the gardening, needlework, and other creative activities I'd found so relaxing after my demanding job. But it didn't turn out that way. I found that I didn't want, or need, that kind of relaxation anymore, I wanted to stimulate my mind instead.

§ 2. So, with a couple of friends, I went along to an art appreciation evening class at our local regional college. It was wonderful, but only lasted a year. At the end, I asked my tutor, "What next?' He suggested I attend his history of art access course. "Whatever's that?' I asked. The college had an open evening coming up, so I went along to find out. A full-time access course takes one year and gives you access to university if, like me, you left school without any qualifications, and it's free if you do it full-time. I only wanted to do the art history bit.

§ 3. Lyn, who organises the courses for the college, was enthusiastic. "Why don't you do the whole course? You could start in the spring term with art history, do another module in the summer, then go full-time in the autumn and do all the subjects." It sounded wonderful, but wasn't I a bit old, at 63, to start being a student? A definite 'no'. One of the students that year was 82. That decided it. It must be worth having a go.

§ 4. The art history part of the course, which I've just completed, was stimulating. The tutors are enthusiasts and infect us all with their enjoyment of the subjects they teach. "Lively' would be the word to describe the classes. My fellow students, who are also doing subjects like psychology, maths, biology, etc., are good company. They're mainly people in their thirties with children, taking a second bite at the educational cherry.

§ 5. We have homework and have to do an essay each term for each subject, and sit exams. For art history, we had to produce a journal about all the painters we'd learnt about  — which was fun, but rather time-consuming. Occasionally, I envy the more typical mature students, who just do courses for fun and don't have to do exams or essays, but really I'm a very happy lady. There are drawbacks, however. The main one is you have to make a commitment. During term time, you can't just drop everything and go out for the day if the sun shines  — one of the supposed joys of retirement.

§ 6. Will I go on to university if I'm successful? I'll see how next year goes. Meanwhile, exercising my brain cells is working well for me. I feel alive. The garden's getting a bit out of control, but that's the least of my worries!

§ 1. If you walk into any bookstore there is an entire shelf dedicated to books about people who decide to change their lives by relocating to another country. I used to laugh at those kinds of books and wonder why anyone would put themselves through the discomfort of going to live in a foreign country  — all in search of a simple lifel

§ 2. One day, instead of walking straight past this section, I selected a book to read on the train. It was about an accountant who realised one day how boring her life was, so she bought a ticket to Italy. After reading the book, the idea of moving abroad had lodged (за­се­ла) itself in my mind and was turning into a magnificent possibility.

§ 3. I resigned from the hospital where I worked, sold my apartment and moved to the region of Umbria in Italy. Once there, I rented an apartment and hired a little motorbike. I loved sampling the local cuisine and I signed up for a short cooking course. A very charming local man called Francesco ran the course. Each lesson not only did we learn how to prepare an authentic Umbrian dish, we were also rolling around the floor in fits of laughter, since Francesco was a natural storyteller and we enjoyed his talent for imitating people.

§ 4. I also took a three-month Italian language course. It is fair to say that my attempts at cooking were more successful than my attempts to acquire a new language. I tried hard, however, and after a few weeks of lessons I actually had a short conversation with a local  — OK, I only asked for directions to the train station. In my mind, though, this was a triumph of communication and I was satisfied with my modest progress.

§ 5. It was at one of these language classes that I heard a fellow student, John, mention that his neighbour, Sandro, was moving to Rome and selling his farmhouse very cheap. John said he wished he had the money to purchase it himself, as the property was sure to be snapped up soon. I couldn't believe that it cost less than half the amount that I had sold my tiny apartment for. Would I dare to copy the writers of all those books? I had to go and have a look, of course. The farmhouse was located on the top of a hill, and although it was very run-down, it possessed charm. I bought it straight away.

§ 6. The project wasn't without its difficulties, though. The farmhouse was collapsing in several places. My first priority, therefore, was to hire some local workers to add supports to the building. I also strengthened the foundations, installed a new kitchen and renovated the rest of the property. In the end, all the cost and effort were worthwhile, because I felt I belonged here as much as I did anywhere in the world, and I was determined to make it my home. I must say I sometimes look at my collection of books on Italy and think I'd like to have a goal writing one myself I'd like to share my experience and let other dreamers out there know that the difficulty is worth it. I didn't quite find the simple life, but I did find what the Italians call the sweet life  — la dolce vita.

§ 1. While having lunch in an expensive restaurant, I tasted the wine I had ordered. I thought it might be spoiled, so I called the wine waiter. He was most unpleasant at the mere suggestion that something might be wrong. Unwillingly he tasted the wine  — and immediately apologized and brought another bottle. That's what I call power!' said my guest, but it helped that I knew I was right. As the customer, you have considerable rights.

§ 2. If a restaurant fails to provide a table you have booked, they will have broken their contract with you and you can politely threaten to take them to court for the cost of a spoiled evening. They will then usually find you a table. On the other hand, if you let them down, they can take you to court for lost business. In one case, a company booked a table for one o'clock for five people at a popular restaurant, then called to cancel at 1.35 p.m. on the day, saying their client did not want to eat. When the company refused to pay up, the restaurant owner took them to court and won: the judge decided that, since it was too late to re-book the table, the company should pay for the loss of profit on the meal.

§ 3. The menu is a vital legal document. The price should be included, together with the tax (налог), and the restaurant can be fined for not displaying it outside or immediately inside the door, so that customers know in advance what they are committing themselves to. It is illegal for any establishment to give a false description of their food. Everything must be what it claims to be: fresh fruit salad must consist only of fresh, not tinned, fruit; Welsh lamb must be an animal born or raised in Wales.

§ 4. You cannot rely on getting bread and butter free. A restaurant is allowed to make a cover charge  — which relates to linen, tableware, salt and pepper, Sauces and items like bread or olives  — provided it appears on the menu by the door.

§ 5. If the food is not cooked to your satisfaction, you can insist on the restaurant taking it back and supplying what you ordered. If it gives you food poisoning, the restaurant is obliged to pay for the suffering and inconvenience provided you have been to your doctor. If the food is not up to a reasonable standard for the money, you can either send it back or pay less than the bill demands. If you do not pay the full price, give your name, address and proof of identity so that you cannot be arrested for leaving without paying.

§ 1. 'Art for art's sake,' is a translation of a French quotation which expresses a philosophy about what art should be. What is meant by the phrase is that a true piece of art should be able to stand alone, to do nothing more than to please the eye. Bryant Holsenbeck, an artist from North Carolina, USA, takes the idea behind the quote a step further: while she does create art of great beauty, she also creates art that carries a valuable message.

§ 2. Through her work, Holsenbeck aims to show how wasteful people have become in today's society. She has been involved in many art projects, widely diverse in both theme and scope. Whatever her subject, all of Holsenbeck's art has one thing in common; it is all constructed from 'stuff that people simply throw away because they had thought it was rubbish.

§ 3. Holsenbeck's main philosophy is that nothing is really 'just trash'. She believes that the fact that American

landfill sites (му­сор­ная свал­ка) are so full of recyclable items says allot about American culture. She has said that, 'Americans create more garbage, perhead, than any other culture, yet we are blind to our waste.' Holsenbeck has made it her calling to 'make the blind see' and she does this through her art. By working within communities, she feels that she can open the eyes of people. She can also show them that the throw-away culture in which we live needs to change and if it doesn't, the world will soon find itself in a terrible situation indeed. Holsenbeck feels that when a person gets involved in her communal art projects, they become more aware of the fact that what they throw away has an impact on the environment. With Holsenbeck's designs, this impact is a positive one because from the garbage come works of great beauty.

§ 4. One of Holsenbeck's recent projects was a vast labyrinth created from old unwanted shoes. The labyrinth was a group effort and Holsenbeck had the children of the community where it was constructed write their concerns about the planet, and life in general, on the individual shoes. Once the labyrinth was completed, an open invitation was extended to community members of all ages to walkthrough the labyrinth, read the children's messages, and learn what it is that threatens today's world.

§5. Holsenbeck's work has been recognised across the US. Wherever she goes, and whatever she does, her message remains the same, 'My installations are both meditations and questions. Where does all this 'stuff' come from? Where does it go? What do we do with it? Why is it here? Let's hope people start getting Holsenbeck's message.

§ 1. Minutes before the start of a British Grand Prix in August, the drivers' faces are grave with concentration. Fans are screaming. Squeezed into his driving seat, Nelson Jones is pulling on a pair of tight black gloves. No question where he's expecting to finish: "First," he says. At the start signal, with a burst of engine noise, the drivers move quickly to the first turn.

§ 2. It all sounds a lot like a Formula One car race, but there's a difference  — Nelson is thirteen years old, and he's racing in a go-kart. What could be seen as child's play is in fact the first step for young talent to move into professional race cars, because it introduces them to the essential basics such as finding the racing line, concentration and how to compete on the track. That track record makes karting a must for youngsters keen to make racing their life's ambition.

§ 3. Nelson Jones has actually been racing since he was eight years old. "When my son Nelson showed us how gifted he was with racing, even at an incredibly young age, I knew we had to do something," Nelson's father says. "Racing can be really dangerous and it gets expensive, but when I had the opportunity to buy him his first official kart, I rushed to do it."

§ 4. After taking part in three or four local races in Britain, in which he won first place, Nelson decided that he would go for it and have a crack at his first international Grand Prix in Germany, which he won as well. Nelson now travels all over Britain and Europe to take part in races. The interest he showed in racing was not via the usual exposure to video games. "We lived near a small karting racetrack and I became fascinated  — I couldn't stop talking about it. One day, as we were driving past, I made my father stop the car so I could have a better look at the karts flying by. I saw so many people, including kids my own age, and I took a liking to it straight away.'

§ 5. Nelson eventually got his chance to try it out. The family hired an instructor for amateurs to teach Nelson, who took him as far as the age of twelve. The instructor then informed Nelson's father it was time to look for someone more qualified. Perhaps it is Nelson's good fortune in having always been expertly advised that has made him so relaxed about facing the pressures of an international racing circuit. But what is it like to be so young with a schedule fully booked with races, and all eyes watching him, expecting victory after victory? It's good for me, as I know what I need to be doing. The public's expectations help me focus and concentrate so I can race at my highest level.'

§ 1. The moment for Olympic glory and gold occurs once every four years - a moment which becomes the focus for the lives of athletes from all over the world. This one event is their main goal and in order to achieve their dream they are prepared to make any sacrifice. All athletes are selected by their national Olympic Committee to represent their country, and once selected they face two major demands. The first is the mountain of form filling, paperwork and administration. The second is to finalise their preparation for the Games. Most athletes have highly-developed training schedules which enable them to reach the height of their performance for a particular event. However, the Olympics, creates its own timetable and pressures.

§ 2. When I was selected to represent Great Britain, I had approximately a hundred days to prepare. This included finalising training plans, raising nearly £16,000 towards the costs, seeing to travel arrangements and entry forms, and having discussions with my employer about extra time off work to allow me to prepare fully. Throughout my sailing career I had never had the opportunity to become a full-time athlete, so I needed to pursue my business career at the same time as my sporting objectives. However, any top-class athlete in any sport needs a level of business skills when competing at Olympic standard. They need the ability to plan and arrange for all the expenses effectively as well as work towards definite aims.

§ 3. Once you arrive, you stay in the Olympic "Village', which is really a small town housing 15,000 people from every imaginable culture and background. It is fascinating to watch athletes from tiny gymnasts to huge weightlifters and basketball players, and best of all is the excitement at being part of such a select gathering. There are training facilities, souvenir shops, launderettes, a bank and post office, as well as the Village restaurant which seats over 3,000 at one time.

§ 4. So what does it feel like to go to an Olympics? It can be summed up in many ways by the opening ceremony, where thousands of athletes and officials parade wearing their team kit. To most it is an event they will never forget and the honour of just being there is almost magical. And perhaps winning a medal is one of life's major experiences. For me it was the thoughts of family and friends who had all played a part on my road to success, and it felt wonderful. I feel that it is important to try and repay everyone's faith in me by putting something back into the community. I want the younger generation of athletes to benefit in the ways that I did.

§ 1. Catherine Cassidy has every reason to be proud. This summer she graduated with a degree in Zoology from Queen's University, Belfast. She has ambitions to be a scientific journalist. She is also completely deaf. She can lipread. I interviewed Catherine via e-mail. She told me getting to university was an achievement in itself. She says: 'You have to work much harder than your peers (сверст­ни­ки) and have to be prepared to commit yourself.'

§ 2. The Disability Discrimination Act insists that universities increase their intake of special needs students. But there are difficulties. First, there are no reliable figures on the numbers of disabled in the community, so universities are unsure of the percentages they should be aiming to recruit. Second, some students might require specially adapted computers, or online learning support. Of all the disabilities, deafness is probably the one that is hardest to cope with at university. Universities run on talk. Knowledge is communicated in lectures, seminars, talking to fellow students  — reading is only secondary. For deaf students, casual spontaneous discussions are out.

§ 3. Fortunately for Catherine, Queen's University is a centre of excellence for the teaching of deaf students. The Joint Universities Deaf Education centre (JUDE) organised a special phonic earpiece (слу­хо­вой ап­па­рат) that enabled Catherine to listen to lectures. JUDE has been extended to the other higher education institutions of Northern Ireland. JUDE is setting an example in what can be achieved. Sharon Easton, deaf student support officer, says: "We visit schools to make deaf people aware that higher education is a possibility. Another part of our role is to talk with employers. We're offering them deaf awareness training  — how to adapt to the needs of deaf employees, and where to apply for grants.'

§ 4. Catherine's skill in lip-reading made communicating with her seem so effortless that many people did not believe she had a problem. At times this experience has been painful. Catherine says: 'People have labelled me "not really deaf". It is like telling me I don't count. And this can be very disheartening, very demoralising.'

§ 5. Catherine believes that excellent and well-focused special needs support should be available to all disabled students at university whatever the cost. She says: 'You are accepted by a university on the basis of your ability to carry out mental tasks. You have a right to be there - people should not judge a person by any physical disability.'

§ 1. Imagine an entire town made up of spectacular buildings of multi-coloured ice. A town devoted to pleasure where you can ride in a horse-drawn carriage, go down ice slides (горки) and watch swimming events by an icy river. It sounds like a setting for a work of children's fiction, but this magical scene appears every January on an island just outside the Chinese city of Harbin.

§ 2. Winter in Harbin would be very boring indeed without its annual month-long Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival. Harbin has average temperatures of −16 °C at the time of the festival. So what better way to brighten up winter than with a colourful winter wonderland that recreates some of the world's most impressive architectural landmarks? It's possible to reproduce them using blocks of ice at Harbin because its winters, though freezing cold, are dry. There is a tradition of ice sculpture in the region that goes back hundreds of years and began with ice lantern (фо­нарь) artworks lit by candles.

§ 3. People who have been to the festival say the sculptures are most impressive at night, when they are lit by floodlights or from inside by clever use of LED (све­то­ди­од­ный) bulbs that change colour periodically. You can also appreciate the amazing detail of the snow sculptures better when there's no sunshine. If you want to see as many sculptures as possible, you should plan your trip for a few weeks into the festival. That's because by then the international snow-sculpting competition that is held during every festival is over and you can admire the creations in all their beauty.

§ 4. If you are more interested in physical activities than art, you'll still find plenty to amuse you at the festival. The event is well-known for the long snow slides that are incorporated into the designs of the ice buildings.

§ 5. Perhaps the most extreme event at the festival is the river swimming. Even setting up the event is a challenge. The organisers have to remove enough ice from the surface of the River Songhua to make a pool for the friendly competitions. The brave participants jump into the water wearing nothing but swimming costumes and caps, surrounded by spectators in winter hats, coats and gloves! Although the festival has become well-known enough to attract visitors from outside China, it's rare to see a non-local swimmer in the competitions. In northern China, however, there is a strong tradition of winter outdoor swimming, especially among the middle-aged and the elderly.

§ 1. Believe it or not, I used to read Flight International every week from the age of eight onwards  — my father, an aviation engineer, encouraged my early passion for planes but I never thought that one day I would be working on it as a journalist.

§ 2. Flight International is read by anyone with an interest in aviation. From pilots to manufacturers, technicians to air vice marshals, all are readers looking for the latest news in this sector. As news editor, I'm responsible for deciding what appears on the 20 news pages we produce each week. Aviation is one of the few truly global industries and we have a team of reporters around the world. When I left school, my original plan was to become an engineer. I studied aeronautical engineering at university but found the course rather unsatisfactory. At the time there was a huge recession on with few jobs going, and I was forced to look round for other options. I actually wrote to Flight and asked for a job. The then deputy editor advised me to do a course in journalism which had just been set up, which is what I did.

