Passage Five

      ​Mark Twain is one of America's much-beloved authors, creating imaginative and humorous classics for children and adults alike, such as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Prince and The Pauper,and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Twain passed away in 1910, leaving behind a treasure of great literature. But now, 100 years after his death, he'll have a brand-new book on the shelves: a three-volume autobiography. 

      Twain hasn't been keeping busy in his tomb:it was his wish that publishers wait until 100 years after his death to publish his memoirs （自传）, which he spent the last decade of his life working on.
      The autobiography totals more than 5,000 pages, and likely won't be all sunshine and roses. It seems that Twain harbored some bitterness against former girlfriends and ex-friends. He also writes negatively about politicians of his day, such as Teddy Roosevelt. It's likely that he requested such a long lead time for the memoirs because he didn't want to hurt the feelings of anyone mentioned in this work.
      Although small sections of the memoirs have been previously published, the autobiography has never been available in full, and should provide great insights into the man behind the classic books. The first volume of the set will be available in November, and the trilogy is being published by the University of California, Berkeley.
      "There are so many biographies of Twain, and many of them have used bits and pieces of the autobiography", editor Robert Hirst told The Independent. "But biographers pick and choose what bits to quote. By publishing Twain's book in full we hope that people will be able to come to their own complete conclusions about what sort of a man he was."

​

Passage Two

      ​There were many different cultures in the ancient world, but the two that had the most influence on European and American civilizations were the Greek and the Roman. Often these two cultures are lumped together in our minds, as if they were really exactly alike. But that is not the case. In many ways the Greeks and the Romans could not have been more different. 

      The Greeks were truly democratic, often without a single leader but instead governed by a group of men chosen by the people. The Romans were semi-democratic. They had a governing Senate, but the political power was mostly or completely in the hands of a single emperor. 

      Both cultures were great builders. But the construction interests of the two cultures were also different. The Greeks tended to be more artistic. Their buildings were well constructed and they were especially interested in temples, columns, and decorative forms. The Romans, on the other hand, were more engineers than artists. They concentrated their efforts on urban planning, well-functioning water pipes, and the best roads.
      Only in cooking and eating habits are the two cultures really similar. Both peoples ate very well indeed: lots of fish, fresh vegetables and fruits, healthy meals, holding at the same time long discussions and tasting excellent wines.
      In fact, it would probably be fair to say that they both loved life in their warm,sea-oriented climates and they both lived a full life.

        On a dry and cold Friday afternoon last October, Sharon Seline exchanged text messages with her daughter who was in college. They “chatted” back and forth, with the mom asking how things were going and the daughter answering positively followed by emoticons(表情符)showing smiles, b-i-g smiles and hearts.
        Later that night, her daughter attempted suicide.
        In the days that followed, it came to light that she’d hidden herself in her dorm, crying and showing signs of depression—a completely different reality from the one that she conveyed in texts and Facebook posts.
        As human beings, our only real method of connection is through real communication. Studies show that only 7% of communication is based on writing and speaking. The majority of 93% is based on body language. Indeed, it’s only when we can hear a tone of voice or look into someone’s eyes that we’re able to know when “I’m fine” doesn’t mean they’re fine at all.
        This is where social media gets risky.
        With modern technology, anyone can hide behind the text, the e-mail, or the Face book post, projecting any image they want and creating a false image of their choosing. They can be whoever they want to be. And without the ability to receive body language, their audiences are none the wiser.
        This presents a paradox which doesn’t exist before. With all the powerful social technologies at our fingertips, we are more connected—and potentially more disconnected—than ever before.
Every relevant metric(衡量标准)shows that we are interacting at a great speed and frequency through social media. But are we really communicating? With 93% of our communication context(语境)lost, we are now attempting to establish relationships and make decisions based on phrases or emoticons, which may or may not accurately represent the truth.

      Most students choose "Homestay" accommodation when they study abroad; others select Homestay even if they are not on a study visit. Statistics show that it ' s a form of accommodation gaining in popularity all the time. 

      But what is Homestay? And what makes it so popular?
      Homestay means hying with a family, or "host family" as we say. There are three ways of doing it:
      · choose to learn English in a language school near to your Homestay location;
      · have your English classes in the house with a member of the family who is a qualified teacher;
      · select not to have classes at all when you visit—a popular choice if you want to do the tourist thing for example. 

