英文怎么说“配钥匙”？“drug store”和“hydro”在北美英文中是何意？

英文学习【滴水穿石】第1期
（今日三个问题：英文怎么说“配钥匙”？“drug store”和“hydro”在北美英文中是何意？）：

【1】“配钥匙”用英文怎么说？今天见到路边一个杂货店，上面悬挂一小牌，上书“we cut key”，于是明白，英文里的配钥匙，可以用“cut key”表述。“make key”应该也可以，但估计钥匙厂批量生产的原始钥匙坯子用它更合适，因为”make“在英文里的含义太广泛了，和”do“有得一拼。

【2】此外，街边有时还会见到商店窗户上标有“drug store"，但里面却卖各种杂货；其实，英文里的”drug store“比较准确的释义是：”the place of business of a druggist, usually also selling cosmetics, stationery, toothpaste, mouthwash, cigarettes, etc., and sometimes soft drinks and light meals.“ 但这种用法主要盛行于北美，参见其辞源： drug + store 1800–10, American，也就是说，这个词是在19世纪的北美形成的. [参考资料：Collins Concise English Dictionary]英文里，专门的药店一般用pharmacy；而专门的杂货店，用grocery[美国常用复数]。

【3】加拿大到处可以见到或者听到hydro这个词，初来乍到的人都会疑惑，不知所云，仔细了解才会发现，它的含义是”电、电费、电费单“，具体原因是“A lot of our electricity used to be from hydro electric sources. Dams and turbines. The sole company, before deregulation, that provided it, was usually called something like Ontario Hydro or New Brunswick Hydro, depending on the province. Hence the short form hydro even if that power is by nuclear or even coal generators.”还有个搞笑的解释说明了这个词在整个加拿大及其某些地区的独特含义“If your're from the rest of the world....it means electricity. If your from BC it means POT!” [参见https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081012142929AAOA3UQ。]

IELTS WRITING SAMPLE---Mobility due to improved transport and communication（英文写作范文：人口流动的利弊）

Mobility due to improved transport and communication
Today, people in many countries can live and work anywhere they choose, because of improved communication technology and transport. Do the advantages of this phenomenon outweigh its disadvantages?


TIMING: 201609291444-1525

Thanks to the revolution in communication technology and transport, nowadays, the fluidity of people has been greatly augmented and they thus can almost live and work anywhere they choose. Improved mobility of people engenders a lot of merits as well as demerits and I firmly believe the former far exceed the latter.

Most importantly, great mobility contributes greatly to the economic growth. Free mobility of people is usually the result of free market. Under the rule of free market, people tend to move to “better” places, namely places that have more economic resources and promise more opportunity for the individuals. By moving to economically dynamic places, people will inject new blood into the local economy while contributing to the consumption and providing sufficient labor to the market. It was this kind of populous mobility in the 19th century in America that created a number of metropolis cities there and brought about economic boom later. It is also this kind of mobility of people in emerging countries like China, Vietnam and Brazil that accelerates their industrialization and urbanization and ushers in an enviable era of economic growth in their history. Actually, mobility of people brings much more benefits that economic growth.

Mobility of people remarkably enhances understanding and friendship of different cultures and nations. Narrow-minded people are usually products of either geographical or intellectual isolation. By travelling widely, by seeing more places and by mixing or befriending people of other cultures and conventions, people can stay away from narrow-mindedness and embrace tolerance, respectfulness and friendliness. Great cities like New York, London, Hongkong, Paris and Toronto are not merely famous for their economic influence but also for their cultural and racial diversity. Comparatively speaking, there diversified cities are more tolerant and more friendly because they are created by continuous influx of people of different backgrounds. Though sometimes familiarity brings contempt, most of the time distance yields indifference or even hostility. By living side by side as neighbours, people will understand each other more and then enter each other’s life and even cultivate a relationship closer than that between siblings separated by distances. This has been perfectly illustrated by an oriental saying: “Near neighbours may exceed distant relatives in terms of helpfulness and closeness.”

