On a stormy day last August, Tim heard some shouting. Looking out to the sea carefully, he saw a couple of kids in a rowboat were being pulled out to sea.

    Two 12-year-old boys, Christian and Jack, rowed out a boat to search for a football. Once they'd rowed beyond the calm waters, a beach umbrella tied to the boat caught the wind and pulled the boat into open water. The pair panicked and tried to row back to shore. But they were no match for it and the boat was out of control.

    Tim knew it would soon be swallowed by the waves.

    "Everything went quiet in my head," Tim recalls(回忆). "I was trying to figure out how to swim to the boys in a straight line."

    Tim took off his clothes and jumped into the water. Every 500 yards or so, he raised his head to judge his progress. "At one point, I considered turning back," he says. "I wondered if I was putting my life at risk." After 30 minutes of struggling, he was close enough to yell to the boys, "Take down the umbrella!"

    Christian made much effort to take down the umbrella. Then Tim was able to catch up and climb aboard the boat. He took over rowing, but the waves were almost too strong for him.

    "Let's aim for the pier(码头)," Jack said. Tim turned the boat toward it. Soon afterward, waves crashed over the boat, and it began to sink. "Can you guys swim?" he cried. "A little bit," the boys said.

    Once they were in the water, Tim decided it would be safer and faster for him to pull the boys toward the pier. Christian and Jack were wearing life jackets and floated on their backs. Tim swan toward land as water washed over the boys' faces.

    “Are we almost there?" they asked again and again. "Yes," Tim told them each time.

    After 30minutes, they reached the pier.

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。

    “Long time no see” is a very interesting sentence. When I first read this sentence from an American friend's email, I laughed. I thought it was a perfect example of Chinglish.

    Obviously, it is a word-by-word literal translation of the Chinese greetings with a ruled English grammar and structure! Later on, my friend told me that it is a standard American greeting. I was too surprised to believe her. Her words could not convince me at all. So I did a research on google.com. To my surprise, there are over 60 thousand web pages containing “Long time no see.” This sentence has been widely used in emails, letters, newspapers, movies, books, or any other possible places. Though it is sort of informal, it is part of the language that Americans use daily. Ironically, if you type this phrase in Microsoft Word, the software will tell you that the grammar needs to be corrected.

    Nobody knows the origin of this Chinglish sentence. Some people believe that it came from Charlie Chan's movies. In the 1930s, Hollywood moviemakers successfully created a world wide famous Chinese detective named “Charlie Chan” on wide screens. Detective Chan likes to teach Americans some Chinese wisdom by quoting Confucius. “Long time no see” was his trademark. Soon after Charlie Chan, “Long time no see” became a popular phrase in the real world with thanks to the popularity of these movies.

    Some scholars refer to America as a huge pot of stew. All kinds of culture are mixed in the stew together, and they change the color and taste of each other. American Chinese, though a minority ethnic(少数民族的成员) group in the United States, is also contributing some changes to the stew! Language is usually the first thing to be influenced in the mixed stew.

    You can have some other examples than adoptions（采用）from Chinese, such as pizza from Italian, susi from Japanese, and déjà vu from French etc. There is a long list! Americans do not just simply borrow something from others. They will modify it and make it their own, so you would not be surprised to find a tofu and peanut butter hamburger in a restaurant, or to buy a bottle of iced Chinese green tea with honey in a grocery store. Since Americans appreciate Chinese culture more and more nowadays, I believe more Chinese words will become American English in the future. In this way the American stew keeps adding richness and flavor.

    Most people have flown a kite or have seen one ride and dip in strong spring wind. Not so many people know that kites were first made in China thousands of years ago. The ancient Chinese were making and flying kites even before they were writing.

    A long time ago, the Chinese made kites to use in wars. They would fly these war kites in the dark. The kites were fixed so that they made strange sounds. Men who were at war with them would hear these sounds and run away. They thought those strange sounds were made by gods in the sky.

    The ancient Chinese also flew kites to bring good luck and to make their crops grow rich and tall. Sometimes they tied long strings and hooks to their kites. Then they would fly the kites over water, letting the hooks hang down to catch fish.

    The Chinese use sticks, strings and paper for their kites. Some of these kites look like animals or trees. Others look like birds or houses.

    Watching wooden dolls come to life may not be one of the most popular forms of entertainment today, but with over twenty years' experience, talented puppeteer (木偶表演者) Peter Roberts has earned himself the title "master puppeteer" because of his great ability to turn puppets into believable, almost living characters. "People are quite often surprised to hear what I do for a living and have little appreciation of puppy as a form of entertainment. But while the exact origins of puppet theatre are unknown, it has been popular in many cultures and may have been the very first kind of theatre," he explains.

    Roberts' shows are highly original. "A puppet show can involve anything from clowning(傻逗) to storytelling," he says.  Equally diverse are the audiences he performs for. "Some are attracted by the puppets themselves, while others enjoy the dialogue." Roberts believes that this form of entertainment can be appreciated by people of all ages and cultures.

    Roberts' interest in puppets started when he received some beautiful glove puppets one Christmas. He started putting on shows with these for family and friends and then moved on to handmade Chinese string puppets. Learning mostly from books and personal experience, he explains, "I was already spending most of my free time carving puppets and putting on shows, so I hardly noticed the change from students to full-time professional puppeteer."

    The puppets are designed specifically for each show, which is extremely time consuming. According to Roberts, "Sometimes what you expect and what you actually create in the end are two very different things. I've made some of my best puppets 'accidentally'."

    When most people hear the word "puppetry", they more than likely think of a way of keeping children entertained at birthday parties. Certainly the subject matter will be expected to be light-hearted rather than serious. However, Roberts wants to point out that puppets convey serious messages sometimes." he says.

We have met, but just not in person.I work in the bank and I usually do my work over the phone and computer.This lady is a borrower of my bank，one of the people I serve.We have had several conversations about her borrowings.She is neither a woman that is of my mother's age, nor a grand－motherly type of client (客户), because men or women of that age are always very loving and they remind me what I should do.This woman is of my age.

We have never met in person.She lives in New Jersey and I live in California.Her borrowings turned out great, and I didn't worry even a little bit.To be honest, I think I just worked normally to finish my service.But every couple of months, she would email me a little note, telling me how I made a difference to her life, and how thankful she was for what I had done.I never expected that.

I have a busy and stressful job.Every day, I meet many people and I offer the same service to them.I also keep a working relationship with many.No one has done that for me.I don't think I have done something different or helped her much.She just used her time and the most shining part in her heart to send me emails.I saw the beauty inside her.

Everyone can be tired and lonely right now.The same is true of the woman.Take a moment in your day to do one little nice thing for somebody，even if it's for someone you do not know.You can make a little difference to their life and also to yours.It feels good to say I feel a little love today and that I find myself showing it to somebody else.