Lasting a Lifetime

      Sidney Wilson's watch was old and it did not work well. It was either too fast or too slow. It spent more time in the repair shop than on his wrist (手腕). So he decided to buy himself a new watch.

      He went into a jewelry shop and said to the saleswoman behind the counter.

      “I want to buy a new watch, please. Show me the best watch you have.”

      The saleswoman smiled happily. This was the kind of customer she liked.

     “Certainly, sir,” she said, and showed Sidney a gold watch.

      “This watch is made of gold and has twenty-four jewels,” she explained.

      “How much is it?” Sidney asked.

      “$5,000,” the saleswoman said.

      “Oh,” Sidney said. “I'm sorry. You did not understand me. I want to see the best watch you have for under $100.”

      The sales woman now lost interest in Sidney. She pushed some cheap watches at him. “Choose one from these,” she said rudely.       “They are all under $100.”

      Sidney picked up one of the watches, “Will it last me a lifetime?” he asked.

     “Of course,” the saleswoman said.

     “Then I'll buy it,” Sidney told her. He paid for the watch and left the shop.

      Two days later the watch stopped. Sidney could not make it work again. He took it back to the shop.

      “This watch is broken,” he said to the saleswoman. “You told me it would last me a lifetime.”

     “When you bought it, sir,” the saleswoman said, “you didn't look very well.”

Choose the best answer to each question about the story.

    My friend, Dick, has a large police dog. Its name is Jack. Every Saturday afternoon Dick takes Jack for a long walk in the park. Jack likes these long walks very much.

    One Saturday afternoon, a young man came to visit my friend. He stayed a long time. He talked and talked. Soon it was time for my friend to take Jack for a walk. But the man was still there. Jack became very worried. He walked around the room several times and then sat down in front of the man and looked at him. But the man kept talking. Finally Jack couldn't stand it anymore. He went out of the room and came back a few minutes later. He sat down again in front of the man, but this time he held the man's hat in his mouth.

    Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf, a cartoon film based on a popular Chinese cartoon TV series, has won the hearts of children in China. The Chinese cartoon began to be shown in public on 16th January, 2009, the first day of the winter holiday for Chinese primary school students. The children seemed to go straight from the school to the cinema.

    Two weeks after its release(首次上映), the cartoon film got a box office income(票房收入)of 68 million yuan, bigger than that of an American film, Madagascar 2, which was released in China on 1st January, 2009.

    “I think it is more interesting than Madagascar 2, ” said 8­year­old Wang Lu, who had seen both the Chinese and American cartoon films.

    However, some parents don't have the same enthusiasm for Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf. “It's so childish that I almost fell asleep in the cinema, ”Wang Lu's father said.

    But because primary school children's great interest, the Pleasant Goat and Big Big wolf made a great success at the box office results. Parents join their children in the cinema—buying two or three tickets to keep them accompanied(陪同).

    Some young people find the film funny enough to watch. “The Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf are so cute, ” Dong Lei, a 22­-year-­old college student said.

    “However, compared with the animation(动画制作)technology of Hollywood cartoon films such as Kung Fu Panda, the film still has room for improvement, ” said cartoonist Yang Lin.

    Rupert Isaacson was born in Africa, and grew up in London and in the English countryside, where he discovered his love of horses. Because he grew up hearing so many fascinating memories about Africa from his parents, he went there and lived with the people called The Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert.

    By the year 2000, Rupert was already working as a reporter, writing articles and guidebooks about Africa and India. He met his wife Kristin in India. Today, they live with their son, Rowan, in the US. But Rupert faced the greatest challenge of his life when, at the age of two, Rowan was

diagnosed (诊断) with an illness that influenced his ability to communicate with others.

    Rupert discovered that spending time with horses and riding them was helping Rowan. But unluckily, the Bushmen of the Kalahari do not have horses. So the family set out for Mongolia, where horses have been important for long. Rupert has written about this journey to help his son in his book Horse Boy, and he has produced a documentary of the same name. In the film, people have the chances to see the family travelling in Mongolia, riding horses and meeting healers (治疗师) in order to help Rowan.

    Because working with horses has helped Rowan, Rupert set up The Horse Boy Foundation on his farm in Texas. It is a school that teaches people how to use horses for healing. Besides writing another book, The Long Ride Home, about travelling with Rowan to Africa, Australia and Arizona in the US, Rupert has also produced the documentary Endangerous, with Rowan as host, about dangerous animals that are endangered. Rupert Isaacson has managed to discover the secret of turning one challenge into many achievements.