Passage Three

      As recently as three decades ago, many Americans believed that using credit was an unwise and dangerous way to pay for what they bought. Some even thought that owing money to a store or a credit company was something to be ashamed of. Good citizens, they believed, always bought what they wanted with real money and they paid the full price immediately.　
      Today, however, all that has changed. Credit, as some observers have noted, has become a way of life in the United States. More and more Americans now are depending on those small pieces of plastic, credit cards, to pay for large purchases such as televisions, record players or furniture. Many people today would consider it unusual not to use a credit card to pay for a costly restaurant dinner, a hotel room or an airline trip. And there are some situations in which Americans must have credit cards. If they want the temporary use of a car, for example, they first must give the car rental company the number of their credit card. That number is considered a guarantee that they will return the car and pay for using it.

      Credit cards offer two major services to Americans. First of all, they are easier and safer to carry than large amounts of money. Second, they permit people to borrow, to have the immediate pleasure of owning something, even if they do not have enough money to pay for it at the time. With credit cards people pay for goods or services at the end of each month instead of when they buy them. And when the time does come to pay, most credit cards offer people a choice. They can pay all of what they owe for the month or they can just pay usually between 5 and 10 percent of what they owe.​

Passage one

Woman nabbed for a DUI at same crash spot

Wed May 21, 2:17 AM ET
      TRUCKEE，Calif—Call it drunken driving deja vu(记忆幻觉). For the second time in five months，a 23-year-old California woman has been arrested after she crashed her car while driving under the influence(DUI)at the exact same spot north of Lake Tahoe.
      And to top it off, Truckee Police say that in both cases, her blood alcohol content was more than three times the legal limit.
      The police say Melissa Dennison of Truckee crashed at about noon on Sunday on Glenshire Drive just south of the Glenshire Bridge. They say she was extremely drunk and had trouble standing or walking.Her blood alcohol level initially was measured at .346. The legal limit is .08.
      Sergeant J. Litchie said Dennison also had been charged with a DUI in January when she crashed at the same spot and registered a blood alcohol level of .380. If found guilty of the second offense, she faces up to 10 years in prison and fines in excess of 2.000.
      A telephone message the Associated Press left at a listing for Dennison in Truckee on Tuesday was not immediately returned.

      ​Coconut (椰子) is an unusual food for many reasons. It is one of the largest edible seeds produced by any plant. Its unusual contents also make it unique in the seed world--it consists of both"meat" and "water" inside. The coconut meat is the white substance with which we are all familiar, as it is used extensively for cooking and flavorings; the coconut water is a white and sweet liquid. 

      Portuguese (葡萄牙) explorers gave the nut its name in the 15th century, referring to it as coco, meaning "ghost" in their language. The outside appearance of coconuts reminded them of a ghost's face, and the tree has had that name ever since. 

      The coconut has varied uses. It is used to make various cooking oils for fast-food restaurants around the world to make diet materials. The coconut fluid is a favorite drink in hot climates, providing a cool and refreshing beverage right off the tree. This water is also used by manufacturers of various sports drinks. Even the shell itself has many uses, including animal food and fertilizer.
      Yet the coconut is also useful in many ways that have nothing to do with food. Coconut oil is used for cosmetics (化妆品), medicines, and so on. Dried coconut shells are used in many countries as a tool for shining wood floors. The shells are also used for shirt buttons, and are commonly found on Hawaiian clothing. They are even used for musical instruments and bird houses.
      And all these are only some of the uses found for the coconut fruit. The coconut tree, which produces the nut,also produces many useful things. It' s no wonder that the coconut tree has been taken as "the tree of life".

​

Passage one

Woman nabbed for a DUI at same crash spot

Wed May 21, 2:17 AM ET
      TRUCKEE，Calif—Call it drunken driving deja vu(记忆幻觉). For the second time in five months，a 23-year-old California woman has been arrested after she crashed her car while driving under the influence(DUI)at the exact same spot north of Lake Tahoe.
      And to top it off, Truckee Police say that in both cases, her blood alcohol content was more than three times the legal limit.
      The police say Melissa Dennison of Truckee crashed at about noon on Sunday on Glenshire Drive just south of the Glenshire Bridge. They say she was extremely drunk and had trouble standing or walking.Her blood alcohol level initially was measured at .346. The legal limit is .08.
      Sergeant J. Litchie said Dennison also had been charged with a DUI in January when she crashed at the same spot and registered a blood alcohol level of .380. If found guilty of the second offense, she faces up to 10 years in prison and fines in excess of 2.000.
      A telephone message the Associated Press left at a listing for Dennison in Truckee on Tuesday was not immediately returned.

