What should we do when we are in a bad situation? Some may choose to give up. But is that what we should do? The following news report may get you encouraged.

    With a population of 156 million, Bangladesh has one of the largest populations in the world. What makes the situation worse is that most of the country is situated on the low-lying Ganges delta(三角洲). As a result, it often suffers flooding, especially during the rainy season from July to October. In this period, the rivers rise as much as 12 feet. In such situations, people can only get to certain places by boat.

    The problems are particularly serious in the Chalanbeel region, a poor area where people survive by farming on the rich delta soil when it is not underwater. But many parents there don't want to send their children to school and there are not enough teachers. As a result, many kids living there do not attend school on a regular basis. The problem becomes worse during the rainy season when land schools cannot be reached. Many students never return to school after the forced breaks.

    How to help students attend school regularly? 22-year-old Bangladeshi architect Mohammed Rezwan decided to take action. In 2002, the young man used $500 he had received in scholarships to start Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha. The non-profit organization's mission was to set up floating schools. It took Rezwan four years to raise enough funds to open his first boat school. But as the world began to know about the organization's worthy cause, money started to pour in. Until now, Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha has built 22 floating schools, some with playgrounds on the upper deck. Now a lot more children in the Chalanbeel region go to school regularly.

    We should keep in mind that there is always a solution to every problem.

    We are naturally drawn to friends and colleagues with familiar voices, scientists have found. People prefer those who have a similar accent, intonation and tone of voice to themselves, they discovered.

    Previous research has focused on how male or female a voice sounds. Men with deeper voices and women with slightly higher voices were thought to sound more attractive, because they suggest a bigger or a smaller body.

    But the new study, published by a linguistics expert in Canada, suggests there is a more complex mechanism (机制) at play. Dr Molly Babel, from the University of British Columbia in Canada, said, “The voice is an amazingly flexible tool that we use to construct our identity. Very few things in our voices are changeless, so we felt that our preferences had to be about more than a person's shape and size.”

    She recorded 30 volunteers' voices and asked each to rate the others' attractiveness on a range from one to nine. Each participant was from western America, with similar accents. The people we assessed were all in the same dialect group, but they showed that dialect to different degrees.

     “We seem to like people who sound like we sound, and we like people who fit within what we know,” Dr Babel said. She also found that breathy voices in women—typified by the famous American actress Marilyn Monroe-were seen as more attractive.

    The breathy tone, caused by younger and thinner vocal cords (声带), implied youthfulness and health. A creaky (咯吱作响的) voice, suggesting a person has a cold, is tired or smokes, was seen as unattractive. The participants preferred men who spoke with a shorter average word length and deeper voices.

    In England, we look forward to our birthdays for 364 days a year! We invite special people to celebrate it with us.

    The Presents

    Presents are opened as soon as the children are awake. They can't wait for the birthday cake later in the day!

    The Cards

    Friends and family send birthday cards. Sending birthday cards is a custom that began in England about 100 years ago.

    The Party

    The birthday child will have a party to which friends and family are invited. Visitors to the party bring presents for the birthday child. The children play games such as Musical Chairs and Pass the Parcel.

    The Cake

    The birthday cake is decorated on a theme(主题). A candle for each year is lit and placed on top and the child blows out the candles making a wish. We don't put objects inside the cake as shown on many websites.

    The Bumps

    It used to be traditional for the birthday child to have the bumps. Friends would hold the child by the child by the legs and under the arms and lift the child up and down bumping them gently on the ground. The number of bumps given is the age of the child plus one for extra good luck. As this can be dangerous, clapping is often done instead.

    The Sweets

    Some children do take sweets into school to share with their classmates on their birthdays.

    There are some very good things about open education. This way of teaching allows the students to grow as people, and to develop their own interests in many subjects. Open education allows students to be responsible for their own education, as they are responsible for what they do in life. Some students do badly in a traditional classroom. The open classroom may allow them to enjoy learning. Some students will be happier in an open education school. They will not have to worry about grades or rules. For students who worry about these things a lot, it is a good idea to be in an open classroom.

