My trip to Paris was so memorable. First of all, the hotel was fantastic. It overlooked the Seine, the famous river I (read) about in so many poems. We listened to the laughter of the children and watched the river run by (slow) below. Next, Montmartre was a wonderful place for painters. The air was filled with the sounds of happy people and the smell of paint. I enjoyed most were the cafes. There I had a cup of coffee and watched people on the street. Everyone had a sense of style.
Football is a popular sport with fans all over the world. There is, however, an indoor version of the game (know) as "table football". It was invented in 1921 and people (get) great pleasure from it since then. The game is played on a special table. Players control their "team" by turning sticks, to which the "players" are attached. As in real football, (point) will be awarded when putting the ball in the other players' goal. Table football requires using hands and eyes together excellently, which is really exciting.
Shark attacks can be deadly, but they are not common. Each year, sharks usually kill fewer than 10 people worldwide, and about 100 people (injure). You are more likely to be attacked in parts of the sea tourists throw in food to bring in sharks. However, people are dangerous to sharks, too. 60 million sharks are killed food and medicine every year. As a result, some kinds of sharks may die out completely. (protect) these wonderful animals, some countries have made programs to help them survive.
The sandwich man
Michael rises every morning at 4:00, in good and bad weather, and walks into his sandwich shop. By 5:50, he's making the rounds of the shelters on Centre Streets. He 1 out 200 sandwiches to the homeless, before beginning his workday.
It started 20 years ago when Michael came across a homeless man named John. He began to help him 2 effort then. Day after day, he brought John some food and, when it was really 3, a resting place in his car while he worked. Once he asked John if he wanted to get cleaned up. It was a(n) 4 offer, because Michael thought John would refuse. 5, John said, "Are you going to wash me?" Michael knew that he was looking at a 6 of his promise. It was at the moment that Michael 7 to help the homeless.
Michael began his work. He received no sponsorship, saying, "I'm not getting media 8. I just want to do some good in my way. There are days when it's snowing, and I have a hard time leaving my warm bed and the 9 of my family to go downtown with sandwiches. But I've 10."
Michael makes 200 sandwiches every day for the past 20 years.
"I don't simply 11 the
sandwiches on a table for the homeless to pick up. I shake their hands and 12 them
a good day 
" says Michael. Once Mayor (市长) Koch came to make the rounds with him. They 13 the media, and it seemed like it was just the two of them. But of all Michael's 14, working side by side with the Mayor was not as important as working next to someone else…
A man had 15 from the sandwich takers, and Michael thought about him from time to time. He hoped the man had moved on to a more 16 environment. One day, the man came back, greeting Michael and 17 sandwiches of his own to hand out. He said Michael's daily food, warm handshakes and wishes had given him the 18 he badly needed. After achieving some success, he decided to do the same thing as Michael.
The moment needed no 19. The two men worked silently, side by side, handing out their sandwiches. It was another day on Centre Streets, but a day with just a little more 20.
Open water swimming
I had only swum in open water a few times, and always in gentle lakes, so I wasn't prepared for how rough Lake Windermere appeared on a cold day. A swimmer told me the water felt colder than it had been measured, and that the water was a bit rough. But I, along with 10,000 others, was about to complete the challenge.
Most of the people taking part were doing a one-mile race, and 10 races were planned over the weekend. There seemed to be a mix of open-water enthusiasts alongside complete beginners—which is precisely the aim of the swims, to get as many people as possible completing their own challenge. The oldest woman competing was 77, taking part in the two-mile race, alongside a man who last year had swum in every one-mile race.
I had chosen the third one-mile race of the day. There were over
600 people in my race. We were taken through an acclimatization area a children's paddling pool-sized part of the lake where we moved in to feel how cold the water was. "Not too bad" was everyone's thought! Then we headed out towards the middle of the lake.
We'd been warned that the first 100 metres would be really rough. However, somewhere near the 750m mark I was still waiting for the calm; it felt more like swimming in the sea than a lake. I tried to focus on my breathing and technique, and just keep going. As I approached the 400m-to-go mark my lower right leg became painful. I recalled overhearing people talking about how they kept swimming through the pain, so I tried. But it didn't work. I began to feel the entire leg tight and painful. I didn't want to stop, so I bent my right knee and just kicked with the left leg.
Finally I saw the finishing post, and I just concentrated on getting there—still one-legged. My finishing time was 38 minutes 25 seconds but that didn't matter—the atmosphere was fantastic and everyone felt a sense of achievement, whatever their time. I'm hooked, and want to give it another go. I've already signed up for my next open-water swim.
The Alexander technique
Until earlier this year, I didn't know anything about the Alexander technique—and saw no reason to think I should. One day, the backache I regularly suffered was more painful. I was brought up to think that the preferred way of dealing with aches is to do nothing and hope they'll go away, but I eventually went to the doctor. After examining me, he said, "You actually have bad posture (姿势). Go off and learn the Alexander technique." Three months later I could walk straighter and sit better.