        On a dry and cold Friday afternoon last October, Sharon Seline exchanged text messages with her daughter who was in college. They “chatted” back and forth, with the mom asking how things were going and the daughter answering positively followed by emoticons(表情符)showing smiles, b-i-g smiles and hearts.
        Later that night, her daughter attempted suicide.
        In the days that followed, it came to light that she’d hidden herself in her dorm, crying and showing signs of depression—a completely different reality from the one that she conveyed in texts and Facebook posts.
        As human beings, our only real method of connection is through real communication. Studies show that only 7% of communication is based on writing and speaking. The majority of 93% is based on body language. Indeed, it’s only when we can hear a tone of voice or look into someone’s eyes that we’re able to know when “I’m fine” doesn’t mean they’re fine at all.
        This is where social media gets risky.
        With modern technology, anyone can hide behind the text, the e-mail, or the Face book post, projecting any image they want and creating a false image of their choosing. They can be whoever they want to be. And without the ability to receive body language, their audiences are none the wiser.
        This presents a paradox which doesn’t exist before. With all the powerful social technologies at our fingertips, we are more connected—and potentially more disconnected—than ever before.
Every relevant metric(衡量标准)shows that we are interacting at a great speed and frequency through social media. But are we really communicating? With 93% of our communication context(语境)lost, we are now attempting to establish relationships and make decisions based on phrases or emoticons, which may or may not accurately represent the truth.

        Tom was aged four but he was talking like a two-year-old baby. He was saying such things as “kick ball” and “want car”, and using lots of one-word sentences. He should have been saying some really long sentences and telling stories with them. He wasn’t. Something had gone terribly wrong.
        Quite a few children have what is called a “language delay”. For some reason they don’t learn to speak as quickly as they should. Their friends shoot ahead and they’re left behind. As a result, they get very lonely. Nobody wants to talk to you if you can’t talk back.
        Can anything be done to help these children? Yes. They can go to see a speech therapist—a person who’s specially trained to work out what’s wrong and who knows how to teach language to children. This is what happened to Tom. The speech therapist played some games with him and heard how he talked. She made a recording of his speech, and chatted to his mom and dad about his background. They’d taken Tom to see a doctor, but the doctor hadn’t found anything wrong with him. He seemed perfectly normal in every way—except he just wasn’t talking.
        After Tom and his parents had gone home, the therapist listened carefully to the recording she’d made. Then she looked at a chart which showed how language developed in children aged two, three, and four. She could see Tom was a long way behind.
        The next step, she decided, was to teach Tom how to say some new sentences like “kick a red ball,” and “the clown is kicking a ball.” Tom didn’t get the new sentences right straight away. But the therapist was very patient, and after a few more visits he started to make some progress.

Passage Four

      At the 1893 Columbian Exposition, a World Fair held in Chicago, chocolate-making machinery made in Germany was displayed. It caught the eye of M. S. Hershey, who saw the potential for chocolate. He installed chocolate machinery in his factory in Lancaster, and produced his first chocolate bars in 1894.
      Other Americans began mixing in other materials to make up new candy bars throughout the end of the 1890s and the early 1900s. But it was World War I that really brought attention to the candy bar.
      The U. S. Army Quartermaster Corps requested various American chocolate manufacturers to provide 20 to 40-pound blocks of chocolate to be shipped to quartermaster bases. The blocks were cut into smaller pieces and distributed to American soldiers in Europe. Eventually the task of making smaller pieces was turned back to the manufacturers. By the end of the war when the soldiers arrived home, the American candy bar business was assured. Why? Because the returning soldiers had grown fond of chocolate candy and wanted more of the same. As a result from that time on and through the 1920s, candy bar manufacturers became established throughout the United States, and as many as 40, 000 different candy bars appeared on the scene.

