When Dave was eighteen, he bought a secondhand car for 200 so that he could travel to and from work more 1 than by bus.It worked quite well for a few years, but then it got so old, and it was costing him 2much in repairs that he decided that he had better 3 it.

    He asked among his friends to see if anyone was particularly  4 to buy a cheap car, but they all knew that it was falling to pieces, so 5 of them had any desire to buy it.Dave's friend Sam saw that he was6when they met one evening, and said, “What's  7, Dave?”

    Dave told him, and Sam answered, “Well, what about advertising it in the paper? You may  8 more for it that way than the cost of the advertisement!” Thinking that Sam's9was sensible（合理的）,he put an advertisement in an evening paper, which read “For sale: small car, 10 very little petrol, only two owners.Bargain（要价）at 50.”For two days after the advertisement first appeared, there was no 11.But then on Saturday evening he had an enquiry（询问）.A man rang up and said he would like to12 him about the car.“All right,” Dave said, feeling happy.He asked the man whether ten o'clock the next morning would be13or not.“Fine,” the man said, “and I'll 14my wife.We intend to go for a ride in it to 15it.”

    The next morning, at a quarter to ten, Dave parked the car in the square outside his front door, 16 to wait there for the people who had17 his advertisement.Even Dave had to18that the car really looked like a  wreck（残骸）.Then, soon after he had got the car as clean19 it could be, a police car stopped just behind him and a policeman got out.He looked at Dave's car and then said, “Have you reported this20 to us yet, sir?”

    A couple of weeks back, my friend had a yard sale(庭院拍卖会). She1to sell some of our stuff for us. I thought it would be a good chance to2my 7-year-old son's room and sell some toys that he no longer3 We agreed that whatever we sold in toys would be his4.

    The night before the sale, we loaded up the5with toys and a little bike that he was now6tall for. He had taken the bike for a final spin(高速旋转)7we left home but8put it on the truck for the sale. This little bike had had at least two9 owners that we knew of. It was not in the best10and it certainly was not shiny new but it was still a bike, and the tires were still good.

    We put a piece of $ 10 on it but it didn't11.So, after the sale was12, my friend put it on the sidewalk with a sign that13" FREE BIKE". Within five minutes her doorbell rang. A little boy was standing there. His English was not very good but he asked if the bike was really14.She said yes and told him that he could have it for nothing. He smiled, jumped on the bike and15away.

Later that evening when I told my son how much money he had16at the yard sale, he was very excited. The next day we were going to take the money to the bank. He asked about a few of his things,17if they had been sold. When he asked about the bike, I told him about the little boy and that he made a big18because he got the bike for free. The smiles on my son's face were truly19, much more than when I told him how much he had made. He was so excited to hear that someone else would get good20out of that little bike.

    "Where is the bus?" I asked myself. I was going to be late and the manager wasn't going to be 1 ." Thank God. Here it is." The bus  2 round the corner and I got on. Ten minutes later I was walking into the 3 where I work. Twenty-five past nine. I hope the manager doesn't notice. But no 4luck.

    "Smith!" shouted the manager. "Late again. What's your 5 this time?"" I'm afraid the bus was late, Mr. Brown." "6 up earlier tomorrow! Anyway, get to business at the counter. We'll be opening in a few minutes."

    My first customer was a pretty girl 7 a red dress. Behind her was a young man of about 25. He seemed very 8 , and 9 few seconds he looked towards the main entrance. The girl asked about opening a bank account. I gave her the necessary 10 and she walked out. 11 , I noticed a tall man by the door, carrying something 12 with brown paper. Turning to my next customer, I was terrified to see a gun 13 out of his coat. The next moment a loud noise 14 my ears. Everything went black. I was falling.... After 15 seemed a very a long time, I opened my eyes and found myself in bed! 16 shaking from the memory of this terrible dream, I got dressed and ran out of the house. As 17, the bus wasn't on time, and I arrived at 9:25.

