Young people and older people don't always agree. But in one special programme in New York State, adults and teenagers live together in a friendly way.
Each summer 200 teenagers and 50 adults live together for eight weeks as members of a special work group. Everyone works several hours each day. They do so not just to keep busy but to find meaning and enjoyment in work. Some teenagers work in the woods or on the farms near the village. Some learn to make things like tables and chairs and build houses. The adults teach them these skills.
There are several free hours each day. Weekends are free too. During the free hours some of the teenagers learn phototaking or painting. Each teenager chooses his own way to spend his free time.
In this programme the teenagers and the adults make the rules together. If someone breaks a rule, the problem goes before the whole group. They talk about it and ask, "Why did it happen? What should we do about it?"
One of the teenagers has this to say about his experience, "You stop thinking only about yourself. "
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A. We soon became good friends. B. When people live together, rules are necessary. C. They sometimes have different ideas about living, working and playing. D. You learn to think about the group. E. Others sit around and talk or sing. F. As I had few friends there, I felt lonely. |
Esperanza lives in a poor Latino(拉丁美洲的) neighbourhood in Chicago, America. She dreams of having her own house one day. Her parents told her that when they moved from their last house, they would have a new and shiny(亮闪闪的) house. But the house is small and old.
Many people live in Mango Street, in a big old house, Esperanza lives behind it with her family. A lot of the people who have come from Mexico don't speak English. Many miss their home country. Esperanza understands their sadness, but she also feels at home in America. She is an American, but her roots(根) will always be Latino.
Esperanza is young. Like her friends, she has to grow up fast. She is stuck between being a girl and being a woman. In the poor and dangerous area where she lives, this is difficult for her. Mexican people usually live in a close neighbourhood. This means that people live packed(挤塞的) in together. Everyone knows everyone else. So Esperanza knows other older girls that do things she is not comfortable doing. It is just a fact of her life.
But Esperanza has good friends too. She becomes friends with two sisters named Lucy and Rachel. They ride bikes and have adventures(冒险) together. Esperanza is also friends with a girl named Alicia. Alicia is afraid of the rats in her apartment. She shares her poems with Esperanza.
The Mid-Autumn Festival is a very important Chinese festival. It falls on the 15th day of the eighth month of lunar calendar. A few days before the festival, everyone in the family will help to make the house clean and beautiful. Lanterns will be hung in front of the house.
On the evening of the festival there will be a big family dinner. People who work far away from their homes will try to come back for the reunion (团聚). After dinner, people will light the lanterns which are usually bright and round. Children will play with their own toy lanterns happily.
At night the moon is usually round and bright. People can enjoy the moon while eating mooncakes which are the special food for this festival.
Father's Day is celebrated on the third Sunday of June in the US and the UK. Sonora Smart Dodd, a loving daughter from Spokane, had the good idea that society must celebrate a day to honour fathers, because they make important contributions to the raising of children.
People celebrate the festival by honouring their fathers and expressing love to them by giving popular gifts like cards, flowers, chocolate and ties. Little children often give handmade gifts to their dads.
In 1978, I was working as a nurse in a small town about 270km away from Sydney, Australia. I was looking forward to having five days off from duty. Unluckily, the one train a day to my home in Sydney had already left. So I thought I'd get a ride.
I waited by the side of the highway for three hours, but no one stopped for me. Finally, a man walked over and introduced himself as Gordon. He said that although he couldn't give me a lift, I should come back to his house for lunch. He noticed me standing for hours in the November heat and thought I must be hungry. I was doubtful as a young girl but he promised me I was safe, and he also offered to help me find a lift afterwards. When we arrived at his house, he made me sandwiches. After lunch, he helped me find a lift home.
Twenty-five years later, while I was driving to a nearby town one day, I saw an elderly man standing in the glaring heat, trying to get a ride. I thought it was another chance to repay(回报) someone for the kindness I'd been given many years earlier. I pulled over and picked him up. I made him comfortable on the back seat and offered him some water.
After a few moments of small talk, the man said to me, "You haven't changed a bit, even your red hair is still the same."
I couldn't remember where I'd met him. He then told me he was the man who had given me lunch and helped me find a lift all those years ago. It was Gordon.
①The author drove to a nearby town.
②Gordon made sandwiches for the author.
③The author picked an old man up and offered water.
④The author realized the old man was Gordon.
⑤Gordon helped the author find a lift home.
Spiderman is one of the most famous comic book heroes of all time. He was created by Stan Lee in 1963 and was first introduced to the world in the pages of Marvel comic books.
Spiderman's story is the story of Peter Parker, a child who lost his parents and lives with his aunt and uncle. Peter is a shy, quiet boy wearing glasses and has few friends. One day, on a high school class trip to a science lab, he gets bitten by a special spider. Soon Peter realizes he has amazing powers. He is as strong and quick as a spider and also has a type of sixth sense. He no longer needs his glasses and he can use his super power to fly through the city streets! Remembering something his Uncle Ben has told him, that "with great power, there must also come great responsibility(责任 )," Peter decides to use his powers to fight enemies who do cruel things to people. And so, Spiderman is born.
Life is not easy for Peter even though he is a superhero. He is in love with Mary Jane but cannot tell her about his amazing powers. Besides, his best friend Harry hates Spiderman! Peter' is also short of money and time. He has to sell photos of Spiderman (himself) to a newspaper and he keeps losing his other jobs because he's so busy saving people! Yet he has to fight different kinds of cruel enemies.
Sometimes I really doubt whether there is love between my parents. Every day they don't act in the romantic ways that I read in books or I see on TV. In their opinion, "I love you" is too luxurious for them to say. Sending flowers on Valentine's Day is even more out of the question.
