My color television has given me nothing but a headache. I was able to buy it a little over a year ago because I had my relatives give me money for my birthday instead of a lot of clothes that wouldn't fit. I let a salesclerk fool me into buying a discontinued model. I realized this a day late, when I saw newspaper advertisements for the set at seventy-five dollars less than I had paid. The set worked so beautifully when I first got it home that I would keep it on until stations signed off for the night. Fortunately, I didn't got any channels showing all-night movies or I would never have gotten to bed.

    Then I started developing a problem with the set that involved static (静电) noise. For some reason, when certain shows switched into a commercial, a loud noise would sound for a few seconds. Gradually, this noise began to appear during a show, and to get rid of it, I had to change to another channel and then change it back. Sometimes this technique would not work, and I had to pick up the set and shake it to remove the sound. I actually began to build up my arm muscles(肌肉) shaking my set.

    When neither of these methods removed the static noise, I would sit helplessly and wait for the noise to go away. At last I ended up hitting the set with my fist, and it stopped working altogether .My trip to the repair shop cost me $62, and the set is working well now, but I keep expecting more trouble.

LONDON—A British judge on Thursday sentenced a businessman who sold fake bomb detectors（探测器）to 10 years in prison, saying the man hadn't cared about potentially deadly consequences.

It is believed that James McCormick got about $ 77.8 million from the sales of his detectors--which were based on a kind of golf ball finder—to countries including Iraq, Belgium and Saudi Arabia. McCormick, 57, was convicted of cheats last month and sentenced Thursday at the Old Bailey court in London.

    “Your cheating conduct in selling a great amount of useless equipment simply for huge profit promoted a false sense of security and in all probability materially contributed to causing death and injury to innocent people,” Judge Richard Hone told McCormick. “You have neither regret, nor shame, nor any sense of guilt.”

    The detectors, sold for up to $ 42, 000 each, were said to be able to find such dangerous objects as bombs under water and from the air. But in fact they “lacked any grounding in science” and were of no use.

    McCormick had told the court that he sold his detectors to the police in Kenya, the prison service in Hong Kong, the army in Egypt and the border control in Thailand.

    “I never had any bad results from customers,” he said.

    Scotland has long been characterized as a land of romance. It contains ruins of many ancient castles and abbeys，and there is an attractive beauty in its mountains，long deep valleys，and ribbon lakes. Each year those things attract a great number of tourists.

    Numerous islands line the coast. In the north are two large groups，the Orkney Islands and the Shetland Islands. Close to the west coast are the Inner and Outer Hebrides groups，and the islands of Arran and Bute.

    The land may be divided into three regions: the Highlands in the north，the Central Lowlands and the Southern Uplands.

    The Highlands are wild and picturesque(如画的). A long valley called Glenmore crosses the Highlands from southwest to northeast.

    In the south of the Highlands are the Grampian Mountains，highest in the British Isles. Ben Nevis，the highest peak，rises to 1，243 meters. Ben Lomond rises from the shore of Loch Lomond，Scotland's largest freshwater lake.

    The Central Lowlands run from southwest to northeast and the greatest length is nearly 145 kilometers. The soil here is fertile，and there are four coalfields underlying the area. In the east is Edinburgh，Scotland's historic capital city，and in the west is Glasgow. Almost 90 percent of Scotland's population live in the Lowlands.

    In the Southern Uplands，the hills are generally less than 600 meters high. Their rounded or flat tops are often capped with dark peat(泥炭). Along the slopes are plants like grass and heather(石南花).

    I'm learning to drive in Switzerland. I think it will be a good idea to learn now because I have plenty of free time and am earning a little money to pay for lessons. I never learnt when I lived in the UK, so luckily driving on the "wrong" side isn't a problem.

    However, there are a lot of rules to remember. When you see a road to your right and there are no white lines on the ground, the cars to your right have the right to go before your car and you have to stop for them. In practice, lots of people forget this and cars either wait for each other while both drivers try to remember what to do, or beep (鸣喇叭) at each other if both try to go at the same time!

    When you drive round a roundabout, you should check all your mirrors. To remember how to do this, I often count them aloud—one, two, three—then a second glance at your blind spot when you're in the roundabout. One friend came driving with me and after about an hour asked why on earth I was counting. He had passed his test so long ago, he couldn't remember ever having to check three mirrors!

    Driving still seems scary to me so I drive quite slowly. I also don't know the countryside roads very well and don't know what's coming up round the comer or over the next hill. I drive slowly so I feel safe, but my driving instructor tells me to speed up or cars will bump into me from behind or try to overtake somewhere dangerous. So driving slowly is just as dangerous as driving fast!

    I'm not a very practical person so learning to drive has been a challenge. I don't have a lot of confidence and find it quite demotivating to do something that doesn't come naturally to me. To make driving more fun and interesting, I learn in Swiss German, so my instructor gives me instructions in Swiss. This way I've tricked myself into enjoying driving and hopefully will pass the test!

    The U. S. Thanksgiving holiday is symbolized (象征) by its traditional food-roast turkey. But turkey is certainly not from Turkey. In fact, its English name is based on one big mistake. We could say it is a case of mistaken identity. The word "Turkey" has meant "the land of the Turks" since ancient times. In the mid-1500s, the word "turkey" was first used to refer to the bird in the English language.

    The misunderstanding over the word happened because of two similar-looking kinds of birds.

    There is an African bird called the guinea fowl(珍珠鸡). It has dark feathers with white spots and a patch of brown on the back of its neck. Traders brought the guinea fowl to Europe through North Africa. This foreign bird came to Europe through Turkish lands. So, the English thought the bird as a "Turkish chicken".

    When Europeans came to North America, they saw a bird that looked like the guinea fowl. This bird was native to the North American continent. But they thought that it was the guinea fowl, which at that time, was called the "turkey cock", so they gave it the same name.

    Hundreds of years later, we continue to call this North American bird "turkey", even though it has no connection at all with the country Turkey, or even with Europe.

    But English is not the only language with interesting names for this North American bird.

    The Turkish call turkey "hindi", the Turkish name for India. The reference(涉及)to India probably conies from the old wrong idea that the New World was in Eastern Asia.

    The French call it "dinde", a name that also connects the bird to India. "Dinde" means "from India" in the French language. "Turkey" has similar names in several other languages.

    Feel nervous on the first day of school? You are not alone! Here is some advice on how to make you feel comfortable.

    Get ready the night before. Plan out what you're going to wear and what you will need for class. Then get a nice, long sleep. There's nothing worse than looking terrible on the first day of school. If you don't want to oversleep, set an alarm on your phone, or alarm clock to wake you up on time.

    Eat a good breakfast. You'd be surprised at how much happier and more focused you'll be after eating a good breakfast. Have a healthy breakfast. A rich breakfast may make you feel lazy and sugar rich foods may affect your ability to stay focused.

    Decide whether to take the bus, walk, or have a ride from your parents. It's your call. If you want something familiar, take a bus ride and sit next to someone you already know. However, if you are really nervous, you can ask your mom or dad to drive you to school, but expect that there will be heavy traffic.

    Smile and be friendly! You want to seem easy to get along with and that you had the best summer. Smile and be friendly. Instead of coming up as a boring person, compliment people. Everyone needs a little confidence and is happy when praised on the first day of school.