§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.  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.  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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. '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. 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. 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. 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. There are many different theories about dreams; however, the science of dreams is not exact. In ancient times, people believed that when we dreamt we entered another world which was real. As science and medicine became more advanced, different theories started to come out. Some scientists believe that dreams are just verbal, visual and emotional stimuli with no apparent meaning. However, others believe that dreams are important for our mental well-being. The leading psychiatrist, Carl Jung thought that analysing our dreams provides us with a way to think more deeply about our lives and solve problems.

§ 2. For centuries, people have believed that dreams have a deeper meaning. For example, many of us dream that we are falling and suddenly we wake up. Experts say this dream means we are feeling anxious and insecure or we feel we have failed in achieving a goal. Another popular dream is that of being chased; this means we are trying to escape our problems. Also, dreams about losing our teeth are believed to show that we are worried about our physical appearance.

§ 3. There has been a lot of research done into controlling dreams and this has led to the term lucid (осо­знан­ный) dreaming. Lucid dreaming happens when you are aware that you are dreaming and are able to control what happens in your dream. This is an amazing skill but it is also extremely difficult to do and not many people are able to learn it. Lucid dreaming can be a way to experience the strange world of your dreams but it is also believed to help personal development and improve your problem solving skills.

§ 4. Some people are able to see future events through their dreams. There is the case of the man who dreamt that he took his son on a camping trip and his son died near a lake. Some time after he had had the dream, the man and his son were invited on a camping trip. Then, at a certain time during the trip, the man remembered his dream and noticed that everything was the same as in his dream; the boy was standing near a lake looking down at pebbles. The man quickly grabbed his son and took him to safety.

§ 5. There is still a lot of research taking place into dreams, and it will be some time before we are able to really understand the strange dream world that we enter every night. Dreams allow us to experience things that would not be possible in real life, and by analysing our dreams we can learn more about ourselves.

§ 1. 'Hollywood' is a household name. This small district is the centre of the American film industry and the source of over 2.6 billion yearly cinema ticket sales. Most of the films we watch come straight out of Hollywood. But have you ever heard of 'Bollywood'? It is the name given to the Hindi language film industry based in Mumbai, India. Contrary to popular belief, it far outperforms Hollywood. Last year alone, over 1000 films were produced and 4 billion cinema tickets were sold, showing that Indian cinema is far more powerful than people think.

§ 2. Many likely Bollywood fans are often concerned that they will not be able to understand the language used in the films. But there is no need to worry. Although the scripts have historically been written in Hindi, more and more films use the English language, showing India's respect for the languages that make up its culture. You will also find that most films come with English language subtitles.

§ 3. So what do you get out of a Bollywood film? It is difficult to define a film as belonging to a certain category, because there is no such thing as a typical Bollywood film. The plots can focus on the drama of a love triangle, but they can also be packed with laugh-out-loud comedy or edge-of-your-seat action. The only guarantee is that a Bollywood film won't end without several catchy song and dance routines.

§ 4. Many Bollywood films are over three hours long. Some people might think that this is too long, but there is a good explanation. The film companies say the aim is to give you, the audience, your 'money's worth'. If you are going to spend good money on a ticket, the film should be really exciting.

§ 5. There is no shortage of aspiring young actors and actresses hoping to get a role in the next blockbuster. Big shot movie producers and casting agents are always looking out for new talent. India has its own Brad Pitts and Angelina Jolies  — spectacular actors who ensure you have a truly enjoyable viewing experience!

§ 6. Shilpa Shetty is the perfect example of a Bollywood megastar. A picture of beauty and raw acting talent, she has achieved success beyond the borders of India, most notably in the UK following her appearance on the 'Celebrity Big Brother' TV series. Since then she has turned down roles in several British TV shows. Instead, she has returned to Mumbai and continues to shoot films in the land that made her a star.

§ 7. Once you get into Bollywood, you'll never want to stop watching.

§ 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.

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!

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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.'

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.

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. 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. 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. 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. I was struggling to get by. I had just moved to Gloucester from London and had taken the first job that I was offered. I was barely earning enough to do my weekly shopping and I wished I had the money I used to make back in London. As I couldn't afford my own place, I had settled for my best friend's sofa, but the hard cushions and backaches had made me realise that, above all else, I longed for my old flat  — my little peaceful place! I soon began to wonder if moving had been the right decision. That's when I heard a radio advert that changed my life...

§ 2. "Looking for your own place but worrying about the cost? Worry no more! You could live free for a year in the 'Enviro-House', one of Britain's first environmentally friendly homes. We're looking for a resident to live rent-free! For more details, visit www..." My friend had heard about this house and he thought that it would be very difficult to stick to an energy conserving routine. I should have considered this, or at least have been concerned about how many "guests' would actually pass through. But, as I sat on the painfully uncomfortable sofa, the only thing in my head were the words... "Live free, live free."

§ 3. I visited the website and entered the competition to become an 'eco-housemate'. I was one of three lucky finalists who had to battle it out for a place in the house live on local television. The other finalists were keen environmentalists with a passion for the issue, unlike me. I had never really given it much attention to be honest, as it was insignificant to me. I joked with the audience that the only way I was going to learn was if they sent me to the house! They agreed. As I walked through the front door of the house, I had worrying visions of living in a futuristic house, full of high-tech gadgets. I certainly wouldn't have been surprised to see a number of complex-looking machines. However, I was shocked to see the house was completely normal. In fact, it looked just like any other house. This eased my mind a bit, as I rarely find modern technology easy to understand, I prefer the simple life. The heating system, water supply and electricity all worked in exactly the same way as they would in any other house in the UK. The only difference was that the house used renewable sources of energy. Solar panels and small wind turbines were used to provide the hot water and electricity.

§ 4. My experiences in the house made me look at the way I had lived my life in the past and how I should live it in the future. For example, it's neither difficult nor time-consuming to recycle, as long as you make it part of your daily routine. I also changed my perspective on which energy sources to use. It's very simple to make those all-important changes we just need the motivation to make them.

§ 1. I was struggling to get by. I had just moved to Gloucester from London and had taken the first job that I was offered. I was barely earning enough to do my weekly shopping and I wished I had the money I used to make back in London. As I couldn't afford my own place, I had settled for my best friend's sofa, but the hard cushions and backaches had made me realise that, above all else, I longed for my old flat  — my little peaceful place! I soon began to wonder if moving had been the right decision. That's when I heard a radio advert that changed my life...

§ 2. "Looking for your own place but worrying about the cost? Worry no more! You could live free for a year in the 'Enviro-House', one of Britain's first environmentally friendly homes. We're looking for a resident to live rent-free! For more details, visit www..." My friend had heard about this house and he thought that it would be very difficult to stick to an energy conserving routine. I should have considered this, or at least have been concerned about how many "guests' would actually pass through. But, as I sat on the painfully uncomfortable sofa, the only thing in my head were the words... "Live free, live free."

§ 3. I visited the website and entered the competition to become an 'eco-housemate'. I was one of three lucky finalists who had to battle it out for a place in the house live on local television. The other finalists were keen environmentalists with a passion for the issue, unlike me. I had never really given it much attention to be honest, as it was insignificant to me. I joked with the audience that the only way I was going to learn was if they sent me to the house! They agreed. As I walked through the front door of the house, I had worrying visions of living in a futuristic house, full of high-tech gadgets. I certainly wouldn't have been surprised to see a number of complex-looking machines. However, I was shocked to see the house was completely normal. In fact, it looked just like any other house. This eased my mind a bit, as I rarely find modern technology easy to understand, I prefer the simple life. The heating system, water supply and electricity all worked in exactly the same way as they would in any other house in the UK. The only difference was that the house used renewable sources of energy. Solar panels and small wind turbines were used to provide the hot water and electricity.

§ 4. My experiences in the house made me look at the way I had lived my life in the past and how I should live it in the future. For example, it's neither difficult nor time-consuming to recycle, as long as you make it part of your daily routine. I also changed my perspective on which energy sources to use. It's very simple to make those all-important changes we just need the motivation to make them.

§ 1. I want to tell you about my old friend Bobbie Cardew. If you're a recent acquaintance of Bobbie's, you'll probably be surprised to hear that there was a time when he was known for having a weak memory. In the days when first knew him Bobbie Cardew was the most unreliable person you could ever imagine. If I invited him to come and have dinner with me, I had to go to all sorts of trouble. I used to post him a letter at the beginning of the week, and then the day before send him a telegram, and a phone call on the day itself.

§ 2. One day Bobbie did something I would never have expected. He fell in love, got married  — full of excitement, as if it were the greatest fun in the world  — and then began to find out things.

§ 3. Her name was Mary Anthony. She was a hospital nurse. When Bobbie Smashed himself up playing polo she was there in the hospital taking care of him. No sooner was he up and about again than they were busy making wedding plans. A real case of love at first sight They took a flat and settled down. I was in and out of the place a good deal. Everything appeared to be running along as Smoothly as you could want. Mary seemed to think Bobbie the greatest thing on earth and Bobbie seemed to think the same about her.

§ 4. But now we come to the incident of the Quiet Dinner, which is when things began to happen. I met Bobbie in the street one day and he asked me to come back to dinner at his flat. When we got there I was amazed at how lovely Mary looked. She had her red-gold hair piled up on her head with a diamond tiara in it and was wearing a really beautiful dress. No wonder, I thought, that Bobbie liked married life. "Hello, dear," he said. "I've brought Reggie home for a bit of dinner." Mary stared at him as if she had never seen him before. Then she turned scarlet. Then she turned white as a sheet of paper. Then she gave a little laugh, before finally recovering herself. After that she was all right. She talked a lot at dinner, teased Bobbie and played tunes for us on the piano afterwards, as if she hadn't a care in the world. But I had seen her face at the beginning, and I knew that she was working hard to keep herself in hand and not scream. At the very earliest moment I made my excuses and got away.

§ 5. When I met Bobbie at the club next day he seemed glad to have someone to talk to."Do you know how long I've been married?" he said "About a year, isn't it?" "Not about a year," he said sadly. "Yesterday was the anniversary of the wedding. I'd arranged to take Mary to the theatre. She particularly wanted to hear Caruso sing. I had a ticket for the box in my pocket. You know, all through dinner I had some vague idea that there was something I'd forgotten, but I couldn't think what."

§ 1. I want to tell you about my old friend Bobbie Cardew. If you're a recent acquaintance of Bobbie's, you'll probably be surprised to hear that there was a time when he was known for having a weak memory. In the days when first knew him Bobbie Cardew was the most unreliable person you could ever imagine. If I invited him to come and have dinner with me, I had to go to all sorts of trouble. I used to post him a letter at the beginning of the week, and then the day before send him a telegram, and a phone call on the day itself.

§ 2. One day Bobbie did something I would never have expected. He fell in love, got married  — full of excitement, as if it were the greatest fun in the world  — and then began to find out things.

§ 3. Her name was Mary Anthony. She was a hospital nurse. When Bobbie Smashed himself up playing polo she was there in the hospital taking care of him. No sooner was he up and about again than they were busy making wedding plans. A real case of love at first sight They took a flat and settled down. I was in and out of the place a good deal. Everything appeared to be running along as Smoothly as you could want. Mary seemed to think Bobbie the greatest thing on earth and Bobbie seemed to think the same about her.

§ 4. But now we come to the incident of the Quiet Dinner, which is when things began to happen. I met Bobbie in the street one day and he asked me to come back to dinner at his flat. When we got there I was amazed at how lovely Mary looked. She had her red-gold hair piled up on her head with a diamond tiara in it and was wearing a really beautiful dress. No wonder, I thought, that Bobbie liked married life. "Hello, dear," he said. "I've brought Reggie home for a bit of dinner." Mary stared at him as if she had never seen him before. Then she turned scarlet. Then she turned white as a sheet of paper. Then she gave a little laugh, before finally recovering herself. After that she was all right. She talked a lot at dinner, teased Bobbie and played tunes for us on the piano afterwards, as if she hadn't a care in the world. But I had seen her face at the beginning, and I knew that she was working hard to keep herself in hand and not scream. At the very earliest moment I made my excuses and got away.

§ 5. When I met Bobbie at the club next day he seemed glad to have someone to talk to."Do you know how long I've been married?" he said "About a year, isn't it?" "Not about a year," he said sadly. "Yesterday was the anniversary of the wedding. I'd arranged to take Mary to the theatre. She particularly wanted to hear Caruso sing. I had a ticket for the box in my pocket. You know, all through dinner I had some vague idea that there was something I'd forgotten, but I couldn't think what."

