At first, Michael Surrell didn't see the black smoke or flames shooting from the windows of his neighbors' home. He and his wife had just parked around the corner from their own house, when they got a call from one of his daughters: "The house next door is on fire!" He went to investigate. That's when he saw two women and a girl panic-stricken on their doorway.

    "The baby's in there!" one of the women cried. Though the fire department had been called, Surrell, then 64, instinctively ran inside. "The baby" was 8-year-old Tiara, the woman's granddaughter.

    Entering the burning house was like "running into a bucket of black paint," Surrell says. The thick smoke caused him to struggle blindly around, burned his eyes, and made it impossible to breathe. The conditions would have been risky for anyone, but for Surrell, who has lung disease, they were life-threatening. After a few minutes in the smoke-filled house, he withdrew outside to catch his breath.

    "Where is Tiara?" he asked desperately. "The second floor," The woman shouted back. Taking a deep breath, he went in a second time. The darkness was overwhelming. Yet because the house had a similar design to his, Surrell found the stairs and made it to the second floor. He was already out of breath. Then a soft but distinct moan appeared. He crawled toward the sound, feeling around for any sign of the girl. Finally, he touched something. A shoe, then an ankle. He pulled Tiara into his arms. Turning, he fought through the smoke and ran blindly into the blackness. The next thing he knew, he was at the front door, then outside.

    Surrell woke up in the hospital a couple of days later, having suffered severe burns. Tiara was released from the hospital after a few days. "It's a small price to pay," Surrell says. "I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Wouldn't give it a second thought."

Germany may be famous for its wealth of history and culture, but it also houses some of Europe's most wild and wonderful landscapes.

Jasmund National Park

It lies on the west coast of the offshore island of Rügen. This UNESCO-protected site is the smallest of Germany's national parks. It is here that painter Caspar David Friedrich found himself inspired to create one of his masterpieces, Chalk Cliffs on Rigen, in 1818. Here long trails can take you all the way to the Rügen coastline, where white-sand beaches and blue wa-ters wait.

Berchtesgaden National Park

Berchtesgaden is one of Germany's oldest and most beautiful conservation areas. Trails go in and out of the forest, leading you along the banks of glassy lakes. The more adventurous visitors may choose paragliding（滑翔伞运动）from Mount Jenner and they can fly over 1, 800 meters. Back on the ground, a network of more than 150 miles of walking trails twist through the forest.

Southern Black Forest Nature Park

The highland areas, with views over Switzerland and France, are a good place for food lovers. Activities in the park range from hiking and fishing to mountain biking, while the slower travelers will enjoy the trails for an escape from everyday life.

The Bliesgau Biosphere

This place is home to almost half of all German orchid（兰花）species. The grasslands spread for miles, drawing in different butterflies. Thanks to its comfortable climate, this is a region of sustainable（可持续的）development. In fact, this park is an example of farming done right and offers a wealth of agricultural know-how to anyone eager to learn.

C

    As cultural symbols go, the American car is quite young. The Model T Ford was built at the Piquette Plant in Michigan a century ago, with the first rolling off the assembly line（装配线） on September 27, 1908. Only eleven cars were produced the next month. But eventually Henry Ford would build fifteen million of them.

    Modern America was born on the road, behind a wheel. The car shaped some of the most lasting aspects of American culture: the roadside diner, the billboard, the motel, even the hamburger. For most of the last century, the car represented what it meant to be American—going forward at high speed to find new worlds. The road novel, the road movie, these are the most typical American ideas, born of abundant petrol, cheap cars and a never-ending interstate highway system, the largest public works project in history.

    In 1928 Herbert Hoover imagined an America with "a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage." Since then, this society has moved onward, never looking back, as the car transformed America from a farm-based society into an industrial power.

    The cars that drove the American Dream have helped to create a global ecological disaster. In America the demand for oil has grown by 22 percent since 1990.

    The problems of excessive（过度的）energy consumption, climate change and population growth have been described in a book by the American writer Thomas L. Friedman. He fears the worst, but hopes for the best.

    Friedman points out that the green economy（经济）is a chance to keep American strength. "The ability to design, build and export green technologies for producing clean water, clean air and healthy and abundant food is going to be the currency of power in the new century."

