The Board Meeting had come to an end. Bob started to stand up and pushed the table, spilling his coffee over his notes. “How embarrassing!I am getting so clumsy in my old age.” 

Everyone had a good laugh, and soon we were all telling stories of our most embarrassing moments. It came around to Frank who sat quietly listening to the others. 

Frank began,“My Dad was a fisherman. He worked hard and would stay out until he caught enough to feed the family. Not just enough for our family, but also for his Mom and Dad and the other kids that were still at home.”

Frank's voice dropped a bit.“When the weather was bad he would drive me to school. He would pull right up in front, and it seemed like everybody would be standing around and watching. Then he would lean over and give me a big kiss on the cheek and tell me to be a good boy. It was so embarrassing for me. Here I was twelve years old, and my Dad would lean over and kiss me good-bye!” 

He paused and then went on,“I remember the day I thought I was too old for a good-bye kiss. When we got to the school, he had his usual big smile. He started to lean toward me, but I put my hand up and said, ‘No, Dad.’ It was the first time I had ever talked to him that way, and he had this surprised look on his face. I said, ‘Dad, I'm too old for a good-bye kiss. I'm too old for any kind of kiss.’ My Dad looked at me for the longest time, and his eyes started to tear. I had never seen him cry. He turned. ‘You're right,’ he said. ‘You are a big boy ... a man. I won't kiss you anymore.’” 

For the moment, the tears began to well up in Frank's eyes. “It wasn't long after that when my Dad went to sea and never came back.” 

I looked at Frank and saw that tears were running down his cheeks. Frank spoke again.“Guys, you don't know what I would give to have my Dad give me just one more kiss on the cheek.”        

People in most cultures believe in superstitions(迷信). From earliest times, the English, for instance, have believed in certain symbols and customs could bring good fortune as well as fight off evil spirits. 

Back in pagan（异教徒） times, trees  (consider) as sacred(神圣的)symbol of immortality(永生). Touching the tree was a sign of respect to the gods after a favor has been requested, or thanks to the gods for a (accomplish) request. After the English embraced(信奉) Christianity, the people kept their (believe) that wood is holy

 Christ died on a wooden cross. Even now, people who are superstitious will try to touch or knock on wood after talking bad things about other people or (make)any rash(轻率的) statement or so on, so that the action will get rid of any bad lucks during the day.

Wishing upon a wishbone is ancient custom. It involves two people who would break the wishbone and the one with a (big) piece makes a wish. The wishbone is actually the forked bone from a fowl's breast.   many cultures, fowls(家禽) are regarded as special creatures which can bring luck and good fortune. The wishbone shape

 is a good luck symbol of life and fertility.     

①  网购的现状；

②  网购的利弊；

③  你对网购的看法和建议。

注意：

①    词数100左右；

②    可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；

③    标题已为你写好。

Online Shopping

Singles' Day falls on every November 11th. No one is quite sure exactly who first thought it up, and the most widely-accepted story is that it emerged from the dorms of Nanjing University in 1993 when four single male students got together to discuss how to break free of the loneliness of single life. One suggested that because of the ones in the date, November 11 would be a good day to organize activities for singles. 

Singles' Day, started by a small group of friends, gradually grew into something like the anti-Valentine's Day, a day China's single young people could use as an excuse to get together and have fun together. 

Originally about being with friends and having fun, now Singles' Day is about shopping — mostly online shopping. How did this happen?It's a long story, but the short answer is Alibaba. 

By the late 2000s, most of China's Internet users were familiar with Singles' Day. There might have been some small shops online and offline offering sales on that day earlier, but no major company until Alibaba launched its first Singles' Day online sale in 2009. 

In that first year, Alibaba was the only major ecommerce company to offer a sale, and it featured just 27 brands offering discounts via its T-mall marketplace. The sale was definitely successful, but it wasn't enough to redefine the holiday on its own. 

In the following year, Alibaba went bigger, offering more brands and deeper discounts. But other companies had noticed the potential of the 2009 sales bonanza and decided to follow suit. E-commerce platforms like JD had their first major Singles' Day sales in 2010, and overnight Singles' Day went from a T-mall sale to something that was beginning to look like Cyber Monday in some western countries. 

Over the next few years, Alibaba, JD, and other Chinese e-commerce players all expanded their one-day discounts, and sales grew exponentially（以指数方式）. On Singles' Day in 2012, Alibaba's marketplaces, Taobao and T-mall, did about $3 billion in sales. In 2013 that number nearly doubled, and Chinese shoppers had obliterated America's Cyber Monday spending records in just the first few hours of the sale. And it's only getting bigger.     

—Sure, I feel quite honored, because you are __________ honor to our city.