Notes:
bother 悩ます、うるさがらせる;
Braille (ブライユ)点字(法);

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I met a young blind woman on a train a couple of weeks ago. I watched her using a machine to read with her fingers. We both had to change trains, so I took her hand and helped her to the next platform. She told me that she was going from Yokohama to Kyoto by regular train. That takes more than eight hours, but it didn’t seem to bother her. She likes to read on the train. I found out that Japanese Braille (the kind of writing that blind people use to read) only uses “kana.” It must be difficult to read because Japanese has many words with the same pronunciation. ( by Prof. Douglas Jarrell)
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Notes:
platypus 【動】 カモノハシ;
chilly 冷たい;
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When I was 12 years old, I went to Australia for a school trip. I want to tell you about some of the interesting experiences I had on this one-week trip. One day, a man came to the hotel where my classmates and I were staying. He carried a big basket. He said, “There are some animals in this basket. Does anyone want to touch them?” Many of my classmates and I love cute animals, so we volunteered because we expected that there would be something cute in this basket, for example, a platypus or a baby koala. However, contrary to our expectations, there was a snake, a red frog and a baby crocodile. The man began to talk about them cheerfully. “This is a python. She loves to swallow big rats. That is a frog. He only lives in Australia, and he has deadly poison. And this is a crocodile. He is still a baby, so he is not dangerous.” And he said, “You are very lucky because I can wrap this python around your neck!” For the first time in my life, I wrapped a python around my neck. The snake was chilly, and I was very scared．I touched the stomach of the crocodile. It was soft, and it made me think of wallets. There were times when I was very scared, but I had a lot of good times in Australia. I want to visit the country again someday! (written by student Mr. I, edited by Prof. Douglas Jarrell)
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