How often one hears children wishing they were grown up, and old people wishing they were young again. Each age has its pleasures and its pains, and the happiest person is the one who enjoys what each age gives him without wasting his time in useless regrets. Childhood is a time when there are few responsibilities. If a child has good parents, he is well fed, looked after and loved. It is unlikely that he will ever again in his life be given so much without having to do anything in return. In addition, life is always presenting new things to the child-things that have lost their interest for older people because they are too well known. A child finds pleasure in playing in the rain, or in the snow. His first visit to the seaside is a marvelous adventure. But a child has his pains: he is not so free to do as what he wishes to do; he is continually being told what to do and what not to do. Therefore, a child is not happy as he wishes to be. When the young man starts to earn his own living, he becomes free from the discipline of school and parents; but at the same time he is forced to accept responsibilities. With no one to pay for his food, his clothes, or his room, he has to work if he wants to live comfortably. If he spends most of his time playing about in the way that he used to as a child, he will go hungry. And if he breaks the laws of society as he used to break the laws of his parents, he may get himself into trouble. If, however, he works hard, goes by the law and has good health, he may feel satisfied in seeing himself make steady progress in his job and in building up for himself his own position in society. Old age has always been thought of as the worst age to be, but it is not necessary for the old to be unhappy. With old age comes wisdom and the ability to help others with advice wisely given. The old can have the joy of seeing their children making progress in life, they can watch their grandchildren growing up around them; and, perhaps best of all, they can, if their life has been a useful one, feel the happiness of having come through the battle of life safely and of having reached a time when they can lie back and rest, leaving everything to others.

Practice should go hand in hand with theory.

Whether we like it or not, the world we live in has changed a great deal in the last hundred years.

B: It's already on sale, Madam. But since it fits you so perfectly, 10% off, is that OK?

就是在这间小屋里，他们勤奋地工作着。

It is estimated that about 80% of the world's population cannot afford to have proper food, housing or medical care.

A：你好!我叫张明，我在外语系学习。你学的是什么专业?

It was December 25. Marie, a 13-year-old Australian girl, was happy. It was Christmas and Marie's mother was making a very special cake. She put four small coins into the cake and then baked it. The four coins were for good luck. After dinner, Marie and her family ate the cake. They found three coins in the cake and put them on the table. Where was the fourth one? It was missing, but Marie's mother didn't notice. After Christmas, Marie got sick. She coughed and couldn't speak. Marie's parents took her to hospital. Doctors at the hospital looked her over and then said, 'We are sorry, but we can't help her.' For 12 years, Marie didn't speak. But like other common people, she grew up, got a job and got married, One day, when Marie was 25 years old, she got a sore throat. She began to cough. She coughed up something small and black. What was it? Marie didn't know. She took it to a hospital. A doctor at the hospital said, 'This is a coin!' The doctor told Marie, 'I think you can speak again.'

Emotion is sometimes regarded as the opposite of reason, as is suggested by phrases such as 'appeal to emotions rather than reason' and 'don't let your emotions take over'. Emotional reactions sometimes produce consequences or thoughts which people may later regret or disagree with, but during an emotional state, they could not control their actions. Thus, it is generally believed that one of the most distinctive facts about human beings is a contradiction between emotion and reason. However, recent empirical studies do not suggest there is a clear distinction between reason and emotion. Indeed, anger or fear can often be thought of as an instinctive response to observed facts. The human mind possesses many possible reactions to the external world. Those reactions can lie on a continuum, with some of them involving the extreme of pure intellectual logic, which is often called 'cold' , and others involving the extreme of pure emotion not related to logical agreement, which is called 'the heat of passion'. The relation between logic and emotion merits careful study. Passion, emotion, or feeling can reinforce an argument, even one based primarily on reason. This is especially true in religion or ideology, which frequently demands an all-or-nothing rejection or acceptance. In such areas of thought, human beings have to adopt a comprehensive view partly backed by empirical argument and partly by feeling and passion. Moreover, several researchers have suggested that typically there is no 'pure' decision or thought; that is, no thought is based 'purely' on intellectual logic or 'purely' on emotion—most decisions are founded on a mixture of both.

