1 . Reading a book and watching a film are two very different experiences, but it’s normal to have high expectations when a film of a favourite book is made. There are many times I have been pessimistic or even disappointed by a film of a book I love.

The source material for a film may be taken from classic novels, short stories, comic books and stage plays, as well as non-fiction such as biographies and autobiographies, even those written by ghost writers. All can work well, but why do many adaptations and indeed remakes fail with both cinema audiences and critics? And why do some adaptations get lower ratings than others?

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 for screenwriters to decide what is appropriate for the screen and what to leave out. Screenwriters take creative liberty and 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. Finding actors acceptable to film audiences can mean the difference between success and failure. Readers of the book use their imaginations to visualise characters and have very definite ideas about how characters should look and sound. This is where I think many film adaptations fall down.

Despite the challenges, there have been some highly successful films made from popular books. For me, Jaws, Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings all fit this category. And possibly the best proof of a successful adaptation is the James Bond series, the majority of which has been adapted from the 007 novels of Ian Fleming. Perhaps unusually, audiences seem to accept that the actors who have played James Bond have changed so often, although everyone seems to have their favourite. I know I do.

2 . It was a busy morning and I had several things to do before it became too hot to be outside the house. As I was walking by the side of a busy road, I saw an old lady, maybe in her 80s standing dangerously close to the traffic. Although my mind was preoccupied (心事重重的), I thought to myself that I should warn her not to stand so close to the disordered traffic rushing by.

When I reached the place where the old lady was standing, I noticed that she was trying to get the attention of passers-by who of course were too busy to take note of her. She kept pointing to the middle of the road. When I tried to gently move her back further away from the busy road, she said that she was standing there because she had dropped her house key in the middle of the road and was unable to open her house without the key. I looked around and no one seemed to be interested in the two of us. I knew I was getting late but decided to help.

The traffic was busy on the road with people on their bikes and office goers in cars as well as school buses rushing with school children. It was the worst time of the day to cross a busy road without a traffic light. I asked the old lady to stay at a safe distance, took a deep breath, and I myself carefully stepped onto the road waving my hands madly almost expecting to be hit by an oncoming vehicle. At first one lane (车道) stopped and then I moved further on to the middle of the road continuing to wave my hand. Just then a school bus was approaching me and I bravely stepped in front of it to stop it.

The driver seemed so angry that he shouted at me.     1    

I carefully helped the old lady leave the crowded street.     2    

Lu Xun, who is acknowledged as one of the greatest modern writers in China, was born in Zhejiang Province in 1881. In 1904, he went to Japan and became a medical student, aiming to improve people’s health and save lives. _________Nevertheless, he saw a Chinese man about to be killed by a Japanese soldier in a photo, which changed his intention. What struck him was that the other Chinese men in the photo _________apparently did not care about what was happening to their fellow countrymen. From this, he concluded that the spiritual illness of people at that time was a more _________crucial problem in China than physical illness. Lu had an appetite for the power to change the present situation of China.

_________Consequently, he quit medical school. He returned to China in 1908 and _________obtained a teaching job, hoping to promote the innovation of society. In 1917, a friend insisted that he help write for a magazine named New Youth. That was how his first famous short story A Madman’s Diary got published.

5 . A couple of months before I started high school, my parents gave me the greatest gift any teenage boy could ask for: a cellphone. I lived on that phone all summer with my face buried in its screen. I ignored my family and my surroundings. Being connected was more important than being present.

So, you can imagine my displeasure when I learned what my dad had planned for our family vacation that year. “This year,” my dad said, “we’ll be doing something special. We’re going camping!” His excitement was met with a disappointed sigh. It wasn’t my dream vacation because mind was on my phone. I was so buried in the screen, in fact, that the first time I can remember truly looking up was when we drove across a bridge on the way to our campsite.

I stared out the window and saw redwoods towering above us, their branches threatening to pierce (刺破) the blue sky. I saw a roaring river, with slivers of silky black water appearing between crashing white rapids. The air blowing into the car from the open windows was hot. But none of that mattered to me. The reason I had looked up was for something far more serious: my phone no longer had service.

The last hour of the drive was increasingly tense. My dad announced that he had chosen a campsite that had no cell service, and that my phone would be useless until we returned home. I would be trapped in the forest for four days with no way to contact the outside world! I went through the full cycle of teenage emotions during the first day of the trip. I raged. I bargained. I begged. I flip-flopped (转变) from a depressive state to anger and back.

I went to bed angrily that night. But when I awoke in the morning, something had changed.

The author, a ______ boy, shared a four-day family vacation in which he was separated from his cellphone.

8 . How to Be More Interesting When Meeting New People

You might think that being interesting is a talent, or that it means you have to be the “life of the party”. Neither of those things are necessarily true. If you want to leave a good impression, you don’t have to make sure all eyes are on you.     1    

Above all,    2    .

The first thing you’ll have to do, obviously, is to show up and talk to people. On a recent episode of “The Splendid Table”, author Jessica Hagy said, “You can show up basically as an observer of other interesting people and let that be a learning experience for you, or you can show up and be a little bit more of the life of the party. But the main thing is to show up.”

Next, be a good observer and a great listener.

Remember, being “interesting” doesn’t mean you left the biggest impression, or you’re the one telling the story that everyone is attracted by. It just means that you leave a good impression on the people you interact with, and in turn, those people had a good conversation with you. Before you start talking,     3    , even if you fancy yourself a good storyteller.