§ 1. Holly Sinclair arrives at the north London restaurant where she and I are to have lunch. She looks exactly what she is: a 21-year-old who, thanks to three number-one hit songs, a millionaire husband and blossoming acting career, is having the time of her life. Once she opens her mouth, however, you realise that the person inside her body is actually a middle-aged woman.

§ 2. She has recently acted in three quite different roles that truly caught her imagination. Her three number-one hits have brought her a big measure of artistic freedom, and she intends to make full use of it. "I don't have to do things for the sake of them. It means I can wait a while, find the right things. I've got the time to go out and find out about life, observe people and dynamic situations that help me in my work. Ultimately, I'm only ever going to do the things that interest me, that I feel I can do something with. Even if I'm offered a blockbuster, it may not be right at the time, or benefit me."

§ 3. Naturally, Holly Sinclair knew what she wanted in life from an unusually early age  — and that, whether she cares to admit it or not, was fame and fortune. At 12, she left Swindon, where her father worked as a builder, and moved to London. Once there, she boarded with her great aunt and uncle while attending the Oldham Theatre School. Three years later, her debut single, "Like Me" became the first of her three number-one hits (she holds the record for being the youngest singer to achieve such a feat). It was not, she says, very hard to leave her parents and three young brothers. She wasn't even particularly homesick. "I wanted to study and I didn't want to stay where I was. I wanted more, I was just very ambitious. I don't know where it came from." After she became famous, most of the time she was rather alone. Her schedule left little time for being a teenager.

§ 4. Then she met her pop-star husband, Freddy Frinton. After their first date, Freddy sent her a silver Ferrari full of roses, in spite of the fact that Holly couldn't drive (the car has since been sold, because Sinclair prefers to drive herself around in a small family car). Then they got married in a Las Vegas wedding chapel, with no family and no rings.

§ 5. She spends her money on CDs and DVDs and going out. The only thing she really wants is a fast car. But then, she wonders whether she can't get another year or two out of her old car first. "Money's never been a big part of my life. Freddy and I never have conversations about money. Maybe we would if we were very poor." She still looks as composed as a waxwork model. Does she feel young or old for her age?"Not old exactly, but when I get together with friends, I see a difference in our personalities. Sometimes I get angry with myself that I've done too much, that I haven't saved anything. I mean, what could possibly make me excited?' Holly is smiling brightly, but it sounds assad and as empty as anything I have ever heard.

§ 1. Holly Sinclair arrives at the north London restaurant where she and I are to have lunch. She looks exactly what she is: a 21-year-old who, thanks to three number-one hit songs, a millionaire husband and blossoming acting career, is having the time of her life. Once she opens her mouth, however, you realise that the person inside her body is actually a middle-aged woman.

§ 2. She has recently acted in three quite different roles that truly caught her imagination. Her three number-one hits have brought her a big measure of artistic freedom, and she intends to make full use of it. "I don't have to do things for the sake of them. It means I can wait a while, find the right things. I've got the time to go out and find out about life, observe people and dynamic situations that help me in my work. Ultimately, I'm only ever going to do the things that interest me, that I feel I can do something with. Even if I'm offered a blockbuster, it may not be right at the time, or benefit me."

§ 3. Naturally, Holly Sinclair knew what she wanted in life from an unusually early age  — and that, whether she cares to admit it or not, was fame and fortune. At 12, she left Swindon, where her father worked as a builder, and moved to London. Once there, she boarded with her great aunt and uncle while attending the Oldham Theatre School. Three years later, her debut single, "Like Me" became the first of her three number-one hits (she holds the record for being the youngest singer to achieve such a feat). It was not, she says, very hard to leave her parents and three young brothers. She wasn't even particularly homesick. "I wanted to study and I didn't want to stay where I was. I wanted more, I was just very ambitious. I don't know where it came from." After she became famous, most of the time she was rather alone. Her schedule left little time for being a teenager.

§ 4. Then she met her pop-star husband, Freddy Frinton. After their first date, Freddy sent her a silver Ferrari full of roses, in spite of the fact that Holly couldn't drive (the car has since been sold, because Sinclair prefers to drive herself around in a small family car). Then they got married in a Las Vegas wedding chapel, with no family and no rings.

§ 5. She spends her money on CDs and DVDs and going out. The only thing she really wants is a fast car. But then, she wonders whether she can't get another year or two out of her old car first. "Money's never been a big part of my life. Freddy and I never have conversations about money. Maybe we would if we were very poor." She still looks as composed as a waxwork model. Does she feel young or old for her age?"Not old exactly, but when I get together with friends, I see a difference in our personalities. Sometimes I get angry with myself that I've done too much, that I haven't saved anything. I mean, what could possibly make me excited?' Holly is smiling brightly, but it sounds assad and as empty as anything I have ever heard.

§ 1. Over the past four hundred years, 450 types of plants and trees around the world have become extinct as a result of the combined effects of global warming, population growth, flooding and the fact that deserts are advancing in some regions at a rate of nearly four miles a year. Scientists estimate a quarter of the world's remaining 270,000 plant species will be under threat of extinction by 2050.

§ 2. In 1997, in an attempt to try to prevent the loss of plants, volunteers all over Britain began collecting seeds (се­ме­на). The seeds collected are now housed in the Millennium Seed Bank, which is expected to become the world's biggest seed bank and, apart from preserving almost all the plant life in Britain, it also aims to have saved the seeds of almost a tenth of the world's flowering plants in the next twenty years. If they are successful, the Millennium Seed Bank Project will be one of the largest international conservation projects ever undertaken.

§ 3. In order to achieve this aim, the Millennium Seed Bank has a team of scientists who travel to distant corners of the world to find and collect seeds. They also help local botanists to set up their own seed banks. They Spend a great deal of time negotiating with governments to allow them to collect the seeds and bring them back to Britain for storage in the Millennium Seed Bank.

§ 4. When these seeds arrive at the seed bank, they are sorted, cleaned and dried and then X-rayed to make sure that they haven't been damaged in any way that might stop them from growing into healthy plants. Finally, they are placed in ordinary glass jars and stored in three underground vaults (хра­ни­ли­ще) at temperatures of −20 °C. Most plant Species have seeds that can be dried, frozen and stored for years and still grow into healthy plants. However, the seeds of Some Species cannot be dried, so they can't be stored in seed banks in the usual way. Roger Smith, head of the Millennium Seed Bank, explains that Scientists at the bank are already working on finding new ways of storing those seeds that cannot survive the drying and freezing process, and also on how to regenerate the seeds when they become extinct in their natural habitats. "At the moment, all we're doing is preserving these plants for the future. We won't have managed to conserve any species until we find the way to successfully regenerate them and grow new plants from them," points out Smith. "But at least this way, when the technology becomes available, and it will, we won't have lost everything."

§ 5. Dr Hugh Pritchard, head of research at the Millennium Seed Bank, says: "While it's true that many of the plants we preserve at the bank aren't useful at the moment, that doesn't mean they won't become useful in the future. Something like thirty per cent of the medicines we use today are based on products or chemicals which have been extracted from plants. So it's easy to see why we need to preserve the diversity of the earth's plant life for the future."

§ 1. Over the past four hundred years, 450 types of plants and trees around the world have become extinct as a result of the combined effects of global warming, population growth, flooding and the fact that deserts are advancing in some regions at a rate of nearly four miles a year. Scientists estimate a quarter of the world's remaining 270,000 plant species will be under threat of extinction by 2050.

§ 2. In 1997, in an attempt to try to prevent the loss of plants, volunteers all over Britain began collecting seeds (се­ме­на). The seeds collected are now housed in the Millennium Seed Bank, which is expected to become the world's biggest seed bank and, apart from preserving almost all the plant life in Britain, it also aims to have saved the seeds of almost a tenth of the world's flowering plants in the next twenty years. If they are successful, the Millennium Seed Bank Project will be one of the largest international conservation projects ever undertaken.

§ 3. In order to achieve this aim, the Millennium Seed Bank has a team of scientists who travel to distant corners of the world to find and collect seeds. They also help local botanists to set up their own seed banks. They Spend a great deal of time negotiating with governments to allow them to collect the seeds and bring them back to Britain for storage in the Millennium Seed Bank.

§ 4. When these seeds arrive at the seed bank, they are sorted, cleaned and dried and then X-rayed to make sure that they haven't been damaged in any way that might stop them from growing into healthy plants. Finally, they are placed in ordinary glass jars and stored in three underground vaults (хра­ни­ли­ще) at temperatures of −20 °C. Most plant Species have seeds that can be dried, frozen and stored for years and still grow into healthy plants. However, the seeds of Some Species cannot be dried, so they can't be stored in seed banks in the usual way. Roger Smith, head of the Millennium Seed Bank, explains that Scientists at the bank are already working on finding new ways of storing those seeds that cannot survive the drying and freezing process, and also on how to regenerate the seeds when they become extinct in their natural habitats. "At the moment, all we're doing is preserving these plants for the future. We won't have managed to conserve any species until we find the way to successfully regenerate them and grow new plants from them," points out Smith. "But at least this way, when the technology becomes available, and it will, we won't have lost everything."

§ 5. Dr Hugh Pritchard, head of research at the Millennium Seed Bank, says: "While it's true that many of the plants we preserve at the bank aren't useful at the moment, that doesn't mean they won't become useful in the future. Something like thirty per cent of the medicines we use today are based on products or chemicals which have been extracted from plants. So it's easy to see why we need to preserve the diversity of the earth's plant life for the future."

§ 1. I started as a paperboy when I was 11. The route covered the richest neighbourhood in town filled with grand mansions. This sounded like a desirable post, when it was presented to me by the route manager, Mr McTivity, but of course mansions have the longest driveways and widest lawns, so it took many minutes to deliver each paper. And papers weighed a ton back then.

§ 2. During my route, I would devote a good length of time to asking myself "what if"  — what I would do if I could make myself invisible or if I could hypnotise everyone in the world. Then I might move on to consider unanswerable questions. How do migrating birds know which bird to follow? And how could we be sure that we all saw the same colours?

§ 3. In those days, I was hardly worried by the problems of the real world, so the combination of long walks, fresh air and being alone on my route let me slip easily into my own private thoughts and fantasies. But there was a price to pay for my absent-mindedness. I would suddenly realise that I couldn't remember any of the last 47 houses I had visited. I didn't know if I had left a paper, or instead just walked up to the door, stood for a moment like a mechanical robot and turned round and walked away again. It is not easy to describe the sense of self-disappointment that comes with reaching the end of your route and finding that there are sixteen undelivered papers in your bag and you don't have the least idea to whom they should have gone. Mr McTivity would not be amused if he found out. There was only one way to find the solution to this. So I spent much of my early years first walking an enormous newspaper route and then revisiting large parts of it  — sometimes twice!

§ 4. As if delivering papers seven days a week weren't enough, you also had to collect the subscription (под­пис­ка) money. There wasn't a more unpleasant task than this. But in particular, the moment that filled me with dread was collecting from Mrs Vandermeister. Mrs Vandermeister was 70 years old, possibly 80. She was very small, forgetful and practically deaf.

§ 5. Getting money from her was a nightmare, if I rang the doorbell at 15-second intervals for an hour and 10 minutes, eventually she would realise someone was at the door. "Now who the heck is that?" she would shout to herself, and begin the long process of getting from her chair to the front door, which was just twenty-five feet away. When eventually she came to the door, it would take an extra half-hour to convince her that I was not a murderer. When she finally opened the door, she was always alarmed to find me standing there. "Oh, Billy, you gave me a start!" she'd say. "It's nice of you to pop by." After I reminded her why I was there, there would be another long pause while she went off to find her purse. She would return half an hour later to ask how much again. There would be another detour to kitchen, and finally the announcement that she didn't have that much cash and I'd have to call again another time.

§ 1. I started as a paperboy when I was 11. The route covered the richest neighbourhood in town filled with grand mansions. This sounded like a desirable post, when it was presented to me by the route manager, Mr McTivity, but of course mansions have the longest driveways and widest lawns, so it took many minutes to deliver each paper. And papers weighed a ton back then.

§ 2. During my route, I would devote a good length of time to asking myself "what if"  — what I would do if I could make myself invisible or if I could hypnotise everyone in the world. Then I might move on to consider unanswerable questions. How do migrating birds know which bird to follow? And how could we be sure that we all saw the same colours?

