For nearly a decade now, Merebeth has been a self-employed pet transport specialist. Her pet transport job was born of the financial crisis(危机)in the late 2000s. The downturn hit the real estate (房地产)firm where she had worked for ten years as an office manager. The firm went broke and left her looking for a new job. One day, while driving near her home, she saw a dog wandering on the road, clearly lost. She took it home, and her sister in Denver agreed to take it. This was a loving home for sure, but 1, 600 miles away. It didn’t take long for Merebeth to decide to drive the dog there herself. It was her first road trip to her new job.

Merebeth’s pet delivery service also satisfies her wanderlust. It has taken her to every state in the US except Montana, Washington and Oregon, she says proudly. If she wants to visit a new place, she will simply find a pet with transport needs there. She travels in all weathers. She has driven through 55 mph winds in Wyoming, heavy flooding and storms in Alabama and total whiteout conditions in Kansas.

This wanderlust is inherited from her father, she says. She moved their family from Canada to California when she was one year old, because he wanted them to explore a new place together. As soon as she graduated from high school she left home to live on Catalina Island off the Californian coast, away from her parents, where she enjoyed a life of sailing and off-road biking.

It turns out that pet transporting pays quite well at about $30, 000 per year before tax. She doesn’t work in summer, as it would be unpleasantly hot for the animals in the car, even with air conditioning. As autumn comes, she gets restless—the same old wanderlust returning. It’s a call she must heed alone, though. Merebeth says, “When I am on the road, I’m just in my own world. I’ve always been independent-spirited and I just feel strongly that I must help animals.”

The United States rose to global power on the strength of its technology, and the lifeblood that technology has long been electricity. By providing long-distance communication and energy, electricity created the modem world. Yet properly understood, the age of electricity is merely the second stage in the age of steam, which began a century earlier.

"It is curious that no one has put together a history of both the steam and electric revolutions." writes Maury Klein in his book The Power Makers, Steam, Electricity, and the Men Invented Modem America. Klein, a noted historian of technology, spins a narrative so lively that at times it reads like a novel.

The story begins in the last years of the 18th century in Scotland, where Watt perfected "the machine that changed the world". Klein writes, "America did not invent the steam engine, but once they grasped its passwords they put it to more uses than anyone else. "

Meanwhile, over the course of 19th century, electricity went from mere curiosity to a basic necessity. Morse invented a code for sending messages over an electromagnetic circuit. Bell then gave the telegraph a voice. Edison perfected an incandescent bulls that brought electric light into the American home.

Most importantly, Edison realized that success depended on mass electrification, which he showed in New York City. With help from Tesla, Westinghouse's firm developed a system using alternating current, which soon became the major forms of power delivery.

To frame his story, Klein creates the character of Ned, a fictional witness to the progress brought about by the steams and electric revolutions in America during one man's lifetime. It's a technique that helps turn a long narrative into an interesting one.

The benefits of regular exercise are well documented but there’s a new bonus to add to the ever-growing list. New researchers found that middle-aged women who were physically fit could be nearly 90 percent less likely to develop dementia in later life, and as they did, it came on a decade later than less sporty women.

Lead researcher Dr. Helena Horder, of the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, said : "These findings are exciting because it’s possible that improving people's cardiovascular （心血管的）fitness in middle age could delay or even prevent them from developing dementia. "

For the study, 191 women with an average age of 50 took a bicycle exercise test until they were exhausted to measure their peak （最大值的） cardiovascular capacity. The average peak workload was measured at 103 watts.

A total of 40 women met the criteria for a high fitness level, or 120 watts or higher. A total of 92 women were in the medium fitness category; and 59 women were in the low fitness category, defined as a peak workload of 80 watts or less, or having their exercise tests stopped because of high blood pressure, chest pain or other cardiovascular problems.

These women were then tested for dementia six times over the following four decades. During that time, 44 of the women developed dementia. Five percent of the highly fit women developed dementia, compared to 25 percent of the women with medium fitness and 32 percent of the women with low fitness.

"However, this study does not show cause and effect between cardiovascular fitness and dementia, it only shows an association. More research is needed to see if improved fitness could have a positive effect on the risk of dementia and also to look at when during a lifetime a high fitness level is most important. " She also admitted that a relatively small number of women were studied, all of whom were form Sweden, so the results might not be applicable to other groups.

I have the same 24 hours in a day as you do, but I have made specific choice that allow me to make the most of every day and still feel happy and relaxed.
11．

Pick the most important.

