Look at our world
As it smiles like a baby,
Reaching for treasures
That Nature revives.
This is the time
That brings joy beyond measure,
Sweet as the memories
That fashion our lives.

Listen for sounds
That were frozen in winter,
Whispering soft
As a kiss on your hair.
Nature’s reborn
And her warmth brings such pleasure,
Sweet as the memories
That we used to share.

Feel the new sun
And the breeze he created.
Feel the wet earth
As it swallows the snow.
Pause to decipher
A message unstated,
Sweet as the memories
Of days long ago

روزی روزگاری، در جزیره ای زیبا تمام حواس زندگی می کردند. شادی، غم، غرور، عشق و....

روزی خبر رسید که به زودی جزیره به زیر آب خواهد رفت. همه ی ساکنین جزیره، قایق هایشان را آماده و جزیره را ترک کردند. اما عشق می خواست تا آخرین لحظه بماند، چون او عاشق جزیره بود.

وقتی جزیره به زیر آب فرو می رفت، عشق از ثروت که با قایقی باشکوه جزیره را ترک می کرد، کمک خواست و به او گفت: آیا می توانم با تو همسفر شوم؟

ثروت گفت: نه، مقدار زیادی طلا و نقره داخل قایقم هست و دیگر جایی برای تو وجود ندارد.

پس عشق از غرور که با یک کرجی زیبا راهی مکان امنی بود، کمک خواست. غرور گفت: نه، نمی توانم تو را با خودم ببرم، چون تمام بدنت خیس است و قایق زیبای مرا کثیف خواهی کرد.

غم در نزدیکی عشق بود. پس عشق به او گفت: اجازه بده من با تو بیایم. غم با صدای حزن آلود گفت: آه، عشق، من خیلی ناراحتم و احتیاج دارم تنها باشم.

عشق این بار سراغ شادی رفت و او را صدا زد: شادی، خواهش می کنم مرا با خود ببر.

اما شادی آنقدر غرق شور و هیجان بود که حتی صدای عشق را هم نشنید.

آب هر لحظه بالا و بالاتر می آمد و عشق دیگر ناامید شده بود. گریه اش گرفت. ناگهان صدایی سالخورده گفت: بیا عشق، من تو را خواهم برد.

عشق آنقدر خوشحال شده بود که حتی فراموش کرد نام پیرمرد را بپرسد و سریع خود را داخل قایق انداخت و جزیره را ترک گفت.

وقتی به خشکی رسیدند، پیرمرد به راه خود رفت و عشق تازه متوجه شد کسی که جانش را نجات داده بود، چقدر بر گردنش حق دارد.

عشق نزد علم که مشغول حل مسئله ای روی شن های ساحل بود، رفت و از او پرسید: آن پیرمرد که بود؟

علم پاسخ داد: زمان.

عشق با تعجب گفت: زمان؟! اما او چرا به من کمک کرد؟

علم لبخندی خردمندانه زد و گفت: زیرا تنها زمان قادر به درک عظمت عشق است.

I've learned that

no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow

I've learned that

 you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights

I've learned that

 regardless of your relationship with your parents, you'll miss them when they're gone from your life

I've learned that

making a living is not the same thing as making a life.

I've learned that

life sometimes gives you a second chance

I've learned that

 you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw some things back

I've learned that

 whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision

I've learned that

 even when I have pains, I don't have to be one

I've learned that

every day you should reach out and touch someone

People love a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back

I've learned that

 I still have a

lot to learn

I've learned that

 people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel

http://www.visualesl.com/

1. I would like to know when I'm going to use 'person' or 'people'.?

'People' is in fact the plural form of person. So for example we talk about one person and two people. So in normal everyday speech you will hear people talking about 'many people', 'there were a lot of people at the concert', for example.

However it becomes slightly more complicated because sometimes you do see the word 'persons'. For example if you're in a lift or elevator you might see the sign 'Four persons only'. And sometimes if you're listening to the news, to news reports you may hear news reports talking about persons. So for example 4 persons were injured in the accident, or police are looking for 5 persons. Persons is normally a more formal use, a more formal plural form.

