特别使人联想起英国的运动是板球。许多运动虽源于英国，但在其他国家却很盛行。板球则不同，它只在英联邦国家广泛流行，如澳大利亚、印度。
多数英国的中学都设有运动场地。男生们通常在冬季踢足球，在夏季一般打板球；而女生们在夏季打网球和一种垒球，在冬天则是打曲棍球。有趣的是很少人对篮球感兴趣。 比较社会化的成人运动是高尔夫球和网球，打这种球的人很多。高尔夫球场还是重要的商业交往中心，例如，像银行经理一样的人就很喜欢打高尔夫球。此外，网球俱乐部也随处可见，每个镇上的公园里都有网球场，人们不用花太多钱就能打一场网球。
Unit7
(Para.1) Imagine finding that your school has just got the best toy possible, and that you are allowed to play with it in your spare time. That would be a dream come true for many children. Imagine that you could keep playing with that toy when you grew up, and that it could help you become the richest person in the world.
(Para. 2) These dreams have all come true for Bill Gates, who is the most famous person in the world of computers. At school he quickly unlocked the secrets of programming computers and he used this skill to build Microsoft, the company that is now the leading maker of software for personal computers around the world.
(Para. 3) Bill Gates is a skillful and intelligent businessman, and the huge success of Microsoft has made him a powerful person. Still, when people ask him about the secret of his success, he says it’s luck. But it takes more than luck to take one young man from a small, stuffy room with a noisy computer to the headquarters of a company that employs more than 20,000 people in 56 countries. That something is the secret of Microsoft — and of Bill Gates.
设想一下，你发现自己的学校刚刚购置了一种最棒的玩具，而你得到允许可以在课余时间去玩它，这一定是许多孩子的梦想。再设想一下，你在玩这个玩具的过程中成长，而它竟帮助你成为世界首富。 这些梦想都在比尔·盖茨身上实现了，他已经成为全球计算机领域中最知名的人士。在中学时代，他敏锐地解开了计算机编程的秘诀，并运用这种技能创办了微软公司，这家公司现已成为全球生产个人计算机软件的领军企业。 比尔·盖茨是一位精明聪慧的企业家，而且微软公司的巨大成功使他成了一位富有影响的大人物。尽管如此，当有人向他询问成功秘诀的时候，他总说这是由于自己的运气好。然而，使一位年轻人从一间不通风的小屋，屋里只有一台嘎吱乱响的计算机，来到了在世界56个国家拥有20,000名员工的公司总部，这其中不仅仅是运气所致，而是蕴藏着微软和比尔·盖茨成功的奥秘。 Unit8
(Para. 1) These days, a new phenomenon is transforming politics, business, and society — Web logs, or “blogs”, for short.
(Para. 2) These millions of online journals, published almost instantly, link together into a vast network of individuals and
businesses, hobbyists, and political organizations. There are plenty out there that are good and plenty that are bad.
(Para. 3) According to Business Week and others, Web logs are the most explosive outbreak in the information world since the Internet itself. Blogs are shaking up just about every business. In this period of accelerating change, blogs are not a business elective any more； they are a prerequisite.
(Para. 4) There are millions of blogs out there, with 40,000 new ones popping up each day. Many blogs include links, or underlined words that, when clicked, carry readers to other Web pages. The interesting thing about blogs is one doesn’t have to wait for days, or even weeks, to get published; most blogs appear right away, typically within less than an hour, depending on
whether they are monitored or not. It’s an interesting experience, getting comments about news stories, within hours, and sometimes even minutes, after the story breaks.
近来，一种新的现象正在改变我们的政治、商业和社会生活——它就是网络日志，或者简言之，博客。
这些数以百万计的网上日志几乎瞬间就可以与读者见面，它们相互连接，形成了一个关于个人与商业活动、有共同兴趣爱好者及持不同政见者的巨大的网络结构。这其中的大量信息有好也有坏。
据《商业周刊》和其他的一些报纸杂志称，网络日志是自因特网本身出现以来信息世界出现的最有影响力的新生事物。博客正在给几乎所有的商业活动带来彻底的调整。在这个变革不断加速的时代，博客对于商业活动来说已不再是一门选修课，而是一个必需的前提。 现在，网络上有数以百万计的博客，而且每天又有4万个新博客出现。许多博客都包含超链接，或者以带有下划线的地址形式出现的超链接，一旦点击它，就可以把读者引导到新的网页。关于博客的一个有趣的事实是，人们不需要等待几天甚至几周才能见到它出版，大多数的博客瞬间就可以与读者见面，通常所需要的时间不到一个小时，当然这取决于是否有监控。在一个新消息发布的几小时之内，有时甚至是几分钟之内就看到关于它的评论真是有趣的经历。
Unit 9
(Para.1) David Beckham is the king of football world, but it is his wife Victoria, former “Posh Spice” girl, who makes it. She was the person who turned him from a footballer into a global attractor. Even now that he has left Manchester United for Real Madrid, instead of Barcelona or Milan, it might be because of her.
