World Cup soccer fans in Qatar cannot spend all their time watching matches. Some head to the desert outside Doha for camel rides and photos. Business is good for animal handlers. They are making much more money than usual. However, the interest is causing trouble for the camels. Ali Jaber Al Ali is from Sudan but has been in Qatar for 15 years. On a normal day, he said, his company would offer around 20 rides during the week and 50 rides on the weekends. But with so many soccer fans visiting the country in recent weeks, he and his team have been giving 500 rides in the morning and 500 in the evening. That means the camels have little time to rest. Usually, the camels can rest after every five rides, but not during the World Cup. They give 15 or more rides in a row. The day begins for Al Ali at 4:30 in the morning. He said tourists want to get a photo at sunrise. The camels and their handlers get to rest for about two hours in the middle of the day but then must start giving rides again.

The other side of the wall

There was a young woman who was proud of the growth and care of the flowers in her flower garden. She had been raised by her grandmother, who taught her to love and care for flowers as she herself had done. So, like her grandmother, her flower garden was second to none.

One day while looking through a flower catalogue (目录) she often ordered from, a picture of a plant immediately caught her eye. She had never seen blooms (花) like that before. “I have to have it,” she said to herself, and she immediately ordered it.

When it arrived, she already had a place prepared to plant it. She planted it at the foot of a stone wall at the back of her yard. It grew eagerly, with beautiful green leaves all over the vine (藤), but there were no blooms. Day after day she continued to water it, feed it, and she even talked to it. However, it was useless.

One morning weeks later, as she stood before the vine, she was disappointed that her plant had not bloomed. She was thinking about cutting it down and planting something else in its place.

It was at this point that her neighbor, whose yard was right next to hers, called over to her. “Thank you so much! You can’t imagine how much I have enjoyed the blooms of that vine you planted.” The young woman walked through the gate into her neighbor’s yard, and sure enough, she saw that on the other side of the wall the vine was filled with blooms.

They were indeed the most beautiful blooms she had ever seen. The vine had grown quietly through the crevices (裂痕) and it had not flowered on her side of the wall. It had flowered thickly on the other side.

Just because you cannot see the good result of your work does not mean that it produces no fruit.

It is breakfast time. You have been looking forward to eating a nice ripe banana ever since you woke up. Just when you reach for the delicious piece of fruit on your table, you see something that makes you much less hungry: a swarm of fruit flies!

Fruit flies are tiny insects that are attracted to ripe or rotting fruits and vegetables. The flies not only eat the fruit, they also lay their eggs there. A single fruit fly can lay up to 500 eggs on the surface of a piece of fruit. Within eight days, the fruit flies from these eggs are full adults and they can then lay their own eggs. As you can see, what might start out as a small fruit fly problem can become very large, very quickly. There is a chance fruit flies can carry germs onto your food and this is not very likely. Fruit flies are not likable, but they probably will not hurt you. Because they are such a nuisance, most people want to stay away from these unpleasant bugs as quickly as possible. Luckily, there is a completely safe way for you to do away with fruit flies in your house.

The first step is for you to remove all fruits or vegetables from your table. Store these items in the refrigerator or in sealed containers. Clean up everything. Empty the recycling bin. Wash any dirty dishes that are in your sink. Doing all of these things will stop new fruit flies from finding food or places to lay their eggs.

Next, make a trap to catch all of the remaining fruit flies in your house. First, put a few tablespoons of vinegar into a small bowl. Then, put a piece of very ripe or rotting fruit into the vinegar. Cover the bowl very tightly with a piece of plastic wrap(包裹膜) and pok (刺) a few tiny holes in the wrap with a fork. If all goes according to plan, the flies will enter the trap through the holes but will be unable to fly back out. You can either kill these flies or set them free outdoors.

Fruit flies can be a pest, but they do not have to make you crazy. With a little effort, you can get existing flies out of your house and prevent new ones from taking over your kitchen.