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　　When other nine-year-old kids were playing games, she was working at a petrol station. When other teens were studying or going out, she struggled to find a place to sleep on the street. But she overcame these terrible setbacks to win a highly competitive scholarship（奖学金）and gain entry to Harvard University. And her amazing story has inspired a movie,“Homeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story”, shown in late April.

　　Liz Murray, a 22-year-old American girl, has been writing a real-life story of willpower and determination. Liz grew up in the shadow of two drug-addicted（吸毒）parents. There was never enough food or warm clothes in the house. Liz was the only member of the family who had a job. Her mother had AIDS and died when Liz was just 15 years old. The effect of that loss became a turning point in her life. Connecting the environment in which she had grown up with how her mother had died, she decided to do something about it.

　　Liz went back to school. She threw herself into her studies, never telling her teachers that she was homeless. At night, she lived on the streets.“What drove me to live on had something to do with understanding, by understanding that there was a whole other way of being. I had only experienced a small part of the society,” she wrote in her book Breaking Night.

　　She admitted that she used envy to drive herself on. She used the benefits that come easily to others, such as a safe living environment, to encourage herself that“next to nothing could hold me down”. She finished high school in just two years and won a full scholarship to study at Harvard University. But Liz decided to leave her top university a couple of months earlier this year in order to take care of her father, who has also developed AIDS. “I love my parents so much. They are drug addicts. But I never forget that they love me all the time.”

　　Liz wants moviegoers to come away with the idea that changing your life is“as simple as making a decision.”

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　　Some people believe that international sports create goodwill between the nations and that if countries play games together they will learn to live together. Others say that the opposite is true: that international competitions encourage false national pride and lead to misunderstanding and hatred. There is probably some truth in both arguments, but in recent years the Olympic Games have done little to support the view that sports encourage international brotherhood. Not only was there the tragic incident involving the murder of athletes, but the Games were also ruined by lesser incidents caused mainly by minor national competitions.

　　One country received its second-place medals with visible indignation（愤慨）after a hockey final. There had been noisy scenes at the end of the hockey match, the loser’s objection to the final decision. They were sure that one of their goals should not have been disallowed and that their opponents’ victory was unfair. Their manager was very angry and he said,“This wasn’t hockey. Hockey and the International Hockey Federation are finished.” The president of the Federation said later that such behavior could result in the suspension（停赛）of the team for at least three years.

　　The American basketball team announced that they would not give up the first place to Russia, after a disputable end to their competition. The game had ended in disturbance. It was thought at first that the United States had won, by a single point, but it was announced that there were three seconds still to play. A Russian player popped the ball into the basket. It was the first time the USA had ever lost an Olympic basketball match. An appeal jury discussed the matter for four and a half hours before announcing that the result would stand. The American players then voted not to receive the silver medals.

　　Incidents of this kind will continue as long as sports are played competitively rather than for the love of the game. The suggestion that athletes should compete as individuals, or in non-national teams, might be too much to hope for. But in the present organization of the Olympics there is far too much that encourages aggressive patriotism（爱国主义）.

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　　That“Monday morning feeling”could be a crushing pain in the chest which leaves you sweating and gasping for breath. Recent research from Germany and Italy shows that heart attacks are more common on Monday mornings and doctors blame the stress of returning to work after the weekend break.

　　The risk of having a heart attack on any given day should be one in seven, but a six-year study helped by researchers at the Free University of Berlin of more than 2,600 Germans showed that the average person had a 20 percent higher chance of having a heart attack on a Monday than on any other day.

　　Working Germans are particularly not protected against attack, with a 33 percent higher risk at the beginning of the working week. Non-workers, by comparison, appear to be no more at risk on a Monday than any other day.

　　A study of 11,000 Italians proved 8 a. m. on a Monday morning as the most stressful time for the heart, and both studies showed that Sunday is the least stressful day, with fewest heart attacks in both contries.

　　The finding could lead to a better understanding of what is the immediate cause of heart attacks, according to Dr Stefan Willich of the Free University.“We know a lot about long-term risk factors such as smoking and cholesterol（胆固醇）but we don’t know what actually causes heart attacks, so we can’t give clear advice on how to prevent them,”he said.

　　Monday mornings have a double helping of stress for the working body as it makes a rapid change from sleep to activity, and from the relaxing weekend to the pressures of work.

　　“When people get up, their blood pressure and heart rate go up and there are hormonal（内分泌）changes in their bodies,” Willich explained. “All these things can have an unfavorable effect in the blood system and increase the risk of a clot（血凝块）which will cause a heart attack.”

“When people return to work after a weekend off, the pace of their life changes. They have a higher workload, more stress, more anger and more physical activities,”said Willich.

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HK’s Family Affair

　　The 32nd Hong Kong Art Festival, to be held early next year, will be based on the theme of “family”

　　The art festival, considered to be Asia’s best, began in 1973.

