Sometimes I feel that being the mother of three small children is like operating a large circus(马戏团).     1    afternoon last week, my three sons playing peacefully in the back yard(院子),     2    the ball from one to another. I jumped at the chance to talk to one of my friends    3    the phone, but before I    4    to the phone, I could tell the boys had begun to quarrel with each other about something. I rushed out to    5    peace, but before I got there Charles had    6    a rock at Mark, and hit him in the eye. By the time I got to the back yard, they had begun to    7    about this. Even David, the oldest boy, who won't usually fight with anybody about    8    was involved(卷入). First, I    9    them stop fighting, and then I examined Mark's eye. I decided that it wasn't going to develop into a black eye, but I felt that they should    10    at least a little for    11    they had done. "I' m going to    12    to your father about this when he comes home tonight , "I said. " He and I will think of how to punish you. " Things were    13    quiet after that for about half an hour, and then Charles    14    a glass in the kitchen, and at almost the same    15    , Mark fell out of the apple tree.

During the Olympic Games, people from all over the world come together in peace and friendship. The first Olympic Games that we have    1    of were in Greece in 776 BC.The games lasted on day. The only    2    in the first thirteen Olympic Games was a race. Men ran the length of the stadium. In 1896 the games were    3    again in Athens, Greece. The Greeks    4    a new stadium for the competition. 311    5    from thirteen countries    6    in many events. The    7    became national heroes. In 1908, the games were held every four years during the summer in different cities around the    8    . In 1908, in London, England, the first gold    9    were given to winning athletes.

The Olympic Winter Games    10    in 1924 in Chamonix, France. Athletes competed in    11    events such as skiing, ice skating and ice hockey. Today, the Winter Games take place    12    four years. Until recently, Olympic competitors could not be    13    athletes. All of the athletes in Olympic Games were amateurs. Today,     14    , many of the Olympic athletes are professionals who play their sport    15    money during the year. Some people disagree with this idea.

During the winter, most London auctioneers have wine auctions. Some are of wines for    1    drinking, but most are of fine wines. Last winter, at Christies, a dozen bottles of Lafite 1945 were    2    down at 158 per bottle. 1945 and 1961 are the two most    3    vintage years for claret. Of course, that is not the maximum you could pay. Not    4    ago, an American at Christies paid 8, 500 for one bottle of Lafite 1806.

Sometimes, it is a matter of personal    5    by the very rich. At other times there can be a    6    objective. Last October, a restaurateur from Memphis, paid 9, 000 for a magnum--that is, a two-bottle size--of 1864 Lafite. He    7    30 people $ 1, 500 each for a dinner with a small glass of the wine. It was    8    ten times the cost of the wine in publicity for his restaurant.

Of course, some people buy wine purely for investment. On the other hand, a real wine lover will use the    9    value of good wine to pay for his own drinking. A syndicate of four will buy a    10    of Lafite 1945 at, say, 2 ,000. Each takes three bottles. Then each drinks one bottle, and keeps the other two to sell later at the    11    price as the three cost in the first place. That is, naturally, taking inflation into    12    . But there is no    13    that a bottle of wine at 1, 000 is a hundred times    14    than one that costs 10.Perhaps the top price you can pay for wine to enjoy for drinking is 100 a bottle. Above 100, you are paying for something else    15    than taste.

Everyone likes things that are free, and businesses often give things for free to customers as a way of getting more people to pay attention to their products.

Ariely, a scientist from MIT, did an experiment on what people would do when    1    things that were free. He    2    a group of students two kinds of chocolates: the good one for15 cents each and the poor one for 1 cent each. The good chocolate was worth $ 1. 00 , so 15cents was very cheap,     3    the poor quality chocolate was worth 5 cents; so    4    it for 1cent wasn't very cheap.

Most people chose the high quality chocolate for 15 cents.That's not a    5    . But then Ariely lowered the I    6    of both pieces of chocolate by 1 cent. If people were    7    correctly, then they should    8    choose the good quality chocolate. But that    9    what happened. Most people chose the free chocolate. This doesn't make sense in our    10    way of understanding economic behavior(经济行为).

What is happening here? Ariely    11    that people want to get a good bargain. But they also want to reduce risk(风险). That is, they want to    12    the chance of making a    13    . If you pay 14 cents for a piece of chocolate, and then you don't    14    like it when you eat it, you have lost 14 cents. But when something is free and you don't like it, you haven't lost anything. People would    15    not to take a risk over getting a better bargain.

