There are many ways to learn about people of other lands. One way is to study the clothing other people wear. For thousands of years, people in different parts of the world have worn very different types of clothing. There are four big reasons for this. One reason might be religion. In many Moslem countries, women must wear veils to hide their faces. The veils must be worn in public. Veils are part of the Moslem religion. The second reason is that different materials are used in different countries. For instance, in France the materials used in clothing may be cotton, silk, wool, or many other man-made materials. Most people in China wear cotton. The ways clothes are made are also very different. This is another reason why people dress differently. Western countries rely on machines to make most of their clothing. Someone living in India can use only hand power to make the clothing he needs. World-wide differences in customs also lead to differences in clothing. A Mexican farmer wears a straw hat with a brim up. In China, a farmer wears a straw with a brim down. Both hats are used to protect the farmers from the sun. Some of these customs have come down through thousands of years.

For any Englishman, there can never be any discussion as to who is the world's greatest poet and greatest dramatist. Only one name can possibly suggest itself to him: that of William Shakespeare. Every Englishman has stone knowledge, however slight, of the works of our greatest writer. All of us use words, phrases and quotations from Shakespeare's writings that have become part of the common property of English-speaking people. Most of the time we are probably unaware of the source of the words we use, rather like the old lady who was taken to see a performance of HAMLET and complained that 'it was full of well-known proverbs and quotations.' Shakespeare, more perhaps than any other writer, made full use of the great resources of the English language. Most of us use about five thousand words in our normal employment of English; Shakespeare in his works used about twenty-five thousand. There is probably no better way for a foreigner to appreciate the richness and variety of the English language than by studying the various ways in which Shakespeare used it. Such a study is well worth the effort (it is not, of course, recommended to beginners) even though some aspects of English usage, and the meaning of many words, have changed since Shakespeare's day.

Charlene, 16-year-old student at a high school, found herself faced with a maths test to which she knew none of the answers. Rather than fail, she took the test out with her and filled in the answers with the help of her friends. During a break, she got back into the classroom without being seen, crumpled (揉皱) the test with her shoe, and left it lying on the floor. The teacher thought it had been dropped when the tests were collected; she corrected it, and Charlene received a B. Cheating is, of course, nothing new. But today, educators are finding that cheating on the part of students has become more frequent than in the past. Whether it is copying a friend's homework, using a prepared sheet on an exam, stealing advance copies of a final, writing down rules in one's hand, or paying someone else to write a term paper, cheating appears to have gained acceptance among a growing number of students between 13 and 19. In a 1978 study of cheating at twenty-two high schools in Georgia, it was found that cheating was common among good and poor students alike—although both boys and gifts said they thought boys cheated more. Why is student on the rise? No one really knows. Some blame cheating on a general loss of good values among today's youth. They point to facts showing increased damage of public things and school stealing and think that reports, such as Watergate (水门事件), have disappointed youth about the honesty of people in higher position. Others think that today's youth are far more practical than their forefathers (先辈). In the late sixties and early seventies, students were filled with imaginations about changing the world, but today's students feel great stress to succeed.

和远方的朋友保持联系不是一件容易的事。

物体离我们越远，看起来就越小。

A: I like this dress. It's the latest, but the problem is the price, sort of expensive.

It's a great pleasure to have a friend coming from afar.

他一直全身心地扑在工作上。

As far as the method itself is concerned, it is worth trying.

Many post-80s couples are complaining that going to the movies, shopping or attending parties have become impossible since their kids were born. That's the way most parents are living their lives, no weekends of their own, no time to visit friends, not even a chance of promotion in their jobs. Asking help from their parents might be a way out, but problems are that some aging parents are not strong enough to take care of the kids, and that the kids may also become too spoiled by their grandparents. Then, here comes a solution: families with kids can form a small group, and parents of each family can take turns to look after all the kids in this group on weekends. Thus, other parents can have some quiet time and feel free to do something they've been planning for a long time. At the same time, the kids can make new friends and won't be hanging around their parents all day long. This is baby-pooling.

It is obvious that the development of science and technology is vital to the modernization of China.

It is a terrible illustration of man's weakness to nature, and the tsunami (海啸) that struck the Japanese coast in March, 2011 has illustrated the difficulty of fighting against natural disasters, even for a prosperous nation. Totally preventing tsunami-damage is impossible. But there is much that can be done to minimize damage and loss of life. Measures that can be taken include designing solid buildings, and developing early-warning systems, public education programs and evacuation (疏散) strategies. Moreover, the approach of a tsunami is possibly picked up by the sensors of complicated international warning systems. Countries can use radio and television broadcasts as well as loudspeaker networks to warn the public. But an early warning system depends on how far the tsunami strikes, if it's close by, the warning system is not going to be very effective. When people are faced with an unstoppable force like a tsunami the massive waves created by events like underwater earthquakes, the best course of action for them is to get inland and to the higher ground as quickly as possible.