The Alexander technique is a way of learning how you can get rid of harmful tension in your body. The teaching focuses on the neck, head and back. It trains you to use your body less severely and carry out the movements that we do all the time with less effort. There is little effort in the lessons themselves, which sets apart the Alexander technique from yoga or pilates, which are exercise-based. A typical lesson involves standing in front of a chair and learning to sit and stand with minimum effort. You spend some time lying on a bench with your knees bent to straighten the spine (脊椎) and relax your body while the teacher moves your arms and legs to train you to move them correctly.
The technique helps to break the bad habits accumulated over years. Try folding your arms the opposite way to normal. This is an example of a habit the body has formed which can be hard to break. Many of us carry our heads too far back. The head weighs four to six kilos, so any inappropriate posture can cause problems for the body. The technique teaches you to let go of the muscles holding the head back, allowing it to go back to its natural place on the top of our spines.
So who was Alexander and how did he come up with the technique? Frederick Alexander, an Australian actor born in 1869, found in his youth that he had vocal (声音的) problems during performances. He analyzed himself and realized his posture was bad. He worked on improving it, with excellent results. He brought his technique to London and opened a teacher-training school, which is still successful today.
So if you're walking along the road one day with shoulders bent forward, feeling weighed down by your troubles, give a thought to the Alexander technique. It will help you walk tall again.
Don't put it off, do it now!
Why do we spend so much time not doing the work we should do, or putting off small jobs that have piled up to create a big problem? Procrastinating, as putting things off like this is called, is in our character we have naturally since birth; we avoid dull or difficult jobs until it's too late to do anything else.
"We often put things off although we know it will make life more stressful," says Dr. Steel, an authority on the science of motivation. "If these tasks were fun, we'd just do them now. We put off what is difficult or unpleasant, such as the paperwork that needs doing before leaving the office or cleaning the bits of your home that people can't see. But the fact is, the less people procrastinate, the more money they have, the better relationships they have, and the healthier they are." This is obvious when you look at the couples who don't argue about whether anyone has cleaned the kitchen, and the people who simply go for a run instead of endlessly rescheduling it in their heads.
Of course, there are the rest of us, who feel the small jobs piling up around us daily. "We've evolved to respond to the moment, and not to set our sights too far in an uncertain world," Dr. Steel adds. "We are not set up to appreciate long-term rewards, whether it's the benefit of a four-year degree, doing exercise or dieting. We usually feel the cost now and the reward comes much later." According to Dr. Steel, we have two decision-making systems. They are the limbic, which is responsible for the short term, and the prefrontal cortex, which deals with the future. We bounce between long-term goals and short-term temptations, so we need goals that will translate our plans for the limbic system.
Let's take the example of students' writing essays. They should set themselves targets and word counts per day. These are thus turned from seemingly endless tasks into something concrete with measured progress. Dr. Steel recommends such techniques, or "pre-commitments", adding that leaving you a month before the "deadline" makes it more likely a task will be completed. The benefit is that you'll avoid the embarrassment of not following up on something people are expecting you to do—telling everyone you are going to take up jogging makes you more likely to do so.
Overcoming procrastination finally comes down to planning, which, if you're not careful, becomes procrastination in itself. But it is worth making sure you have everything in place. "Successful people don't pretend they don't procrastinate," Dr. Steel says. "People who pretend they have willpower are less successful." Instead, plan for procrastination: make your work environment a temple of productivity by cutting out what stops you paying your attention, so you can really focus on moving forward.
Films and computer games
In just a few decades the gaming industry has become much bigger than the film business. What is called "interactive entertainment" makes more money than Hollywood cinema. Is there any way of making films more appealing to people who like to play computer games?
Making a film out of a best-selling computer game can guarantee a large audience. Nowadays films are made with similar ones. They have attractive action scenes relying on fantasy effects as well. Gaming markets consist of science-fiction games, and film-makers have also set films in science-fiction worlds. Any attempt to borrow more than the setting from a game is certain to fail.
Why do gamers feel disappointed by films based on their favorite games? One of the reasons is technical. Now everything can be computer-produced. However, filming a scene from 20 different cameras would cost a fortune, so it simply isn't done in the film version—leaving the gamers feeling that the film didn't look as real as the computer game.
In a film the director doesn't show you some things to keep you have the feeling of excitement or anxiety. For example, you wouldn't be interested in watching the film if you knew the identity of the murderer. But this is not true for computer games. When you play a game, you have to do certain tasks to continue to the new level. You are always in control as a player, while in the cinema you never control the action. You just sit and watch.
There can be some interaction between films and computer games on different levels. For all the similarities between technologies and special effects, we shouldn't forget that a story and a game are fundamentally different.
A. Cameras matter in another sense, too.
B. The success of a game usually lies in the use of special effects.
C. You can't influence what happens at all in the computer games.
D. Computer games may show the action from a number of views easily.
E. The game has a good chance of being as successful as the film on which it is based.
F. You must be able to have access to all the information in order to decide what to do next.
G. However, the difficulty for film producers appears to be knowing where and when to stop.
