Blind and Kind(DOWN)

Philip can look for and look at, but he cannot see. He says strangers often correct themselves when talking to him. They’ll say, “I see,” meaning “I understand.” But then they think they’ve been rude, so they’ll correct themselves and say, “I mean, I understand.”

Philip has never seen a good movie or a bad TV show. He has no idea what a sunset or a full moon looks like. He is a musician. He plays the saxophone(萨克斯管), but not in a band. Four times a week, he travels to Old Town in Pasadena on the bus in the afternoon. He gets off at the bus stop and then finds his way across the street to The Cap, a hat store. On the sidewalk(边路) in front of The Cap is his “spot.”

He unfolds(展开) an aluminum chair and assembles his sax(萨克斯管) after taking it out of the case. He sits down and starts warming up. He puts a hat, upside down with change in it, on top of the case. “The change keeps the hat from blowing away,” he says. “It also lets people know where to put their donations. I usually spend about four hours here. I’ll earn from $10 to $30. One evening I made almost $100. Another evening, someone stole everything. I guess he needed it more than I did.”

notes:this story have change somethings in story one lo.

Blind and Kind(UP)

Philip is 55 and blind. He has been blind since birth. He says he does not feel like he is missing anything, because he cannot imagine what sight(视力) is like. He can smell a rose, but he cannot tell if it is red, white, or blue. It does not matter to him; he enjoys the beauty of the scent itself.

People sometimes take pity(可惜) on him, but he tells them he is a contented(心满意足) man; he does not feel cheated by Mother Nature. The doctors never figured out why he was born blind.

But his life is not a bed of roses. It is difficult for him to travel. He cannot drive, of course; he travels by bus. At home, he cannot just look out of the window to see what the weather is like, and then dress appropriately(适当). He can’t look at the clock on the wall to see what time it is. He uses his Braille(布莱叶盲文) watch or a special radio for that.

He must always put everything in the same spot in his apartment. If he doesn’t, “I’ll spend forever looking for it,” he laughs.

notes:very interesting because this story say about a blind man how to pass a day in his live i like it.

Two Babies

She wanted to have two babies—one boy and one girl. She wanted to have the boy first and the girl a year later. That way they could grow up together. He said that was okay with him. She said, "What do you mean, 'okay'? It shouldn't be 'okay' with you. You should say that you want two babies just as much as I do. If you don't want two babies as much as I do, then forget it."

He asked, "Forget it? You mean that we won't have two babies unless I really want to have two babies?"

She said, "Yes, that's right. If you don't really want two babies, then we won't have two babies."

"Okay," he said, "then let's not have two babies."

"Are you sure about that?" she asked.

He nodded(点头) his head, "Yes, I'm sure. We can't afford even one baby."

"Okay," she said. "Goodbye."

"What do you mean, 'goodbye'?" he asked.

She told him she was going to leave him. She was going to find a man who wanted to have two babies with her. He told her that he was just kidding—of course he really wanted to have two babies with her.

"Too late," she said. "You already told me how you really feel."

notes:this is a good story but at last very pitiful(可怜) because the girl go to find another boy.T_T ko lain(in hokkien)

Eggs and a Bunny

Easter Sunday was a cloudy but festive day in Memorial Park for about 100 kids from local orphanages. An Easter egg hunt started at 10 a.m. when a fire engine blasted its horn(垫铁). Boys and girls, ranging(排列) in age from 2 to 6, dashed throughout the park, yelling and screaming, walking and running, and quite often, falling down. One little girl, Amanda, found her first egg less than a minute after the horn blew. Instead(反而) of putting it into her basket and continuing to search for more, she sat down. Then she spent the next 10 minutes examining it, unwrapping it, and eating it piece by piece. When she finished, she put the wrapper into her basket, wiped her hands on her white dress, and went to hunt for another egg.

Meanwhile(同时) Jeff, one of the older boys, filled his basket to overflowing(溢出). He asked one of the firemen to hold it for him, and then took off running for more candy eggs. As soon as he found some, he put them into the basket of the child closest to him. Two little toddlers(小孩) both saw a candy egg at the same time, and they both bent over to pick it up. They banged heads, and both of them sat down bawling(大喊). A couple of volunteer nurses picked them up and told them that everything was going to be all right.