§ 3. I found the course useful not so much because it gave me a pretty good basic grounding in journalism, but mainly because it focused on several workplacements, which I was able to do at Flight. I wrote a few pieces and got my face known at the magazine. When the course finished there were no jobs available on Flight so I went off and worked for an aviation newsletter. After a year or so the technical reporter at Flight moved to another job and I was in. The great thing for me about working here has been the chance to ask people questions about something I'm genuinely interested in, and to combine it with my other passion, travel. After a couple of years I was offered a job in Munich in Germany,

§ 4. It was fantastic timing as the aviation industry in eastern Europe was just opening up and I got to report on it and see the region. From there I went to Singapore, which again was an extraordinary experience. I got to fly over the Far East, visiting factories, meeting fascinating people and doing interviews, and to be honest I would have been happy to stay there a bit longer.

§ 5. However, jobs like this don't come up very often  — the last news editor stayed ten years - and so when I was offered it, I couldn't really say no. Although I'm much more office-based now, I still go to the big air shows. In some ways I was getting a bit tired of living out of a suitcase, although I still get a thrill when I take my seat on a new plane for the first time. A37. Why did the writer read Flight International when he was a child?

§ 1. Ask a biologist what the most intelligent creatures are on Earth, and they'll probably come up with a fairly similar list: larger mammals such as horses, dogs, dolphins, pigs, the great apes as well as some birds like crows and ravens. But now some scientists believe that one of the most intelligent beings on Earth is in fact the octopus  — which doesn't belong to any of these groups.

§ 2. Every schoolchild knows that octopuses have eight legs and can shoot ink while trying to escape from enemies. But there are many other unusual things about octopuses. For example, if an octopus loses a leg, it can grow a new one. It also has three hearts and complex eyes, which seem to belong to a mammal rather than a Sea creature. Octopuses also seem to be experts at escaping  — they have extremely soft, flexible bodies and can escape through holes not much bigger than their eyes.

§ 3. However, even until quite recently, little was known about octopus intelligence. There are several reasons for this. Firstly, octopuses usually live at the bottom of river mouths and seas - areas which are not attractive to researchers. Secondly, they are not social animals so it can be difficult to study their interaction with others. Perhaps most importantly, octopus intelligence is not easy for humans to understand. Octopuses seem like strangers. Scientists need to have a lot of imagination to be able to understand what an octopus is thinking!

§ 4. In the 1950s, the US Air Force sponsored scientists to study the way octopuses use their brains. They hoped that they could use this knowledge to help them build better computers. However, their brains were so complex that the scientists quickly gave up. And even today the octopus brain is a mystery. Octopuses have a very complex nervous system and recent research suggests that they have some of their intelligence inside each arm, which means that each arm can 'think' for itself. It also appears that they have good memories, perhaps similar to a cat's. Some Octopuses in laboratories seem to play with objects as if they were toys  — a sure sign of intelligence. Others could pick up complicated skills like opening jars.

§ 5. Perhaps the most striking thing about octopuses is their ability to change their colour and body pattern. They do this to camouflage themselves and also to communicate with others. They can completely change their appearance in less than a second. A scientist once observed an octopus that changed its appearance nearly 1,000 times during seven hours of feeding!

1.  Margherita Taylor is the only female presenter at Capital Radio, one of London's top music radio stations. She got into radio while she was a student in Birmingham. Along with hundreds of other hopefuls, she and a friend queued for hours in the rain to take part in a 'Search for a Star' competition held by a local radio station, BRMB. "I had to read a travel script and a weather script, talk about myself for a minute, then introduce a record." Within days the phone call came to say that her voice had earned her a regular show on BRMB. Truly the stuff dreams are made of. After working there for 18 months, she was offered a job with Capital.

2.  Margherita claims never to get nervous before a show. "You can't get nervous because then you make mistakes, she says. Of course, there has been the odd disaster. "For instance, when I did my first live concert show at BRMB, I'd only done one programme. In front of a crowd of 50,000, I went on stage to introduce a certain well-known singer. I said: "Please welcome our next performer. You know her best for hits like." Then I just went blank. There was this silence from the crowd, and for the life of me I couldn't think what she'd sung. That's one occasion that will stay with me for ever."

3.  Margherita says that her own musical tastes are varied. But she doesn't pick her own music for the show. The Capital computer selects the records in advance from a list approved by the station managers. "The station has a certain sound, and if we all picked our own music, it wouldn't sound like Capital," she says."But for someone who likes music, this is a dream job. I get to go to concerts and meet the bands you can hear on my show. It's great to hear the "behind the scenes"gossip."

4.  Most people would expect that a presenter's most important qualities are a nice voice and huge amounts of confidence, but Margherita says that basic maths is handy as well. "You have to make sure that you've got an eye on everything that's going on in the studio, but you've got to be able to add and subtract and think in minutes and seconds," she says. "You're dealing with timed records, and you have to be ready to switch to the news at exactly the right second. If you're going over to a live event, you need to be ready for that on time, not a second earlier or later."

5.  Margherita Taylor is very nice and very easy-going, but very much in control. She is so much a "Capital Radio girl" that you might think she is just doing a good job for the station's publicity department, although you know what she's saying really comes from the heart. She smiles a lot, laughs a lot and is generally a great advert for Capital.

§1. As his feet splash through the warm waters of a huge outdoor pool at Dolphin Cove in the Florida Keys, USA, tenyear-old Jamie has a delighted expression on his face. He suffers from a disability which means he has difficulty communicating with the rest of the world, but the presence of playful dolphins elicits attention and squeals of pleasure. His parents are happy, too. 'In the past, he wouldn't even touch anything solid, and now he's grabbing hold of the dolphin's fin', says May, Jamie's mother. 'It's opening a new world for him.'

§2. The captive dolphins are part of the Dolphin Human Therapy programme, established by Dr David Nathanson, who uses dolphins to help children with mental and physical disabilities. The dolphins are not treated as miracle healers. Instead, the possibility of touching their grey-suede skin or even having a swim with a dolphin is a reward that encourages children like Jamie to respond to their teachers, who sit with the children at the water's edge. The sessions start with the teacher encouraging the child to motion 'hello' to a dolphin, which responds with a shake of its head or fin. The child is offered another chance to play with the dolphin if he or she works hard during the session.

§3. Adults too are attracted to swimming with captive dolphins as well. At a theme park near Orlando, people pay to have a 30-minute swim with them. It is a deeply memorable experience. When a swimmer slides into water alongside a dolphin they can actually feel their skin tingling as the dolphin scans them with sonar (гид­ро­ло­ка­тор). Then with a flip of their powerful tails, the dolphins are off, gliding around effortlessly, clearly observing their human visitors.

§4. Anyone tempted to swim with wild dolphins, however, should be careful. They can have a vicious streak. Male dolphins will sometimes kill baby dolphins, to attract the attention of females. They have also been filmed killing small porpoises (animals similar to dolphins), probably mistaking them for baby dolphins.

§5. Scientists have discovered that dolphins 'talk' to each other, through a form of whistling. The animals practise 'whistle matching', which is when one dolphin whistles and another repeats the sound within three seconds.

§6. Back at Dolphin Cove, the dolphins' contribution to the children's progress is acknowledged. 'I think dolphins are incredible,' says Jeffrey Bicknell, who works with the children. 'I've seen them look at a child and observe what the problem is, and change their behaviour according to the nature of the problem. They are more dominant with some children, more patient with others.'

§ 1. Cruising over the pack-ice with our heavy snowmobiles, my guide, Arne, and I looked out across the dazzling expanse of snow. We had come to the tiny, remote island of Svalbard northeast of Greenland, to photograph polar bears, but now we were exhausted with searching. The day had been particularly frustrating, as every bear we'd slowly approached had run away from us. Fed up and hungry, we decided to abandon our search for the afternoon and stop for a snack beside one of the many tall, blue icebergs.

§ 2. As always, a good meal was followed by an intense desire to sleep, and we decided to give in to it, even though the temperature was down to −30 °C. Sleeping at the same time would be unwise with our furry friends around, so we decided to take it in turns. As Arne slept, I scanned the Snow with my binoculars, looking for anything moving. An hour passed. I was just about to wake my companion, when I noticed a dot on the horizon. I wiped the lens, but it was still there. I began to make out the typical mayonnaise colour and the striding walk  — it was a polar bear and it was heading in our direction. I awoke Arne instantly. For the next thirty minutes, the bear continued on its direct course towards us, which was strange because the wind was blowing our scent straight towards him, so he must have been aware of our presence.

§ 3. When he was a couple of hundred metres away, I decided to lie down in the snow so as to get a better photograph. "You realise you look like seal like that, don't you?" warned Arne, for once sounding a bit worried. ave for dinner. Onwards the bear came, and by now I could hear the crunching Seals are what polar bears like to sound of his feet on the ice. It struck me that this was a big bear, travelling at some speed. I turned to speak to Arne, and saw him pulling a gun from his bag. Polar bears are incredibly unpredictable animals, and to be in their environment without protection is foolish. But Arne had strict instructions from me only to use the gun to frighten the bear away, and then only if necessary.

§ 4. By now the animal was only 25 metres away and the atmosphere had changed. Arne sat up on the snowmobile calmly awaiting the bear's next move, while struggled to change the film in my camera with my cold, shaking hands. Then, just as I was thinking that there was no escape, as I tensed myself for the inevitable attack, the bear veered off (из­ме­нил на­прав­ле­ние) to one side and then went straight past us. "Look!" whispered Arne. "Behind us!" I turned and saw a second creamy head with two black eyes peering around the corner of an iceberg a few hundred metres behind us. A female bear. Our friend's goal had clearly been in his sight the whole time, and we were the only thing between him and his beloved.

§ 1. The moment for Olympic glory and gold occurs once every four years - a moment which becomes the focus for the lives of athletes from all over the world. This one event is their main goal and in order to achieve their dream they are prepared to make any sacrifice. All athletes are selected by their national Olympic Committee to represent their country, and once selected they face two major demands. The first is the mountain of form filling, paperwork and administration. The second is to finalise their preparation for the Games. Most athletes have highly-developed training schedules which enable them to reach the height of their performance for a particular event. However, the Olympics, creates its own timetable and pressures.

§ 2. When I was selected to represent Great Britain, I had approximately a hundred days to prepare. This included finalising training plans, raising nearly £16,000 towards the costs, seeing to travel arrangements and entry forms, and having discussions with my employer about extra time off work to allow me to prepare fully. Throughout my sailing career I had never had the opportunity to become a full-time athlete, so I needed to pursue my business career at the same time as my sporting objectives. However, any top-class athlete in any sport needs a level of business skills when competing at Olympic standard. They need the ability to plan and arrange for all the expenses effectively as well as work towards definite aims.

§ 3. Once you arrive, you stay in the Olympic "Village', which is really a small town housing 15,000 people from every imaginable culture and background. It is fascinating to watch athletes from tiny gymnasts to huge weightlifters and basketball players, and best of all is the excitement at being part of such a select gathering. There are training facilities, souvenir shops, launderettes, a bank and post office, as well as the Village restaurant which seats over 3,000 at one time.

§ 4. So what does it feel like to go to an Olympics? It can be summed up in many ways by the opening ceremony, where thousands of athletes and officials parade wearing their team kit. To most it is an event they will never forget and the honour of just being there is almost magical. And perhaps winning a medal is one of life's major experiences. For me it was the thoughts of family and friends who had all played a part on my road to success, and it felt wonderful. I feel that it is important to try and repay everyone's faith in me by putting something back into the community. I want the younger generation of athletes to benefit in the ways that I did.

§ 1. Claudio Bonifacio is a modern day treasure hunter. For most people, the title 'treasure hunter' more than likely brings to mind images of brave explorers fighting pirates to find a chest (сун­дук) full of sparkling jewels. But contrary to this stereotype, Bonifacio finds most of his bullion (gold and silver) in libraries full of ancient shipping records rather than with the help of the ancient magical map you might expect. He has spent many years searching the naval archives in Seville, from which he has located the positions of more than 2,500 sunken galleons  — the ships the Spaniards used to sail the high seas from the 15th to the 18th centuries.

§ 2. Bonifacio has turned his activities into a very profitable career. Such is his fame as a marine archeologist that he can demand very large fees. He provides the information he gathers out from his research to companies with the resources to raise the bullion from the wrecks. Bonifacio has worked for several Latin American governments, the Spanish government and the Italian national council.

§ 3. However, Bonifacio is unwilling to reveal the names of his private clients, or say how much money they have made from the wrecks. The reason for this is that they wish to remain anonymous due to uncertainty about ownership of the ocean floor (дно). Countries such as Honduras, where Bonifacio has discovered many wrecks, insist on their right to take all the treasures found in their territorial waters.

§ 4. Bonifacio is unsure of exactly how much bullion has been found by others as a result of his years of hard work, but he is sure that it must be many millions of dollars worth. "I hear reports," he says, "but in this type of work there is a great amount of secrecy, not only because of governments claiming the entire treasure, but also for tax reasons."

§ 5. Bonifacio's passion has also stimulated the discovery of old Spanish and Portuguese gold mines in South America, Mexico and the Caribbean. "In the 1560s and 1570s, he explains, "most of the gold and silver transported to Europe was stolen from the Incas and the Aztecs; but later, mines provided the main source of bullion. Mining technology in those days, however, was naturally very basic and the mines were not worked very efficiently. Most were eventually abandoned because it was believed there was no more gold to be found. Now, though, with modern day techniques, the world's mining companies are of course only too happy to pay me to search the records and find them! They know only too well that there is more than likely still plenty of gold just waiting to be discovered."

§ 1. My trip around Italy gave me the chance to try some of its regional cuisine. It was such a whirlwind that it is sometimes hard to separate one place from another in my mind. My time in Bologna, however, is perfectly imprinted in my memory. There, I had a lunch date to eat the most famous of Italian exports  — spaghetti Bolognese!

§ 2. My friend Marco had invited me to Bologna. He always said one day I should visit his home city and eat the well-known Bolognese dish, but, he added, "as you've never tasted it before." I had no idea what he meant, but about one thing I was sure; I had read in my guidebook that the Bolognese sauce, which includes beef, onions, carrot, celery, tomato paste, meat, milk, salt and pepper, dates back to the 5th century!

§ 3. After my train pulled into Bologna station, I wandered towards the famous Piazza Maggiore, the very heart of the city. Passing by a shoe shop window display, a pair of elegant shoes caught my eye immediately. "I must try those on," I thought. Upon entering the shop, an assistant stepped forward to greet me. I began my request in faltering Italian, but the assistant smiled and quickly replied, "I speak English, how can I help you?" "Thank you," I said, "I'd like to try on a pair of shoes in the window." The shop assistant said, "Well, of course, you can try them on in the window, but everyone in the street will be able to see you!" I realised she had taken my words very literally! I Smiled, "Sorry, I meant the shoes I'd like to try on are in the window display, but I'll try them on here," I said, sitting myself down on a chair, "in size 6, please." "Size 6? We have sizes 34 to 42." Suddenly, I remembered that sizing on the continent is different to that in the UK. "I'm sorry, that would be size 39, please." I was happy to find that the shoes fitted perfectly.

§ 4. After shopping it was time to head for food I found myself back at the piazza to find Marco had already arrived. We made our way to his grandmother's home for lunch. She was waiting to greet us at the door. I could smell the aroma of home cooking. "I can't wait for the spaghetti Bolognese," I exclaimed.

§ 5. Grandma looked confused. "Spaghetti? In Bologna, we never serve spaghetti with Bolognese sauce. We use thick pasta like fettuccine or tagliatelle." Smiling, Marco said, "I told you you'd be surprised. Bolognese sauce might be eaten with spaghetti all over the world, but never in Bologna!" I must say, Grandma's Bolognese was perfect. It had been a lovely day with smart new shoes, great company and delicious food. I could hardly complain!

§ 1. Catherine Cassidy has every reason to be proud. This summer she graduated with a degree in Zoology from Queen's University, Belfast. She has ambitions to be a scientific journalist. She is also completely deaf. She can lipread. I interviewed Catherine via e-mail. She told me getting to university was an achievement in itself. She says: 'You have to work much harder than your peers (сверст­ни­ки) and have to be prepared to commit yourself.'

§ 2. The Disability Discrimination Act insists that universities increase their intake of special needs students. But there are difficulties. First, there are no reliable figures on the numbers of disabled in the community, so universities are unsure of the percentages they should be aiming to recruit. Second, some students might require specially adapted computers, or online learning support. Of all the disabilities, deafness is probably the one that is hardest to cope with at university. Universities run on talk. Knowledge is communicated in lectures, seminars, talking to fellow students  — reading is only secondary. For deaf students, casual spontaneous discussions are out.

§ 3. Fortunately for Catherine, Queen's University is a centre of excellence for the teaching of deaf students. The Joint Universities Deaf Education centre (JUDE) organised a special phonic earpiece (слу­хо­вой ап­па­рат) that enabled Catherine to listen to lectures. JUDE has been extended to the other higher education institutions of Northern Ireland. JUDE is setting an example in what can be achieved. Sharon Easton, deaf student support officer, says: "We visit schools to make deaf people aware that higher education is a possibility. Another part of our role is to talk with employers. We're offering them deaf awareness training  — how to adapt to the needs of deaf employees, and where to apply for grants.'

