There was once a farmer who had a fine olive orchard. He was very hardworking, and the farm always prospered(蒸蒸日上) under his care. But he knew that his three sons did not like the farm work, and were eager to reach the goal at a single leap.

    When the farmer felt that his time had come to die, he called the three sons to him and said, “My sons, there is a pot of gold hidden in the olive orchard. Dig for it, if you wish it.” After the farmer was dead, the sons went to work to find the pot of gold.” Since they did not know where the hiding-place was, they agreed to begin in a line, at one end of the orchard, and to dig until one of them should find the money.

    They dug until they had turned up the soil from one end of the orchard to the other, round the tree-roots and between them. But no pot of gold was to be found. It seemed as if someone must have stolen it, or as if the farmer had been wandering in his wits. The three sons were bitterly disappointed to have all their work for nothing. The next olive season, the olive trees in the orchard bore more fruit than they had ever given; when it was sold, it gave the sons a whole pot of gold.

    And when they saw how much money had come from the orchard, they suddenly understood what the wise father had meant when he said, “There is gold hidden in the orchard. Dig for it, if you wish.”

写作内容:1. 以30个词概括上文的主要内容。2. 以约120个词就“Dig for it, if you wish it.”的话题谈谈你的想法，内容包括：①你对这句话的理解。②试举例说明。③这个故事给你的启发。

    Nowadays the business of fast food is developing at a rapid speed. Have you ever thought twice before deciding to eat fast food? Even if it is easy to buy and cheap, the risks outweigh(胜过) the five minutes of satisfaction that fast food brings. There are many risks when it comes to eating food that's made in just a few of seconds.

    What you eat can affect your health. People who are addicted to fast food are more likely to suffer from various life-threatening diseases. Obesity(肥胖) can come when fast food is bought often. Fast food is made from a lot of fats and high calories. If it isn't removed, then you can grow to become obese. Even a small quantity of fast food contains many calories. People are fooled by its appearance and they tend to eat more. Thus, without knowing, they consume a lot of calories. What's worse, obesity isn't the only risk. Heart disease is also a danger. The more fats, sugar and salt you eat, the weaker your heart can grow.

    Another concern for most consumers is that they can't keep track of the sources of the food supplies in fast food restaurants. They never know about the living conditions of the animals killed for meat in those restaurants, like cows, pigs, and chicken. A recent study has suggested that bacteria have been found in about 38% fast food. Even some soft drinks are now infected by food-borne illnesses that usually come from meat.

    Although fast food is one of the easiest and cheapest ways of eating, the health risks aren't worth your life, and risking your life for something that isn't good for you could cost thousands of dollars in hospital bills. It is important to eat healthily and make good choices when deciding what to put in your body. Don't be lazy and pick up fast food on your way home from work.

    In 1878, when Margaret Wolfe Hungerford wrote “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, she was stating that there was no consistent（never changing）view on beauty. Standards of beauty change across time and cultural groups.

    Traditions and fashions, like society itself, change and adapt with time. So it is reasonable that our ideas of beauty change as well. In 19th-century Europe, women used to wear corsets to achieve a body shape that is no longer considered healthy. Men would wear woolen shawls across their shoulders. It is hard to imagine that they would be seen as attractive in the 21st century. Nowadays, in the western world, one in every ten people has a tattoos or a form of body art. In the past, some cultures used tattoos as an addition to costumes, to show family associations or to mark criminals so that they could easily be recognized.

    In contemporary society, culture remains a major part in determining our ideas of beauty. In some countries, young women follow slimming diets to lose extra kilos in preparation for their wedding day. In other cultures, looking thin for a husband-to-be is not what a woman desires at all—rather, looking a little overweight is considered more attractive.

    With the influence of history, society and culture, there are no precise criteria which can be used to judge what is beautiful. Life long commitment and, indeed, the survival of society itself rely on people seeing beauty in difference and depth. The human race would soon die out if we could only see beauty within a set of limited criteria.

    Physical beauty must also be accompanied by an attraction to something deeper within a person. This particular kind of attraction is found in a wide range of personal qualities, e.g. kindness, warmth, a healthy conscience, etc. judging the appeal of a person's inner beauty is much more subjective. It takes more than a casual glance to appreciate and it is much more important than physical beauty.

    Beauty, therefore, has more than one dimension. We are influenced by our culture, our biology and our time in history to notice physical beauty quickly and easily, but it is inner beauty that requires us to truly see. Beauty is certainly in the eye of the beholder.