One day, my mother was sewing a quilt（被子）."Mom, I have a question to ask you." "What?" she replied, still doing her work. "Is there love between you and Dad?"
My mother stopped her work and raised her head with surprise in her eyes. Then she said, "Susan, look at this thread. Sometimes it appears, but most of it disappears in the quilt. The thread really makes the quilt strong and durable. If life is a quilt, then love should be a thread. Love is inside."
I listened carefully but I couldn't understand until the next spring. At that time, my father suddenly got sick seriously. After they were back from the hospital, my mother helped him walk slowly on the beautiful country road every morning. My father had never been so gentle. But after two months he still couldn't walk by himself. All of us were worried about him." Dad, how are you feeling now?" I asked him one day. "Susan, don't worry about me," he said gently. "To tell you the truth, I just like walking with your mom. "Reading his eyes, I know he loves my mother deeply.
Once I thought love meant flowers, gifts and sweet kisses. But from this experience, I understand that love is just a thread in the quilt of our life. Love is inside, making life strong and warm.
In Germany, there is a special museum. It is the only one of this kind in the world and few people know it. Every year，the number of people who come to visit the museum is only one thousand. What kind of museum is it?
It is a museum about taxes (税收).In this museum，you can see the history of taxes and all kinds of taxes in different countries in the world. After visiting the museum，people can draw a conclusion(得出结论).That is from 3000 B.C.(公元前)，the kings，dictators(独裁者)and finance ministers(财政部长)could tax people freely. They taxed people heavily because of such things as wars，weddings(婚礼)or road building. They needed money and they got money by taxing their citizens (公民).In the early times of Egypt，farmers had to pay heavy taxes if the water level(水面)of the River Nile rose. The kings said that if the water level rose，there would be much more earth in farmers' fields. So the farmers could get a good harvest and they should pay more taxes.
A strange kind of tax—Window Tax appeared(出现)in England. It lasted more than one hundred years. How? If there were more windows in the wall，the people must pay more taxes. So in those years, people built as few windows as possible in the wall.
Russian people once paid a tax for their beards (胡子).The people who had paid this tax would get a special piece of paper. But what about the people who didn't pay for their beards? Of course，their beards would be cut. But without a beard for a man is a way to scorn(蔑视)God. He would also be punished.
Two years ago, my family moved to a new city and I had to study in a new school. As I had few friends there, I felt lonely. Then I met Tony. The first time I saw him, he was standing in the centre of a group of students, telling jokes. The children around laughed from time to time. Tony knew about my problem. He asked me to play basketball with his friends and helped me with my studies. We soon became good friends.
About a year ago, however, Tony's father was killed in an accident. As a result, his family had to move into a small house. Tony changed into a different person. He became silent and he even lost his interest in studies. Several times, I invited him to go out and play basketball with me, but he refused. I wanted to help him, but I didn't know what to do.
Then something strange happened in my class. Two classmates lost the money in their schoolbags.
Last Friday, just before the P.E. lesson, I went back to the classroom to get my running shoes I would use. The door was half open, and I went in. To my astonishment, I saw Tony was searching one of my classmates' schoolbags. I was shocked.
Once, Einstein gave a lecture in a university. After his speech, the audience started asking questions.
A girl asked, "Do you think you're a giant of science？" Einstein said with a smile, "A giant is a person who is tall in height. You see I'm so small, how can I be a giant? Maybe I see a bit farther, only because I stand higher！"Then a boy asked, "You mentioned you stand higher than the others. It reminds me that you had a talk with a lady on the top of the Alps (阿尔卑斯山).I don't want to ask what you talked, but I want to know whether you realised you have been a top in the history of science when you stood on the top." Looking at the boy carefully, Einstein replied, "Well, my height cannot become a top. And there is no top that no one can get to, so we don't want to be a top, but we want to be a person to climb the top!"
Then he took up a piece of chalk and wrote on the blackboard, "Standing on the top, you are not tall, but even smaller！"Then he said, "Though I stand tall, in the eyes of the world I'm still small! Finally, I can tell you a sentence, which was the last one I told the lady on the top of the Alps, 'Any top can be reached, for there is no giant in the world but the one who stands higher！'"A storm of applause(掌声) sounded. The lady who listened to Einstein's instruction on the Alps that year was no other than Madam Curie!
At present, more and more people are crazy about travelling. Why do people travel? “To see more of the world,” many people would say. But travelling abroad now means much more than that for the growing number of Chinese tourists. Of course it offers us good opportunities to meet people from other countries and learn about their culture and customs.
According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), more than 1 billion people travelled to another country in 2012. In 2012, Chinese people travelled abroad 30 percent more than in 2011. The prosperity (繁荣) of the tourism industry can also bring both our country and foreign countries great economic benefits (经济利益). Chinese people usually join large tourist groups and visit several countries in one trip.
Chinese people don't just travel for sightseeing. The China International Travel Service Company said that all their tour trips were sold out a month before Christmas Day. Stores offered discounts (打折) during that time, so shopping in Europe and the United States is popular among Chinese travelers.
In December, China is going through a very cold winter. So many people like to go to some countries in Southeast Asia because the weather there is quite pleasant.
The improvement of living standards means more Chinese can travel abroad. But many of them don't have a sense of public manners. A report by Living Social website in March 2012 even listed Chinese as the world's second worst tourists.
If you want to change that bad name, remember to avoid the following: littering, spitting, snatching bus seats, line-jumping, taking off shoes in public, talking loudly and smoking in non-smoking areas. Besides, we should learn some necessary manners of foreign countries.
