science – Fun for Fluency!

Love in 1860 (An Easy English Story): Part 5

February 25, 1861

Dear reader,

The snow is melting. I can hear more birds in the morning.

And I am going to leave this house in the spring.

My plan is simple. I don’t want to stay here anymore.

When the weather is warm, I will tell David and Elizabeth, “I am going to pick berries in the woods.” I will hide food under my skirt. I will leave and never come back.

We are living in Virginia. If I walk north, maybe I can go to New York. I think New York did not have slaves in 1861. In movies, some people hide on trains. Maybe I can find a train to New York. I can hide in the back with the animals. I can sleep in the hay.

After David talked with the neighbors in December, I did not talk with him for three weeks. He and Elizabeth were worried. They said, “Don’t be angry. We need to keep you safe. You are not our slave. But if other people know that you are not our slave, they will try to take you. A black woman living with a white family is not normal. Maybe you are from the north. Did any memories come back?”

Not normal.

My mom’s parents were from Nigeria. My dad’s parents were from England and Mexico. Mom and Dad got married in 1997. This life is very normal for me.

I can’t tell this to David and Elizabeth. They can’t know that I am from 2025.

Last week, David gave me a book. It had many pictures in it. “These are pictures of cities in the north. Maybe you can remember your home.”

I looked at the pictures. I pointed to a picture of New York City. “Maybe this was my home…” I lied.

After seeing that picture, I decided to leave after the winter.

Yours truly,
Grace Miller

Part 6>

See the World: Part 5

See the World (An Easy English Story): Part 5

Neil looks in the mirror and takes out the lenses. The lenses are smooth and light just like regular contact lenses, but if Neil looks closely he can see thin wires in the lenses. They look like a spider web. With the wires, Neil’s eyes can see cells and diseases. A year ago, a man called Alvin Muller found a special part of the brain. Scientists now call it Muller’s Area. Animals like dogs and bees use Muller’s Area to “smell” diseases. Humans have Muller’s Area in their brains too, but it is weaker than in animals’ brains. Alvin Muller created the lenses to send messages to Muller’s Area. Animals’ noses send messages to the brain when they “smell” disease. With the lenses, humans’ eyes can send messages to the brain when they “see” disease.

Before the lens, scientists from Hunan used genome editing. They helped many people with diseases in their DNA. Neil believes that genome editing is like fixing a car. When a person fixes a car, he does not destroy the car. Instead, he replaces the broken parts of it. For example, if the engine does not work, he takes out the engine and puts in a new one. In the same way, with genome editing, doctors can take out the diseased DNA and put in healthy DNA.

The scientists in Hunan were 99% successful. In every patient, genome editing destroyed most of the disease. But the scientists couldn’t find all of the disease inside the patients’ bodies. About 1% of the disease stayed in the body, and after a few months, the diseases became bad again. That’s why Dr. Alvin Muller created the lens. The lens helped doctors find 100% of every disease.

In a year, the lens was used for fourteen surgeries in different countries. All surgeries succeeded. Today’s surgery was the fifteenth, and it was Neil’s first surgery with the lens.

Part 6>