It was a very cold January evening, the end of a day Bill thought would never end. His doctor told him that he might go blind. Bill wasastounded. He couldn’t believe such a terrible thing would happen to him. After all, he thought, how could he—a husband, a father of two beautiful children, a man who had been healthy in his whole life—go blind?

  But Bill was a lucky man. After being totally blind for five months, he regained his vision and was able to see his amazing family again. After he regained his vision, he decided to do something to help others. He wanted to be of service to the less fortunate.

  Having decided to help others, Bill asked himself, “Whom should I help?”. Bill always loved children and that was his first thought. He then decided to focus his energies on helping children with illnesses and disabilities. He wanted to help them make their dreams come true and receive treatment, so Bill started the non-profit (非盈利) foundation—Reachout America, with the duty to send kids with illnesses and disabilities to camps. The camps could help them stay with children who were dealing with some of the same things they were dealing with.

  Since June 2006, Reachout America has not only sent many kids to various camps across America, including awesome（精彩的） horse- riding camps and space camps for children who dream of flying to the moon, but also helped them receive treatment and recover.

  Bill’s personal nightmare（噩梦）changed into a blessing and a dream has come true for hundreds of sick and disabled children across America. You can help, too. Reachout America continues to raise money through various programs and seek volunteers so that many other children can continue to go to camps and receive treatment. Offer your help if you are interested.

 People around us, especially our friends, have a strong influence on our lives. We all want to

believe that they are the best but sometimes it is not so. As you change over the years, people and your friends change, too. If you are following a path of growth, then you must be prepared to grow new friendships too.

Be open to meeting new people. No matter whether your life has changed or not, always be open to letting new people into your life. They are like a fresh wind on a hot day. They can inspire you. They can give you new ideas. They can become your new best friends. Don’t limit yourself to the circle of people you already know, or you will limit your own ways to grow.

Make sure that you are a friend that you would like to have. Are you always there for your friends? Do you help them? Do you actually listen to them? Can you accept and understand the changes that happened or are happening in their lives? Do you enjoy giving as much as receiving? Answer these questions for yourself first and see if you are the one who needs to grow to the level of your friends.

Explore new ways to make friends. New people won’t just suddenly appear in your life. If you want to meet somebody then you need to start exploring the world. You can make friends online. You can start a new hobby. You can just start talking to a stranger who seems interesting to you. Be the one who starts the relationship, not the one who is waiting for something to happen.

What have we become? A society in which someone can have hundreds of online friends and yet go for days without human contact. We scan; we click; we text people in the next room instead of speaking to them; we even check our library books out by ourselves when once we might have chatted to a friendly person with an ink pad and a date stamp.

Loneliness can be dangerous. Recent research suggests that it may shorten people’s lives and make them more vulnerableto serious illness. It can distort (扭曲) senses of reality and even become an element that drives a few desperate young men to open fire on a cinema audience or a classroom full of children. Electronic voices on various devices can be the only ones some people hear. And what those voices say is not always true.

No man is an island, we are frequently reminded. There are those who choose to lead solitary (孤独的)lives, and live them well, but on the whole we are sociable beings and we suffer if we are on our own too much. Human contact makes us happier, although virtual relationships can be very positive.

So what could lonely people do to make real friends? An answer, among many, is to read more books. Reading begins alone but becomes a shared activity when a reader, for example, joins a book group, attends a literary festival or signs up for a continuing education course on an aspect of literature that interests them. There’s no shame in turning up to any of these alone, and fellowship is guaranteed. Fellow readers may well turn out be like-minded; it’s a basis for new friendships and sustained relationships. Sharing an understanding of a book is a good way of sharing feelings safely. Literary characters can be useful as personas.

But there is another important reason why everyone should read more books, and in particular fiction. The responsibility to fight loneliness lies with those who do not suffer from it. Lonely people often feel that there is no one who understands them or can share their point of view. They need to know that actually there are. That requires everybody else to make the imaginative leap of feeling that connection, and reading fiction helps. It makes people more empathic (移情) — sympathy for fictitious (虚构的)characters can translate into compassion (同情)in real life.

The stories of strangers reach us through many means: news bulletins, interviews, biography and memoir (回忆录), but also drama and fiction. Walking a mile in their shoes might help turn some of those strangers into real friends.

阅读短文，并按照题目要求用英语回答问题。

Dear Boy(Girl),

Please find enclosed(请查收)your end of KS2 test results. We are very proud of you as you demonstrated huge amounts of commitment(出色表现) and tried your very best during this tricky week.

However, we are concerned that these tests do not always assess all of what it is that make each of you special and unique. The people who create these tests and score them do not know each of you — the way your teachers do, the way I hope to, and certainly not the way your families do.