(Para.2) “Posh Spice” has become a name for Victoria. The Collins Dictionary even has the term “Posh and Becks” (Victoria and David Beckham).
(Para.3)Before meeting Victoria Adams, Beckham was a good-looking and likeable footballer with a bright future at Manchester United. But that was about all.
(Para. 4) Since he married her in 1999, he has become the most famous player British sport has ever produced, and, some say, the most influential man in the country. “When they got together she was clearly the more popular of the two,” said Andrew Parker, a sports expert at Warwick University in Britain. “She certainly introduced him to a new circle of people and, all of a sudden, he was a top list celebrity.”
(Para. 5)It’s believed that, behind the high walls and iron gates of their “Beckingham Palace”, it is Victoria who decides everything.
(Para. 6)When their baby boy, Brooklyn, fell ill in 2000, Beckham left a United training to look
after him, and this led to his being dropped from the team. Many were sure it was Victoria who had asked her husband to stay at home.
大卫?贝克汉姆是足球世界的王者，但这都是他的妻子维多利亚的功劳。作为前“辣妹组合”的一员，维多利亚使贝克汉姆从一个足球运动员转变成了世界瞩目的焦点。甚至现在他离开曼联队，到了皇家马德里，而没有去巴塞罗那和米兰队，也是因为她。
“辣妹”是维多利亚的代名词。柯林斯词典中甚至有一个术语叫做“Posh and Becks”（维多利亚和贝克汉姆）。
在遇到维多利亚?亚当斯之前，贝克汉姆是曼联队一位长相英俊、前途光明、受人欢迎的球员。但仅此而已。
自从他们在1999年结婚之后，他已经成为英国有史以来最有名的球员，甚至有人认为他是这个国家最有影响力的男人。“当他们在一起时，维多利亚显然是两人中更受欢迎的。”英国沃里克大学的体育专家安德鲁?帕克说道，“显然，她把他带进了一个新的社交圈，而在忽然之间，他成了位居前列的名人。”
大家相信，在“贝克汉姆宫”的高墙和铁门后面，一切还是维多利亚说了算。
当他们的小儿子布鲁克林在2000年生病的时候，贝克汉姆离开了集训地回去照顾他，这导致了他被球队除名。很多人都确定是维多利亚让她丈夫呆在家里的。
Unit 10
(Para.1) Putting off things usually puts you in trouble. So, get things done fast with these easy tips?
Don’t Put It Off
(Para.2) We all procrastinate at one time or another. Yet putting off something we know we should do is a bad habit to get into.
(Para.3) When you wait until the last minute to clean your room, practice the piano or do your homework, you have to rush through the job. Often, it ends up incomplete or filled with mistakes. And don’t you feel stressed and worried when you have to hurry? Make a Change
(Para.4) To change those “last-minute blues,” try these tips. They’ll get you moving again:
(Para.5) Make a list of all your jobs, starting with the most important. Check them one by one as they’re done. (Para. 6) Break each job into smaller parts. Choose an easy part to do first—the rest of the job will go quicker. (Para.7) Be prepared. Do your homework in a well-lighted study area with pencil and paper on hand.
(Para.8) Set goals you can accomplish. You don’t have to be first chair in band or leadoff hitter on your baseball team. Instead, say, “I will practice my instrument 15 minutes each day. I will try to make one hit tonight.” And don’t give up!
(Para.9) Make it fun! Compose a poem or pantomime a scene if you’re not good at writing book reports. You’ll be more likely to stick with a task you enjoy.
(Para.10) Learn to say no. What activities can you cut from your schedule? Don’t take on any new jobs till you’ve caught up with your other priorities.
(Para.11) Ask for help. You don’t have to do everything yourself. Don’t just sit back and say, “I don’t know.”
(Para.12) Now that you have the tools to get the job done, why wait?
拖拉常常给你带来麻烦。因此，用下面这些简单的小窍门来告别拖拉吧！ 不要拖拉
我们都曾有过拖拉的时候。然而，拖延我们知道应该做的事就会染上一个坏习惯。
当你等到最后一分钟才去打扫房间、练钢琴或做作业的时候，你就只能匆匆了事。通常，结果是丢三落四、错误百出。那么，当你匆忙地做事情的时候，你不感到紧张和焦虑吗？ 改变一下
为了改变那些“最后一刻的忧郁”，尝试一下以下这些小窍门，它们会再次使你活跃起来。
从最难的开始，把你所有要做的工作列一个单子。做完了之后，一个一个打上“√”号。 ◆ 把每项工作都分成几个小的部分。选择最容易的先做——剩下的工作就会做得快些了。 ◆ 做好准备。在一个光线很好的地方做作业，手边要备有纸笔。