Tyler was __3__ infected with HIV; his mother was also infected. From the very beginning of his life, he was dependent on medications to __4__ him to survive. When he was five, he had a tube inserted in a vein(靜脈) in his chest. At times, he also needed extra oxygen to support his __5__.
Tyler wasn’t __6__ to give up one single moment of his childhood to this deadly disease. It was not __7__ to find him playing and racing around his backyard, wearing his medicine-loaded backpack and __8__ his tank of oxygen behind him in his little wagon(小手推車). All of us who knew Tyler were impressed by his pure __9__ in being alive and the energy it gave him. Tyler’s mom often __10__ him by telling him that he moved so __11__ she needed to dress him in red. That way, when she peered through the window to check on him playing in the yard, she could quickly __12__ him.
This deadly disease eventually __13__ down Tyler. He grew quite ill and, unfortunately, __14__ did his HIV-infected mother. When it became __15__ that he wasn’t going to survive, Tyler’s mom talked to him about __16__. She comforted him by telling Tyler that she was dying too, and that she would be with him soon in heaven.
A few days before his death, Tyler __17__ to me to come to his hospital bed and __18__, “I might die soon. I’m not __19__. When I die, please dress me in __20__. Mom promised she’s coming to heaven, too. I’ll be playing when she gets there, and I want to make sure she can find me.”
Passage 1
In the United States, when one became rich, he wants people to know it. And even if he does not become very rich, he wants people to think that he is. That is what “keeping up with the Joneses” is about. It is the story of someone who tried to look as rich as his neighbours.
The expression was first used in 1913 by a young American called Arthur Momand. He told this story about himself. He began earning $125 a week at the age of 23. That was a lot of money in those days. He got married and moved with his wife to a very wealthyneighbourhood outside New York City. When he saw that rich people rode horses, Momand went horseback riding every day. When he saw that rich people had servants, Momand and his wife also hired a servant and gave big parties for their new neighbours.
It was like a race, but one could never finish this race because one was always trying to keep up. The race ended for Momand and his wife when they could no longer pay for their new way of life. They moved back to an apartment in New York City.
Momand looked around him and noticed that many people do things just to keep up with rich lifestyle of their neighbours. He saw the funny side of it and started to write a series of short stories. He called it “Keeping up with the Joneses” because “Jones” is a very common name in the United States. “Keeping up with the Joneses” came to mean keeping up with rich lifestyle of the people around you. Momand’s series appeared in different newspapers across the country for over 28 years.
People never seem to get tired of keeping up with the Joneses. And there are “Jonses” in every city of the world. But one must get tired of trying to keep up with the Joneses because no matter what one does, Mr. Jones always seems to be ahead.
Passage 2
If you look for a book as a present for a child. You will be spoiled for choice even in a year there is no new Harry Patten J.K Powling’s wizard is not alone the past decade has been a harvest for good children’s books, which has set off a large quantity of films and an increased sales of classics such as The Lord of the Rings.
Yet despite that, reading is increasingly unpopular among children. According to statistics in 1997 23% said they didn’t like reading in all. In 2003, 35% did. And around 6% of children leave primary school each year unable to read properly. Maybe the decline is caused by the increasing availability of computes games. Maybe the books boom has affected only the top of the educational pile. Either way, Chancellor Cordon Brown plans to change things for the bottom of the class. In his pre-budget report, he announced the national project of Reading Recovery to help the children struggling most.
Reading Recovery is wined at six years old, who receive four months of individual daily half-hour classes with a specially trained teacher. An evaluation either this year reported that children on the school made 20 months’ progress in just one year, whereas similarly weak readers without special help made just five months’ progress, and so ended the year even further below the level expected for their age.
International research tends to find that when British children leave primacy school they read well, but read text often for fun than those elsewhere. Reading for fun matters because children who are been on reading can report lifelong pleasure and loving books is an excellent indicator of future educational success. According to the OECD, being a regular and enthusiastic reader is of great advantage.
Passage 3
Winners Club
You choose to be a winner!
The Winners Club is a bank account specially designed for teenagers. It has been made to help you better manage your money. The Winners Club is a transaction account(交易賬戶) where you receive a key-card so you can get to your money 24/7-that’s 24 hours a day, 7 days a week!
It’s a club with impressive features for teenagers：
●No account keeping fees!
You’re no millionaire so we don’t expect you to pay large fees. In fact, there are no account keeping or transaction fees!
●Excellent interest rates!
You want your money to grow. The Winners Club has a good rate of interest which gets even better if you make at least two deposits(儲(chǔ)蓄) without taking them out in a month.
●Convenient
Teenagers are bus--we get that. You may never need to come to a bank at all. With the Winners Club you can choose to use handy tellers and to bank from home using the phone and the Internet ... You can have money directly deposited into your Winners Club account. This could be your pocket money or your pay from your part-time job!
●Mega magazine included
Along with your regular report, you will receive a FREE magazine full of good ideas to make even more of your money. There are also fantastic offers and competitions only for Winners Club members.
he Winners Club is a great choice for teenagers. And it is so easy to join. Simply fill in an application form. You will have to get permission from your parent or guardian (so we can organize that cool key-card) but it is easy. We can’t wait to hear from you. It’s the best way to choose to be a winner!
If you travel by air across the center of Africa or South America, you fly over forests for thousands of kilometers.These great forests are the oceans of trees.There are thousands and thousands of different kinds of plants and animals there.
However, the world’s forests are getting smaller all the time.We are cutting down the trees because we need wood, and we need more farmland.Some people say that there will not be any forests like these in 20 or 30 years.What will happen if they disappear?If we cut down our forests, a lot of plants and animals will disappear from the world.In a lot of places the new farmland will soon look like the old deserts．
Crops will not grow there.It will not rain very often, and the weather will get very hot.Perhaps the climate of the world will change.This will be dangerous for everyone in the world.That is why we must take care of our forests.
Keep on Fighting
Turning once again to the question of invasion, I would observe that there has never been a period in all these long centuries of which we boast when an absolute guarantee against invasion,still less against serious raids, could have been given to our people. In the days of Napoleon the same wind which would have carried his transports across the Channel might have driven away the blockading(封鎖) fleet. There was always the chance, and it is that chance which has excited and befooled(愚弄) the imaginations of many continental tyrants. Many are the tales that are told. We are assured that novel methods will be adopted, and when we see the originality of malice(怨恨),the ingenuity of aggression, which our enemy displays, we may certainly prepare ourselves for every kind of novel stratagem(戰(zhàn)略) and every kind of brutal and treacherous(奸詐的) maneuver(花招). I think that no idea is so outlandish(古怪的) that it should not be considered and viewed with a searching, but at the same time, I hope, with a steady eye.
We must never forget the solid assurances of sea power and those which belong to air power if it can be locally exercised. I have, myself, full confidence that if all do their duty, if nothing is neglected, and if the best arrangements are made, as they are being made, we shall prove ourselves once again able to defend our island home, to ride out the storm of war, and to outlive the menace(威脅) of tyranny, if necessary for years, if necessary alone. At any rate, that is what we are going to try to do. This is the resolve of His Majesty’s government--every man of them. This is the will of parliament and the nation. The British Empire and the French republic, linked together in their cause and in their need, will defend to the death their native soil, aiding each other like good comrades to the utmost of their strength. Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous states have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious(可憎的) apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag(變?nèi)? or fail.
We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island,whatever the cost might be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills, we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this island or a large part of it were subjugated(征服)and starving, then our empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the new world, with its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.