　　“We hope that people from Beijing and from all over the world will go to Hong Kong to enjoy the multiple performances in our art festival,”Douglas Gautier, the festival’s management director, said in a press conference in the capital.

　　In the 29 days of the festival, which runs from February 8 to March 7,2004, the audience can choose from 111 performances of 51 programmes staged by 700 foreign performers, 450 local artists and 160 actors from the mainland.

　　Programmes vary from classical music, jazz, world music, Western and Peking opera, drama and dance to outdoor spectaculars.

　　The programmes include Beethoven’s only opera Fidelio, Shakespeare’s drama Rromeo and Juliet, the ballet Mozartina and African dances, to name just a few.

　　The lineup（阵容）includes the English Touring Theatre, Prague Chamber Orchestra, Zurich Ballet, The Spanish National Dance Troupe, as well as Europe Galante the Petersen Quartet, pianists Angela Hewitt and Marc-Andre Hamelin, and saxophonist Jan Garbarek.

In an effort to increase attendance, hotels and airlines are offering discount packages along with art festival ticket sales, most of which are at 20% and 30% discounts.

For more information, please check:

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　　There are few places on earth where nature can be seen in almost primitive（原始的）condition. One is the Galapagos Islands, where, largely unspoiled by man, strange and unusual birds, animals and plants settle and grow-many of which are found nowhere else in the world. These islands lie directly on the Qquator, about 1,000 kilometers west of the South American mainland.

　　But the Galapagos is now facing a crisis（危机）.Its human inhabitants, who live on the island of Santa Cruz, want to develop the business and tourist possibility of the islands. Recently, they have been having a bitter struggle with the naturalists who work at the Charles Darwin Research Center, also on Santa Cruz. The naturalists want to keep the island’s wildlife alive, which is already suffering as a result of human activities.

　　The animals’ greatest danger used to be sailors who, hundreds of years ago, plundered（掠夺）the islands for food. They wiped out about 250,000 Giant Tortoises, causing extinction（毁灭）of several species which lived on some of the smaller islands. The last survivor, an 80-year-old Giant Tortoise called Lonely George, lives under the protection of naturalists at the Darwin Center.

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　　阅读下列短文，从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项。

　　To paraphrase (释义)18th－century statesman Edmund Burke, “all that is needed for the triumph (achievement)of a misguided cause is that good people do nothing. ”One such cause now seeks to end biomedical (生物医学)research because of the theory that animals have rights ruling out their use in research. Scientists need to respond forcefully to animal rights supporters, whose arguments are confusing the public and thereby threatening advances in health knowledge and care. Leaders of the animal rights movement aim at biomedical research because it depends on public funding money, and few people understand the process of health care research. Hearing allegations (陈述辩解)of cruelty to animals in research settings, many are perplexed (puzzled)that anyone would deliberately harm an animal.

　　For example, a grandmotherly woman staffing an animal rights booth at a recent street fair was delivering a brochure (小册子)that encouraged readers not to use anything that comes from or is tested in animals － no meat, no fur, no medicines. Asked what will happen when epidemics (流行病)return, she said, “Don’t worry, scientists will find some way of using computers.” Such well－meaning people just don’t understand.

　　Scientists must communicate their message to the public in a compassionate (同情的)，understandable way－ in human terms, not in the language of molecular biology (分子生物学). We need to make clear the connection between animal research and a grandmother’s ignorant(无知的)remarks, a father’s bypass operation, a baby’s vaccinations (接种疫苗)and even a pet’s shots. To those who didn’t realize that animal research was needed to produce these treatments, as well as new treatments and vaccines (疫苗), animal research seems wasteful at best and cruel at worst.

　　Much can be done. Scientists could “adopt” middle school classes and present their own research. They should be quick to respond to letters to the editor, lest (以免)animal rights misinformation go unchallenged and acquire a deceptive (导致误解)appearance of truth. Research institutions could be opened to tours, to show that laboratory animals receive humane care. Finally, because most of the people who are against animal experiments are patients, the health research community should actively make themselves understood by not only well－known personalities such as Stephen Cooper, who has made courageous statements about the value of animal research, but all who receive medical treatment. If good people do nothing, there is real possibility that the uninformed citizens will extinguish (使……不复存在)the precious of medical progress.

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　　阅读下列短文，从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项。

　　There’s a modern African proverb I like to use when explaining why I feel it is so important to give back to my homeland：“When you take the elevator (lift)up to reach the top, please don’t forget to send the elevator back down, so that someone else can take it to the top. ”

　　As a young man, I was given a wonderful opportunity to pursue an education in the United States at Georgetown University. Never in my wildest dreams did I think it would lead to a career in the NBA, which has allowed me to send the elevator back down to my people in Africa.

　　Africa has been described as a continent that is dying, a continent that is suffering, a continent that needs help.

　　It breaks my heart every day to think of all the children growing up in poverty (贫困), and without a sense of hope.

　　But there is hope. It’s hard for me to describe my feelings when I think about what NBA players are doing to spread good will to people all over the world, but especially in Africa.