    But many students will not do well in an open classroom. For some students, there are too few rules. These students will do little in school. They will not make good use of open education. Because open education is so different from traditional education, these students may have a problem getting used to making so many choices. For many students it is important to have some rules in the classroom. They worry about the rules even when there are no rules. Even a few rules will help this kind of students. The last point about open education is that some traditional teachers do not like it. Many teachers do not believe in open education. Teachers who want to have an open classroom may have many problems at their schools.

    You now know what open education is. Some of its good points and bad points have been explained. You may have your own opinion about open education. The writer thinks that open education is a good idea, but only in theory. In actual fact, it may not work very well in a real class or school. The writer believes that most students, but of course not all students, want some structure in their classes. They want and need to have rules. In some cases, they must be made to study some subjects. Many students are pleased to find subjects they have to study interesting. They would not study those subjects if they did not have to.

Reading a book and watching a film are two very different experiences, but expectations can be high when a film of a favourite book is made. There are very many times I have been disappointed by a film of a book I love. So maybe highly regarded books do not always make good films. It is safe to say that great movies may be made from not particularly good books.

The source material may be anything from classic novels, short stones, comic books and stage plays, as well as non­fiction such as biography and autobiography, even those written by ghostwriters. All can work well, but why do many adaptations and indeed remakes fail with both cinema audiences and critics?

A key question is obviously how close to the original the film is. Since a typical film is only around two hours long, it becomes a question of what to leave out, and how to script the dialogue. Sometimes there may be changes to the plot, additions and even different endings to please producers, directors and test audiences. I, like many people, have often left the cinema feeling "the film is not like the book".

Another problem area is the cast. Whether suitable actors are found or not can mean the difference between success and failure. Readers of the book use their imaginations to visualize characters and have very definite ideas about how characters look and sound. This is where I think many film adaptations fall down.

Some books are just too difficult to film for technical reasons, although movies like The Life of Pi are changing this perception. The impact of CGI technology has had a huge impact on the movie industry and allowed the previously unfilmable to become a reality.

 Sometimes authors are very involved in the process and many may even be the screenwriters. This can actually be a bad thing because they may be too close to the material and find it difficult to adapt. At other times they are not the screenwriters, and there are instances where writers have been very unhappy with the film versions of their work. Roald Dahl and Stephen King are examples of this. Even more extreme was novelist J. D. Salinger who made sure no film versions of his popular novels could ever be made. In this situation, it is clear viewers will not be disappointed.

Floods are common and {#blank#}1{#/blank#}(frequent) destructive natural events that annually affect around 250 million people worldwide. Though the causes of floods --usually heavy rainfall or melting snow-- are {#blank#}2{#/blank#}(avoidable), knowledge of the correct procedures before, during and after a flood can make a difference. 

Before a flood occurs, we must work {#blank#}3{#/blank#}(reduce) the risk to people and their valuables. Firstly, you should prepare disaster supplies {#blank#}4{#/blank#} include a light source, sleeping bags, warm clothes, and most importantly, at least three days of food and drinking water. Secondly, you should bring the most important objects to the {#blank#}5{#/blank#}(up) levels of your house.

During a flood, it's important to leave {#blank#}6{#/blank#} you are immediately. The longer you stay, the more danger you'll be in. Be sure to move to higher ground. If you're already inside a building, move to the upper floor. Don't walk {#blank#}7{#/blank#}drive through the moving floodwater, since as little as 15 centimetres of moving water is enough to knock an adult down, and 60 centimetres can wash most cars away.

{#blank#}8{#/blank#} a flood, listen for official news reports to find out when it's safe to return to your home. As you return home, watch out for possible {#blank#}9{#/blank#}(danger). The flood may have damaged roads and power lines. Keep away from the floodwater, because it may {#blank#}10{#/blank#}(pollute) and unsafe to touch.