When Julie Weiss lost her father, Maurice, in 2010, just 35 days after he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer(胰腺癌), she was heartbroken. “Research for pancreatic cancer is so underfunded, and it made me feel helpless,” she says. “I knew I had to do something.”

So this marathon queen, as she calls herself, did what she knows how to do best: She went running. Having already completed 25 marathons during the previous two years, Julie now promised to run 52 marathons in 52 weeks in honor of her father. After asking people to donate money for each marathon, she set up a website, marathongoddess.com, to collect the donations for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (PANCAN), a nonprofit organization.

Julie, 43, began her 52-marathon journey in Rome in March 2012. She focused on pacing herself, often clocking in an hour slower than her best time of 3:47, and decided not to stick to a strict training schedule. “It is a long process and I knew my body recovered quickly from marathon running,” she says, and, anyway, “nothing can prepare you for what you’re about to experience.” When her muscles began to ache, she kept her motivation in mind. “It was like I had angels with me to keep running no matter what,” she says. To stay focused, she’d think of her father. “He did everything big,” says Julie.

Julie finished her 1,362.4-mile journey covering two countries and 18 states in March 2013 at the L. A.Marathon, raising more than $200,000 in the process for PANCAN, which was quite unusual.

Getting out of my car one evening in late January, I met my neighbor Theresa, who had seen me drive in. “Mrs Taylor is in the hospital again,” she said. “I thought you’d like to know.” I had last seen Mrs Taylor a day or two before Christmas when I took her a little loaf of pumpkin bread, and she came from the back room in her wheel chair to talk with me. Mrs Taylor and I had been neighbors for 17 years. I remember the dog she and her husband used to have. They called him Beau. He greeted everyone who walked by, and Mr Taylor loved him.

Most of my conversations with Mrs Taylor had been incidental—visits by the mailbox, running into one another at the gas station where she helped me put air in my tire, quiet talks at the funeral home where we went to honor the memory of a mutual (相互的) friend.

When my husband and I moved here with our four noisy, laughing kids, it must have seemed as if the peaceful quiet of the neighborhood had been forever broken. But we showed our enthusiasm to the neighbors sincerely although. We had little in common with the mostly elderly folks on our street. Over the years they helped us love our children, picking them up when a bicycle overturned and sending the kids cards for their graduation. We have enjoyed the comfort of living beside people who help us if our tree falls on the fence and feed the cat when we’re away.

Mrs Taylor did not survive her latest set-back. Once again I walked into the funeral home to say good-bye to a neighbor. I remembered the barking dog, the chats by the mailbox, the friendly wave across the fence. I remembered, and I was sad, but I had no regrets. Now there is a new family moving into the Taylor place. I see children’s toys in the yard. It’s time to take a walk.

Five children are learning in the same class of Eton in London, the largest and most famous of England's public schools and become the best friends. However, each of them has quite a different lifestyle.

Jane comes from a family of scholar( 书香门第) in Scotland , and both her parents are writers. At the age of seven, she began to write little pieces of poems, and since then she has been spending her spare time writing poems. The only shame is that she has never got one of her works published and she is expecting such a chance.

Robert is a good boy and his father is a brave fire fighter in London who has saved many people's lives from fires or other dangers, and he also wants to become one when he graduates from high school. Now he is eager to learn the basic knowledge of fire fighting.

John is a bookworm(书呆子) from Wales and always goes to bookstores to fix his eyes on the newly published books. But he always forgets to pick up his things that he has left in the checkroom. Last Sunday, when he left the bookstore, he left his hat and jacket behind.

Rose is a lovely and slender(身材苗条的) girl from Manchester. She is so much interested in dancing. Never is there a weekend past without seeing her spending several hours in the schools dance room. And this Saturday, she is asking her friends from other schools over to dance with her.

Jack ,an Irish boy ,has read many travel books about Europe and is really attracted by what is described in them. So when his school is planning for a trip to Europe, he is among the first to sign up for it. And now he cannot wait to start the journey.