      The original candy bar industry had its start on the eastern coast in such cities as Philadelphia, Boston, and New York. The industry soon spread to the Midwest because shipping and raw materials such as sugar, corn syrup, and milk were easily available. Chicago became the seat of the candy bar industry and is even today an important base.​

      As we recently discovered, there is a Stepmother' s Day, though it is not on any official holiday calendar. So,it would be safe to assume that there is a similar day for stepdads, too. Right? Well, it depends on what you read. A Google search brought up posts that say, for example," It' s on father' s day--father' s day is for fathers, step-fathers and people who are like fathers to you--it' s a day for making father figures feel special. " Further searching found a Stepfather' s Day Facebook page that says, "The unofficial Stepfather' s Day is the fourth Sunday of June. "Unfortunately, as of the publishing of this article,only 30 people have "liked" the page. Considering that studies show 3.3 million men, or 11.1% of U. S. fathers, live with at least one stepchild,that's only a drop in the ocean.

      It's interesting to note that there is a National Grandparents' Day. President Jimmy Carter signed it into law in 1978. Law ! While grandparents are undoubtedly special people in our children' s lives,they are often seen as the most loving family members. But what about the stepparents? The stepparents are the ones who are often the outsiders,the ones who have to endure the hurtful "You're not my dad!" or "You're not my mom!" And yet they never give up. They do their best to overcome the inherent challenges of stepparents and be role models for their stepchildren. These unsung( 未被颂扬的 ) family heroes deserve "official" days of honor. Perhaps if we are loud enough, President Obama, who had a stepfather himself, will sign into law National Stepmother' s Day and National Stepfather' s Day.
      Are you with me? Follow me and get your voice heard. How cool it would be if we could make this happen！

        Alan Lakein, a time management expert, thinks that nothing is a total waste of time, including doing nothing at times. If you arrange things so that you find time to relax and "do nothing" , you will get more done and have more fun doing it.
        One of his clients, a space engineer, didn’t know how to "do nothing". Every minute of his leisure time was scheduled with intense activities. He had an outdoor-activities schedule in which he switched from skiing to tennis. His girlfriend kept up with him in these activities, although she would have preferred just to sit by the fire and relax once in a while. Like too many people, he felt the need to be doing something all the time, for doing nothing seemed a waste of time. His "relaxing by the fire" consisted of playing chess, reading magazines, or checking emails.
        For an experiment, Alan asked him to "waste" his time for five minutes during one of their sessions together. What the engineer ended up doing was relaxing, sitting quietly and daydreaming. When he was finally able to admit that emotional reasons caused him to reject relaxing as a waste of time, he began to look more critically at that way of thinking. Once he knew that relaxing was a good use of time, he became less serious about being busy and started enjoying each activity more. Previously he had been so busy doing that he had no time to have fun at anything. He began to do less and have more fun. When Alan saw the client about three years later, he still had as busy a schedule as ever, but he was able to balance his activity with relaxing so that he came back to work Monday morning not feeling tired out from a busy weekend but refreshed.

        Sound sleep occurs when one’s internal clock is regulated. Circadian rhythms(生理节奏)can become compromised quite easily. Many people with sleep troubles tend to vary bedtimes. To avoid this common problem, sleep sufferers should go to bed and wake up at the same time every day. To help improve circadian rhythms, sufferers should enjoy 15 minutes of sun exposure the first thing in the morning.
        A bedtime routine can help prevent insomnia(失眠). One hour before bedtime, one should lower the lights and relax. Reading a book or listening to calm music can help prepare the body for a good night’s sleep. Taking a warm, candlelit bath or drinking a cup of warm milk can also help you prepare for deep sleep at night.
        Stress can have a bad effect on the body and the ability to sleep. A daily exercise routine can help lower the body’s stress naturally. One can also manage stress by writing diaries. Writing diaries can help people express their anxieties, plan for the future and improve sleep. Other ways to lower stress include deep breathing exercises and progressive muscle relaxation.
        The light sending out from computers, cell phones, tablets and televisions can cause sleep problems. Therefore, these items should be turned off at least an hour before bedtime. Additionally, lowering the backlight on these electronic devices earlier in the evening can help you fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer once bedtime arrives.
        A perfect bedroom invites sweet sleep. Most people sleep better in a cool, dark, and quiet room. Lower the temperature in the room to 16~20 degrees for a peaceful night’s sleep. A dark room can be accomplished by installing light blocking curtains or wearing a sleep mask. Noise can be reduced with either earplugs or a white noise machine. Finally, a comfortable mattress(床垫)and pillows are essential to a good night’s sleep.

