Scope:  What led you to start an urban (城市的) garden?

Denzel:When I was 14, I went on a service trip to New Orleans. My group helped build an urban garden in a neighborhood that had all the same problems as mine. I realized we could make a difference at home too. I came back and worked with friends to find land we were allowed to use, clean it up, and build a garden.

Scope: Tell us about your neighborhood in Philadelphia.

Denzel:There is crime and violence, and everybody used to see it as a place where there was nothing to do. Because there wasn’t a lot of fresh food around, a typical meal would be something like chips, soda, or cheese sticks.

Scope:  What is the urban garden like?

Denzel:We have outdoor gardens and greenhouses where we can grow plants year-round. It’s made a big difference in the neighborhood.

Scope: How?

Denzel:It’s given people something positive to do. Both young kids and older people come to the garden, and we help them grow their own food. They can also help with marketing when we sell food to local restaurants. People are eating healthier, too. Food is connected to everything.

Scope:  What do you mean?

Denzel:If you don’t eat fresh food, you feel tired and unhealthy. People who eat fresh food are more confident. People who grow their own food are even more confident.

Scope:  Has that been true for you?

Denzel:As a young teen, I ate nothing but unhealthy food and was overweight. I felt depressed about where I lived. That changed when I started working on the garden. The physical work helped me get in better shape, and I went from eating chips to salad. I realized I could make a change for the better.

From Mr. Ward Hoffman

Sir, I was halfway through Professor Raj Persaud’s article “What’s the tipping point”(Financial Times Weekend, April 9-l0) when it occurred to me that what I was reading was not ironic (讽刺的). If Prof Persaud wants to know why Americans tip in restaurants, he need only ask the first American he meets in London.

Americans tip in restaurants for one reason, and one reason only: we tip to supplement (补贴) the salary of restaurant workers. Quality of service does not enter into it, beyond the fact that one may tip a bit less for poor service, or a little more for good service.

Not tipping at all in a non-fast-food restaurant is not a choice. In the US, one used to tip about 15 percent for dining in a family-style restaurant or in an up-market (高档的) restaurant. Here, in San Francisco Bay area restaurants, we are encouraged to tip 20 percent more, to help restaurant workers live in this very expensive area.

After eating at an Italian restart in my city, I left a tip of 20 percent on the non-tax part of our dinner bill. It was expected. There is nothing more complicated than that about Americans tipping in restaurants.

Ward Hoffman,

Palo Alto, CA 94306, US

From Mr. Philip McBride Johnson

Sir, I agree with most of Raj Persaud’s opinion about the doubtful value of tipping, but with one exception. Tips can be very useful when one is a repeat customer or diner.

It is only when the tipper is a stranger and likely to remain so that the system does not work to his or her advantage. But frequent a hotel or a restaurant, always tip a bit more, and the difference in service and treatment will be easily felt.

Philip McBride Johnson,

Great Falls, VA 22066, US

  (Some young people are reading an article and talking about it.)

Caroline: It’s really interesting, this article.

Joanne: What’s it about?

         Caroline: The pet food factory in Mansfield Road, you know, the one that smells really bad when you walk past it. Well, it says here in the newspaper that the factory has been polluting the river, too.

 Ash: It’s terrible. Someone should do something about it. Maybe we should do something about it.

Matt: Us? Come on! There is nothing we can do!

Joanne: If everyone thinks so, then soon there will be nothing of our Earth left to enjoy.Of course there’s something we can do.

Matt: Ok.I see.I never realized you were so environmentally-minded.

Ash: Stop! Since when am I like that?

Caroline: Well, let’s not start quarrelling among ourselves. The point is, what are we going to do about this factory?

Joanne: Right.It’s really making the atmosphere dirty.

Ash: So, let’s start to do somehing riht now. Maybe we could put up some banners(横幅)around the factory.

Matt: I like the idea. We could get some cool banners-you know, “Youth Against the Factory!”and things like that.

Ash: If the factory is polluting our air, it needs to be closed.

      Joanne: Well, in fact, I’m not so sure.Read the end of the article. It say, “The owner of the factory has agreed to repair any damage and to stop the pollution.”

Great Britain is an island that lies off the northwest coast of Europe. The nearest country is France which is 20 miles away. Great Britain is separated from France by the English Channel. The island is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, to the west, and the North Sea, to the east. It includes the main lands of England, Wales and Scotland. Scotland is in the north while Wales is in the west. Ireland, which is also an island, lies off the west coast of Great Britain. It is made up of Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic. Great Britain together with Northern Ireland forms the United Kingdom ( U.K.). So the U.K. is made up of four countries. The largest of these is England which is divided into 43 countries. The capital city is London which is on the river Thames.

