【正文】 e able to sit at their desks and drink their coffee, Ken had to go outside. He couldn39。t smoke in any workplace. Nonsmokers are definitely winning the battle. Why should we breathe their smoke? they say. If they39。s homes. Under new plans you won39。t noticed it before. Near his office I also saw a fire station I didn39。When did they build that new shopping center?39。And I39。ll give a good landmark.39。Diana, they39。 Jack scolded. Bewildered, I became angry and, starting up the engine, began to pull away. Then I braked. Where was the exit? Suddenly, nothing was familiar. I realized I had no idea how to get home. I had to stop again and again to ask for directions. Eventually, I got home. A 30minute drive had taken me four hours. Two months later, at the office where I worked as a legal researcher, a smart young man approached me. 39。 he said, smiling. I hesitated, then smiled with resignation. 39。s one of those days. I simply can39。 39。m your cousin Richard,39。s disease. I felt numb. I39。Stop worrying,39。We39。 That night, I was looking through some papers belonging to my mother, who39。s other eccentric habits. She wouldn39。t even recognized me. Could she have had Alzheimer39。m filled with hope and determination, but on bad days I have the worst sense of being alone. I39。s essential to have contact with people who are walking through the same maze. Jack39。s assured me that I can depend on him. When we married he didn39。for better or worse39。s. But neither did I.Unit 9Life Goes On The city of Ypres in Belgium has been invaded 19 times, most famously in World War I. Some time ago I went with two friends to visit the battlefields and cemeteries there, and particularly to see the tomb of my uncle who was killed in the war at the age of 20. Michael, our silverhaired guide, took us first to a British cemetery, just outside the town. I stared at the lines of gravestones, neatly planted with herbs and flowers, the low surrounding walls blooming with wisteria. Michael pointed out my uncle39。d like you to visit a German cemetery before finishing, Michael said. The cemetery is in wooded land. But there are no headstones, only slabs in the grass. There are no flowers, either. The whole place is dark and dank. With some relief we returned to the car. After some time, we drew up at a gate. Here, hidden from the road, lies the Pool of Peace. It was created by an explosion so loud it was heard in Downing Street, said Michael. We looked at the still water reflecting the trees surrounding it. There is hardly a sound. By the time we returned to Ypres, it was evening. The city was preparing for the annual Festival of the Cats, which dates from medieval times. Soon there would be dancing in the square.Unit10A Victim of Drugs Margaret frowned as she shook the can of deodorant. It was almost empty but she39。t have used it all? The first few times it happened she thought she was getting mixed up. She asked the kids if they39。s jewelry began to disappear and so did any loose change. She was worried but she couldn39。s school wrote to say he was disruptive and was playing truant. Margaret and her husband tried to talk to him but he just wouldn39。d climb out of a window. She had no control over him. She knew something was wrong but it never occurred to her that he was taking drugs. One day Margaret got a call from the police Paul and a group of older boys had broken into a house. He was found guilty and sent to a remand center for 28 days. But it didn39。s pockets. Fearing the worst she confronted him. What39。d started on aerosols, moved to cannabis and then to heroin. And he was only 15. When Paul was released, he continued to steal to pay for drugs. Then his downward spiral halted when a sympathetic judge gave him six months39。t seem like his normal self. He was agitated. You39。s hand. The next morning Paul died. Margaret was so angry that the drugs had won. She said, Drug addiction is a disease and it beat him. The only winners are the drug dealers who get rich on the suffering of ordinary families like ours.Unit 11Homeschooling on a World Cruise I39。s what most cruising families use, but as Kate zoomed through the entire year39。s gifted mind needed to be challenged, excited, sent into orbit. We devised our own curriculum for the rest of the year. Choosing courses of study for Kate was great fun. We looked at where we would be sailing to during the school year, or where we would be stopping to work, and all sorts of topics of interest presented themselves. For example, while cruising down the East Coast to Florida, we chose space exploration for a unit of study. Our studies included both fictional and nonfictional reading, experiments and writing assignments. The finale was watching a shuttle launch and visiting the Kennedy Space Center museums. We do miss out on a few things that most homeschooled children are able to take advantage of and which would perhaps make our academic life easier. Our home afloat is small. School is held on a small dining table and it39。until later39。s always struck me as odd about opinion polls?Woman: What39。t see what you39。s absurd. I don39。t think they39。re joking.Woman: No, seriously. I think we should pay more for petrol, even twice as much maybe, and certainly far more for inner city car parks.Man: But why?Woman: More taxes should be charged on petrol, I think, to discourage people from using cars, and a kind of graded charging system for car parks depending on how far they are from the city center.Man: What do you mean?Woman: Well, if you park your car quite far from the city center then you pay a nominal amount as a kind of reward for not polluting the city center. Well, the closer you get to the center, the more you are penalized. Prices in the center should be totally prohibitive. I mean with an efficient bus or tram service there39。t penalize people who don39