When I asked my daughter which item she would keep: the phone, the car, the cooker, the computer, the TV, or her boyfriend, she said "the phone". Personally, I could do without the phone entirely, which makes me unusual, because the telephone is changing our lives more than any other piece of technology.

    Point 1   The telephone creates the need to communicate, in the same way that more roads create more traffic. My daughter comes home from school at 4:00 pm and then spends an hour on the phone talking to the very people she has been at school with all day. If the phone did not exist, would she have anything to talk about?

    Point 2   The mobile phone means that we are never alone. The mobile saved my life, says Crystal Johnstone. She had an accident in her Volvo on the A45 between Otley and Skipton. Trapped inside, she managed to make the call that brought the ambulance(救护车) to her rescue.

    Point 3   The mobile removes our secret. It allows marketing manager of Haba Deutsch, Carl Nicolaisen, to ring his sales staff all round the world at any time of day to ask where they are, where they are going, and how their last meeting went.

    Point 4   The telephone separates us. Antonella Bramante in Rome says, "We worked in separate offices but I could see him through the window. It was easy to get his number. We were so near-but we didn't meet for the first two weeks!"

    Point 5   The telephone allows us to reach out beyond our own lives.  Today we can talk to several complete strangers simultaneously on chat lines at least my daughter does. I wouldn't know what to talk about). We can talk across the world. We can even talk to astronauts (if you know any) while they're space- walking. And, with the phone line hooked up to the computer, we can access(存取) the Internet, the biggest library on Earth.

    Jack thought himself a basketball fan. He watched quite a lot of American NBA basketball games. Not only did he watch them, he spent much of his free time playing on the court too. Then came the final year of his middle school. All of his regular teammates stopped showing up on the court because they were simply too busy preparing for the high school entrance exam to play. He was, of course, under much stress himself, like everyone else. A good exam result meant a good high school; a mediocre(平庸的) score meant a mediocre school. Much was at stake. However, he loved basketball so much that he still found time to play, this time with a group of guys who were said to have skipped classes(逃课) before.

    Some of his teachers started worrying about him. They asked his mother to go to school to let her know that Jack was hanging out with problem kids. When his mother returned home that day, she wanted to talk to Jack. Knowing the purpose of her visit to the school, Jack thought his mother would punish him for befriending those bad guys. To his surprise, his mother was not angry with him at all. She wanted to hear her son's side of the story. So Jack told his mother about what he knew of Simon and Peter. Simon's parents were badly ill; Peter's father had lost his job. They both seemed to Jack to be normal kids. Jack's mother thought for a moment, then went on to say that she was OK with her son playing with them and that she and her son should think of ways to help these kids. Soon Jack's mum introduced some part-time jobs to Simon and Peter, which they accepted. She believed in her son and cared about those who were less lucky.

    Jack's basketball friends and he have left for different places, but they still keep in touch. He knows Peter is now a manager of a local bank.  Simon is currently a freshman at a university. Sadly, it is impossible to get together to play basketball again, but whenever they get on the phone, they talk about it all the time.

    Souanis Kim was an archery (射箭) teacher in a sports school and had trained many outstanding archers. So many parents sent their children to 1 One morning, Souanis Kim took the students to a tall tree for2. He walked to the tree about 20 meters ahead, put a toy bird on the trunk and said, "The task is to shoot the toy bird 3.

    The students stood in a line quickly. The first one was Sandy. He walked a few steps 4 , put the arrow on the string (弦), drew the bow (弓 ) and aimed at the toy bird.

    "What's 5 the bird?" asked Souanis Kim suddenly.

    "The blue sky," Sandy answered.

    Souanis Kim smiled. He asked Sandy to stand aside. The students 6 what the teacher's meaning was, but none of them asked.

    The 7was Keston. Like Sandy, he walked up. Just as he was ready to shoot the arrow, Souanis Kim asked him the 8question.

    "I see the trunk and the leaves," answered Keston. Souanis Kim 9 and asked Keston to stand aside, too.

    The third one was Jobes. Just 10 he was drawing the bow, Souarus Kim asked, "What's over the bird, Jobes?" Jobes stared at the toy bird and said, "I have seen 11but the toy bird."

    "Great!" said Souanis Kim. Then he shouted,"12!" Jobes shot the arrow and the toy bird fell.

    The students 13 with one voice. Souanis Kim looked at the 14 students and said seriously, "Remember: When an archer is showing, he must have only the 15 but nothing else."

    If you travel around China you  (notice) a very popular activity everywhere you  (go)--basketball. This much-loved sport  (enjoy)by many, for fun and exercise.

    It  (believe) that on December 21st, 1891, the first basketball game in history  (play). Then in 1936 in Berlin, it became an Olympic event. A team from China took part and although they  win they used the experience to help develop the game at home. Since then the  (popular) of basketball has risen worldwide, and  number of foreign players in America's NBA  (increase). Basketball has become a more and more popular sport for people to watch, and many young people dream of  (become) famous basketball players.