For more than six million American children, coming home after school means coming home to an empty house. Some of them watch TV at 1. Some of them may hide themselves in2places. But all of them have 3in common. They spend part of each day 4. They're called latchkey children. The latchkey children 5 to look after themselves while their parents work.
Lynette Long was once the 6of a junior middle school. She said, “We have made a school rule against 7 jewellery. A lot of children had chains(串) with keys8their necks. I was 9 telling them to put them inside their shirts. There were so many keys that I didn't understand what they 10.” Slowly, she learned that they were 11 keys. She and her husband began 12these children. They 13that fear is the biggest problem 14 by children at home alone. Over 30% of the latchkey children were worried about their own 15.
The designer of the Apple Computer, Steve Jobs, was not quite successful in his early years. He was not among the best students at school, and from time to time he got into trouble with either his schoolmates or his teachers. But he was full of new ideas, which few people saw the value of. Things remained the same when he went up to college and he dropped out halfway.
Steve Jobs worked first as a video game designer at Atari. He worked there for only a few months and then he set out to tour India He hoped that the trip would give him more ideas and give him a change in life for the better.
After he returned from India, he began to live on a farm in California. And then, in 1975, Steve Jobs set about making a new type of computer. Along with his friend Stephen Wozniak, he designed the Apple Computer in his bedroom and built it in his garage(车库). He chose the name 'Apple' because it reminded him of a happy summer he once spent on an orchard(果园) in Oregon. His Apple Computer was so successful that Steve Jobs soon became worldwide famous. But unluckily, he died of illness in 2012.
I will never forget the lesson about my window. Four years ago, I moved to a house in a large town. One of my new neighbors' house was only a few feet away from mine. There lived a woman. Through one of my windows, I could see her reading by her window every afternoon
Several months later, I found I couldn't see the woman clearly. I thought her window was too dirty. I said to myself, 'Why doesn't she clean her window? It looks terrible!
One afternoon, I decided to clean my house including(包括) the window. I felt tired after three hours of hard work. So I sat down by the window for a rest. What a surprise! I could see the woman reading there clearly again! By that time, I realized that my own window was too dirty, not hers! I really felt ashamed for myself. I had been watching her through my dirty window in the past days!
The experience is very important for me. So I try to clean the window of my heart before judging(评判) others,
Gift giving is different from culture to culture and person to person.
When giving gifts, sometimes color is important. For example, for many Chinese people around the world, red is a lucky color, and people often like to wrap gifts in this color. However, did you know that in Korea, red is a color of death? That is why you should not wrap（包装） your gifts in this color if you are giving a gift to a Korean person. What about western countries? In western countries, the color of wrapping paper is not really important. But color does matter when giving flowers, especially roses. You should not give red roses to a western person you don't know very well because they are a symbol of love. You could give yellow roses instead as these are a symbol of friendship. You could also send pink roses as gifts to say thank you.
What other things should you remember when giving gifts to someone from a different culture? Well, one thing you should keep in mind is the person's religion(宗教). When choosing a gift for a Muslim (穆斯林) or Jewish friend, you should never get food including pork, or things made from pigskin. Another thing that you should not get for a Muslim person is alcohol (酒).
