Joe is interested in getting exercise and competing (竞争) on a team. He reads about the events at the local pools and finds the perfect activity.

                                                                           Swimming Programs

     Summer Swim Team

     Join a Summer Swim Team and compete with other swimmers! The program is offered at eight different local pools for youths to 17 years old. The season runs June 21-August 21. Practices are daily (Monday through Friday) throughout the summer. Cost: $50.00.

     Junior Swim Instructor (少年游泳教练)

     Two weeks, 20 hours of instruction, two hours per day for children 11-14 years old. Pre-training for youths interested in becoming swim instructors ($45 per child).

     Junior Lifeguard (救生员)

     Two weeks, 30 hours of instruction, three hours per day for children 11-14 years old. Pre-training in lifeguarding, and customer (消费者) service ($45 per child).

     Junior Swim Instructor & Junior Lifeguard Training Dates

     Special Offer

     Anyone who takes part in both junior swim instructor and junior lifeguard programs at the same time need only spend $75 instead of $90 for 50 hours of training.

     Register(注册) Online

     You can now register online! Visit our website at http://www.example.com. You can choose an area of town, a specific local center, a program, or search for classes which can meet the needs of students of different ages. Just visit our website, and you're on your way!

    The following is a father's advice to his son or daughter, who has just graduated from high school：

    First of all, congratulations on your graduation!Graduation from high school means that a new stage of life is ahead of you．At the beginning of this new stage, I have some advice for you．

    Clean your own room and do your own laundry(洗衣物的活). After you have messed up(弄乱)something, you should learn to clean it up yourself．Cleanliness is indeed close to godliness(信奉上帝)．

    Don't mistake knowledge for wisdom. No matter how much information or knowledge you have gained, you'll never make sound(正确的)judgments if you don't have wisdom. Wisdom comes from imagination and reflection(反省)．If you can imagine the possible future outcomes of your present decisions and actions, you can avoid mistakes．And if you can reflect on the mistakes you have made, you can avoid making the same mistakes again and again．Such is wisdom．

    Don't complain．When you take up a job, do your best to carry it out．Don't waste time complaining about it, no matter how difficult and boring it is．

    Finally, be an early bird．If you get up earlier than the sun, you can watch it rising up slowly into the sky．And the sight of the rising sun will warm your heart and give you energy for the day ahead．Besides, being an early bird, you have plenty of time to take exercise or do a lot of work．

    There was once a captain who loved money so much that he cheated his sailors at the end of every voyage and took their wages (工资).

    On the last day of one voyage, the ship was in a small port. It was winter time, and the sea was very cold, so the captain said to his sailors, “If one of you stays in the water during the whole night, I will give him my ship. But if he comes out before the sun appears, I shall get his wages.”

    The sailors (船员) had heard about the captain's cheating, so they didn't trust him. But then one of them, who thought that he was cleverer than the captain, said that he would do it. He got into the water, and, though it was very cold, he stayed in it. When it was nearly morning, some fishermen lit a fire on the shore about half a mile away.

    “You are cheating,” the captain said to the sailor. “The fire's warming you.”

    “But it's half a mile away!” said the sailor.

    “A fire's fire,” answered the captain. “I have won.”

    The sailor came out of the water, and said, “Perhaps you think that you are clever because you have won my wages, but you can't cook a chicken.”

    “I can,” answered the captain.

    “If you cook this chicken,” said the sailor, “I shall work for you without wages for seven years, but if you can't, you will give me your ship.”

The captain agreed, took the chicken and said, “Where's the fire?”

    “There it is,” answered the sailor. “On the shore.”

    “But it's half a mile away,” said the captain angrily.

    “‘A fire's fire,' you said,” answered the sailor. “If it is enough to warm me in the water, it is enough to cook your chicken.”

    Beyoncé Knowles can do something that many humans struggle with: sing and dance at the same time. But, it turns out this great ability is not unique to humans. The superb lyrebird, already known to be a gifted singer, can perform coordinated(协调的)song­and­dance routines(一套舞蹈动作)that put most humans to shame.