　　I’ve waited so long for such a moment －seeing more NBA players participating and devoting their time and energy for the youth of the African continent. There’s nothing that brings more joy to my heart than this.

　　The kids that we were working with come from such deep suffering. Some have never even left their village before. To get an opportunity to board a plane and travel to another country to take part in Basketball without Borders, to meet and interact with NBA players and coaches, is like a dream come true. They got to eat wonderful meals. They’re given a uniform and basketball shoes. Some of them are so overwhelmed, they don’t even know what to say.

　　Pete Babcock, who was general manager of the Atlanta Hawks when I played for them, told me in all his years around basketball, he has never received as many thank you as he did in Africa. When I hear something like that, I feel such a deep sense of pride, because I know how truly appreciative these kids are for this experience.

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　　阅读下列短文，从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项。

　　I would like to encourage parents, and anyone reading this column to express your special thanks to the men and women who share the care giving of your children. Write your children’s teachers a little note to tell them how important they are it will make their day.

　　Actually they need far more than thanks. They need pay that is equitable (reasonable)to the important work they do. In our country, we pay nearly the same salaries to the attendants who park and watch our cars as we do to trained people who care for our children.

　　When you give your car to the attendant, you want it kept in a safe place and you want to get it back without a scratch (划痕). When you give your child to a preschool teacher or caregiver, they do much more.

　　Quality childcare is physically and emotionally demanding. Children are active, vulnerable (be easily harmed), and eager to learn, and they also need individualized, loving attention. Caregivers teach health, safety, personal hygiene (卫生); they teach values and self－discipline. They lay the foundations for learning reading, science, and math. They teach cooperation and the work ethic (道德规范).

　　Caregivers in quality child －care homes and centers do everything possible for children, and they keep on doing it until they burn out, or can no longer afford to keep it up. They have families too. We lose many of our best early childhood teachers because so many of them have no health benefits.

　　Fair wages and basic health benefits will keep the good people in the field that our children need. Please write your state and federal representatives (参、众议院议员)to urge their support of young children, their education and their quality care.

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　　阅读下列短文，从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项。

　　One of the qualities that most people admire in others is the willingness to admit one’s mistakes. It is extremely hard sometimes to say a simple thing like “I was wrong about that, ”and it is even harder to say, “I was wrong, and you were right about that. ”

　　I had an experience recently with someone admitting to me that he had made a mistake fifteen years ago. He told me he had been the manager of a certain grocery store in the neighborhood where I grew up, and he asked me if I remembered the egg cartons (箱子). Then he related an incident and I began to remember clearly the incident he was describing.

　　I was about eight years old at the time, and I had gone into the store with my mother to do the weekly grocery shopping. On that particular day, I must have found my way to the dairy food department where the incident took place.

　　There must have been a special sale on eggs that day because there was an impressive display of eggs in dozen and half－dozen cartons. The cartons were stacked three or four feet high. I must have stopped in front of a display to admire the stacks. Just then a woman came by pushing her grocery cart and knocked off the stacks of cartons. For some reason, I decided it was up to me to put the display back together, so I went to work.

　　The Manager heard the noise and came rushing over to see what had happened. When he appeared, I was on my knees inspecting (examining)some of the cartons to see if any of the eggs were broken, but to him it looked as though I was the criminal. He severely scolded me and wanted me to pay for any broken eggs. I protested my innocence and tried to explain, but it did no goo Even though I quickly forgot all about the incident, obviously the manager did not.

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　　阅读下列短文，从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项。

　　During the Spring Festival holidays, pets’ beauty salons were inundated by pets and their loving owners. The tendency to treat pets as a family member is spreading in big cities in China, and daily care services for pets have the potential (潜力，潜能)to become profitable earners following endorsement (认可，支持)by the Ministry of Labor and Social Security as one of nine “new careers(职业)”last December.

Li Xin, a pet stylist at Beijing Pet Hospital, told Beijing Star Daily that regular health care for pets was necessary, including combing, bathing, cleaning the ears, and trimming the nails and hair.

　　“It needs great care and patience for every step. Care needs to be taken when trimming a puppy’s nails, for example. After the basic health requirements comes the individual styling, which depends on the character of the pets and on the weather. ”

Generally, it takes one or two hours to give a full service to a small pet and four to five hours for a bigger one, according to Ling Fengjun, president, of Beijing Pet Hospital.

　　China Small Animal Protect Association recently released statistics showing that there were 420,000 registered pets in Beijing, over 200 pet hospitals and clinics, but only 90,000 vets (兽医), and nursing staff working in China.

For newcomers, the starting monthly salary is around two thousand Yuan. After working for two to three years, those with a Bachelor’s degree can earn between 3,000and 8,000, while an experienced one might make 10,000.

Ling said, “With more focus to regulate the industry by issuing (颁发)qualification certificates, the market for pet beauty and health has huge development potential. ”

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