      Even in their busy summer period the organizations that arrange the Homestays will always try to place you with the most suitable host family to match your requirements. Placement (安置) organizations think about location, interests, language level, eating requirements, allergies (过敏) and other requests you may have.

      Though prices vary according to your needs, good quality Homestay accommodation can be relatively economical—and although you may be charged an extra amount of money if you want your Homestay in or near the city centre. Even if you stay further out, you can expect your journey into the centre not to exceed 30 minutes.
      Not only does Homestay accommodation represent value for money, it also gives you an excellent opportunity to practise English with your host family. This is a very important extra for students who like to speak as much English as possible. But if you plan to learn English, why not have your English classes in your host family? There' s no better way to learn English than this—the perfect combination of learning and accommodation combined with the cultural experience!

        Tom was aged four but he was talking like a two-year-old baby. He was saying such things as “kick ball” and “want car”, and using lots of one-word sentences. He should have been saying some really long sentences and telling stories with them. He wasn’t. Something had gone terribly wrong.
        Quite a few children have what is called a “language delay”. For some reason they don’t learn to speak as quickly as they should. Their friends shoot ahead and they’re left behind. As a result, they get very lonely. Nobody wants to talk to you if you can’t talk back.
        Can anything be done to help these children? Yes. They can go to see a speech therapist—a person who’s specially trained to work out what’s wrong and who knows how to teach language to children. This is what happened to Tom. The speech therapist played some games with him and heard how he talked. She made a recording of his speech, and chatted to his mom and dad about his background. They’d taken Tom to see a doctor, but the doctor hadn’t found anything wrong with him. He seemed perfectly normal in every way—except he just wasn’t talking.
        After Tom and his parents had gone home, the therapist listened carefully to the recording she’d made. Then she looked at a chart which showed how language developed in children aged two, three, and four. She could see Tom was a long way behind.
        The next step, she decided, was to teach Tom how to say some new sentences like “kick a red ball,” and “the clown is kicking a ball.” Tom didn’t get the new sentences right straight away. But the therapist was very patient, and after a few more visits he started to make some progress.

      As we recently discovered, there is a Stepmother' s Day, though it is not on any official holiday calendar. So,it would be safe to assume that there is a similar day for stepdads, too. Right? Well, it depends on what you read. A Google search brought up posts that say, for example," It' s on father' s day--father' s day is for fathers, step-fathers and people who are like fathers to you--it' s a day for making father figures feel special. " Further searching found a Stepfather' s Day Facebook page that says, "The unofficial Stepfather' s Day is the fourth Sunday of June. "Unfortunately, as of the publishing of this article,only 30 people have "liked" the page. Considering that studies show 3.3 million men, or 11.1% of U. S. fathers, live with at least one stepchild,that's only a drop in the ocean.

      It's interesting to note that there is a National Grandparents' Day. President Jimmy Carter signed it into law in 1978. Law ! While grandparents are undoubtedly special people in our children' s lives,they are often seen as the most loving family members. But what about the stepparents? The stepparents are the ones who are often the outsiders,the ones who have to endure the hurtful "You're not my dad!" or "You're not my mom!" And yet they never give up. They do their best to overcome the inherent challenges of stepparents and be role models for their stepchildren. These unsung( 未被颂扬的 ) family heroes deserve "official" days of honor. Perhaps if we are loud enough, President Obama, who had a stepfather himself, will sign into law National Stepmother' s Day and National Stepfather' s Day.
      Are you with me? Follow me and get your voice heard. How cool it would be if we could make this happen！

        Alan Lakein, a time management expert, thinks that nothing is a total waste of time, including doing nothing at times. If you arrange things so that you find time to relax and "do nothing" , you will get more done and have more fun doing it.
        One of his clients, a space engineer, didn’t know how to "do nothing". Every minute of his leisure time was scheduled with intense activities. He had an outdoor-activities schedule in which he switched from skiing to tennis. His girlfriend kept up with him in these activities, although she would have preferred just to sit by the fire and relax once in a while. Like too many people, he felt the need to be doing something all the time, for doing nothing seemed a waste of time. His "relaxing by the fire" consisted of playing chess, reading magazines, or checking emails.
        For an experiment, Alan asked him to "waste" his time for five minutes during one of their sessions together. What the engineer ended up doing was relaxing, sitting quietly and daydreaming. When he was finally able to admit that emotional reasons caused him to reject relaxing as a waste of time, he began to look more critically at that way of thinking. Once he knew that relaxing was a good use of time, he became less serious about being busy and started enjoying each activity more. Previously he had been so busy doing that he had no time to have fun at anything. He began to do less and have more fun. When Alan saw the client about three years later, he still had as busy a schedule as ever, but he was able to balance his activity with relaxing so that he came back to work Monday morning not feeling tired out from a busy weekend but refreshed.