§ 4. Catherine's skill in lip-reading made communicating with her seem so effortless that many people did not believe she had a problem. At times this experience has been painful. Catherine says: 'People have labelled me "not really deaf". It is like telling me I don't count. And this can be very disheartening, very demoralising.'

§ 5. Catherine believes that excellent and well-focused special needs support should be available to all disabled students at university whatever the cost. She says: 'You are accepted by a university on the basis of your ability to carry out mental tasks. You have a right to be there - people should not judge a person by any physical disability.'

§ 1. Cruising over the pack-ice with our heavy snowmobiles, my guide, Arne, and I looked out across the dazzling expanse of snow. We had come to the tiny, remote island of Svalbard northeast of Greenland, to photograph polar bears, but now we were exhausted with searching. The day had been particularly frustrating, as every bear we'd slowly approached had run away from us. Fed up and hungry, we decided to abandon our search for the afternoon and stop for a snack beside one of the many tall, blue icebergs.

§ 2. As always, a good meal was followed by an intense desire to sleep, and we decided to give in to it, even though the temperature was down to −30 °C. Sleeping at the same time would be unwise with our furry friends around, so we decided to take it in turns. As Arne slept, I scanned the Snow with my binoculars, looking for anything moving. An hour passed. I was just about to wake my companion, when I noticed a dot on the horizon. I wiped the lens, but it was still there. I began to make out the typical mayonnaise colour and the striding walk  — it was a polar bear and it was heading in our direction. I awoke Arne instantly. For the next thirty minutes, the bear continued on its direct course towards us, which was strange because the wind was blowing our scent straight towards him, so he must have been aware of our presence.

§ 3. When he was a couple of hundred metres away, I decided to lie down in the snow so as to get a better photograph. "You realise you look like seal like that, don't you?" warned Arne, for once sounding a bit worried. ave for dinner. Onwards the bear came, and by now I could hear the crunching Seals are what polar bears like to sound of his feet on the ice. It struck me that this was a big bear, travelling at some speed. I turned to speak to Arne, and saw him pulling a gun from his bag. Polar bears are incredibly unpredictable animals, and to be in their environment without protection is foolish. But Arne had strict instructions from me only to use the gun to frighten the bear away, and then only if necessary.

§ 4. By now the animal was only 25 metres away and the atmosphere had changed. Arne sat up on the snowmobile calmly awaiting the bear's next move, while struggled to change the film in my camera with my cold, shaking hands. Then, just as I was thinking that there was no escape, as I tensed myself for the inevitable attack, the bear veered off (из­ме­нил на­прав­ле­ние) to one side and then went straight past us. "Look!" whispered Arne. "Behind us!" I turned and saw a second creamy head with two black eyes peering around the corner of an iceberg a few hundred metres behind us. A female bear. Our friend's goal had clearly been in his sight the whole time, and we were the only thing between him and his beloved.

§ 1. My parents always said I was born to be a sportsman. They said that even when I was in nappies, I wasn't happy unless I was kicking or throwing a ball. My first memory is of Dad and me playing football in our back garden. I recall my mum sitting down on the grass cheering me on as I clumsily kicked a football into the goal net my dad was 'defending'. The sense of achievement when I scored my first goal stuck with me, and my life has revolved around football ever since. As I grew up, I dreamed of becoming a football player. During class, I tried to stay focused on my studies; I knew that few people became professional sportsmen and it was crucial to get a good education. But I devoted every spare second to my passion. I knew that if I wanted to become a success, I would have to put all my energy into the game.

§ 2. My big break came when I was 18. Leicester City FC offered me a place in the team. It was there that I learned the true value of teamwork. I played with a fantastic group of guys there and we worked toward one common goal  — to win! I learned that every person has their own individual talents, and a great team brings these talents together. We enjoyed great success at Leicester, and I was lucky enough to become one of the UK's top scorers I was transferred to Everton and, while I was sad to leave my fellow team-mates, I was excited about working with new people and making new friends. My time at Everton was an outstanding experience. While I was there, I scored 38 goals in 52 games. It wasn't long until I was on a new journey, this time across the sea to Spain to play for FC Barcelona. I was nervous at first, but it turned out that there was no reason to panic. I felt great pride when I stepped into the stadium and onto the pitch in Barcelona.

§ 3. As you can imagine, the proudest I felt was when I played for my country, England, in the World Cup. The tournament raises the level of competitiveness for every player. Not only do you have to be mentally prepared, but you have to be at the peak of physical fitness  — so, as you can imagine, it didn't help that I had to play the tournament with my left arm heavily strapped up! But I was determined not to let one injury stop me and played anyway! Because we were astrong team, we got to the quarter finals, and I scored six goals during the entire competition and won the 'Golden Boot' award

§ 4. Football has taken me around the world, from England to Spain to Japan! I have become fluent in two other languages and have experienced other cultures. My career provided me with many happy memories that I wouldn't change for the world.

§ 1. Though he is, in many ways, unremarkable and we have never met before, and he hasn't given me any particular clues to help me pick him out, it's not hard to spot Steve Sires in the lobby of his hotel, simply because he's the only man here who looks exactly like Bill Gates, the computer millionaire and head of Microsoft. "I figured you'd recognise me," he says, rising from his chair to shake my hand, in his Bill Gates glasses, with his Bill Gates hair, Smiling his Bill Gates smile. Steve Sires is a civil engineering consultant who runs his own business and, twice a month or so, gets paid to jet across the continent and look like Bill Gates. He's hired for business functions mostly - product launches, industry seminars and conferences. He isn't the only professional Bill Gates lookalike in the world, but he is, by most accounts, the best.

§ 2. We walk over to a business-district restaurant. I'd made a reservation for two, under 'Gates'. I'm worried this might annoy Sires, but he just laughs and admits that it's something he's never tried himself. The hostess doesn't even blink when I drop the name. As she leads us to our table I imagine a few glances sent our way, but they're likely just that, my imagination. Sires assures me that he causes much more talk back in Seattle, where the real Gates is occasionally known to walk among the masses. "People have reported spotting Bill at Burger King or eating popcorn at a movie, Sires says. "I wonder how many times people see me and think "Why in the world would Bill Gates be shopping in a cheap supermarket?"'

§ 3. When Sires moved to the Seattle area he had no idea why people kept stopping him on the street or asking him for stockmarket tips in the checkout line. "I didn't know who this Gates guy was," he says. "Turns out I lived 20 minutes from his house.' Sires initially ignored the much-remarked-on resemblance. Then, his wife cut out a newspaper ad placed by a local agent who handles lookalikes. She'd called the agent. He got me a job at the grand opening of a performing arts centre. I did it for free. But my picture was picked up by Associated Press." Soon, Sires was travelling to events, his appearance fee running to several thousand dollars.

§ 4. So Steve Sires is famous. Actually, what he has is better than fame  — it's celebrity, without any of the complications of actually being Bill Gates. "I've got a great deal," he admits. "I get a little attention. It's fun to get a little attention. But at the end of the day, I can always go home to my real life."

§ 1. Believe it or not, I used to read Flight International every week from the age of eight onwards  — my father, an aviation engineer, encouraged my early passion for planes but I never thought that one day I would be working on it as a journalist.

§ 2. Flight International is read by anyone with an interest in aviation. From pilots to manufacturers, technicians to air vice marshals, all are readers looking for the latest news in this sector. As news editor, I'm responsible for deciding what appears on the 20 news pages we produce each week. Aviation is one of the few truly global industries and we have a team of reporters around the world. When I left school, my original plan was to become an engineer. I studied aeronautical engineering at university but found the course rather unsatisfactory. At the time there was a huge recession on with few jobs going, and I was forced to look round for other options. I actually wrote to Flight and asked for a job. The then deputy editor advised me to do a course in journalism which had just been set up, which is what I did.

§ 3. I found the course useful not so much because it gave me a pretty good basic grounding in journalism, but mainly because it focused on several workplacements, which I was able to do at Flight. I wrote a few pieces and got my face known at the magazine. When the course finished there were no jobs available on Flight so I went off and worked for an aviation newsletter. After a year or so the technical reporter at Flight moved to another job and I was in. The great thing for me about working here has been the chance to ask people questions about something I'm genuinely interested in, and to combine it with my other passion, travel. After a couple of years I was offered a job in Munich in Germany,

§ 4. It was fantastic timing as the aviation industry in eastern Europe was just opening up and I got to report on it and see the region. From there I went to Singapore, which again was an extraordinary experience. I got to fly over the Far East, visiting factories, meeting fascinating people and doing interviews, and to be honest I would have been happy to stay there a bit longer.

§ 5. However, jobs like this don't come up very often  — the last news editor stayed ten years - and so when I was offered it, I couldn't really say no. Although I'm much more office-based now, I still go to the big air shows. In some ways I was getting a bit tired of living out of a suitcase, although I still get a thrill when I take my seat on a new plane for the first time. A37. Why did the writer read Flight International when he was a child?

§ 1. If you walk into any bookstore there is an entire shelf dedicated to books about people who decide to change their lives by relocating to another country. I used to laugh at those kinds of books and wonder why anyone would put themselves through the discomfort of going to live in a foreign country  — all in search of a simple lifel

§ 2. One day, instead of walking straight past this section, I selected a book to read on the train. It was about an accountant who realised one day how boring her life was, so she bought a ticket to Italy. After reading the book, the idea of moving abroad had lodged (за­се­ла) itself in my mind and was turning into a magnificent possibility.

§ 3. I resigned from the hospital where I worked, sold my apartment and moved to the region of Umbria in Italy. Once there, I rented an apartment and hired a little motorbike. I loved sampling the local cuisine and I signed up for a short cooking course. A very charming local man called Francesco ran the course. Each lesson not only did we learn how to prepare an authentic Umbrian dish, we were also rolling around the floor in fits of laughter, since Francesco was a natural storyteller and we enjoyed his talent for imitating people.

§ 4. I also took a three-month Italian language course. It is fair to say that my attempts at cooking were more successful than my attempts to acquire a new language. I tried hard, however, and after a few weeks of lessons I actually had a short conversation with a local  — OK, I only asked for directions to the train station. In my mind, though, this was a triumph of communication and I was satisfied with my modest progress.

§ 5. It was at one of these language classes that I heard a fellow student, John, mention that his neighbour, Sandro, was moving to Rome and selling his farmhouse very cheap. John said he wished he had the money to purchase it himself, as the property was sure to be snapped up soon. I couldn't believe that it cost less than half the amount that I had sold my tiny apartment for. Would I dare to copy the writers of all those books? I had to go and have a look, of course. The farmhouse was located on the top of a hill, and although it was very run-down, it possessed charm. I bought it straight away.

§ 6. The project wasn't without its difficulties, though. The farmhouse was collapsing in several places. My first priority, therefore, was to hire some local workers to add supports to the building. I also strengthened the foundations, installed a new kitchen and renovated the rest of the property. In the end, all the cost and effort were worthwhile, because I felt I belonged here as much as I did anywhere in the world, and I was determined to make it my home. I must say I sometimes look at my collection of books on Italy and think I'd like to have a goal writing one myself I'd like to share my experience and let other dreamers out there know that the difficulty is worth it. I didn't quite find the simple life, but I did find what the Italians call the sweet life  — la dolce vita.

§ 1. It is Saturday night at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in New York. In the galleries devoted to African art, children are playing hide-and-seek while the parents sip beer from plastic cups. Some teenage girls head through the sculpture exhibition to a temporary dance floor where a DJ is playing reggae music. Watching the scene is Bryan, a young teacher from a local school. What brings him out tonight? 'I'm here for the reggae, of course,' he says. When I heard they were playing that I thought, "I have to be there," and obviously a lot of people feel the same way.' Besides the DJ, the museum has laid on gallery talks, a Martin Scorsese film, a puppet show and a samba band.

§ 2. The Brooklyn Museum of Art wasn't always so trendy. For decades, it put on excellent exhibitions that few came to see. Had it been over in the city's fashionable Upper East Side, of course, the museum would have been packing them in. Even when they put on dull exhibitions, New York's top museums can count on a steady stream of visitors  — mostly tourists. But Brooklyn, one of New York's toughest districts, isn't on the standard tourist route. When the museum was built, it was in a wealthy suburb, but these days the surrounding streets are home to recent immigrants, mostly poor folk from the Caribbean.

§ 3. Two years ago, in an effort to revive itself, the museum appointed a new director, Arnold Lehman, who was born in Brooklyn. Lehman was convinced that the museum should forget about trying to attract visitors from the other side of town and try to appeal instead to people from the surrounding area.

§ 4. The free evening events, called 'First Saturdays', are Lehman's way of reaching out to people. The great thing for me is when you see teenage boys looking at art in the galleries without being handcuffed to their parents,' he says. What's more, the annual number of visitors to the museum has roughly doubled since the scheme was introduced. Similar institutions across the country are now calling, wanting to know how much it costs to throw a good party'. The answer, incidentally, is about $25,000 per event. 'And worth every penny,' says Lehman.

§ 5. The real achievement of First Saturdays is more significant and profound than the increased visitor numbers suggest. Most people visit art museums because they want to have a special 'artistic' experience. The Brooklyn Museum of Art has introduced thousands of people to the idea that museum-going can be a perfectly ordinary part of their lives.

§ 1. Imagine an entire town made up of spectacular buildings of multi-coloured ice. A town devoted to pleasure where you can ride in a horse-drawn carriage, go down ice slides (горки) and watch swimming events by an icy river. It sounds like a setting for a work of children's fiction, but this magical scene appears every January on an island just outside the Chinese city of Harbin.

§ 2. Winter in Harbin would be very boring indeed without its annual month-long Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival. Harbin has average temperatures of −16 °C at the time of the festival. So what better way to brighten up winter than with a colourful winter wonderland that recreates some of the world's most impressive architectural landmarks? It's possible to reproduce them using blocks of ice at Harbin because its winters, though freezing cold, are dry. There is a tradition of ice sculpture in the region that goes back hundreds of years and began with ice lantern (фо­нарь) artworks lit by candles.

§ 3. People who have been to the festival say the sculptures are most impressive at night, when they are lit by floodlights or from inside by clever use of LED (све­то­ди­од­ный) bulbs that change colour periodically. You can also appreciate the amazing detail of the snow sculptures better when there's no sunshine. If you want to see as many sculptures as possible, you should plan your trip for a few weeks into the festival. That's because by then the international snow-sculpting competition that is held during every festival is over and you can admire the creations in all their beauty.

§ 4. If you are more interested in physical activities than art, you'll still find plenty to amuse you at the festival. The event is well-known for the long snow slides that are incorporated into the designs of the ice buildings.

§ 5. Perhaps the most extreme event at the festival is the river swimming. Even setting up the event is a challenge. The organisers have to remove enough ice from the surface of the River Songhua to make a pool for the friendly competitions. The brave participants jump into the water wearing nothing but swimming costumes and caps, surrounded by spectators in winter hats, coats and gloves! Although the festival has become well-known enough to attract visitors from outside China, it's rare to see a non-local swimmer in the competitions. In northern China, however, there is a strong tradition of winter outdoor swimming, especially among the middle-aged and the elderly.

§ 1. While having lunch in an expensive restaurant, I tasted the wine I had ordered. I thought it might be spoiled, so I called the wine waiter. He was most unpleasant at the mere suggestion that something might be wrong. Unwillingly he tasted the wine  — and immediately apologized and brought another bottle. That's what I call power!' said my guest, but it helped that I knew I was right. As the customer, you have considerable rights.

§ 2. If a restaurant fails to provide a table you have booked, they will have broken their contract with you and you can politely threaten to take them to court for the cost of a spoiled evening. They will then usually find you a table. On the other hand, if you let them down, they can take you to court for lost business. In one case, a company booked a table for one o'clock for five people at a popular restaurant, then called to cancel at 1.35 p.m. on the day, saying their client did not want to eat. When the company refused to pay up, the restaurant owner took them to court and won: the judge decided that, since it was too late to re-book the table, the company should pay for the loss of profit on the meal.

§ 3. The menu is a vital legal document. The price should be included, together with the tax (налог), and the restaurant can be fined for not displaying it outside or immediately inside the door, so that customers know in advance what they are committing themselves to. It is illegal for any establishment to give a false description of their food. Everything must be what it claims to be: fresh fruit salad must consist only of fresh, not tinned, fruit; Welsh lamb must be an animal born or raised in Wales.

§ 4. You cannot rely on getting bread and butter free. A restaurant is allowed to make a cover charge  — which relates to linen, tableware, salt and pepper, Sauces and items like bread or olives  — provided it appears on the menu by the door.

§ 5. If the food is not cooked to your satisfaction, you can insist on the restaurant taking it back and supplying what you ordered. If it gives you food poisoning, the restaurant is obliged to pay for the suffering and inconvenience provided you have been to your doctor. If the food is not up to a reasonable standard for the money, you can either send it back or pay less than the bill demands. If you do not pay the full price, give your name, address and proof of identity so that you cannot be arrested for leaving without paying.

