If you have learnt some maths at school, you can quite     1    (quick) work out that one eleventh is about 9 percent. But did you know that 9 percent is also the number of children     2     are not at school? That’s right - one in 11 children is not     3    (study) and probably even cannot do the simple maths you just did so very easily. They drop out of school     4     their families are too poor and they have to work like adults. In 2013, millions of children and     5    (teenager) were out of school. Most live in poor countries, but there     6    (be) also some boys and girls who cannot go to school in rich countries. If you are one of the lucky ones who can go to     7     senior high school, you should be grateful for the opportunity. So the next time you feel like you do not want     8    (do) boring, difficult homework or go to class, think about the children who don’t have the chance to get a good     9    (educate). Make the most of your education and make the world a     10    (good) place.

5 . The Great Fire of London started in the very early hours of September 1666. In four days it destroyed more than three-quarters of the old city, where most of the houses were wooden and close together. One hundred thousand people became homeless, but only a few lost their lives.

The fire started on Sunday morning in the house of the King’s baker(面包师)in Pudding Lane. The baker, with his wife and family, was able to get out through a window in the roof. A strong wind blew the fire from the bakery(面包房)into a small hotel next door. Then it spread quickly into Thames Street. That was the beginning.

By eight o’clock three hundred houses were on fire. On Monday nearly a kilometer of the city was burning along the River Thames. Tuesday was the worst day. The fire destroyed many well-known buildings, old St Paul’s and the Guildhall among them.

Samuel Pepys, the famous writer, wrote about the fire. People threw their things into the river. Many poor people stayed in their houses until the last moment. Birds fell out of the air because of the heat.

The fire stopped only when the King finally ordered people to destroy hundreds of buildings in the path of the fire. With nothing left to burn, the fire became weak and finally died out.

After the fire, Christopher Wren, the architect(建筑师), wanted a city with wider streets and fine new houses of stone. In fact, the streets are still narrow; but he did build more than fifty churches, among them new St Paul’s.

The fire caused great pain and loss, but after it London was a better place: a city for the future and not just of the past.

6 . Like a tired marriage, the relationship between libraries and publishers has long been dull. E-books, however, are causing heartache. Libraries know they need digital wares if they are to remain relevant, but many publishers are too cautious about piracy (盗版) and lost sales to cooperate. Among the big six, only Random House and Harper Collins license e-books with most libraries.

Publishers are wise to be nervous. Owners of e-readers are exactly the customers they need: book- lovers with money. If these people switch to borrowing e-books instead of buying them, what then? Electronic borrowing is awfully convenient. Unlike printed books, e-book files can be downloaded at home from digital libraries anytime. The files disappear from the device when they are due automatically. Awkwardly for publishers, buying an e-book costs more than renting one but offers little extra value.

E-lending is not simple, however. There are lots of different and often incompatible (不兼容的) e-book formats, devices and licenses. Most libraries use a company called OverDrive, which secures rights from publishers and provides e-books and audio files in every format. Yet publishers and libraries are worried by OverDrive’s global market dominance, as the company can control fees and conditions. Publishers were annoyed when OverDrive teamed up with Amazon, the world’s biggest online bookseller, last year. Owners of Amazon’s Kindle e-reader who want to borrow e-books from libraries are now redirected to Amazon’s website, where Amazon follows up library frequenters directly, letting them know they can “Buy this book” when the loan falls due.

According to Pew, an opinion researcher, library users are a perfect market for Amazon. Late last year Amazon introduced its Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, which lets its best customers borrow free one of thousands of popular books each month.

Library supporters argue that book borrowers are also book buyers and that libraries are vital spaces for readers to discover new works. Many were cheered by a recent Pew survey which found that more than half of Americans with library cards say they prefer to buy their e-books. So, publishers keep adjusting their lending arrangements in search of the right balance. Random House raised its licensing prices earlier this year, and Harper Collins limits libraries to lending its titles 26 times.

7 . Today’s grandparents are joining their grandchildren on social media, but the different generations’ online habits couldn’t be more different. In the UK the over-55 s are joining Facebook in increasing numbers, meaning that they will soon be the site’s second biggest user group, with 3.5 million users aged 55-64 and 2.9 million over-65s.

