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Mei-ting is from a small village in Nantou. Last week she and her brother came to Kaohsiung to stay with their grandparents. Their house in Nantou fell down in a terrible typhoon. Their parents had to stay in Nantou to take care of their little sister in the hospital. She was seriously hurt when the house fell down.

Mei-ting and her brother now go to a new school in Kaohsiung. Everyone in the school is nice to them, but Mei-ting feels sad because they have to stay in Kaohsiung for a long time, until their new house is built. She misses her classmates in Nantou very much. They are wonderful friends, and their letters have made her feel much better. Mei-ting also misses her parents and her little sister. She hopes she can see them again soon.

What does the word family mean to you? An American study in 2006 showed that people today 29. Over 99% of the people who were interviewed agree that a husband, a wife, and a child are a family. At the same time, 94% see a parent with a child as a family, 91% say a husband and a wife, without children, are a family, and 81% think a man and a woman, with a child, but not married, are a family too.

The study also found that 30 is very important in the modern thinking on family. Though 81% think a man and a woman, not married, with a child, are a family, the percentage (%) drops to 40% if the couple doesn’t have a child. This is also true with same-sex couples. About 60% see two men, or two women, with a child, as a family, but only 32% think so when the couple doesn’t have a child.

In the study, those who see two men or two women that live together as a family often find it OK for same-sex couples to get married. 31. However, not everyone opens their arms to same-sex couples: the study said 30% have no problem seeing pets as part of one’s family, but they do not think a same-sex couple is a family.

The grizzly is the star of our little town in the mountains. Many people visit here for this kind of strong large brown bear. When a grizzly grows up, it may become as heavy as 680 kg. But never think this gigantic animal moves slowly. In fact, the grizzly can run as fast as 55 km an hour.

Though grizzlies look quite big and dangerous, they eat not only meat, but also flowers and grasses. Fish is their favorite food. On summer nights, they enjoy catching fish in the rivers. That is why people usually come watching grizzlies in this season.

Now the number of grizzlies is getting smaller because they have been killed by people who sell grizzly body parts as medicine. Many people of our town are worried about this and have asked for help to save our big friends.

Did you know the meaning of a word may change over time? Many English words we know now had different meanings a long time ago. One example is the word nice.

Around the year 1300, nice was first used in English to mean ‘stupid.’ Two hundred years later, nice began to carry a “better” meaning. If people said a book was written nicely, they meant the book was written ‘clearly’ or ‘carefully,’ not ‘stupidly.’ After 1800, nice began to take its modern meanings like ‘kind’ or ‘friendly.’ Since then, people have thought of nice as a word with “good” meanings.

A “good” change of a word’s meaning like this example of nice is called AMELIORATION. Though we don’t use nice to mean ‘stupid’ anymore, it is fun to know how much a word’s meaning can change from its start!

For more examples of AMELIORATION, see next page.

Greg had a bad day. He was late for school, and in the rush he forgot his homework at home. He didn't think his teacher believed him when he said he did it, even though he spent all night on it. Then he fell asleep during the pop quiz in history class and turned in a paper with just his name on it. During baseball practice he missed catching a ball and the other team won the game. That night he had so much homework to do that he didn't _____ until bedtime, and because of that he missed his favorite television show. Greg hoped tomorrow would be a better day.