§ 3. In those days, I was hardly worried by the problems of the real world, so the combination of long walks, fresh air and being alone on my route let me slip easily into my own private thoughts and fantasies. But there was a price to pay for my absent-mindedness. I would suddenly realise that I couldn't remember any of the last 47 houses I had visited. I didn't know if I had left a paper, or instead just walked up to the door, stood for a moment like a mechanical robot and turned round and walked away again. It is not easy to describe the sense of self-disappointment that comes with reaching the end of your route and finding that there are sixteen undelivered papers in your bag and you don't have the least idea to whom they should have gone. Mr McTivity would not be amused if he found out. There was only one way to find the solution to this. So I spent much of my early years first walking an enormous newspaper route and then revisiting large parts of it  — sometimes twice!

§ 4. As if delivering papers seven days a week weren't enough, you also had to collect the subscription (под­пис­ка) money. There wasn't a more unpleasant task than this. But in particular, the moment that filled me with dread was collecting from Mrs Vandermeister. Mrs Vandermeister was 70 years old, possibly 80. She was very small, forgetful and practically deaf.

§ 5. Getting money from her was a nightmare, if I rang the doorbell at 15-second intervals for an hour and 10 minutes, eventually she would realise someone was at the door. "Now who the heck is that?" she would shout to herself, and begin the long process of getting from her chair to the front door, which was just twenty-five feet away. When eventually she came to the door, it would take an extra half-hour to convince her that I was not a murderer. When she finally opened the door, she was always alarmed to find me standing there. "Oh, Billy, you gave me a start!" she'd say. "It's nice of you to pop by." After I reminded her why I was there, there would be another long pause while she went off to find her purse. She would return half an hour later to ask how much again. There would be another detour to kitchen, and finally the announcement that she didn't have that much cash and I'd have to call again another time.

§ 1. At the beginning of the 20th century mothering was thought to be an uncomplicated business. Working-class mothers knew their job: to feed, clothe, house their children and teach them to behave. The middle and upper classes paid some attention to childrearing fashions, but the task of motherhood was largely delegated to a nanny or a nursemaid or both. Mothers convinced themselves that nanny would do a better job as she would be less emotionally involved. "Nanny was my life. She was my authority,' explained Mary Lutyens. "Mother was a goddess. It was unthinkable that a goddess should bath me.'

§ 2. Mary was brought up by her much loved nanny, Louisa Seath. The children's world revolved around the nursery, tucked away on the top floor far from their parents. As a child, Mary was much closer to Nanny Seath than to her mother. Mary couldn't have borne the shame' if her mother had seen her without clothes and when at fifteen, she was sick in front of her, she was "terribly ashamed" and amazed that her mother could hold her head without appearing to be disgusted. Nanny had always been the one who comforted her and nursed her when she was ill. The best nannies compensated for a mother's shortcomings, provided an extra shoulder to cry on and gave the mother freedom to develop interests beyond her family circle. Although Mary's memory of her mother is far from the fairytale aproned and rosy-cheeked provider of meals, she worshipped her all the same. Mrs Lutyens inspired her children with her own love of literature and as they grew older they became closer. On the other hand, Helena Wright, the eminent gynaecologist, remained bitterly cynical of her mother who had been more bound up in her social life and charitable works than in her children. "To me you were merely a shadow, she writes to her mother, "a shadow with three characteristics: you were always "busy' and you were either ill or worried. Nurse Minter was our chief companion... Why didn't you get to know your children a little?'

§ 3. In working-class families there was no such division of labour: children were left entirely to mother. In the early years of the 20th century, there was no talk of stimulating play or entertaining or amusing children. Children were left to their own devices and by the age of six or seven were expected to look after themselves and, when not at school, run errands (быть на по­сыл­ках) for the family. Ideally, they kept out of the way, bothering grown-ups as little as possible.

§ 1. At the beginning of the 20th century mothering was thought to be an uncomplicated business. Working-class mothers knew their job: to feed, clothe, house their children and teach them to behave. The middle and upper classes paid some attention to childrearing fashions, but the task of motherhood was largely delegated to a nanny or a nursemaid or both. Mothers convinced themselves that nanny would do a better job as she would be less emotionally involved. "Nanny was my life. She was my authority,' explained Mary Lutyens. "Mother was a goddess. It was unthinkable that a goddess should bath me.'

§ 2. Mary was brought up by her much loved nanny, Louisa Seath. The children's world revolved around the nursery, tucked away on the top floor far from their parents. As a child, Mary was much closer to Nanny Seath than to her mother. Mary couldn't have borne the shame' if her mother had seen her without clothes and when at fifteen, she was sick in front of her, she was "terribly ashamed" and amazed that her mother could hold her head without appearing to be disgusted. Nanny had always been the one who comforted her and nursed her when she was ill. The best nannies compensated for a mother's shortcomings, provided an extra shoulder to cry on and gave the mother freedom to develop interests beyond her family circle. Although Mary's memory of her mother is far from the fairytale aproned and rosy-cheeked provider of meals, she worshipped her all the same. Mrs Lutyens inspired her children with her own love of literature and as they grew older they became closer. On the other hand, Helena Wright, the eminent gynaecologist, remained bitterly cynical of her mother who had been more bound up in her social life and charitable works than in her children. "To me you were merely a shadow, she writes to her mother, "a shadow with three characteristics: you were always "busy' and you were either ill or worried. Nurse Minter was our chief companion... Why didn't you get to know your children a little?'

§ 3. In working-class families there was no such division of labour: children were left entirely to mother. In the early years of the 20th century, there was no talk of stimulating play or entertaining or amusing children. Children were left to their own devices and by the age of six or seven were expected to look after themselves and, when not at school, run errands (быть на по­сыл­ках) for the family. Ideally, they kept out of the way, bothering grown-ups as little as possible.

§ 1. There used to be a general feeling that computer games were bad for you, and books were good. Now people are not so sure. Researchers have found that computer games, television and the Internet have become key factors in boosting children's IQs up to levels never reached by past generations.

§ 2. The idea that intelligence can be measured was first suggested about a century ago, but at that time it was hard to find tests that gave useful results. Over the past two decades, however, tests have become more complex and researchers have found that IQ scores can give a good indication of what children's future exam results will be. Some experts have even claimed that IQ scores can accurately predict what level of income and status young people will achieve in adult life.

§ 3. Why are today's youngsters doing so much better than their grandparents? Of course, better nutrition, higher standards of living and improved education all play their part in raising general levels of intelligence. But there seems to be more to it than that. Scientists are attributing the change in intelligence levels to the complexity of modern life.

§ 4. In today's fast-moving world, young people are required to interact constantly with electronic gadgets and equipment. This is developing youngsters' brains in ways that older generations never experienced. Computers are one of the major sources of stimulation, and activities such as playing games and using the Internet seem to be particularly important.

§ 5. There are still some things that remain unexplained, however. For example, the increase in children's lo scores varies according to the type of intelligence being tested. It appears that nowadays people are better at abstract thinking than their ancestors were  — but their verbal and mathematical abilities have remained the same as those of previous generations. No one knows why this is the case. Nevertheless, during the last few years there has certainly been a general upward trend, and it has been found that the present generation have IQs about 15 points above their parents.

§ 6. It has been claimed that, in moderation, computer gaming is positively good for youngsters. It requires positive qualities such as determination, fast thinking and rapid learning. However, it seems that improvements in IQ may not last very long without continuing stimulation. The brain seems to be like a muscle and requires repeated and vigorous exercise to stay fit and healthy. When it comes to IQ, it's a case of 'Use it or lose it'.

§ 1. There used to be a general feeling that computer games were bad for you, and books were good. Now people are not so sure. Researchers have found that computer games, television and the Internet have become key factors in boosting children's IQs up to levels never reached by past generations.

§ 2. The idea that intelligence can be measured was first suggested about a century ago, but at that time it was hard to find tests that gave useful results. Over the past two decades, however, tests have become more complex and researchers have found that IQ scores can give a good indication of what children's future exam results will be. Some experts have even claimed that IQ scores can accurately predict what level of income and status young people will achieve in adult life.

§ 3. Why are today's youngsters doing so much better than their grandparents? Of course, better nutrition, higher standards of living and improved education all play their part in raising general levels of intelligence. But there seems to be more to it than that. Scientists are attributing the change in intelligence levels to the complexity of modern life.

§ 4. In today's fast-moving world, young people are required to interact constantly with electronic gadgets and equipment. This is developing youngsters' brains in ways that older generations never experienced. Computers are one of the major sources of stimulation, and activities such as playing games and using the Internet seem to be particularly important.

§ 5. There are still some things that remain unexplained, however. For example, the increase in children's lo scores varies according to the type of intelligence being tested. It appears that nowadays people are better at abstract thinking than their ancestors were  — but their verbal and mathematical abilities have remained the same as those of previous generations. No one knows why this is the case. Nevertheless, during the last few years there has certainly been a general upward trend, and it has been found that the present generation have IQs about 15 points above their parents.

§ 6. It has been claimed that, in moderation, computer gaming is positively good for youngsters. It requires positive qualities such as determination, fast thinking and rapid learning. However, it seems that improvements in IQ may not last very long without continuing stimulation. The brain seems to be like a muscle and requires repeated and vigorous exercise to stay fit and healthy. When it comes to IQ, it's a case of 'Use it or lose it'.

§ 1. The Alpine Club in London has all the atmosphere of a country pub, where the regulars have been coming for years to have a friendly chat over great climbs. Many mountaineers have spoken here before; this particular evening, the floor is given over to Alan Hinkes. He is speaking before he sets off on his attempt to become the first Briton to climb all 14 of the world's highest peaks over 8000 metres. While five men in the world have already achieved this feat, he will be the first to climb six within a year.

§ 2. It was during his first attempt at an "8000er" in the Himalayas in 1992 that he first thought about attempting "the 14", as the world's 14 highest peaks are known in mountaineering circles. Over the next 10 years, Hinkes gradually climbed another seven of the 8000ers. Then followed three years during which he made three attempts on the world's hardest mountain, Pakistan's K2. "K2 is not much lower than Everest," explains Hinkes, "so you have all the same altitude problems." It is also much more difficult to climb, he adds." In 2003 I had to retreat to help a guy down who was in a really bad way, then the next year I got very near the top but wasn't happy with the snow conditions."

§ 3. Hinkes' rule, which he repeats as much to remind himself as anyone else, is "No mountain is worth a life, the summit is a bonus." "It's always difficult to enjoy it on top of the mountain because you know you have to get back down," he says. Descending is always harder. "You're exhausted  — particularly if you burn uploads of calories celebrating the victory on the summit like some people do. You have to keep yourself under control for the descent."

§ 4. Hinkes celebrates his 43rd birthday on 23 April 2012, the day he intends to summit Lhotse. "I was as fit as a butcher's dog 20 years ago but it would have been difficult to force myself to go slow and the way to get fit on big mountains is to keep pushing slowly," he admits. Hinkes is very obviously looking forward to the task ahead. If he makes it  — and he refuses to be drawn into rating his own chances of success  — he is well aware that it will be largely down to his ability to keep mind, body and soul together in situations where the mountains have the final say. He is angry at any reference to the fact that he is "conquering" anything. "Mountaineers have never spoken about 'conquering mountains. It is the media and non-climbers who talk in this way. You never conquer a mountain; a mountain lets you move to the top and get back down. It lets you have a good time or a bad time on it, but it never allows you to conquer it."

§ 1. The Alpine Club in London has all the atmosphere of a country pub, where the regulars have been coming for years to have a friendly chat over great climbs. Many mountaineers have spoken here before; this particular evening, the floor is given over to Alan Hinkes. He is speaking before he sets off on his attempt to become the first Briton to climb all 14 of the world's highest peaks over 8000 metres. While five men in the world have already achieved this feat, he will be the first to climb six within a year.

§ 2. It was during his first attempt at an "8000er" in the Himalayas in 1992 that he first thought about attempting "the 14", as the world's 14 highest peaks are known in mountaineering circles. Over the next 10 years, Hinkes gradually climbed another seven of the 8000ers. Then followed three years during which he made three attempts on the world's hardest mountain, Pakistan's K2. "K2 is not much lower than Everest," explains Hinkes, "so you have all the same altitude problems." It is also much more difficult to climb, he adds." In 2003 I had to retreat to help a guy down who was in a really bad way, then the next year I got very near the top but wasn't happy with the snow conditions."

§ 3. Hinkes' rule, which he repeats as much to remind himself as anyone else, is "No mountain is worth a life, the summit is a bonus." "It's always difficult to enjoy it on top of the mountain because you know you have to get back down," he says. Descending is always harder. "You're exhausted  — particularly if you burn uploads of calories celebrating the victory on the summit like some people do. You have to keep yourself under control for the descent."