Passage Two

      ​There were many different cultures in the ancient world, but the two that had the most influence on European and American civilizations were the Greek and the Roman. Often these two cultures are lumped together in our minds, as if they were really exactly alike. But that is not the case. In many ways the Greeks and the Romans could not have been more different. 

      The Greeks were truly democratic, often without a single leader but instead governed by a group of men chosen by the people. The Romans were semi-democratic. They had a governing Senate, but the political power was mostly or completely in the hands of a single emperor. 

      Both cultures were great builders. But the construction interests of the two cultures were also different. The Greeks tended to be more artistic. Their buildings were well constructed and they were especially interested in temples, columns, and decorative forms. The Romans, on the other hand, were more engineers than artists. They concentrated their efforts on urban planning, well-functioning water pipes, and the best roads.
      Only in cooking and eating habits are the two cultures really similar. Both peoples ate very well indeed: lots of fish, fresh vegetables and fruits, healthy meals, holding at the same time long discussions and tasting excellent wines.
      In fact, it would probably be fair to say that they both loved life in their warm,sea-oriented climates and they both lived a full life.

     Alexia Sloane, a l0-year-old girl, lost her sight when she was two following a brain disease. But despite her disability she has excelled at languages and is already fluent in English, French, Spanish and Chinese—and is learning German.
     Now she has experienced her dream job of working as an interpreter after East of England MEP(欧盟议员) Robert Sturdy invited her to the parliament building in Brussels, thus becoming the youngest interpreter to work at the European Parliament.
     “She was given a special permit to get into the building, where there is usually a minimum age requirement of l4, and sat in a booth listening and interpreting,” said her mother, Isabelle. “The other interpreters were amazed at how well she did as the debate was quite complicated and many of the words were rather technical.”
     Alexia has been tri-lingual since birth as her mother, a teacher, is half French and half Spanish, while her father, Richard, is English. She started talking and communicating in all three languages before she lost her sight but adapted quickly to her blindness. By the age of four, she was reading and writing in Braille(盲文). When she was six, Alexia began to learn Chinese. The girl is now learning German at school in Cambridge.
     Alexia has been longing to be an interpreter since she was six and she chose to go to the European Parliament as her prize when she won a young achiever of the year award. She asked if she could shadow interpreters and Mr. Sturdy agreed to take her along as his guest.
     Alexia worked with the head of interpreting and had a real taste of lire in parliament. “It was fantastic and I’m absolutely determined now to become an interpreter,” she said. 

        The banana "tree" is actually not a real tree. This is because there is no wood in the stem(树干)rising above the ground. The stem is made up of leaves growing very close together, one inside the other. The leaves spread out at the top of the stem and rise in the air.
        Banana plants need a lot of care and attention. They must be provided with water if the normal rainfall doesn’t supply enough. The area around the plants must be kept free of weeds(杂草)and grass.
        About nine or ten months after planting, a flower appears on the banana plant. This flower is at the end of a long stalk(茎), which grows from the base up through the center of the stem and turns downward when it comes out from the top. Small bananas form on this flower stalk as it grows downward. Bananas really grow upside down. As the small bananas form on the stalk, they point downward, but as they grow they turn and point upward.
        Bananas are harvested while they are still green. Even when they are to be eaten where they are grown, they are not allowed to ripen on the plant. A banana that turns yellow on the plant loses its taste.

