Everybody should have some level of first aid ability, because accidents and medical emergencies can happen anywhere at any time. St John First Aid courses give you the knowledge and confidence to provide effective first aid whenever it's needed.

First Aid Level 1

    Ideal(理想的) for anyone who wants to learn basic first aid or needs to renew their first aid qualification. Courses can be held at St John or your workplace.

Fee: $162(includes GST)

Duration(持续时间): Eight hours

First Aid Level 2

    Includes all course content from First Aid Level One, plus an additional half day. Ideal for special first aiders, health and safety managers and anyone who needs a first aid qualification.

Fee: $235(includes GST)

Duration: 12 hours

Pre-Hospital Emergency Care (PHEC)

    Advanced training for first aiders who already hold unit standards 6400 and 6402. Ideal for people who require advanced first aid skills or a pre-hospital emergency care (PHEC) qualification for their work.

Fee: $635(includes GST)

Duration: Three days

Child First Aid

    Ideal for parents, grandparents and other family caregivers. A recognized qualification for childcare workers.

Fee: $65(includes GST)

Duration: Four hours

Outdoor First Aid

    First aid response for accidents and medical emergencies in the wilderness. For groups of eight or more.

Duration: One to two days depending on experience

Sports First Aid

    First aid response for common sporting injuries and medical emergencies. Includes ACC injury prevention advice.

Duration: Eight hours.

    To develop one's taste in English, the most effective way is to read English books extensively. However, one may be at a loss to choose the suitable books, especially as a beginner. I would like to share some of my experience.

    My first English novel was Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, recommended (推荐) by many English teachers and professors as an ideal book for English learners. But I had great difficulty in understanding the novel, let alone enjoying it. It's not the vocabulary that troubled me, but rather the way Austen constructs sentences, and her way of thinking, which seemed too remote to me at that time. My fading enthusiasm was much recovered after reading Hemingway's novel Farewell to Arms. I particularly liked his brief and lively style. So my first suggestion is, as a beginner, you'd better choose contemporary (现代的) novels instead of classical ones.

    However, reading novels is not the only way to improve your English. English essays (散文) can at once inform you, entertain you, and improve your taste in English. The best example is Bertrand Russell's work. Its language is plain, yet you cannot help feeling the elegance and the unique sense of humor. His simple language enables his philosophy (哲理) within the reach of ordinary people. Here comes my second suggestion—essays are indispensable.

    Never follow other's opinions blindly, however famous or influential the person might be. As a saying goes, one man's meat is another man's poison. With that in mind, we are sure to find out our favorite writers through reading and develop our fine taste in English.

阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项 （A 、B 、C  和 D ）中，选出最佳选项。

    Christmastime in the city brings forests of trees already cut and waiting to be sold. But some people like to drive to tree farms. Others wait for their trees to come to them. They order one from the pages of a catalog or on the Internet. Some say the easiest thing of all is to buy a man­made tree with Christmas lights already on it. No falling needles to have to clean up.

    The National Christmas Tree Association says 33,000,000 real trees were sold last year, compared to 9,000,000 man­made ones. Man­made trees generally cost more, but they can be reused. Most natural trees are cut up and recycled, but some people buy trees that can be planted.

    Most Christmas trees are now grown on farms instead of in forests. Twenty-one thousand tree farmers in the United States grow Christmas trees on more than 180,000 hectares. Oregon was the leading producer last year.

    Twenty-two percent of people who bought real trees last year chose them at a farm. Two percent of those people cut the trees themselves. The next most popular places were big stores like Walmart and Home Depot. Groups like the Boy Scouts also sell Christmas trees. But some people pay nothing for theirs. They steal it.

    Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, has many pretty evergreens. Some years ago, a university worker found a way to keep them there. A month before Christmas, workers treated them with “pink ugly mix”. It contains water and red food colour. The bright colour starts to disappear after about a month. It can take longer, however. Cornell decided not to use the mix this year, but the idea has spread.

    I've been in the taxicab business for thirty-five years, and I know there is a lot about it that is not so good. Taxicab drivers have to be tough fellows to be able to work in New York. You've got to fight the New York traffic eight hours a day these days, so people get the wrong impression that they are bad.

    Actually, taxi drivers are just like other people. Most of them will behave as honest fellows. You read in the papers almost every week that a taxi driver turns in money or jewels that people leave in their cabs. If they weren't honest, you wouldn't be reading those stories in the papers.

    One time in Brooklyn, I found a diamond ring in my cab. I remembered helping a lady with a lot of packages that day, so I went back to where I had dropped her. It took me almost two days to trace her down in order to return her ring to her. I didn't get as much as “thank you”. Still I felt good because I had done what was right. I think I felt better than she did.

    I was born and raised in Ireland and lived there until I was nineteen years old. Then I came to this country where I had a family and bought my own cab. Life hasn't been too easy at times, but my wife takes care of our money and we have a good bit put away for a rainy day.

    When I started driving a cab, Park Avenue was mostly a bunch of coal yards. Hoofer's Brewery was right next to where the Waldorf-Astoria is now. I did pretty well, even in those days. In all my years of driving a taxicab, I have never had any trouble with the public, not even with drunks.

    I believe honesty is one of the greatest gifts. I know they call it a lot of fancy names these days, like integrity（正直）, etc. But it doesn't make any difference what they call it; it's still what makes a man a good citizen. This is my code, and I try to live by.

    LOS ANGELES, Nov. 12 (Xinhua)—Legendary comic book writer Stan Lee has died at the age of 95, according to media reports on Monday.

    Lee, born in Stanley Lieber on Dec. 28, 1922, began his career in 1939 and joined the Marvel Comics in 1961.

    He is considered as one of the most legendary names in the history of comic books and the leading creative force behind the rise of Marvel Comics. He co-created iconic fictional characters such as Spider-Man, X-Men, the Avengers, and many more.

    Lee's characters often have super powers, but they also have weaknesses. They were humans, not gods. They not only struggled to save the world, but also to pay their bills, make friends, and hold jobs. This made Marvel comic book heroes stand apart from its competitor DC, which produced the seemingly perfect heroes like Superman and Wonder Woman. Those superheroes have been adapted into blockbuster films, most of which were made after Disney acquired Marvel in a 4-billion-dollar deal in 2009.

    In a statement, Bob Iger, chairman and CEO of the Walt Disney Company said Stan Lee was as extraordinary as the characters he created.

Marvel also praised Lee on its website by putting on one of Lee's famous quotes, which goes, "I used to be embarrassed because I was just a comic-book writer while other people were building bridges or going on to medical careers. And then I began to realize: entertainment is one of the most important things in people's lives. Without it, they might go off the deep end. I feel that if you're able to entertain, you're doing a good thing. "

Praise from his Hollywood peers and colleagues was generous. President of Marvel Studios Kevin Feige appreciated Lee's unparalleled impact on the industry. "No one has had more of an impact on my career than Stan Lee, " Feige said. "Our thoughts are with his family and the millions of fans who have been forever touched by Stan's genius, charisma and heart. "

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