Liu Ming is a student, who is 1.4 metres tall. This summer, he and his mother are going to travel by high-speed train. Here is some information they have got.

What makes 15,000 men and women take off their jackets on a cold day in April and run for four hours or more through the streets of greater Boston? Put like that, it certainly sounds silly, but I was one of those runners. In fact, like everybody else, I even paid for the experience. The race is called the Boston Marathon(马拉松), and people have been competing in it since 1897.

“I could do that,” I said.

“No, you couldn’t,” my friend Ed replied.

“Want to bet?” I said. That’s how it happened.

There were times when I regretted the dare. I had never run more than eight miles at a stretch before, and here I was training for over three times that distance. To make matters worse, since the race was in April, I had to run throughout the winter, and in Boston, winters are cold. For most people, just putting on their shirts, sweaters, jackets, and hats is exercise enough. I found myself out on the dark January streets, jumping over snow banks and skidding(滑) along icy patches of sidewalk. Even in gloves, my fingers got so cold that they felt like rolls of pennies; my nose didn’t defrost until lunchtime!

Finally, the big day arrived. The weather was cold, with ice and rain. Bang! The gun sounded, and we were off. Well, I didn’t actually go anywhere at first because I was standing behind so many people I had to wait for them to move. It was like being in a traffic jam, so I jumped up and down to stay warm.

At first, the running was easy. The other runners just seemed to pull me along. Somewhere around the 20-mile mark I even caught myself thinking, “This is nothing. Why did I train so hard?”

That’s when I hit the wall. I didn’t actually run into a brick wall, but it felt as if I had. “The wall” is what marathoners call the point at which your body simply runs out of gas. My legs turned to rubber; my arms turned into pieces of wood. I thought I might pass out. I can’t remember anything about the last five miles of the race.

I kept running though. At least, that’s what Ed told me at the finish line.

“You looked good,” he said. “How did it feel?”

“Great,” I lied. I wasn’t going to let him get the last laugh.

It just hadn’t been a very good week. On Tuesday, Sam’s father lost his job. Then on Wednesday, Sam’s mother announced that the rent on their apartment was going up. Now it was Friday, and Sam had just opened his e-mail to find an invitation from Rosa to her birthday party.

An invitation to a party at Rosa’s would have been good news. Sam knew Rosa from Adventure Club. Members of the club took trips to places such as the Museum of Natural History.

Sam knew that he would enjoy Rosa’s party, but he didn’t want to go without a gift. What could he possibly buy her with the little bit of money he had left in his pocket? Sam knew he couldn’t ask Mom or Dad for any money—not this week! “Well,” Sam thought, “I don’t have time to worry about this right now. I’ve got a report to write for school, and I’d better get to the library before it closes.”

Later that afternoon, as Sam was leaving the library, he noticed a sign that said there was a book sale going on downstairs. Sam headed down for a quick look, and two books caught his eye. The first was a cookbook of Puerto Rican foods, and the second was a book about women explorers. “Rosa would like these,” Sam thought, “but would it be tacky to give her used books for her birthday?”

Sam decided that a used gift was better than no gift at all. Besides, Rosa supported recycling in a big way, so probably she would not mind. With his last dollar, Sam bought the books and went home feeling a little better.

The party on Saturday was a lot of fun. Everyone told stories about the funny things they had done in Adventure Club—like the time they went hiking in a nearby park and fell into the lake. Rosa’s mother and grandmother served them delicious food and creamy coconut milkshakes. Rosa opened all her gifts and thanked everyone for the nice things they had given her. She stopped for a moment when she opened Sam’s gift, which made him wonder if she liked the books, but nothing was said. The moment passed, and soon the party was over.

When Sam got home, he opened his e-mail to find this note from Rosa:

The week turned out to be a good one after all.

Can we live without computers? For most people of my age, it’s hard to imagine life without a computer. It seems like almost everybody has got o    66    ! Most people use them every day to work and p    67    . Actually, the first personal computer was invented in 1975. Before then, people survived without computers and the Internet, so it must be p    68    !

I believe that there would be some a    69    to life without a computer. We would probably do more exercise instead of sitting in front of screens. We would get better at r    70    things instead of checking facts online all the time. We would also communicate more with each other because computers wouldn’t need so much of our a    71    .

However, I think that it would also be very difficult to live without computers. We use them to communicate with our f    72    and family all around the world. We also use computers to get information about many different s    73    . Computer technology has helped i    74    our lives in many different areas. For example, mechanics use computers to check our cars, doctors use computers to help b    75    understand health tests, and architects use computers to design modern, safe buildings.

In conclusion, although we may have had healthier lifestyles in our computer-free past, I believe that, in today’s society, we can’t live without computers.

76. 假如你是李华，你的美国朋友Peter将要来南京旅游，请根据Peter来信内容，进行回复。

I’m planning to visit Nanjing. Could you give me some advice on what places of interest to visit? Why do you recommend these places? What is the best time to visit Nanjing?

I’m looking forward to your reply.

Yours,

Peter

Thank you for your letter. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Yours,

Li Hua