选择知识点

You may think that sailing is a difficult sport, but it is really not hard to learn it. You do not need to be strong. But you need to be quick. And you need to understand a few basic rules about the wind.

First, you must ask yourself, “Where is the wind coming from? Is it coming from ahead or behind or from the side?” You must think about this all the time on the boat. The wind direction tells you what to do with the sail.

Let’s start with the wind blowing from the behind. This means the wind and the boat are going in the same direction. Then you must always keep the sail outside the boat. It should be at a 90° angle (角度) to the boat. Then it will catch the wind best.

If the wind is blowing from the side, it is blowing across the boat. In this case, you must keep the sail half way outside the boat. It should be at a 45° angle to the boat. It needs to be out far enough to catch the wind, but it shouldn’t flap (摆动). It shouldn’t look like on a flagpole. If it is flapping, it is probably out too far, and the boat will slow down.

Sailing into the wind is not possible. If you try, the sail will flap and the boat will stop. You may want to go in that direction. It is possible, but you can’t go in a straight line. You must go first in one direction and then in another. This is called tacking. When you are tacking, you must always keep the sail inside the boat.

Nothing could stop Dad. After he was put on disability for a bad back, he bought a small farm in the country, just enough to grow food for the family. He planted vegetables, fruit trees and even kept bees for honey.

And every week he cleaned Old Man McColgin's chicken house in exchange for manure(肥料). The smell really burned the inside of your nose. When we complained about the terrible smell, Dad said the stronger the manure, the healthier the crops, and he was right. For example, just one of his cantaloupes filled the entire house with its sweet smell, and the taste was even sweeter.

As the vegetables started coming in, Dad threw himself into cooking. One day, armed with a basket of vegetables, he announced he was going to make stew(炖菜). Dad pulled out a pressure cooker and filled it up with cabbages, eggplants, potatoes, corns, onions and carrots. For about half an hour, the pressure built and the vegetables cooked. Finally, Dad turned off the stove, the pot began to cool and the pressure relief valve sprayed out a cloud of steam. If we thought Dad's pile of chicken manure was bad, this was 10 times worse. When Dad took off the lid, the smell nearly knocked us out.

Dad carried the pot out and we opened doors and windows to air out the house. Just how bad was it? The neighbors came out of their houses to see if we had a gas leak!

Determined, Dad filled our plates with steaming stew and passed them around. It didn’t look that bad, and after the first wave had shut down my ability to smell, it didn’t offend the nose so much, either. I took a taste. It would never win a prize in a cooking competition, but it was surprisingly edible(食物), and we drank up every last drop of soup.

C

     Children usually love dogs. And even those who are afraid of them at first grow to love these lovely animals once they get to know them. So let’s find out which small dogs is the most suitable as a pet for your child, in case your little one is asking for a dog of his/her own.

      When you choose a dog for children, a number of factors need to be kept in mind. People usually choose a dog based on its looks. However, looks can be cheating, as a lovely looking dog might be aggressive, and a strong looking dog might be gentle. Therefore, it is very important to choose a dog based on its character, rather than its looks. Some dogs are known to be very amicable and gentle, while other dogs are unfriendly and rude. However, one should not choose a dog based only on its breed either, as there are always exceptions. The character of a dog depends on the individual dog, as much as it does on the breed it belongs to.

        Another factor that needs to be kept in mind, while you choose small dogs for your child, is the character of the child who is going to be with the dog. If the child is active, the dog should be energetic, strong, and patient, so that it can take all the actions the child gives it. On the other hand, if the child has a quiet nature, a dog that is gentle, calm and sensitive will be more suitable.

       It is also good to have a dog that is easy to train, so that it can be taught to behave properly with children. This will ensure that the child is safe with the dog. However, it is not a good idea to leave a young child alone with a dog.

D

         Last week I visited my friend Pete in the new home where he lives with his wife and daughter. Pete used to spend his holidays travelling the world, visiting the pyramids in Egypt or scuba diving(潜水) in the Caribbean. Nowadays he prefers to spend his holidays and weekends making his house look more beautiful. Like hundreds of thousands of other British people, he has discovered the joy of DIY (Do It Yourself), which means if there are any things that need fixing around the house, he will try to do the job himself.

     As he showed me the new kitchen he put together by himself and the newly painted walls, I asked Pete where he got his inspiration (灵感) from. He told me that his favorite source of ideas was a DIY program on TV.

      This got me thinking about the great popularity of DIY programs in the UK. Each major channel has at least one home or garden improving show and there’s even a satellite channel completely about the subject.

      I guess it is not really surprising that DIY programs are so popular. Two common sayings in Britain－‘an Englishman’s home is his castle’ and ‘there’s no place like home’－show how important our houses are to us. With the present economic downturn, many people can’t afford to buy a bigger house so they are looking at how they can make their house better without spending a lot of money. DIY is the perfect choice.

      But be careful! I read a report that said over 230,000 people were injured while doing home improvements in the UK in just one year, including 41,000 who fell off ladders(梯子) and 5,800 who were seriously hurt by hammers. So I won’t be going down to the hardware store.