It is true that mobility augmented by communication technology and transport may also give rise to the separation of relatives and families, may lead to population explosion in some super cities, and may also assist the crime-committing of some criminals and terrorists; nonetheless, the recommendable aspects of people mobility far overweigh that of its condemnable consequence. And it is also the logical result and the unstoppable historical trend of human civilization.

朋友M与我讨论H.L.Mencken对教育的看法

美国知识分子门肯先生有一段关于教育的文字，我看了十分喜乐，分享一位正在多伦多大学都教育硕士的朋友，他意见与我相异，我们交换了看法。具体如下。

门肯的论述：
From Minority Report (publish by Alfred A. Knopf in 1956), no. 127:The public schools of the United States were damaged very seriously when they were taken over by the State. So long as they were privately operated the persons in charge of them retained a certain amount of professional autonomy, and with it went a considerable dignity. But now they are all petty jobholders, and show the psychology that goes with the trade. They have invented a bogus science of pedagogy to salve their egos, but it remains hollow to any intelligent eye. What they may teach or not teach is not determined by themselves, or even by any exercise of sound reason, but by the interaction of politics on the one side and quack theorists on the other. Even savages have reached a better solution of the educational problem. Their boys are taught, not by puerile eunuchs, but by their best men, and the process of education among them really educates. This is certainly not true of ours. Many a boy of really fine mind is ruined in school. Along with a few sound values, many false ones are thrust into his thinking, and he inevitably acquires something of the attitude of mind of the petty bureaucrats told off to teach him. In college he may recover somewhat, for the college teacher is relatively more free than the pedagogue lower down the scale. But even in college education has become corrupted by buncombe, and so the boy on the border line of intelligence is apt to be damaged rather than benefited. Under proper care he might be pushed upward. As it is, he is shoved downward. Certainly everyday observation shows that the average college course produces no visible augmentation in the intellectual equipment and capacity of the student. Not long ago, in fact, an actual investigation in Pennsylvania demonstrated that students often regress so much during their four years that the average senior is less intelligent, by all know tests, than the average freshman. Part of this may be due to the fact that many really intelligent boys, as soon as they discover the vanity of the so-called education on tap, quit college in disgust, but in large part, I suspect, it is a product of the deadening effect of pedagogy.


朋友M的回复：
还好吧，not my cup of ......大肆的抨击谩骂讽刺，没有太多实质性的东西，毕竟他也不是研究教育的，有点类似文人的批判。他所批判的pedagogy，应该是他那个时代教育的模式下的产物，注重social efficiency,  "for a long time boys are trained to be president... now we are training them to get jobs "，教育的目标目的性强 为社会培训工人。那时的教育研究处于 executive leadership period, 1925-1945 教育研究和社会实践都在侧重于如何使得教育机构 发挥最大的功效。  另外，教育从来就跟政治不分的，教育本身就是一件政治行为，代表哪方面的利益 ，什么样的教育目标，一位教授的原话。所以他痛斥 interaction of politics 和quack theorists 也是可以理解的。。。。。俺们系这些人就是些未来的quack theorist吧,但是目标是为了更好的发展 分析 建议 展望 解决。。。。。

我的反馈：
M教授锋芒闪烁，大有前途！但也有值得商榷之处，我倒不觉得是一味地谩骂讽刺。“文人”在中国似乎已经成了贬义词，与“谩骂讽刺”捆绑一起，在文明社会，这种趋势似乎没那么明显，英美只有“知识分子”，少有指涉宽泛的“文人”说法，但连知识分子这一称呼在今日华夏也都成为调侃对象，呜呼哀哉！这种趋势，用一句学术流行语，叫“反智主义”。当然，教育绝对是政治和时代的产物，也只有知识分子和专业学者才能洞悉这一点，并条分缕析具体症结和来龙去脉，芸芸众生浑浑噩噩，除了果腹繁衍，鲜有能清醒思考于己无关的这些“宏大叙事”。真正的知识分子饱览诗书，嗅觉灵敏，超越传统和时代的洗涤与蒙蔽，洞若观火，往往能发现问题，或“大声疾呼”、或“大加挞伐”，亦可“当头棒喝”，以引起世人关注甚至“觉醒”；另一方面，真正的业内专家，不仅要意识到问题，还要研究问题或者提出解决之道，这正是真正知识分子和专家学者的功用，各司其职，“为万世开太平”。学者和知识分子可以雌雄同体、也可以各司其职但协同合作，而不是彼此轻蔑、“文人相轻”。我们来到西方乐土，也当意识到之前一些定势思维留下的“遗毒”。当然，也许我识见粗浅，初来乍到，浑不知这里也并非“乐土”，也不过一样地“文人相轻”、泾渭分明。

