Dick lived in England. One day in January he said to his wife, “I’m going to fly to New York next week because I’ve got some work there.” “Where are you going to stay there?” his wife asked. “I don’t know yet.” Dick answered. “Please send me your address from there in a telegram (电报),” his wife said. “All right,” Dick answered.

He flew to New York on January 31st and found a nice hotel in the center of the city. He put his things in his room and then he sent his wife a telegram. He put the address of his hotel in it.

In the evening he didn’t have any work, so he went to a cinema. He came out at nine o'clock and said, “Now I’m going back to my hotel and have a nice dinner.”

He found a taxi (出租车) and the driver said, “Where do you want to go?” But Dick didn’t remember the name and address of his hotel.

“Which hotel are my things in?” he said, “And what am I going to do tonight?” But the driver of the taxi did not know. So Dick got out and went into a post office. There he sent his wife another telegram, and in it he wrote, “Please send me my address at this post office.”

In May， 1977， I lived in a Howard Johnson's motel (汽车旅馆). My dad and I shared a room with two double beds and a bathroom way too small for a modest 15﹣year﹣old girl and her father. Dad's second marriage was in trouble and my stepmother had kicked us both out of the house the previous week. Dad had no idea what to do with me. That's when my other family showed up.

Barbara and Roland Beach took me into their home because their only daughter， Su， my best friend， asked them to. I lived with them for the next seven years.

Barbara made sure I had lunch money， doctors' appointments， help with homework， and nightly hugs. Barbara and Roland attended every football game I took part in， every drama performance I was in even when I had no speaking lines. For the Beaches， there was no difference between Su and me: I was their daughter， too. When Su and I left for colleges， they kept my room the same for the entire four years when I attended school. Recently， Barbara presented me with an insurance policy they bought when I first moved in with them and had continued to pay for 25years.

The Beaches knew all about me when they took me in. When I was seven， my mother died. By the time I went to live with the Beaches， I believed that life was entirely unfair and that love was tenuous (脆弱的)and untrustworthy. I believed that the only person who would take care of me was me.

Without the Beaches， I would have become a bitter and unhappy woman. They gave me a home that allowed me to grow and change. They gave me the confidence to open my heart.

Living in South Africa, I had always taken the wildlife pretty much for granted (认为……是理所应当). When a British friend invited me to join her and her friends on a wildlife expedition (探险). I was not very excited. However, from the moment we entered the gates of the Zaluzi game reserve (野生动物保护区), I knew that this was not going to be anything like I had expected.

After having a good night’s sleep at one of the reserve’s houses, we set out early. On the way to our destination (目的地), we topped a hill and there, against the soft morning light, we saw a group of animals! It was a spectacular sight. As we moved closer. the animals did not appear to be alarmed by our presence. I had never before come within such close range of a pride of lions. It did cross my mind, however, that we might be in a certain amount of danger. When I asked Timothy, our guide, if we were actually in any danger, he replied that one is never entirely safe in the wild, but his knowledge and experience allowed him to deal with any danger.

However, the following day there was some cause for alarm. Our jeep was on the move, suddenly our guide warned the driver to stop and at the same moment I realized that this time we had run right into a pride of lions. The lions were picking at what looked like the dead body of a zebra. Timothy later told us how much to our advantage this was. Had their stomachs not been full, their reaction to us would surely have been different.

All in all, it was a wonderful trip. Our near miss with the lions was without a doubt the most exciting moment, but what it taught me yet again was how easy it is to be indifferent to nature and not have a full appreciation (欣赏) of the beauty around us.