12． Focus on spending time that for you is fun and productive. I chose the life of an adviser because I like to work with companies, but don't want the life of a big company CEO. My choices are based on the lifestyle I want.

Combine your activities.

Many people go crazy trying to figure out how to spend time with friends, family, work, play, etc.
13． Find ways to enjoy them in a combined manner. Build your social life around people in your work environment. Find people in your company who share common interests and develop your career (职业) around the people and activities you love.

14．

You would think learning takes more time from you, but actually there are always new ways of doing things that can save you time on daily tasks, freeing you up for the most important. Always be looking for a new way to gain back an hour here or there.

Lighten up.

The world won't come to an end in most cases just because you left a few things undone. Celebrate progress and keep refining (改进) toward a happy productive existence.
15． Every completion is a small victory that adds up in a big way.

When Beverley Burdeyney turned seventy four last year, she started having problems with her _______ , notably dryness and discomfort.

"I was simply _______ a terrible experience, " Ms. Burdeyney said at her home in Toronto. "I felt so helpless and insecure because the quality of my _______ was affected. "

Ms. Burdeyney talked to some friends who had _______ problems and discovered that they were largely suffering in _______. " Nobody chooses to talk about it because it seems so _______ she said. " But more and more are suffering and lives are being _______.

Eventually, Ms. Burdeyney learned about plans for an eye research, _______ at Tel Aviv University in Israel. The research team _______ Canadian doctor Allan Slomovic, who has done__________ work on eye care using stem cells. Seeing a ray of hope, Ms. Burdeyney began raising __________ for the project with a friend, Toronto businessman Meyer Zeifman. __________ she has raised $ 110, 000 with another $40, 000 __________ .

"I'm trying to get more and more people to __________ that there are solutions（解决办法）said Ms. Burdeyney, a trained nurse who is still working as a personal trainer after __________ . "I say there is no old __________ , there's only neglect （忽视）. Don't stand __________ , do something about it. "

Ms. Burdeyney __________ that she is hoping to do more for the research project. "I just want to bring __________ into people eyes and this is just the __________. There is still a long way to go"

Kim Cobb, a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, is one of a small but growing minority of academics
36． are cutting back on their air travel because of climate change. Travelling to conferences, lectures, workshops, and the like frequently by plane   
37．（view） as important for scientists to get together and exchange information. But Cobb and others
38． （be） now questioning that idea pushing conferences to provide more chances to participate remotely, and
39．（change） their personal behavior to do their part in dealing with the climate change crisis. On a website called No Fly Climate Sci, for example,
40．（rough） 200 academics - many of them climate scientists
41． （promise） to fly as little as possible since the effort started two years ago.

Cobb, for her party, started to ask conference organizers who invited her to speak
42． she could do so remotely; about three-quarters of
43． time, they agreed. When the answer, was no, she, declined the
44． （invite）. That approach brought Cobb's air travel last year down by 75%, and she plans
45．（continue） the practice. "It has been fairly rewarding. ", she says, "a really positive change."

When Dr. Henderson was assigning（指定） project mates for his psychology class, I secretly hoped he would pair me with my best friend or at least a classmate I could have some fun with. Above all, I hoped he wouldn't assign me to work with the fiercely competitive, extremely serious fellow who always wore dark clothes and apparently had a personality to match. As fate （命运）would have it, Dr. Henderson very deliberately matched everyone in class and announced that I would be working with the one person in class I wanted to avoid.

I went up to my new teammate and introduced myself. He looked at me as though I weren't there. I felt he treated me as though I would hold him back and probably make him fail to get an A in the course. He wasn't mean or abusive; he just gave me the impression he could do whatever project we dreamed up better if he did it alone.

Needless to say, I didn't look forward to an entire term of being brushed off, but I tried to make the best of it and didn't say anything for fear that I would make things worse.

The project required each team to develop a hypothesis （假说）, set up an experiment to test the hypothesis, do the statistical analysis and present the findings. Whatever grade the team received would be shared by both students.

When my teammate and I met to discuss our project, I was uneasy. Here was this challenging student who had a reputation for single-mindedness and good grades—the exact opposite of me. I was outmatched. I actually wanted to drop the class at one point, but stopped short because I didn't want to give him the satisfaction of my chickening out. I decided to stick to it no matter what.

After long discussions we somehow agreed to do a study on the psychological well-being of teenagers. I wasn't sure what it meant exactly, but at least we had a topic.