They do not know that many of you speak two languages. They do not know that you can play a musical instrument or that you can dance or paint a picture. They do not know that your friends count on you to be there for them or that your laughter can brighten thedreariestday. They do not know that you write poetry or songs, play or participate in sports, wonder about the future, or that sometimes you take care of your little brother or sister after school. They do not know that you have travelled to a really neat place or that you know how to tell a great story, or that you really love spending time with special family members and friends. They do not know that you can be trustworthy, kind or thoughtful, and that you try, every day, to be your best … the scores you get will tell you something, but they will not tell you everything.

So enjoy your results and be very proud of these tests but remember there are many of ways of being smart.

                              Headmaster of Barrowford Primary School

Ashley Power’s mother bought a computer for her when she was eight. When she was thirteen, she was surfing the Internet regularly, but she couldn’t find anywhere for teenagers to meet and talk. And one day she thought, “If I had my own website, I’d make it a really interesting site for teenagers.”

  So, when Ashley was sixteen, shelaunchedher own website, called GooseHead. Young people got excited when they searched on this website and step by step they introduced the site to others and made more friends. She had no idea how big a success it would be, but three years later, the site was the most successful teen site in the USA! It was getting 100,000 hits every day, and Ashley had about 30 employees.

  After a few years, the website closed down. Then Ashley, who lives in Los Angeles, was asked to write a book called GooseHead Guide to Life. It's safe to say that this is a book for teens that they'll enjoy. The book is about how to design a website and start a business. It begins with a section called “All about Ashley,” where Ashley tells readers what it is like to be the boss of a company when you are only sixteen. “I was so happy. But it was crazy in a lot of ways. I was stressed. I mean, I was only sixteen — I didn’t even have a car! If you were sixteen and you had your own company, you’d be stressed, too!”

In an interview Ashley gave advice to teenagers who wanted to start their own business, “Just be strong and have your dreams and work hard at them. And don’t listen when people tell you that you can’t do it, because I heard ‘no’ a lot. Just keep going until you hear ‘yes’!”

Whatever your reason is for visiting, whether you’re alone or bringing the family, whether it’s the height of summer or the depth of winter, there are places to stay in England to suit your every taste, need and budget.

   If you’re getting married or are spending your honeymoon, you might want to stay in a luxury hotel, a romantic castle or a comfortable cottage. If you’re travelling around the country, hotels which are close to your scenery might fit the bill, or you can check out one of England’s many beautiful guest houses or small hotels. Business travelers need well-equipped meeting facilities and a place to relax. And if you want to experience a traditional English pub, you’re sure to find one close to your hotel.

Hotels

   English hotels come in all styles. There are the well-known chains——beautifully fitted out and equipped for everything you may need on a business trip. There are cheaper, more practical hotels, clean and comfortable and ideal for an overnight stay while travelling. There are luxurious hotels in England that will make you feel sad to leave. There are stylish hotels. And then, there are unusual hotels——something you would never expect like a castle or ruined abbey(修道院).

Holiday Parks in England

   Whether you like touring, caravan(大篷车) holidays or prefer a beautiful spot with great views, facilities and lots of activities to spend your days, holiday parks are a great bet among our places to stay in England. UK holiday parks can be found close to our best beaches and most fabulous scenery. Sites there have facilities from heated pools to sports centers, kids’ clubs and daily entertainment.

   With so many different places to stay in England, you’ll be bound to be spoilt for choice when selecting your holiday or business travel accommodation. But whichever you choose, castle hotel, stylish or luxury hotel, you can be assured of a warm welcome.

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Nobody is allowed to eat pizza near Christopher Merrett－just the smell of it can be deadly for the two-year-old, who has a severe allergy (过敏反应) to dairy products (奶制品).

    Mrs. Merrett said she first realized something was wrong with her son when she stopped feeding him with her milk at six months old and moved onto cows’ milk.

She said her son spent three weeks in hospital after sitting in a supermarket trolley (手推车) which had tiny traces of milk in it. She said, “It looked clean. We put him there and within minutes his feet and hands had gone blue and we knew there was something dreadfully wrong. We realized then he must have put his fingers in his mouth after touching the trolley and it must have previously had some sort of milk product on it.”

Mrs. Merrett added, “We cannot have pizza when he is in the house. I remember going to Pizza Hut for my daughter’s birthday and Christopher began to cough as soon as we got there.”

Mrs. Merrett, who took time off her job to care for her son, and her husband Michael, 47, have spent hours reading ingredients labels (成分标签) and carrying out hard research on the Internet, trying to find suitable food that their son can eat.

Because Christopher’s allergies are so severe that the couple has prepared an entire cupboard for his food. He also has his own shelf in the fridge and oven.

    Little Christopher was taken out of nursery school when he was given cheese by accident and he ended up in hospital. His mother now worries about what could happen when he eventually goes to school.

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