Sheila, aged 59, says, “I joined to see what my grandchildren are doing, as my daughter posts videos and photos of them. It’s a much better way to see what they’re doing than waiting for letters and photos in the post. That’s how we did it when I was a child, but I think I’m lucky I get to see so much more of their lives than my grandparents did.”

Interestingly, Sheila’s grandchildren are less likely to use Facebook themselves. Children under 17 in the UK are leaving the site - only 2.2 million users are under 17 -but they’re not going far from their smartphones. Chloe, aged 15, even sleeps with her phone. “It’s my alarm clock so I have to,’ she says. “I look at it before I go to sleep and as soon as I wake up.”

Unlike her grandmother’s generation, Chloe’s age group is spending so much time on their phones at home that they are missing out on spending time with their friends in real life. Sheila, on the other hand, has made contact with old friends from school she hasn’t heard from in forty years. ”We use Facebook to arrange to meet all over the country,” she says. “It’s changed my social life completely.”

Parents have an important role to play if they want their kids to spend more time in real life. Peter, 38, who spends most of his time in front of a screen, is recently determined to set a better example to his kids. In the evening or at weekends, he would leave his smartphone home and take his kids out to nature.

8 . In this modern age, most of us have forgotten to be patient and get angry very quickly over minor things like a traffic jam, a baby crying and such things. It often seems so easy to get what we want right away that when we have to wait even a little while, it seems like we are waiting for ages. We used to be happy to wait 10-15 minutes it took to reheat food in the oven (烤箱), but now we’re impatient when waiting two minutes it takes in the microwave.

With the convenience provided by modern society, is patience still a virtue (美德) in the fast-paced world? To begin with, I’d like to share the meaning of the word “patience”. Generally it means being able to tolerate delay without getting impatient. However, it isn’t necessarily a passive activity. It takes an active commitment, knowing when to take action and when not to.

So I would argue that patience is still — and always — a virtue. Sure. I used to be one of those who often stared at the microwave for the full two minutes it took to heat my food. And in the end, the food tasted bad. If l had had the patience to heat the food properly in the oven, I would have enjoyed a delicious meal.

Actually the benefits of patience go beyond just heating up our food. Patience is an exercise in self-control which shows that we can handle life problems when things get tough, and that we can exercise good judgment. Lack of patience can cause us to make wrong decisions that negatively affect our health and happiness, waste our time, put us under a lot of stress and affect our relationships in a very negative way.

Everything in life happens for a reason. Sometimes we face an obstacle (障碍) because we need to grow in ways we didn’t realize. It’s not always obvious when that was happening, but with patience we will soon see clearly why it happened; and what we were meant to learn from it.

Taking time to think about our actions and being patient are a small price to pay when we determine the best possible solution to any problems.

10 . There is something to be said for being a generalist, even if you are a specialist. Knowing a little about a lot of things that interest you can add to the richness of a whole, well-lived life.

Society pushes us to specialize, to become experts. This requires commitment to a particular occupation, branch of study or research. The drawback to being specialists is we often come to know more and more about less and less. There is a great deal of pressure to master one’s field. You may pursue training, degrees, or increasing levels of responsibility at work. Then you discover the pressure of having to keep up.

Some people seem willing to work around the clock in their narrow specialty. But such commitment can also weaken a sense of freedom. These specialists could work at the office until ten each night, then look back and realize they would have loved to have gone home and enjoyed the sweetness of their family and friends, or traveled to exciting places, meeting interesting people. Mastering one thing to the exclusion of others can hold back your true spirit.

Generalists on the other hand, know a lot about a wide range of subjects and view the whole with all its connections. They are people of ability, talent, and enthusiasm who can bring their broad perspective into specific fields of expertise. The doctor who is also a poet and philosopher is a superior doctor, one who can give so much more to his patients than just good medical skills.

Things are connected. Let your expertise in one field fuel your passions in all related areas. Some of your interests may not appear to be connected but, once you explore their depths, you discover that they are. My editor Toni, who is also a writer, has edited several history books. She has decided to study Chinese history. Fascinated by the structural beauty of the Forbidden City as a painter, she is equally interested to learn more about Chinese philosophy. “I don’t know where it will lead, but I’m excited I’m on this pursuit.”

These expansions into new worlds help us by giving us new perspectives. We begin to see the interconnectedness of one thing to another in all aspects of our life, of ourselves and the universe. Develop broad, general knowledge and experience. The universe is all yours to explore and enjoy.