Have you ever been ill? When you are ill，you must be unhappy because your body becomes hot，and there are pains all over your body. You don't want to work，you stay in bed，feeling very sad.

What makes us ill? It is germs(细菌). Germs are everywhere. They are very small and you can't find them with your eyes，but you can see them with a microscope. They are very small and there could be hundreds of them on a very small thing.

Germs are always found in dirty water. When we look at dirty water under the microscope，we shall see them in it. So your father and mother will not let you drink dirty water.

Germs aren't found only in water. They are found in air and dust. If you cut your finger，if some of the dust from the floor goes into the cut(割开处)，some of the germs would go into your finger. Your finger would become big and red，and you will have much pain in it. Sometimes the germs would go into all of your body，and you would have pain everywhere.

In western countries, people always talk about the weather, but nobody can do anything about it. That is the truth. They usually begin their talks with "A nice day, isn't it?" "Do you think it will rain?" "What a fine day!" etc. 　　

Many people think they can tell what the weather is going to be like. But they can never agree with one another. One man may say, "Do you see how cloudy it is in the east? It's going to rain tomorrow." Another man would say, "No, it's going to be fine tomorrow.” People are often looking for the weather that they want. When a farmer needs water, he looks for something that could tell him it's going to rain; he won't believe anything else. When friends want to have a travel, they are sure that the weather is going to clear up very quickly. Almost everyone listens to what the weather man says. But he doesn't always tell us what we want, and once in a while he makes a mistake. Still, he probably comes closer to being correct than anyone else.

“Have you put any salt in it?”

“Certainly not, ma’am,” answered Marie, amazed by the question. “You told me yourself that I was never to put salt in it.”

Upon this, Madame Duparc snatched up the saucepan without saying another word, turned to the cupboard, and stretched out her hand toward one of four salt-cellars which always stood there. Then she sprinkled salt into the saucepan—— or, if not salt something which she took for salt.

The hasty-pudding made, Marie poured it from the saucepan into a soup-plate which her mistress（女主人） held. Madame Duparc herself then took it to her father, Monsieur De Beaulieu. Then she and her daughter, and one of her sons, remained with the old man while he was eating his breakfast. Marie, left in the kitchen, prepared to clean the saucepan; but, before she could do so, she was suddenly called in two different directions by Madame De Beaulieu and Madame Duparc. The old lady wished to be taken to mass, and her mistress wanted to send her on a number of errands(差事). I t was half-past eleven in the noon before she got back to the kitchen.

The first news that met her on her return was that Monsieur De Beaulieu had been suffering, ever since nine o’clock, from a violent attack of vomiting(呕吐) and colic(急性腹痛). Madame Duparc ordered her to help the old man to bed immediately; and inquired, when these directions had been followed, whether Marie felt capable of looking after him herself, or whether she would prefer that a nurse should be sent for. Being a kind-hearted, willing girl, always anxious to make herself useful, Marie replied that she would gladly undertake the nursing of the old man; and thereupon(于是) her bed was moved at once into Monsieur De Beaulieu’room.

Meanwhile Madame Duparc fetched from a neighboring apothecary’s one of the apprentices(学徒) of the shop to see her father. The apprentice was quite unfit to meet the emergency of the case, which was certainly serious enough to require the attention of his master, if not of a regularly qualified physician. Instead of applying and internal remedies(治疗), the apprentice stupidly tried blistering. This course of treatment proved utterly useless; but no better advice was called in. After he had suffered for hours without relief, Monsieur De Beaulieu began to sink rapidly toward the afternoon. At half-past five o’clock he had ceased to exist.

This shocking catastrophe, startling（令人吃惊的） and suspicious as it was, did not appear to disturb the nerves of Madame Duparc. She lost no time in sending for the nearest nurse to lay out the body of Monsieur De Beaulieu. On entering the chamber of death, the nurse found Marie there alone, praying by the old man’s bedside. “He died suddenly, did he not?” said the nurse.” Very suddenly,” answered Marie. “He was walking about only yesterday in perfect health.” Soon afterward the time came when it was customary to prepare supper. Marie went into the kitchen mechanically, to get the meal ready. Madame Duparc, her daughter, and her youngest son, sat down to it as usual. Madame De Beaulieu, overwhelmed by the dreadful death of her husband, was incapable of joining them.