It was the late spring of 1979, a hot Saturday afternoon. Hundreds of us sat    1    , side by side, in rows of wooden chairs on the main campus lawn (草坪). We    2    blue robes(毕业生长袍). We listened carefully to long;     3    . When the ceremony(典礼) was    4    , we threw our caps in the air ,and we were officially graduated from college.

After that, I found Marne Schwartz, my    5    professor, and introduced him to my    6     He was a small man who took small steps, as if a    7    wind could, at any time,     8    him up into the clouds!His teeth were in good shape. When he smiled, it was as if you had just    9    him the funniest joke on earth.

He told my parents how I    10    every class he taught. He told them, "You have a    11    boy here. He helped me a lot." Shy but    12    , I looked at my feet. Before we left, I    13    Mr. Schwartz a present, a briefcase with his name on the front. I didn't want to forget him.     14    I didn't want him to forget me. He asked if I would keep in    15    , and without hesitation(犹豫)I said , "Of course. "When he turned around, I saw tears in his eyes.

Many people go to school for an education.     1    learn languages, history, geography, physics, chemistry and maths. Others go to school to learn a skill so that they can    2    a living. School    3    is very important and useful. Yet no one can learn everything from school. A teacher, no matter how much he    4    , can not teach his students everything they    5    to know. The teacher's job is to show his students how to read and how to    6    . So much more is to be learned    7    school by the students themselves.

It is always more important to know how to study by    8    than to memorize(熟记) some facts or formula(公式). It is    9    quite easy to learn a    10    fact in history or a formula in mathematics. But it is very difficult to use a formula in    11    out a maths problem.Great scientists, such as Einstein, Newton and Galileo, didn't learn many things from school. But they were all so    12    that they invented so many things for mankind.

The    13    for their success is that they knew how to study. They read books that were not    14    at school. They worked hard all their lives, wasting not a single moment. They would ask many questions as they read and they did thousands of    15    .

A thousand years ago, Hong Kong was covered by a thick forest. As more and more people came to    1    in Hong Kong,these trees were cut down and burnt.Now there is.     2    forest left, though there are still some small areas covered with trees. We call these woods.

Elephants, tigers and many    3    animals were living in the thick forest. When people came to live in Hong Kong, the    4    began to die out. Early farmers grew rice and    5    pigs and chickens in the valleys.They cut down the trees and burnt them. They needed    6    to keep themselves warm in winter, to cook their food and to keep away the dangerous animals.Elephants quickly disappeared because there was not enough food for them.     7    did most of the wolves and tigers.Monkeys and many other animals soon    8     in the same way.

You might think that there are no longer any animals in Hong Kong    9    in the zoos. There are still about 36 different animals    10    there. One of the most interesting of Hong Kong's animals is the barking deer. These are beautiful little animals    11    a rich brown coat and a white patch under the tail. They look like deer    12    but they are much like a dog    13    . In Hong Kong the barking deer has only a real enemy--    14    . People hunt these little animals though it is illegal. There are now not many barking deer left. So it is important    15    people to protect wild animals.

I have been hearing-impaired in my life since I was five years old. Putting on hearing aids in the morning has been just as    1    as brushing my teeth. However I never believed that it should limit my    2    in my way.

During my 17 years I have met many people who don't know about    3    disabilities and deal with___4___by stereotyping me. My teacher would not let me sit past the second row because they    5    I would not be able to hear. People tend to speak    6    than normal when they see my thick plastic hearing aids in my ears. However , my hearing disability has made me a stronger person.Because I wear hearing aids I have to prove that I am not    7    or mentally limited. I have to work harder and earn top grades in school to earn the    8    of my teachers. In shorts , I've had to run faster , catch better and score more points to prove I am not physically    9    .

l don't fit in with people who are deaf and    10    as a way to communicate. I consider myself no difference from anyone else. And I am not "half deaf" with my hearing aids    11    ; I can hear just as well as anyone else.

In my struggle to prove I am    12    to my non-disabled I have made myself better than the average teenager. I won the all-star    13    on my softball team. I have made myself a    14    through my published poetry and articles.

Instead of giving up, l have proven that I can do anything I want. I truly believe I would not be the    15    person I am today if I did not have a hearing disability.