      Mr.Smith was a wealthy industrialist, but he was not satisfied with life. He did not sleep well and his food did not agree with him. This situation lasted for some time. Finally, after several sleepless nights, he decided to consult his doctor. The doctor advised a change of surroundings. "Go abroad," he said. "But I’m not good at foreign language," said Mr.Smith. "It doesn’t matter," said the doctor. "It won’ t hurt you to talk a little less. Go on a voyage. Take plenty of exercise. Try to reduce your weight. Avoid rich food. "
      Mr. Smith went to Switzerland. He did not know French or German, and had to communicate through gestures. He attended a physical training course. The instructor made him bend his knees, swing his arms, stretch his neck and shake his head rapidly. He had to lie on the ground and raise his right and left legs alternately. After a time his muscles grew hard and firm. He forgot the financial crisis and the importance of raising the level of production. He even began to notice individual trees and individual birds.
      Finally he returned home. But unfortunately his improvement was only temporary. Soon he was a normal businessman again, worried about his property, his profits, his savings, his advancement in a technological society, and things in general.

      There was a river with a small town on either side of it. The towns were linked by a bridge.
      One day, a hole appeared in the bridge. Both towns agreed that the hole should be mended. However, disagreement came up as to who should mend it. Each town thought that it had a better reason for the other to mend the hole. The town on the right bank said that it was at the end of the road, so the left-bank town should mend the hole. The town on the left bank, on the other hand, insisted that all the traffic came to the right-bank town, so it was in their interest to mend the bridge.
      The quarrel went on and on, and so did the hole. The more it went on, the more the hostility between the two towns grew.
      One day a man fell into the hole and broke his leg. People from both towns questioned him closely about whether he was walking from the right bank to the left or from the left bank to the right, in order to decide which town should be blamed for the accident. But he could not remember, since he got drunk that night.
      Some time later, a ear was crossing the bridge and broke an axle (轴) because of the hole. Neither town paid any attention to the accident, as the traveler was not going from one to the other, but was merely passing through. The angry traveler got out of the car and asked why the hole was not mended.
      On hearing the reason, he declared, "I’ll buy this hole. Who’s the owner?"
      Both towns at once declared that they owned the hole.
      "One or the other, whoever owns the hole must prove it. "
      "How shall we prove it?" asked both sides.
      "That’s simple. Only the owner of the hole has the right to mend it. I’ll buy the hole from whoever mends the bridge. "
      People from both towns rushed to do the job while the traveler smoked a cigar and his driver changed the axle. They mended the bridge in no time and asked for the money for the hole.
      "What hole?" The traveler looked surprised. "I can’t see any hole. I’ve been looking for a hole for several years now. I’m prepared to pay a good price for it, but there’s no hole here. Are you pulling my leg or what"
     He got into his car and drove off.

      Animals have different ways of protecting themselves against wintertime weather. Some animals grow heavy coats of fur or feathers, while others dig into the ground to find a warm wintertime home.
      Some animals spend the winter in a deep sleep because by going to sleep they avoid the time of the year when food is scarce and the temperatures are low. Their sleep is known as hibernation.
      There is much about hibernation that puzzles scientists. For example, they are wondering how hibernation came into being. Some scientists have explored the possibility that animals release a chemical that starts them hibernating.
      One thing that scientists are certain about is that animals hibernate only when it is cold. Hibernation is a seasonal practice.
      Some animals that fall into a wintertime sleep are not true hibernators because they spend only a part of the cold season asleep. Bears, for example, can easily be awakened from their winter nap. They are not true hibernators.
      Sometimes it is difficult to determine whether a particular animal is a true hibernator. For example, some mice hibernate, but others do not. The same is true of bats. Some of them hibernate. Others do not.

Passage Four

      At the 1893 Columbian Exposition, a World Fair held in Chicago, chocolate-making machinery made in Germany was displayed. It caught the eye of M. S. Hershey, who saw the potential for chocolate. He installed chocolate machinery in his factory in Lancaster, and produced his first chocolate bars in 1894.
      Other Americans began mixing in other materials to make up new candy bars throughout the end of the 1890s and the early 1900s. But it was World War I that really brought attention to the candy bar.
      The U. S. Army Quartermaster Corps requested various American chocolate manufacturers to provide 20 to 40-pound blocks of chocolate to be shipped to quartermaster bases. The blocks were cut into smaller pieces and distributed to American soldiers in Europe. Eventually the task of making smaller pieces was turned back to the manufacturers. By the end of the war when the soldiers arrived home, the American candy bar business was assured. Why? Because the returning soldiers had grown fond of chocolate candy and wanted more of the same. As a result from that time on and through the 1920s, candy bar manufacturers became established throughout the United States, and as many as 40, 000 different candy bars appeared on the scene.

