1 . Las Vegas city in Nevada is built in a desert. The city may be known to the outside world for its partying. But officials have found that there are 21 square kilometers of useless grass. The grass is never laid on, played on or even stepped on. The grass is only there to look nice.

Now, the city is asking the Nevada state legislature (立法机构) to ban useless grass. It is trying to become the first place in America to ban that kind of grass often seen between streets, in housing developments and in office parks.

It is estimated that useless grass makes up 40% of all the grass in Las Vegas and it needs a lot of water to survive. Grass needs four times more water than dry climate plants like cactus. By tearing out the grass, the city could reduce yearly water usage by 15%.

In 2003, the Southern Nevada Water Authority banned developers from planting grass in front of new homes. It also offered homeowners $30 for each square meter of grass they tear out. But fewer people are now using the program. Water usage has increased in southern Nevada by 9% since 2019. And last year, Las Vegas set a record of 240 days without major rainfall. The Colorado River provides much of Nevada’s drinking water. The river could lose more water as climate change affects it.

Water officials in other dry cities said water usage needs to be reduced. But they fear the reaction to reforms like the ones in Las Vegas if their communities do not accept them. Cynthia Campbell is the water resources adviser for the city of Phoenix in Arizona. “There might come a point when city restrictions get too severe (苛刻的) for some residents (居民). They’ll say that is the point of no return for them,” Campbell said. “For some people, it’s a pool. For some people, it’s grass.”

Lei Xingyu, who is sixteen, is middle school student in Northern China. She is one of the best student in her class and she was won an award for young scientists last year. When sitting in the classroom, she looks just like all his classmates but after class her life is obvious different. She was born without the ability to use her legs but she has no feeling below her waist. She has to use a wheelchair to do everyday things, such as getting dressing, getting out of bed and go to school. So far she had created many programs. And one of which received an award at her province’s science fair.

3 . I received a private message on Facebook. It began harmlessly enough: “Hey, girl. Wanted to invite you to join my next challenge group --- we'll be focusing on fitting in 30 minutes of exercise and balanced nutrition.”

It was all becoming too much. Facebook was running my life, not me.

But what killed Facebook for me was when I posted a photo, and five minutes later my son asked me how many “likes” it had got. His question was a wake-up call.

“Likes” are signs of acceptance and approval(认可). I had forgotten that acceptance and approval need to come from within and had unknowingly set him a bad example.

Before Facebook, surfing the internet was an occasional distraction(使人消遣的事) and I spent a lot more time reading books and magazines. I checked in with friends through texts, emails and phone calls.

To recreate the simplicity (质朴) of those days and set a healthier example for my son, I deactivated my Facebook account.

I'd been in the habit of checking Facebook many times a day, so I had to come up with some new habits. I carried a novel and a crossword puzzle book around with me. I rediscovered knitting(针织). I started taking yoga classes.

I started to remember a few things. My body is fine just the way it is. I have friends who will help me out when I'm in trouble, and I will help them out. I do my best to be a good mother, and our son is happy and healthy. We are very lucky to be able to afford two vacations a year.

I stopped looking at the world through my cellphone. I felt completely present in the moment.

The break left me feeling better about myself, my family, my home and my life.

After a few weeks, I returned to Facebook. Now I look at the photos of my friends' kids growing up and treasure how social media allows me to keep in touch with family far and wide. I look in on a daily basis, but no longer with the desire constantly to post updates.

It is not an addiction any more

5 . There was once a young ballerina (芭蕾舞演员) who had taken ballet lessons all through her childhood. She wanted to be a first-class _______ but she wanted to be sure that she had the talent (天才). When a ballet company came to her town, she went to the backstage after the performance and spoke to the ballet master.

"I want to be a _______ ballet dancer but I don't know if I have the talent," she said. "Dance for me!" The master asked. After a(n) _______ or two, he shook his head and said, "No, no, no, you don't have what it _______ to be a great ballerina."

The young woman went home heartbroken. She _______ the ballet shoes into the closet (柜子) and _______wore them again. Instead she got _______, had children. When the kids were _______ enough, she took a part-time job and worked as a cash register at a corner shop.

Years later, the _______ ballet company came to her town. She ________ it and on the way out, she ran into the same old ballet master who was then in his eighties. Then she asked, "There is just one thing that ________ has worried me. How could you tell me that I don't have what it takes to be a great ballerina?" "Oh, I hardly looked at you when you ________. That's what I told ________ of them who came to me," he said.

"But... but, that's ________! What you said years ago has destroyed my ________ , I could have been a great ballet dancer!" she cried.

This morning on my way to school, I was deep moved by what I saw outside a bank. An old man was counting his money in the front of the bank. Suddenly a young man came running and knocked him down. To make things bad, his money was lying in all direction. In no time the people around rush to pick the money up while the old man stood there, not know what to do. Surprisingly, everyone gave back the money they had just picked. The old man counted the money again and found that not a single bill was missed. To my great joy, there are now a lot nice people in your life. It’s true what honesty is more important than money!

7 . It’s 2035. You have a job, a family and you’re about 40 years old. Welcome to our future life.

Getting ready for work, you pause in front of the mirror. “Turn red,” you say. Your shirt changes from sky blue to deep red. Tiny preprogrammed electronics (智能电子元件) are rearranged in your shirt to change its color. Looking into the mirror, you find it hard to believe you’re 40. You look much younger. With amazing advances in medicine, people in your generation may live to be 150 years old. You’re not even middle aged!