She refused to hand over the ear keys to her husband until he had promised to wear his safety belt.

Americans often say that there are only two things a person can be sure of in life: death and taxes.

Global warming is causing more than 300,000 deaths and about $125 billion in economic losses each year, according to a report by the Global Humanitarian Forum, an organization led by Annan, the former United Nations secretary general. The report, to be released Friday, analyzed data and existing studies of health, disaster, population and economic trends. It found that human-influenced climate change was raising the global death rates from illnesses including malnutrition (营养不良) and heat-related health problems. But even before its release, the report drew criticism from some experts on climate and risk, who questioned its methods and conclusions. Along with the deaths, the report said that the lives of 325 million people, primarily in poor countries, were being seriously affected by climate change. It projected that the number would double by 2030. Roger Pielke Jr. , a political scientist at the University of Colorado, Boulder, who studies disaster trends, said the Forum's report was 'a methodological embarrassment' because there was no way to distinguish deaths or economic losses related to human-driven global warming amid the much larger losses resulting from the growth in populations and economic development in vulnerable (易受伤害的) regions. Dr. Pielke said that—climate change is an important problem requiring our utmost attention. But the report, he said, 'will harm the cause for action on both climate change and disasters because it is so deeply flawed (有瑕疵的).' However, Soren Andreasen, a social scientist at Dalberg Global Development Partners who supervised the writing of the report, defended it, saying that it was clear that the numbers were rough estimates. He said the report was aimed at world leaders, who will meet in Copenhagen in December to negotiate a new international climate treaty. In a press release describing the report, Mr. Annan stressed the need for the negotiations to focus on increasing the flow of money from rich to poor regions to help reduce their vulnerability to climate hazards while still curbing the emissions of the heat-trapping gases. More than 90% of the human and economic losses from climate change are occurring in poor countries, according to the report.

他们已经十年没见面了。

In my long life I have seen many changes in our habits and customs and conditions in general. I think that you might be interested if I told you some of them. The world I entered at the age of eighteen when I became a medical student was a world that knew nothing of such advanced things as planes, films, radios or telephones. It was a very cheap world. Prices were stable. When I entered St. Thomas' hospital I rent a set of rooms in Vincent Square for which I paid 18 shillings a week. My landlady provided me with a very good breakfast before I went to the hospital and a dinner when I came back at half past six. I only had to pay for the breakfasts and dinners twelve shillings a week. For four-pence I lunched at St. Thomas' on bread and butter and a glass of milk. I could be able to live very well, pay my fees, buy my necessary instruments, clothe myself, and have a lot of fun on fourteen pounds a month. And I could always pawn (当掉) my microscope for three pounds. I spent five years at St. Thomas' hospital. I was a bad student, for my heart, as you might have guessed, was not in it. I wanted, I had always wanted to be a writer, and in the evenings, after my dinner, I wrote and read. Before long, I wrote a novel called 'Liza of Lambeth', which I sent to a publisher and was accepted. It came out during my last year at the hospital and it was successful. It was of course an accident, but I didn't know that. I felt I could afford to give up medicine and make writing my profession; so, three days after I graduated from the school of medicine, I left for Spain to write another book. I did not realize, at that time, that I was taking a great risk.

Packaging is an important form of advertising. A package can sometimes motivate someone to buy a product. For example, a small child might ask for a breakfast food that comes in a box with a picture of a TV character. The child is more interested in the picture than in the breakfast food. Pictures for children to color or cut out, games printed on a package, or small gifts inside a box also motivate many children to buy products or to ask their parents for them. Some packages suggest that a buyer will get something for nothing. Food products sold in reusable containers are examples of this. Although a similar product in a plain container might cost less, people often prefer to buy the product in a reusable glass or dish, because they believe the container is free. However, the cost of the container is added to the cost of the product. The size of a package also motivates a buyer. Maybe the package has 'Economy Size' printed on it. This suggests that the large, size has the most product for the least money. But that is not always true. To find out, a buyer has to know how the product is sold and the price of the basic unit. The information on the package should provide some answers. But the important thing for any buyer to remember is that a package is often an advertisement. The words and pictures do not tell the whole story. Only the product inside can do that.

无论生活多难，我们都不会失去信心。

他的演讲激奋我们比以往任何时候都更加努力工作。