The Possible Health Dangers of Air-conditioners

Although many of us may feel air-conditioners bring relief from hot, humid or polluted outside air, they pose many potential health hazards. Much research has looked at how the movement of air inside a closed environment—such as an office building—can spread disease or expose people in the building to harmful chemicals.

    One of the more widely publicized dangers is that of Legionnaire's disease, which was first recognized in the 1970s. This was found to have affected people in buildings with air-conditioning systems in which warm air pumped out of the system' cooling towers was somehow sucked back into the air intake, in most cases due to poor design. The warm air, filled with bacteria, was combined with cooled, conditioned air and was then circulated around various parts of the building. Studies showed that even people outside such buildings were at risk if they walked past air exhaust pipes.

    Large air-conditioning systems add water to the air they circulate by means of humidifiers. In older systems, the water used for this process is kept in special reservoirs, the bottoms of which provide breeding grounds for bacteria which can find their way into the ventilation system. The risk to human health from this situation has been highlighted by the fact that the immune systems of approximately half of workers in air-conditioned office buildings have developed the ability to fight off the organisms found at the bottom of system reservoirs. But chemicals called “biocides” are added to reservoirs to make them germ-free, and they are dangerous in their own right in sufficient quantities, as they often contain compounds strongly linked to cancers.

    Finally, it should be pointed out that the artificial climatic environment created by air-conditioners can also affect us. In a natural environment, whether indoor or outdoor, there are small variations in temperature and humidity. Indeed, the human body has long been accustomed to these normal changes. In an air-conditioned living or working environment, however, body temperatures remain well under 37℃, our normal temperature. This leads to a weakened immune system and thus greater exposure to diseases such as colds and flu.

    Scientists in London say they have found the best diet for both humans and the planet. If the world followed the so-called "planetary health" diet, the scientists told Reuters that each year more than 11 million early deaths could be prevented. Scientists say that the way we produce and eat food is very bad for the planet. For the health of the planet, they claim the same diet would reduce greenhouse gases and save more land, water and animals.

    Tim Lang, a professor at Britain's University of London, co-led the research. He told Reuters, "The food we eat and how we produce it determines the health of people and the planet, and we are currently getting this seriously wrong." Lang added that the world's population is expected to grow to 10 billion people by 2050. If we want to feed everyone, he explained, we all need to change what we eat and the way we eat by "improving food production and reducing food waste."

    Well, what do you eat on the planetary health diet? The scientists who created this diet say it is largely plant-based but still has small amounts of dairy, fish and meat. The diet calls for cutting red meat and sugar by 50 percent and doubling the amount of nuts, fruits, vegetables and legumes.

    Food situations around the world are not equal. In certain areas, this would mean great changes. People in North America, for example, eat 6.5 times the recommended amount of red meat. On the other hand, people in South Asia eat only half the amount suggested by the new planetary health diet. Meeting the targets for vegetables would need big changes in other areas. In sub-Saharan Africa, people on average eat 7.5 times the suggested amount of vegetables like potatoes and cassava.

    The scientists admit their goal will be difficult to achieve. But for them doing nothing is also not an option. Willet said, "If we can't quite make it, it's better to try and get as close as we can."

    A recent UN report shows that many of us are working longer and harder than ever. In the past, employees worked eight or nine hours a day. Today, however, many companies expect their employees to work longer. In addition, the boundary between work and personal life has become less clear. If we are not working in the office, we might be working at home. We are required to be on call whenever our company needs us. In short, we are all working and having less time with family and friends.

    This over-emphasis (过分强调) on work can lead to serious problems in our personal lives. The more time we spend at work, the less time there is available for maintaining relationships with our friends and family. Many of us spend so much time on the job that we hardly ever get to see our partners or children. When we do get home, we are often tired and lack the energy to spend time doing what we really enjoy.

    There are, however, a number of ways in which we can regain control of our lives and correct the work-life balance. First of all, workers, especially those employed in offices, have to realize that work is rarely finished. In other words, taking work home does not usually decrease the amount of work. As one task finishes, another one appears. This means that, unless there is a strict deadline, work should stay at work.

    Another way to regain a work-life balance is to plan your free time. Most of us spend a lot of time planning our working week. Few of us put the same effort into organizing our leisure time. However, if we don't have a plan, there is a danger that we will miss out on the things that we really enjoy doing. So, if you like going to the cinema, make sure that you go regularly. Write it in your diary. If you enjoy having friends visit, plan a time and write that in your diary too. It's all too easy to let your precious time slip away.