As you go into the kitchen and prepare to pour your breakfast cereal（谷物） into a bowl, you hear, “To lose weight, you shouldn’t eat that,” from your shoes. They read the nutrition details on the cereal box. You decide to listen to your shoes. “Kitchen, what can I have for breakfast?” A list of possible foods appears on the table as the kitchen checks its food supplies.

“Ready for your trip to space,” you ask your son and daughter. In 2021 only specially-trained astronauts went into space---and very few of them. Today anyone can go to space for daytrips or longer vacations. Your best friend even works in space. Thanks to medical advances, vaccination shots (防疫针) are a thing of the past. Ordinary foods like strawberries contain specific vaccines(疫苗). With the strawberries in their mouths, the kids head for the front door.

It’s time for you to go to work. Your car checks your fingerprints and unlocks the doors. “My office,” you command. Your car drives itself down the road and move smoothly into traffic on the highway.

8 . I believe honesty is one of the greatest gifts. I know they call it a lot of fancy names these days, like_________ or straightforward. And it’s still what_________ a man a good citizen. This is my secret, and I try to live by.

I’ve been in the taxi business for thirty-five years, _________ there is a lot about it that is not so good. Taxi drivers have to be rough and tumble(乱作一团) fellows to be able to take it in New York. You’ve got to be _________ to fight the New York traffic eight hours a day.

Because taxi drivers are tough, people get the_________ impression that they are bad. Taxi drivers are just like other people. Most of them will act as_________ fellows. You read in the papers almost every week_________ a taxi driver turns in money or jewels or like that people leave in their_________. If they weren’t honest, you wouldn’t be reading those stories in the papers. One time, I found an emerald(翡翠的) ring in my car. I remembered helping a lady with a lot of suitcases that day, so I went back to where I had_________. It took me almost two days to wait for her in order to return her____________ to her. I didn’t get as much as “thank you.” ____________, I felt good because I had done what was right. I think I felt better than she____________.

I was born and raised in Ireland until I was nineteen years old. I came to this country in 1913 where I____________ several jobs to earn a few dollars before joining the army in World War Ι. After being discharged(退伍), I bought my own car and have owned one ever since. It hasn’t been too easy____________, but my wife takes care of our money and we have a good bit____________ for a rainy day(一时之需). In all my years of driving a taxi, I have never had____________ with the public，not even with drunks. Even if they get a little headstrong(顽固的) once in a while, I just agree with them and then they behave themselves.

People ask me about tips. As far as I know, ____________ everyone will give me something, because most Americans are____________ generous. I always try to be nice to everyone, whether they____________ or not. I believe in God and try to be a good member of my parish（教区). I try to act toward others like I think God wants me to act. I have been trying this for a long time, and the____________ I try, the easier it gets.

9 . Social media brings endless concerns for parents, with worries that it weakens their children’s confidence and attention spans. But others counter that it could also be broadening their horizons.

The latest round of worry was sparked by a study of the impact of social media use on 8-12-year-olds published by Anne Longfield, Children’s Commissioner for England. The report focused on 132 children, who described pressures from constant contact, online comments that weaken their self-esteem, and the need to shape offline activities to make them shareable.

“You see your friends going ice skating, partying or talking about how much revision they have done, and it can make you feel inadequate,” says Bea, a junior school student from Bristol, UK. “It’s just so hard to get away from it.”

Children have to take risks on their journeys to adulthood, and desires to fit in and be popular existed before Mark Zuckerberg came along with Facebook. However, in previous generations these pressures came largely from people they knew, and they mostly stayed outside the home. Now the pressures could come from any one of the nearly 3 billion people online, and follow them from school to home, and can even continue through the night.

The pressures do get on parents’ nerves, among which the utmost concern is how their children can be protected from harm, given that social media is a necessary way of interaction for many young people. According to Longfield’s study, children should be taught about online safety from an early age, better before secondary school. There is growing evidence that efforts need to be extended to provide earlier guidance on less extreme but more common risks, including over-sharing, low self-esteem, addiction and insomnia. The evidence suggests she is right. However, approaches that focus merely on the potential negatives are unlikely to work.

“My school has tried to do a lot, but it often involves trying to drill into us how bad social media can be,” says Bea. “People of my age really like social media, so I think a better approach would be if they said ‘Although it is good, here are some negatives’.”

10 . I was about 30 years old and was working as a firefighter in the South Bronx’s Engine Co.82. It was a restful Sunday and between alarms I rushed to the office to read a copy of the New York Times. I read an article on the Book Review section which openly stated what I took to be a calumny (诽谤) -- that William Butler Yeats had gone beyond his Irishness and was forever to be known as a universal poet. As I read it, my blood began to boil.

I grabbed a piece of paper and wrote out a letter of anger to the editor. Yeats had lived his life and written his poetry through the very essence of his Irish sensibility. It was offensive to think Irishness was something to be transcended (超越). I don’t know why I felt it my duty to safeguard the reputation of the world’s greatest poet. I just knew that I had to write that letter.

After my letter got published, I received a letter from The New Yorker asking for an interview. When my article Fireman Smith appeared in that magazine, the editor of a large publishing firm called me, asking if I was interested in writing a book about my life. I had little confidence to write a whole book, though the subject was worthy. I wrote Report From Engine Co.82 in six months, and it sold really well. In the years that followed, I wrote three more best-sellers.

Being a writer had been far from my expectations. How had it happened? I often found myself thinking about it, and my thoughts always came back to that letter to the New York Times. For me, the writing was a natural consequence of the passion I felt and the subjects represented the great values burning within me as I wrote.

Your education and your experience will guide you toward making a right decision, but your passion will enable you to make a difference in whatever you do. That’s what I learned the day I stood up for Ireland’s greatest poet.