§ 4. Hinkes celebrates his 43rd birthday on 23 April 2012, the day he intends to summit Lhotse. "I was as fit as a butcher's dog 20 years ago but it would have been difficult to force myself to go slow and the way to get fit on big mountains is to keep pushing slowly," he admits. Hinkes is very obviously looking forward to the task ahead. If he makes it  — and he refuses to be drawn into rating his own chances of success  — he is well aware that it will be largely down to his ability to keep mind, body and soul together in situations where the mountains have the final say. He is angry at any reference to the fact that he is "conquering" anything. "Mountaineers have never spoken about 'conquering mountains. It is the media and non-climbers who talk in this way. You never conquer a mountain; a mountain lets you move to the top and get back down. It lets you have a good time or a bad time on it, but it never allows you to conquer it."

§ 1. If you've ever thought that talking to someone was a waste of breath, you might be comforted to know that in some cases you are right  — the words we utter have very little effect on people compared with how we say them and what we are doing when we say them.

§ 2. Recent research has shown that in a presentation before a group of people, 55 per cent of the effect on the audience is determined by the body language of the speaker, 38 per cent by their tone of voice and only 7 per cent by the actual content of what is being said. Body language speaks louder than words.

§ 3. So can performance and communication skills really be improved? It would appear so, according to Neuro-Linguistic Programming, or NLP, which was developed in the 1970s by therapist Richard Bandler and linguistics professor John Grinder. They asked: "What makes the difference between someone who is competent at something and someone who is excellent?" They examined the behaviour of people generally considered to be examples of excellence in their respective fields to identify what they were doing consciously (осо­знан­но) and unconsciously. Surprisingly, they discovered patterns of communication which all these high achievers were using to produce consistently positive results. They found that they were able to copy these strategies and achieve similar success, so they developed a way of teaching these skills to other people, a method they called Neuro-Linguistic Programming.

§ 4. They have discovered how people achieve mutual understanding, both consciously and unconsciously, by observing the body language and voice patterns of the person they are talking to. If you're dealing with someone who is painfully shy, you're not going to make a good connection by overwhelming them with your cheerfulness. By matching someone's behaviour we can gain their confidence, achieve a good relationship and improve the quality of communication  — in other words, we can get on someone's wavelength. NLP practitioners claim anyone can learn how to do this, and quite quickly. NLP is all about taking one's unconscious, not very highly developed skills and practising them consciously.

§ 5. Another powerful aspect of NLP is its use of positive thinking. We can become aware of the negative and turn it to the positive. Once it is framed in a positive way as a goal, the brain can begin to cope with it and then apply itself to achieving that outcome. To put it another way, if you don't know where you're going, it makes it harder to get there.

§ 1. If you've ever thought that talking to someone was a waste of breath, you might be comforted to know that in some cases you are right  — the words we utter have very little effect on people compared with how we say them and what we are doing when we say them.

§ 2. Recent research has shown that in a presentation before a group of people, 55 per cent of the effect on the audience is determined by the body language of the speaker, 38 per cent by their tone of voice and only 7 per cent by the actual content of what is being said. Body language speaks louder than words.

§ 3. So can performance and communication skills really be improved? It would appear so, according to Neuro-Linguistic Programming, or NLP, which was developed in the 1970s by therapist Richard Bandler and linguistics professor John Grinder. They asked: "What makes the difference between someone who is competent at something and someone who is excellent?" They examined the behaviour of people generally considered to be examples of excellence in their respective fields to identify what they were doing consciously (осо­знан­но) and unconsciously. Surprisingly, they discovered patterns of communication which all these high achievers were using to produce consistently positive results. They found that they were able to copy these strategies and achieve similar success, so they developed a way of teaching these skills to other people, a method they called Neuro-Linguistic Programming.

§ 4. They have discovered how people achieve mutual understanding, both consciously and unconsciously, by observing the body language and voice patterns of the person they are talking to. If you're dealing with someone who is painfully shy, you're not going to make a good connection by overwhelming them with your cheerfulness. By matching someone's behaviour we can gain their confidence, achieve a good relationship and improve the quality of communication  — in other words, we can get on someone's wavelength. NLP practitioners claim anyone can learn how to do this, and quite quickly. NLP is all about taking one's unconscious, not very highly developed skills and practising them consciously.

§ 5. Another powerful aspect of NLP is its use of positive thinking. We can become aware of the negative and turn it to the positive. Once it is framed in a positive way as a goal, the brain can begin to cope with it and then apply itself to achieving that outcome. To put it another way, if you don't know where you're going, it makes it harder to get there.

1.  Му day at the vet’s office was amazing. Not only did I learn a lot about veterinary medicine but I met Casey, the umbrella cockatoo (боль­шой бе­ло­хох­лый ка­ка­ду). This is not an ordinary bird. Casey speaks in short sentences having the intelligence almost equivalent to your five-year-old brother or sister. Unfortunately though, he has developed a personality disorder which results in rather strange behaviour. Strange repetitive body actions cause him to hurt his body, which constantly worries his owners.

2.  I met Dr Markus Luckwaldt, a small animal veterinarian practitioner who specialises in birds and exotic animals. Not only is Casey apparently in excellent hands but so is his owner, Paul Smith, who is immediately put to ease by the compassion and understanding demonstrated by this veterinarian.

3.  Watching the interactions with pet, owner and doctor, I was immediately struck by the high standard of communication skills required by the veterinarian in dealing with both humans and animals. Animals pick up insincerity and uncertainty faster than humans. The vet’s role reminded me of a quarterback’s (иг­ра­ю­щий тре­нер) job who determines the strategy and game plan for all the players who are part of the same team.

4.  So you think you’d like to be a veterinary doctor and you love animals? That’s a start but it is only a start if you are interested in a career in veterinary medicine. Veterinarians are much more than people with a fondness for animals. A veterinarian is a doctor of animal health who has trained at a university for at least six years and is licensed to provide medical and surgical care for animals.

5.  The day to day work of veterinarians involves examining animals, making diagnoses, doing blood tests or X-rays, treating diseases or injuries, performing surgery and preventing animal illness through vaccinations. Vets can specialise in the care and treatment of either small or large animals. Those who deal with small animals such as dogs, cats, birds or reptiles usually work in cities and have owners bring their animals to a clinic or office. Veterinarians who usually work with horses, cows, pigs and other farm animals often have a mobile practice visiting farms and going all over the countryside.

6.  The demand for veterinarians in all fields will continue. The veterinarian of the future will need to adapt and keep pace with technology and the many new advances in medical research. Veterinary medicine, similar to human medicine, is continually confronting change and exploring alternative methods of treatment for animals.

1.  Watching wooden dolls come to life may not be one of the most popular forms of entertainment today, but with over twenty years’ experience, talented puppeteer (ку­коль­ник) Peter Roberts has earned himself the title ‘master puppeteer’ due to his extraordinary ability to transform puppets into believable, almost living characters. “People are quite often surprised to hear what I do for a living and have little appreciation of puppetry as a form of entertainment. But puppet theatre has been popular in many cultures and may have been the very first kind of theatre,” he explains.

2.  As Roberts writes his own scripts and musical scores, his shows are highly original. “A puppet show can involve anything from clowning to storytelling,” he explains. Equally varied is the audience he performs for. Roberts believes that this form of entertainment crosses international boundaries and can be appreciated by people of all ages and cultures.

3.  Roberts’ fascination for puppets started when he received some beautiful glove puppets one Christmas. He started putting on shows with these for family and friends and then moved on to handmade Chinese string puppets. Learning mostly from books and personal experience, he continued with his ‘hobby’ while studying for a degree in architecture. “By the time I left university,” he explains, “I was already spending most of my free time carving puppets and putting on shows in the community, so I hardly noticed the transition from student to full-time professional puppeteer. I realised I had long since abandoned all thoughts of pursuing any other career!”

4.  The puppets are designed specifically for each show, which is extremely time-consuming. Each one is out of English limewood and then painted. Some of his ‘characters’ appear in exhibitions; others are used for puppeteering workshops. Anyone interested in puppetry can be trained to assist, and not just with the actual puppet making. Puppet theatre companies in the UK are usually small, but each one still needs writers, performers, musicians and even sound and lighting engineers.

5.  When most people hear the word ‘puppetry’, they more than likely think of a way of keeping children entertained at birthday parties. However, Roberts is keen to point out that puppet theatre can often be used as an effective educational tool. “Through the mouths of pup sets come serious messages sometimes,” he says.

Forget long-distance flights and take the boat if you want to arrive in Australia full of energy. You might even enjoy the holiday of a lifetime on the way, says Jan Etherington.

§ 1. My son, Tom, made the announcement on New Year’s Eve. ‘Fran and I are getting married...’ Hurrah! ‘...in Australia.’ Now, I’ve always wanted to go to Australia but like most people, I’m put off by the flight and the thought of arriving pale, exhausted and needing a week to recover. Even with a stopover, you face two long-distance flights. But it doesn’t have to be like that. I found a way to arrive suntanned, refreshed, and ready for action. I went by boat, on the Saga Rose world cruise.

§ 2. If I’d had the time and money, I could have gone all the way round the world, but the great thing about this cruise is that you can embark (са­дить­ся на ко­рабль) and disembark wherever you wish. If you want to get to Australia or New Zealand, take a shorter flight somewhere, join the world cruise and arrive in civilised style. I picked it up in Valparaiso (the port for Santiago, Chile) and sailed on from there to Sydney.

§ 3. The Saga Rose is a good-looking ship. Launched in 1965, she is highly regarded by maritime (мор­ской) experts for her elegant lines. Passenger capacity is 587 but we were fewer than 400, with 350, largely Filipino, crew who were smart, efficient and full of good humour. It was the cleanest ship I’d ever seen and the variety and freshness of the meals was impressive, with a welcome freedom to dine in the evening at any time between 7.15 and 9pm.

§ 4. I met lots of accomplished, funny, clever, attractive people on the ship. Good company and a well-run ship are important, because, on this stretch of the journey, we were together for a month  — long enough to learn a skill. I took up salsa, inspired by dance teacher, Thabo, who made us believe we were good enough to perform in front of passengers and crew.

§ 5. Julia’s jewellery-making classes were surprisingly popular. Even cynics (like me) were impressed as, using seeds and beads from local sources, students produced desirable costume jewellery. And the watercolour classes gave amateurs the tools to capture the passing scenes more maginatively than with a digital camera.

§ 6. As we cruised into Sydney at sunrise, it was like sailing into a familiar postcard. We passed the Opera House, slid under the Harbour Bridge and, on the quayside (при­стань), Тоm and Fran waved banners of welcome. I leapt off, relaxed, fit and full of energy. ‘Let’s go shopping for a hat!’

§ 1. It was the last day of July. The long hot summer was drawing to a close; and we, the weary pilgrims of the London pavement, were beginning to think of the cloud-shadows on the corn-fields, and the autumn breezes on the sea-shore.

§ 2, As for me, the fading summer had left me out of health, out of spirits, and, to tell the truth, out of money as well. During the last year I had not managed my professional funds as carefully as usual; and my overspending now meant I had to spend the autumn cheaply in my mother’s cottage in Hampstead and my own rooms in town.

§ 3. The evening, I remember, was still and cloudy; the London air was at its heaviest; the distant hum of the street traffic was at its quietest. I roused myself from the book which I was dreaming over rather than reading, and left my office to meet the cool night air in the suburbs. It was one of the two evenings in every week which I spent with my mother and sister, so I turned my steps northward in the direction of Hampstead.

§ 4. Events which I have yet to tell make it necessary to say at this point that my father had been dead some years, and that my sister Sarah and I were the sole survivors of a family of five children. My father was a drawing master before me. His hard work had made him very successful in his job, and because he was anxious about those who were dependent on him, he had from the time of his marriage spent far more on insuring his life than most men consider necessary. Thanks to his care my mother and sister were left, after his death, as independent of the world as they had been during his lifetime. I followed him into his profession and had every reason to feel grateful for the start he had given me.

§ 5. The quiet twilight was still trembling on to the top ridges of the heath; and the view of London below me had sunk into a black gulf in the shadows of the cloudy night, when I stood before the gate of my mother’s cottage.