It gets slightly more complicated when you find the word peoples. People can be used to mean a nationality – all of the people of one country – so for example 'the people of Cuba'. And when you're talking about a group of nationalities you may find the word 'peoples', for example, 'the peoples of South America'. So that's another slightly more complicated and not so common use of the word 'peoples'.

Finally you may find the word 'person' attached to a number. For example 'a two-person car', 'a three-person room'. This is where 'person' is being used to describe the noun. '2 – person' is the adjective describing 'car' and as you know we don't put an 's' on an adjective. So far example we talk about a 'two-week holiday' not a 'two-weeks holiday' or a 'three-year course' not 'a three-years course'. So hear we use 'two-person car'.

So in summary, normally you find 'people' as the plural form of 'person' – one person, three people. Sometimes you'll find people used to describe the nationality so you'll find 'peoples' to describe different nationalities and sometimes you'll find the word 'persons' in more formal styles of writing or in signs for example.

2. Learned or Learnt:

the ed form of the past tense is the regular form  – I learned to cook – and very many past tenses end in this “ed”. And you will find there is a tendency for verbs to become more regular as time goes on. This is a feature of language change. Originally, in British English, everyone would have spelt the past tense of learn with T – I learnt to drive, I learnt to cook, but you’ll find more and more people in the UK now using the ed ending.

The same is true of verbs such as spell – as in I spelt it incorrectly – with a T at the end. But now you’ll find more and more people using - I spelled it incorrectly – with an ed at the end. This is probably due to the influence of American English coming into Britain because in the US the ed is used for learn, for spell, for dream for example - I dreamed it with an ed at the end. And you’ll find that this US spelling is starting to replace the original British spelling in British English.

3. Can you ever say ‘school's principal’ or ‘bank's manager’?

Normally you wouldn't say ‘school's principal’ or ‘bank's manager’ - you'd say school principal and bank manager.

Let's have a look at why:

In English, we can use nouns to modify other nouns. So we can say a computer expert - somebody who is an expert, a specialist, in computers, is a computer expert - not a computer's expert! Somebody who's in charge of a company is a company director. A producer who works in radio is a radio producer. And in the same way a person who is the manager of a bank is a bank manager, and a principal of a school is a
school principal.

In some languages you can't do this; but in English, you can just put the two nouns together, and that's what we use.

Can we ever say school's principal or bank's manager?

Well the answer really is 'no' but very, very occasionally you might want to talk about the fact that the principal of a school doesn't belong to that school – it belongs to this school, to my school, and in that case
I might say ‘no, no, no, he's not your school's principal, he's my school's principal’; but notice there we're not really talking about his job, we're talking about which school he belongs to.

Common mistake

The most common mistake that people make with possessives, I think, is to avoid them, and to use ‘of’. So, instead of saying ‘the dog's bone’, people say ‘the bone of the dog’ or ‘the woman's husband’ is ‘the
husband of the woman’.

Sometimes people say ‘the book is for my son’, as opposed to saying ‘it's my son's book’.

It's my son's book! Pronunciation is kind of interesting with possessives, because I think often we don't pronounce that 's' sound very clearly and so people often don't hear the possessive 's'. One of the problems
in learning to use it is that you need to learn to recognise when it's there, because often it's said so quickly that it's easy to miss.

The other thing that is interesting is that the pronunciation changes, depending on the ending of the word. So if the words ends already in an 's' or a 'sh' sound, or a 'ch' sound, or a 'ge' sound, we have to put an ‘es’ on the end, so we would say the judge, but the judge's wig, or the church, but the church's congregation.

Plural possessives: what are the rules?

The rules are only to do with how they're written down, with the orthography. To really confuse everybody, if it's plural, we put an apostrophe after the 's'. So, if we say ‘the girls' boyfriends’ and we're
talking about several girls, we put the apostrophe after the 's' when we write it. If we're talking about one girl, ‘a girl's homework’, we put the apostrophe before the 's’.

4. Why aren't lazy and idle exact synonyms?

we have two words here that mean very similar things. Lazy which we know means someone who doesn’t really word very hard, but also one with a very similar meaning, idle.

