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CHARTRES, France— Lance Armstrong is skipping the Athens Olympics, saying he needs to spend more time with his children.

Armstrong is bidding for4 a record sixth straight Tour de France5 title, but had planned to ride for the United States next month at the Summer Games.

" I've thought a lot about this and the

answer is, I shouldn't even say ' probably not, ' I should say ' no, ' " Armstrong said Thursday when asked about his plans following the Tour de France _. on July 25.

Armstrong was 13th in the road race at the 2000 Sydney Games and won a bronze medal in the time trial — his first medal in three Olympics. 6

The Texan said he spent two months away from his children in the spring and another three months apart before the Tour de France, cycling's three-week showcase7 .

"It's really hard to do, and so I want to go home," he said. "I've done the Olympics many times, and if I don't have 100 percent motivation for some-thing that's an important event, a very important event, then I don't want to take somebody else's spot. "8

Armstrong has three children; Luke and twins Isabelle and Grace, with his former wife, Kristin.

"When this race is done, I'm going home and I have to be with my children," Armstrong said.

He said the Olympics, which start Aug. 13 , come "at an awkward time. "9

" I thought Sydney was at a terrible time, " he said. " Now, I would kill for the time frame of Sydney — to have it in late September. "10

Linda Armstrong, the cyclist's mother, said her son hasn't seen his three

children since about May 1. The children are living in Austin, Texas" , with Kristin.

"I know that he has missed his children terribly," Linda Armstrong told The Associated Press12 by phone from Dallas'3.

"That's what makes me so proud of my son. His family means more to him than his life. It's the sacrifice14 of his job, and it's just too long to be away from them. I know it's taken quite a toll on him. "

USA Cycling chief of staff Sean Petty said national officials have not formally heard about Armstrong's plans to give up his spot on the five-man road team for Athens.

"If this really is the case, we're disappointed," Petty said. "Lance is medal-capable every time he steps to the line." That removes'7 a potential medal opportunity for us, but we certainly respect and understand Lance's decision. "

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Then she started to return with her daughters-in-law from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the country of Moab that the LORD had considered his people and given them food. 780 she set out from the place where she had been living , she and her two daughters-in-law, and they went on their way to go back to the land of Judah. 8But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, "Go back each of you to your mother's house. May the LORD deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. The LORD grant that you may find security, each of you in the house of your husband. " Then she kissed them, and they wept aloud. They said to her, "No, we will return with you to your people." But Naomi said, "Turn back, my daughters, why will you go with me? Do I still have sons in my womb that they may become your husbands? i2Turn back, my daughters, go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. Even if I thought there was hope for me, even if I should have a husband tonight and bear sons, Swould you then wait until they were grown? Would you then refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, it has been far more bitter for me than for you, because the hand of the LORD has turned against me. " uThen they wept aloud a-gain. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.

15So she said, "See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law. " 16But Ruth said,

"Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you!

"Where you go, I will go; Where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God.

"Where you die, I will die—there will I be buried. May the LORD do thus and so to me, and more as well, if even death parts me from you!"

When Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more to her.

19So the two of them went on until they came to Bethle-hem. When they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them; and the women said, "Is this Nao¬mi?" 20She said to them,

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In small towns and big cities, children with names like Oswaldo, Suong, Boris or Ngam are swelling the name lists in U.S. public schools, sitting side by side with Dick and Jane. Immigration in the 1980' s brought about 9 million foreign - born people to the College English Tested States, slightly more than the great wave of 8.8 million immigrants that came between 1901 and 1910. As a result, at least 5 percent of the children have limited ability in English. In seven states, including Colorado, New Mexico, New York and Texas, 25 percent or more of the students are not native English speakers. As a result, says Eugene Garcia, a professor of the University of California, "there is no education topic of greater importance today."

How to teach in a school of so many different languages speakers? Many areas respond by expanding the two language education programs. In these classes, students are taught subjects like-social studies, science and math in their native language based on the theory that children

must develop a finn basis in their native language before they can learn school subjects in a new language. Educators say that even with two language education it takes between four and seven ears for a non native to reach national levels on ordinary tests of most subject material.

