When was the last time you sent someone a letter by regular mail? Thanks to the Internet, many people prefer to send e-mails rather than mail letters using the postal system. Young people entering the working world today find themselves sending and replying to hundreds of business related e-mails every week.

    However, many of these same young people don't seem to know some basic rules when it comes to sending e-mails at work. Most of the people said they didn't check their spelling or punctuation (标点) before hitting „send'.

    Even more surprising was that 5% of them said they sometimes end e-mails to their boss with the words „love and kisses!' While this is fine for personal messages to friends and loved ones, it is normally considered improper in work place.

    The main reason for this use of informal language in workplace e-mail is that a lot of young people have always communicated with others on the Internet—especially using e-mails—in a relaxed and friendly manner. For many people, online communication outside of work, such as talking with others in chat rooms, posting on message boards, and sending e-mail to friends, is usually for fun.

    Another reason is that young people now are unfamiliar with how to write formal letters, because they have never had to write a formal letter before. They have had no training in how to write a basic business letter, and are unaware of the style and language that should, and should not, be used.

    With more business letters now being conducted using the Internet than ever before, it is important for people to be aware of the differences in language use between personal and business communication—especially when using e-mails. So next time you send an e-mail at the office, remember you're not just online, you're at work.

Curiosity Is an Increasingly Rare Virtue

    Most of the breakthrough discoveries and remarkable inventions throughout history, from flints (打火石) for starting a fire to self-driving cars, have something in common: They are the result of curiosity. But the journalist Ian Leslie, in his newly-published book Curious: The Desire to Know and Why Your Future Depends on It, insists that curiosity is a much overlooked human virtue, crucial to our success, and we are losing it.

    Leslie presents considerable evidence for the claim that the society as a whole is growing less curious. In the U.S. and Europe, for example, the rise of the Internet, among other social and technological changes, has led to a declining consumption of news from outside the reader's borders. Indeed, Google, for which Leslie expresses admiration, is also his frequent whipping boy (替罪羊): we seek only the information we want. But not everything is to be blamed on technology. The decline in interest in literary fiction is also one of the causes identified by Leslie.

    Why is this a problem? Because without curiosity we will lose the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship (企业家精神). Worse still, that lack of curiosity produces a relative lack of knowledge, and the lack of knowledge is difficult if not impossible to compensate for later on.

    Fortunately, some strategies can be employed to develop curiosity: If you just accept the world as it is without trying to dig deeper, you will certainly lose the 'holy curiosity'. Of course, one effective way to dig deeper beneath the surface is asking questions: What is that? Why is it made that way? Who invented it? How does it work? ...And if you see learning as a burden, there's no way you will want to dig deeper into anything. That will just make the burden heavier. But if you think of learning as something fun, you will naturally want to dig deeper.

    Fisherman Salvador was just trying to make a living on the sea with fellow fisherman Cordoba. Two days into the journey, disaster struck, and the two men would begin the greatest challenge of their lives.

    The boat was loaded with tons of provisions, including 70 gallons of gasoline, 16 gallons of water, 50 Ibs of sar - dines for bait(鱼饵). They also had a mobile phone, kept safe in a plastic bag, a GPS, and a two-way radio. The two had never spoken before or worked together, but they liked fishing and both of them seemed to know what they were doing.

    Two days later, the weather was getting worse and worse. Salvador was trying to remain calm, but Cordoba was not prepared. He held on to the rail(围栏) for dear life as the waves crashed around them, vomiting(呕吐）and crying. When the storm finally passed, Salvador noticed that they had drifted far away from land. To make matters worse, the motor had stopped working. Salvador called his boss on the radio, but there was no response. Even worse was the fact that the GPS they has brought with them had stopped working.

    The two men had been at sea for two months. While Salvador had become accustomed to catching and eating the animals available to them, Cordoba's mental health and physical health had begun to decrease. Once he got sick from eating raw seabirds, he refused to eat at all. His own depression, fear and malnutrition(营养不良）finally killed him, leaving Salvador alone on the boat.

    One day, after a terrible storm, Salvador found the sky was suddenly filled with shorebirds. He knew that he was heading for land at last. He must have been close. There, in the distance was a green Pacific atoll(环礁). It looked small and wild, but it was dry land and would likely have food and shelter.

注意：

1）所续写短文的词数应为l50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。

Paragraph 1:

    Salvador struggled until he reached what appeared to be a beach house.

Paragraph 2:

    Salvador was rescued(拯救).

    Whether you're looking for a quick hotel in the city or a isolated resort in the tropics, where you choose to stay can make or break your vacation experience. But even the most seasoned travelers may not know the difference between the two main types of homes-away-from-home. Besides their first letter, is there any real difference between hotels and motels?

    These two types of lodging(宾馆) have the same basic purpose­a place for travelers to sleep­but there are plenty of features that set them apart. For instance, they came to be for different reasons, and at very different times. The word "hotel" dates back to the 1600s and comes from a French word, hotel. That word, just like the English one, referred to a place that provides lodging, meals, entertainment, and other services to travelers.

    Motels, on the other hand, are a much more recent­and pretty much exclusively American­lodging option. This word dates back to the 1920s and combines the words "hotel" and "motor." As America's major highway system developed, so did motels, filling the need for roadside stops for motorists traveling cross-country.

    There are also some smaller differences that can help you figure out which type of place you're in. Hotels tend to be built for longer stays, while motels are geared more for one- or two-night stops along a journey. Because of this, hotels are much more likely to have offerings like lounges, gyms, and entertainment.

    So, in the end, it comes down to what you want from your trip and from your lodging. Want the place you stay to be just as much a part of your travel experience as anything else? Opt for a hotel. Just need a place to pop in and out of to shower and sleep? A motel might be the better choice.