Since May 1, 2015, Beijing started to allow blind people to take guide dogs (导盲犬) onto the subway(地铁). How much do you know about guide dogs? What can they do to help blind people?

    Not every dog can become a guide dog. The most common guide dog breeds (品种) are Labrador Retrievers (拉布拉多猎犬) and Golden Retrievers (金毛猎犬). That's because they are smart and have a good temper.

    To help blind people, dogs need to learn many skills, such as finding and following a clear road, moving around obstacles (障碍物), and stopping when they reach a curb (路牙) beside a road. Of course they should pass tests. They also need to learn an important lesson known as “intelligent disobedience (智能抗命)”. For example, blind people ask the dog to go forward when crossing a road. But if the dog knows that a car is coming, it will not move until it is safe.

    At about 10 or 12 years old, guide dogs retire(退休). Some of them stay at their owner's home and become their pets. Others may go back to training schools and live there.

    What can a guide dog do to help blind people?

• Follow a direct road, paying no attention to other things such as smells, animals and people.

• Keep a steady (稳定的) pace and just ahead of the owner.

• Stop at all curbs until the handler tells them to move forward.

• Stay quiet when the owner is sitting down.

• Help the owner to move around buses, subways and other public transportation.

    Answer the following questions. (in no more than eight words)

    What do you read when you are travelling by train or bus? What are other people reading? Perhaps a woman sitting near you is reading a love story. A man is reading a serious biography(自传) about a president. And there's a student reading an English textbook.

    What do their choices(选择) say about them? Do you think you can know them by what they are reading? I have got to tell you that your feelings of them may be quite wrong. The woman reading the love story could be a lawyer. She just wants a light read to take her mind off work. The man reading the biography wants you to think that he is very clever. The student reading the textbook isn't a student at all. She's an English teacher.

    Publishers(出版商) know that some people care what they read on trains or buses and so they put out different types of covers. For example， books about Harry Potter have a cartoon cover for young readers and then another more serious cover for grown—ups.

    So next time you are on a train， look around and see what other people are reading， but don't jump to any conclusions(结论). You will be wrong maybe.

Here is a sentence that you could say， “Don't judge（判断） a book by its cover”.

    It was December. Marie, a 13-year-old Australian girl was happy. It was Christmas, and Marie's mother was making a special cake. She put four small coins into the cake, and then she baked (烤) it.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}After dinner Marie and her family ate the cake. They found three coins in the cake and put them on the table.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}It was missing, but Marie's mother didn't notice.

    After Christmas Marie got sick. She coughed, and she couldn't speak. After six weeks she felt better, but she still couldn't speak.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}Doctors at the hospital looked her over, and then said, "We are sorry, but we can't help her. " For 12 years Marie didn't speak. She grew up, she got a job, and she got married.

    But she never spoke. One day, when Marie was 25 years old, she got a sore throat at work.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}She coughed up something small and black. What was it? Marie didn't know. She took it to the hospital. A doctor at the hospital said, "This is a coin!" The doctor told Marie, "I think you can speak again.”{#blank#}5{#/blank#}

A.Where was the fourth coin?

B.Marie's parents took her to hospital.

C.The four coins were for good luck.

D.The coin is difficult to find.

E.She began to cough.

F.Marie went to a special doctor, and soon she could talk.

    Bobby came from a poor family. He wanted to buy his mother a Christmas present, but he only had a dime(十分硬币). He walked from shop to shop and finally came to a flower shop. Bobby asked if he could buy just one flower for his mother as a Christmas present with a dime. The shop owner said, "You just wait here and I'll see what I can do for you."

    The shop owner came out a little later with twelve beautiful roses, "That will be ten cents, young man. I just happen to have some roses on sale for ten cents a dozen(一打). Would you like them？"

    Bobby took the long box from the man's hands and left the shop happily. As the shop owner returned inside, his wife asked, "Who were you talking to and where are the roses you took out？"

    The man replied, "This morning while I was preparing to open the shop, I thought I heard a voice. It told me to put aside a dozen of my best roses for a special present and I did so. Then, just a few minutes ago, a little boy came into the shop and wanted to buy a flower for his mother with a dime. When I saw him, I remembered my experience many years ago. That time I was a poor boy with nothing to buy a Christmas present for my mother. A man that I didn't know stopped me on the street and told me that he wanted to give me ten dollars. When I saw that little boy tonight, I knew whose voice that was, and I put together a dozen of my best roses."

A: Hello, Henry. How are you?

B: Hi, Peter. I'm fine, thanks. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

A: I'm fine, too. Do you have a ping pong ball?

B: {#blank#}2{#/blank#}But I have a soccer ball. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

A: No, playing soccer is boring for me. But I have a basketball.

B: {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

A: It's under my bed.

B: {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

A: That sounds interesting. Let's go.