§ 1. The facts of the burglary at the vicarage came to us chiefly through the medium of the vicar and his wife. It occurred in the small hours of Whit Monday. Mrs Bunting, it seems, woke up suddenly in the stillness that comes before the dawn, with the strong impression that the door of their bedroom had opened and closed. She did not arouse her husband at first, but sat up in bed listening. She then distinctly heard the pad of bare feet coming out of the dressing-room and walking along the passage towards the staircase. As soon as she felt assured of this, she aroused the Rev Mr Bunting as quietly as possible. He did not strike a light, but putting on his spectacles, his dressing-gown, and his bath slippers, he went out on the landing to listen. He heard quite distinctly a fumbling going on at his study desk downstairs, and then a violent sneeze.

§ 2. At that he returned to his bedroom, armed himself with the most obvious weapon, the poker, and descended the staircase as noiselessly as possible. Mrs Bunting came out on the landing. .

§ 3. The hour was about four, and the ultimate darkness of the night was past. There was a faint shimmer of light in the hall, but the study doorway yawned impenetrably black. Everything was still except the faint creaking of the stairs under Mr Bunting’s tread, and the slight movements in the study. Then something snapped, the drawer was opened, and there was a rustle of papers. Then came a curse, and a match was struck and the study was flooded with yellow light. Through the crack of the door Mr Bunting could see the desk and the open drawer and a candle burning on the desk. But the robber he could not see. He stood there in the hall undecided what to do, and Mrs Bunting, her face white and intent, crept slowly downstairs after him. One thing kept up Mr Bunting’s courage: the persuasion that this burglar was a residefit in the village.

§ 4. They heard the chink of money, and realised that the robber had found the housekeeping reserve of gold. At that sound Mr Bunting was nerved to abrupt action. Gripping the poker firmly, he rushed into the room, closely followed by Mrs Bunting. “Surrender!” cried Mr Bunting fiercely and then stopped, amazed. Apparently the room was perfectly empty.

§ 1. I crept to the door and listened; they were snoring, so I tiptoed along and got down the stairs safely. I couldn’t hear a sound. I looked through a crack in the dining room door and saw that the men who were watching the body were all asleep in their chairs. The door of the parlour, where the corpse was lying, was open, and there was a candle in each room. I went past, but the front door was locked and the key was missing.

§ 2. Just then I heard footsteps on the stairs behind me. I silently ran into the parlour and cast my eyes about the room. The only place I could see to hide the bag was in the coffin. The lid was pushed along, showing the dead man’s face with a wet cloth over it. 1 tucked the money-bag in under the lid, just below where his hands were crossed. That sent a shiver down my spine; his hands were so cold. Then I ran back across the room and hid behind the door.

§ 3. The person coming was Mary Jane. She went to the coffin, knelt down and looked in. Then she put her handkerchief to her face and I sensed that she had started crying, although I couldn’t hear her and her back was turned. I slipped out. Looking back into the dining room, I saw that the watchers were still all asleep and I hadn’t been seen.

§ 4. As I climbed back into bed, I was a little shaken after all the risks I had just taken. I thought to myself it would be alright if it stayed where it was because when we had gone another hundred miles or two down the river I could write to Mary Jane and she c6uld dig him up and get it. But that’s not going to happen because they’ll find the money when they screw the lid on. The king will get it back and nobody else will get their hands on it again. Of course, I wanted to sneak back down and get it, but 1 didn’t dare to try. Every minute it was getting later now. Soon some of the watchers would start waking up and I might get caught  — caught with six thousand dollars in my hands. How could I explain that?

§ 1. G. Р. Taylor is the Yorkshire vicar {при­ходcкой свя­щен­ник) who sold his motorbike to self-publish 2,000 copies of his first novel, Shadowmancer, a book that was subsequently picked up by publishers Faber & Faber and got to number one in the New York Times bestseller list. His novels bring to one’s mind dark, chilling worlds in which the supernatural threatens to take over, yet he describes his life as a writer in purely functional terms. He is able to name the exact day that he became a novelist: March 21,2002. ‘It was one of those fruitful moments in my life. Harry Potter was becoming very popular. And I thought, “This woman’s written a book. I might write one.” ’

§ 2. ‘ I got a copy of Harry Potter, counted the number of words that were on the page, measured the width of the margin {поля), counted the number of chapters in the book, how many pages were in the book and set my computer screen up so that it would have 468 words on the page. My chapters were the same length as the Harry Potter chapters; I thought, “This must be how you write a book.” ’ Shadowmancer is a simple and uncomplicated fantasy  — and Taylor, who is his own most effective critic, makes few further claims for the novel. ‘It’s a great story, but if I’d written it now, it would be a completely different book. In many ways, it’s a clumsy classic. There are a lot of things in there that I would get rid of. And yet, I think that’s the big attraction. It’s because it’s an incredible adventure story, written by a non-writer, just a storyteller.'

§ 3. Taylor returns to this distinction between writing and storytelling a number of times, distancing himself from grand and lofty ideas of the novelist’s purpose. He describes himself as a ‘fairly uneducated kid’ who ran away to London as a teenager. He is uncomfortable talking at any length about favourite novels or influences beyond J. K. Rowling: T have not read all that many books. I’m not a very literate person.’

§ 4. Taylor was a rock-music promoter in his twenties and remains a showman, happiest in front of a crowd. He describes the talks he gives in schools and at festivals, dressed up as a sea captain or as an 18th-century highwayman in a long black coat. ‘You’re using your face, you’re using your body, you’re acting out what you’re doing.’ The business of putting his thoughts in writing can be problematic in comparison. As a storyteller, in order to demonstrate shock or alarm to an audience he will ‘pause between sentences and show a wide-eyed, staring face. But to describe that in English...’

§ 1. Having decided in later life that it might actually be quite nice to master another language, rather than dusting off my schoolgirl French, I opted for Spanish. Three years of half-finished evening classes later, thanks to the enthusiastic teacher’s efforts I could order in a restaurant and ask directions, but my conversational skills were limited to asking everybody how many brothers and sisters they had. The only true way to master a language is to live and breathe it for a period of time. I’d thought of taking a language ‘immersion’ course (курс язы­ко­во­го по­гру­же­ния) abroad, but two little words always stopped me: home stay. Then I saw that tour operator Journey Latin America had started offering Spanish courses in Peru, amongst other places. The opportunity to realise two long-held ambitions in one holiday  — to improve my Spanish and to see Machu Picchu  — proved irresistible.

§ 2. My misgivings disappear the moment I am met by my home-stay family, the Rojas, at Cusco airport. They greet me warmly, like an old friend. Carlos is an optician and Carmucha owns a restaurant. With their four children they live in a comfortable house right in the centre of town. Then I’m taken to a family friend’s birthday party, where I understand nothing apart from the bit where they sing ‘Happy Birthday’. By the end of the evening my face aches from holding an expression of polite, but uncomprehending interest, and I fall into bed wondering what I’ve let myself in for.

§ 3. The following morning, I’m off to school and get to know my new group mates. We’re aged between 19 and 65, each spending up to a month studying before travelling around Peru. We have all clearly got to know about our new families. We’re all keen to meet our teachers and see which class we’ll be joining, but after sitting the placement test, we learn that as it’s not yet high season and the school is not too busy, tuition will be one-on-one. Although some find the prospect frightening, to my mind, this is a pretty impressive ratio  — though even in high season the maximum class size expands to only four pupils.

§ 4. As the week unfolds, I slip into a routine. Four hours of classes in the morning, back home for lunch, then afternoons free for sightseeing.

§ 5. As the week wears on, a strange thing starts to happen: the dinner-table chatter, which at first was so much ‘white noise’, starts to have some meaning and, wonderfully,! can follow the thread of the conversation. What’s more, I’ve started to dream in Spanish!

Му life with CVD by Tony Wong

§ 1. I had just started middle school and we all had to do a series of tests. I was taken to a room where a mysterious woman handed me an odd-looking picture made up of dots. 'What number do you see?’ she asked with a smile. I didn’t know why she was smiling because there were a lot of dots to count. Once I got to about ten, she asked the same question. I didn’t know what to say, so she gave me another picture which looked the same as the first. I got upset. 'I don’t see any numbers,’ I said. That was how I learnt that I had CVD, colour vision deficiency, or, as it's unfairly known by the general public, colour blindness. What most people would have seen in that test was a number made of pink dots which they were expected to pick out from a circular field of green dots. I just saw lots of grey dots.

§ 2. I’m not alone. It is estimated that about eight percent of men have some form of CVD. It’s all down to genes, apparently, and scientists hope to cure it one day, although I can’t say that I would be keen on any gene therapy. Personally, I don’t feel like I ‘suffer’ from CVD.

§ 3. Generally speaking, people with CVD just adapt to the world around us. For example, when you get to the traffic lights, the key thing is not the colour but the order of the lights. Of course, with all the vandalism in my neighbourhood. I'm just happy if the traffic lights are working.

§ 4. Unfortunately, not everything is so clear cut. When my e-reader is recharging, the light is orange when it is charging and green when it is finished. That’s great, except that both colours look more or less the same to me. A much better system would be the one that my electric razor uses. It flashes when it is charging and then stops when it has finished.

§ 5. Life is full of little frustrations like that. Because I see green and red as pretty similar, I do sometimes put on a top that doesn’t go with my trousers.

§ 6. However, there are bigger problems that can occur when professionals don’t take CVD into account. I once failed an exam at school because a key question related to a bar chart coloured red, green and blue. To me all of the rectangles looked almost the same. Similar problems still crop up in course books and exams today.

§ 7. Moments like that aside, in my own life, CVD has been more of an inconvenience than a problem. People like me live life just like anyone else. We can continue to do so as long as people in positions of responsibility take steps to prevent any problems before they occur.

§ 1. Sometimes the road to romance is long. ‘Lonesome George’, a giant Galapagos tortoise, is the last of his subspecies and thus profoundly alone. Living far out in the Pacific on the island of Pinta in the Galapagos Islands, he is officially the rarest living creature on Earth.

§ 2. No animal better captures the history of the Galapagos Islands than the giant tortoise. There used to be thousands of them roaming over these Islands. Observations of them by Charles Darwin even formed part of his world-changing theory of evolution.

§ 3. Sadly, however, mostly because for centuries the passing sailors had been hunting the giant tortoises for food, there are now only an estimated fifteen thousand left in the Galapagos Islands. Of the fifteen known subspecies, four are already thought to be extinct, as was the Pinta giant tortoise until Lonesome George was discovered in 1971. This came as a pleasant surprise to scientists since no other Pinta tortoises had been found on Pinta Island since 1906.

§ 4. Since George was discovered, he has become the star attraction at the Charles Darwin Research Station where conservationists have been hoping to rescue some of his genes by mating him with another tortoise. Two females from the nearby island of Isabela, the most closely related to the Pinta subspecies that could be found, were put into his enclosed territory with him in 1992, but he failed to take the hint.

§ 5. Then, Professor Jeffrey Powell, an evolutionary biologist from Yale University, came up with a possible reason why Lonesome George was not finding true romance with the ladies from Isabela. Perhaps, he suggested, they were simply too different to him to be a suitable match. Sailors often carried the tortoises from one island to another, he pointed out. So there could be a perfect Pinta match for George alive and well on Isabela or even on some more distant island.

§ 6. To begin testing his theory, Professor Powell compared DNA from seven Pinta tortoises with blood samples from twenty-seven giant tortoises living on Isabela. Among these samples, they found one tortoise with clear signs of Pinta ancestry (про­ис­хож­де­ние). Sadly, however, the newly discovered tortoise was not suitable for George: he was male.

§ 7. Powell with his team intends to return to Isabela and take blood from more than two thousand tortoises. If they do indeed find a Pinta female, they hope to take her to George’s territory and attempt to breed the pair. The possibility remains, then, that Lonesome George may one day not be so lonely after all.

§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. 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. 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. 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. '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. 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. 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. 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. There are many different theories about dreams; however, the science of dreams is not exact. In ancient times, people believed that when we dreamt we entered another world which was real. As science and medicine became more advanced, different theories started to come out. Some scientists believe that dreams are just verbal, visual and emotional stimuli with no apparent meaning. However, others believe that dreams are important for our mental well-being. The leading psychiatrist, Carl Jung thought that analysing our dreams provides us with a way to think more deeply about our lives and solve problems.

§ 2. For centuries, people have believed that dreams have a deeper meaning. For example, many of us dream that we are falling and suddenly we wake up. Experts say this dream means we are feeling anxious and insecure or we feel we have failed in achieving a goal. Another popular dream is that of being chased; this means we are trying to escape our problems. Also, dreams about losing our teeth are believed to show that we are worried about our physical appearance.

