【正文】 arious options open to them. They can get lodgings with a landlady. This means that they rent a room in someone’s house and have breakfast with the family. They can also get a bedsitting room, that is to say one selfcontained room in which they can cook, live and sleep. Alternatively, they can share a rented flat or house with a group of young people, perhaps the most popular option of all. Useful Words and Expressions: 1. lodging 寄宿處 2. bedsit 臥室兼起居室 3. bedsitting 臥室兼起居室的 4. selfcontained 設備齊全的34 Will Computers Replace Human Beings? We are in the puter age today. The puters are working all kinds of wonders now. They are very useful in automatic control and data processing. At the same time, puters are finding their way into the home. They seem to be so clever and can solve such plicated problems that some people think sooner or later they will replace us. But I do not think that there is such a possibility. My reason is very simple: puters are machines, not humans. And our tasks are far too various and plicated for any one single kind of machine to perform. Probably the greatest difference between man and puter is that the former can do things of his own while the latter can do nothing without being programmed. In my opinion, puters will remain nothing but an extension of our human brains, no matter how clever and plicated they may bee. 36 Artists Every artist knows in his heart that he is saying something to the public. Not only does he want to say it well, but he wants it to be something which has not been said before. What visual artists, like painters, want to say is easy to make out but difficult to explain, because painters translate their experiences into shapes and colors, not words. They seem to feel that a certain selection of shapes and colors, out of the countless billions of possible, is exceptionally interesting for them and worth showing to us. Most artists take their shapes and colors from the world of nature and from human bodies in motion and response。 their choices indicate that these aspects of the world are worth looking at, that they contain beautiful sights. Contemporary artists might say that they merely choose subjects that provide an interesting pattern, that there is nothing more in it. Yet even they do not choose entirely without reference to the character of their subjects. Useful words and Expressions: 1. visual artist 視覺藝術家 2. selection 挑選，選擇 3. exceptional 例外的，異常的 4. motion 運動，動作5. indicate顯示，象征 6. contemporary 當代的，同時代的 7. without reference to 不論，與……無關 37 Professioanl Sports in the . Professional sports are not only very popular in the United States, but also a big business. The most popular sports are baseball, football and basketball. Each sport has its own season and individual teams have millions of supporters. Professional teams are named for the cities where they are located. For example, the Lakers are in Los Angeles. The strongest supporters of the Lakers are residents of Los Angeles and Southern California. When the Lakers play, many people in Los Angeles enthusiastically follow the game. When we mention “NBA”, almost every one knows it ahs some relationship with . professional basketball. However, what does it really stand for? is gaining new fans and supporters around the world. Basketball has been called the “national pastime”. However, football is the most popular professional sport in the .. American football is different from international football, which Americans call “soccer”. Both games require strength and specialized skills. Useful Words and Expressions: 1. be named for 被指定為 2. be short for 是……的簡稱 3. stand for代表 38 “How to” Books Books which give instructions on how to do things are popular in the United States today. Thousands of these “how to” books are available. In fact, there are about for thousand books with titles that begin with the words “how to’. Many “how to” books give advice on careers. They tell you how to choose a career and how to succeed in it. Many of these books help people to use their free time better. Some people want book which will give them useful information about sports, hobbies and travel. Other people use their free time to make repairs and improvements on their homes. They prefer books which give stepbystep instructions on how to repair things like plumbing and electrical wiring or on how to redecorate or enlarge a house. Why have “how to” books bee so popular? Probably because life has bee more plex. Today people have far more free to use, more choices to make, and more problems to solve, “how to” books help people to deal with modern life. Useful words and Expressions: 1. stepbystep 按部就班的 2. redecorate 重新裝飾，再裝飾 3. plex 復雜的，綜合的 39 Don’t give up If we would ever acplish anything in life, let us not forget that we must persevere. If we would learn our lessons in school, we must be diligent and not give up whenever we e to anything difficult. We shall find many of our lessons very hard, but let us consider that the harder they are the better they will do to us if we will preserve and learn them thoroughly. But there are some among us who are ready to give up when they e to a hard example in mathematics, and say, “I can’t do this.” They never will if they feel so. “I can’t” never does anything worthwhile, but “I’ll try” acplishes wonders. Let us remember that we shall meet with difficulties all through life. They are in the pathway of everyone. If we will only try and keep trying, we shall be sure to conquer and overe very difficulty we meet. 40 How High Can You Jump? Fleas trainers have observed a strange habit of fleas while training them. Fleas are trained by putting them in a cardboard box with a top on it. T