郝杰的《光棍儿》是一部不同寻常的杰作

《光棍儿》是一部令人三观为之一震的电影，今天有幸一睹。虽然拍摄于2011年，但看起来年代感很强，因为讲述的事情距离“常人”和都市似乎十分遥远，不了解的人，还以为那是奇思妙想的剧作家的虚构；了解的，觉得简直就是现实的镜像。据说片子市面上已经很难见到了，导演郝杰之前也未听闻过，但这在我眼中简直是一部了不起的大作，情节紧凑新奇、剪切干净利落，整个观影过程中我都忘了更衣那事儿。

片子难得见到的原因，一是因为里面用了很多的方言土话，其中夹杂不少荤段子和“不雅”措辞（其实这些方言大多数特别朴实，是原生态的方言俚语，并没有肆意渲染情色暴力，应该要比贾平凹的很多作品逊色许多）；二是电影似乎在揭露贫困边远地区一些群体生存状态的艰辛（比如光棍们的情欲和心灵上经受的双重压抑与煎熬、比如这样穷困地区一个不错家庭的孩子还要靠母亲去多个光棍家里陪睡才能得到“资助”支付学费、孩子也只有反复复读才能考上河北大学这样的高等学府），似乎与蓬勃向上的时世不相匹配；三是电影中涉及婚外情、拐卖人口、（不良）卖淫、（天生）同性恋等不“光彩”的现象，有伤“风雅”；此外，还涉及其他诸多主题和要素。

然而，正是以上这些可能让这些电影如今难见天日的因素，才造就了这部电影的杰出、赋予它非同寻常的魅力。虽然没有一个明星演员，但几乎个个都演得如同日常再现。

这是最近看过的最最有价值的一部电影，推荐出来，以飨同好。

具体参见豆瓣影评（这一页推荐的其他几部电影都不错）https://movie.douban.com/subject/4946963/。

电影链接：https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJGE_1uKxrQ 。

Is Donald Trump a misogynist?

I don't know if Donald Trump is really a misogynist as Hillary Clinton claimed, but their debate on this topic reminds me of a book produced by H.L.Mencken. It is a book dedicated to women. Here comes one of the most witty two chapters:


Women's Intelligence

THAT IT SHOULD still be necessary, at this late stage of the senility of the human race to argue that women have a fine and fluent intelligence is surely an eloquent proof of the defective observation, incurable prejudice, and general imbecility of their lords and masters. One finds very few professors of the subject, even among admitted feminists, approaching the fact as obvious; practically all of them think it necessary to bring up a vast mass of evidence to establish what should be an axiom. Even the Franco-Englishman, W. L. George, one of the most sharp-witted of the faculty,wastes a whole book upon the demonstration, and then, with a great air of uttering something new, gives it the humourless title of "The Intelligence of Women." The intelligence of women, forsooth! As well devote a laborious time to the sagacity of serpents, pickpockets, or Holy Church! 

