Time to get serious about the drug problem

Substance abuse has become a serious problem in Taiwan, but the issue has received far less attention than it deserves from people at high levels.

The gravity of the drug problem is evidenced by the prevalence of substance abuse in Taiwan's entertainment circles. Last year, several of Taiwan's best-known entertainers were arrested on drug charges and sentenced to forced rehabilitation. News reports of those events have aroused concerns, but rumors of drug use among performers persist.

For instance, Yao Tsai-ying, a well-known model, was questioned by the police last month after she was found to have had cellphone communication with a drug trafficker. Yao denied taking drugs and asked the police to investigate further to prove her innocence.

Anti-drug legislation in Taiwan is rather severe. Those who abuse or possess even soft drugs such as marijuana, LSD and MDMA are breaking the law. Penalties include jail terms involving forced rehabilitation.

Nevertheless, even the convictions last year of well-known personalities do not seem to have taught other entertainers to stay away from drugs. Entertainers found to be involved with drugs are often the idols of teenagers and children. Their misbehavior may easily be copied by adolescents. It is therefore important that efforts be made to curtail drug use and abuse among performers.

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Summary:

Drug abuse has become a serious problem in Taiwan.The drug problem is evidenced in Taiwan's entertainment circles.

Anti-drug legislation in Taiwan is rather severe.Entertainers found to be involved with drugs are often the idols of teenagers and children. Their misbehavior may easily be copied by adolescents. Therefore, it is important that efforts be made to curtail drug use and abuse among performers.

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Vocabulary:

1.gravity - seriousness

2.prevalence - widespread, circulation

3.marijuana - a kind of narcotics

4.conviction - proof of guilt

5.curtail - reduce, shorten

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Useful Words:

1.entertainer - a player, an actor.

2.arouse - awaken, inspire.

3.trafficker - a seller who bargain something illegal.

4.prove - confirm, verify.

5.innocence - clear mind and honesty.

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After I read this article I have some thoughts:

I don't know why these days have more and more people like to drug abuse to erase the things they feel unhappy or evading the things bother them.

Drug abuse is a really bad things. It can harm people's health even make people die. Maybe drug abuse can evade the trouble for a short while. Maybe drug abuse can make people feel happy temporary. But I think it is not a real happy. After it, an affair is still exist. So I think if people had something tormented or unhappy people can complain to their friends or someone they trust. If people had some difficulties, people can find some people to help or try their best to overcome the difficulties. We can try many ways to solve the problems instead of drug abusing.

The Chance to Move Forward

I believe in chance.
Strings of unexpected encounters mark my life. I believe that chance has guided me — jolted me sometimes — onto paths I wouldn't have chosen but needed to follow, whether I knew it or not. Chance encounters have led me across continents and into unanticipated worlds.
At 21, I first visited Italy. As I struggled with a mouthful of college Italian to find the word for "towel" in a hostel one morning, an older woman laughed, straightened out my garbled attempts and invited me to her home. Chance gently pushed me and led me to a lifelong connection to her family, their small town of Castelfranco Veneto and, several years later, the opportunity to live there.
But chance is not always kind. When I was 25 years old, chance led an intruder to break into my home in the middle of a quiet spring night. The violence of that night and months of rehabilitation left me questioning how I could ever find meaning in such a vicious stroke of fortune. But in the years that followed, I drew even closer to my family and became a more empathetic friend. I relished the ability to walk, or even run, on my own. I did all the things I had always wanted to do: I pierced my nose, flew to Israel and hauled a rented grand piano up to my eighth-floor apartment. I lived a life in vivid moments. I followed the questions raised by the attack into graduate school, where today I continue to study and work for justice for victims of violence. I kept going, and meaning took hold in unexpected places.
As a student of religion, I read and write about people and texts that desperately seek cosmic order in a world of chaos. Coincidence threatens the divine order of creation and must be explained. For myself, I believe that chance creates order in the world. We can't choreograph life events, but we can clasp the hands of those who appear in our paths and see where they lead us. So many chance encounters have moved me forward, offering me direction and a sense of purpose — if I was willing to follow.
My belief in chance lets me see life as brimming with possibility: the person next to me in line at the airport who becomes a lifelong friend, the professor in the elevator who asks a provocative question or the soldier I meet at an outdoor café in Jerusalem who takes me on a romantic tour of the city, leaving me with an indelible memory.
And as much as I have resisted saying this for many years, even the unwelcome and cruel strikes of chance must somehow find their place in the order of our lives. Believing this — believing in chance — I can always pick up my body and move forward.

---by Maria Mayo Robbins

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Summary:
The writer believe in chance. Chance encounters have led she across continents and into unanticipated worlds.
Chance pushed her and led her to a lifelong connection to people, closer to her family and became a more empathetic friend. Althogth chance is not always kind, it can always pick up one's body and move forward.
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Vocabulary:
1.string - connect, thread.
2.continent - island and ocean.
3. unanticipated - unexpected.
4.garbled - someone be confound and confuse.
5.intruder - people who invade or interfere.
6.rehabilitation - reformation, renewal, and improvement.
7.indelible - unforgettable
8.brimming - full

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Useful words:
1.encounter - meet, confront.
2.guide - lead, direct.
3.struggled - attempt, to try something hard.
4.opportunity - chance.
5.empathetic - having a bleeding heart.
6.desperately - to do something very hard. hopelessness.
7.coincidence - harmony

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I have some thought after I raed the article
There are many chance in our life. In spite of the chance is not always kind, it always can make people move forward. To me, I think I grasp some of chance but also lose some chance to make me to grow to maturity.
Everyone should cherish the chance we have, and use it well. Therefore, we can make progress to ourself and have advances.