That’s idle – i.d.l.e. Both words can actually be used to describe someone who doesn’t work very hard, for example “John is really lazy.” or “John is really idle.” Both mean that John’s doesn’t really work as much as he should do.

However, there are some very subtle differences between the two words which means we can’t use them completely interchangeably. For example, “lazy” will always have a negative connotation; it will give us a very negative idea of the person it’s being used to describe. So lazy is always seen as a very bad thing.

However, idle can be used in other contexts, still to mean something or someone doesn’t work, but without the negative judgement. So for example, if you press print on your computer, you may see a sign which says “Printer idle.” This means that the printer, at the moment, isn’t doing anything. Similarly, sometimes factories must close, because there isn’t enough work, an so at that point, the factory is idle. Also, the work force, the people are idle.

So when we use idle in this way we are not giving a negative comment on the people or the thing, we are just saying they’re not working.

It’s very very important to think about the adjectives you use in particular because very many of them can carry different connotations. For example: cheap and inexpensive. Both mean that something doesn’t cost a lot of money. However, in British English, we often use the adjective cheap to describe something that’s not of very good quality. So it can sometimes have a negative connotation.

Similarly, you may find two adjectives that mean similar things, but one adjective can be used with a wider range of nouns. So for example wealthy and rich. We can talk about wealthy people or rich people. Both mean people with lots of money.

However, we can also talk about rich food, rich furnishings, meaning very good quality. So here, rich has a slightly different meaning. It’s important to remember that it’s difficult to find words that are exact synonyms, which can be used interchangeably, in all contexts.

So when you learn some new synonyms, it’s important to learn not just what they share, but also what the difference is between them.

Remember, when we say someone is lazy, we mean they don’t work very hard, but we can’t say the printer is lazy, we can only say the printer is idle.

5. What's the difference between the verbs 'look', 'see' and 'watch'?

'Look', 'see' and 'watch' seem very similar, they all talk about different ways of using your eyes. However, there are two very important differences. It depends on how you intend to look or watch and how intense the looking is. When we say 'see' we are normally talking about things we can't avoid – so for example, "I opened the curtains and saw some birds outside." - I didn't intend to see them, it just happened. However, when we use the verb 'look', we're talking about seeing something with an intention. So, "this morning I looked at the newspaper" – I intended to see the newspaper.

When we watch something, we intend to look at it but we're also looking at it quite intensely, usually because it's moving. So, for example, "I watched the bus go through the traffic lights." "I watched the movie." We want to see it, we're looking at it intensely and it's normally moving.

When we use verbs of the senses, and this group, 'look', 'see' and 'watch' are verbs of visual sense, there's usually a difference between intention and non-intention, so, for example, "I heard the radio." - I didn't intend to, it just happened, or, "I listened to the radio" - I switched it on to find my favourite programme. Similarly, "I felt the wind on my face." - I didn't intend to feel this, it just happened, or "I touched the fabric." - I intended to feel the fabric.

It's important when you find these verbs of the senses to gather them together and try to find the differences between them. Remember that when you look at words which seem to be similar it's important to find out exactly the differences between them because basically you can't really use them interchangeably.

Remember, 'see' – you didn't really intend to, it just happened; 'look' – you intended to do it; and watch you intended to do it and you were looking intensely, usually because it was moving

6. what is the difference between 'tell', 'say', and 'speak'?

With 'tell' we usually say who is told. You could say there is a personal object, so: 'Can you tell me what's happened?' We say, 'me'.

With 'say' we don't usually say who is told. So you might say 'please say each word clearly and distinctly'. And if we do say who is told, we use the word 'to', so: 'He said goodbye to me as if we would never see one another again'.

Now... There's another limit on the usage of 'tell'. We only use 'tell' to mean instruct or inform. 'I told him to wait for me on the platform'... that's an instruction. "My father used to tell me wonderful stories" - informing me.

'Say' can be used for any kind of talking. So here are three sentences where you could not use 'tell':

She said 'Where have you been?'
So I said what a good idea.
Maureen said 'What's the matter?'

We use 'tell' without a personal object in a few expressions, that are kind of fixed expressions like tell the truth, tell the time and tell the difference.

