阅读理解。

In a Station of the Metro

    The apparition of these faces in the crowd;Petals on a wet, black bough.

    This is the only Ezra Pound poem that many people will read in their lives. Why? One obvious reason is that it's just two lines long. The poem, which can be understood as “A man sees a bunch of faces in the subway and thinks they look like flowers on a tree branch,” is an exercise in shortness. Pound wrote it after having a spiritual experience in a Paris metro (subway) station.

    In 1916, the US poet originally thought he could best describe his vision in a painting. Unfortunately, he wasn't a painter. So he wrote a thirty-line poem, which he didn't like. He dropped the long version in the waste bin. Six months later, he wrote a shorter poem, but didn't like that one either. Finally, a full year after the experience, he had been reading short Japanese poems called haikus, and he figured he would try this style. The result, which was published in 1913, is one of the most famous and influential works in modern poetry.

    This poem is one of the monuments (纪念物) of the 20th-century artistic movement known as “Imagism”. Basically, Pound and his friends thought that images (意象) weren't just decoration: they were the highest form of speech. By finding the right image, the poet can express the true, spiritual reality of a thing, which is more important than using a bunch of adjectives to describe its physical appearance. Thus, “In a Station of the Metro” is a poem that consists of one image expressed with absolute (绝对的) exactness and nothing else.

    To the imagists, the best way to describe an experience is not to use more and more words; the best way is to find exactly the right words. Have you ever told a beloved one that “words can't express” how much you love them? Well, Pound would say that you're just being lazy. In his view, words can express anything, even if it takes an entire year to find the right ones.

    Now is the best time for Hong Kong shopping lovers, as most shops and markets are having their seasonal sales. With the same amount of money, you can find different kinds of goods in this city. Women, young and old, rarely resist the attraction of this shopping paradise(乐园) at this time of year. Lovers will surely have an exciting Christmas and New year's Eve celebrations at the Time Square or in the western styled bars. Spending your holiday in Hong Kong will be easy too, as several packing tours are available from CZL Travel Service, with four-day tours for less than 15,000 yuan.

    Tour package 1(3,200 yuan): a 4-day-tour including three nights' accommodation(住宿), science helicopter flight, night ferry tour of Victoria Harbor and shuttle bus to the park to view the city at night.

    Tour package 2(1,880yuan): a 4-day-shopping tour including three nights' accommodation, tour to Golden Beach and the Vex work Museum, shuttle bus to the Peak and shopping opportunities.

    Tour package 3 (1,480 yuan): a 4-day-DIY-tour including three nights' accommodation in a four-star hotel and total freedom to do what you want, when you went.

Ottawa museum of Nature

    The range of products and services available at the Ottawa Museum of Nature is as broad and interesting as the range of activities.

    ·Birthday Parties: Give your child — aged from 4 to 12 — an unforgettable birthday party at the museum!

    ·Facility Rentals: Planning an event in Ottawa? Let our elegant, historic, castle-like setting and our dedicated staff help you create a magical event to remember!

    ·Travelling Exhibition Rentals Looking for new programming for your institution? We have many popular travelling exhibitions — small and large — that tour across Ottawa.

    ·Photo and Film Shoots: Either of our unique buildings would make great backdrops for your project. Whether for a commercial (广告), education, media, of fashion production, we've got a location for you.

    How to get here?

    If you are on Highway 417 (the Queensway), take the Metcalfe exit, No. 119. You Can see the museum from the highway look for a "castle" on the north side.

    Walking from the downtown The museum is only 20-minute walk fro Parliament Hill. Metcalfe Street takes you directly to the main entrance of the museum. Elgin and O'Connor streets take you to the outer edges of the museum grounds.

    Membership

    We strongly advise you to apply for our membership. A lot of on-site benefits are waiting for you:

    Free admission to the museum for one year;

    Free admission to temporary blockbuster exhibitions (i. e. no special-exhibition surcharge);

    Discount on museum programs, including adult workshops and special lectures (to a maximum of 20%);

    10 points for use at the Nature Trade;

    10% discount at thc Nature Café.

Dear editor(编辑),

    Can't your newspaper do something about the custom (习惯) of hitchhiking?

    A short time ago, on a car travel I counted at least 50 people standing beside the road, asking for rides. Many of them were young women.

    Don't they understand how dangerous it is to get into the car driven by a stranger? How much do they know about the driver? Is he a good driver or not? They know nothing!

    Many of these young hitchhikers may come from good families. Don't their parents teach them anything about the world? I always taught my children not to talk to strangers. I never let them take rides from people they didn't know.

    Isn't there enough crime (犯罪) today without asking for trouble by hitchhiking? On the other hand, hitchhiking may bring some traffic trouble. Don't you think what I said is true?

    A Worried Grandfather

A new study estimates more than 1 billion people worldwide are currently living with obesity. People with obesity are considered medically overweight. The study, published in the medical publication The Lancet, said that one in eight people are obese. Researchers said around 43 percent of adults were overweight in 2022. Obesity among adults has more than doubled since 1990. Among young people aged 5 to 19, the obesity rate increased by four times during the same period.

"A staggering number of people are living with obesity, and severe obesity is strongly linked to a long list of health problems and an early death." declared the lead writer of the study, Majid Ezzati, a professor at Imperial College London.

The WHO noted that at the World Health Assembly in 2022, member states agreed to an agency plan to fight obesity. So far, 31 governments "are now leading the way" to reduce obesity by carrying out goals of the plan.

These include government measures to enact new rules on "harmful" marketing of unhealthy food and drinks to children. In addition, governments are aiming to improve school and nutrition policies. They are also seeking price reductions for healthy foods, to increase public awareness about healthy diets and exercise and to strengthen requirements for physical activity in schools.

Imperial College's Ezzati said that obesity rates are not rising in many wealthier nations. But they are quickly increasing in other countries. He noted that some countries have many underweight people, meaning the nations are facing what he called a "double burden" of nutrition problems.

Branca is head of nutrition at the WHO. He told reporters, "In the past, we have been thinking of obesity as a problem of the rich, but obesity is a problem of the world. Although new obesity drugs — such as Ozempic and Wegovy — could be helpful tools in reducing obesity, they noted that the cost and availability of the drugs might increase inequality."