The romance novel Me Before You tells a story that you might never forget. It is the latest bestseller by British writer Jojo Moyes. The book has been made into a movie. British actress Emilia Clark and actor Sam Caflin play the lead roles in the movie.

    There are two main characters in this book. One is Louisa Clark, or Lou, a girl who has lost her job at a cafe. The other is William Traynor, or Will, a young man who has become disabled after a motorcycle accident.

    Lou ends up taking a job where she has to take care of Will. At first, they donˈt like each other very much. However, they gradually become good friends. But this happiness only lasts a few days.

    While I read the book, I couldnˈt help but notice its language. There were a lot of descriptions to show what the characters are feeling. There are also many detailed descriptions of the environments around the characters. For example, Moyes writes "I saw it was bigger than I had imagined, red brick with a double front…"，describing how surprised Lou is when she sees Willˈs house for the first time.

    At the end of the book, Will writes "Just live well, just live" in a letter. This short line is the last thing that Will writes to Lou. It shows Willˈs deep feelings about life. He wants her to live life to the utmost(竭尽全力)－the very thing he had wanted to do before he had his accident.

An astronaut’s work may sound exciting, but living in space isn’t as fun as you think. The website www.space.com lists the disadvantages of living in space. Here are some of them.

  When astronauts work outside the station during spacewalks, they have to wear special gloves. The gloves are very tight. They can hurt the astronauts’ fingernails(手指甲) and even make them fall off.

  In space, you don’t have many choices in what you eat. It’s hard to get fresh fruits and vegetables. It is not OK to eat bread because it leaves crumbs(碎屑). Crumbs could fly around everywhere.

  In space, it is impossible to have a good shower because water can fly all over the ship and break the machines. Astronauts have to use a special water-shooting(喷水) gun and a washcloth.

  Astronauts lose their bone strength quickly during their stay in space. So far, there is no way to solve this problem. They do exercise while they’re in space to try to keep their bones strong as long as possible.

  Perhaps the hardest part of life in space is the feeling of loneliness. Astronauts sometimes have to spend weeks and even months away from Earth. They miss their friends and families.

Chuck Wall teaches management and human relations at Bakersfield College. He walked into class one day and told his students that their homework was to perform one act of random(任意的) kindness. His students did not understand the homework and didn’t know what to do, but the professor would not answer their questions. He encouraged his students to work it out for themselves.

One week later, the students entered the classroom excited to share their stories. One student told of giving away blankets to the homeless. Another reported on helping a dog to find its owner, and another student had been trying to find a long, lost friend. Students were energized (给予活力) by the homework assignment(任务) and wanted other people to be kind too. With the support of local businesses, the students made stickers (张贴物) to put on cars that invited people to do something kind for others. They sold the stickers and decided to donate the money to a center for the blind——not surprising as Professor Wall is blind.

Since then, similar kindness activities have been started in schools around the world. Many schools organize a Random Acts of Kindness Week, around November 13th, to celebrate World Kindness Day. Some schools use each day of Random Acts of Kindness Week to perform a different kind act, such as making a new friend, helping someone, doing community service, or raising money for a charity. Students learn to consider other people and thank about how small actions can make the world a better place.

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     When we ask readers, teachers and students what their biggest problems are in reading English newspapers, almost everyone immediately answers “vocabulary”! It is true that some readers are probably to find many new words, but that is not really a “problem”. We hope to show you a good way to increase your vocabulary.

      One way to do this is, of course, to make a great effort to learn new vocabulary by using your dictionary. Look up a large number of new words you meet in the newspaper. That is not the method (方法) we are going to talk about, however. In fact, overusing the dictionary is not good for your understanding of the stories. It slows down your reading speed so much that it is difficult to see how ideas fit together. Instead, we are going to suggest very useful ways for increasing your vocabulary and your reading comprehension (理解) at the same time.

     One of the fastest way to build your vocabulary through the newspaper is on a “topic by topic” basis (基础). You can do this by reading stories with similar topics. You can also follow an interesting story for several days or more. You will begin to see a group of words commonly associated (有联系的) with the topic.

       The other way we suggest is to use context to learn vocabulary. Sometimes you can guess the meaning of the new words with the help of the sentences around them. Also, some newspapers are made to be understood easily. Stories are written for general audience, not for experts. And there are also several photographs besides the stories.