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It includes the two great classical languages of antiquity, Latin and Greek; the Germanic languages such as English, German, Dutch, and Swedish; the Romance languages such as Italian, French,Spanish,and Portuguese; the Celtic languages such as Welsh and Gaelic; the Slavic languages such as Russian, Polish. Czech, and Serbo-Croatian; the Baltic lan-guages , Lithuanina and Latvian; the Iranian languages such as

Persian and Pashto; the Indie languages such as Sanskirt ami Hindi;and other miscellaneous languages such as Albanian and Armenian. In Europe only Basque, Finnish, Estonian, Hungarian, Turkish, and a few languages of Russia are not of this family ; the others have apparently all descended from an original parent tongue.

Who were the original Indo-Europeans and when and where did they live? Since they left no written documents, which are, after all, the basis of history, the answers to these questions can be best obtained by attempting to reconstruct their language. If we may assume that a word that is similar in most of the Indo-European languages designates a concept that existed in the original Indo-European society and that, on the other hand,a word that varies in most Indo-European languages designates a concept not discovered until later, we may then draw certain tentative conclusions. It would appear that the In¬do-Europeans lived in a cold northern region; that it was not near the water, but among forests; that they raised such domestic animals as the sheep,the dog, the cow,arid the horse;that among wild animals they knew the bear and the wolf; and that among metals they probably knew only copper. Many believe that it was the use of the horse and chariot that enabled them to overrun such an enormous expanse of territory.

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There in the United States, before agricultural activities destroyed the natural balance, there were great migrations of Rocky Mountain locusts ( Melanoplus spretus). Great migrating hordes of these insects once darkened the skies on the plains east of the Rockies where crops were often destroyed; the worst years were those from 1874 to 1877. One of these migrating swarms was estimated to contain 1. 24 billion locusts. During another migration in Nebraska it was estimated that the swarm of locusts averaged half a mile high and was 100 miles wide and 300 miles long. Usually, these swarms take off from the ground against the wind, but, once airborne, they turn and fly with it. Warm convection currents help to lift them, often to great heights. During the great locust plagues the situation in Nebraska became so serious that the original state constitution had to be rewritten to take care of the economic problems. The new document was known as "The Grasshopper Constitution". It is now believed that these locusts were a migratory form or phase of the lesser migratory locust, which

is still common there. In this respect, the North American migratory locusts resemble their African relatives. In both regions the migratory forms arise as a result of crowding and climatic factors. Migratory forms are apparently natural adaptations which bring about dispersal when locust populations become too crowded. Fortunately for our farmers, the migratory form—the so-called spretus species—no longer seems to occur regularly, although there was a serious outbreak as late as 1938 in midwestern United States and Canada. Actually, there is no reason why the destructive migratory form might not again appear if circumstances should become favorable.

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Dr. William Berger of Mission Viejo, California, picked up on it two weeks later. That was just about when Dr. Donald Pulver of Rochester, New York, realized, as he puts it, that "everybody, including my wife, was complaining about itchy eyes, stuffy nose, dry cough—the classic signs of an allergy attack. " Classic , except that the allergy season wasn' t due

to begin for at least a month.

Then the pollen counts drifted in. More than 200 particles per cubic meter in Rochester, twice the normal high for early spring. In Mission Viejo the count was 171, and the olive trees hadn' t e-ren bloomed. "I had seven emergency patients in jne day, " says Wynn. " That' s worse than at the Deak of ragweed season. ".

Allergies in February? Record pollen counts n March? Blame it on—what else? —El Nino, he warm patch of Pacific water that has played lavoc with the world' s weather for months. Phanks to an extremely mild winter, trees across nuch of the U. S.—including maple, alder, cot-onwood and oak—are budding two to three weeks arly, filling the air with their irritating pollen. Ldd torrential rains, which have produced bump-r crops of wildflowers and grasses in the South-ast, along the Gulf Coast and in Southern Cali-jrnia, and you have the makings of what some xperts predict will be the worst allergy season in 0 years.