Women, in truth, are not only intelligent; they have almost a monopoly of certain of the subtler and more utile forms of intelligence. The thing itself, indeed, might be reasonably described as a special feminine character; there is in it, in more than one of its manifestations, a femaleness as palpable as the femaleness of cruelty, masochism or rouge. Men are strong. Men are brave in physical combat. Men have sentiment. Men are romantic, and love what they conceive to be virtue and beauty. Men incline to faith, hope and charity. Men know how to sweat and endure. Men are amiable and fond. But in so far as they show the true fundamentals of intelligence – in so far as they
reveal a capacity for discovering the kernel of eternal verity in the husk of delusion and hallucination and a passion for bringing it forth – to that extent, at least, they are feminine, and still nourished by the milk of their 3 mothers. "Human creatures," says George, borrowing from Weininger, "are never entirely male or entirely female; there are no men, there are no women, but only sexual majorities." Find me an obviously intelligent man, a man free from sentimentality and illusion, a man hard to deceive, a man of the first class, and I'll show you a man with a wide streak of woman in him. Bonaparte had it; Goethe had it; Schopenhauer had it; Bismarck and Lincoln
had it; in Shakespeare, if the Freudians are to be believed, it amounted to downright homosexuality. The essential traits and qualities of the male, the hallmarks of the unpolluted masculine, are at the same time the hallmarks of the Schafskopf. The caveman is all muscles and mush. Without a woman to rule him and think for him, he is a truly lamentable spectacle: a baby with whiskers, a rabbit with the frame of an aurochs, a feeble and preposterous caricature of God.

It would be an easy matter, indeed, to demonstrate that superior talent in man is practically always accompanied by this feminine flavour – that complete masculinity and stupidity are often indistinguishable. Lest I be misunderstood I hasten to add that I do not mean to say that masculinity contributes nothing to the complex of chemico-physiological reactions which produces what we call talent; all I mean to say is that this complex is impossible without the feminine contribution – that it is a product of the interplay of the two elements. In women of genius we see the opposite picture. They are commonly distinctly mannish, and shave as well as shine. Think of George Sand, Catherine the Great, Elizabeth of England, Rosa Bonheur, Teresa Carreñ&o or Cosima Wagner. The truth is that neither sex, without some fertilization by the complementary characters of the other, is capable of the highest reaches of human endeavour. Man, without a saving touch of woman in him, is too doltish, too naïve and romantic, too easily deluded and lulled to sleep by his imagination to be anything above a
cavalryman, a theologian or a bank director. And woman, without some trace of that divine innocence which is masculine, is too harshly the realist for those vast projections of the fancy which lie at the heart of what we call genius. Here, as elsewhere in the universe, the best effects are obtained by a mingling of elements. The wholly manly man lacks the wit necessary to give
objective form to his soaring and secret dreams, and the wholly womanly woman is apt to be too cynical a creature to dream at all.



The Masculine Bag of Tricks


WHAT MEN, in their egoism, constantly mistake for a deficiency of intelligence in woman is merely an incapacity for mastering that mass of small intellectual tricks, that complex of petty knowledges, that collection of cerebral rubberstamps, which constitutes the chief mental equipment of the average male. A man thinks that he is more intelligent than his wife because he can add up a column of figures more accurately, and because he understands the imbecile jargon of the stock market, and because he is able to distinguish between the ideas of rival politicians, and because he is privy to the minutiae of some sordid and degrading business or profession, say soap-selling or the law. But these empty talents, of course, are not really signs of a profound intelligence; they are, in fact, merely superficial accomplishments, and their acquirement puts little more strain on the mental powers than a chimpanzee suffers in learning how to catch a penny or scratch a match. The whole bag of tricks of the average business man, or even of the average professional man, is inordinately childish. It takes no more actual sagacity to carry on the everyday hawking and haggling of the world, or to ladle out its normal doses of bad medicine and worse law, than it takes to operate a taxicab or fry a pan of fish. No observant person, indeed, can come into close contact with the general run of business and professional men--I confine myself to those who seem to get on in the world, and exclude the admitted failures--without marvelling at their intellectual lethargy, their incurable ingenuousness, their appalling lack of ordinary sense. The late Charles Francis Adams, a grandson of one American President and a great-grandson of another, after a long lifetime in intimate association with some of the chief business "geniuses" of that paradise of traders and usurers, the United States, reported in his old age that he had never heard a single one of them say anything worth hearing. These were vigorous and masculine men, and in a man s world they were successful men, but intellectually they were all blank cartridges.