By 11 a.m., the search was over. Most of the kids were studying their candy, exchanging it with others, or eating it. But then the fire engine horn blasted again, causing three-year-old Jenny to cry. A fireman on a bullhorn() told everyone to gather(聚集)around, because a special guest had arrived.Once everyone was settled, the Easter Bunny climbed down out of the fire engine. The bunny was 6’6” tall. Most of the kids cheered and ran toward him. Even Jenny stopped crying for a moment. She stared at the bunny and at all the kids running toward the bunny; then she started crying even harder. The Easter Bunny hugged the kids, and they hugged him. Then the Easter Bunny sat on a fire engine step, and one by one the kids came up, sat on his lap, and got their pictures taken. After that, the older kids were allowed to explore the fire engine itself.

The festivities ended about 3 p.m., when the orphans climbed into the buses for the return trip home. Most of them said they had a fun time. Six-year-old Sara asked, “Can we do this every Sunday?” And more than one boy asked, “Can I drive the fire engine next time?”

Crazy Housing Prices(down)

Tim says he hopes he doesn’t get that desperate(绝望). “Whether you decide to buy or decide not to buy, you still feel like you made the wrong decision. If you buy, you feel like you overpaid. If you don’t buy, you want to kick yourself for passing up a great opportunity(机会).”

Everyone says the bubble has to burst sometime, but everyone hopes it will burst the day after they sell their house. Even government(政府) officials have no idea what the future will bring. “All we can say is that, inevitably(不可避免地), these things go in cycles,” said the state director of housing. “What goes up must come down. But, as we all know, housing prices always stay up a little higher than they go down. So you can’t lose over the long run. Twenty years down the road, your house is always worth(价值) more than you paid for it.”

notes:so so lo like up one.

Crazy Housing Prices(up)

Homebuyers nationwide(在全国范围内) are watching housing prices go up, up, and up. “How high can they go?” is the question on everyone’s lips. “As long as interest(兴趣) rates stay around 5 percent, there’s no telling,” remarked one realtor(地产商) in Santa Monica, California.

“It’s crazy,” said Tim, who is looking for a house near the beach. “In 1993, I bought my first place, a two-bedroom condominium in Venice, for $70,000. My friends thought then that I was overpaying. Five years later, I had to move. I sold it for $230,000, which was a nice profit(利润). Last year, while visiting friends here, I saw in the local paper that the exact same condo(condominium 的短称) was for sale for $510,000!”

It is a seller’s market. Homebuyers feel like they have to offer at least 10 percent more than the asking price. Donna, a new owner of a one-bedroom condo in Venice Beach, said, “That’s what I did. I told the owner that whatever anyone offers you, I’ll give you $20,000 more, under the table, so you don’t have to pay your realtor any of it. I was tired of looking .”

notes:very interesting but i don't like everyday do la pls la mama!

It had been another hot spring day. By ten o’clock in the evening, it had only cooled down to 87 degrees, according to Larry's thermometer in the living room. He rarely looked at his thermometer because he usually didn't care what the exact 精确的)temperature was.

Larry had two table fans in his bedroom. Because of the high temperatures, the last three evenings had been “two-fan” nights. He used his air-conditioner only occasionally(偶尔地). During one month the previous summer, he had used the air-conditioner 10 days consecutively(连续地) day and night. His electric bill that July, normally about $30, was $77.

But Larry figured(表现的) that, once in a while, using the AC wouldn't kill him. So that evening at 11:30, just before he went to bed, he turned on the AC. He set the thermostat(恒温器)to 72 degrees. He woke up four hours later when he heard a big bang, which sounded like two cars had run into each other on the street outside. But it wasn't two cars. It was the AC capacitor on the roof; it had just blown up. Larry's air-conditioner was officially dead.

Two circuit breakers had switched off, so he switched them back on. Larry had already suspected that there was something wrong with his air-conditioner. He called Jack, the repairman, but Jack didn't show up until four days later because he was so busy repairing all the other air-conditioners in the neighborhood.

When Jack finally came, he climbed up on the roof. Larry heard a lot of banging. Twenty minutes later Jack told Larry, "You need a new air-conditioner. Yours is the original model that came with this apartment building. All the other original AC units have been replaced. Yours lasted longest, but now it’s kicked the bucket(急急忙忙) I'm going to call your landlady to see if she will approve a new AC unit for you. It’s going to cost $1200 parts and labor(工作).”

“Wow,” said Larry.

Jack said that if everything went as planned, he'd install a new unit Monday morning. “Until then,” he said with a smile, “stay cool.”

Larry said, “No problem,” but he wondered if he should drive to the thrift(节约) store to look for a third fan for his bedroom.

感想:一句话(很悶)