Cleverness is a gift while kindness is achoice. Gifts are easy—they're given after all. Choices can be hard.

    I got the idea to start Amazon 16 yearsago. I came across the fact that the Internet usage was growing at 2,300percent per year. I'd never seen or heard of anything that grew that fast, andthe idea of building an online bookstore with millions of titles was veryexciting to me. I had just turned 30 years old, and I'd been married for ayear. I told my wife Mac kenzie that I wanted to quit my job and go to do thiscrazy thing that probably wouldn't work since most start-ups don't and I wasn'tsure what to expect. Mac kenzie told me I should go for it. As a young boy, I'd been a garage inventor. I'd always wanted to be an inventor, and she wanted meto follow my passion.

    I was working at a financial firm in NewYork City with a bunch of very smart people and I had a brilliant boss that Imuch admired. I went to my boss and told him I wanted to start a companyselling books on the Internet. He took me on a long walk in Central Park,listened carefully to me, and finally said, “That sounds like a really good idea,but it would be an even better idea for someone who didn't already have a goodjob.” That logic made some sense to me, and he convinced me to think about itfor 48 hours before making a final decision. Seen in that light, it was reallya difficult choice, but finally, I decided I had to give it a shot. I didn't think I'd regret trying and failing. And I suspected I would always behaunted (萦绕)by a decision to not try at all.

    After much consideration, I took theless safe path to follow my passion, and I'm proud of that choice. For all ofus, in the end, we are our choice.

    The TV shows like “Children are hard tosupport!”, “Where are we going, Dad?”, “hot mom” and “cute kids” are becomingmore and more popular. All of these show the new parents' confusion inchildren's education and the appeal for the balance between career and family.

In real life, on the one hand, the youngparents feel helpless because they are too busy to accompany their childrenunder the pressures of work and life; on the other hand, they continue to doso. The data collected by HNTV show that nearly two-thirds of their audienceare female, among whom 36% are aged from 25 to 34. We can imagine such a scenethat one evening a young mother is watching the show with her young children,while her husband is still at work or trapped in socializing, or maybe is justplaying computer games in the bedroom. The story of a child without the companyof father is still going on. In fact, it is sometimes the same to mothers. In amodern family, it is often the old who take the responsibility for raising achild. The participation of mother in the children's education is also verylow.

    It is just this kind of confusion wherethe parents have gone in the modern family education, and where the parentswill guide their children to go that “Where are we going, Dad?” shows us. If achild wants to grow up healthily and safely into a modern citizen withindependent personality and free spirit, it is very important for him or her tofollow the parents who serve as their first teacher. Maybe this is the realreason why such kind of TV programs could get hot. The truth is that childrenwill go where their parents go, and society will go where the children go.

    Now, a new study suggests that coffeefans can make their drink taste sweeter by simply changing the color of theircups.

Scientists claim that blue and glass mugs,which are popular in some coffee shops, can reduce coffee's bitterness, withoutany need for sugar, and that coffee drunk from white cups tastes the bitterest.

    To prove their claims, the researchersinvited 36 volunteers and used three different colored cups— blue, white andtransparent glass—to do an experiment.

    In the experiment, coffee consumed fromthe white cup was found to taste less sweet when compared to the other twocolored cups, while the blue cup made the coffee taste the sweetest.

    The scientists believe that the colorbrown may be associated with coffee's bitterness because coffee in a white cupappears the brownest and tastes the bitterest.

  “Our study clearly shows that the colorof a coffee cup does influence the perceived (感受到的) taste and flavor of coffee,” said DrGeorge Doorn of Federation University Australia, “but the potential effects maybe different between a one-time purchase and a return customer.”

  “Anyhow, the effect of the color of thecup on the flavor of the coffee suggests that café owners, baristas (服务员), aswell as coffee cup manufacturers should carefully consider the color of theircups, ” he added.

    However, the idea that color can alterthe taste of food and drink is not new.

    A study published last year revealedthat red, strawberry-flavored mousse (慕斯蛋糕) served on a white plate was rated as10 percent sweeter and 15 percent more flavorous than the same food presentedon a black plate.

    Divide the bills evenly. Some studentsare far less responsible than their roommates and tend to let their part of thefinance slide. Dissatisfaction is quick to build when everyone has to pay thebill for a fellow student who can't seem to pay his/her share of the money.

    Carry your part of the load. Everyonehas to clean the bathroom and the kitchen sometime. Don't avoid your part ofresponsibility. Student accommodations can get messy and it involves everyoneto keep them tidy and healthy.

    Think about someone else before youthink about yourself. Put your roommates interests above your own. Life will befar enjoyable when everyone is concerned about the feelings property andstudies of each other.

    Be open and honest. Hostilities (敌意) andfrustrations may cause problems that can't be fixed. Everyone brings differentstandards and expectations to group living and it's in everyone's best interestto put them into the open. Disagreements can be managed more warmly when your arewilling to be both open and listen to others.