§1. As his feet splash through the warm waters of a huge outdoor pool at Dolphin Cove in the Florida Keys, USA, tenyear-old Jamie has a delighted expression on his face. He suffers from a disability which means he has difficulty communicating with the rest of the world, but the presence of playful dolphins elicits attention and squeals of pleasure. His parents are happy, too. 'In the past, he wouldn't even touch anything solid, and now he's grabbing hold of the dolphin's fin', says May, Jamie's mother. 'It's opening a new world for him.'

§2. The captive dolphins are part of the Dolphin Human Therapy programme, established by Dr David Nathanson, who uses dolphins to help children with mental and physical disabilities. The dolphins are not treated as miracle healers. Instead, the possibility of touching their grey-suede skin or even having a swim with a dolphin is a reward that encourages children like Jamie to respond to their teachers, who sit with the children at the water's edge. The sessions start with the teacher encouraging the child to motion 'hello' to a dolphin, which responds with a shake of its head or fin. The child is offered another chance to play with the dolphin if he or she works hard during the session.

§3. Adults too are attracted to swimming with captive dolphins as well. At a theme park near Orlando, people pay to have a 30-minute swim with them. It is a deeply memorable experience. When a swimmer slides into water alongside a dolphin they can actually feel their skin tingling as the dolphin scans them with sonar (гид­ро­ло­ка­тор). Then with a flip of their powerful tails, the dolphins are off, gliding around effortlessly, clearly observing their human visitors.

§4. Anyone tempted to swim with wild dolphins, however, should be careful. They can have a vicious streak. Male dolphins will sometimes kill baby dolphins, to attract the attention of females. They have also been filmed killing small porpoises (animals similar to dolphins), probably mistaking them for baby dolphins.

§5. Scientists have discovered that dolphins 'talk' to each other, through a form of whistling. The animals practise 'whistle matching', which is when one dolphin whistles and another repeats the sound within three seconds.

§6. Back at Dolphin Cove, the dolphins' contribution to the children's progress is acknowledged. 'I think dolphins are incredible,' says Jeffrey Bicknell, who works with the children. 'I've seen them look at a child and observe what the problem is, and change their behaviour according to the nature of the problem. They are more dominant with some children, more patient with others.'

§ 1. Minutes before the start of a British Grand Prix in August, the drivers' faces are grave with concentration. Fans are screaming. Squeezed into his driving seat, Nelson Jones is pulling on a pair of tight black gloves. No question where he's expecting to finish: "First," he says. At the start signal, with a burst of engine noise, the drivers move quickly to the first turn.

§ 2. It all sounds a lot like a Formula One car race, but there's a difference  — Nelson is thirteen years old, and he's racing in a go-kart. What could be seen as child's play is in fact the first step for young talent to move into professional race cars, because it introduces them to the essential basics such as finding the racing line, concentration and how to compete on the track. That track record makes karting a must for youngsters keen to make racing their life's ambition.

§ 3. Nelson Jones has actually been racing since he was eight years old. "When my son Nelson showed us how gifted he was with racing, even at an incredibly young age, I knew we had to do something," Nelson's father says. "Racing can be really dangerous and it gets expensive, but when I had the opportunity to buy him his first official kart, I rushed to do it."

§ 4. After taking part in three or four local races in Britain, in which he won first place, Nelson decided that he would go for it and have a crack at his first international Grand Prix in Germany, which he won as well. Nelson now travels all over Britain and Europe to take part in races. The interest he showed in racing was not via the usual exposure to video games. "We lived near a small karting racetrack and I became fascinated  — I couldn't stop talking about it. One day, as we were driving past, I made my father stop the car so I could have a better look at the karts flying by. I saw so many people, including kids my own age, and I took a liking to it straight away.'

§ 5. Nelson eventually got his chance to try it out. The family hired an instructor for amateurs to teach Nelson, who took him as far as the age of twelve. The instructor then informed Nelson's father it was time to look for someone more qualified. Perhaps it is Nelson's good fortune in having always been expertly advised that has made him so relaxed about facing the pressures of an international racing circuit. But what is it like to be so young with a schedule fully booked with races, and all eyes watching him, expecting victory after victory? It's good for me, as I know what I need to be doing. The public's expectations help me focus and concentrate so I can race at my highest level.'

Everyone, whatever their age, can share in the joy and fulfillment of learning, as June Weatherall found out.

§ 1. When I first retired, I thought I'd love spending more time on the gardening, needlework, and other creative activities I'd found so relaxing after my demanding job. But it didn't turn out that way. I found that I didn't want, or need, that kind of relaxation anymore, I wanted to stimulate my mind instead.

§ 2. So, with a couple of friends, I went along to an art appreciation evening class at our local regional college. It was wonderful, but only lasted a year. At the end, I asked my tutor, "What next?' He suggested I attend his history of art access course. "Whatever's that?' I asked. The college had an open evening coming up, so I went along to find out. A full-time access course takes one year and gives you access to university if, like me, you left school without any qualifications, and it's free if you do it full-time. I only wanted to do the art history bit.

§ 3. Lyn, who organises the courses for the college, was enthusiastic. "Why don't you do the whole course? You could start in the spring term with art history, do another module in the summer, then go full-time in the autumn and do all the subjects." It sounded wonderful, but wasn't I a bit old, at 63, to start being a student? A definite 'no'. One of the students that year was 82. That decided it. It must be worth having a go.

§ 4. The art history part of the course, which I've just completed, was stimulating. The tutors are enthusiasts and infect us all with their enjoyment of the subjects they teach. "Lively' would be the word to describe the classes. My fellow students, who are also doing subjects like psychology, maths, biology, etc., are good company. They're mainly people in their thirties with children, taking a second bite at the educational cherry.

§ 5. We have homework and have to do an essay each term for each subject, and sit exams. For art history, we had to produce a journal about all the painters we'd learnt about  — which was fun, but rather time-consuming. Occasionally, I envy the more typical mature students, who just do courses for fun and don't have to do exams or essays, but really I'm a very happy lady. There are drawbacks, however. The main one is you have to make a commitment. During term time, you can't just drop everything and go out for the day if the sun shines  — one of the supposed joys of retirement.

§ 6. Will I go on to university if I'm successful? I'll see how next year goes. Meanwhile, exercising my brain cells is working well for me. I feel alive. The garden's getting a bit out of control, but that's the least of my worries!

This is what the famous musician Yehudi Menuhin writes about himself.

§ 1. Being a touring musician is a bit like being a sailor. It's constant motion, a continuous routine of settling into new hotels and meeting new people. So my ideal holiday is enjoying being alone with my wife.

§ 2. My earliest memory of a holiday was when I was five. We had just bought our first car, and drove joyously from San Francisco, exploring the most beautiful parts of California. It was a wonderful experience. I vividly remember the beautiful Yosemite valley, a place of waterfalls and beautiful mountains, a wilderness before we polluted it with cars and noisy stereo systems. As a child I collected photographs of those huge railway engines that pulled hundreds of goods wagons across America. These trains were like monsters, with groups of four wheels on each side. For Americans trains are hugely romantic. My first train journey across America was when I was eight years old. During the day I sat at the window watching the scenery fly past. At night I always had the top bunk bed in the sleeping compartment. I would scramble up to read in bed, feeling cosy and contented as the train rhythmically travelled over the rails through the night.

§ 3. Since then I've worked and studied for many hours on trains, enjoying the view and the sense of timelessness. I loved the smell of steel upon steel mixed up with the smell of the countryside. I loved the sound of the engine's horn, which used to remind me of the ferries which crept along in between the ships in San Francisco Bay on foggy nights. I have been lucky travelling all over the world and managing, just occasionally, to take a few days actually to see something more than just the airport, hotel and concert hall. When my wife and I were in Peru, we took three days off and flew in a small plane to the mountains where we spent a wonderful time walking and exploring in the jungle.

§ 4. Forty years ago we bought a small house on a Greek island and went there whenever we could. Initially there were just a few carts, and everything was transported on the back of a donkey or a man. We had a tiny cottage with a lovely garden of fruit trees where we used to pick grapes and oranges. We spent a lot of time on the beach  — as I love swimming  — and in the village getting to know people. After ten or fifteen years we were firmly involved in the community, able to share a totally different world, different language, different music.

§ 1. My parents always said I was born to be a sportsman. They said that even when I was in nappies, I wasn't happy unless I was kicking or throwing a ball. My first memory is of Dad and me playing football in our back garden. I recall my mum sitting down on the grass cheering me on as I clumsily kicked a football into the goal net my dad was 'defending'. The sense of achievement when I scored my first goal stuck with me, and my life has revolved around football ever since. As I grew up, I dreamed of becoming a football player. During class, I tried to stay focused on my studies; I knew that few people became professional sportsmen and it was crucial to get a good education. But I devoted every spare second to my passion. I knew that if I wanted to become a success, I would have to put all my energy into the game.

§ 2. My big break came when I was 18. Leicester City FC offered me a place in the team. It was there that I learned the true value of teamwork. I played with a fantastic group of guys there and we worked toward one common goal  — to win! I learned that every person has their own individual talents, and a great team brings these talents together. We enjoyed great success at Leicester, and I was lucky enough to become one of the UK's top scorers I was transferred to Everton and, while I was sad to leave my fellow team-mates, I was excited about working with new people and making new friends. My time at Everton was an outstanding experience. While I was there, I scored 38 goals in 52 games. It wasn't long until I was on a new journey, this time across the sea to Spain to play for FC Barcelona. I was nervous at first, but it turned out that there was no reason to panic. I felt great pride when I stepped into the stadium and onto the pitch in Barcelona.

§ 3. As you can imagine, the proudest I felt was when I played for my country, England, in the World Cup. The tournament raises the level of competitiveness for every player. Not only do you have to be mentally prepared, but you have to be at the peak of physical fitness  — so, as you can imagine, it didn't help that I had to play the tournament with my left arm heavily strapped up! But I was determined not to let one injury stop me and played anyway! Because we were astrong team, we got to the quarter finals, and I scored six goals during the entire competition and won the 'Golden Boot' award

§ 4. Football has taken me around the world, from England to Spain to Japan! I have become fluent in two other languages and have experienced other cultures. My career provided me with many happy memories that I wouldn't change for the world.

§ 1. Though he is, in many ways, unremarkable and we have never met before, and he hasn't given me any particular clues to help me pick him out, it's not hard to spot Steve Sires in the lobby of his hotel, simply because he's the only man here who looks exactly like Bill Gates, the computer millionaire and head of Microsoft. "I figured you'd recognise me," he says, rising from his chair to shake my hand, in his Bill Gates glasses, with his Bill Gates hair, Smiling his Bill Gates smile. Steve Sires is a civil engineering consultant who runs his own business and, twice a month or so, gets paid to jet across the continent and look like Bill Gates. He's hired for business functions mostly - product launches, industry seminars and conferences. He isn't the only professional Bill Gates lookalike in the world, but he is, by most accounts, the best.

§ 2. We walk over to a business-district restaurant. I'd made a reservation for two, under 'Gates'. I'm worried this might annoy Sires, but he just laughs and admits that it's something he's never tried himself. The hostess doesn't even blink when I drop the name. As she leads us to our table I imagine a few glances sent our way, but they're likely just that, my imagination. Sires assures me that he causes much more talk back in Seattle, where the real Gates is occasionally known to walk among the masses. "People have reported spotting Bill at Burger King or eating popcorn at a movie, Sires says. "I wonder how many times people see me and think "Why in the world would Bill Gates be shopping in a cheap supermarket?"'

§ 3. When Sires moved to the Seattle area he had no idea why people kept stopping him on the street or asking him for stockmarket tips in the checkout line. "I didn't know who this Gates guy was," he says. "Turns out I lived 20 minutes from his house.' Sires initially ignored the much-remarked-on resemblance. Then, his wife cut out a newspaper ad placed by a local agent who handles lookalikes. She'd called the agent. He got me a job at the grand opening of a performing arts centre. I did it for free. But my picture was picked up by Associated Press." Soon, Sires was travelling to events, his appearance fee running to several thousand dollars.

§ 4. So Steve Sires is famous. Actually, what he has is better than fame  — it's celebrity, without any of the complications of actually being Bill Gates. "I've got a great deal," he admits. "I get a little attention. It's fun to get a little attention. But at the end of the day, I can always go home to my real life."

§ 1. Ask a biologist what the most intelligent creatures are on Earth, and they'll probably come up with a fairly similar list: larger mammals such as horses, dogs, dolphins, pigs, the great apes as well as some birds like crows and ravens. But now some scientists believe that one of the most intelligent beings on Earth is in fact the octopus  — which doesn't belong to any of these groups.

§ 2. Every schoolchild knows that octopuses have eight legs and can shoot ink while trying to escape from enemies. But there are many other unusual things about octopuses. For example, if an octopus loses a leg, it can grow a new one. It also has three hearts and complex eyes, which seem to belong to a mammal rather than a Sea creature. Octopuses also seem to be experts at escaping  — they have extremely soft, flexible bodies and can escape through holes not much bigger than their eyes.

§ 3. However, even until quite recently, little was known about octopus intelligence. There are several reasons for this. Firstly, octopuses usually live at the bottom of river mouths and seas - areas which are not attractive to researchers. Secondly, they are not social animals so it can be difficult to study their interaction with others. Perhaps most importantly, octopus intelligence is not easy for humans to understand. Octopuses seem like strangers. Scientists need to have a lot of imagination to be able to understand what an octopus is thinking!

§ 4. In the 1950s, the US Air Force sponsored scientists to study the way octopuses use their brains. They hoped that they could use this knowledge to help them build better computers. However, their brains were so complex that the scientists quickly gave up. And even today the octopus brain is a mystery. Octopuses have a very complex nervous system and recent research suggests that they have some of their intelligence inside each arm, which means that each arm can 'think' for itself. It also appears that they have good memories, perhaps similar to a cat's. Some Octopuses in laboratories seem to play with objects as if they were toys  — a sure sign of intelligence. Others could pick up complicated skills like opening jars.

§ 5. Perhaps the most striking thing about octopuses is their ability to change their colour and body pattern. They do this to camouflage themselves and also to communicate with others. They can completely change their appearance in less than a second. A scientist once observed an octopus that changed its appearance nearly 1,000 times during seven hours of feeding!

§ 1. Though he is, in many ways, unremarkable and we have never met before, and he hasn't given me any particular clues to help me pick him out, it's not hard to spot Steve Sires in the lobby of his hotel, simply because he's the only man here who looks exactly like Bill Gates, the computer millionaire and head of Microsoft. "I figured you'd recognise me," he says, rising from his chair to shake my hand, in his Bill Gates glasses, with his Bill Gates hair, Smiling his Bill Gates smile. Steve Sires is a civil engineering consultant who runs his own business and, twice a month or so, gets paid to jet across the continent and look like Bill Gates. He's hired for business functions mostly - product launches, industry seminars and conferences. He isn't the only professional Bill Gates lookalike in the world, but he is, by most accounts, the best.

§ 2. We walk over to a business-district restaurant. I'd made a reservation for two, under 'Gates'. I'm worried this might annoy Sires, but he just laughs and admits that it's something he's never tried himself. The hostess doesn't even blink when I drop the name. As she leads us to our table I imagine a few glances sent our way, but they're likely just that, my imagination. Sires assures me that he causes much more talk back in Seattle, where the real Gates is occasionally known to walk among the masses. "People have reported spotting Bill at Burger King or eating popcorn at a movie, Sires says. "I wonder how many times people see me and think "Why in the world would Bill Gates be shopping in a cheap supermarket?"'

§ 3. When Sires moved to the Seattle area he had no idea why people kept stopping him on the street or asking him for stockmarket tips in the checkout line. "I didn't know who this Gates guy was," he says. "Turns out I lived 20 minutes from his house.' Sires initially ignored the much-remarked-on resemblance. Then, his wife cut out a newspaper ad placed by a local agent who handles lookalikes. She'd called the agent. He got me a job at the grand opening of a performing arts centre. I did it for free. But my picture was picked up by Associated Press." Soon, Sires was travelling to events, his appearance fee running to several thousand dollars.

§ 4. So Steve Sires is famous. Actually, what he has is better than fame  — it's celebrity, without any of the complications of actually being Bill Gates. "I've got a great deal," he admits. "I get a little attention. It's fun to get a little attention. But at the end of the day, I can always go home to my real life."

§ 1. Cruising over the pack-ice with our heavy snowmobiles, my guide, Arne, and I looked out across the dazzling expanse of snow. We had come to the tiny, remote island of Svalbard northeast of Greenland, to photograph polar bears, but now we were exhausted with searching. The day had been particularly frustrating, as every bear we'd slowly approached had run away from us. Fed up and hungry, we decided to abandon our search for the afternoon and stop for a snack beside one of the many tall, blue icebergs.

§ 2. As always, a good meal was followed by an intense desire to sleep, and we decided to give in to it, even though the temperature was down to −30 °C. Sleeping at the same time would be unwise with our furry friends around, so we decided to take it in turns. As Arne slept, I scanned the Snow with my binoculars, looking for anything moving. An hour passed. I was just about to wake my companion, when I noticed a dot on the horizon. I wiped the lens, but it was still there. I began to make out the typical mayonnaise colour and the striding walk  — it was a polar bear and it was heading in our direction. I awoke Arne instantly. For the next thirty minutes, the bear continued on its direct course towards us, which was strange because the wind was blowing our scent straight towards him, so he must have been aware of our presence.

