1、Unit 1 Living well Martys storyHi, my name is Marty Fielding and I guess you could say that I am “one in a million.”In other words, there are not many people like me. You see, I have a muscle disease which makes me very weak, so I cant run or climb stairs as quickly as other people. In addition, som
2、etimes I am very clumsy and drop things or bump into furniture. Unfortunately, the doctors dont know how to make me better, but I am very outgoing and have learned to adapt to my disability. My motto is: live one day at a time. Until I was ten years old I was the same as everyone else. I used to cli
3、mb trees, swim and play football. In fact, I used to dream about playing professional football and possibly representing my country in the World Cup. Then I started to get weaker and weaker, until I could only enjoy football from a bench at the stadium. In the end I went into hospital for medical te
4、sts. I stayed there for nearly three months. I think I had at least a billion tests, including one in which they cut out a piece of muscle from my leg and looked at it under a microscope. Even after all that, no one could give my disease a name and it is difficult to know what the future holds. One
5、problem is that I dont look any different from other people. So sometimes some children in my primary school would laugh, when I got out of breath after running a short way or had to stop and rest halfway up the stairs. Sometimes I was too weak to go to school so my education suffered. Every time I
6、returned after an absence, I felt stupid because I was behind the others. My life is a lot easier at high school because my fellow students have accepted me. The few who can not see the real person inside my body do not make me annoyed, and I just ignore them. All in all I have a good life. I am hap
7、py to have found many things I can do, like writing and computer programming. My ambition is to work for a firm that develops computer software when I grow up. Last year I invented a computer football game and a big company has decided to buy from me. I have a very busy life with no time to sit arou
8、nd feeling sorry for myself. As well as going to movies and football matches with my friends, I spend a lot of time with my pets. I have two rabbits, a parrot, a tank full of fish and a tortoise. To look after my pets properly takes a lot of time but I find it worthwhile. I also have to do a lot of
9、work, especially if I have been away for a while. In many ways my disability has helped me grow stronger psychologically and become more independent. I have to work hard to live a normal life but it has been worth it. If I had a chance to say one thing to healthy children, it would be this: having a
10、 disability does not mean your life is not satisfying. So dont feel sorry for the disabled or make fun of them, and dont ignore them either. Just accept them for who they are, and give them encouragement to live as rich and full a life as you do. Thank you for reading my story.Unit 2 Robots Larry Be
11、lmont worked for a company that made robots. Recently it had begun experimenting with a household robot. It was going to be tested out by Larrys wife, Claire. Claire didnt want the robot in her house, especially as her husband would be absent for three weeks, but Larry persuade her or allow her to b
12、e harmed. It would be a bonus. However, when she first saw the robot, she felt alarmed. His name was Tony and he seemed more like a human than a machine. He was tall and handsome with smooth hair and a deep voice although his facial expression never changed. On the second morning Tony, wearing an ap
13、ron, brought her breakfast and then asked her whether she needed help dressing. She felt embarrassed and quickly told him to go. It was disturbing and frightening that he looked so human. One day, Claire mentioned that she didnt think she was clever. Tony said that she must feel very unhappy to say
14、that. Claire thought it was ridiculous to be offered sympathy by a robot. But she began to trust him. She told him how she was overweight and this made her feel unhappy. Also she felt her home wasnt elegant enough for someone like Larry who wanted to improve his social position. She wasnt like Glady
15、s Claffern, one of the richest and most powerful women around. As a favor Tony promised to help Claire make herself smarter and her home more elegant. So Claise borrowed a pile of books from the library for him to read, or rather, scan. She looked at his fingers with wonder as they turned each page
16、and suddenly reached for his hand. She was amazed by his fingernails and the softness and warmth of his skin. How absurd, she thought. He was just a machine. Tony gave Claire a new haircut and changed the makeup she wore. As he was not allowed to accompany her to the shops, he wrote out a list of it
