It's 10:00 on a beautiful Sunday morning in California. To my left is some of the most beautiful coastline. I'm walking along a road ordinarily packed with cars on days like this, but today, thanks in part to my $135 entry fee, it is closed to traffic.

    There's only one problem: I should be running, not walking. Over the past year, I've spent hundreds of dollars on running gear(设备) and race entry fees. I've jogged than 1,600 miles training for this event.

    Dozens of runners pass me on either side, each of them experiencing varying degrees of sadness similar to my own. Most of them, like me, have traveled hundreds of thousands of miles to get here, spending $500, $1,000 or more to participate in this event.

    Actually I'm by no means a competitive athlete. My best finish ever was fourth place, in a 5-kftometer race with only 74 participants, many of whom were walking the entire course.

    Last year, over 500,000 runners completed a marathon in the U.S. alone. Nearly all of these runners had absolutely no chance of victory. The PR-personal record-is everyone's definition of a “good race,” whether he finishes in first or 301st.

    I should buy a new watch that not only tracks my location by GPS, but also by counting steps. This can more accurate and much more expensive. Finally, I have reached the finish line. I know that the official race photographers will be taking photos as I cross the line, so I raise my arms in “victory” I finish, in a time of 3:37:55, good for 354th place.

    A few days after the race, the race organizers email me a link to a site where I can preview my official photos 一 and download them, for a fee, of course.

    I wish I could say the feeling was unique; it's probably not Indeed probably a feeling most runners get in most marathons. Running a lot of marathons 9 in fact, may not even be good for your health.

    In America, marathoning is a rich person's sport.

根据短文内容，选择最佳答案，并将选定答案的字母标号填在题前括号内。

    A group of graduates, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. They talked about the present-day hot topic—Happiness, but conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.

    Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and different kinds of cups-porcelain（陶瓷的）, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some extremely beautiful—telling them to help themselves to the coffee.

    When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said, “If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.”

    “Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup. But you consciously went for the best cups…And then you began coveting each other's cups.”

    “Now consider this: life is the coffee; the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of life we live. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee God has provided us. God brews（酿造）the coffee, not the cups…Enjoy your coffee! The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything.”

    Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly.

    Leave the rest to God.

    International Robotics Forum（论坛）

    Tokyo Big Sight, Tokyo, Japan, December 4-5

    The Robotics Society of Japan ( RSJ) , to provide opportunities for young robot lovers to learn more about industrial and service robots, is going to hold the International Robotics Forum that will cooperate with this year's International Robot Exhibition.

    The lectures and explanations throughout the Conference will be given in Japanese but will be interpreted into English at the same time. The Conference will offer a great opportunity for senior high school students from all around the world to communicate with each other through robots. Therefore, we look forward to your active participation.

    The event will take place two days. On the morning of Day One, Prof. Shin' ichi Yuta of the Shibaura Institute of Technology will give a lecture on basic mobile robotics and learning through robots.  This will be followed by a talk by Mr.  Kazuhiko Yokoyama of Yasukawa Electric Corporation who will explain the mechanism and control of robots and also point out the highlights(最精彩的部分）of the International Robot Exhibition.

    We will prepare a challenge for all the participants.  We will send you themes for robot research. You will study them in advance, and on the afternoon of Day One, you wi11 visit the Tokyo International Exhibition Center and investigate (详细研究）real robot . You will be able to experience fun and excitement of advanced robot technologies.  On the morning of Day Two, you will present your study and investigation results.

    On the afternoon of Day Two，as the final event, awards will be given by the RSJ to groups that have given outstanding presentations.

We hope that many future robot researchers and engineers will be born today.

    A man was going to open a shop selling hats. He wanted a good sign to put over his shop. He wrote:

    JOHN BROWN HATTER

    Makes and Sells Hats for Ready Money

    The first friend gave him the advice that the word "hatter" wasn't needed. So John crossed out the hatter. Then he came to another friend for advice. This friend said that it was not polite to say "for ready money". So he crossed out "for ready money'.

    The sign now said:

    JOHN BROWN

    Makes and Sells Hats

    One day a friend was passing his shop. He saw this sign and said that when a man bought a hat, he didn't ask who made it. So John crossed out "makes".

    But when another friend saw "John Brown sells hats", he said "Of course you sell hats. No one thinks you give them away."

    So, at last the sign read:

    JOHN BROWN

    When Chris moved in across the hall from Norma Cook four years ago in a Los Angeles-area apartment complex, the 31-year-old actor waved to his 85-year-old neighbor for a few weeks before finally knocking on her door and introducing himself. “The day I entered her apartment and spoke with her face to face was the day my life was changed forever,” Chris said.

    He learned that Cook had no family living in California and that she suffered from a long list of illnesses, including leukemia (白血病). The pair quickly became close friends, as Chris took her to doctor's appointments, cooked with her and they ran errands (差事) together. He shared their adventures on social media. But recently, Cook's health declined and she was in and out of the hospital several times. She once spent weeks in the hospital fighting pneumonia and breathing issues.  Eventually Cook was told by one of her doctors that she could no longer live at home unless she had 24-hour care. Because Cook had no money saved to pay her health care costs, Chris started a Go Fund Me account to help cover her bills.

    But caretakers are expensive and Cook quickly ran out of the $34,445 they raised. Knowing her days at home were limited, Chris invited Cook to move in with him to save money.“ She loves it! I do most of my work at home so I am here most of the time to care for her. It only made sense to both of us.” Chris wrote. “She is my adopted grandmother after all and I am her grandson she never had.”

    “Cook still has weekly hospice health care visits and regular visits from caregivers, so any funds raised cover those expenses,” he wrote. Though doctors say Cook's days are very limited, the pair are enjoying spending time together drinking champagne and snuggling with her cat, Hermes, who also made a move.

    “She does not want to change,” Chris told Today. “My apartment was the only place she would have moved. She has strong opinions about where she wants to carry out the rest of her days, and she wants to stay here.” Chris says he feels like the relationship was fate. “Moving her in....it feels as though it was meant to be all along, ” he said. “It's really fulfilling to be there for her.”

    Many people find that music lifts their spirits. Now a new research shows that music therapy (疗法) can be a useful treatment for depression.

    The finding that music therapy offers a real medical benefit to depression sufferers comes from a review by the Cochrane Collaboration, a non-profit group that reviews health care issues. Some studies looked at the effects of providing music therapy to patients who were receiving drug treatment for depression. Others compared music therapy to traditional talk therapy. In four out of five of the trials, music therapy worked better at easing depression symptoms than therapies that did not employ music, the researchers found.

    “While the evidence came from a few small studies, it suggests that this is an area that is well worth further investigation.” said lead author Anna Maratos. Ms. Maratos notes that music therapy might be particularly useful for adolescents who may reject a traditional form of counseling. Some older patients also may not be comfortable talking about their feelings but do tend to express themselves through songs.

    There are two main types of music therapy. Sometimes, a therapist will listen to music with a patient and talk about the feelings or memories that it arouses. In another form, the therapist is a skilled musician and will improvise (即兴创作) music with the patient. If the patient doesn't play an instrument, he or she might be given a simple percussion (击打) instrument and the therapist will play along.

    Other studies have shown a benefit from music therapy in the treatment for dementia, learning disabilities, strokes and pain management during labor and birth. The problem is that there isn't very much high-quality research. "It doesn't easily attract serious research funding. It's difficult to do high-quality, large-scale trials." said Ms. Maratos.