George Watford works at the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) in New York City. He gets some unusual phone calls. One day, he got a call about a mountain lion living in a small building. "We didn't believe it," Watford said. "But when we got there, sure enough, there was a mountain lion sitting at the front window looking out at us." The big cat's owner knew that his neighbors were unhappy about the animal. He didn't try to stop us taking it away.

In one year, the ASPCA took in 9,459 different animals, not counting cats and dogs. That number includes a lot of rabbits and monkeys, but the ASPCA has also taken many other exotic pets from people's homes. These animals can't be set free into the wild because they wouldn't survive. The ASPCA tries to find homes for them in zoos or special areas for animals.

It's against the law to sell wild animals in New York City. Many buildings don't even allow dogs or cats, not to mention more exotic animals. Still, the ASPCA takes away most of the exotic animals not because of complaints, but because the pet's owner needs help. A lovely baby lion or bear will finally grow up to be dangerous. "When they bite, it isn't because they hate you. It's because they're wild animals," said exotic animal expert Kathi Travers.

Travers is quick to give speeches against raising wild animals as pets. Too often people think that caring for a wild animal is the same as caring for a dog or a cat. "To love an animal is not enough," Travers said. "There has to be respect, and respect is not taking an animal, sticking it in a little cage, and expecting the animal to be happy."

    During the cold winter days, there are some interesting festivals in the world. Look at the following ones.

    Harbin Ice and Snow Festival

    Place: China

    Time: January 5 to February 5

    People build incredible things out of ice and snow, decorating them with lights.

    The Carnival of Venice

    Place: Italy

    Time: between February and March

    One of the most beautiful festivals in the world, people wear masks and elaborate costumes to hide differences among classes, and there are contests for the best costumes.

    Holi Festival

    Place: India

    Time: late February/ March, on the last full moon day

    Hindus and Sikhs, in India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka celebrate the main day of this incredibly fun 16-day festival by throwing colored powder and water at each other.

    Sundance Film Festival

    Place: Utah, the US

    Time: end of February

    The largest independent film festival in the US. Watch both feature films and shorts. You need to buy a ticket.

事实是他的发言鼓舞人心，动人肺腑。

I live in Hollywood. You may think people in such an attractive, fun-filled place are happier than others. If so, you have some 1 ideas about the nature of happiness.

Many intelligent people still equate (同等看待) happiness with fun. The 2 is that fun and happiness have 3 or nothing in common. Fun is what we experience during an act. Happiness is 4 we experience after an act. It is a deeper, more lasting emotion.

Going to an amusement park or ball game, watching a movie or television, are fun activities that help us relax, 5 forget our problems and maybe even 6. But they do not bring happiness, because their 7 effects end when the fun ends.

I have often thought that if Hollywood stars have a role to 8, it is to teach us that happiness has nothing to do with fun. These rich, beautiful individuals have constant 9 to glamorous (迷人的) parties, fancy cars, expensive homes, everything that spells "happiness".

But celebrities (名人) reveal the 10 hidden beneath all their fun: depression, alcoholism, drug addiction, broken marriages, troubled children and profound loneliness.

The way people stick to the 11 that a fun-filled, pain-free life equates happiness actually 12 their chances of ever obtaining real happiness. If fun and pleasure are equated with happiness, then pain 13 be equated with unhappiness. But, 14, the opposite is true: More times than not, things that lead to happiness 15 some pain.

As a result, many people avoid the very efforts that are the source of true happiness. They fear the pain inevitably brought by such things as marriage, raising children, professional achievement, religious commitment, charitable work, and self-improvement.

Digital devices(设备) have become common in our lives. Today, kids often type with a keyboard instead writing by hand. But a recent study shows that you can learn(well), and possibly remember more, by handwriting your notes.

"Some schools have become(complete) digital," noted Audrey, who(lead) the study. She measured what's happening in the brain to better understand learning and behaviors. Her study found that(use) a pen or pencil to write notes involves more of the brain than typing on a keyboard. This is because writing needs more complex movements, makes more areas of our brain activate.

Think about it: you move your handssame way to type each letter on a keyboard. That's different from when we write. Our brain needs(consider) the shape of each letter. And we must control our hands to shape different letters with a pen or pencil, all of which uses and connects more areas of the brain.

So learning only by typing could be(harm). However, the human brain connects with the world in as many(way) as possible. That's why it's important to learn to write by hand and to type with a keyboard in the meanwhile.