§ 3. When he was a couple of hundred metres away, I decided to lie down in the snow so as to get a better photograph. "You realise you look like seal like that, don't you?" warned Arne, for once sounding a bit worried. ave for dinner. Onwards the bear came, and by now I could hear the crunching Seals are what polar bears like to sound of his feet on the ice. It struck me that this was a big bear, travelling at some speed. I turned to speak to Arne, and saw him pulling a gun from his bag. Polar bears are incredibly unpredictable animals, and to be in their environment without protection is foolish. But Arne had strict instructions from me only to use the gun to frighten the bear away, and then only if necessary.

§ 4. By now the animal was only 25 metres away and the atmosphere had changed. Arne sat up on the snowmobile calmly awaiting the bear's next move, while struggled to change the film in my camera with my cold, shaking hands. Then, just as I was thinking that there was no escape, as I tensed myself for the inevitable attack, the bear veered off (из­ме­нил на­прав­ле­ние) to one side and then went straight past us. "Look!" whispered Arne. "Behind us!" I turned and saw a second creamy head with two black eyes peering around the corner of an iceberg a few hundred metres behind us. A female bear. Our friend's goal had clearly been in his sight the whole time, and we were the only thing between him and his beloved.

Everyone, whatever their age, can share in the joy and fulfillment of learning, as June Weatherall found out.

§ 1. When I first retired, I thought I'd love spending more time on the gardening, needlework, and other creative activities I'd found so relaxing after my demanding job. But it didn't turn out that way. I found that I didn't want, or need, that kind of relaxation anymore, I wanted to stimulate my mind instead.

§ 2. So, with a couple of friends, I went along to an art appreciation evening class at our local regional college. It was wonderful, but only lasted a year. At the end, I asked my tutor, "What next?' He suggested I attend his history of art access course. "Whatever's that?' I asked. The college had an open evening coming up, so I went along to find out. A full-time access course takes one year and gives you access to university if, like me, you left school without any qualifications, and it's free if you do it full-time. I only wanted to do the art history bit.

§ 3. Lyn, who organises the courses for the college, was enthusiastic. "Why don't you do the whole course? You could start in the spring term with art history, do another module in the summer, then go full-time in the autumn and do all the subjects." It sounded wonderful, but wasn't I a bit old, at 63, to start being a student? A definite 'no'. One of the students that year was 82. That decided it. It must be worth having a go.

§ 4. The art history part of the course, which I've just completed, was stimulating. The tutors are enthusiasts and infect us all with their enjoyment of the subjects they teach. "Lively' would be the word to describe the classes. My fellow students, who are also doing subjects like psychology, maths, biology, etc., are good company. They're mainly people in their thirties with children, taking a second bite at the educational cherry.

§ 5. We have homework and have to do an essay each term for each subject, and sit exams. For art history, we had to produce a journal about all the painters we'd learnt about  — which was fun, but rather time-consuming. Occasionally, I envy the more typical mature students, who just do courses for fun and don't have to do exams or essays, but really I'm a very happy lady. There are drawbacks, however. The main one is you have to make a commitment. During term time, you can't just drop everything and go out for the day if the sun shines  — one of the supposed joys of retirement.

§ 6. Will I go on to university if I'm successful? I'll see how next year goes. Meanwhile, exercising my brain cells is working well for me. I feel alive. The garden's getting a bit out of control, but that's the least of my worries!

§ 1. The moment for Olympic glory and gold occurs once every four years - a moment which becomes the focus for the lives of athletes from all over the world. This one event is their main goal and in order to achieve their dream they are prepared to make any sacrifice. All athletes are selected by their national Olympic Committee to represent their country, and once selected they face two major demands. The first is the mountain of form filling, paperwork and administration. The second is to finalise their preparation for the Games. Most athletes have highly-developed training schedules which enable them to reach the height of their performance for a particular event. However, the Olympics, creates its own timetable and pressures.

§ 2. When I was selected to represent Great Britain, I had approximately a hundred days to prepare. This included finalising training plans, raising nearly £16,000 towards the costs, seeing to travel arrangements and entry forms, and having discussions with my employer about extra time off work to allow me to prepare fully. Throughout my sailing career I had never had the opportunity to become a full-time athlete, so I needed to pursue my business career at the same time as my sporting objectives. However, any top-class athlete in any sport needs a level of business skills when competing at Olympic standard. They need the ability to plan and arrange for all the expenses effectively as well as work towards definite aims.

§ 3. Once you arrive, you stay in the Olympic "Village', which is really a small town housing 15,000 people from every imaginable culture and background. It is fascinating to watch athletes from tiny gymnasts to huge weightlifters and basketball players, and best of all is the excitement at being part of such a select gathering. There are training facilities, souvenir shops, launderettes, a bank and post office, as well as the Village restaurant which seats over 3,000 at one time.

§ 4. So what does it feel like to go to an Olympics? It can be summed up in many ways by the opening ceremony, where thousands of athletes and officials parade wearing their team kit. To most it is an event they will never forget and the honour of just being there is almost magical. And perhaps winning a medal is one of life's major experiences. For me it was the thoughts of family and friends who had all played a part on my road to success, and it felt wonderful. I feel that it is important to try and repay everyone's faith in me by putting something back into the community. I want the younger generation of athletes to benefit in the ways that I did.

§1. As his feet splash through the warm waters of a huge outdoor pool at Dolphin Cove in the Florida Keys, USA, tenyear-old Jamie has a delighted expression on his face. He suffers from a disability which means he has difficulty communicating with the rest of the world, but the presence of playful dolphins elicits attention and squeals of pleasure. His parents are happy, too. 'In the past, he wouldn't even touch anything solid, and now he's grabbing hold of the dolphin's fin', says May, Jamie's mother. 'It's opening a new world for him.'

§2. The captive dolphins are part of the Dolphin Human Therapy programme, established by Dr David Nathanson, who uses dolphins to help children with mental and physical disabilities. The dolphins are not treated as miracle healers. Instead, the possibility of touching their grey-suede skin or even having a swim with a dolphin is a reward that encourages children like Jamie to respond to their teachers, who sit with the children at the water's edge. The sessions start with the teacher encouraging the child to motion 'hello' to a dolphin, which responds with a shake of its head or fin. The child is offered another chance to play with the dolphin if he or she works hard during the session.

§3. Adults too are attracted to swimming with captive dolphins as well. At a theme park near Orlando, people pay to have a 30-minute swim with them. It is a deeply memorable experience. When a swimmer slides into water alongside a dolphin they can actually feel their skin tingling as the dolphin scans them with sonar (гид­ро­ло­ка­тор). Then with a flip of their powerful tails, the dolphins are off, gliding around effortlessly, clearly observing their human visitors.

§4. Anyone tempted to swim with wild dolphins, however, should be careful. They can have a vicious streak. Male dolphins will sometimes kill baby dolphins, to attract the attention of females. They have also been filmed killing small porpoises (animals similar to dolphins), probably mistaking them for baby dolphins.

§5. Scientists have discovered that dolphins 'talk' to each other, through a form of whistling. The animals practise 'whistle matching', which is when one dolphin whistles and another repeats the sound within three seconds.

§6. Back at Dolphin Cove, the dolphins' contribution to the children's progress is acknowledged. 'I think dolphins are incredible,' says Jeffrey Bicknell, who works with the children. 'I've seen them look at a child and observe what the problem is, and change their behaviour according to the nature of the problem. They are more dominant with some children, more patient with others.'

§ 1. Believe it or not, I used to read Flight International every week from the age of eight onwards  — my father, an aviation engineer, encouraged my early passion for planes but I never thought that one day I would be working on it as a journalist.

§ 2. Flight International is read by anyone with an interest in aviation. From pilots to manufacturers, technicians to air vice marshals, all are readers looking for the latest news in this sector. As news editor, I'm responsible for deciding what appears on the 20 news pages we produce each week. Aviation is one of the few truly global industries and we have a team of reporters around the world. When I left school, my original plan was to become an engineer. I studied aeronautical engineering at university but found the course rather unsatisfactory. At the time there was a huge recession on with few jobs going, and I was forced to look round for other options. I actually wrote to Flight and asked for a job. The then deputy editor advised me to do a course in journalism which had just been set up, which is what I did.

§ 3. I found the course useful not so much because it gave me a pretty good basic grounding in journalism, but mainly because it focused on several workplacements, which I was able to do at Flight. I wrote a few pieces and got my face known at the magazine. When the course finished there were no jobs available on Flight so I went off and worked for an aviation newsletter. After a year or so the technical reporter at Flight moved to another job and I was in. The great thing for me about working here has been the chance to ask people questions about something I'm genuinely interested in, and to combine it with my other passion, travel. After a couple of years I was offered a job in Munich in Germany,

§ 4. It was fantastic timing as the aviation industry in eastern Europe was just opening up and I got to report on it and see the region. From there I went to Singapore, which again was an extraordinary experience. I got to fly over the Far East, visiting factories, meeting fascinating people and doing interviews, and to be honest I would have been happy to stay there a bit longer.

§ 5. However, jobs like this don't come up very often  — the last news editor stayed ten years - and so when I was offered it, I couldn't really say no. Although I'm much more office-based now, I still go to the big air shows. In some ways I was getting a bit tired of living out of a suitcase, although I still get a thrill when I take my seat on a new plane for the first time. A37. Why did the writer read Flight International when he was a child?

§ 1. It is Saturday night at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in New York. In the galleries devoted to African art, children are playing hide-and-seek while the parents sip beer from plastic cups. Some teenage girls head through the sculpture exhibition to a temporary dance floor where a DJ is playing reggae music. Watching the scene is Bryan, a young teacher from a local school. What brings him out tonight? 'I'm here for the reggae, of course,' he says. When I heard they were playing that I thought, "I have to be there," and obviously a lot of people feel the same way.' Besides the DJ, the museum has laid on gallery talks, a Martin Scorsese film, a puppet show and a samba band.

§ 2. The Brooklyn Museum of Art wasn't always so trendy. For decades, it put on excellent exhibitions that few came to see. Had it been over in the city's fashionable Upper East Side, of course, the museum would have been packing them in. Even when they put on dull exhibitions, New York's top museums can count on a steady stream of visitors  — mostly tourists. But Brooklyn, one of New York's toughest districts, isn't on the standard tourist route. When the museum was built, it was in a wealthy suburb, but these days the surrounding streets are home to recent immigrants, mostly poor folk from the Caribbean.

§ 3. Two years ago, in an effort to revive itself, the museum appointed a new director, Arnold Lehman, who was born in Brooklyn. Lehman was convinced that the museum should forget about trying to attract visitors from the other side of town and try to appeal instead to people from the surrounding area.

§ 4. The free evening events, called 'First Saturdays', are Lehman's way of reaching out to people. The great thing for me is when you see teenage boys looking at art in the galleries without being handcuffed to their parents,' he says. What's more, the annual number of visitors to the museum has roughly doubled since the scheme was introduced. Similar institutions across the country are now calling, wanting to know how much it costs to throw a good party'. The answer, incidentally, is about $25,000 per event. 'And worth every penny,' says Lehman.

§ 5. The real achievement of First Saturdays is more significant and profound than the increased visitor numbers suggest. Most people visit art museums because they want to have a special 'artistic' experience. The Brooklyn Museum of Art has introduced thousands of people to the idea that museum-going can be a perfectly ordinary part of their lives.

This is what the famous musician Yehudi Menuhin writes about himself.

§ 1. Being a touring musician is a bit like being a sailor. It's constant motion, a continuous routine of settling into new hotels and meeting new people. So my ideal holiday is enjoying being alone with my wife.

§ 2. My earliest memory of a holiday was when I was five. We had just bought our first car, and drove joyously from San Francisco, exploring the most beautiful parts of California. It was a wonderful experience. I vividly remember the beautiful Yosemite valley, a place of waterfalls and beautiful mountains, a wilderness before we polluted it with cars and noisy stereo systems. As a child I collected photographs of those huge railway engines that pulled hundreds of goods wagons across America. These trains were like monsters, with groups of four wheels on each side. For Americans trains are hugely romantic. My first train journey across America was when I was eight years old. During the day I sat at the window watching the scenery fly past. At night I always had the top bunk bed in the sleeping compartment. I would scramble up to read in bed, feeling cosy and contented as the train rhythmically travelled over the rails through the night.

§ 3. Since then I've worked and studied for many hours on trains, enjoying the view and the sense of timelessness. I loved the smell of steel upon steel mixed up with the smell of the countryside. I loved the sound of the engine's horn, which used to remind me of the ferries which crept along in between the ships in San Francisco Bay on foggy nights. I have been lucky travelling all over the world and managing, just occasionally, to take a few days actually to see something more than just the airport, hotel and concert hall. When my wife and I were in Peru, we took three days off and flew in a small plane to the mountains where we spent a wonderful time walking and exploring in the jungle.

§ 4. Forty years ago we bought a small house on a Greek island and went there whenever we could. Initially there were just a few carts, and everything was transported on the back of a donkey or a man. We had a tiny cottage with a lovely garden of fruit trees where we used to pick grapes and oranges. We spent a lot of time on the beach  — as I love swimming  — and in the village getting to know people. After ten or fifteen years we were firmly involved in the community, able to share a totally different world, different language, different music.

§ 1. High up in the mountains of southeast Asia, you can find the Akha hill tribes living in their traditional villages and farming the land.

§ 2. The history of the Akha people goes back hundreds, if not thousands, of years. They originally came from Tibet and have maintained the physical characteristics of that region, being fairly short and dark in complexion. Today, they live in small villages in the mountainous parts of China, Laos and northern Thailand. The Akha people are rich in culture, history and tradition. But they are also among the world's poorest people. Akha women remain remarkably strong and cheerful in the face of such a hard life. Akha men are brave and strong.

§ 3. The Akha have their own way of measuring time where one week lasts 12 days. Each village has its own leader or headman, and under his guidance people follow a code of behaviour known as the Akha Way. Thanks to the Akha Way, each person in these small communities knows their role in society. The men provide for their families by farming crops. They are also talented craftsmen. The women do spinning and weaving and make their own clothes. They wear colourfully decorated black shirts and skirts, and thick black leggings. Their headdresses are especially distinctive. As for the children, even though many of them don't attend school, they all know the names of every plant and animal in the forest. There is no written Akha language but the oral tradition is very rich.

§ 4. Akha villages all look quite similar. The bamboo houses with their thatched roofs stand on stilts (сваи) on the hillsides. Every village has two wooden frames that look like a doorway at its entrance and exit. These structures have spiritual significance and are called the 'spirit gates'. Artists cover the frames with carvings of both evil and smiling faces. This is to invite good spirits to enter the village and keep bad spirits out. Each summer the men build a swing in a public open space. Here the young children gather to play, but not just as a playground game  — it is part of the yearly ceremony to honour dead ancestors.

§ 5. Sadly, the Akha Way is slowly disappearing from many villages. A growing number of tourists are visiting them and introducing a taste of Western culture. The women and girls only dress traditionally when there are tourists around in the hope they will buy souvenirs. Some Akha have even decided to take things a step further: they are leaving their villages to seek their fortunes in the big cities.

§ 1. Imagine an entire town made up of spectacular buildings of multi-coloured ice. A town devoted to pleasure where you can ride in a horse-drawn carriage, go down ice slides (горки) and watch swimming events by an icy river. It sounds like a setting for a work of children's fiction, but this magical scene appears every January on an island just outside the Chinese city of Harbin.

§ 2. Winter in Harbin would be very boring indeed without its annual month-long Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival. Harbin has average temperatures of −16 °C at the time of the festival. So what better way to brighten up winter than with a colourful winter wonderland that recreates some of the world's most impressive architectural landmarks? It's possible to reproduce them using blocks of ice at Harbin because its winters, though freezing cold, are dry. There is a tradition of ice sculpture in the region that goes back hundreds of years and began with ice lantern (фо­нарь) artworks lit by candles.

§ 3. People who have been to the festival say the sculptures are most impressive at night, when they are lit by floodlights or from inside by clever use of LED (све­то­ди­од­ный) bulbs that change colour periodically. You can also appreciate the amazing detail of the snow sculptures better when there's no sunshine. If you want to see as many sculptures as possible, you should plan your trip for a few weeks into the festival. That's because by then the international snow-sculpting competition that is held during every festival is over and you can admire the creations in all their beauty.

§ 4. If you are more interested in physical activities than art, you'll still find plenty to amuse you at the festival. The event is well-known for the long snow slides that are incorporated into the designs of the ice buildings.

