Reading books is a good hobby for all kinds of reasons. First, reading books is fun. You can always keep yourself happy if you like reading. This is especially useful when the weather is bad. It is a relaxing hobby, too. You can really become lost in a book.

Next, you can read a book almost anywhere: in a car, in a waiting room, on a plane, in bed — even in a bath. All you need is a book. Reading is a convenient(方便的) hobby as it is easy to stop and then start again.

    Another good reason for reading books is that it is useful. If you keep reading as a hobby, you will get better and better at it. This means that you will read faster and will become better at understanding what you read. As your reading improves, you will find that your schoolwork becomes much easier.

    Some people say that reading is out of date. This is not true. You have to be able to read on the Internet. And the better you read, the better your computer skills will be. Reading is hardly (几乎没有)out of date!

    Good readers are most likely to be good writers, too. They are usually good at spelling as well, and have more things to write about.

Reading books is a wonderful hobby, one of the best. What other hobbies could be more useful or more enjoyable?

Thumbs Down to Texting （屈指发短信）

       Do you have a mobile phone? Do you send text messages to your friends and family?

       Text messaging or “texting” is becoming very popular. But, scientists have discovered that texting can give us problems with our hands. Be careful! Too much texting can cause swelling in our thumbs. Our thumbs were not made for pushing small buttons, over and over. Scientists call this problem RSI. We spoke to a doctor called Harriet Wilson, who treats many sick people with RSI. She says we need to see how much time we are spending in typing text messages. If we are spending more than 10–15 minutes at once, we could have problems in the future.

       As mobile phones develop, they are getting smaller with buttons closer together. Texting with a smaller phone is worse than using a larger phone with bigger buttons. Using a computer keyboard and playing video games can cause the same problem. So more and more people could find themselves with RSI. Among them, most are university students and teenagers, as they do not know the risks of spending so much time using computer, video games and mobile phones. If we don't do something about this, too many young people could grow up in terrible pain.

    Bobby was six years old, and he went to school. There were nineteen other little boys and girls in his class. They often went to parties together.

    When one of the children had a birthday, he or she invited all the other children to come to a party. And at Christmas all the mothers had parties for all the children.

Bobby like parties very much .He liked the games they played there —but he liked the nice food more .His favorite food was cakes.

    Before a party, Bobby's mother always asked him not to eat too many cakes, and Bobby always answered ,”I won't ,Mom .”But he always ate a lot and sometimes he got ill .Christmas came again, and again there were a lot of parties. Bobby went to all of them. The last one was on January 6^th.

One evening before this party, Bobby's mother called the lady who had the party, Bobby always eats too many cakes at parties. Don't worry, answered the lady “At the party, a child can only have three cakes —and the cakes are small”

    “Oh, good!” Bobby's mother answered happily. On January 6^th, she took Bobby to the party. When it was time to eat ,Bobby took four cakes and began to eat them .”You can only have three cakes ,Bobby！＂said the lady .She asked the boy to put the fourth one back on the plate.

    “I can't,” answered Bobby .I ate that one first”

根据短文 ，回答问题。

    We all have our own ways of sharing our life experiences with others. Photographers use cameras, artists use brushes, musicians use songs and writers use stories. Spencer Johnson's story Who Moved My Cheese? shows changes exist in(存在于) our life. Life changes and so we do. We must change ourselves to face the changing environment, or we will fail.

    Just look at the cycle of the seasons. Trees bud(发芽) in spring and in summer their leaves turn green. In autumn, their leaves start to fall onto the ground. When winter arrives, there are no leaves on trees. Next spring the cycle begins again. Since we know there are cycles in nature, we can prepare for them. We know it is colder in winter and hotter in summer, so we can dress properly.

    Since we accept the cycles of nature, we should also accept the changes in our life. We can prepare ourselves for changes by becoming more flexible(灵活的). We can regard the changes in our life as chances. As we keep changing ourselves, we can keep up with the changes in our life. So we should change ourselves when life changes.

左栏是在外国学习期间中国留学生常遇到的五个问题的主题描述，右栏是常遇到的五个问题的具体描述，请为左栏的每个主题选择一个合适的描述。

    Twenty years ago, my father, John, wanted to be a businessman. He wanted to be rich. So he worked very hard and every day he went home very late.

    One night when he came home from work, a robber stopped him and wanted to take his money. My father was very afraid. He didn't want to lose his money. But he didn't know what to do. Luckily a policeman came and caught the robber. My father thanked the policeman politely.

    Now my father is a policeman. He wants to help other people.