§ 3. There has been a lot of research done into controlling dreams and this has led to the term lucid (осо­знан­ный) dreaming. Lucid dreaming happens when you are aware that you are dreaming and are able to control what happens in your dream. This is an amazing skill but it is also extremely difficult to do and not many people are able to learn it. Lucid dreaming can be a way to experience the strange world of your dreams but it is also believed to help personal development and improve your problem solving skills.

§ 4. Some people are able to see future events through their dreams. There is the case of the man who dreamt that he took his son on a camping trip and his son died near a lake. Some time after he had had the dream, the man and his son were invited on a camping trip. Then, at a certain time during the trip, the man remembered his dream and noticed that everything was the same as in his dream; the boy was standing near a lake looking down at pebbles. The man quickly grabbed his son and took him to safety.

§ 5. There is still a lot of research taking place into dreams, and it will be some time before we are able to really understand the strange dream world that we enter every night. Dreams allow us to experience things that would not be possible in real life, and by analysing our dreams we can learn more about ourselves.

§ 1. 'Hollywood' is a household name. This small district is the centre of the American film industry and the source of over 2.6 billion yearly cinema ticket sales. Most of the films we watch come straight out of Hollywood. But have you ever heard of 'Bollywood'? It is the name given to the Hindi language film industry based in Mumbai, India. Contrary to popular belief, it far outperforms Hollywood. Last year alone, over 1000 films were produced and 4 billion cinema tickets were sold, showing that Indian cinema is far more powerful than people think.

§ 2. Many likely Bollywood fans are often concerned that they will not be able to understand the language used in the films. But there is no need to worry. Although the scripts have historically been written in Hindi, more and more films use the English language, showing India's respect for the languages that make up its culture. You will also find that most films come with English language subtitles.

§ 3. So what do you get out of a Bollywood film? It is difficult to define a film as belonging to a certain category, because there is no such thing as a typical Bollywood film. The plots can focus on the drama of a love triangle, but they can also be packed with laugh-out-loud comedy or edge-of-your-seat action. The only guarantee is that a Bollywood film won't end without several catchy song and dance routines.

§ 4. Many Bollywood films are over three hours long. Some people might think that this is too long, but there is a good explanation. The film companies say the aim is to give you, the audience, your 'money's worth'. If you are going to spend good money on a ticket, the film should be really exciting.

§ 5. There is no shortage of aspiring young actors and actresses hoping to get a role in the next blockbuster. Big shot movie producers and casting agents are always looking out for new talent. India has its own Brad Pitts and Angelina Jolies  — spectacular actors who ensure you have a truly enjoyable viewing experience!

§ 6. Shilpa Shetty is the perfect example of a Bollywood megastar. A picture of beauty and raw acting talent, she has achieved success beyond the borders of India, most notably in the UK following her appearance on the 'Celebrity Big Brother' TV series. Since then she has turned down roles in several British TV shows. Instead, she has returned to Mumbai and continues to shoot films in the land that made her a star.

§ 7. Once you get into Bollywood, you'll never want to stop watching.

§ 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.  Му day at the vet’s office was amazing. Not only did I learn a lot about veterinary medicine but I met Casey, the umbrella cockatoo (боль­шой бе­ло­хох­лый ка­ка­ду). This is not an ordinary bird. Casey speaks in short sentences having the intelligence almost equivalent to your five-year-old brother or sister. Unfortunately though, he has developed a personality disorder which results in rather strange behaviour. Strange repetitive body actions cause him to hurt his body, which constantly worries his owners.

2.  I met Dr Markus Luckwaldt, a small animal veterinarian practitioner who specialises in birds and exotic animals. Not only is Casey apparently in excellent hands but so is his owner, Paul Smith, who is immediately put to ease by the compassion and understanding demonstrated by this veterinarian.

3.  Watching the interactions with pet, owner and doctor, I was immediately struck by the high standard of communication skills required by the veterinarian in dealing with both humans and animals. Animals pick up insincerity and uncertainty faster than humans. The vet’s role reminded me of a quarterback’s (иг­ра­ю­щий тре­нер) job who determines the strategy and game plan for all the players who are part of the same team.

4.  So you think you’d like to be a veterinary doctor and you love animals? That’s a start but it is only a start if you are interested in a career in veterinary medicine. Veterinarians are much more than people with a fondness for animals. A veterinarian is a doctor of animal health who has trained at a university for at least six years and is licensed to provide medical and surgical care for animals.

5.  The day to day work of veterinarians involves examining animals, making diagnoses, doing blood tests or X-rays, treating diseases or injuries, performing surgery and preventing animal illness through vaccinations. Vets can specialise in the care and treatment of either small or large animals. Those who deal with small animals such as dogs, cats, birds or reptiles usually work in cities and have owners bring their animals to a clinic or office. Veterinarians who usually work with horses, cows, pigs and other farm animals often have a mobile practice visiting farms and going all over the countryside.

6.  The demand for veterinarians in all fields will continue. The veterinarian of the future will need to adapt and keep pace with technology and the many new advances in medical research. Veterinary medicine, similar to human medicine, is continually confronting change and exploring alternative methods of treatment for animals.

1.  Watching wooden dolls come to life may not be one of the most popular forms of entertainment today, but with over twenty years’ experience, talented puppeteer (ку­коль­ник) Peter Roberts has earned himself the title ‘master puppeteer’ due to his extraordinary ability to transform puppets into believable, almost living characters. “People are quite often surprised to hear what I do for a living and have little appreciation of puppetry as a form of entertainment. But puppet theatre has been popular in many cultures and may have been the very first kind of theatre,” he explains.

2.  As Roberts writes his own scripts and musical scores, his shows are highly original. “A puppet show can involve anything from clowning to storytelling,” he explains. Equally varied is the audience he performs for. Roberts believes that this form of entertainment crosses international boundaries and can be appreciated by people of all ages and cultures.

3.  Roberts’ fascination for puppets started when he received some beautiful glove puppets one Christmas. He started putting on shows with these for family and friends and then moved on to handmade Chinese string puppets. Learning mostly from books and personal experience, he continued with his ‘hobby’ while studying for a degree in architecture. “By the time I left university,” he explains, “I was already spending most of my free time carving puppets and putting on shows in the community, so I hardly noticed the transition from student to full-time professional puppeteer. I realised I had long since abandoned all thoughts of pursuing any other career!”

4.  The puppets are designed specifically for each show, which is extremely time-consuming. Each one is out of English limewood and then painted. Some of his ‘characters’ appear in exhibitions; others are used for puppeteering workshops. Anyone interested in puppetry can be trained to assist, and not just with the actual puppet making. Puppet theatre companies in the UK are usually small, but each one still needs writers, performers, musicians and even sound and lighting engineers.

5.  When most people hear the word ‘puppetry’, they more than likely think of a way of keeping children entertained at birthday parties. However, Roberts is keen to point out that puppet theatre can often be used as an effective educational tool. “Through the mouths of pup sets come serious messages sometimes,” he says.

Forget long-distance flights and take the boat if you want to arrive in Australia full of energy. You might even enjoy the holiday of a lifetime on the way, says Jan Etherington.

§ 1. My son, Tom, made the announcement on New Year’s Eve. ‘Fran and I are getting married...’ Hurrah! ‘...in Australia.’ Now, I’ve always wanted to go to Australia but like most people, I’m put off by the flight and the thought of arriving pale, exhausted and needing a week to recover. Even with a stopover, you face two long-distance flights. But it doesn’t have to be like that. I found a way to arrive suntanned, refreshed, and ready for action. I went by boat, on the Saga Rose world cruise.

§ 2. If I’d had the time and money, I could have gone all the way round the world, but the great thing about this cruise is that you can embark (са­дить­ся на ко­рабль) and disembark wherever you wish. If you want to get to Australia or New Zealand, take a shorter flight somewhere, join the world cruise and arrive in civilised style. I picked it up in Valparaiso (the port for Santiago, Chile) and sailed on from there to Sydney.

§ 3. The Saga Rose is a good-looking ship. Launched in 1965, she is highly regarded by maritime (мор­ской) experts for her elegant lines. Passenger capacity is 587 but we were fewer than 400, with 350, largely Filipino, crew who were smart, efficient and full of good humour. It was the cleanest ship I’d ever seen and the variety and freshness of the meals was impressive, with a welcome freedom to dine in the evening at any time between 7.15 and 9pm.

§ 4. I met lots of accomplished, funny, clever, attractive people on the ship. Good company and a well-run ship are important, because, on this stretch of the journey, we were together for a month  — long enough to learn a skill. I took up salsa, inspired by dance teacher, Thabo, who made us believe we were good enough to perform in front of passengers and crew.

§ 5. Julia’s jewellery-making classes were surprisingly popular. Even cynics (like me) were impressed as, using seeds and beads from local sources, students produced desirable costume jewellery. And the watercolour classes gave amateurs the tools to capture the passing scenes more maginatively than with a digital camera.

§ 6. As we cruised into Sydney at sunrise, it was like sailing into a familiar postcard. We passed the Opera House, slid under the Harbour Bridge and, on the quayside (при­стань), Тоm and Fran waved banners of welcome. I leapt off, relaxed, fit and full of energy. ‘Let’s go shopping for a hat!’

§ 1. It was the last day of July. The long hot summer was drawing to a close; and we, the weary pilgrims of the London pavement, were beginning to think of the cloud-shadows on the corn-fields, and the autumn breezes on the sea-shore.

§ 2, As for me, the fading summer had left me out of health, out of spirits, and, to tell the truth, out of money as well. During the last year I had not managed my professional funds as carefully as usual; and my overspending now meant I had to spend the autumn cheaply in my mother’s cottage in Hampstead and my own rooms in town.

§ 3. The evening, I remember, was still and cloudy; the London air was at its heaviest; the distant hum of the street traffic was at its quietest. I roused myself from the book which I was dreaming over rather than reading, and left my office to meet the cool night air in the suburbs. It was one of the two evenings in every week which I spent with my mother and sister, so I turned my steps northward in the direction of Hampstead.

§ 4. Events which I have yet to tell make it necessary to say at this point that my father had been dead some years, and that my sister Sarah and I were the sole survivors of a family of five children. My father was a drawing master before me. His hard work had made him very successful in his job, and because he was anxious about those who were dependent on him, he had from the time of his marriage spent far more on insuring his life than most men consider necessary. Thanks to his care my mother and sister were left, after his death, as independent of the world as they had been during his lifetime. I followed him into his profession and had every reason to feel grateful for the start he had given me.

§ 5. The quiet twilight was still trembling on to the top ridges of the heath; and the view of London below me had sunk into a black gulf in the shadows of the cloudy night, when I stood before the gate of my mother’s cottage.

§ 1. The facts of the burglary at the vicarage came to us chiefly through the medium of the vicar and his wife. It occurred in the small hours of Whit Monday. Mrs Bunting, it seems, woke up suddenly in the stillness that comes before the dawn, with the strong impression that the door of their bedroom had opened and closed. She did not arouse her husband at first, but sat up in bed listening. She then distinctly heard the pad of bare feet coming out of the dressing-room and walking along the passage towards the staircase. As soon as she felt assured of this, she aroused the Rev Mr Bunting as quietly as possible. He did not strike a light, but putting on his spectacles, his dressing-gown, and his bath slippers, he went out on the landing to listen. He heard quite distinctly a fumbling going on at his study desk downstairs, and then a violent sneeze.

§ 2. At that he returned to his bedroom, armed himself with the most obvious weapon, the poker, and descended the staircase as noiselessly as possible. Mrs Bunting came out on the landing. .

§ 3. The hour was about four, and the ultimate darkness of the night was past. There was a faint shimmer of light in the hall, but the study doorway yawned impenetrably black. Everything was still except the faint creaking of the stairs under Mr Bunting’s tread, and the slight movements in the study. Then something snapped, the drawer was opened, and there was a rustle of papers. Then came a curse, and a match was struck and the study was flooded with yellow light. Through the crack of the door Mr Bunting could see the desk and the open drawer and a candle burning on the desk. But the robber he could not see. He stood there in the hall undecided what to do, and Mrs Bunting, her face white and intent, crept slowly downstairs after him. One thing kept up Mr Bunting’s courage: the persuasion that this burglar was a residefit in the village.

§ 4. They heard the chink of money, and realised that the robber had found the housekeeping reserve of gold. At that sound Mr Bunting was nerved to abrupt action. Gripping the poker firmly, he rushed into the room, closely followed by Mrs Bunting. “Surrender!” cried Mr Bunting fiercely and then stopped, amazed. Apparently the room was perfectly empty.

