想到过可能拿不了金牌，想到过可能拿不到奖牌，做好了接受一切失败的理由，但没有想到他是这样的离开赛场，离开北京奥运会……
    大家目瞪口呆，失望、懊恼、无语，这是我在看到这一幕的心理。真的是意料之外。
    之后，意料之中的满满篇幅的猜测、疑虑，有支持，有唾骂…… 真有这么糟糕吗？真有这么大的罪过吗？真有这么事态严重吗？
    我相信，准备了四年之久，在家门口失去这枚奖牌，甚至失去比赛的机会，没有人比刘翔更加难过，也没有人有资格来评论他的行为。
    人们竟然在表示理解范跑跑之后，对刘翔如此的重压和比较，真是让人汗颜！！
    同意某某人说的，他确是失败的，也不用给予勇敢、伟大之类的褒奖，对于其他为中国折桂的运动员确实不公平。但我给予自己的支持和尊重。期待他真如他所承诺的，他能再一次的跑起来。跑出中国人的尊严，跑出亚洲人的骄傲！

    刘翔！加油！
    中国！加油！

   

Three Water and Sanitation Projects in India Win Online Search (1/2)

A billion people live without a safe water supply. Two and a half billion, or more than forty percent of all people, have no place to use a safe toilet.

Recently on the internet, there was a competition to look for creative local solutions to water and sanitation needs.

Two organizations,  Ashoka’s Changemakers and  Global Water Challenge organized the worldwide search.

 Global Water Challenge is a coalition of twentytwo groups working for change in water and sanitation.

 Ashoka is a group for social entrepreneurs, people who look for creative solutions to social problems. Its changemakers.net Website is an online community where competitions are held. Anyone can vote or provide idea and resources.

The search for water and sanitation projects received more than two hundred fifty proposals from fifty-four countries.

Judges chose nine finalists in April. Then visitors to the site voted for three winners. All three are from India. Each will receive five thousand dollars from Globule Water Challenge.

 Himanshu Parikh Consulting Engineers won for a sanitation project called Slum Networking.

 It involves looking for natural solutions like  gravity-based, housetohouse water and sanitation connections in poor areas.

 

0521慢速VOA

Study Raises Questions About Reading Program in US (1/2)

A federal program in the US called Reading First has received one billion dollars a year for the past several years. The money has gone to school assistants systems to get them to use scientifically based ways to teach reading. The goal is to help all children read at all or above great level by the end of third grade.

The Bush administration’s education law, the No Children Left Behind Act of 2001, established Reading First. Now, the Department of Education has released findings from a study of the program.

On average, teachers using it inquest increased the time they talk taught reading skills like phonics and vocabulary. But the study also found, on average,  little or no infect effect on test scores in reading comprehension.

Government researchers say they are not sure how to explain the results. Critics called the program a failure and want  congress to end it. The program also came under react attack after Education Department officials were requested accused of conflicts of interest with reading publishers.

Congress cut the billion-dollar budget by almost two-thirds this year. But federal officials want to continue the program. The study did find the improvements in some cases.

 

Honey Bee Losses Still a Problem in US (1/2)

Honey bees atadd billions of dollars ain value to around one hundred thirty crops in the US. But since the 1980s, researchers have been concerned about the healfhealth of these valuable pollinators.

Werry is a groupWorriesgrew after the winter of 2006. Some pollination serversservices reported the losses of anywhere from thirty to ninety percent of their hives.

The biky birdsbeekeepers did not find dead doutadult bees as they often do after winter, instead the bees were gone. Experts give a name to this mysterious situation: Colony Collapse Disorder.

A report in Agricultural Research Magazine, from the Department of Agriculture, takes the fresh look at C.C.D. It says the disorder is truly a serious problem, but it says there were enough honey bees to provide all the agricultural pollination needed last year.

Still biky birds beekeepers reported losing about thirty-five percent of their hives in the fall and winter of 2007. In 2006, it was thirty-one percent.

 

From Forester to National Teacher of the Year　(1/2)

 

A science teacher from Prineville, Oregon, in the percific north west Pacific Northwest, is the new National Teacher of the year. M.G. (Michael Geisen) is thirty-five years old, he was a forester but he decided he was would rather walking work with growing miles minds than with growing trees.

Seven years ago, he got a master’s degree in teaching and a job at cook candy middle school Crook County Middle School. Crook County has high rats rates of poverty. He brought new energy to the science department. He also created school projects to get terants parents involved in their children’s work. One girl who was recently in his class said he get . could probably make it interesting to watch grass grow.

During lunch, his students come to his room to talk, get help, visit his tertal turtle and sometimes join him in playing guitar. He writes songs and develops games about science. He says one of his goals as a teacher is to create people who will continue to learn throughout their lives. M.G. studied forest resource management and graduated with high owners honors from the University of Washington. He says he trans tries to be creative which with each activity. He does not like to use textbooks much. When students know that the work is local and useful to their lives, he says, they study start to get interested.