17、ems for her. Claire went into the city and bought curtains, cushions, a carpet and bedding. Then she went into a jeweler shop to buy a necklace. When the clerk at the counter was rude to her, she rang Tony up and told the clerk to speak to him. The clerk immediately changed his attitude. Claire than
18、ked Tony, telling him that he was a “dear”. As she turned around, there stood Gladys Claffern. How awful to be discovered by her, Claire thought. By the amused and surprised look on her face, Claire knew that Gladys thought she was having an affair. After all, she knew Claires husband name was Larry
19、, not Tony. When Claire got home, she wept with anger in her armchair. Gladys was everything Claire wanted to be.“You can be like her”, Tony told her and suggested that she invite Gladys and her friends to the house the night before he was to leave and Larry was to return. By that time, Tony expecte
20、d the house to be completely transformed. Tony worked steadily on the improvements. Claire tried to help once but was too clumsy. She fell off a ladder and even though Tony was in the next room, he managed to catch her in time. He held her firmly in his arms and she felt the warmth of his body. She
21、screamed, pushed him away and ran to her room for the rest of the day. The night of the party arrived. The clock struck eight. The guests would be arriving soon and Claire told Tony to go into another room. At that moment, Tony folded his arms around her, bending his face close to hers. She cried ou
22、t “Tony” and then heard him declare that he didnt want to leave her the next day and that he felt more than just the desire to please her. Then the front door bell rang. Tony freed her and disappeared from sight. It was then that Claire realized that Tony had opened the curtains of the front window.
23、 Her guests had seen everything! The women were impressed by Claire, the house and the delicious cuisine. Just before they left, Claire heard Gladys whispering to another woman that she had never seen anyone so handsome as Tony. What a sweet victory to be envied by those women! She might not be as b
24、eautiful as them, but none of them had such a handsome lover. Then she remembered- Tony was just a machine. She shouted “ Leave me alone” and ran to her bed. She cried all night. The next morning a car drove up and took Tony away. The company was very pleased with the report of Tony on his three wee
25、ks with Claire. Tony had protected a human being from harm. He had prevented Claire from harming herself through her own sense of failure. He had opened the curtains that night so that the other women would see him and Claire, knowing that there was no risk to Claires marriage. But even though Tony
26、had been so clever, he would have to be rebuilt- you can not have women falling in love with machines.Unit 3 Under the sea I was 16 when I began work in June 1902 at the whaling station. I had heard of the killers that every year helped whalers catch huge whales. I thought, at the time, that this wa
27、s just a story but then I witnessed it with my own eyes many times. On the afternoon I arrived at the station, as I was sorting out my accommodation, I heard a loud noise coming from the bay. We ran down to the shore in time to see an enormous animal opposite us throwing itself out of the water and
28、then crashing down again. It was black and white and fish-shaped. Without pausing we jumped into the boat with the other whalers and headed out into the bay. I looked down into the water and could see Old Tom swimming by the boat, showing us the way. A few minutes later, there was no Tom, so George
29、started beating the water with his oar and there was Tom, circling back to the boat, leading us to the hunt again. Using a telescope we could see that something was happening. As we drew closer, I could see a whale being attacked by a pack of about six other killers. The killers over there are throw
30、ing themselves on top of the whales blow-hole to stop it breathing. And those others are stopping it diving or fleeing out to sea. George told me, pointing towards the hunt. And just at that moment, the most extraordinary thing happened. The killers started racing between our boat and whale just lik
31、e a pack of excited dogs. Although Old Tom and other killers were fierce hunters, they never harmed or attacked people. In fact, they protected them. There was one day when we were out in the bay during a hunt and James was washed off the boat. The sea was rough that day and it was difficult to hand
32、le the boat. The waves were carrying James further and further away from us. From Jamess face, I could see he was terrified of being abandoned by us. Then suddenly I saw a shark. It took over half an hour to get the boat back to James, and when we approached him, I saw James being firmly held up in the water by Old Tom. I couldnt believe my eyes. There were shouts of “Well done, Old Tom” and “Thank God” as we pulled James back into the boat. And then Old Tom was off and back to the hunt where the other killers were still attacking the whale.Unit 4 Sharing A Letter homeDear Rosemary,