§ 1. I crept to the door and listened; they were snoring, so I tiptoed along and got down the stairs safely. I couldn’t hear a sound. I looked through a crack in the dining room door and saw that the men who were watching the body were all asleep in their chairs. The door of the parlour, where the corpse was lying, was open, and there was a candle in each room. I went past, but the front door was locked and the key was missing.

§ 2. Just then I heard footsteps on the stairs behind me. I silently ran into the parlour and cast my eyes about the room. The only place I could see to hide the bag was in the coffin. The lid was pushed along, showing the dead man’s face with a wet cloth over it. 1 tucked the money-bag in under the lid, just below where his hands were crossed. That sent a shiver down my spine; his hands were so cold. Then I ran back across the room and hid behind the door.

§ 3. The person coming was Mary Jane. She went to the coffin, knelt down and looked in. Then she put her handkerchief to her face and I sensed that she had started crying, although I couldn’t hear her and her back was turned. I slipped out. Looking back into the dining room, I saw that the watchers were still all asleep and I hadn’t been seen.

§ 4. As I climbed back into bed, I was a little shaken after all the risks I had just taken. I thought to myself it would be alright if it stayed where it was because when we had gone another hundred miles or two down the river I could write to Mary Jane and she c6uld dig him up and get it. But that’s not going to happen because they’ll find the money when they screw the lid on. The king will get it back and nobody else will get their hands on it again. Of course, I wanted to sneak back down and get it, but 1 didn’t dare to try. Every minute it was getting later now. Soon some of the watchers would start waking up and I might get caught  — caught with six thousand dollars in my hands. How could I explain that?

§ 1. G. Р. Taylor is the Yorkshire vicar {при­ходcкой свя­щен­ник) who sold his motorbike to self-publish 2,000 copies of his first novel, Shadowmancer, a book that was subsequently picked up by publishers Faber & Faber and got to number one in the New York Times bestseller list. His novels bring to one’s mind dark, chilling worlds in which the supernatural threatens to take over, yet he describes his life as a writer in purely functional terms. He is able to name the exact day that he became a novelist: March 21,2002. ‘It was one of those fruitful moments in my life. Harry Potter was becoming very popular. And I thought, “This woman’s written a book. I might write one.” ’

§ 2. ‘ I got a copy of Harry Potter, counted the number of words that were on the page, measured the width of the margin {поля), counted the number of chapters in the book, how many pages were in the book and set my computer screen up so that it would have 468 words on the page. My chapters were the same length as the Harry Potter chapters; I thought, “This must be how you write a book.” ’ Shadowmancer is a simple and uncomplicated fantasy  — and Taylor, who is his own most effective critic, makes few further claims for the novel. ‘It’s a great story, but if I’d written it now, it would be a completely different book. In many ways, it’s a clumsy classic. There are a lot of things in there that I would get rid of. And yet, I think that’s the big attraction. It’s because it’s an incredible adventure story, written by a non-writer, just a storyteller.'

§ 3. Taylor returns to this distinction between writing and storytelling a number of times, distancing himself from grand and lofty ideas of the novelist’s purpose. He describes himself as a ‘fairly uneducated kid’ who ran away to London as a teenager. He is uncomfortable talking at any length about favourite novels or influences beyond J. K. Rowling: T have not read all that many books. I’m not a very literate person.’

§ 4. Taylor was a rock-music promoter in his twenties and remains a showman, happiest in front of a crowd. He describes the talks he gives in schools and at festivals, dressed up as a sea captain or as an 18th-century highwayman in a long black coat. ‘You’re using your face, you’re using your body, you’re acting out what you’re doing.’ The business of putting his thoughts in writing can be problematic in comparison. As a storyteller, in order to demonstrate shock or alarm to an audience he will ‘pause between sentences and show a wide-eyed, staring face. But to describe that in English...’

§ 1. Having decided in later life that it might actually be quite nice to master another language, rather than dusting off my schoolgirl French, I opted for Spanish. Three years of half-finished evening classes later, thanks to the enthusiastic teacher’s efforts I could order in a restaurant and ask directions, but my conversational skills were limited to asking everybody how many brothers and sisters they had. The only true way to master a language is to live and breathe it for a period of time. I’d thought of taking a language ‘immersion’ course (курс язы­ко­во­го по­гру­же­ния) abroad, but two little words always stopped me: home stay. Then I saw that tour operator Journey Latin America had started offering Spanish courses in Peru, amongst other places. The opportunity to realise two long-held ambitions in one holiday  — to improve my Spanish and to see Machu Picchu  — proved irresistible.

§ 2. My misgivings disappear the moment I am met by my home-stay family, the Rojas, at Cusco airport. They greet me warmly, like an old friend. Carlos is an optician and Carmucha owns a restaurant. With their four children they live in a comfortable house right in the centre of town. Then I’m taken to a family friend’s birthday party, where I understand nothing apart from the bit where they sing ‘Happy Birthday’. By the end of the evening my face aches from holding an expression of polite, but uncomprehending interest, and I fall into bed wondering what I’ve let myself in for.

§ 3. The following morning, I’m off to school and get to know my new group mates. We’re aged between 19 and 65, each spending up to a month studying before travelling around Peru. We have all clearly got to know about our new families. We’re all keen to meet our teachers and see which class we’ll be joining, but after sitting the placement test, we learn that as it’s not yet high season and the school is not too busy, tuition will be one-on-one. Although some find the prospect frightening, to my mind, this is a pretty impressive ratio  — though even in high season the maximum class size expands to only four pupils.

§ 4. As the week unfolds, I slip into a routine. Four hours of classes in the morning, back home for lunch, then afternoons free for sightseeing.

§ 5. As the week wears on, a strange thing starts to happen: the dinner-table chatter, which at first was so much ‘white noise’, starts to have some meaning and, wonderfully,! can follow the thread of the conversation. What’s more, I’ve started to dream in Spanish!

Му life with CVD by Tony Wong

§ 1. I had just started middle school and we all had to do a series of tests. I was taken to a room where a mysterious woman handed me an odd-looking picture made up of dots. 'What number do you see?’ she asked with a smile. I didn’t know why she was smiling because there were a lot of dots to count. Once I got to about ten, she asked the same question. I didn’t know what to say, so she gave me another picture which looked the same as the first. I got upset. 'I don’t see any numbers,’ I said. That was how I learnt that I had CVD, colour vision deficiency, or, as it's unfairly known by the general public, colour blindness. What most people would have seen in that test was a number made of pink dots which they were expected to pick out from a circular field of green dots. I just saw lots of grey dots.

§ 2. I’m not alone. It is estimated that about eight percent of men have some form of CVD. It’s all down to genes, apparently, and scientists hope to cure it one day, although I can’t say that I would be keen on any gene therapy. Personally, I don’t feel like I ‘suffer’ from CVD.

§ 3. Generally speaking, people with CVD just adapt to the world around us. For example, when you get to the traffic lights, the key thing is not the colour but the order of the lights. Of course, with all the vandalism in my neighbourhood. I'm just happy if the traffic lights are working.

§ 4. Unfortunately, not everything is so clear cut. When my e-reader is recharging, the light is orange when it is charging and green when it is finished. That’s great, except that both colours look more or less the same to me. A much better system would be the one that my electric razor uses. It flashes when it is charging and then stops when it has finished.

§ 5. Life is full of little frustrations like that. Because I see green and red as pretty similar, I do sometimes put on a top that doesn’t go with my trousers.

§ 6. However, there are bigger problems that can occur when professionals don’t take CVD into account. I once failed an exam at school because a key question related to a bar chart coloured red, green and blue. To me all of the rectangles looked almost the same. Similar problems still crop up in course books and exams today.

§ 7. Moments like that aside, in my own life, CVD has been more of an inconvenience than a problem. People like me live life just like anyone else. We can continue to do so as long as people in positions of responsibility take steps to prevent any problems before they occur.

§ 1. Sometimes the road to romance is long. ‘Lonesome George’, a giant Galapagos tortoise, is the last of his subspecies and thus profoundly alone. Living far out in the Pacific on the island of Pinta in the Galapagos Islands, he is officially the rarest living creature on Earth.

§ 2. No animal better captures the history of the Galapagos Islands than the giant tortoise. There used to be thousands of them roaming over these Islands. Observations of them by Charles Darwin even formed part of his world-changing theory of evolution.

§ 3. Sadly, however, mostly because for centuries the passing sailors had been hunting the giant tortoises for food, there are now only an estimated fifteen thousand left in the Galapagos Islands. Of the fifteen known subspecies, four are already thought to be extinct, as was the Pinta giant tortoise until Lonesome George was discovered in 1971. This came as a pleasant surprise to scientists since no other Pinta tortoises had been found on Pinta Island since 1906.

§ 4. Since George was discovered, he has become the star attraction at the Charles Darwin Research Station where conservationists have been hoping to rescue some of his genes by mating him with another tortoise. Two females from the nearby island of Isabela, the most closely related to the Pinta subspecies that could be found, were put into his enclosed territory with him in 1992, but he failed to take the hint.

§ 5. Then, Professor Jeffrey Powell, an evolutionary biologist from Yale University, came up with a possible reason why Lonesome George was not finding true romance with the ladies from Isabela. Perhaps, he suggested, they were simply too different to him to be a suitable match. Sailors often carried the tortoises from one island to another, he pointed out. So there could be a perfect Pinta match for George alive and well on Isabela or even on some more distant island.

§ 6. To begin testing his theory, Professor Powell compared DNA from seven Pinta tortoises with blood samples from twenty-seven giant tortoises living on Isabela. Among these samples, they found one tortoise with clear signs of Pinta ancestry (про­ис­хож­де­ние). Sadly, however, the newly discovered tortoise was not suitable for George: he was male.

§ 7. Powell with his team intends to return to Isabela and take blood from more than two thousand tortoises. If they do indeed find a Pinta female, they hope to take her to George’s territory and attempt to breed the pair. The possibility remains, then, that Lonesome George may one day not be so lonely after all.

§ 1. Tony and Maureen Wheeler have spent more than forty years travelling and recording their experiences in one of the world's most popular guidebook series. The Lonely Planet books were the first of a new type of travel guide. The appeal for young travellers was clear: expensive hotels wrere not mentioned, which attracted those managing on a limited budget. The books also emphasised the importance of spending time in a country and taking the time to get to know other cultures.

§ 2. So how did it all start? Tony and Maureen decided to drive from London to Asia in 1972, and bought a second-hand van which, with all the repairs it required during the trip, reflects their approach to life: a tendency to make decisions spontaneously and a willingness to cheerfully adapt to the highs and lows of travel. The couple started writing down tips on where to stay and how to survive, often in places far away from big cities. Eventually, they realised people might pay for such information, and so they produced their first book.

§ 3. In the early days, the main selling point was that they produced guidebooks to places nobody else investigated, but times have changed. ‘We started doing guidebooks on Asian countries which in those days didn’t get much attention. Today, when our writers cover almost everywhere, our size and experience are probably our main advantages,’ Tony explains.

§ 4. Lonely Planet also relies on reader feedback. According to Tony, ‘Complaints from readers are often beyond our control; prices go up, places close, standards drop (or sometimes improve). Keeping up to date is the key. If one of our researchers has been inaccurate, then we’re going to have to improve that book. Complaints from hotels or restaurants may be because they don’t like what we have written about them, although we try not to pull a place to pieces if we don’t have to.’

§ 5. It is not surprising that the Wheelers have strong views on how to choose suitable holidays. ‘First of all, ask yourself what your interests are. If you are interested in culture, this will affect where you go. Then you might consider how much time you have and what the options are for getting there and travelling around. I think you need to honestly consider what level of stress you can stand  — do you really want excitement or moments of discomfort? Some people just want to relax! And keep in mind that it’s not always necessary to take long trips; you should only travel for as long as you’re happy to be travelling.’

§ 1. The Slimden Music Festival is one of the longest-running musical festivals in the UK. Founded in 1978, Slimden is a week-long festival for young musicians under the age of sixteen. There are children of all ages and they can play every instrument you can imagine. It really is something to see them arriving with their trumpets, guitars and drum sets. There’s a sense of excitement in the air. Everyone knows this is going to be a special week which could help them launch a professional career.

§ 2. All of these kids are promising musicians who have managed to catch the attention of a team of musical experts. All of them have been recommended by someone who has noticed their talent. Their performances have been recorded and sent to the team of experts, who decide which lucky youngster will get a place. Every year, more than ten thousand people apply, but only five hundred are chosen.

