(B)

    This happened in London. It was November and the weather was very wet and cold. A Frenchman had caught a very bad cold. He coughed day and night, so he decided to go and get some medicine for his cough. As he did not know much English, he took out his dictionary and looked up the word “cough”. But the dictionary did not tell him how to pronounce(发音) the word. He thought it over and remembered that he had learned the word “plough”. He remembered that it was pronounced[plau]. So he thought that c-o-u-g-h must be pronounced [kau].

    Then he put on his coat and hat and went to a chemist's shop(药店).When the man in the shop asked him what he wanted, the Frenchman said, “I want something for my‘cow’ , please.” The man in the shop looked at him. Had he heard him correctly?

    “I beg your pardon, sir?” he asked.

    The Frenchman repeated, “I want some medicine for my‘cow’.”

    “For your cow?” asked the man, “are you a farmer?”

   “A farmer?” said the Frenchman in surprise, “What makes you think I'm a farmer? I come from Paris. I'm not a farmer.”

    “But where is your cow?”

    “It's here!” answered the Frenchman. He put his hand on his chest(胸口) and began to cough. “Here it is,”  he said, “I've a very bad ‘cow’ here.”

    Then the man in the shop understood what the Frenchman meant. He wanted some medicine for his cough.
 

Many young people from America, Canada, Japan, etc like taking photos of them by themselves. A girl named Helene Meldahal from Norway also likes taking photos of her by herself. However(然而), her photos are so different.

    Before she takes photos, she always draws some interesting pictures on the mirror(镜子) in her bathroom. And it usually takes her about half an hour to finish(完成) every picture. Sometimes, she draws her favorite cartoon characters, like Logger Vick(光头强), Ikkyu(一休哥) ... Sometimes, she draws some lovely animals. Also, there are many other pictures. Then she takes photos with these pictures.

    At first, she just left a message(信息) to her roommates on the mirror with the lipstick(口红). One day when she did the same thing, she got the idea of drawing some pictures on the mirror and taking photos with them.

According to the “World Happiness Report”, people who live in Denmark(丹麦)are the happiest in the world. Why? Because they know the secret to happiness —“hygge”. But what is “hygge” ?

Danish people are very good at “hygge”. For example，they create a “hygge” environment by burning candles in classrooms, kitchens, bedrooms, etc. According to some reports, Danish people burn more candles every year than people from any other European country.

However, “hygge” isn’t just about creating a nice and warm environment；It is best enjoyed with family members and friends. With up to 17 hours of darkness every day in winter, Danish people spend more time indoors as a result, and they often get together for a meal or hot drinks, without the distraction(使人分心的事物) of technology or the stress of daily life.

 Still can't understand what “hygge” is? If you're reading this in a comfortable chair, with a few candles around you, that sense of coziness you're feeling might just be “hygge”.

“Can I take your order?” Night after night, I had to say this as I worked in my family’s restaurant. My father was a great cook. He wanted me to cook with him, but I didn’t like cooking. Because of the restaurant, my father was always busy. He never had time to play soccer with me.

     During my high school and college years, I worked with my family at night. But I always avoided the kitchen. I couldn’t wait to graduate(毕业) so I could move away from the family business(生意). Several days before my graduation day, my father and I started

looking at new cars. Finally, we found the right car. I was sure that my father would give it to me as my graduation gift.

     On my graduation day, my father gave me a book as a gift. It was his old cookbook.I was so angry that I give it back to him and ran out of my house. I soon moved away and started my own business. Although I often saw my father during holidays, we never talked

about the graduation gift. Then one day, I got a call that my father was ill. I went to see him because I was very worried.

     That night , I looked through my father’s books and saw the cookbook that he had given me years before. I carefully opened the cookbook and went through it. Then I found something that made me cry. It was a check(支票) for $30,000dated (注有日期)the day of

my graduation.  And the piece of the car my father and I chose all those years ago was $30,000.

We can enjoy a two-day weekend every week. Maybe two days are too short, but we can try to plan the time well. Here are some ideas.

★Get up early.

The weekend is not only a time to sleep in. Some of us get up for lunch! That’s too bad. You can have more free time if you get up early.

★Do the homework early.

We have to spend much time on our homework. You can feel better if you do your homework early. You can do homework on Saturday morning. And then you can play well. I often do my homework on Saturday morning, so I don’t have to worry about it on Saturdays or Sundays.

★Go out for fun.

Think about what you like to do. Plan a sports activity like playing football in the park. You can also visit a museum, a zoo or a park.

