What is life's greatest gift? It is choice. Choice is the ability to choose some actions from a set of things to achieve a goal{#blank#}1{#/blank#}The reason is that it turns us from dumb animals into artists. Choice becomes the tool we use to sculpt（雕刻）our life. The tool doesn't come free, however, for the price of choice is responsibility.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}It is enjoyment.

    Choice is power. Choice is at the heart of life. It's the creative power of life. Life is always changing and we have to make lots of choices{#blank#}3{#/blank#} We often need to check where we are on our journey. We need to ask questions: Am I moving closer to my goals? If not, what action will I take now to make myself realize my goals?

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#}And our life becomes more convenient or comfortable because of them. For example, you decide which stores to shop at and which bus station to go to. But the decisions that we make to sculpt our lives are much more important than deciding where to shop. The more we understand the difference between small and big decisions, the more pleasure we will get.

    Life is like a chess game.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}All chess lovers realize that it isn't necessary to win to enjoy the game. Make the best moves you can under the conditions. Then you can enjoy your life.

A. Why is choice so great?

B. The pleasure is in the playing.

C. In fact, we have to make choices every day.

D. But when we accept and carry it out, we get a great return.

E. Every choice we make leads us closer to or farther from our goals.

    Being healthy means a person eats well, gets a lot of exercise, and has a healthy weight. Here are some rules for a kid who wants to be healthy. Try your best to follow the rules.

    Eat All Kinds of Food

    You may have your favorite food, but the best choice is to eat all kinds of food. If you eat different food, you are able to get the things your body needs.

    Drink Water and Milk

    When you're really thirsty, cold water is the best. And there's a reason some schools offer milk. Kids need calcium to build strong body, and milk is a great choice.

    Listen to Your Body

    When you're eating, notice how your body feels and whether（是否）your stomach feels comfortably full. Sometimes people eat too much because they don't notice when they need to stop eating. Eating too much can make you feel uncomfortable.

    Limit（限制）Screen Time

    What's screen time? It's the amount of time you spend watching TV, playing video games and using the computer. The more time spend on these sitting-down activities, the less time for active exercise.

    Liu Tuchi, an 87­year­old man, has given away thousands of books to kids in five villages in Southwest China and built some reading rooms in the past 13 years by collecting and selling rubbish.

    "After selling the rubbish, I go to bookstores to search for good books," Liu said. When he has enough books, he sends them to the kids in the villages.

    Liu was an officer in Sichuan Province before retiring (退休) in 1993. "I passed by a primary school in Qilong Village in 2005 and was shocked by the poor conditions," he said. With old classrooms and broken desks, the students hardly had any books. So Liu took out more than 5, 000 yuan and raised more than 8, 000 yuan from his family and friends to give away books to the school. Since then, he has kept on giving away books to rural (农村的) kids.

    Liu's work has opened his new lifestyle (生活方式). He collects and sells waste, such as bottles and old newspapers. In 2008, Liu started building reading rooms. So far he has built more than 15 reading rooms. Liu always says, "Children in rural areas should not be left behind, especially in education."

Huge Waves Destroying Arctic Ice Faster than Expected

    Ice covers much of the Arctic Ocean (北冰洋). Some pieces of ice are huge, like moving islands. As temperatures have increased, however, some of the ice has begun to disappear. Scientists have discovered huge waves (海浪) in the arctic waters.

    The waves were discovered by accident in May, 2010. Scientist Aleksey Marchenko and his students set out on a trip. They wanted to study the icy waters.

    On May 2, the ship traveled east and stopped next to a large chunk of ice around 50 miles from the small island of Hopen. Marchenko prepared to lead his students out onto the ice.

    "We were ready to go but when I went out, I discovered many cracks (裂缝) around," he remembers.

    He decided to move the ship deeper into the ice to keep safe. The farther in they went, he thought, the harder the ice would become. As they pushed forward, however, the ship experienced small waves, and then bigger ones. Soon, the waves broke up the ice around the ship into thousands of smaller pieces.

    Within an hour, Marchenko and his team saw a wave that was about 13 feet high. The ship's navigation (航行) system finally recorded the largest waves. They were more than 20 feet in height. The waves were so strong that they forced huge pieces of ice to jump up and down, breaking the ice into smaller pieces within just one hour. Scientists had never imagined that the process could happen so fast. The waves in these areas used to be small.

    The speed and force of the huge waves there makes it impossible to know in advance when they are coming. That could be dangerous for navigators and local communities who are unprepared for huge waves or depend on sea ice to protect them. Wildlife like polar bears and walruses that depend on sea ice to live is also in danger.

    Some scientists think people will soon see even bigger waves in these icy waters. As waves break up ice, the seas will become more open, and the waves will get even stronger. There are stormy times ahead.

Why Live Near the River?

Imagine pioneers traveling west in the 1800s. In those days, it was hard to find running water and shops where to buy things. As time went by, most pioneers had to make their homes near a river so that they could get water easily.

How did rivers help people live in the past?

Back in the pioneer days, people grew their own food, caught their own fish, and collected their own water.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}People also used rivers as roads, traveling on boats. Traders shipped goods (货物) to people from other areas.

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When building many factories right next to rivers for the water's power to make machines work, some people choose to live near a river for working. They use the river to ship large goods, and some of them work at these factories where power factories provide electricity for homes and businesses.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}

Who wouldn't want to live near a river?

Some people are nervous about living near rivers because rivers can cause floods (洪水). Every once in a while, floodwaters rise higher than a house, ruining (毁坏) many things in the house.{#blank#}4{#/blank#} Such waste causes water to smell bad and pollutes the crops (作物) we eat. Water and crops in polluted areas can make people very sick.

How do people decide where to live?

 {#blank#}5{#/blank#}Rivers can provide jobs and fun activities in a beautiful place. However, those living by rivers should be willing to accept possible problems as well.