And we use 'say' before words like a word, a name, or a sentence. An example would be: 'Don't say a word.'

That's 'tell' and 'say'. You also asked about 'speak'. We use 'speak' to mean 'talk formally', and when we do use 'speak', we use the word 'to' if there's a personal object. So you could say, 'I spoke to him severely' or 'She spoke to our teachers' association last year'.

And of course we use it when we're talking about people's language ability: 'Do you speak English?'

7. what is the difference between 'wait' and 'await'.?

The first difference is in the grammatical structures that are associated with these two verbs.
The verb 'await' must have an object - for example, 'I am awaiting your answer'. And the object of 'await' is normally inanimate, not a person, and often abstract. So you can't say, 'John was awaiting me'.

The verb 'wait' can come in different structures. Firstly, you can just use 'wait' on its own: 'We have been waiting and waiting and waiting and nobody has come to talk to us.'

Another structure that is very common is to use 'wait' with another verb - for example, 'I waited in line to go into the theatre.'

Very often, with 'wait', you mention the length of time that you have been waiting - for example, 'I have been waiting here for at least half an hour.'
Finally, speakers often mention what or who they have been waiting for - so, if a friend was really late you could say, 'I have been waiting for you for two hours!'

The other difference between the two verbs, 'wait' and 'await', is the level of formality. 'Await' is more formal than 'wait' - it would be used in formal letters, for example.

If you want a tip about using these two verbs, I would suggest that you should use 'wait for'; use 'await' only in cases where you are absolutely sure that you have heard good users of the language using it, and in cases where things are quite formal.

8. 'Raise' and 'rise'

the basic meaning of the two verbs, 'raise' and 'rise', is almost the same - moving up, from a low position to a higher position, either physically or metaphorically.

The difference between them is a grammatical one. 'Raise' needs an object, and 'rise' cannot take an object. So, for example, I can say that I personally think that the government of this country needs to raise taxes (and 'taxes' is the object of the verb); another way I can say that is that I think that taxes need to rise. We are always talking about the need to raise standards (and 'standards' is the object of the verb) - another way of saying it is that standards need to rise.

9. How do you pronounce the word 'the'? There are two pronunciations: 'The' sometimes sounds like 'thee'. Sometimes it sounds like 'thaaa'.

It has two pronunciations. One pronunciation - the one that most learners will know - is 'the' with a vowel that we call a schwa - a very common vowel. So we talk about 'the sound' ; 'the word' ; 'the number'. This pronunciation appears before consonants. The other pronunciation 'the' comes before a vowel. So you will notice that I said 'the other pronunciation'.

One warning though - there are words that look as if they begin with a vowel, but they actually begin with a consonant. One example is the word 'university'. It starts with a /j/ sound, which is a consonant. So we say, 'the university'. Another example is the word 'one' - 'the one that most learners will know'. So remember that these words are consonants, not vowels.

The other place you would use 'the' is when you are stressing the word and adding extra emphasis to the noun coming after it. So you talk about restaurant that you like and say, ' It's THE best restaurant in town'; or 'It's THE restaurant in town'. Very useful for expressing your enthusiasm about anything.

10. Do we say "Data is" or "Data are"?

Ok, well I say data and um I say both I say "Data is" or "Data are" but probably mostly "is". Originally, data was a plural noun, it comes from a Latin word that means things which are given, and that’s plural. The singular of that is datum or datum (different pronunciation). But English speaking people mostly don’t know Latin and so not everybody recognised the word was supposed to be plural.

It looks singular to an English speaker, so more and more people came to use it as a singular and now that’s quite normal. At the beginning "The data is" was definitely a mistake but it’s so widely used now that it’s no longer possible to say that it’s a mistake. It’s become part of the language. This is actually quite a common reason for language change. People make mistakes and the mistakes are repeated by other people, and finally they no longer count as mistakes. It happens a lot with vocabulary.

100 years ago, the word "oblivious", for example, meant "forgetful of". If you were oblivious of things that had happened, you’d forgotten them. You might say she was completely oblivious of her early childhood. But then people started using oblivious to mean unconscious of, unaware of, not paying attention to. So they might say someone was oblivious of their surroundings. Not paying attention to what was going on. This was criticised of course.

