2 . The automobile (汽车) has many advantages. Above all, it offers people freedom to go where they want to go, when they want to go there. The basic purpose of a motor vehicle is to get from point A to point B as cheaply, quickly, and safely as possible.

In addition, much of the world’s economy is built on producing motor vehicles and supplying roads, services and repairs for those vehicles. Half of the world’s paychecks are auto related (相关的). In the United States, one of every six dollars spent and one of every six non-farm jobs are connected to the automobile or related industries, such as oil, steel, rubber, plastics, automobile services, and highway construction (建设).

Despite (尽管) their advantages, motor vehicles have many harmful effects on human lives and on air, water, land, and wild life resources. Since Karl Benz built the first automobile, almost 18 million people have been killed by motor vehicles. In addition to the tragic loss of life, these accidents cost American society about $60 billion annually in lost income and in insurance, administrative, and legal expenses.

Los Angeles is a global symbol of urban sprawl (城市扩张) built around a vast network of freeways. About one third of the city’s total metropolitan (大都市的) area and two thirds of its downtown area are devoted to roads, parking lots and other automobile related uses. Each day, its network of streets and freeways is crowded with more than five million vehicles, which are responsible for 85% of both the air pollution and the noise in this urban area.

If present trends continue, U.S. motorists will spend an average of two years of their lifetimes in traffic jams. Streets that used to be for people are now for cars. Pedestrians and people riding bicycles in the streets suffer from noise, pollution, stress, and danger.

6 . Cindy, my dog, was six years old when my son Tony was born. And she was immediately very protective over him. We lived near a busy road. As my son was too young, we were super vigilant for fear that he should go out of the front door.

Cindy knew that our son wasn’t allowed to go through the front door without us, so whenever Tony touched the front door handle, she would push him back. One morning, around 4 am, our son somehow managed to “escape” through his bedroom window, and Cindy had to follow.

At 5 am, the police woke us knocking on the door. They said, “Your son was nearly killed but the dog saved him.” They then repeated what the truck driver had said.

He told them that he was driving along in the dark and in the distance he could see something “light coloured” moving on the road. As he got closer, he could see a dog at the side of the road barking at it. At the last moment, he realized that it was a child and was about to change the direction. The dog was still barking, glancing (扫视) between the truck and the child. While the driver was braking (刹车), the dog ran out into the road, jumped at the child’s back and threw him out of the path of the truck. At the same time, the truck hit the dog and she was killed.

The driver said that he’d never believe what he saw unless it was with his own eyes. He thought that the dog definitely knew the danger, which was why she was barking so anxiously. He said “that dog just saved that kid’s life and it knew what it was doing.”

That was 39 years ago and I still miss Cindy every day.

Ballet is a formal kind of dance performance with a rich and interesting history. The word “ballet” comes from the French language. Ballet’s early roots began in Italy in the late 1400s. But it was in France     1     ballet developed into the form we know today.

The French ruler Louis the Fourteenth had a big influence     2     the direction of ballet in its early history. He ruled France for seventy-two years,     3     (start) in 1643. He started dancing as a boy and worked hard daily.

Louis the Fourteenth turned ballet into a form of dance that reflected     4     (he) power and influence. Ballet’s many rules and     5     (extreme) detailed movements expressed a person’s power and social relations. The king made sure that ballet became     6     requirement for the people of his court. He was also the     7     (found) of the Royal Academy of Dance, an institution     8     important people could learn this art. The aim of this dance was self-control, order and perfection.

Ballet slowly changed from a dance at the king’s court to one     9     (perform) by professional dancers. When Louis the Fourteenth died in 1715, ballet     10     (bring) to other parts of Europe and was developing in other ways.

10 . An idea that started in Seattle’s public library has spread throughout America and beyond. The concept is simple: help to build a sense of community in a city by getting everyone to read the same book at the same time.

In addition to encouraging reading as a pursuit (追求) to be enjoyed by all, the program allows strangers to communicate by discussing the book on the bus, as well as promoting reading as an experience to be shared in families and schools. The idea came from Seattle librarian Nancy Pearl who launched the “If All of Seattle Read the Same Book” project in 1998. Her original program used author visits, study guides and book discussion groups to bring people together with a book, but the idea has expanded to many other American cities, and even to Hong Kong.

In Chicago, the mayor (市长) appeared on television to announce the choice of To Kill a Mockingbird as the first book in the “One Book, One Chicago” program. As a result, reading clubs and neighborhood groups sprang up around the city. Across the US, it appeared that parents and children read to each other at night and strangers chatted away on the bus about the stories and character.

The only problem arose in New York, where local readers could not decide on one book to represent the huge and diverse (多样的) population. This may show that the idea works best in medium-sized cities or large towns, where a greater sense of unity can be achieved or it may show that New Yorkers rather missed the point, putting all their energy and passion into the choice of the book rather than discussion about a book itself.

Finally, as Nancy points out, the level of success is not judged by how many people read a book, but by how many people are benefited by the process, or have enjoyed speaking to someone with whom they would not have shared a word.