Open Letter to an Editor
I had an interesting conversation with a reporter recently --- one who works for you. In fact, he’s one of your best reporters. He wants to leave.
Your reporter gave me a copy of his resume(简历) and photocopies of six stories that he wrote for you. The headlines showed you played them proudly. With great enthusiasm, he talked about how he finds issues(问题), approaches them, and writes about them, which tells me he is one of your best. I’m sure you would hate to lose him. Surprisingly, your reporter is not unhappy. In fact, he told me he really likes his job. He has a great assignment (分工), and said you run a great paper. It would be easy for you to keep him, he said. He knows that the paper values him. He appreciates the responsibility you’ve given him, takes ownership of his profession, and enjoys his freedom.
So why is he looking for a way out?
He talked to me because he wants his editors to demand so much more of him. He wants to be pushed, challenged, coached to new heights.
The reporter believes that good stories spring from good questions, but his editors usually ask how long the story will be, when it will be in, where it can play, and what the budget is.
He longs for conversations with an editor who will help him turn his good ideas into great ones. He wants someone to get excited about what he’s doing and to help him turn his story idea upside down and inside out, exploring the best ways to report it. He wants to be more valuable for your paper. That’s what you want for him, too, isn’t it?
So your reporter has set me thinking.
Our best hope in keeping our best reporters, copy editors, photographers, artists --- everyone --- is to work harder to make sure they get the help they are demanding to reach their potential. If we can’t do it, they’ll find someone who can.
【小题1】What does the writer think of the reporter?

Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

Barack Obama has been a hit in China. Apart from holding talks with Chinese leaders, the president ___41___ the Chinese with a lively question-and-answer session with college students. In fact, he is the first U.S. president to visit China inside his first year in office.

“The United States insists we do not seek to contain China’s rise,” he told Chinese students in Shanghai. “On the contrary, we welcome China as a strong and ___42___ and successful member of the community of nations.”

The U.S.-China relationship has opened the door to partnerships on ___43 ___ global concerns including economic recovery, clean energy, climate change, and the ___44___ of peace and beyond, he added.

Indeed, given these pressing issues, China and the United States have ___45___ found their future linked together. They discovered that the largest developing nation and the most powerful industrialized country have to work in concert.

Obama’s visit to China on November 15-18 highlighted the complexity of arguably the most important bilateral (双边) relationship in the world. Moreover, for all their differences and disagreements, Beijing and Washington are ___46___ to manage their relations in a way that will contribute to world peace and development.

Obama kicked off his first state visit to China in the country’s financial and economic centre, Shanghai, where he held a “town hall” meeting with more than 500 Chinese students. The one-hour discussion, during which Obama took ___47___ ranging from antiterrorism to recipes for success with his signature charisma (领袖魅力), was broadcast live on the websites.

He ___48___ that young people could help build bridges in U.S.-China ___49___ — a process that he said must grow beyond the two countries’ governments to take root in the people.

The other day, I happened to meet someone I hadn’t seen for many years. I couldn’t believe the change in him. In fact, he didn’t even seem like the    36   person.
When I first knew Bill , back in   37 , he was one of the most carefree（无忧无虑）people I had ever    38  . He was always ready to have a party. He thought    39  of going out for beer at three o’clock in the morning or driving 15 miles to see an old   40    he really liked. Bill and I were in the same class in college, and    41   was never dull when he was    42  . With him there was one wild    43   after another. Sometimes I wonder how we    44   to study for our exams.
Last week I was in Houston on business and I ran into Bill in the bar at the hotel.   45  , I wasn’t even sure it was    46  . Was this short-haired businessman really the same person? I wasn’t really sure until I came near him but it indeed was Bill. Now he works for a bank. He   47    most of the evening about his job, his new car and his house. How he had changed! Back when we were in college, the    48   thing Bill cared about were possessions(财富). Now they seemed to be his main    49  . Although I have changed quite a bit myself, somehow I never    50   Bill changing so much. My image of him   51    the one I had formed     52  the time when we were college students together.
I suppose it’s   53    to expect people to remain the same, especially    54   I have changed so much myself. But I must say that I enjoyed the old Bill much more than the new Bill. Maybe he    55   the same way about me.

It doesn’t matter when and how much a person sleeps , but everyone needs some rest to stay alive. That’s what all doctors thought , until they heard about Herpin. Herpin, it was said , never slept. Could this be true? The doctors decided to see this strange man themselves.
Herpin was 90 years old when the doctors came to his home in New Jersey. They thought for sure that he got some sleep of some kind. So they stayed with him and watched every movement he made. But they were surprised. Though they watched him hour after hour and day after day, they never saw him sleeping. In fact, he did not even own a bed. He never needed one.
The only rest that Herpin sometimes got was sitting in a comfortable chair and reading newspapers. The doctors were puzzled by this strange continuous sleeplessness. They asked him many questions, hoping to find an answer. They found only one answer that might explain his condition. Herpin remembered some talk about his mother having been injured several days before he was born. But that was all. Was this the real reason? No one could be sure. Herpin died at the age of 94.
【小题1】The main idea of this passage is that_____

27．—Oh, how depressed! I am bound to lose to him in tomorrow’s competition.

—Cheer up! In fact, he is___________than you!