Not only has the sneezing started earlier, but Iso it' s likely to last longer than usual. The two lain brakes on high pollen counts are extreme old and scorching heat, both of which seem to be smote possibilities this year. Even last week' s aid snap did not kill enough tree buds in the lidwest. Nor is Texas expected to experience its sual blast-furnace summer, which in most years in be counted on to bum away enough pollenroducing plants to give the state a break in July id August.

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A record-breaker on many levels, Carl Lewis in 1984 became the first man to win four gold medals at the same Olympic Games.

There was another four with which Lewis made history: in 1996, against the odds2, he leapt to a record fourth consecutive Olympic long jump title to become only the third Olympic athlete in any sport ever to win four straight titles in the same event.

Lewis is also the only man to have retained the 100m title, though that came not without a little controversy3. Having won the crown in 1984, Lewis lined up as the favourite in Seoul, 1988, but could not cope with the might of Ben Johnson, of Canada.4

Johnson sailed through the rounds and the semi-final5 and famously said: "When the gun goes, the race be over". Sure enough, a 9. 79sec world record took Johnson across the line a-head of Lewis.

Then came news that the Canadian had produced a drug-test urine sample6 containing metabolites7 of the banned anabolic steroid8. Johnson was suspended , his medal was stripped from him10 and Lewis made history.

The circumstances gave him little pleasure. Often criticised by the US media for being aloof and self-centred, Lewis showed compassion" for Johnson, stating:"! feel very sad for Ben and for the Canadian public. You can talk track up to a certain point. After that you talk people. Imagine the burden on Ben. Imagine what his family will go through. "

It was in the long jump that Lewis found lasting success. Having won the Olympic titles in 1984 and 1988, Lewis went to the world championships at Tokyo in 1991 as a clear contender for gold, and, after a leap of 8.91 m that made him the first man to go beyond Bob Beamon's12 staggering leap at the 1968 Games, he looked as though his achievements would stretch to "immortal"13 status.

It was not to be. The jump was deemed to have been wind-assisted and was disallowed. To add insult to injury, Lewis then went from elation to depression as he watched the wind drop and his team-mate leap 8. 95m to take the world title and wrest the record from Beamon's grasp. 14

Lewis was not one to be beaten, however. He returned to win the Olympic long jump title in 1992 and 19%. In Atlanta, on the occasion of his record fourth long jump title, Lewis referred to his career as spanning "14 hairstyles".

He had achieved sporting immortality not only in his four Olympic leaps but because his last victory represented his ninth gold medal.

After winning his 1996 title, Lewis knelt over the sand pit into which he had leapt to greater fame , and scooped some sand up into a plastic bag to keep as a souvenir15. He then announced his retirement.

While in Athens the former Olympian from America intended to enjoy the sporting events "I'd like to see some other sports that I have never before seen like rowing and maybe archery". I can't imagine the precision17 of some of those sports. " When asked what makes a great Olympian , Lewis responded ; " Someone that enjoys the experience and leaves there different-a different person. All my Olympic experiences were totally different. And I am a better person because of each one of them. If you can come here and meet people, you will have pride in the sense that you are at the greatest event in the world. And whether you win or not, you are among the greatest in the world. "

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You dream about being a movie star. You'll live in a big house in Hollywood, go to the Oscars® every year—and win! You'll be rich and famous. Wait a minute, you also hate having your photo taken, and you'] very shy, so how could you ever become a movie star?

Choosing the right career can be hard. Many people graduate from school or college not knowing what to do with their lives, and get a job without really thinking about it. For some, things work out fine, but others often find themselves stuck in a job they hate. Your working life lasts an averag of forty years, so it's important to find a job you like and feel enthusiastic

10 about. Luckily, there are many ways you can get help to do this.