§ 5. Perhaps the most extreme event at the festival is the river swimming. Even setting up the event is a challenge. The organisers have to remove enough ice from the surface of the River Songhua to make a pool for the friendly competitions. The brave participants jump into the water wearing nothing but swimming costumes and caps, surrounded by spectators in winter hats, coats and gloves! Although the festival has become well-known enough to attract visitors from outside China, it's rare to see a non-local swimmer in the competitions. In northern China, however, there is a strong tradition of winter outdoor swimming, especially among the middle-aged and the elderly.

§ 1. Minutes before the start of a British Grand Prix in August, the drivers' faces are grave with concentration. Fans are screaming. Squeezed into his driving seat, Nelson Jones is pulling on a pair of tight black gloves. No question where he's expecting to finish: "First," he says. At the start signal, with a burst of engine noise, the drivers move quickly to the first turn.

§ 2. It all sounds a lot like a Formula One car race, but there's a difference  — Nelson is thirteen years old, and he's racing in a go-kart. What could be seen as child's play is in fact the first step for young talent to move into professional race cars, because it introduces them to the essential basics such as finding the racing line, concentration and how to compete on the track. That track record makes karting a must for youngsters keen to make racing their life's ambition.

§ 3. Nelson Jones has actually been racing since he was eight years old. "When my son Nelson showed us how gifted he was with racing, even at an incredibly young age, I knew we had to do something," Nelson's father says. "Racing can be really dangerous and it gets expensive, but when I had the opportunity to buy him his first official kart, I rushed to do it."

§ 4. After taking part in three or four local races in Britain, in which he won first place, Nelson decided that he would go for it and have a crack at his first international Grand Prix in Germany, which he won as well. Nelson now travels all over Britain and Europe to take part in races. The interest he showed in racing was not via the usual exposure to video games. "We lived near a small karting racetrack and I became fascinated  — I couldn't stop talking about it. One day, as we were driving past, I made my father stop the car so I could have a better look at the karts flying by. I saw so many people, including kids my own age, and I took a liking to it straight away.'

§ 5. Nelson eventually got his chance to try it out. The family hired an instructor for amateurs to teach Nelson, who took him as far as the age of twelve. The instructor then informed Nelson's father it was time to look for someone more qualified. Perhaps it is Nelson's good fortune in having always been expertly advised that has made him so relaxed about facing the pressures of an international racing circuit. But what is it like to be so young with a schedule fully booked with races, and all eyes watching him, expecting victory after victory? It's good for me, as I know what I need to be doing. The public's expectations help me focus and concentrate so I can race at my highest level.'

§ 1. Believe it or not, I used to read Flight International every week from the age of eight onwards  — my father, an aviation engineer, encouraged my early passion for planes but I never thought that one day I would be working on it as a journalist.

§ 2. Flight International is read by anyone with an interest in aviation. From pilots to manufacturers, technicians to air vice marshals, all are readers looking for the latest news in this sector. As news editor, I'm responsible for deciding what appears on the 20 news pages we produce each week. Aviation is one of the few truly global industries and we have a team of reporters around the world. When I left school, my original plan was to become an engineer. I studied aeronautical engineering at university but found the course rather unsatisfactory. At the time there was a huge recession on with few jobs going, and I was forced to look round for other options. I actually wrote to Flight and asked for a job. The then deputy editor advised me to do a course in journalism which had just been set up, which is what I did.

§ 3. I found the course useful not so much because it gave me a pretty good basic grounding in journalism, but mainly because it focused on several workplacements, which I was able to do at Flight. I wrote a few pieces and got my face known at the magazine. When the course finished there were no jobs available on Flight so I went off and worked for an aviation newsletter. After a year or so the technical reporter at Flight moved to another job and I was in. The great thing for me about working here has been the chance to ask people questions about something I'm genuinely interested in, and to combine it with my other passion, travel. After a couple of years I was offered a job in Munich in Germany,

§ 4. It was fantastic timing as the aviation industry in eastern Europe was just opening up and I got to report on it and see the region. From there I went to Singapore, which again was an extraordinary experience. I got to fly over the Far East, visiting factories, meeting fascinating people and doing interviews, and to be honest I would have been happy to stay there a bit longer.

§ 5. However, jobs like this don't come up very often  — the last news editor stayed ten years - and so when I was offered it, I couldn't really say no. Although I'm much more office-based now, I still go to the big air shows. In some ways I was getting a bit tired of living out of a suitcase, although I still get a thrill when I take my seat on a new plane for the first time. A37. Why did the writer read Flight International when he was a child?

§ 1. Though he is, in many ways, unremarkable and we have never met before, and he hasn't given me any particular clues to help me pick him out, it's not hard to spot Steve Sires in the lobby of his hotel, simply because he's the only man here who looks exactly like Bill Gates, the computer millionaire and head of Microsoft. "I figured you'd recognise me," he says, rising from his chair to shake my hand, in his Bill Gates glasses, with his Bill Gates hair, Smiling his Bill Gates smile. Steve Sires is a civil engineering consultant who runs his own business and, twice a month or so, gets paid to jet across the continent and look like Bill Gates. He's hired for business functions mostly - product launches, industry seminars and conferences. He isn't the only professional Bill Gates lookalike in the world, but he is, by most accounts, the best.

§ 2. We walk over to a business-district restaurant. I'd made a reservation for two, under 'Gates'. I'm worried this might annoy Sires, but he just laughs and admits that it's something he's never tried himself. The hostess doesn't even blink when I drop the name. As she leads us to our table I imagine a few glances sent our way, but they're likely just that, my imagination. Sires assures me that he causes much more talk back in Seattle, where the real Gates is occasionally known to walk among the masses. "People have reported spotting Bill at Burger King or eating popcorn at a movie, Sires says. "I wonder how many times people see me and think "Why in the world would Bill Gates be shopping in a cheap supermarket?"'

§ 3. When Sires moved to the Seattle area he had no idea why people kept stopping him on the street or asking him for stockmarket tips in the checkout line. "I didn't know who this Gates guy was," he says. "Turns out I lived 20 minutes from his house.' Sires initially ignored the much-remarked-on resemblance. Then, his wife cut out a newspaper ad placed by a local agent who handles lookalikes. She'd called the agent. He got me a job at the grand opening of a performing arts centre. I did it for free. But my picture was picked up by Associated Press." Soon, Sires was travelling to events, his appearance fee running to several thousand dollars.

§ 4. So Steve Sires is famous. Actually, what he has is better than fame  — it's celebrity, without any of the complications of actually being Bill Gates. "I've got a great deal," he admits. "I get a little attention. It's fun to get a little attention. But at the end of the day, I can always go home to my real life."

§ 1. While having lunch in an expensive restaurant, I tasted the wine I had ordered. I thought it might be spoiled, so I called the wine waiter. He was most unpleasant at the mere suggestion that something might be wrong. Unwillingly he tasted the wine  — and immediately apologized and brought another bottle. That's what I call power!' said my guest, but it helped that I knew I was right. As the customer, you have considerable rights.

§ 2. If a restaurant fails to provide a table you have booked, they will have broken their contract with you and you can politely threaten to take them to court for the cost of a spoiled evening. They will then usually find you a table. On the other hand, if you let them down, they can take you to court for lost business. In one case, a company booked a table for one o'clock for five people at a popular restaurant, then called to cancel at 1.35 p.m. on the day, saying their client did not want to eat. When the company refused to pay up, the restaurant owner took them to court and won: the judge decided that, since it was too late to re-book the table, the company should pay for the loss of profit on the meal.

§ 3. The menu is a vital legal document. The price should be included, together with the tax (налог), and the restaurant can be fined for not displaying it outside or immediately inside the door, so that customers know in advance what they are committing themselves to. It is illegal for any establishment to give a false description of their food. Everything must be what it claims to be: fresh fruit salad must consist only of fresh, not tinned, fruit; Welsh lamb must be an animal born or raised in Wales.

§ 4. You cannot rely on getting bread and butter free. A restaurant is allowed to make a cover charge  — which relates to linen, tableware, salt and pepper, Sauces and items like bread or olives  — provided it appears on the menu by the door.

§ 5. If the food is not cooked to your satisfaction, you can insist on the restaurant taking it back and supplying what you ordered. If it gives you food poisoning, the restaurant is obliged to pay for the suffering and inconvenience provided you have been to your doctor. If the food is not up to a reasonable standard for the money, you can either send it back or pay less than the bill demands. If you do not pay the full price, give your name, address and proof of identity so that you cannot be arrested for leaving without paying.

§ 1. Imagine an entire town made up of spectacular buildings of multi-coloured ice. A town devoted to pleasure where you can ride in a horse-drawn carriage, go down ice slides (горки) and watch swimming events by an icy river. It sounds like a setting for a work of children's fiction, but this magical scene appears every January on an island just outside the Chinese city of Harbin.

§ 2. Winter in Harbin would be very boring indeed without its annual month-long Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival. Harbin has average temperatures of −16 °C at the time of the festival. So what better way to brighten up winter than with a colourful winter wonderland that recreates some of the world's most impressive architectural landmarks? It's possible to reproduce them using blocks of ice at Harbin because its winters, though freezing cold, are dry. There is a tradition of ice sculpture in the region that goes back hundreds of years and began with ice lantern (фо­нарь) artworks lit by candles.

§ 3. People who have been to the festival say the sculptures are most impressive at night, when they are lit by floodlights or from inside by clever use of LED (све­то­ди­од­ный) bulbs that change colour periodically. You can also appreciate the amazing detail of the snow sculptures better when there's no sunshine. If you want to see as many sculptures as possible, you should plan your trip for a few weeks into the festival. That's because by then the international snow-sculpting competition that is held during every festival is over and you can admire the creations in all their beauty.

§ 4. If you are more interested in physical activities than art, you'll still find plenty to amuse you at the festival. The event is well-known for the long snow slides that are incorporated into the designs of the ice buildings.

§ 5. Perhaps the most extreme event at the festival is the river swimming. Even setting up the event is a challenge. The organisers have to remove enough ice from the surface of the River Songhua to make a pool for the friendly competitions. The brave participants jump into the water wearing nothing but swimming costumes and caps, surrounded by spectators in winter hats, coats and gloves! Although the festival has become well-known enough to attract visitors from outside China, it's rare to see a non-local swimmer in the competitions. In northern China, however, there is a strong tradition of winter outdoor swimming, especially among the middle-aged and the elderly.

§ 1. My parents always said I was born to be a sportsman. They said that even when I was in nappies, I wasn't happy unless I was kicking or throwing a ball. My first memory is of Dad and me playing football in our back garden. I recall my mum sitting down on the grass cheering me on as I clumsily kicked a football into the goal net my dad was 'defending'. The sense of achievement when I scored my first goal stuck with me, and my life has revolved around football ever since. As I grew up, I dreamed of becoming a football player. During class, I tried to stay focused on my studies; I knew that few people became professional sportsmen and it was crucial to get a good education. But I devoted every spare second to my passion. I knew that if I wanted to become a success, I would have to put all my energy into the game.

§ 2. My big break came when I was 18. Leicester City FC offered me a place in the team. It was there that I learned the true value of teamwork. I played with a fantastic group of guys there and we worked toward one common goal  — to win! I learned that every person has their own individual talents, and a great team brings these talents together. We enjoyed great success at Leicester, and I was lucky enough to become one of the UK's top scorers I was transferred to Everton and, while I was sad to leave my fellow team-mates, I was excited about working with new people and making new friends. My time at Everton was an outstanding experience. While I was there, I scored 38 goals in 52 games. It wasn't long until I was on a new journey, this time across the sea to Spain to play for FC Barcelona. I was nervous at first, but it turned out that there was no reason to panic. I felt great pride when I stepped into the stadium and onto the pitch in Barcelona.

§ 3. As you can imagine, the proudest I felt was when I played for my country, England, in the World Cup. The tournament raises the level of competitiveness for every player. Not only do you have to be mentally prepared, but you have to be at the peak of physical fitness  — so, as you can imagine, it didn't help that I had to play the tournament with my left arm heavily strapped up! But I was determined not to let one injury stop me and played anyway! Because we were astrong team, we got to the quarter finals, and I scored six goals during the entire competition and won the 'Golden Boot' award

§ 4. Football has taken me around the world, from England to Spain to Japan! I have become fluent in two other languages and have experienced other cultures. My career provided me with many happy memories that I wouldn't change for the world.

§ 1. It is Saturday night at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in New York. In the galleries devoted to African art, children are playing hide-and-seek while the parents sip beer from plastic cups. Some teenage girls head through the sculpture exhibition to a temporary dance floor where a DJ is playing reggae music. Watching the scene is Bryan, a young teacher from a local school. What brings him out tonight? 'I'm here for the reggae, of course,' he says. When I heard they were playing that I thought, "I have to be there," and obviously a lot of people feel the same way.' Besides the DJ, the museum has laid on gallery talks, a Martin Scorsese film, a puppet show and a samba band.

§ 2. The Brooklyn Museum of Art wasn't always so trendy. For decades, it put on excellent exhibitions that few came to see. Had it been over in the city's fashionable Upper East Side, of course, the museum would have been packing them in. Even when they put on dull exhibitions, New York's top museums can count on a steady stream of visitors  — mostly tourists. But Brooklyn, one of New York's toughest districts, isn't on the standard tourist route. When the museum was built, it was in a wealthy suburb, but these days the surrounding streets are home to recent immigrants, mostly poor folk from the Caribbean.

§ 3. Two years ago, in an effort to revive itself, the museum appointed a new director, Arnold Lehman, who was born in Brooklyn. Lehman was convinced that the museum should forget about trying to attract visitors from the other side of town and try to appeal instead to people from the surrounding area.

§ 4. The free evening events, called 'First Saturdays', are Lehman's way of reaching out to people. The great thing for me is when you see teenage boys looking at art in the galleries without being handcuffed to their parents,' he says. What's more, the annual number of visitors to the museum has roughly doubled since the scheme was introduced. Similar institutions across the country are now calling, wanting to know how much it costs to throw a good party'. The answer, incidentally, is about $25,000 per event. 'And worth every penny,' says Lehman.

§ 5. The real achievement of First Saturdays is more significant and profound than the increased visitor numbers suggest. Most people visit art museums because they want to have a special 'artistic' experience. The Brooklyn Museum of Art has introduced thousands of people to the idea that museum-going can be a perfectly ordinary part of their lives.

§ 1. Though he is, in many ways, unremarkable and we have never met before, and he hasn't given me any particular clues to help me pick him out, it's not hard to spot Steve Sires in the lobby of his hotel, simply because he's the only man here who looks exactly like Bill Gates, the computer millionaire and head of Microsoft. "I figured you'd recognise me," he says, rising from his chair to shake my hand, in his Bill Gates glasses, with his Bill Gates hair, Smiling his Bill Gates smile. Steve Sires is a civil engineering consultant who runs his own business and, twice a month or so, gets paid to jet across the continent and look like Bill Gates. He's hired for business functions mostly - product launches, industry seminars and conferences. He isn't the only professional Bill Gates lookalike in the world, but he is, by most accounts, the best.

§ 2. We walk over to a business-district restaurant. I'd made a reservation for two, under 'Gates'. I'm worried this might annoy Sires, but he just laughs and admits that it's something he's never tried himself. The hostess doesn't even blink when I drop the name. As she leads us to our table I imagine a few glances sent our way, but they're likely just that, my imagination. Sires assures me that he causes much more talk back in Seattle, where the real Gates is occasionally known to walk among the masses. "People have reported spotting Bill at Burger King or eating popcorn at a movie, Sires says. "I wonder how many times people see me and think "Why in the world would Bill Gates be shopping in a cheap supermarket?"'

§ 3. When Sires moved to the Seattle area he had no idea why people kept stopping him on the street or asking him for stockmarket tips in the checkout line. "I didn't know who this Gates guy was," he says. "Turns out I lived 20 minutes from his house.' Sires initially ignored the much-remarked-on resemblance. Then, his wife cut out a newspaper ad placed by a local agent who handles lookalikes. She'd called the agent. He got me a job at the grand opening of a performing arts centre. I did it for free. But my picture was picked up by Associated Press." Soon, Sires was travelling to events, his appearance fee running to several thousand dollars.

§ 4. So Steve Sires is famous. Actually, what he has is better than fame  — it's celebrity, without any of the complications of actually being Bill Gates. "I've got a great deal," he admits. "I get a little attention. It's fun to get a little attention. But at the end of the day, I can always go home to my real life."

§ 1. The moment for Olympic glory and gold occurs once every four years - a moment which becomes the focus for the lives of athletes from all over the world. This one event is their main goal and in order to achieve their dream they are prepared to make any sacrifice. All athletes are selected by their national Olympic Committee to represent their country, and once selected they face two major demands. The first is the mountain of form filling, paperwork and administration. The second is to finalise their preparation for the Games. Most athletes have highly-developed training schedules which enable them to reach the height of their performance for a particular event. However, the Olympics, creates its own timetable and pressures.

§ 2. When I was selected to represent Great Britain, I had approximately a hundred days to prepare. This included finalising training plans, raising nearly £16,000 towards the costs, seeing to travel arrangements and entry forms, and having discussions with my employer about extra time off work to allow me to prepare fully. Throughout my sailing career I had never had the opportunity to become a full-time athlete, so I needed to pursue my business career at the same time as my sporting objectives. However, any top-class athlete in any sport needs a level of business skills when competing at Olympic standard. They need the ability to plan and arrange for all the expenses effectively as well as work towards definite aims.

