Psychologist Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris have researched a phenomenon, which they call “change blinders”. Their research shows how we sometimes focus on something else that is why we can’t see what is already in front of our eyes.

The “Invisible Gorilla” test is apparently their most popular one. In this test, Simons and Chabris asked the participants to watch a video of 2 groups of people ( one group wearing white T-shirts and one group wearing black T-shirts ) who passed basketballs around in a corridor. The two psychologists ordered the people to sum up how many times the white team passed the ball. While the two teams were passing their balls around, a person wearing a gorilla costume walked through the group and stopped to look at the camera. Simons and Chabris found out that roughly half of the research participants did not see the gorilla.

It just means how we can’t always trust our own brains. Even though we may believe we know what is going on, we can be unconscious of the large changes in our surroundings.

Since glass is not strong enough to make an entire building, they used some concrete to support the weight. But you cannot see the concrete, all you see is beer bottles. Some of the bottles are green and others are brown. The colors make beautiful patterns on the walls. Additionally, other decorations in the temple are made of old beer bottle caps.

And how about tires? Millions of tires are thrown away every year. They are a very good building material. They are tough and there are lots of them. Moreover, they can be stacked up like bricks to make walls. Rubber is very good insulation as well. Also, rubber houses are inexpensive to heat and to cool. Like the beer bottles in the temple in Thailand, tires need some extra support. That’s why some people fill them with sand. On the other hand, tires can burn, so if you are worried about the fire in your tire house, you can cover the tires with concrete and paint them.

Guess what! We want to hold a farewell party for you. I’m going to invite our teachers too. Do you have any plans on Sunday afternoon? Tell us your schedule.

Your friend,
Yun-ho

Hi, Yun-ho

Guess what! We want to __________ a __________ party for you. I’m going to __________ our teachers too. Do you have any plans on Sunday afternoon? Tell us your __________.

Your friend,
Yun-ho

Hi, Yun-ho

I enjoyed the event today. I’ve just tried some fair trade chocolate with my family. It was great. The children in today’s video don’t know that cacao is made into chocolate. They have never eaten chocolate themselves. I was surprised to hear that.

What can we do for those children? I think choosing fair trade products is one way to support them. Learning about the people behind the products is another. I was glad to learn about fair trade today. I want to learn more.

I enjoyed the event today. I’ve just __________ some fair trade chocolate with my family. It was great. The children in today’s video don’t know that cacao is made into chocolate. They have never __________ chocolate themselves. I was surprised _____ hear that.

What can we do for those children? I think choosing fair trade products is one way to __________ them. Learning about the people __________ the products is another. I was glad _____ learn about fair trade today. I want to learn more.

Hello, everyone. I’m Ando Saki. Look at this picture. This is Haruki, my brother. He lives in Australia. He studies at a university there. He speaks English very well. He sometimes teaches Japanese.

Hello, everyone. I’m Ando Saki. __________ this picture. This is Haruki, my __________. He lives in Australia. He studies at a __________ there. He __________ English very well. He sometimes __________ Japanese.

The architect Ban Shigeru uses paper tubes to make his buildings. It sounds like a strange idea, but he was not the first to build with paper. In 1922, an American named Elis Stenman built his whole house using newspapers. The house has a wooden frame, but everything else is newspapers. The papers are rolled up and painted to make them strong. The paper is excellent insulation so the house is cool in summer and warm in winter.

Stenman’s purpose for building with newspapers was to show people how much useful material we waste. Newspapers are not the only useful thing that we throw away. How about beer bottles? In 1984, monks at the Wat Pa Maha Chedi Kaew temple in Thailand helped each other to do something about the pollution in their area. The monks talked to the people and the businesses to donate their used beverage containers. The reason why they did this was that they wanted to show people how even old beer bottles could be useful, so they built their temple using a million glass beer bottles.

Our house was directly across the street from the entrance of a popular hospital in the city. We lived downstairs and rented the upstairs rooms to outpatients at the clinic. One summer evening as I was fixing supper, there was a knock at the door. I opened it to see a truly awful-looking man. “Why, he’s hardly taller than my eight-year-old,” I thought as I stared at the stooped, shriveled body. But the appalling thing was his face lopsided from swelling, red and raw. Yet his voice was pleasant as he said, “Good evening. I’ve come to see if you’ve a room for just one night. I came for a treatment this morning from the eastern shore, and there’s no bus ’till the morning.” He told me he’d been hunting for a room since noon but he had no success as no one seemed to have a room. “I guess it’s my face. I know it looks terrible, but my doctor says with a few more treatments…”

For a moment I hesitated, but his next words convinced me: “I could sleep in this rocking chair on the porch. My bus leaves early in the morning.” I told him we would find him a bed, but to rest on the porch. I went inside and finished getting supper. When we were ready, I asked the old man if he would join us “No thank you. I have plenty.” And he held up a brown paper bag. When I had finished the dishes, I went out on the porch to talk with him for a few minutes.

It didn’t take a long time to see that this old man had an oversized heart crowded into that tiny body. He told me he fished for a living to support his daughter, her five children, and her husband, who was hopelessly crippled from a back injury.
He didn’t tell it by way of complaint; in fact, every other sentence was prefaced with a thanks to God for a blessing. He was grateful that no pain accompanied his disease, which was apparently a form of skin cancer. He thanked God for giving him the strength to keep going. At bedtime, we put a camp cot in the children’s room for him. When I got up in the morning, the bed linens were neatly folded and the little man was out on the porch. He refused breakfast, but just before he left for his bus, haltingly, as if asking a great favor, he said, “Could I please come back and stay the next time I have a treatment? I won’t put you out a bit. I can sleep fine in a chair.” He paused a moment and then added, “Your children made me feel at home. Grownups are bothered by my face, but children don’t seem to mind.” I told him he was welcome to come again.

On his next trip he arrived a little after seven in the morning. As a gift, he brought a big fish and a quart of the largest oysters I had ever seen. He said he had shucked them that morning before he left so that they’d be nice and fresh. I knew his bus left at 4:00 a.m. and I wondered what time he had to get up in order to do this for us.In the years he came to stay overnight with us there was never a time that he did not bring us fish or oysters or vegetables from his garden. Other times we received packages in the mail, always by special delivery; fish and oysters packed in a box of fresh young spinach or kale, every leaf carefully washed.

Knowing that he must walk three miles to mail these, and knowing how little money he had made the gifts more precious. When I received these little remembrances, I often thought of a comment our next-door neighbor made after he left that first morning. “Did you keep that awful-looking man last night? I turned him away! You can lose roomers by putting up such people!”

Maybe we did lose roomers once or twice. But oh! If only they could have known him, perhaps their illnesses would have been easier to bear. I know our family always will be grateful to have known him; from him we learned what it was to accept the bad without complaint and the good with gratitude.

Recently I was visiting a friend who has a greenhouse. As she showed me her flowers, we came to the most beautiful one of all, a golden chrysanthemum, bursting with blooms. But to my great surprise, it was growing in an old dented, rusty bucket. I thought to myself, “If this were my plant, I’d put it in the loveliest container I had!” My friend changed my mind.
“I ran short of pots,” she explained, “and knowing how beautiful this one would be, I thought it wouldn’t mind starting out in this old pail. It’s just for a little while, till I can put it out in the garden.”

She must have wondered why I laughed so delightedly, but I was imagining just such a scene in heaven. “Here’s an especially beautiful one,” God might have said when he came to the soul of the sweet old fisherman. “He won’t mind starting in this small body.”