Passage Three

      As recently as three decades ago, many Americans believed that using credit was an unwise and dangerous way to pay for what they bought. Some even thought that owing money to a store or a credit company was something to be ashamed of. Good citizens, they believed, always bought what they wanted with real money and they paid the full price immediately.　
      Today, however, all that has changed. Credit, as some observers have noted, has become a way of life in the United States. More and more Americans now are depending on those small pieces of plastic, credit cards, to pay for large purchases such as televisions, record players or furniture. Many people today would consider it unusual not to use a credit card to pay for a costly restaurant dinner, a hotel room or an airline trip. And there are some situations in which Americans must have credit cards. If they want the temporary use of a car, for example, they first must give the car rental company the number of their credit card. That number is considered a guarantee that they will return the car and pay for using it.

      Credit cards offer two major services to Americans. First of all, they are easier and safer to carry than large amounts of money. Second, they permit people to borrow, to have the immediate pleasure of owning something, even if they do not have enough money to pay for it at the time. With credit cards people pay for goods or services at the end of each month instead of when they buy them. And when the time does come to pay, most credit cards offer people a choice. They can pay all of what they owe for the month or they can just pay usually between 5 and 10 percent of what they owe.​

     Alexia Sloane, a l0-year-old girl, lost her sight when she was two following a brain disease. But despite her disability she has excelled at languages and is already fluent in English, French, Spanish and Chinese—and is learning German.
     Now she has experienced her dream job of working as an interpreter after East of England MEP(欧盟议员) Robert Sturdy invited her to the parliament building in Brussels, thus becoming the youngest interpreter to work at the European Parliament.
     “She was given a special permit to get into the building, where there is usually a minimum age requirement of l4, and sat in a booth listening and interpreting,” said her mother, Isabelle. “The other interpreters were amazed at how well she did as the debate was quite complicated and many of the words were rather technical.”
     Alexia has been tri-lingual since birth as her mother, a teacher, is half French and half Spanish, while her father, Richard, is English. She started talking and communicating in all three languages before she lost her sight but adapted quickly to her blindness. By the age of four, she was reading and writing in Braille(盲文). When she was six, Alexia began to learn Chinese. The girl is now learning German at school in Cambridge.
     Alexia has been longing to be an interpreter since she was six and she chose to go to the European Parliament as her prize when she won a young achiever of the year award. She asked if she could shadow interpreters and Mr. Sturdy agreed to take her along as his guest.
     Alexia worked with the head of interpreting and had a real taste of lire in parliament. “It was fantastic and I’m absolutely determined now to become an interpreter,” she said. 

Passage one

Woman nabbed for a DUI at same crash spot

Wed May 21, 2:17 AM ET
      TRUCKEE，Calif—Call it drunken driving deja vu(记忆幻觉). For the second time in five months，a 23-year-old California woman has been arrested after she crashed her car while driving under the influence(DUI)at the exact same spot north of Lake Tahoe.
      And to top it off, Truckee Police say that in both cases, her blood alcohol content was more than three times the legal limit.
      The police say Melissa Dennison of Truckee crashed at about noon on Sunday on Glenshire Drive just south of the Glenshire Bridge. They say she was extremely drunk and had trouble standing or walking.Her blood alcohol level initially was measured at .346. The legal limit is .08.
      Sergeant J. Litchie said Dennison also had been charged with a DUI in January when she crashed at the same spot and registered a blood alcohol level of .380. If found guilty of the second offense, she faces up to 10 years in prison and fines in excess of 2.000.
      A telephone message the Associated Press left at a listing for Dennison in Truckee on Tuesday was not immediately returned.

      ​Coconut (椰子) is an unusual food for many reasons. It is one of the largest edible seeds produced by any plant. Its unusual contents also make it unique in the seed world--it consists of both"meat" and "water" inside. The coconut meat is the white substance with which we are all familiar, as it is used extensively for cooking and flavorings; the coconut water is a white and sweet liquid. 