There are many classic (经典的) cultures in China. All of them have a very long history. Here we introduce some of them.

If the food in a supermarket is not fresh anymore or is near the “sell-by date”, it goes into trash bins too. Every day, a large amount of food is wasted.

To cut down on food waste, France passed a new law last month. If forbids(禁止) supermarkets to throw away unsold food. Instead, they must donate it to charities. For food that isn’t safe for humans to eat, it can be used as animal feed(饲料). If not, the supermarkets will face fines of up to 75,000 euros(around 542,200 yuan)or two years in prison. The law also encourages educational programs for schools and businesses about food waste.

France is the first country to make a law that forbids wasting food, but it is actually a worldwide problem. According to the United Nations, each year 1.3 billion tons of food is wasted all over the world, and just 25 percent of that food could feed all the hungry people in the world.

The good thing is that people around the world are trying different things to deal with the food waste problem. Galdakao, Spain, puts a public fridge in the center of town. Anyone can drop off food and anyone can come and take them. A supermarket in Canada, Loblaws, encourages people to buy “ugly food” by selling them at lower prices, so they won’t end up being wasted. In China, we also have the “clear your plate” campaign(光盘行动). This means you should eat everything on your plate or take away the food you haven’t eaten up.

One morning, a blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held a sign which said, “I am blind. Please help me.”

There were only a few coins in the hat. A man was walking by. He took out a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words on it. He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by could see the new words.

Soon the hat began to fill up. More people were giving money to the blind boy. That afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see how things were. The boy recognized his footsteps and asked, “Are you the one who changed my sign in the morning? What did you write?’’

The man said, “I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different way.”

What he had written was, “Today is a beautiful day, but I cannot see it.”

Do you think the first sign and the second sign were saying the same thing?

Of course both signs told people the boy was blind. But the first sign simply told people to help by putting some money in the hat. The second sign told people that they were able to enjoy the beauty of the day. But the boy could not enjoy it because he was blind.

There are at least two lessons we can learn from this simple story.

The first is: Treasure what you have. Some else has less. Try your best to help those who need your help.

The second is: Be creative. Think differently. There is always a better way.

To encourage reading, a Chinese company placed over 10,000 books around the underground, in taxis and on planes in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. The activity earned the support of many Chinese stars. The “book-dropping battle,” however, won little praise. Instead, the movement drew much criticism(批评).

Some books were left untouched. Around the underground, passengers thought the books were left there to save the seats. Some books were taken away by cleaners. People also complained that they couldn’t get to the books—the carriages were too crowded.

The movement led to a hot debate.

Most people thought it could do little to encourage reading. “I think the best result is that people take selfies(自拍)when they pick up the books and write a post in WeChat. After that, they will just bring the books back home and place them on their bookshelves,” wrote one Weibo user.

Some pointed out that while Watson was a great reader, the Chinese stars who supported the movement didn’t seem to be reading much. Isn’t it embarrassing that the movement is supported by stars who don’t read a lot?

Murong Xuecun is a famous Chinese writer. He thought the book-sharing campaign was not at all a bad thing. “In the past years, the Chinese economy(经济) has been developing rapidly. Everybody is busy with work. They don’t have time for reading,” said Murong.“However, just because Chinese people don’t read regularly, it doesn’t mean we should do nothing to encourage reading, ” Murong added.

 We can express thoughts and feelings and send sounds and pictures on our smartphones today. We canˈt send tastes, smells or touches.But some scientists in Britain are trying to develop a way for smartphones to do that.

 To give users a sense of taste, Adrian David Cheok and some other scientists designed two electrodes (电极 ）. "You put these two silver electrodes in your mouth, and you put your tongue in between and then your tongue will get a virtual taste perception(虚拟的味觉） in your brain，"said ProfessorCheok .They have already created sour, salty, sweet and bitter tastes.

A device(设备）called "Scentee" allows users to have the sense of smell. Scientists put"Scentee "into a smart phone and can spray (喷射）small clouds of fragrance， including flowers, fruits and coffee. Professor Cheok says the person speaking can activate（激活） the device.ˈˈScentee ˈˈholds a container（容器）with about 100 different smells. The container must be replaced when all the smells run out.

 The sense of touch comes from a ring-like device. It is connected wirelessly （无线地） to the smartphone. “I can be in London and my friend can be in Tokyo, and I can squeeze （挤压）my finger and then theyˈll get a squeeze on their finger through the Internet. It’s a way of touch communication with small mobile devices,”Professor Cheok said.

  Professor Cheok hopes devices like these will someday be added to houses. He says they may change the future of long-distance communication.