People wrote to the newspapers complaining that "oblivious" wasn’t being used correctly, the language was going to the dogs, no-body knew how to speak correct English anymore and so on you know the kind of thing. The fact remains, in modern English "oblivious" means unconscious, not paying attention, and that has become its modern, correct use.

The same thing’s happening today with the expression "a concerted effort". It really means an effort by a lot of people working together – concerted means just that; people working together – but a lot of people now use "a concerted effort" to mean "a big effort". For example, somebody might say "I’m going to make a concerted effort to give up smoking." Because they don’t really think of the real meaning of concerted as working together. For the moment, I think that’s more or less a mistake, but if it goes on everybody will end up using the expression to mean a big effort and we won’t be able to say it’s a mistake anymore. It’ll just be part of the language.

So, data is or data are, both ok.

Knowledge is the noblest heritage;

Good manners are new dresses, and

        Thinking is a clear mirror.

دانایی میراثی شریف, اخلاق پسندیده  لباسی تازه و اندیشه آیینه ای پاک است.

The Greatest wealth is wisdom.

            سرآمد بی نیازیها خرد است.

Cool Job: Firefighter Takes the Heat

On Saturday nights, A.J. Coston doesn’t get a lot of sleep. Usually three or four times a night, a loud bell rings, a red light goes off, and he has to jump out of his bed. That’s because he’s a weekend volunteer firefighter with Loudoun County Fire and Rescue Station 13 in Northern Virginia. During the week, he lives at home with his mom, dad, and sister, and does his main job: going to high school. Coston, a junior captain and firefighter, is 18 years old.

“I always wanted to get into firefighting since I was a little kid watching fire trucks go by,” he says. “One day I was bored and on the Internet, and I found out that Loudoun County offered a junior firefighter program.” He was only 16, but he was hooked.

A hard-working student, he managed to go to high school, do his homework, and fit in 160 hours of firefighting class on top of it all. He went to class from 7:00 to 10:30 two nights a week and all day Saturday for months.

Fighting fires is dangerous work. Firefighters never stop practicing the skills they need to stay safe. Once Coston learned those skills, he was allowed to work inside burning buildings. But not before grabbing all his gear. Coston says he wears firefighting boots (rubber or leather with a steel plate), turnout pants (fire pants), a turnout coat, a hood to protect his neck and head, a helmet, and an SCBA (Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus), which includes a mask, air bottle and pack, and gloves.

Coston says what you carry into a fire depends on what position you’re riding. “You might take in a Halligan bar [Read about this on Wikipedia], an axe, a flashlight that can shine through smoke, a thermal imager which can show images through smoke, a water can, or a pike pole (used to pull ceilings down and check to see if the fire has gone into a crawl space).”

“Teamwork is huge,” he says. “It’s the whole team that puts the fire out, from the guy pulling the hose line to the guy holding the nozzle. The guy holding the back end of the hose may never even see the fire he’s putting out, but he makes sure the guy up front has enough hose to get there.”

Coston is also a trained Emergency Medical Technician (EMT). A fire company doesn’t just get called to put fires out. They respond to 911 calls about everything from accidents to heart attacks.

Firefighters feel great about helping people. “My most dramatic call was probably the time four kids were struck by lightning,” says Coston. “We had one kid in cardiac arrest [that means his heart stopped], and we did CPR [cardiopulmonary resuscitation] and got a heartbeat back. He’s pretty much fine now!”

Coston will be off to college next fall, building on his dream job. “I’ll get my degree in emergency medical care, and then apply to a fire and rescue company for a while. I want to be a flight medic on a helicopter eventually,” he says.

Remember, call 911 if you smell smoke or see a fire.

Fast Facts:

• Not all fire trucks carry water
• A truck company carries a long ladder to reach high-up places
• A rescue company has a big tool box with almost every tool you can think of
• Not all fire trucks are red
• Not all fire stations have dogs
• Many firefighters have a college degree in Fire Science
• There are different kinds and sizes of fire hoses for different situations
• You can take a firefighting course as early as age 16
• Some firefighters are also paramedics
• Firefighters respond to more false alarms than fires