      Portuguese (葡萄牙) explorers gave the nut its name in the 15th century, referring to it as coco, meaning "ghost" in their language. The outside appearance of coconuts reminded them of a ghost's face, and the tree has had that name ever since. 

      The coconut has varied uses. It is used to make various cooking oils for fast-food restaurants around the world to make diet materials. The coconut fluid is a favorite drink in hot climates, providing a cool and refreshing beverage right off the tree. This water is also used by manufacturers of various sports drinks. Even the shell itself has many uses, including animal food and fertilizer.
      Yet the coconut is also useful in many ways that have nothing to do with food. Coconut oil is used for cosmetics (化妆品), medicines, and so on. Dried coconut shells are used in many countries as a tool for shining wood floors. The shells are also used for shirt buttons, and are commonly found on Hawaiian clothing. They are even used for musical instruments and bird houses.
      And all these are only some of the uses found for the coconut fruit. The coconut tree, which produces the nut,also produces many useful things. It' s no wonder that the coconut tree has been taken as "the tree of life".

​

        About 79 million Americans have pre-diabetes(糖尿病前期). That means they have blood sugar that’s higher than normal but not high enough to be diagnosed(诊断)with type 2—at least not yet. One long-term study reported by the American Diabetes Association found that 11% of people with pre-diabetes develop the full-blown disease each year. Another study shows that pre-diabetes will probably become type 2 in 10 years or less.
　　Yet, that process is not inevitable. Last year, scientists in Colorado found that people with pre-diabetes who lowered their blood sugar to normal levels—levels—even briefly—were 56% less likely to reach type 2 levels.
　　If you have pre-diabetes, here are four steps to help prevent or delay a diabetes diagnosis:
　　Lose 7% of your body weight. That is about 15 pounds for the persons who weigh 200. Dropping that small percentage has been shown to lower the risk of developing type 2 by close to 60%.
　　Exercise 30 minutes five days a week. Whether you do the 30 minutes in one shot or in three 10-minute sessions, the benefit is the same. Choose certain exercises, such as fast walking, playing tennis or lifting weights. Physical activity such as sweeping floors works, too.
　　Turn to your doctor. In some cases, pre-diabetes raises the risk of heart disease and stroke by 50%. Your doctor may use some medicine to control your glucose(葡萄糖)levels and keep your blood pressure in check.
　　Know your numbers. To see if your pre-diabetes is improving, have your blood sugar checked regularly. A fasting blood sugar of 100 to 125 mg/dl suggests pre-diabetes; 126 mg/dl or above is diabetes; and below 100 is normal. Other tests, including glucose tolerance and AIC, also are used to monitor blood sugar.

        How can we get rid of garbage? Do we have enough energy sources to meet our future energy needs?

        These are two important questions that many people are asking today. Some people think that man might be able to solve both problems at the same time. They suggest using garbage as an energy source, and at the same time it can save the land to hold garbage.

        For a long time, people buried garbage or dumped it on empty land. Now, empty land is scarce. But more and more garbage is produced each year. However, garage can be a good fuel to use. The things in garbage do not look like coal, petroleum, or natural gas; but they are chemically similar to these fossil fuels. As we use up our fossil-fuel supplies, we might be able to use garbage as an energy source. Burning garbage is not a new idea. Some cities in Europe and the United States have been burning garbage for years. The heat that is produced by burning garbage is used to boil water. The steam that is produced is used to make electricity or to heat nearby buildings. In Paris, France, some power plants bum almost 2 million metric tons of the city’s garbage each year. The amount of energy produced is about the same as would be produced by burning almost a half million barrels of oil.

        Our fossil fuel supplies are limited. Burning garbage might be one kind of energy source that we can use to help meet our energy needs. This method could also reduce the amount of garbage piling up on the earth.

      Most students choose "Homestay" accommodation when they study abroad; others select Homestay even if they are not on a study visit. Statistics show that it ' s a form of accommodation gaining in popularity all the time. 

      But what is Homestay? And what makes it so popular?
      Homestay means hying with a family, or "host family" as we say. There are three ways of doing it:
      · choose to learn English in a language school near to your Homestay location;
      · have your English classes in the house with a member of the family who is a qualified teacher;
      · select not to have classes at all when you visit—a popular choice if you want to do the tourist thing for example. 