§ 3. With that level of competition, standards are obviously high. No one is likely to get a place without making a serious effort. All of them are still at school and they are expected to spend seven or eight hours a day on their academic studies. However, to get this good at their instruments, they must also dedicate several hours a day to practice. This means that they have little time for socialising. Fortunately, the organisers realise this and they make sure that there are plenty of chances to have some fun. There are daily trips to places of interest and there’s a disco every night.

§ 4. Fourteen-year-old Blanca picked up the flute when she was six and has been a member of her school orchestra for a couple of years. Her teacher thought she had something special and suggested that she apply for a place. Blanca couldn’t decide whether to go or not, but now she’s here, you can’t help noticing her enthusiasm.

§ 5. Many of the children at Slimden are looking forward to playing side-by-side with some of the most famous classical musicians and directors in the country. «This is my second festival and I want to be spotted by one of the musical directors», says Luigi, «I learnt a lot the last time I came and I’ve spent the last year developing those skills. I hope someone notices me and that I get offered a place in the national orchestra».

§ 6. Over the week, the children take part in various workshops and work on learning new pieces of music. They’ve also benefited from personal feedback from the professionals and had a laugh with their new friends. Everyone’s had an incredible time.

§1. In 2004, Pen Hadow became the first person to trek to the North Pole alone. That meant swimming through unimaginably cold waters, fighting frostbite and risking encounters with polar bears. Just eight months later, he made a similar trip to the South Pole. Now he is back in the Arctic again, preparing for an expedition he says is somewhat of a different kind. This time there is far more at stake. Pen and two colleagues will set out on a three-month, 1,000-kilometre trek to the North Pole, taking detailed measurements of the thickness and density of the ice. Nobody has ever done this before, and he knows the results will be of vital importance to the scientific community. This will be the truest picture yet of what global warming is doing to the ice that covers the polar region.

§ 2. Pen and his wife live in the country with their two children. 'They were one and five when I last went, and I made a mistake in the way I said goodbye. I thought it would be a good idea to say to my son, "You’re the man of the house now, look after your mum and your sister." He absolutely took it to heart, asking his mum how she was all the time, but the strain eventually became too much. While it was well intentioned, it was an unfair thing to do'. For similar reasons he is planning to have very little contact with them while in the Arctic. 'If you call them, you remind them how far away you are'.

§ 3. He is spending these last days before departure preparing his kit "Out on the ice, one is virtually incapable of mending things," he says. With him will be Ann Daniels, one of the world’s leading polar explorers, and the expedition photographer, Martin Hartley. They will be supported by a crew of six, flying in supplies. Being part of a team is actually more stressful to someone with his mentality, says Pen, and something else is on his mind top. "I'm going to be 47 on Thursday. I’ve done far less training than I’m comfortable with." Why? "Organisational things always seem more urgent. So I’m almost fearful of what I'm going to ask of myself."

§ 4. Pen believes his mission reconnects exploration with the search for knowledge that drove previous generations into the unknown. "Making it to the North Pole was ultimately a personal ambition," he admits, "and of limited value to anyone beyond the polar adventuring community. This time, scientists will profit from the data, and we’re creating a platform in which to engage as many people as possible in what’s happening in the Arctic Ocean."

§ 1. Whether they’re cheering in the stadium or yelling at the referee from the sofa, sports fans exist all over the world. The long-term attachment to a particular sport or team appears to develop around the age of eight or nine, and the sport or team a person decides to follow is largely influenced by their social circle rather than their personal participation in a sport. Research into the psychology of sports fans has revealed some common principles that apply to the behaviour of most fans.

§ 2. Have you ever heard a sports fan boasting, "We’re top of the league at the moment?" They choose to use the pronoun "we" to report their team’s performance. Fans’ use of "we" to talk about their favourite team demonstrates the strong sense of identity fans feel with their club. When their team is doing well, they enjoy experiencing the victory as if they had played a part in the success themselves.

§ 3. The opposite of this often happens after a team suffers a defeat. Fans in this case may refer to the team as "they" in order to distance themselves from their team’s disappointing match result. They will be unlikely to wear any clothing that identifies them as a supporter after losing to a rival team. However, this is not the case with fiercely loyal or "true" fans. They will carry on wearing their team scarf even when their team performs badly and will say with genuine sadness, "They beat us three nil."

§ 4. Psychologists have also studied the way in which fans change while watching their chosen sport. Someone who is usually shy and quiet can be seen shouting, screaming and jumping while watching their favourite team play. The effect of being in a crowd of spectators enjoying the same activity allows people to become less self-conscious and more confident. For many, a live sporting event is the only place they feel comfortable showing their feelings openly in public. It can be a great way to relieve stress and improve personal well-being.

§ 5. Finally, most interesting is the way in which sports fans swear by their superstitions or lucky charms.

Wearing a certain item of clothing or carrying a "lucky" object is common practice for many. People who may not be superstitious in any other aspect of their life will claim that wearing a certain item of "lucky" clothing will make their team play better. Of course in reality it doesn’t matter whether you have your lucky coin, but superstitions are taken very seriously by sports fans and 1 for one would not like to try and persuade them otherwise!

§ 1. Tony and Maureen Wheeler have spent more than forty years travelling and recording their experiences in one of the world's most popular guidebook series. The Lonely Planet books were the first of a new type of travel guide. The appeal for young travellers was clear: expensive hotels wrere not mentioned, which attracted those managing on a limited budget. The books also emphasised the importance of spending time in a country and taking the time to get to know other cultures.

§ 2. So how did it all start? Tony and Maureen decided to drive from London to Asia in 1972, and bought a second-hand van which, with all the repairs it required during the trip, reflects their approach to life: a tendency to make decisions spontaneously and a willingness to cheerfully adapt to the highs and lows of travel. The couple started writing down tips on where to stay and how to survive, often in places far away from big cities. Eventually, they realised people might pay for such information, and so they produced their first book.

§ 3. In the early days, the main selling point was that they produced guidebooks to places nobody else investigated, but times have changed. ‘We started doing guidebooks on Asian countries which in those days didn’t get much attention. Today, when our writers cover almost everywhere, our size and experience are probably our main advantages,’ Tony explains.

§ 4. Lonely Planet also relies on reader feedback. According to Tony, ‘Complaints from readers are often beyond our control; prices go up, places close, standards drop (or sometimes improve). Keeping up to date is the key. If one of our researchers has been inaccurate, then we’re going to have to improve that book. Complaints from hotels or restaurants may be because they don’t like what we have written about them, although we try not to pull a place to pieces if we don’t have to.’

§ 5. It is not surprising that the Wheelers have strong views on how to choose suitable holidays. ‘First of all, ask yourself what your interests are. If you are interested in culture, this will affect where you go. Then you might consider how much time you have and what the options are for getting there and travelling around. I think you need to honestly consider what level of stress you can stand  — do you really want excitement or moments of discomfort? Some people just want to relax! And keep in mind that it’s not always necessary to take long trips; you should only travel for as long as you’re happy to be travelling.’

§ 1. The Slimden Music Festival is one of the longest-running musical festivals in the UK. Founded in 1978, Slimden is a week-long festival for young musicians under the age of sixteen. There are children of all ages and they can play every instrument you can imagine. It really is something to see them arriving with their trumpets, guitars and drum sets. There’s a sense of excitement in the air. Everyone knows this is going to be a special week which could help them launch a professional career.

§ 2. All of these kids are promising musicians who have managed to catch the attention of a team of musical experts. All of them have been recommended by someone who has noticed their talent. Their performances have been recorded and sent to the team of experts, who decide which lucky youngster will get a place. Every year, more than ten thousand people apply, but only five hundred are chosen.

§ 3. With that level of competition, standards are obviously high. No one is likely to get a place without making a serious effort. All of them are still at school and they are expected to spend seven or eight hours a day on their academic studies. However, to get this good at their instruments, they must also dedicate several hours a day to practice. This means that they have little time for socialising. Fortunately, the organisers realise this and they make sure that there are plenty of chances to have some fun. There are daily trips to places of interest and there’s a disco every night.

§ 4. Fourteen-year-old Blanca picked up the flute when she was six and has been a member of her school orchestra for a couple of years. Her teacher thought she had something special and suggested that she apply for a place. Blanca couldn’t decide whether to go or not, but now she’s here, you can’t help noticing her enthusiasm.

§ 5. Many of the children at Slimden are looking forward to playing side-by-side with some of the most famous classical musicians and directors in the country. «This is my second festival and I want to be spotted by one of the musical directors», says Luigi, «I learnt a lot the last time I came and I’ve spent the last year developing those skills. I hope someone notices me and that I get offered a place in the national orchestra».

§ 6. Over the week, the children take part in various workshops and work on learning new pieces of music. They’ve also benefited from personal feedback from the professionals and had a laugh with their new friends. Everyone’s had an incredible time.

§1. In 2004, Pen Hadow became the first person to trek to the North Pole alone. That meant swimming through unimaginably cold waters, fighting frostbite and risking encounters with polar bears. Just eight months later, he made a similar trip to the South Pole. Now he is back in the Arctic again, preparing for an expedition he says is somewhat of a different kind. This time there is far more at stake. Pen and two colleagues will set out on a three-month, 1,000-kilometre trek to the North Pole, taking detailed measurements of the thickness and density of the ice. Nobody has ever done this before, and he knows the results will be of vital importance to the scientific community. This will be the truest picture yet of what global warming is doing to the ice that covers the polar region.

§ 2. Pen and his wife live in the country with their two children. 'They were one and five when I last went, and I made a mistake in the way I said goodbye. I thought it would be a good idea to say to my son, "You’re the man of the house now, look after your mum and your sister." He absolutely took it to heart, asking his mum how she was all the time, but the strain eventually became too much. While it was well intentioned, it was an unfair thing to do'. For similar reasons he is planning to have very little contact with them while in the Arctic. 'If you call them, you remind them how far away you are'.

§ 3. He is spending these last days before departure preparing his kit "Out on the ice, one is virtually incapable of mending things," he says. With him will be Ann Daniels, one of the world’s leading polar explorers, and the expedition photographer, Martin Hartley. They will be supported by a crew of six, flying in supplies. Being part of a team is actually more stressful to someone with his mentality, says Pen, and something else is on his mind top. "I'm going to be 47 on Thursday. I’ve done far less training than I’m comfortable with." Why? "Organisational things always seem more urgent. So I’m almost fearful of what I'm going to ask of myself."

§ 4. Pen believes his mission reconnects exploration with the search for knowledge that drove previous generations into the unknown. "Making it to the North Pole was ultimately a personal ambition," he admits, "and of limited value to anyone beyond the polar adventuring community. This time, scientists will profit from the data, and we’re creating a platform in which to engage as many people as possible in what’s happening in the Arctic Ocean."

§ 1. Whether they’re cheering in the stadium or yelling at the referee from the sofa, sports fans exist all over the world. The long-term attachment to a particular sport or team appears to develop around the age of eight or nine, and the sport or team a person decides to follow is largely influenced by their social circle rather than their personal participation in a sport. Research into the psychology of sports fans has revealed some common principles that apply to the behaviour of most fans.

§ 2. Have you ever heard a sports fan boasting, "We’re top of the league at the moment?" They choose to use the pronoun "we" to report their team’s performance. Fans’ use of "we" to talk about their favourite team demonstrates the strong sense of identity fans feel with their club. When their team is doing well, they enjoy experiencing the victory as if they had played a part in the success themselves.

§ 3. The opposite of this often happens after a team suffers a defeat. Fans in this case may refer to the team as "they" in order to distance themselves from their team’s disappointing match result. They will be unlikely to wear any clothing that identifies them as a supporter after losing to a rival team. However, this is not the case with fiercely loyal or "true" fans. They will carry on wearing their team scarf even when their team performs badly and will say with genuine sadness, "They beat us three nil."

§ 4. Psychologists have also studied the way in which fans change while watching their chosen sport. Someone who is usually shy and quiet can be seen shouting, screaming and jumping while watching their favourite team play. The effect of being in a crowd of spectators enjoying the same activity allows people to become less self-conscious and more confident. For many, a live sporting event is the only place they feel comfortable showing their feelings openly in public. It can be a great way to relieve stress and improve personal well-being.

§ 5. Finally, most interesting is the way in which sports fans swear by their superstitions or lucky charms.

Wearing a certain item of clothing or carrying a "lucky" object is common practice for many. People who may not be superstitious in any other aspect of their life will claim that wearing a certain item of "lucky" clothing will make their team play better. Of course in reality it doesn’t matter whether you have your lucky coin, but superstitions are taken very seriously by sports fans and 1 for one would not like to try and persuade them otherwise!