READING 2.
    Why isn’t a dollar worth as much as it used to be? One dollar is always worth the same amount, That is, 100 cents. But the value of a dollar is how much it can buy , the value of money depends on the cost of living. Economists (经济学家) say that the cost of living is the money that a family must pay for the necessities (必需品) of life such as food, housing or rent, clothes, and medical expenses. For many years now, the cost of living has increased greatly ,so the value of the dollar has decreased (减少), When a dollar has a low value , you cannot buy as many things as before . No one fully understands why the cost of living keeps increasing believe, but economists believe that workers and producers can make prices go up. As workers earn more money, they have more money to spend, so they demand more goods. If there is a great demand for certain goods, the prices of these goods go up. At the same time, if there’s a shortage (短缺) of goods, the prices also go up. For example, if everyone wants to buy more and more gas, the price of gas goes up. Families need to know what happens to their money. They need to know what happens to their money. They need to make their income meet the cost of living, so many people plan a family budget. A budget is a list of monthly expense. Budgeting helps you spend your money wisely as the cost of living increases.

READING 3.
    Benjamin Franklin was born in 1706 in Boston, Massachusetts. His mother and father were of Puritan (清教徒) religion. They left England and mo9ved to the English colony of Massachusetts in order to escape persecution (迫害) for their religion. In Boston, Franklin left school when he was ten years old and worked for his father for two years. Then he went to work on his brother’s newspaper. He became the editor of this paper when he was sixteen. Because he wanted to be independent, he went to Philadelphia. There he bought his own newspaper. He worked hard and saved his money. And by the age of 24 he was one of the most successful men in Philadelphia. In 1732 Franklin published a book “POOR RICHARDS ALMANAC（历本）”.Most almanacs contained information for farmers, such as information about the days and weeks of the year and about the weather. To his almanac, Franklin added wise sayings, his observations about life. Some of these sayings are still famous today. For example, “Early to bed , early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise,” and “Waste not want not,” and “A penny saved is a penny earned.”

READING 4.
    In the eighteenth century young ladies in Italy were taught reading, writing, music and arithmetic. But their knowledge of history and geography was very poor. Once the French ambassador (大使) in Rome was giving a ball to which many important people were invited. The Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs came very late. A young lady, who was well acquainted with him, saw him enter the ball-room and asked why he was so late. “You see”, said the Minister, “ there has been a little accident at the King’s palace”. The curious young lady asked the Minister to tell her what had happened at the King’s palace. “Oh, nothing important”, answered the Minister. “The ambassador of Brazil, who was to be presented to the King, forgot to take his credentials with him and was obliged to go back to his hotel to bring them. If he had left them in Brazil we should have had to wait at last six months for them.” “Is Brazil so far from Rome?” asked the lady, who knew very little geography. “It is in the New World”, said the Minister. “In the New World?” repeated the lady in great astonishment. “Yes, in the New World,” repeated the Minister in a sarcastic tone (讽刺的口气), “which was discovered by Christopher Columbus.” When the young lady heard this, she rushed into the middle of the ball-room and shouted as loud as she could: “ Ladies and gentlemen, have you heard the latest news? A new world had just been discovered by a certain Christoper Columbus.”

READING 5.
    When the Panama Canal opened in 1914, it greatly cut down the cost of carry goods from countries bordering the Atlantic Ocean to those bordering the Pacific. In 1903 the United Stated signed an agreement with Panama to build the canal which the Americans started to dig four year later. The agreement gave the United States rights to rule over a long narrow piece of land ten mile wide. The land , including the canal, would be given back to Panama in the year 2,000. But there was a fear that Panama would get nothing back but a small and narrow steam. The problem is that the canal has a number of locks above sea level operating the locks to let a ship through uses a great amount of water. So the canal needs a constant supply of water all the year round-both in the dry and wet seasons. For some years the water supply has been reduced. The water level in reservoirs (水库) feeding the canal is dangerously low. At the same time more and more sand and mud is being washing into the canal. If no action is taken, the canal will become full of mud and sand some day. Ship would once more go the long round from the Pacific to the Atlantic.