The Australian website, www.careersonline.com, compares choosing a career with going to the movies. Before you see a movie, you find out

hat films are showing. The site suggests you should do the same with >ur career—find out what jobs are available and what your options are. ext, decide which movie you like best; if you're not a romantic person, >u won't want to see a love story. In other words, with your career, you ould decide which job will suit your personality. Finally, decide how to t movie tickets, and find out where the theater is before you go. With >ur career, you need to find information about where you can work, how uch you will earn, and how to get a job in that profession.

i, how do you start? Begin by asking yourself some questions. Some jobs quire you to have certain life experiences: Have you traveled overseas? o you have any extra certificates besides your degree, such as a first aid ense, for example? Your physical state and build2 can also affect which bs you can do. A person, for example, who is allergic3 to cats would probably never become a veterinarian.4 Flight attendants, firefighters, and •lice officers have to be over a certain height, and be physically fit. Your rsonality matters, too. Are you outgoing and extroverted, or shy and troverted? If you like working alone, a job that requires lots of imwork might not suit you.

loosing a career can take time and a lot of thought. However, when you iow you can look forward to working in your dream job, you'll be glad u thought it through.

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The answer depends on what kind of system is ultimately adopted. Two distinct types are on the drawing board. The first is a special-purpose lane system, in which certain lanes are reserved for automated vehicles. The second is a mixed traffic system : fully automated vehicles would share the road with partially automated or manually driven cars. A special-purpose lane system would require more extensive physical modifications to existing highways, but it promises the greatest gains in freeway capacity.

Under either scheme, the driver would specify the desired destination, furnishing this information to a computer in the car at the beginning of the trip or perhaps just before reaching the automated highway. If a mixed traffic system was in place, automated driving could begin whenever the driver was on suitably equipped roads. If special-purpose lanes were available, the car could enter them and join existing traffic in two different ways. One method would use a special ramp. As the driver approached the point of entry for the highway, devices installed on the roadside would electronically check the vehicle to determine its destination and ascertain that it had the proper automated equipment in good working order. Assuming it passed such tests, the driver would then be guided through a gate and toward an automated lane. In this case, the transition from manual to automated control would take place on the entrance ramp. An alternative technique could employ conventional lanes, which would be shared by automated and regular vehicles. The driver would steer onto the highway and move in normal fashion to a "transition" lane. The vehicles would then shift under computer control onto a lane reserved for automated traffic. (The limitation of these lanes to automated traffic would presumably be well respected, because all trespassers could be swiftly identified by authorities. )

Either approach to joining a lane of automated traffic would harmonize the movement of newly entering vehicles with those already travelling automatic control here should allow for smooth merging without the usual uncertainties and potential for accidents. And once a vehicle had settled into automated travel, the driver would be free to release the wheel, open the morning paper or just relax.

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Try to imagine the consequences of such a transformation. People might not be able to stay alive: knowing neither joy nor pleasure, anxiety nor fear, they would be as likely to repeat acts that hurt them as acts that were beneficial. They could not learn; they could not benefit from experience because this emotionlessness would lack rewards and punishments. Society would soon disappear; people would be as likely to harm one another as to provide help and support. Human relationships would not exist; in a world without friends or enemies, there could be no marriage, affection among companions, bonds among members of groups. Society's economic underpinnings would be destroyed: since earning $ 10 million would be no more pleasant than earning $ 10, there would be no incentive to work. In fact, there would be no incentives of any kind. For as we will see, incentives imply a capacity to enjoy them.

In such a world, the chances that the human species would survive are next to zero, because emotions are the basic instrument of our survival and adaptation. Emotions structured the world for us in important ways. As individuals, we categorize objects on the basis of our emotions. True, we consider the length, shape, size, or texture, but an object's physical aspects are less important than what it has done or can do to us—hurt us, surprise us, anger us or make us joyful. We also use categorization colored by emotions in our families, communities, and overall society. Out of our emotional experiences with objects and events comes a social feeling of agreement that certain things and actions are "good" and others are "bad", and we apply these categories to every aspect of our social life—from what foods we eat and what clothes we wear to how we keep promises and which people our group will accept. In fact, society exploits our emotional reactions and attitudes, such as loyalty, morality, prize, shame, guilt, fear and greed, in order to maintain itself. It gives high rewards to individuals who perform important tasks such as surgery, make heroes out of individuals for unusual or dangerous achievements such as flying fighter planes in a war, and uses the legal and penal system to make people afraid to engage in antisocial acts.

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