§ 3. Once you arrive, you stay in the Olympic "Village', which is really a small town housing 15,000 people from every imaginable culture and background. It is fascinating to watch athletes from tiny gymnasts to huge weightlifters and basketball players, and best of all is the excitement at being part of such a select gathering. There are training facilities, souvenir shops, launderettes, a bank and post office, as well as the Village restaurant which seats over 3,000 at one time.

§ 4. So what does it feel like to go to an Olympics? It can be summed up in many ways by the opening ceremony, where thousands of athletes and officials parade wearing their team kit. To most it is an event they will never forget and the honour of just being there is almost magical. And perhaps winning a medal is one of life's major experiences. For me it was the thoughts of family and friends who had all played a part on my road to success, and it felt wonderful. I feel that it is important to try and repay everyone's faith in me by putting something back into the community. I want the younger generation of athletes to benefit in the ways that I did.

1.  Margherita Taylor is the only female presenter at Capital Radio, one of London's top music radio stations. She got into radio while she was a student in Birmingham. Along with hundreds of other hopefuls, she and a friend queued for hours in the rain to take part in a 'Search for a Star' competition held by a local radio station, BRMB. "I had to read a travel script and a weather script, talk about myself for a minute, then introduce a record." Within days the phone call came to say that her voice had earned her a regular show on BRMB. Truly the stuff dreams are made of. After working there for 18 months, she was offered a job with Capital.

2.  Margherita claims never to get nervous before a show. "You can't get nervous because then you make mistakes, she says. Of course, there has been the odd disaster. "For instance, when I did my first live concert show at BRMB, I'd only done one programme. In front of a crowd of 50,000, I went on stage to introduce a certain well-known singer. I said: "Please welcome our next performer. You know her best for hits like." Then I just went blank. There was this silence from the crowd, and for the life of me I couldn't think what she'd sung. That's one occasion that will stay with me for ever."

3.  Margherita says that her own musical tastes are varied. But she doesn't pick her own music for the show. The Capital computer selects the records in advance from a list approved by the station managers. "The station has a certain sound, and if we all picked our own music, it wouldn't sound like Capital," she says."But for someone who likes music, this is a dream job. I get to go to concerts and meet the bands you can hear on my show. It's great to hear the "behind the scenes"gossip."

4.  Most people would expect that a presenter's most important qualities are a nice voice and huge amounts of confidence, but Margherita says that basic maths is handy as well. "You have to make sure that you've got an eye on everything that's going on in the studio, but you've got to be able to add and subtract and think in minutes and seconds," she says. "You're dealing with timed records, and you have to be ready to switch to the news at exactly the right second. If you're going over to a live event, you need to be ready for that on time, not a second earlier or later."

5.  Margherita Taylor is very nice and very easy-going, but very much in control. She is so much a "Capital Radio girl" that you might think she is just doing a good job for the station's publicity department, although you know what she's saying really comes from the heart. She smiles a lot, laughs a lot and is generally a great advert for Capital.

§ 1. Claudio Bonifacio is a modern day treasure hunter. For most people, the title 'treasure hunter' more than likely brings to mind images of brave explorers fighting pirates to find a chest (сун­дук) full of sparkling jewels. But contrary to this stereotype, Bonifacio finds most of his bullion (gold and silver) in libraries full of ancient shipping records rather than with the help of the ancient magical map you might expect. He has spent many years searching the naval archives in Seville, from which he has located the positions of more than 2,500 sunken galleons  — the ships the Spaniards used to sail the high seas from the 15th to the 18th centuries.

§ 2. Bonifacio has turned his activities into a very profitable career. Such is his fame as a marine archeologist that he can demand very large fees. He provides the information he gathers out from his research to companies with the resources to raise the bullion from the wrecks. Bonifacio has worked for several Latin American governments, the Spanish government and the Italian national council.

§ 3. However, Bonifacio is unwilling to reveal the names of his private clients, or say how much money they have made from the wrecks. The reason for this is that they wish to remain anonymous due to uncertainty about ownership of the ocean floor (дно). Countries such as Honduras, where Bonifacio has discovered many wrecks, insist on their right to take all the treasures found in their territorial waters.

§ 4. Bonifacio is unsure of exactly how much bullion has been found by others as a result of his years of hard work, but he is sure that it must be many millions of dollars worth. "I hear reports," he says, "but in this type of work there is a great amount of secrecy, not only because of governments claiming the entire treasure, but also for tax reasons."

§ 5. Bonifacio's passion has also stimulated the discovery of old Spanish and Portuguese gold mines in South America, Mexico and the Caribbean. "In the 1560s and 1570s, he explains, "most of the gold and silver transported to Europe was stolen from the Incas and the Aztecs; but later, mines provided the main source of bullion. Mining technology in those days, however, was naturally very basic and the mines were not worked very efficiently. Most were eventually abandoned because it was believed there was no more gold to be found. Now, though, with modern day techniques, the world's mining companies are of course only too happy to pay me to search the records and find them! They know only too well that there is more than likely still plenty of gold just waiting to be discovered."

Everyone, whatever their age, can share in the joy and fulfillment of learning, as June Weatherall found out.

§ 1. When I first retired, I thought I'd love spending more time on the gardening, needlework, and other creative activities I'd found so relaxing after my demanding job. But it didn't turn out that way. I found that I didn't want, or need, that kind of relaxation anymore, I wanted to stimulate my mind instead.

§ 2. So, with a couple of friends, I went along to an art appreciation evening class at our local regional college. It was wonderful, but only lasted a year. At the end, I asked my tutor, "What next?' He suggested I attend his history of art access course. "Whatever's that?' I asked. The college had an open evening coming up, so I went along to find out. A full-time access course takes one year and gives you access to university if, like me, you left school without any qualifications, and it's free if you do it full-time. I only wanted to do the art history bit.

§ 3. Lyn, who organises the courses for the college, was enthusiastic. "Why don't you do the whole course? You could start in the spring term with art history, do another module in the summer, then go full-time in the autumn and do all the subjects." It sounded wonderful, but wasn't I a bit old, at 63, to start being a student? A definite 'no'. One of the students that year was 82. That decided it. It must be worth having a go.

§ 4. The art history part of the course, which I've just completed, was stimulating. The tutors are enthusiasts and infect us all with their enjoyment of the subjects they teach. "Lively' would be the word to describe the classes. My fellow students, who are also doing subjects like psychology, maths, biology, etc., are good company. They're mainly people in their thirties with children, taking a second bite at the educational cherry.

§ 5. We have homework and have to do an essay each term for each subject, and sit exams. For art history, we had to produce a journal about all the painters we'd learnt about  — which was fun, but rather time-consuming. Occasionally, I envy the more typical mature students, who just do courses for fun and don't have to do exams or essays, but really I'm a very happy lady. There are drawbacks, however. The main one is you have to make a commitment. During term time, you can't just drop everything and go out for the day if the sun shines  — one of the supposed joys of retirement.

§ 6. Will I go on to university if I'm successful? I'll see how next year goes. Meanwhile, exercising my brain cells is working well for me. I feel alive. The garden's getting a bit out of control, but that's the least of my worries!

This is what the famous musician Yehudi Menuhin writes about himself.

§ 1. Being a touring musician is a bit like being a sailor. It's constant motion, a continuous routine of settling into new hotels and meeting new people. So my ideal holiday is enjoying being alone with my wife.

§ 2. My earliest memory of a holiday was when I was five. We had just bought our first car, and drove joyously from San Francisco, exploring the most beautiful parts of California. It was a wonderful experience. I vividly remember the beautiful Yosemite valley, a place of waterfalls and beautiful mountains, a wilderness before we polluted it with cars and noisy stereo systems. As a child I collected photographs of those huge railway engines that pulled hundreds of goods wagons across America. These trains were like monsters, with groups of four wheels on each side. For Americans trains are hugely romantic. My first train journey across America was when I was eight years old. During the day I sat at the window watching the scenery fly past. At night I always had the top bunk bed in the sleeping compartment. I would scramble up to read in bed, feeling cosy and contented as the train rhythmically travelled over the rails through the night.

§ 3. Since then I've worked and studied for many hours on trains, enjoying the view and the sense of timelessness. I loved the smell of steel upon steel mixed up with the smell of the countryside. I loved the sound of the engine's horn, which used to remind me of the ferries which crept along in between the ships in San Francisco Bay on foggy nights. I have been lucky travelling all over the world and managing, just occasionally, to take a few days actually to see something more than just the airport, hotel and concert hall. When my wife and I were in Peru, we took three days off and flew in a small plane to the mountains where we spent a wonderful time walking and exploring in the jungle.

§ 4. Forty years ago we bought a small house on a Greek island and went there whenever we could. Initially there were just a few carts, and everything was transported on the back of a donkey or a man. We had a tiny cottage with a lovely garden of fruit trees where we used to pick grapes and oranges. We spent a lot of time on the beach  — as I love swimming  — and in the village getting to know people. After ten or fifteen years we were firmly involved in the community, able to share a totally different world, different language, different music.

§ 1. While having lunch in an expensive restaurant, I tasted the wine I had ordered. I thought it might be spoiled, so I called the wine waiter. He was most unpleasant at the mere suggestion that something might be wrong. Unwillingly he tasted the wine  — and immediately apologized and brought another bottle. That's what I call power!' said my guest, but it helped that I knew I was right. As the customer, you have considerable rights.

§ 2. If a restaurant fails to provide a table you have booked, they will have broken their contract with you and you can politely threaten to take them to court for the cost of a spoiled evening. They will then usually find you a table. On the other hand, if you let them down, they can take you to court for lost business. In one case, a company booked a table for one o'clock for five people at a popular restaurant, then called to cancel at 1.35 p.m. on the day, saying their client did not want to eat. When the company refused to pay up, the restaurant owner took them to court and won: the judge decided that, since it was too late to re-book the table, the company should pay for the loss of profit on the meal.

§ 3. The menu is a vital legal document. The price should be included, together with the tax (налог), and the restaurant can be fined for not displaying it outside or immediately inside the door, so that customers know in advance what they are committing themselves to. It is illegal for any establishment to give a false description of their food. Everything must be what it claims to be: fresh fruit salad must consist only of fresh, not tinned, fruit; Welsh lamb must be an animal born or raised in Wales.

§ 4. You cannot rely on getting bread and butter free. A restaurant is allowed to make a cover charge  — which relates to linen, tableware, salt and pepper, Sauces and items like bread or olives  — provided it appears on the menu by the door.

§ 5. If the food is not cooked to your satisfaction, you can insist on the restaurant taking it back and supplying what you ordered. If it gives you food poisoning, the restaurant is obliged to pay for the suffering and inconvenience provided you have been to your doctor. If the food is not up to a reasonable standard for the money, you can either send it back or pay less than the bill demands. If you do not pay the full price, give your name, address and proof of identity so that you cannot be arrested for leaving without paying.

§ 1. If you walk into any bookstore there is an entire shelf dedicated to books about people who decide to change their lives by relocating to another country. I used to laugh at those kinds of books and wonder why anyone would put themselves through the discomfort of going to live in a foreign country  — all in search of a simple lifel

§ 2. One day, instead of walking straight past this section, I selected a book to read on the train. It was about an accountant who realised one day how boring her life was, so she bought a ticket to Italy. After reading the book, the idea of moving abroad had lodged (за­се­ла) itself in my mind and was turning into a magnificent possibility.

§ 3. I resigned from the hospital where I worked, sold my apartment and moved to the region of Umbria in Italy. Once there, I rented an apartment and hired a little motorbike. I loved sampling the local cuisine and I signed up for a short cooking course. A very charming local man called Francesco ran the course. Each lesson not only did we learn how to prepare an authentic Umbrian dish, we were also rolling around the floor in fits of laughter, since Francesco was a natural storyteller and we enjoyed his talent for imitating people.

§ 4. I also took a three-month Italian language course. It is fair to say that my attempts at cooking were more successful than my attempts to acquire a new language. I tried hard, however, and after a few weeks of lessons I actually had a short conversation with a local  — OK, I only asked for directions to the train station. In my mind, though, this was a triumph of communication and I was satisfied with my modest progress.

§ 5. It was at one of these language classes that I heard a fellow student, John, mention that his neighbour, Sandro, was moving to Rome and selling his farmhouse very cheap. John said he wished he had the money to purchase it himself, as the property was sure to be snapped up soon. I couldn't believe that it cost less than half the amount that I had sold my tiny apartment for. Would I dare to copy the writers of all those books? I had to go and have a look, of course. The farmhouse was located on the top of a hill, and although it was very run-down, it possessed charm. I bought it straight away.

§ 6. The project wasn't without its difficulties, though. The farmhouse was collapsing in several places. My first priority, therefore, was to hire some local workers to add supports to the building. I also strengthened the foundations, installed a new kitchen and renovated the rest of the property. In the end, all the cost and effort were worthwhile, because I felt I belonged here as much as I did anywhere in the world, and I was determined to make it my home. I must say I sometimes look at my collection of books on Italy and think I'd like to have a goal writing one myself I'd like to share my experience and let other dreamers out there know that the difficulty is worth it. I didn't quite find the simple life, but I did find what the Italians call the sweet life  — la dolce vita.

§ 1. Claudio Bonifacio is a modern day treasure hunter. For most people, the title 'treasure hunter' more than likely brings to mind images of brave explorers fighting pirates to find a chest (сун­дук) full of sparkling jewels. But contrary to this stereotype, Bonifacio finds most of his bullion (gold and silver) in libraries full of ancient shipping records rather than with the help of the ancient magical map you might expect. He has spent many years searching the naval archives in Seville, from which he has located the positions of more than 2,500 sunken galleons  — the ships the Spaniards used to sail the high seas from the 15th to the 18th centuries.

§ 2. Bonifacio has turned his activities into a very profitable career. Such is his fame as a marine archeologist that he can demand very large fees. He provides the information he gathers out from his research to companies with the resources to raise the bullion from the wrecks. Bonifacio has worked for several Latin American governments, the Spanish government and the Italian national council.

§ 3. However, Bonifacio is unwilling to reveal the names of his private clients, or say how much money they have made from the wrecks. The reason for this is that they wish to remain anonymous due to uncertainty about ownership of the ocean floor (дно). Countries such as Honduras, where Bonifacio has discovered many wrecks, insist on their right to take all the treasures found in their territorial waters.

§ 4. Bonifacio is unsure of exactly how much bullion has been found by others as a result of his years of hard work, but he is sure that it must be many millions of dollars worth. "I hear reports," he says, "but in this type of work there is a great amount of secrecy, not only because of governments claiming the entire treasure, but also for tax reasons."

§ 5. Bonifacio's passion has also stimulated the discovery of old Spanish and Portuguese gold mines in South America, Mexico and the Caribbean. "In the 1560s and 1570s, he explains, "most of the gold and silver transported to Europe was stolen from the Incas and the Aztecs; but later, mines provided the main source of bullion. Mining technology in those days, however, was naturally very basic and the mines were not worked very efficiently. Most were eventually abandoned because it was believed there was no more gold to be found. Now, though, with modern day techniques, the world's mining companies are of course only too happy to pay me to search the records and find them! They know only too well that there is more than likely still plenty of gold just waiting to be discovered."

§ 1. Catherine Cassidy has every reason to be proud. This summer she graduated with a degree in Zoology from Queen's University, Belfast. She has ambitions to be a scientific journalist. She is also completely deaf. She can lipread. I interviewed Catherine via e-mail. She told me getting to university was an achievement in itself. She says: 'You have to work much harder than your peers (сверст­ни­ки) and have to be prepared to commit yourself.'

§ 2. The Disability Discrimination Act insists that universities increase their intake of special needs students. But there are difficulties. First, there are no reliable figures on the numbers of disabled in the community, so universities are unsure of the percentages they should be aiming to recruit. Second, some students might require specially adapted computers, or online learning support. Of all the disabilities, deafness is probably the one that is hardest to cope with at university. Universities run on talk. Knowledge is communicated in lectures, seminars, talking to fellow students  — reading is only secondary. For deaf students, casual spontaneous discussions are out.

§ 3. Fortunately for Catherine, Queen's University is a centre of excellence for the teaching of deaf students. The Joint Universities Deaf Education centre (JUDE) organised a special phonic earpiece (слу­хо­вой ап­па­рат) that enabled Catherine to listen to lectures. JUDE has been extended to the other higher education institutions of Northern Ireland. JUDE is setting an example in what can be achieved. Sharon Easton, deaf student support officer, says: "We visit schools to make deaf people aware that higher education is a possibility. Another part of our role is to talk with employers. We're offering them deaf awareness training  — how to adapt to the needs of deaf employees, and where to apply for grants.'

§ 4. Catherine's skill in lip-reading made communicating with her seem so effortless that many people did not believe she had a problem. At times this experience has been painful. Catherine says: 'People have labelled me "not really deaf". It is like telling me I don't count. And this can be very disheartening, very demoralising.'

