When we read books we seem to enter a new world. This new world can be similar to the one we are living in, or it can be very1. Some stories are told 2 they were true. Real people who live in a 3 world do real things; in other words, the stories are about people just like us doing what we do. Other stories, such as the Harry Potter books, are not 4 . They are characters and creatures that are very different from us and do things that would be 5for us.
But there is more to books and writing than this. If we think about it, even realistic writing is only 6. How can we tell the difference between what is real and what is not real? For example, when we read about Harry Potter, we7 seem to learn something about the real world. And when Harry studies magic at Hogwarts, he also learns more about his real life than8. Reading, like writing, is an action. It is a way of 9 . When we read or write something, we do much more than simple look at words on a page. We use our 10--which is real—and our imagination—which is real in a different way — to make the words come to life in our minds.
Both realism and fantasy(幻想) 11 the imagination and the “magic” of reading and writing to make us think. When we read 12realistic, we have to imagine that the people we are reading about are just like us, even though we13 that we are real and they are14. It sounds 15 , but it works. When we read, we fill in missing information and16 about the causes and effects of what a character does. We help the writer by 17 that what we read is like real life. In a way, we are writing the book, too.
Most of us probably don't think about what is going on in our18 when we are reading. We pick up a book and lose 19 in a good story, eager to find out what will happen next. Knowing how we feel20 we read can help us become better readers, and it will help us discover more about the real magic of books.
Compassion is a desire within us to help others. With effort, we can translate compassion into action. An experience last weekend showed me this is true. I work part-time in a supermarket across from a building for the elderly. These old people are our main customers, and it's not hard to lose patience over their slowness. But last Sunday, one aged gentleman appeared to teach me a valuable lesson. This untidy man walked up to my register(收款机) with a box of biscuits. He said he was out of cash(现金), had just moved into his room, and had nothing in his cupboards. He asked if we could let him have the food on trust. He promised to repay me the next day.
I couldn't help staring at him. I wondered what kind of person he had been ten or twenty years before, and what he would be like if luck had gone his way. I had a hurt in my heart for this kind of human soul, all alone in the world. I told him that I was sorry, but store rules didn't allow me to do so. I felt stupid and unkind saying this, but I valued my job.
Just then, another man, standing behind the first, spoke up. If anything, he looked more pitiable. "Charge it to me," was all he said.
What I had been feeling was pity. Pity is soft and safe and easy. Compassion, on the other hand, is caring in action. I thanked the second man but told him that was not allowed either. Then I reached into my pocket and paid for the biscuits myself. I reached into my pocket because these two men had reached into my heart and taught me compassion.
Millions of people visit Yosemite National Park every year to see the tall waterfalls and mountains. These mountains are a splendid sight when viewed from the valley floor. Lots of stores, hotels, and restaurants are needed to handle the crowds. Also, water, roads, and other service systems are part of the infrastructure(基础设施)that must be maintained.
Unfortunately, these systems are starting to break down. It is not just in Yosemite but in national parks around the nation.
Yosemite is thirty years old according to Dennis Galvin, a National Park Service worker. The park is not only old but worn out. Two or three times as many visitors come every year. That is too many visitors for the park to deal with.
Four years ago a storm washed out a water pipeline in the Grand Canyon. The National Park Service had to send water trucks to provide water for the visitors. Last month pipe almost broke again and roads had to be closed for a while.
Why hasn't the National Park Service kept up the park repairs? There is lack of money. The United States has 378 mountains, parks, and wilderness areas. Between three and four billion dollars are needed for repairs.
Yosemite is one national park that does have money for repairs. It has two hundred million dollars but cannot spend it any way it chooses. When the park workers started widening the road, they were forced to stop by the Sierra Club. The club claimed that the road work was damaging the Merced River that runs through the park. A Sierra Club lawyer, Julia Olson, feels that the infrastructure needs to be moved out of Yosemite. That way less pressure will be put on the already crowed park.
When Lew Alcindor was 13, and obviously still growing, a group of schools began offering him scholarships (奖学金). The Alcindors decided to send their only child to Power Memorial Academy, a small school on Manhattan's West Side.
At Power, Alcindor came under the control of Coach Jack Donohue, a strict young an who already gained his fame as one of the best coaches in the city. Donohue brought Alcindor along slowly. As a first-year student, the boy was not able to do much but wave his long skinny arms and shoot a basket now and then. But by the second year, when he was 15 years old and nearly 7 feet tall, Alcindor was quick and skillful enough to make the high school All-American team and to lead Power to an undefeated season.
From then on he simply got better. Some rival coaches(对方教练) used to take their teams quickly away from the floor before Power warmed up so that their players would not see him any sooner than they had to. Wearing size 16 D shoes and sucking a lollipop(棒棒糖), Alcindor would loosen up by starting his leaping lay-ups(擦板球). Then he would casually shoot the ball with either hand, to the delight of the fans.
When reporters and photographers began to follow Alcindor closely, Donohue protected his boy firmly. He simply ordered Lew to talk to no member of the press, and this suited Lew fine. He was not comfortable talking to grown-ups, perhaps because he towered over them. Discouraged photographers began following him in secret as though he were an easily-frightened giraffe. Once after ducking into a subway to escape, Alcindor told a friend that it was all becoming like policemen and robbers. “People want you not for yourself,” Donohue warned him, “but because you're a basketball player. Don't forget that.”
Supermarkets are trying out new computers that make shopping carts more intelligent(具备智能的). They will help shoppers find paper cups or toilet soap, and keep a record of the bill.
The touch-screen devices(触摸屏装置) are on show at the Food Marketing Institute's exhibition here this week, "These devices are able to create value and get you around the store quicker," said Michael Alexander, manager of Springboard Retail Networks Inc., which makes a smart cart computer called the Concierge.
Canadian stores will test the Concierge in July. A similar device, IBM's "Shopping Buddy", has recently been test-marketed at Stop & Shop stores in Massachusetts.
Neither device tells you how many fat grams or calories are in your cart, but they will flash you with items on sale. The idea is to make it easier for people to buy, not to have second thoughts that maybe you should put something back on the shelf.
"The whole model is driven by advertisers' need to get in front of shoppers," said Alexander. "They're not watching 30-second TV ads anymore."
People can use a home computer to make their shopping lists. Once at the store, a shopper can use a preferred customer card to start a system(系统) that will organize the trip around the store. If you're looking for toothpicks, you type in the word or pick it from a list, and a map will appear on the screen showing where you are and where you can find them.
The device also keeps a record of what you buy. When you're finished, the device figures out your bill. Then you go to the checker or place your card into a self-checkout stand and pay.
The new computerized shopping assistants don't come cheap. The Buddy devices will cost the average store about $160,000, and the Concierge will cost stores about $500 for each device.
a. Start the system. b. Make a shopping list.
c. Find the things you want. d. Go to a self-checkout stand.
60％的同学认为
1）不应该收门票
2）公园是公众休闲的地方
3）如收门票，需建大门、围墙，会影响城市形象
40％的同学认为
1）应收门票，但票价不要太高
2）支付园林工人工资
3）购新花木
注意：1）信的开头已为你写好。
2）词数：100左右。
3）参考词汇：门票—entrance fee
Dear Editor,
I'm writing to tell you about the discussion we have had about whether an entrance fee should be charged for parks. ……