There is, indeed, fair ground for arguing that, if men of that kidney were genuinely intelligent, they would never succeed at their gross and drivelling concerns--that their very capacity to master and retain such balderdash as constitutes their stock in trade is proof of their inferior mentality. The notion is certainly supported by the familiar incompetency of firstrate men for what are called practical concerns. One could not think of Aristotle or Beethoven multiplying 3,472,701 by 99,999 without making a mistake, nor could one think of him remembering the range of this or that railway share for two years, or the number of ten-penny nails in a hundredweight, or the freight on lard from Galveston to Rotterdam. And by the same token one could not imagine him expert at billiards, or at grouse-shooting, or at golf, or at any other of the idiotic games at which what are called successful men commonly divert themselves. In his great study of British genius, Havelock Ellis found that an incapacity for such petty expertness was visible in almost all first-rate men. They are bad at tying cravats. They do not understand the fashionable card-games. They are puzzled by book-keeping. They know nothing of party politics. In brief, they are inert and impotent in the very fields of endeavour that see the average men's highest performances, and are easily surpassed by men who, in actual intelligence, are about as far below them as the Simidae.

This lack of skill at manual and mental tricks of a trivial character--which must inevitably appear to a barber or a dentist as stupidity, and to a successful haberdasher as downright imbecility--is a character that men of the first class share with women of the first, second and even third classes. There is at the bottom of it, in truth, something unmistakably feminine; its appearance in a man is almost invariably accompanied by the other touch of femaleness that I have described. Nothing, indeed, could be plainer than the fact that women, as a class, are sadly deficient in the small expertness of men as a class. One seldom, if ever, hears of them succeeding in the occupations which bring out such expertness most lavishly--for example, tuning pianos, repairing clocks, practising law, (i.e., matching petty tricks with some other lawyer), painting portraits, keeping books, or managing factories--despite the circumstance that the great majority of such occupations are well within their physical powers, and that few of them offer any very formidable social barriers to female entrance. There is no external reason why women shouldn't succeed as operative surgeons; the way is wide open, the rewards are large, and there is a special demand for them on grounds of modesty. Nevertheless, not many women graduates in medicine undertake surgery and it is rare for one of them to make a success of it. There is, again, no external reason why women should not prosper at the bar, or as editors of newspapers, or as managers of the lesser sort of factories, or in the wholesale trade, or as hotel-keepers. The taboos that stand in the way are of very small force; various adventurous women have defied them with impunity; once the door is entered there remains no special handicap within. But, as every one knows, the number of women actually practising these trades and professions is very small, and few of them have attained to any distinction in competition with men.


For more of the book, refer to http://www.eldritchpress.org/hlm/defense.htm#3.

The starting point of achievement

The starting point 

of 

all achievement 

is 

DESIRE. 

---Napoleon Hill

Contrast Shanghai and Toronto

After living in Shanghai for ten years, I one day migrated to a city 11,415 km away from it. The city is Toronto, another great city, less populous but not less popular to the explorers of peace and thrill.

Shanghai and Toronto resemble each other in many aspects. They are both huge in territorial size and in population, though many Chinese mainlanders probably will disagree on the latter factor for a city with only several million people are not worth mentioning. Both city have very convenient transportation systems in terms of airports (both have two airports, one mainly accommodating domestic flights and the other international flights), railway, subway, taxi and buses.In addition, both Shanghai and Toronto are modern metropolis boasting a lot of dizzily blinding skyscrapers and towers, household name brands,hectic shopping centers,endless trains of cars and buses on streets, densely populated downtown areas and hurrying pedestrians everywhere.

