Take care of your spine (脊柱)

    The spine stands at the center of your health, providing your body with structure and support. It also contains your spinal cord, a massive collection of nerves conveying electric signals from the rest of your body to your brain. Since your spine is so central to health, it's important to look after it.

Maintain good posture (姿势)is one of the most important things you can do to keep you spine healthy. Proper posture means standing or sitting while keeping your spine straight, except for its natural curves. Posture comes into play even when you're asleep. Sleeping on your side puts less stress on your spine than most other positions. Staying still for too long—even if your posture is good—can be hard on your back. Especially if you look at a desk most of the day, it's important to get up and stretch periodically.

    Exercise is also an important factor in the health of your spine. Stretches can help the muscles around your spine relax and allow bones to shift into better arrangement. Strength exercises like pushups can also help by strengthening the muscles around your spine. However, don't overdo the exercise, as repeated motions can strain the muscles around your spine.

    Finally, your diet affects the health of your spine because many vitamins are necessary for bones and nerves. In particular, B vitamins and omega-3 fatty acids keep nerves healthy, so you may want to consider taking a supplement. Another important factor is vitamin D, which is essential for strong bones. Vitamin D can come from some foods, but it's also absorbed from sunlight, so it may help to do some of those back exercises outside.

    Many of the actions necessary to keep your spine healthy are identical to those need to preserve your health in other ways. So protect our back, and the rest of body will benefit.

    "Wanted: Violin. Can't pay much. Contact…"

    I rarely read the classified advertisements, so why did I notice that one? I laid the paper on my lap and closed my eyes, remembering what had happened many years before, during the Great Depression when my family struggled to make a living on our farm. I, too, had wanted a violin.

When my older twin sisters began showing an interest in music, Harriet Anne learned to play Grandma's piano, while Suzanne turned to Daddy's violin. Simple tunes became lovely melodies. My baby brother danced; Daddy hummed and Mother whistled. I just listened.

    When my arms grew long enough, I tried to play Suzanne's violin. Oh, how I wanted one! But I knew it was out of the question.

    One evening as the twins played in the school orchestra. I closed my eyes tight to capture the picture firmly in my mind. Some day, I'll sit up there, I vowed silently.

    It was not a good year. At harvest the crops didn't bring as much as we had hoped. Yet even though times were hard, I couldn't wait any longer to ask, "Daddy, may I have a violin of my own?"

    "Can't you use Suzanne's?"

    "I'd like to be in the orchestra too, and we can't both use the same violin at the same time."

    Daddy's face looked sad. That night, and many following nights,I heard him remind God in our family prayers,"…and Lord, Mary Lou wants her own violin."

    One evening we all sat round the table. The twins and I studied. Mother sewed and Daddy wrote a letter to his friend, George Finkle, in Columbus, Ohio. Mr Finkle, Daddy said, was a fine violinist.

    When Daddy received a letter from Columbus a few weeks later, he asked me, "Mary Lou, do you want to go with me to visit Mr. Finkle?"

    He drove us to Columbus and we came to a fine, old house. A tall man opened the door. He and Daddy heartily shook hands, both talking at once.

    "Mary Lou, I've been hearing things about you. Your Daddy has arranged a surprise for you!" He picked up a case, opened it, lifted out a violin and started to play. The melody surged and spoke like waterfalls. Oh, to play like him, I thought.

    Finishing the piece, he turned to Daddy. "I found it in a pawnshop(当铺)for seven dollars. It's a good violin. Mary Lou should be able to make a beautiful music with it." Then he handed the violin to me.

注意：

⒈所续写短文的词数应为150左右;

⒉至少使用5个短文中标有下划线的关键词语;

⒊续写部分分为两段,每段的开头语已为你写好;

⒋续写完成后,请用下划线标出你所使用的关键词语。

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    I noticed the tears in Daddy's eyes as I finally comprehended. It was mine!

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    I forced my thoughts to the present and read again the advertisement.

    Peter woke up one morning with all the usual signs of a nasty cold: severe headache and blocked nose. Then he did what almost everyone does on a day like this. He got up and went to work. Such is the state of what the human resources industry has come to call presenteeism.

