Do you like elephants? They are the biggest land creatures alive today.Some people think that elephants will     1    if they see a mouse.This is untrue. In fact, elephants have such poor eyesight that they would not usually see a mouse, even if one came very near them.“Elephants Never Forget” is another fallacy ( 谬论). There is no evidence that     2     elephants have a better ability to remember things. Finally, it is also a fallacy that when the time comes for an elephant to die, it goes to some kind of elephant graveyard (墓地)----no one has ever found such a graveyard. What the animals probably do when they are old and sick is to find a cave and stay in it, so they will be safe until they either get better     3     die.

In Thailand, when the country was still     4    Siam (暹罗), if someone found a white elephant, they would dedicate (献给) it to the king because it was rare ( 罕见的). The king had no choice but to keep and feed it,     5    it had no use for him. From this practice, we get an expression,“a white elephant”，which means something that is not useful for us.

The eighth chapter is exceedingly brief, and relates that Gibbons, the amateur naturalist of the district,     1     lying out on the spacious open downs without a soul     2     a couple of miles of him, as he thought, and almost dozing, heard close to him the sound as of a man coughing, sneezing, and     3     swearing savagely to himself; and looking, beheld nothing. Yet the voice was indisputable. It continued to swear with that breadth and variety     4     distinguishes the swearing of a cultivated man. It grew to a climax, diminished again, and died     5     in the distance, going     6     it seemed to him in the direction of Adderdean. It lifted to a spasmodic sneeze and ended. Gibbons had heard nothing of the morning's occurrences,     7     the phenomenon was so striking and disturbing that his philosophical tranquillity vanished; he got up hastily, and hurried     8     the steepness of the hill towards the village, as fast as he could go.

Once when I was six years old I saw a magnificent picture in a book about a jungle, called True Stories. It showed a boa constrictor swallowing a wild beast.

In the book it said: "Boa constrictors swallow their prey whole,     1    . Afterward they are no longer able to move, and they sleep during the six months of their digestion."

In those days I thought a lot about jungle adventure, and eventually     2     my first drawing, using a colored pencil. My Drawing Number One.

I showed the grown-ups my masterpiece, and I asked them if the drawing scared them.

They answered: " Why be scared by a hat?"

My drawing was not a picture of a hat. It was a picture of a boa constrictor     3    . Then I drew the inside of the boa constrictor, so that the grown-ups could understand. They always     4    .

The grown-ups advised me to put away my drawings of boa constrictors, the inside or the outside, and apply myself     5     to geography, history, arithmetic and grammar. That is why, I     6    , at the age of six, a magnificent career as an artist. I had been discouraged by the failure of my Drawing Number One and my Drawing Number Two. Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is     7     to provide explanation over and over again.

So then I had to choose another career, and learned to     8    . I have flown almost everywhere in the world. And     9    , geography has been a big help to me. I can tell China from Arizona at first glance, which is very useful if you get lost during the night.

So I have had,     10    , lots of encounters with lots of serious people. I have spent lots of time with grown-ups. I have seen them at close range… which hasn’t much improved my opinion of them.

Whenever I encountered a grown-up who seemed to me at all enlightened, I would     11     him with my Drawing Number One, which I have always kept. I wanted to see if he really understood anything. But he would always answer, "That is a hat." Then I wouldn’t talk about boa constrictors or jungles or stars. I would     12    . I would talk about bridge and golf and politics and neckties. And the grown-up was glad to know such a reasonable person.

All competitive ski and snowboarding events now take place largely on man-made snow. Unlike its natural     1    , the machine-made white stuff can be carefully tweaked to make a more durable and consistent surface: one perfect for record-breaking attempts. Snow-making equipment is viewed as essential in most ski areas to guarantee     2     throughout the seasons.

The snow “cannons” or “guns” that manufacture snow     3     the natural formation of snowflakes. Snow machines typically force pressurized water through a nozzle (喷嘴), breaking into a mist of tiny droplets, and then use compressed air or fans to blast them into the air. As the droplets cool, the molecules line and     4     into ice particles. The art to snow-making is adjusting the water and air to ensure that the water drops are small enough and sent far enough so that they will freeze before they hit the ground. If the air temperature is quite high, for example, dripping the water content and upping the air would create smaller particles that are more likely to freeze. Snow-making machines also frequently     5     nucleating agents (成核剂) in the water: small quantities of materials such as bacterial protein, on to which the water molecules attach and freeze. By     6     freezing, these agents raise the temperature at which snow can be made.

Many resorts now use sophisticated computer systems that automatically adjust the air and water     7     from snow machines based on air temperature, humidity and wind. For race courses, experts adjust man-made snow to create a tough, fast and icy course rather than a powdery one. A ski course is also heavily     8     and often intentionally flooded to create patches of ice; these factors generally determine the speed of a race.

There are other reasons for snow manufacturing to be in demand, beyond the benefits of having a snow whose properties can be ordered up. Some predict that the need for snow will     9     with the warming effects of climate change, which are already pushing snow lines up the Alps. But this comes with environmental cost. Making snow     10     energy and water, and can rob rivers and creeks in the surrounding ecosystems. One way to conserve the mountain environment would be to reuse winter sports competition facilities rather than building new ones.