Eagles

Seen as symbols of strength, courage, determination and immortality since ancient times, Eagles are found throughout the world with the exceptions of Antarctica and Mew Zealand. Eagles are powerful birds renowned for their keen vision. All eagles have powerful sharp claws called talons as well as heavy hooked beaks or bills. This combination makes them feared predators as they swoop down from on high and attack small animal such as fish, rodents, birds, snakes, rabbits and even monkeys. The eagle uses its powerful talons and beak to tear apart prey that is too heavy to carry. Eagles also sometimes steal the catch of other predatory birds such as ospreys. Most of the 50 species of eagles are in the range of 2 to 3 feet long and have wingspans of approximately 6 feet.

Eagles lives in air or nests which they build high in trees or on rocky ledges inaccessible by other animals. The nest must be kept secure because young eagles are helpless for a long period after hatching and remain in the nest from 50 to 100 days depending on the species. Made of sticks and lined with leaves and grass, the same nest may be used by a pair of birds for a number of years. The female lays one to three brownish speckled eggs and these are incubated by both parents or just the female. Young eagles are covered in down and don’t develop adult coloration until they reach two years of age.

A particularly famous species of eagle is the Haliaeetus Leucocephalus or Bald Eagle which is the national emblem of the United States. The Bald Eagle is not fact bald and the moniker was applied because of the contrast between its while head and brown body. The Bald Eagle is extremely rare and for many years it was feared that this magnificent creature would become extinct, however, due to conservation efforts this tragedy has been averted. The Bald Eagle and eagles' natural enemies is human beings. Their natural habitats have all proved extremely dangerous to the survival of this majestic bird.

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Summary:

Eagles are powerful birds renowned for their keen vision. All eagles have powerful sharp claws called talons as well as heavy hooked beaks or bills. This combination makes them feared predators as they swoop down from on high and attack small animal. Most of the eagles are in the range of 2 to 3 feet long and have wingspans about 6 feet.

Eagles lives in air or nests which they build high in trees or on rocky ledges inaccessible by other animals. The nest must be kept secure because young eagles for a long period after 50 to 100 days.

A particularly famous species of eagle is Bald Eagle.Bald Eagle and eagles in general have few natural enemies; it is human beings. Their natural habitats have all proved extremely dangerous to the survival of this majestic bird.

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Vocabulary:

1.talon - sharp nail.

2.speckled - something has spot

3.rodents - an animal which has big teeth. Like mouse

4.predatory - to catch the other animal and eat them to make a living.

5.incubate - hatch

6.moniker - nickname

7.habitats - natural home

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Useful Words:

1.immortality - deathless

2.majestic - grand

3.averted - prevent, prohibit, avoid, turn away.

4.magnificent - marvelous, impressive and wonderful.

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I feel eagles are very beautiful so I choose this article. Two years ago, I went to Kenting I saw a eagle fly in the air. I am very happy, because the eagle is close to me.

One day, I was in the dormitory, when I went to sink I saw three eagles stand on the skin. That is the second time the eagles near me. I am really happy that time and I feel exciting, because I think see an eagle nearly is an unusual occurrence.

This article make me understand eagle's quality. I feel eagel is very solemn and gorgeous.

I hope one day I can see many eagles fly in the air. It would be such a picturesque scenery.

An Airplane

People seldom realize the real impact of technology on our society. Take the airplane for example. Peolple excited about the opporunity to take wing leave the Earth, even only for a few minutes, invented the airplane. Over time, improvements were made in airplanes, and the idea of transporting the mail over long distances become popular. Suddenly mails could be transported across long distances in a matter of days instead of a matter of weeks or months. The airplane revolutionized how mail was delivered, but this was only the beginning.

Just as the idea moving the mail by plane become popular, someone realized that if you could move the mail by airplane, why not move people by airplane. Soon the passenger plane become popular and people could travel long distences in a short time via plane. Of course, it took some time for airline travel to really catch on as it was restricted by size by passengerplanes, which initially could carry only a few passengers on each flight. But as biggerr and passenger planes were built, air travel grew rapidly. Once airline companies realixed the potential enthusiasm for air travel, larger and larger airplane were built to carry more and more passengers. Suddenly every could travel by airplane.

But the greatest benefit of all has been the ability to travel to any place in the world by plane. This has allowed our world to be accessible to everyone. It truly result in the "It is a small world" concept.

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Summary:

At first, airplane is an invention which can deliver the mail, mails could be transported across long distance in matter of day.

Airplane become popular people think it can not only deliver the mails but also can move people, Therefore, invent the plane which can carry people. But in the beginning, only a few people on each plane. Now travel is one of the amusements to peolpe in this time. So plane become lager and lager, moer and more people can move to lang distance via the airplane.

Airplane has allowed our world to be accessible to everyone. And turly result " It is a small world "concept.

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Useful Words:

1.transport - convey(send message to some place or to someone),

transit(someone or sonething from one place to another place).

2.revolutionize - reform, to change to improve

3.restrict - limit, confine, not free

4.initially - originally, start

5.accessible - reachable, attain easily

6.concept - thought, idea, opinion

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The reason why I choose this article is because I think it is really close to our life.

When I was five, is the first time I take an airplane to go abroad. When I was in the elementary, about the age of seven is the second time to take a plane. I went to America and Canada. I still remember that when I was in the airplane to America because it is long-distance, I ate four cups of instant noodles. I think that is the most delicious instant noodles I had ever eat. After these, I went to Japen, Singapore, and Korea by airplane. I like to take an airplane very much, because it means I will go abroad and have fun.

Airplane is really such a good invention. It can transport not only people but also goods and mail. People can communicate with they want to establish contact. It is very convenient. Airplane can make the world become small. I believe that airplane can further the interpersonal distance.