    The superb lyrebird is one of only two lyrebird species living in Australia, the other named Albert's lyrebird. Male lyrebirds have tails in the shape of an ancient musical instrument when spread out. Like most animals with beautiful body parts, the males use their tails to attract females. Each one sets up a small mound(小丘)on the forest floor, where he walks around proudly and sings. He also shows his tail by holding it over his head.

    Lyrebirds are gifted mimics(模仿者), so their songs combine their own calls, the songs of other species, and sounds they have heard in the forest. That would be enough showing off for other animals, but male superb lyrebirds also dance.

    Anastasia Dalziell of the Australian National University in Canberra filmed 12 lyrebirds in the wild. She found that males only danced during four song types, and that each song type was accompanied by a specific move. “Lyrebirds match different dance styles to different types of songs, ”she says. For example, when the male sang a series of rapid notes he also stepped to the side and held his tail wide. Another song type was accompanied by jumping and moving up and down, with the tail held narrow.

    “Our results suggest that the coordination between song and dance—like movements we see in humans can occur in other animals,” says Dalziell. Female lyrebirds might prefer males that are better at coordinating song and dance, although there is no evidence of that yet.

    "Hope has proved a powerful predictor of outcome in every study we've done so far," said Dr. Snyder, a psychologist.

    In research with 3,920 college students, Dr. Snyder found that the level of hope among freshmen at the beginning of their first term was a more accurate predictor of their college grades than were their S.A.T. scores or their grade point averages in high school. "Students with high hope set themselves higher goals and know how to work to attain them," Dr. Snyder said. "When you compare students with equal learning ability and past school achievements, what sets them apart is hope."

    In seeking a way to assess hope scientifically, Dr. Snyder went beyond the usual belief that hope is merely the sense that everything will turn out all right. "This idea is not concrete enough; it fails to clarify two key components of hope," Dr. Snyder said.

    "Having hope means believing you have both the will and the way to accomplish your goals, whatever they may be."

    Despite the wisdom in the old saying "where there's a will there's a way," Dr. Snyder has found that the two are not necessarily connected. In a study of people from 18 to 70 years old, Dr. Snyder discovered: only about 40% of people are hopeful in the technical sense of believing they typically have the energy and means to accomplish their goals; about 20% of the people believed in their ability to find the means to attain their goals, but said they had little will to do so; another 20% have the opposite pattern, saying they had the energy to motivate themselves but little confidence that they would find the means; the rest had little hope at all, reporting that they typically had neither the will nor the way.

    "It's not enough just to have the wish for something," said Dr. Snyder. "You need the means, too. On the other hand, all the skills to solve a problem won't help without the willpower to do it."

    Schoolgirl Lorna O'Brien was in her kitchen when she looked out of the window and was terrified (惊恐的) at what she saw. "Help!" she shouted. "There's smoke and fire coming out of the kitchen window opposite."

    Her father, John, ran across to the house while her 15­year­old brother Paul called the fire service. Lorna, 16, rushed across and caught up with her dad, who had just kicked open the front door. They looked upstairs where they saw smoke coming out of the top flat. Lorna followed her father into the flat, where they found a pan (平底锅) on fire in the kitchen and the young mother, Mane Linn, who had been asleep, passed out (失去意识) in the smoke­blackened sitting room. Lorna's dad threw a wet cloth over the pan and then turned off the stove (炉子) before starting to help Mane through the smoke down the stairs to safety.

    Suddenly Mane started crying, "My baby, my baby!" "Where's the baby?" asked Lorna. "In the bedroom," Mane shouted back. While John pulled the crying mother from the house, Lorna, without a thought for her own safety, turned back to search for the baby. She found the little girl, 14­month­old Ann, lying with her eyes closed.

    Lorna quickly took the baby, rushed downstairs through the fire and smoke. "It didn't cross my mind at the time that I was near to dying when I rushed through the smoke，" said Lorna. "I was just thinking of the baby. Even after I came out of the house, I wasn't frightened."

    When help arrived, baby Ann and her mum were taken to hospital for treatment. It was only when Lorna got back into the safety of her own house that she realised the danger she had faced. "I started shaking all over and thought of what could have happened to me，" she said.