    Many experts claim that presenteeism is now a bigger problem in the UK than absenteeism and could even help explain the country's weak productivity growth. A growing number of companies are realizing presenteeism and doing something about it. This generally takes the form of programmes full of once unimaginable sweets: cheap gym membership, veggie salads in the canteen, stand-up desks and the odd massage, of course, there's nothing against lunchtime dentistry or free workout. They do more good than harm. But such welfares alone won't do much to stop people from presenteeism.

    The chief reasons why people soldier on have nothing to do with how fit they are. They work for leaner, more stressed companies where dismissals are common. This makes some people worried that they will be targeted in the next round of job cut if they have taken a lot of time off. Others worry about troubling stretched colleagues with more work in their absence. How annoying it is to be faced with cold faces when you return to office after two days' rest at home.

There is not much to be said for "silly things" like ping-pong tables and office bean bags. The key to dealing with presenteeism lies in training managers to be better at spotting swifly when employees are under too much stress or ill, and dealing with the situation sensibly—putting the sick employee to sick leave although he is reluctant. Of course, work has to be done to eliminate employee's concern about his job prospect thereof.

The Negative Sides of Fast Food

    With today's fast lifestyle, it is very hard to keep up with the traditional way of taking care of all human needs. Eating habits are no exception. According to an article in Success magazine(November 1994), America today eats more fast food than ever before. Ninety-six out of every one hundred Americans eat fast food on some kind of regular basis. There are many side effects related to this popular eating habit.

    The food sold in most fast food restaurants may not be all that good for us. Everything in the restaurant has to look, taste, and smell the same way. In order for the food to still taste fresh, a lot of chemicals have to be added. As if that were not enough, the main element that the fast food market advertises and competes for is not good food or fresh ingredients, but lowest prices.

    People who have the habit of eating fast food rarely even try to change their diet. Instead, people tend to get more and more used to the convenience and taste of fast food. According to a survey, out of every ten fast food eaters, only four will eat the same amount or less, and the other six will double their “loads” of fast food within four years; and out of every ten people who finally get to control their eating disorder, six will come back to eating fast food within six years.     These alarming figures seem to be contrary to today's convenient ways of cooking at home. Easy-to-make dishes like those for microwaves, soups etc., would appear to be the solution for the fast food problem, but obviously the real problem is not the trouble of cooking at home, but the addicting simplicity of fast food.

阅读下面短文，根据所给情节进行续写，使之构成一个完整的故事。

    At first, Michael Surrell didn't see the black smoke or flames shooting from the windows of his neighbors' home. He and his wife had just parked around the corner from their own house in Allentown, Pennsylvania, when they got a call from one of his daughters: "The house next door is on fire!" He went to investigate. That's when he saw a woman crying desperately on their porch.

    "The baby's in there!" the woman cried. Though the fire department had been called, Surrell, then 64, instinctively ran inside. "The baby" was 8-year-old Tiara Roberts, the woman's granddaughter.

    Entering the burning house was like "running into a bucket of black paint," Surrell says. The thick smoke caused him to stumble blindly around, burned his eyes, and made it impossible to breathe. The conditions would have been dangerous to anyone, but for Surrell, who has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (慢性阻塞性肺病), they were life-threatening.

    After a few minutes in the smoke-filled house, he retreated outside to catch his breath. Surrell knew he couldn't hold his breath for long. Taking a deep breath, he went in a second time. The darkness was overwhelming. Yet because the house had a similar layout (布局)to his, he found the stairs and made it to the second floor. He turned to the right and was met by intense heat. He was already out of breath.

His throat and lungs burned as if he'd breathed in fire instead of the smoke and soot in the air. Every blink stung his eyes. All he could hear was the crackling and popping of burning wood. Then a soft but distinct moan (呻吟声) emerged. Still unable to see, Surrell fell to his knees on the hot wood floor. He crawled toward the sound, feeling around for any sign of the girl.

注意：

1）所续写短文的词数应为150词左右；

2）至少使用5个短文中标有下划线的关键词语；

3）续写部分分为两段，每段的开头语已为你写好；

4）续写完成后，请用下划线标出你所使用的关键词语。

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    Finally, he touched something — a shoe, then an ankle.

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    Surrell woke up in the hospital a couple of days later.