阅读理解

　　A few days ago, he was just Colonel(上校)Yang; few people knew his name or recognized his face．But last Thursday, when he came back to the earth after a 21-hour trip to space, Yang Liwei’s smile was seen across the world above the magic words：“China’s first spaceman”．

　　The 38-year-old astronaut was sent into space at 9 a. m．Last Wednesday by China’s Shenzhou Ⅴ spacecraft, which orbited the earth 14 times．He landed safely at 6∶23 a. m．The next day, making China the third country successfully send a person into space, after the former Soviet Union and the US．

　　Yang was satisfied with his job．“I have seen many landing scenes before on video, and I think ours was one of the most successful, ”He said on a special plane to Beijing after landing．Born into an ordinary family in Liaoning Province, he became a pilot in the Chinese Air Force in 1987, spending 1350 hours in the air．He joined the Chinese space programme 11 years later．

　　While in space, Yang recorded everything he saw as well as showing China’s national flag and the United Nations’ flag to the people watching on TV at home．He also ate a meal of diced chicken and fried rice, before taking a 3-hour nap．The whole project went according to plan, but space exploration is not as easy as it seems．

　　Anyone who saw the destruction of the US space shuttle Columbia in February this year will know that Yang took a great risk．

　　He experienced extremely high temperatures, while the gravitation(重力)on take-off and landing were strong enough to force tears from his eyes．

　　He has spent five years training to become a spaceman．

　　“I eat all of my meals at the space programme’s dinning room and have never been able to take my son to kindergarten, ”he said．“I’ve never met his teachers．”

　　But becoming China’s first spaceman has made all the effort worthwhile．

　　“When I boarded the spacecraft for the first time, I couldn’t help feeling excited,” he said．“I decided that I had to fly it．”

　　To Chinese people, Yang is now a hero．One visitor to a Xinhua news agency online forum(网上论坛)said, “Yang’s trip is a giant leap forward for China．”

　　Officials say the next Shenzhou will be launched by 2005．China also plans to develop spacewalking and a space lab．

阅读理解

　　All of my childhood and early, adult life, my mom weighed over 220 pounds(one pound＝0.454 kilograms)．I could feel the pain that my mom experienced with her fatness．

　　I was never uncomfortable about my mother, but I think she was uncomfortable about herself, and that feeling was painful for all of us．And she began to lose weight．

　　After more than twenty years of battling obesity(肥胖), my mother completed a forceful eighteen-month diet that left her ninety pounds lighter than before．A new woman was born! At age twenty-eight, I got a new mom! For the first time, I met the woman my mother truly was, the beautiful little lady under the fatness．It wasn't so much her new body that was the surprise, but rather her new spirit．

　　To celebrate her new size and to devote herself to dancing again, my mother joined a “Mrs．Forty-Plus” competition, where she would have to model, give a speech and provide a dance performance．She told our family that she did not care if she won－she simply had always wanted to perform on stage．

　　She told each one of us, “I'm not doing it to win; I'm doing it to dance!”

　　The competition was exciting! I prayed(祈祷)that my mom would win, but while watching her on stage I was simply overjoyed just by her effort．To me, she had already won．She posed to perfection, her speech brought tears to everyone's eyes, and her performance was wonderful．

　　That night, at age fifty-three, my mother was crowned(为……加冕)“Mrs．Forty-Plus”．She was the first person in our family to ever win such a title．

阅读理解

　　In the last few years the Internet has become a widespread phenomenon(现象)around the world．People have started to use the computers just like they used to watch TV．Whenever we get hungry, we simply order a pizza through the Internet and while we are waiting for the food, we can send an important business e－mail concerning some sales for tomorrow．It is, in fact, very comfortable to just simply sit down and have a chat with somebody from South Africa about fishing and get some important advice．Sometimes when you are sad and are feeling lonely, if you go on the Internet, you can find good entertainment that will keep you busy．

　　To make a long story short, we just don't have the time to communicate with people in person anymore．Besides, there is so much information easy to get on the Internet that when we start surfing, we find it hard for us to get away from the computer．There are a lot of people who are addicted(沉溺于)to TV and watch it 5 to 7 hours a day, while recently addiction to the Internet has become a very serious problem．You might think that these kinds of things could never happen to you, but it is not really true．To prevent yourself from getting addicted, the most important thing is to make sure that you are not spending too much time in front of the screen．Although it might seem to be easy to pull yourself away from the Web, it is simply not the case．You might have to make an effort to place some limits(限制)on yourself．