      The original candy bar industry had its start on the eastern coast in such cities as Philadelphia, Boston, and New York. The industry soon spread to the Midwest because shipping and raw materials such as sugar, corn syrup, and milk were easily available. Chicago became the seat of the candy bar industry and is even today an important base.​

      As we recently discovered, there is a Stepmother' s Day, though it is not on any official holiday calendar. So,it would be safe to assume that there is a similar day for stepdads, too. Right? Well, it depends on what you read. A Google search brought up posts that say, for example," It' s on father' s day--father' s day is for fathers, step-fathers and people who are like fathers to you--it' s a day for making father figures feel special. " Further searching found a Stepfather' s Day Facebook page that says, "The unofficial Stepfather' s Day is the fourth Sunday of June. "Unfortunately, as of the publishing of this article,only 30 people have "liked" the page. Considering that studies show 3.3 million men, or 11.1% of U. S. fathers, live with at least one stepchild,that's only a drop in the ocean.

      It's interesting to note that there is a National Grandparents' Day. President Jimmy Carter signed it into law in 1978. Law ! While grandparents are undoubtedly special people in our children' s lives,they are often seen as the most loving family members. But what about the stepparents? The stepparents are the ones who are often the outsiders,the ones who have to endure the hurtful "You're not my dad!" or "You're not my mom!" And yet they never give up. They do their best to overcome the inherent challenges of stepparents and be role models for their stepchildren. These unsung( 未被颂扬的 ) family heroes deserve "official" days of honor. Perhaps if we are loud enough, President Obama, who had a stepfather himself, will sign into law National Stepmother' s Day and National Stepfather' s Day.
      Are you with me? Follow me and get your voice heard. How cool it would be if we could make this happen！

Passage Five

      ​Mark Twain is one of America's much-beloved authors, creating imaginative and humorous classics for children and adults alike, such as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Prince and The Pauper,and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Twain passed away in 1910, leaving behind a treasure of great literature. But now, 100 years after his death, he'll have a brand-new book on the shelves: a three-volume autobiography. 

      Twain hasn't been keeping busy in his tomb:it was his wish that publishers wait until 100 years after his death to publish his memoirs （自传）, which he spent the last decade of his life working on.
      The autobiography totals more than 5,000 pages, and likely won't be all sunshine and roses. It seems that Twain harbored some bitterness against former girlfriends and ex-friends. He also writes negatively about politicians of his day, such as Teddy Roosevelt. It's likely that he requested such a long lead time for the memoirs because he didn't want to hurt the feelings of anyone mentioned in this work.
      Although small sections of the memoirs have been previously published, the autobiography has never been available in full, and should provide great insights into the man behind the classic books. The first volume of the set will be available in November, and the trilogy is being published by the University of California, Berkeley.
      "There are so many biographies of Twain, and many of them have used bits and pieces of the autobiography", editor Robert Hirst told The Independent. "But biographers pick and choose what bits to quote. By publishing Twain's book in full we hope that people will be able to come to their own complete conclusions about what sort of a man he was."

​

        When you pat your pet dog, he wags(摆来摆去)his tail. That is his way of saying that he loves you. And, if you pay attention, you will see that he uses his tail to say so many things. Every movement of the tail means a different thing. If the dog is wagging its tail, it is a sign of friendliness; if his tail is straight, it means he is getting ready for a fight; and if his tail is tucked(塞)behind his legs, it means he is giving up the fight.
　　Unlike dogs, cats’ tail language is not so expressive. When a cat feels threatened, he puffs himself up to appear big and his tail shakes with tension. And when he is displeased with something, he lashes out(甩动)his tail.
　　The tail language of dogs and cats has a little story behind it. Earlier, when dogs and cats had not become friends with human beings, they were predators. They used to hunt other animals for their food. When dogs went out hunting with their friends, tail language came handy. When they were close to each other, dogs could use facial expressions to talk. But, for long-distance communication, they used their tails. Unlike dogs, cats liked to hunt alone. So, they did not need to use tail language too often. As a result, their vocabulary in tail language is much smaller than that of dogs’.