      Even in their busy summer period the organizations that arrange the Homestays will always try to place you with the most suitable host family to match your requirements. Placement (安置) organizations think about location, interests, language level, eating requirements, allergies (过敏) and other requests you may have.

      Though prices vary according to your needs, good quality Homestay accommodation can be relatively economical—and although you may be charged an extra amount of money if you want your Homestay in or near the city centre. Even if you stay further out, you can expect your journey into the centre not to exceed 30 minutes.
      Not only does Homestay accommodation represent value for money, it also gives you an excellent opportunity to practise English with your host family. This is a very important extra for students who like to speak as much English as possible. But if you plan to learn English, why not have your English classes in your host family? There' s no better way to learn English than this—the perfect combination of learning and accommodation combined with the cultural experience!

        Socrates is often referred to as one of the founders of Western philosophy, and yet he wrote nothing, established no school, and held no particular theories of his own. What he did do, however, was frequently ask the questions that interested him, and in doing so developed a new way of thinking. This method proceeds(展开)as a dialogue between opposing views, and it earned him many enemies in Athens, where he lived.
        As a young man, Socrates is believed to have studied natural philosophy, looking at the various explanations of the nature of the universe, but then became involved in the politics of the city-state and concerned with more down-to-earth moral issues, such as the nature of justice.
        However, he was not interested in winning arguments, or arguing for the sake of making money. Nor was he seeking answers or explanations. He was simply examining the basis of the concepts we apply to ourselves (such as “good” , “bad”, and “just” ), for he believed that understanding what we are is the first task of philosophy.
        He was sentenced to death on charges of corrupting the young with bad ideas. But he also had many followers, and among them was Plato, who recorded Socrates’ ideas in the written works, called dialogues, in which Socrates sets about examining various ideas.
        Socrates' central concern, then, was the examination of life, and it was his cruel questioning of people’s most valued beliefs (largely about themselves) that earned him his enemies—but he remained committed to his task until the very end. According to the account of his defense at his trial, Socrates chose death rather than face a life of ignorance: “The life which is unexamined is not worth living.”

      ​I talk to strangers for a living and love the challenge of getting their stories published in news- papers. I've been married for years, but until six months ago, I could be a typical absent-minded husband. Often I was just nodding when I was supposed to. When my wife asked, "Did you even hear what I just said?" I would defensively say,"Of course I did". 

      In January, I began to lose my voice. Doctors told me I needed surgery, or my throat would be permanently damaged. Total silence would be required for the first few weeks of my recovery.
      Two hours after the surgery, my eyes filled with tears as my two-year-old son looked puzzled because I wouldn't answer his questions. I wanted to talk but couldn't. Luckily, I' d recorded myself reading some of his favorite books. That would come in handy the next couple of weeks.

      When I got home, I noticed a "side effect" : as my wife talked to me to keep up my spirits, I wasn't just hearing her; I was listening to her. Over the next few weeks, I didn't want to miss a word she said. I began to hear sweetness in her voice. It had never left. I' d just stopped noticing. I found myself understanding her better on topics I' d previously dismissed as "things I just don' t get as a guy". I also realized my son wasn't just talking nonstop but that he often had thoughtful things to say. Even while walking my dog in the woods near our home, I began hearing pleasant patterns in birdsongs. Before my surgery, I' d have spent those walks on my phone.

      After several weeks, I was fully recovered. Conversation in our house is better now, not because I' m talking more. I' m just listening better and becoming less and less surprised that I like what I hear.

        The banana "tree" is actually not a real tree. This is because there is no wood in the stem(树干)rising above the ground. The stem is made up of leaves growing very close together, one inside the other. The leaves spread out at the top of the stem and rise in the air.
        Banana plants need a lot of care and attention. They must be provided with water if the normal rainfall doesn’t supply enough. The area around the plants must be kept free of weeds(杂草)and grass.
        About nine or ten months after planting, a flower appears on the banana plant. This flower is at the end of a long stalk(茎), which grows from the base up through the center of the stem and turns downward when it comes out from the top. Small bananas form on this flower stalk as it grows downward. Bananas really grow upside down. As the small bananas form on the stalk, they point downward, but as they grow they turn and point upward.
        Bananas are harvested while they are still green. Even when they are to be eaten where they are grown, they are not allowed to ripen on the plant. A banana that turns yellow on the plant loses its taste.