§ 5. Catherine believes that excellent and well-focused special needs support should be available to all disabled students at university whatever the cost. She says: 'You are accepted by a university on the basis of your ability to carry out mental tasks. You have a right to be there - people should not judge a person by any physical disability.'

§ 1. My trip around Italy gave me the chance to try some of its regional cuisine. It was such a whirlwind that it is sometimes hard to separate one place from another in my mind. My time in Bologna, however, is perfectly imprinted in my memory. There, I had a lunch date to eat the most famous of Italian exports  — spaghetti Bolognese!

§ 2. My friend Marco had invited me to Bologna. He always said one day I should visit his home city and eat the well-known Bolognese dish, but, he added, "as you've never tasted it before." I had no idea what he meant, but about one thing I was sure; I had read in my guidebook that the Bolognese sauce, which includes beef, onions, carrot, celery, tomato paste, meat, milk, salt and pepper, dates back to the 5th century!

§ 3. After my train pulled into Bologna station, I wandered towards the famous Piazza Maggiore, the very heart of the city. Passing by a shoe shop window display, a pair of elegant shoes caught my eye immediately. "I must try those on," I thought. Upon entering the shop, an assistant stepped forward to greet me. I began my request in faltering Italian, but the assistant smiled and quickly replied, "I speak English, how can I help you?" "Thank you," I said, "I'd like to try on a pair of shoes in the window." The shop assistant said, "Well, of course, you can try them on in the window, but everyone in the street will be able to see you!" I realised she had taken my words very literally! I Smiled, "Sorry, I meant the shoes I'd like to try on are in the window display, but I'll try them on here," I said, sitting myself down on a chair, "in size 6, please." "Size 6? We have sizes 34 to 42." Suddenly, I remembered that sizing on the continent is different to that in the UK. "I'm sorry, that would be size 39, please." I was happy to find that the shoes fitted perfectly.

§ 4. After shopping it was time to head for food I found myself back at the piazza to find Marco had already arrived. We made our way to his grandmother's home for lunch. She was waiting to greet us at the door. I could smell the aroma of home cooking. "I can't wait for the spaghetti Bolognese," I exclaimed.

§ 5. Grandma looked confused. "Spaghetti? In Bologna, we never serve spaghetti with Bolognese sauce. We use thick pasta like fettuccine or tagliatelle." Smiling, Marco said, "I told you you'd be surprised. Bolognese sauce might be eaten with spaghetti all over the world, but never in Bologna!" I must say, Grandma's Bolognese was perfect. It had been a lovely day with smart new shoes, great company and delicious food. I could hardly complain!

§ 1. If you walk into any bookstore there is an entire shelf dedicated to books about people who decide to change their lives by relocating to another country. I used to laugh at those kinds of books and wonder why anyone would put themselves through the discomfort of going to live in a foreign country  — all in search of a simple lifel

§ 2. One day, instead of walking straight past this section, I selected a book to read on the train. It was about an accountant who realised one day how boring her life was, so she bought a ticket to Italy. After reading the book, the idea of moving abroad had lodged (за­се­ла) itself in my mind and was turning into a magnificent possibility.

§ 3. I resigned from the hospital where I worked, sold my apartment and moved to the region of Umbria in Italy. Once there, I rented an apartment and hired a little motorbike. I loved sampling the local cuisine and I signed up for a short cooking course. A very charming local man called Francesco ran the course. Each lesson not only did we learn how to prepare an authentic Umbrian dish, we were also rolling around the floor in fits of laughter, since Francesco was a natural storyteller and we enjoyed his talent for imitating people.

§ 4. I also took a three-month Italian language course. It is fair to say that my attempts at cooking were more successful than my attempts to acquire a new language. I tried hard, however, and after a few weeks of lessons I actually had a short conversation with a local  — OK, I only asked for directions to the train station. In my mind, though, this was a triumph of communication and I was satisfied with my modest progress.

§ 5. It was at one of these language classes that I heard a fellow student, John, mention that his neighbour, Sandro, was moving to Rome and selling his farmhouse very cheap. John said he wished he had the money to purchase it himself, as the property was sure to be snapped up soon. I couldn't believe that it cost less than half the amount that I had sold my tiny apartment for. Would I dare to copy the writers of all those books? I had to go and have a look, of course. The farmhouse was located on the top of a hill, and although it was very run-down, it possessed charm. I bought it straight away.

§ 6. The project wasn't without its difficulties, though. The farmhouse was collapsing in several places. My first priority, therefore, was to hire some local workers to add supports to the building. I also strengthened the foundations, installed a new kitchen and renovated the rest of the property. In the end, all the cost and effort were worthwhile, because I felt I belonged here as much as I did anywhere in the world, and I was determined to make it my home. I must say I sometimes look at my collection of books on Italy and think I'd like to have a goal writing one myself I'd like to share my experience and let other dreamers out there know that the difficulty is worth it. I didn't quite find the simple life, but I did find what the Italians call the sweet life  — la dolce vita.

§ 1. Minutes before the start of a British Grand Prix in August, the drivers' faces are grave with concentration. Fans are screaming. Squeezed into his driving seat, Nelson Jones is pulling on a pair of tight black gloves. No question where he's expecting to finish: "First," he says. At the start signal, with a burst of engine noise, the drivers move quickly to the first turn.

§ 2. It all sounds a lot like a Formula One car race, but there's a difference  — Nelson is thirteen years old, and he's racing in a go-kart. What could be seen as child's play is in fact the first step for young talent to move into professional race cars, because it introduces them to the essential basics such as finding the racing line, concentration and how to compete on the track. That track record makes karting a must for youngsters keen to make racing their life's ambition.

§ 3. Nelson Jones has actually been racing since he was eight years old. "When my son Nelson showed us how gifted he was with racing, even at an incredibly young age, I knew we had to do something," Nelson's father says. "Racing can be really dangerous and it gets expensive, but when I had the opportunity to buy him his first official kart, I rushed to do it."

§ 4. After taking part in three or four local races in Britain, in which he won first place, Nelson decided that he would go for it and have a crack at his first international Grand Prix in Germany, which he won as well. Nelson now travels all over Britain and Europe to take part in races. The interest he showed in racing was not via the usual exposure to video games. "We lived near a small karting racetrack and I became fascinated  — I couldn't stop talking about it. One day, as we were driving past, I made my father stop the car so I could have a better look at the karts flying by. I saw so many people, including kids my own age, and I took a liking to it straight away.'

§ 5. Nelson eventually got his chance to try it out. The family hired an instructor for amateurs to teach Nelson, who took him as far as the age of twelve. The instructor then informed Nelson's father it was time to look for someone more qualified. Perhaps it is Nelson's good fortune in having always been expertly advised that has made him so relaxed about facing the pressures of an international racing circuit. But what is it like to be so young with a schedule fully booked with races, and all eyes watching him, expecting victory after victory? It's good for me, as I know what I need to be doing. The public's expectations help me focus and concentrate so I can race at my highest level.'

§ 1. The moment for Olympic glory and gold occurs once every four years - a moment which becomes the focus for the lives of athletes from all over the world. This one event is their main goal and in order to achieve their dream they are prepared to make any sacrifice. All athletes are selected by their national Olympic Committee to represent their country, and once selected they face two major demands. The first is the mountain of form filling, paperwork and administration. The second is to finalise their preparation for the Games. Most athletes have highly-developed training schedules which enable them to reach the height of their performance for a particular event. However, the Olympics, creates its own timetable and pressures.

§ 2. When I was selected to represent Great Britain, I had approximately a hundred days to prepare. This included finalising training plans, raising nearly £16,000 towards the costs, seeing to travel arrangements and entry forms, and having discussions with my employer about extra time off work to allow me to prepare fully. Throughout my sailing career I had never had the opportunity to become a full-time athlete, so I needed to pursue my business career at the same time as my sporting objectives. However, any top-class athlete in any sport needs a level of business skills when competing at Olympic standard. They need the ability to plan and arrange for all the expenses effectively as well as work towards definite aims.

§ 3. Once you arrive, you stay in the Olympic "Village', which is really a small town housing 15,000 people from every imaginable culture and background. It is fascinating to watch athletes from tiny gymnasts to huge weightlifters and basketball players, and best of all is the excitement at being part of such a select gathering. There are training facilities, souvenir shops, launderettes, a bank and post office, as well as the Village restaurant which seats over 3,000 at one time.

§ 4. So what does it feel like to go to an Olympics? It can be summed up in many ways by the opening ceremony, where thousands of athletes and officials parade wearing their team kit. To most it is an event they will never forget and the honour of just being there is almost magical. And perhaps winning a medal is one of life's major experiences. For me it was the thoughts of family and friends who had all played a part on my road to success, and it felt wonderful. I feel that it is important to try and repay everyone's faith in me by putting something back into the community. I want the younger generation of athletes to benefit in the ways that I did.

§ 1. My parents always said I was born to be a sportsman. They said that even when I was in nappies, I wasn't happy unless I was kicking or throwing a ball. My first memory is of Dad and me playing football in our back garden. I recall my mum sitting down on the grass cheering me on as I clumsily kicked a football into the goal net my dad was 'defending'. The sense of achievement when I scored my first goal stuck with me, and my life has revolved around football ever since. As I grew up, I dreamed of becoming a football player. During class, I tried to stay focused on my studies; I knew that few people became professional sportsmen and it was crucial to get a good education. But I devoted every spare second to my passion. I knew that if I wanted to become a success, I would have to put all my energy into the game.

§ 2. My big break came when I was 18. Leicester City FC offered me a place in the team. It was there that I learned the true value of teamwork. I played with a fantastic group of guys there and we worked toward one common goal  — to win! I learned that every person has their own individual talents, and a great team brings these talents together. We enjoyed great success at Leicester, and I was lucky enough to become one of the UK's top scorers I was transferred to Everton and, while I was sad to leave my fellow team-mates, I was excited about working with new people and making new friends. My time at Everton was an outstanding experience. While I was there, I scored 38 goals in 52 games. It wasn't long until I was on a new journey, this time across the sea to Spain to play for FC Barcelona. I was nervous at first, but it turned out that there was no reason to panic. I felt great pride when I stepped into the stadium and onto the pitch in Barcelona.

§ 3. As you can imagine, the proudest I felt was when I played for my country, England, in the World Cup. The tournament raises the level of competitiveness for every player. Not only do you have to be mentally prepared, but you have to be at the peak of physical fitness  — so, as you can imagine, it didn't help that I had to play the tournament with my left arm heavily strapped up! But I was determined not to let one injury stop me and played anyway! Because we were astrong team, we got to the quarter finals, and I scored six goals during the entire competition and won the 'Golden Boot' award

§ 4. Football has taken me around the world, from England to Spain to Japan! I have become fluent in two other languages and have experienced other cultures. My career provided me with many happy memories that I wouldn't change for the world.

§ 1. Minutes before the start of a British Grand Prix in August, the drivers' faces are grave with concentration. Fans are screaming. Squeezed into his driving seat, Nelson Jones is pulling on a pair of tight black gloves. No question where he's expecting to finish: "First," he says. At the start signal, with a burst of engine noise, the drivers move quickly to the first turn.

§ 2. It all sounds a lot like a Formula One car race, but there's a difference  — Nelson is thirteen years old, and he's racing in a go-kart. What could be seen as child's play is in fact the first step for young talent to move into professional race cars, because it introduces them to the essential basics such as finding the racing line, concentration and how to compete on the track. That track record makes karting a must for youngsters keen to make racing their life's ambition.

§ 3. Nelson Jones has actually been racing since he was eight years old. "When my son Nelson showed us how gifted he was with racing, even at an incredibly young age, I knew we had to do something," Nelson's father says. "Racing can be really dangerous and it gets expensive, but when I had the opportunity to buy him his first official kart, I rushed to do it."

§ 4. After taking part in three or four local races in Britain, in which he won first place, Nelson decided that he would go for it and have a crack at his first international Grand Prix in Germany, which he won as well. Nelson now travels all over Britain and Europe to take part in races. The interest he showed in racing was not via the usual exposure to video games. "We lived near a small karting racetrack and I became fascinated  — I couldn't stop talking about it. One day, as we were driving past, I made my father stop the car so I could have a better look at the karts flying by. I saw so many people, including kids my own age, and I took a liking to it straight away.'

§ 5. Nelson eventually got his chance to try it out. The family hired an instructor for amateurs to teach Nelson, who took him as far as the age of twelve. The instructor then informed Nelson's father it was time to look for someone more qualified. Perhaps it is Nelson's good fortune in having always been expertly advised that has made him so relaxed about facing the pressures of an international racing circuit. But what is it like to be so young with a schedule fully booked with races, and all eyes watching him, expecting victory after victory? It's good for me, as I know what I need to be doing. The public's expectations help me focus and concentrate so I can race at my highest level.'

§ 1. My trip around Italy gave me the chance to try some of its regional cuisine. It was such a whirlwind that it is sometimes hard to separate one place from another in my mind. My time in Bologna, however, is perfectly imprinted in my memory. There, I had a lunch date to eat the most famous of Italian exports  — spaghetti Bolognese!

§ 2. My friend Marco had invited me to Bologna. He always said one day I should visit his home city and eat the well-known Bolognese dish, but, he added, "as you've never tasted it before." I had no idea what he meant, but about one thing I was sure; I had read in my guidebook that the Bolognese sauce, which includes beef, onions, carrot, celery, tomato paste, meat, milk, salt and pepper, dates back to the 5th century!

§ 3. After my train pulled into Bologna station, I wandered towards the famous Piazza Maggiore, the very heart of the city. Passing by a shoe shop window display, a pair of elegant shoes caught my eye immediately. "I must try those on," I thought. Upon entering the shop, an assistant stepped forward to greet me. I began my request in faltering Italian, but the assistant smiled and quickly replied, "I speak English, how can I help you?" "Thank you," I said, "I'd like to try on a pair of shoes in the window." The shop assistant said, "Well, of course, you can try them on in the window, but everyone in the street will be able to see you!" I realised she had taken my words very literally! I Smiled, "Sorry, I meant the shoes I'd like to try on are in the window display, but I'll try them on here," I said, sitting myself down on a chair, "in size 6, please." "Size 6? We have sizes 34 to 42." Suddenly, I remembered that sizing on the continent is different to that in the UK. "I'm sorry, that would be size 39, please." I was happy to find that the shoes fitted perfectly.

§ 4. After shopping it was time to head for food I found myself back at the piazza to find Marco had already arrived. We made our way to his grandmother's home for lunch. She was waiting to greet us at the door. I could smell the aroma of home cooking. "I can't wait for the spaghetti Bolognese," I exclaimed.

§ 5. Grandma looked confused. "Spaghetti? In Bologna, we never serve spaghetti with Bolognese sauce. We use thick pasta like fettuccine or tagliatelle." Smiling, Marco said, "I told you you'd be surprised. Bolognese sauce might be eaten with spaghetti all over the world, but never in Bologna!" I must say, Grandma's Bolognese was perfect. It had been a lovely day with smart new shoes, great company and delicious food. I could hardly complain!

§ 1. High up in the mountains of southeast Asia, you can find the Akha hill tribes living in their traditional villages and farming the land.

§ 2. The history of the Akha people goes back hundreds, if not thousands, of years. They originally came from Tibet and have maintained the physical characteristics of that region, being fairly short and dark in complexion. Today, they live in small villages in the mountainous parts of China, Laos and northern Thailand. The Akha people are rich in culture, history and tradition. But they are also among the world's poorest people. Akha women remain remarkably strong and cheerful in the face of such a hard life. Akha men are brave and strong.

§ 3. The Akha have their own way of measuring time where one week lasts 12 days. Each village has its own leader or headman, and under his guidance people follow a code of behaviour known as the Akha Way. Thanks to the Akha Way, each person in these small communities knows their role in society. The men provide for their families by farming crops. They are also talented craftsmen. The women do spinning and weaving and make their own clothes. They wear colourfully decorated black shirts and skirts, and thick black leggings. Their headdresses are especially distinctive. As for the children, even though many of them don't attend school, they all know the names of every plant and animal in the forest. There is no written Akha language but the oral tradition is very rich.

§ 4. Akha villages all look quite similar. The bamboo houses with their thatched roofs stand on stilts (сваи) on the hillsides. Every village has two wooden frames that look like a doorway at its entrance and exit. These structures have spiritual significance and are called the 'spirit gates'. Artists cover the frames with carvings of both evil and smiling faces. This is to invite good spirits to enter the village and keep bad spirits out. Each summer the men build a swing in a public open space. Here the young children gather to play, but not just as a playground game  — it is part of the yearly ceremony to honour dead ancestors.

§ 5. Sadly, the Akha Way is slowly disappearing from many villages. A growing number of tourists are visiting them and introducing a taste of Western culture. The women and girls only dress traditionally when there are tourists around in the hope they will buy souvenirs. Some Akha have even decided to take things a step further: they are leaving their villages to seek their fortunes in the big cities.