政府已经采取积极措施防止空气污染。

I'm a Chinese student studying in Canada. I have been a boarder (寄宿生) with the Carsons for more than a year and a half. The Carsons live in their own house, which has four bedrooms including the one in the basement (底层) which I live in. Judy does all the work in the house and Andrew is responsible for the work in the garden. When they go out in the evening, they often ask me to look after their children. Judy's parents, Mr and Mrs. Morris, lived in another city. Judy was their only child and naturally they doted on (溺爱) Judy's children. They often sent the children presents. Last April, Mr. Morris died. Now that Mrs. Morris was quite alone, I expected that Judy would want her to come and live with them. One day, Margaret told me grandma was coming to live with them and her daddy and mummy would want my room back. The news didn't surprise me and the next day I went to Judy and asked her about it. I said I couldn't think of living in their basement room any longer if it was needed for Mrs. Morris. Judy seemed surprised at first. Then she told me there was no deed for me to move, for they hadn't yet come to any decision about her mother coming to live with them. 'Naturally I'm worried about my mother. She has been in poor health.' She smiled sadly and added. 'To be honest, Andrew and my mother have never got on well. We'll wait a bit and see what happens. Perhaps Moter will be all right living herself, of perhaps they will both change their minds.' That was six months ago. During this time I've heard that Mrs. Morris has had two illnesses and that her health has got worse. A nursing home was mentioned once but Mrs. Morris refused to go there. So up to now she's still living alone and I'm still living in the basement room.

I once knew a young man, nineteen years of age, who lived with absolute outward (外表的) confidence and self-possession for a number of years before I discovered that he could not read or write. His various methods of trick, which were also skills of self-protection, were so skillful and so desperate (绝望) that neither I nor any of his other adult friends were aware of his entire helplessness in face of written words until we went to dinner one night at a local restaurant—and suddenly discovered that he could not read. Even here, it was not the first time we went out to eat, but something like the second or third, that Peter's desperation shocked me. The first time, he was clever enough to cover the truth. He studied the menu for a moment, then looked up to the waitress and asked her if he could have 'just a coke and a hamburger'. He told me later that he had done the same thing many times before and that he had learned to act as if he were examining the menu: 'Then I ask for a coke and a hamburger ...Sometimes they give me a hamburger on a plate with salad and potatoes...Then I ask them for a roll and make my own hamburger.' As we began to go out to eat more frequently, Peter would ask to go to Howard Johnson's. I soon discovered the reason for his choice: The photographs, attached in cellophane (玻璃纸) containers to each of the standard items on the menu, could help him not to struggle with the shape of words at all. Howard Johnson's, whether intentionally or not, had provided the perfect escape for the endangered pride of an adult who was illiterate (文盲).

人和动物是最大区别在于人能学习并使用语言。

在我看来，讨论是解决问题的好方法。

一天，苏珊(Susan) 在浏览书籍时，被一个真实故事吸引住了。

The key to our room is attached to a large plastic block with the room number on it.

Thousands of years ago, in the middle of an ocean, miles from the nearest island, an undersea volcano broke out. The hot liquid got higher and higher and spread wider and wider. In this way, an island rose up in the sea. As time went on, hot sun and cool rains made the rock split and break to pieces. Sea waves hit against the rock. In this way, soil and sand came into being. Nothing lived on the naked soil. And then the wind and birds brought plant seeds, spiders and other little living things there. Only plants could grow first. Only they, in sunlight, could produce food from the soil, water and air. While many animals landed on the island, they could find no food. A spider made its web uselessly, because there were no insects (昆虫) for its web to catch. Insects couldn't stay until there were plants for them to eat. So plants had to be the first life on this new island.

Whenever our motherland needs me, I will respond to her call.

人们只有生病了才知道健康的价值。

Who takes care of the elderly in the United States today? The [act is that family members provide over 80% of the care that elderly people need. In most cases the elderly live in their own homes. A very small percentage of America's elderly live in nursing homes. Samuel Preston, a sociologist at the University of Pennsylvania, studied how the American family is changing. He reported that by the time the average American couple reaches about 40 years of age, their parents are usually still alive. The statistics show the change in lifestyles and responsibilities of aging (老龄化) Americans. The average middle-aged couple can look forward to caring for elderly parents sometime after their own children have grown up. Moreover, because people today live longer after an illness than people did years ago, family members must provide long-term care. These facts also mean that after caregivers provide for their elderly parents, who will eventually die, they will be old and may require care too. When they do, their spouses (配偶) will probably take care of them because they have had fewer children than their parents did. Because Americans are living longer than ever, more social workers have begun to study ways of caregiving to improve the care of the elderly. They have found that all caregivers share a common characteristic: They believe that they are the best people for the job. The social workers have also discovered three basic reasons why the caregivers take on the responsibility of caring for an elderly, dependent relative. Many caregivers believe they had an obligation (职责) to help their relatives. Some think that helping others makes them feel more useful. Others hope that by helping someone now, they will deserve care when they become old and dependent.