四级文章记词汇.doc

Unit 1 the dog made us a familyWe inherited my daughter Liana when she was barely 5.She had been adopted from China by my closest friend of 30 years, Linda,a single 51-yaer-oid woman,slim and delicate-looking but tough and firm inside.Linda had a backgound of diverse illnesses.My husband later told me that when she walked merrily off the plane on Christmas Day in 1994,with her round worried-looking Chinese baby bundled in red and holding a toy bear, he had a weird impression that we would eventually raise this child.Three years later , my best friend died and Liana came home with us .I was 55,a fulltime textbook editor with two almost-grown daughters. My husband,an English professor ,was 48.I was looking forward to a few years of empty nesting and then some grandchildren. Starting over with a dynamic kindgartner was ,to be frank , not in my expectation.Shortly after she came to us ,Liana began asking for a dog .She had been passed from family to family during Lindas six-month illness, spoiled by sympathetic people who wanted to make hr cheerful. She was not accustomed to hearing refusal “no.”I have affection for dogs. But I already had to be responsible for a new and unexpected member and I didnt want another responsibility .Initially our little apartment was our excuse: not aboundant space.But four years later we moved to a house, and we could no longer resist Lianas request.So off we went to an animal shelter.Molly wagged its tail all the time .She was mild but energetic. As long as Liana and my husband,John, promised to do the walking ,I decided I could handing having a dog . So we brought Molly home .Twenty-four hours later I opened the front door, liked a streak of lighting-Molly,bolting out the door. Liana and John chased after her ,but losing the trail.Liana came back into the house and cried .In her four years with us ,she had rarely ever cried. And she had hardly ever mentioned her adoptive mother , my best friend. I almost resented that she seemed to have moved past grief without a second thought. But now she sobbed in sorrow. Her thick black hair stuck to her cheeks ,wet with tears .She wrapped her arms around herself , then around me , squeezing hard . She cried for three hours . “Shes gone ,”Liana moaned. “My dog is gone .My mother is dead . I loved my dog .Why did my mother die?”She hadnt moved past the miserable event .She just concealed it ,deep beyond reach,until now .For John,finding Lianas dog bacame a mission. Luckily ,we had taken some cell-phone photos of Molly and we sent them out to all the shelters in the community.After three weeks I was discouraged .But then we got a call . A woman had claimed spotting a dog matching the description and photos of Molly 15 mile away.Despite repeated sightings ,Molly somehow stayed out of reach . The kind-hearted woman whod noticed Molly enlisted the neighborhood kids to report sightings. Eventually John hired a team of animal facilitators they used to be called dog-cathers -and they set out a trap . For another week Molly ignored it until they changed the bait ,at Johns suggestion ,form fish to steak. Then she walked in , and she came home .For five years now ,Molly has slept with Liana every night . When Liana is away , her dog paces . Mollys tail still wags ,but she is 7 now ,a little staggering and much less troublesome . Liana ,a slendr beauty of 15 with fashionably black nails and a loyal circle of flashing friends has moved on to “twilight” and the Jonas Brothers . She still loves dogs ,but a little dog that she can dress up with cute stuff is more preferable .Occasionally it seems as though Liana hardly remembers when her dog ran awany and she cried for her dead mother . But John and I remember , because that was the moment that Liana and our lost friend and our lost dog all came together ,and we because a family.Unit 2 Are Kids Becoming Phone Addicts? There was a time when chikdrens telecommunications meant two cans connected with string or , for luckier kids , a set of walkied-talkies . But now the mobile phone has become prevalent in school playgrounds . Children as young as five may have their own ,A company in England is even targeting toddlers with a phone designed in the shape of a Teddy bear . Three-quarters of Australian children aged 12 to 14 own a mobile phone but by the time they are 15 that number surges to 90 percent. “Because its ptarnts who come in and sign up for the phones , its difficult to say exactly how much this area has grown but the age at which kids get phones is getting younger,”says Carmen Gould ,head of customers service at retail chain Crazy Johns .”Whereas before it was often teenagers getting mobiles , its not unusual now for parents to buy phones for children as young as eight.” “Most parents cite the peace of mind that comes from being able to contact their children at any time as the main reason behind the trend. “All research into this trend suggests that parents believe that they can improve the safety and security of their children by giving them a phone ,”says tions Association. This view is backed by the most recent study of mobil use among youngsters by the NSW(New North Wales)Commission for Children and Young People. After interviewing 1500 children for its MobileMe report ,it concluded it was nearly always parents who decided to give their children phone -to contact them in “case of emergencies”.The other reason was that a phone would give greater independence. Yet this trend has created concerns. In September a Swedish said children and teenagers were five times more likely to get cancer if they use mobile phones. Psychologists have warned children can become too reliant on their phones-or “phone addicts”.And academics suggest that children are ill prepared to understand the financial responsibilities that come with a mobile phone . Most controversial is the research linking mobiles to brain tumours . While the World Health Organisation and the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency state there is no evidence of this connection, some recearchers say thinner skulls and smaller brains put children at greater risk. But one area less disputed is that many children ,particularly those who sign up a monthly plan ,can pile up huge bills .Deakin Universitys Dr.Nina Weerakkody has studied the financial implication of children owning mobile phones. “It can be a huge problem for some children , who can run up bills of as much as $500 a month. They have little concept of what they are spending .This can lead to getting into constant dept ,and it is a very bad financial situation which children can carry on into their adult life with things like credit cards .” As for addiction , two Spanish teenagers made headlines