When supper was over, Marie assisted the old lady to bed. Then, worn out though she was with fatigue, she went back to the nurse to keep her company in watching by the dead body. Monsieur De Beaulieu had been kind to Marie, and had spoken gratefully of the little attentions she had shown him. She remembered this tenderly now that he was no more; and she could not find it in her heart to leave a hired mourner to be the only watcher by his death-bed. All that night she remained in the room, entirely ignorant of what was passing the while in every other part of the house— her own little bedroom included, as a matter of course.

About seven o’clock the next morning, after sitting up all night, she went back again wearily to the kitchen to begin her day’s work. Her mistress joined her there, and saluted her instantly with a scolding.

“You are the most careless, slovenly(懒散的) girl I ever met with.” said Madame Duparc.” Look at your dress; how can you expect to be decent（得体的）on a Sunday, if you wear your best pair of pockets on week-days?”

Newspapers in Great Britain vary greatly in their ways of carrying the news. There are serious papers for those who want to know about important happenings everywhere, both at home and abroad. There are popular newspapers for those who prefer entertainment to information.

The London newspaper that is best known outside Great Britain is probably the Times. It began in 1785, and has a high reputation for believable news and serious opinions on the news. It calls itself an independent paper, which means that it does not give its support to a particular political party. Its leading articles give the opinions of the editors, not those of the owners of the paper.

Letters to the editor are printed in the newspaper. These parts of the Times are always interesting. Most of the letters are serious subjects. But from time to time there will be long letters on the subject which is not at all serious, perhaps on a new fashion of dress, or the bad manners of the young people, compared with manners of thirty years ago.

This is an excerpt from Emma Watson’s speech at the United Nations headquarters.

Today we are launching a campaign（called "He For She"）. I am reaching out to you because we need your help. We want to end gender inequality, and to do this, we need everyone involved. This is the first campaign of this kind in the UN. We want to try to involve as many men and boys as possible to be advocates for change.

    I started questioning gender-based assumption a long time ago. When I was 8, I was confused being called bossy because I wanted to direct a play that we put on for our parents, but the boys were not. When I was 14, I started to be sexualized by certain elements of the media. At 15, my girlfriends started dropping out of a lot of sports teams because they didn’t want to appear masculine男子气的. At 18, my male friends were unable to express their feelings.

    I decided that I was a feminist. This seemed uncomplicated to me. But my recent research has shown me that feminism女权主义者has become an unpopular word. Women are choosing not to identify as feminists. Why has the word become such an uncomfortable one? I’m from Britain and I think it is right that I am paid the same as my male counterparts. I think it is right that I should make decisions about my own body. I think it is right that women be involved on my behalf in the policies and decisions that will affect my life. I think it is right that socially, I am afforded the same respect as men.

    But sadly, I can say that there is no one country in the world where all women can expect to receive these rights. No country in the world can yet say that they have achieved gender equality. These rights, I considered to be human rights, but I am one of the lucky ones.

    My life is a sheer privilege because my parents didn’t love me less because I was born a daughter. My school did not limit me because I was a girl. My mentors didn’t assume that I would end up nowhere because I might give birth to a child one day. These influences were the gender equality ambassadors that made me who I am today. They may not know it but they are the inadvertent feminists who are changing the world today. We need more of those.

Men, I would like to take this opportunity to extend you a formal invitation. Gender equality is your issue, too. Because to date, I’ve seen young men suffering from mental illness, unable to ask for help for fear it will make them less of a man, or less of men. I’ve seen men made fragile and insecure by distorted sense of what constitutes male success. Men don’t have the benefits of equality, either. Both men and women should feel free to be sensitive, both men and women should be free to be strong. This is what "He For She" is about. It’s about freedom.   

You might be thinking: who is this Harry Potter girl? What is she doing at the UN? I’ve been asking myself at the same thing. All I know is that I care about this problem and I want to make it better. And having seen what I’ve seen and given the chance, I feel my responsibility to say something. Statesman Edmund Burke said all that is needed for the forces of evil to triumph is for good men and women to do nothing.

    In my nervousness for this speech and in my moment of doubt, I told myself firmly: If not me, who? If not now, when? If you have similar doubts when opportunities are presented to you, I hope those words would be helpful. Because the reality is that if we do nothing, it will take 75 years, or for me it will be nearly 100 before women can be expected to be paid as same as men for the same work. 15.5 million girls will be married in the 16 years as children. At current rate, it will be until 2086 before all rural African girls can have secondary education. We are struggling for a uniting world, but the good news is we have a uniting movement. It is called “He For She”. I am inviting you to step forward, to be seen and to ask yourself: if not me, who? If not now, when?

Thank you.