Another similarity shared by them may pride some residents but upset or even infuriate many others is the high property prices, being it rent or purchase. In this aspect, Shanghai seems to get the upper hand for average property price for sale in most downtown districts has reached around 50,000 rmb per square meter while that in Toronto is around 35,000 rmb. It is actually almost six of one and half of dozen of the other if the high maintenance fee of property in Toronto is taken into account. Even though, the price of house in Toronto is admirably much more affordable; with 5 million rmb you can purchase a very decent 8-room villa house in either downtown or suburban Toronto. With the same money in Shanghai, you can only buy an old 3-room apartment in downtown Shanghai.

Toronto also bears a likeness to Shanghai in one aspect: hot summer. It is said that Toronto witnessed one of the longest and hottest summer this year and its temperature stabilizes around 25 during the day until mid sept. and only occasional rains bring it down.

But Toronto also differs from Shanghai in climate, with the lowest temperature nearing 20 degree below zero in winter, while Shanghai rarely experiences minus 5 degree in the same season. Winter in Toronto is also much longer, lasting from Dec. to late March. The legally stipulated indoor temperature of no lower than 20 degrees enables Torontoers to survive and even enjoy harsh winters.

The most conspicuous difference between Toronto and Shanghai is the air quality. I haven't seen any have during the past 16 days in Toronto and I am quite confident that during the future 160 days haze will hardly visit us. But in Shanghai almost one third of the days are remarkably polluted (see http://www.timeoutshanghai.com/features/Blog-Shanghai_news/32515/Shanghais-air-pollution-got-worse-in-2015.html).If the American or Canadian air quality standard is taken, at least one in two days is polluted. But people seem to get used to things very swiftly. I worn masks in 2013 and 2014 when have fell from heaven,but in 2015 we turned a blind eye to it most of the time, with the expensive masks wastefully lying on the bookshelf.

Pedestrians and disabled definitely enjoy more privileges in T., for most cars wait for them and most buildings in public places have accessible touch-open door buttons for disabled people. On the other hand, drivers also do not need to worry too much for few people walk away from the pavements onto the streets or roads. There are almost no scooters but there are many bikers, who seem to enjoy similar privileges with the pedestrians. Most people, waking, biking or driving, seem to know their territory specified by law and regulation and few transgress.

Maybe accidentally, or maybe subjectively, there seems to be more friendly people in Toronto. On our way to our residence, two of us took four big suitcases and two backpacks with us. Every time when we enter or exit through a door, there are people holding the auto-doors for us. Young people also have the habit of awaiting patiently after elderly people who descending stairways slowly.

Another great selling point of Toronto is a big bonus for book lovers: The public-library system is one of the world's top busiest libraries. You can get a card for free and borrow books, discs and tapes for free at any branch nearest to you.

There are far more faces of different races in Toronto than in Shanghai. The diversity in architectures also seems more impressive.

But main streets in downtown areas do not seem to be as polished as smooth as those in downtown Shanghai and some are dotted with litters. And there are more "queer" people at street corners and subway stations; they stay there with a small card bearing words like "pregnant&hungry" or "broken&hungry". They were drawing, chatting or reading some thing while "begging". No soul beg by kowtowing or by demonstrating their amputated limbs like many beggars do in Shanghai.

There are countless similarities and differences between Shanghai and Toronto to be explored and digested. They are just like two women of different temperaments and countenances and secrets. It takes time and insight to obtain a fair understanding of them.

A story unfit for delicate nerves

In the hometown of my mother, a great river will overflow every summer due to the heavy rains. This summer, the rain is unprecedentedly powerful, flooding several villages along the banks and drowns a number of cows and dogs.

When the rain stops, the temperature will skyrockets to its scorching point, driving all birds to the shade of the trees and all cows to the depth of the rivulets, or the cozy air-conditioned rooms. Nowadays, a fair number of people in the local villages could afford air-conditioners at home, a thing unimaginable to people a decade ago and not dreamed to old folks a score years ago. People have forgotten how they endured the equally burning summers in the past decades; youngsters now never go out to drown the heat in the cool deep river—how could that compare with lounging lazily in an air-conditioned room playing the compelling smartphones?