       An old man was dying. One by one his relatives visited him. Even relatives and friends he hadn't seen for years  1  him to say farewell. They all2their deep love for him. 3   each came to him, the old man held each person by their  4 and spoke to each. To one he said, “Yes, I love you.” To  5  he said, “I go without any ill will.” To a third one he said, “Peace be with you.”

        And so to each person he said such 6  words. Then the old man7Nasrudin (a wise man in the Middle East). When Nasrudin came in, he stood on one side,  8  everyone and listened to what they said and what the dying man said to them. After a while, Nasrudin 9  his hands in the air, and when everyone 10 to hear him, Nasrudin said , “Fools! Why didn't you visit him in his good  11? You didn't love him when he was healthy, but you love him when he is dying!”

After that, Nasrudin turned to the 12 man and shouted, “Fool! Why didn't you live with such nice feelings all the days when you were13 and fully alive?” With that, Nasrudin left the 14. The old man 15 and said, “At last I've heard the 16 . It is a blessing to 17 having heard the truth.” The old man died 18 .

       What about the others? They returned to their  19   business of life and continued as they always had been. And Nasrudin? When he returned to his 20 just outside the old man's house, the donkey made a long high sound, “Hee-haw! Hee-haw!” Nasrudin said, “Yes, I know... You're right... Live well; die well...”

                                                                                        How to SurviveExam Stress

        Exam time is one of the most stressful in school, whether it is highschool, college or graduate school. Even the best students feel the pressure. The first sign of a problem while preparing for an exam isworry. If we can get rid of worries, or at leastcontrol them, then we're in a much better position to do well on our tests. Take the following steps to survive examstress and increase your overall performance as a result.

 What causes you anxiety when you are studying? Too much noise? Then move to a quieter place.Delayed work? Catch up with your studies a couple nights before. That way youcan save the final night before the exam to review and get a good night ofsleep.

        The second way to deal with worry is to replace thoughts. Suppose you wake up at three in the morning and you're worried about an exam.What do you do? Doing something productive might allow you tosleep better when you finally do go back to bed.

        Another way tore place negative thoughts is to do something physically active. Work out. Takea quick walk or a nice run. For example, I might worry about the examhaving surprise questions that I'm not prepared to answer. But I can put thosethoughts aside by reminding myself that I've taken many exams and I've handledsurprise questions before.

        The third option is to treat the symptoms. Keepthings in perspective. Think of one final exam that causes you the mostanxiety. Now think of the worst thing that could happen. If you've prepared,then likely the worst grade you could get is a C. And, if you've been applying what we've been talking about, then you'll likely do no worse than a B. .

A. How bad is thatreally?

B. The first is to delete the causes.

C. Another idea isto think positive thoughts.

D. How aboutgetting up and studying for an hour?

F. What we should do is to thinkpositively and get rid of it.

G. So we are supposed to make our effortto improve our surroundings.

      It is really sad news for Guinness World Records. Tiffany Two, the holder of the  (old) cat record, has passed away in hersleep at age of 27 years, 2months and 20 days.

        Born on March 13, 1988 in San Diego, California,Tiffany Two (buy) by herowner, Sharon Voorhees, from a local pet shop. At that time, the cat was onlysix  (week) old. Sharon named her TiffanyTwo in memory of the cat she once(own) In the 1970s.

        In fact, Tiffany Two celebrated her 27^thbirthday back in March, she had lived the equivalent (等量) of 125 human years.

        Despite  unbelievable age, Tiffany Two was reported tohave good sight and hearing  (recent). Tiffany Two only had minor (ill) such as high blood pressure, and Sharondescribed her as “strong and still able to go up and down stairs”.

        “She's not afraid   (play) with anyone or any animal.She walks right past the dogs. She's very active!” Sharon explained.

增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（∧），并在其下面出该加的词。

删除：把多余的词用斜线（＼）划掉。

修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。

注意：1每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；

2只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。

    The water we drink and use was running short. We all have to learn how to stop wasted water. One of the step that we should take is to find ways of reusing them. Today in the most large cities, fresh water is used only once and then it runs in a waste system. But it is possibly to pipe the used water to a purifying factory, when the used water can be treated with chemical materials by the workers sothat it can be reused. But even if every large city purified and reused it's water, we still would have enough water.

假如你是李华。针对我国假期选择出国旅游的人越来越多，但有的游客有不文明行为的现象，请给21stCentury Teens编辑部写一封信。内容需要包括以下要点:

1. 出境游热的原因，如经济发展的原因、人们对外国文化感兴趣的原因等；

2. 旅游中出现了一些不文明现象，如随地吐痰、乱扔垃圾等；

3. 你的态度和看法。

注意：1. 词数100左右

2. 短文开头结尾已给出，不计入总词数；

3. 可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；

参考词汇：不文明行为：immoralbehaviors     树立形象：uphold an image

Dear editor,

    At present, moreand more people choose to travel abroad when they have holidays.