    "Smith!" the manager cried out in a voice like thunder. " Later again! Go and start work at once!" To my 18 , the first customer was a girl 19 a red dress and behind her stood a man carrying something wrapped in brown paper. The dream!  20 that the surprise of my life!

    Like many military wives, I had to stand the long separations until my husband retired. Though I supported him in his chosen career, I1every moment away from him.

    To 2 our separations, I wrote letters every day. I made up dozens of small 3 for him which I secretly put into his bag, so that he could 4 them when he was out to sea. To this day those notes are still 5 to us.

    6in 1996 my husband retired from the Navy. But the only job 7 for my husband was six and a half hours of driving away in Norfolk, Virginia.

    We spent eight months 8. That was our hardest separation, perhaps because we had 9 planned to be apart again. He 10 to apply for jobs in the area where we hoped to live. We expected we would soon be able to be 11 again.

    One day Louie called me with the good 12 . He found a job in southwest Virginia. We were excited! There was only one small 13. Louie would have to live in a camper (露营车), while our daughters and I lived in a little house an hour and a half of driving 14. My daughters were 15 enough to take care of themselves? So I left them and stayed with Louie.

    Louie and I spent several 16 weeks together. One morning after he left for work, I sat 17 in the camper trying to remember any possession that was as priceless as the 18 we stayed together. I couldn't 19 a single thing. Then all of us moved into that camper and lived there for a year. It was pure joy! I've learned that the greatest 20 I have is the time I've spent with the ones I love.

    It was Australia Day. We had spent the afternoon 1with friends. When we arrived home, the message bank on my mobile phone was flashing. It was our 2, Annabel, who had just been left at a boarding school over 500 kilometers away. Annabel's 3 voice greeted us: "Hi, Mum and Dad, I've 4 my phone!” After just four days at school her main means of 5 had gone missing at an Australia Day celebration. We realized the chance of finding the phone were 6 for we hadn't installed (安装) the Find My Phone app.

    The next morning, my mobile beeped (发出哔哔声) loudly. When I replayed the 7 a kind voice announced that she had something that 8 my daughter and could I please call her back.

Annabel had 9 my number on the inside of her phone's case —- 10 thinking! "I'll take it to work 11 you see if anyone can pick it up,” she kindly offered after I 12 that my daughter was at boarding school and I lived a six-hour drive away.

After tracking the people I 13 who lived nearby, I was out of luck —- no one was able to 14 the phone.

    Later I decided to ask our angel (天使) to post the 15 to my daughter. But to my 16, this angel, who had already spent a busy day at work, was making a two-hour round trip on a Saturday night, especially to 17 a phone to a complete stranger.

    I gave her 18 and she delivered the phone into the hands of my daughter. The only word of her explanation was: "I've got four 19 of my own. I know how a mother 20."

Born in France, but raised in Spain,linguistics and literature professor Juan José Ciruela Alférez from the University of Granada is passionate about Chinese literature and has been doing some research about it. With painstaking effort, his Spanish translation of a Chinese classic was published last year. 

Ciruela said translating the novel was an interesting challenge. In recent years, many Chinese works have been introduced to Spain. However, as most of them had been translated first into English and then from that language into Spanish, much of the originality,was lost. For this reason, when the Spanish publishing house Kailas contacted Ciruela to translate it directly from Chinese, he accepted the mission immediately, even if it presented difficulties like a heavy workload within a short time limit.  

"I encountered various difficulties, especially at the beginning of the task," said Ciruela in an interview. "This novel, in particular, needs a prior reading process in which the translator gets into the plot and the characters, since at first it is difficult to enter the world that the novel constantly raises. So I read the novel first in Chinese, paying attention to all those details and how all of that could be translated in a way that the Spanish readers would understand."

For Ciruela, the most important criterion when translating is fidelity(忠诚) to the original text. While it is true that one cannot always be strictly faithful, he believes translators should not be too far from original texts. For example, the translation of culturemes (expressions of culture in language) is quite complicated due to the cultural gap between Spanish and Chinese. Ciruela believes that these must always be appropriate to the specific function they perform within the text, in each specific case and moment.