However, there are always some people who are unable to enjoy the fruits of modernity and civility. Ting and Hua are two of them. Ting is Ze's mother, at the age of 81. Hua is 44, the youngest son of Ting. Bot Ting and Hua dwell under the roof of Ze, the elder brother of Hua and his domineering wife Zhen. In the eye of Zhen, Hua is useful but cowardly, thus deserving no respect but just commands, and Ting is old and weak and therefore deserves instant death. Due to his soft character, Hua got no wife when he was a young man and remains single all the time. That doubles the contempt from people like Zhen, his sister-in-law. He is treated nothing more than a slave. Hua's health has been eroded by long time hard labour and lack of nutritious food and chronic ailments suffer him a lot. The government launched a programme several years ago, supporting the old or sick bachelors, widows/widowers, orphans and disable people with some funds. Hua could get some 80,000 yuan each year, but all the money go to the hand of his sister-in-law. Not a single sense of guilt haunts Zhen. She just keeps driving Hua to labour in any weather.

It was a burning noon; the sun heated the earth ruthlessly and even cicadas were exhausted by the hot weather to sing their songs. Hua set out to the field very early that morning to avoid the heat waves with having breakfast. At noon, he returned and his sister-in-law cursed him at the sight of him: you lazy bones! How dare you leave my cows in the field in a burning weather like this? Go back to drive the cows to the rivulet! You shall wait to see if my cows have sunstroke!

Zhen was playing Mahjong in the air-conditioned room when she was cursing. Hua was crestfallen when he was back to the field with an empty and thirsty stomach.  

In about 3pm, a neighbour went out to see his cows in the field. He saw a pair of worn shoes along the cement channel of irrigation, which was completely dry due to the temperature near 40 C. Curiosity drew him near and then he saw a figure in the channel. It almost scared the hell out of him, for the figure seemed so daunting: it was frozen in the poise of struggling with its limbs.Going nearer, the neighbour found the figure in the ditch-like channel was poor Hua. He drew him out of the ditch but found breath had left him for some time. The neighbour went back to report with a very heavy heart, for he knew Hua was killed by heat, thirst, hunger, and ruthlessness. But nobody could do anything.

One day after Hua's death, a storm attacked the area and the river flooded. Another neighbour saw a figure jump into the bellowing flood from a bridge.

The next day, people found Hua's mother missing.

A new resident's impression on Toronto, Canada

Finally landed on this foreign but friendly land. Yes, friendly is the feeling I gained after being here for a little more than ten days. Most cars await us at crossings; most pedestrians on the streets are polite and many will hold doors to you or will thank you if you also do so; most passengers are graceful while entering the subway trains and they either read or listen to something when they are in; most stuff in the agencies and shops are professional and polite. In addition, the sky is blue when it is dry and the water in the great lake seems clean. Prices of commodities at markets are generally acceptable with some being amazingly cheap (like strawberry and some grapes). 

This city seems dynamic, diversified and convenient. The possibility for us to come across a person from our motherland on the street may be bigger than that to come across a provincefellow on the street of another province on the motherland.

But there are problems. The property price in and near downtown is too high, no matter to rent or buy. Yet this is a problem plaguing most metropolises in the world, especially in the country we are from. The next big problem is it takes time, patience and luck to secure a nice position. We just settled down and we will work on that soon. What is more, the transportation is also costly compared to that in our homecountry. It is understandably so for we know the country we are from invests heavily on public transportation. Though more expensive, the public vehicles are not always breathtakingly crowded and it is worth the fare. 

Another bonus here is the lovely and lively carefree animals like the squirrels and birds. They don't need to worry about being caught and cooked. People here have sufficient food and mercy on the little wild things.

Actually, I assume the number one attraction here is the order set by the rule of law. The clean water and air, the polite and kind people and nice environment as well as the unblocked access to all the social media and searching engine are all products and by-products of the institution: rule of law. I donot know if democracy and equality are also the products of the rule of law, but I am quite certain that without rule of law, democracy and equality will be seriously undermined. This surely is the reason why people of so many races and nations choose to come and stay here.