        One evening Mr. Green was driving home along a lonely country road. He had ￡1,000 in his pocket. At the loneliest part of the road, a man asked for a lift(搭车). Mr. Green told him to get into the car and continued his driving. When he talked to the man and learned that the man had been in prison for robbery and had broken out of prison two days before, Mr. Green was very worried.
        Suddenly he saw a police-car and had a bright idea. He just reached a small town where the speed limit was 30 miles an hour. But he drove the car as fast as it could go. He looked back and saw that the police-car had begun to chase him. After a mile or so the police-car overtook(赶上)him and ordered him to stop. A policeman got out and came to Mr. Green' s car. Mr. Green hoped that he could tell the policeman about the escaped robber, but he felt the man had put a gun against his back. The policeman took out his notebook and pencil, saying he wanted Mr. Green' s name and address. Mr. Green asked to be taken to the police station, but the policeman said, “No, you will have to appear at the police station later." Mr. Green had to do as the policeman told him. The policeman wrote his name and address down, put his notebook and pencil back in his pocket and gave Mr. Green a talk about dangerous driving. Then Mr. Green started up his car again and drove on.
        Just as he reached the suburb of London, the passenger said, “I want to get off here.” Mr. Green stopped the car, the man got out and said, “Thanks for the lift. You’ ye been good to me. This is the least I can do in return.” And he handed Mr. Green the policeman’ s notebook, which he stole while the policeman was talking to Mr. Green.

      Using less energy around the home is easier than you might think, saving your money while creating a healthier, more comfortable living space for you and your family. Changing a few old habits can make an impact on your energy bill, your comfort and the environment. Here are some handy tips to make your house more energy-efficient.

Lower the heat

​      If your home has adjustable central heating, lowering the room temperature even slightly can make a difference. You may not feel it, but your wallet will. It is even more advisable to control temperatures at different times of the day.

Hang clothes out to try

      If the weather allows it, head outside and dry your laundry on a clothesline. The sunlight will help eliminate bacteria and dust. While clothes dryers get the job done faster,they also use up energy.By hanging your clothes out you' ll be cutting greenhouse gases by about three kilograms per load.

Take advantage of natural light

      Installing large windows on the northern side of your house can help you make use of sunlight' s natural warmth. To stay cool indoors on hot summer days, install blinds (百叶窗) to block the heavy sun. Put your desk near the window ,then you don't need a lamp in the daytime.

Wrap（裹）your pipes

​      Be sure your hot-water pipes are properly wrapped. In an average home, heating water accounts for more than one-quarter of the energy bill. Why let warmth go to waste before it reaches you?

Choose the right size for appliances (家用电器)

      When the time comes to replace appliances, select those that are both energy-efficient and of the appropriate size for your needs. Don' t buy bigger ones just because you can.

      As we recently discovered, there is a Stepmother' s Day, though it is not on any official holiday calendar. So,it would be safe to assume that there is a similar day for stepdads, too. Right? Well, it depends on what you read. A Google search brought up posts that say, for example," It' s on father' s day--father' s day is for fathers, step-fathers and people who are like fathers to you--it' s a day for making father figures feel special. " Further searching found a Stepfather' s Day Facebook page that says, "The unofficial Stepfather' s Day is the fourth Sunday of June. "Unfortunately, as of the publishing of this article,only 30 people have "liked" the page. Considering that studies show 3.3 million men, or 11.1% of U. S. fathers, live with at least one stepchild,that's only a drop in the ocean.

      It's interesting to note that there is a National Grandparents' Day. President Jimmy Carter signed it into law in 1978. Law ! While grandparents are undoubtedly special people in our children' s lives,they are often seen as the most loving family members. But what about the stepparents? The stepparents are the ones who are often the outsiders,the ones who have to endure the hurtful "You're not my dad!" or "You're not my mom!" And yet they never give up. They do their best to overcome the inherent challenges of stepparents and be role models for their stepchildren. These unsung( 未被颂扬的 ) family heroes deserve "official" days of honor. Perhaps if we are loud enough, President Obama, who had a stepfather himself, will sign into law National Stepmother' s Day and National Stepfather' s Day.
      Are you with me? Follow me and get your voice heard. How cool it would be if we could make this happen！