Two hundred years after Charles Darwin's birth, studies have found new details of his life at the University of Cambridge. Six leather-bound ledgers (皮革账本) discovered in the university show this.

    He lived in the most expensive rooms provided for a rich student at his time.He had someone to clean his room, make his bed and take care of the fire in his bright rooms. He hired a dishwasher, a clothes washer and a man who cleaned his shoes. A tailor (裁缝), hatter and barber made sure he was well presented. A chimney cleaner and a coalman kept his fire going. Christ's College's basic food was meat and beer.

    Darwin's bill topped 636 pounds during his three years of study at Cambridge. Later he described this time as the most joyful of his happy life. That large sum (金额) would have been fairly common for a student at Cambridge in the 19th century.

    In those days Cambridge was full of rich students living a pretty good life and Darwin was just one of them.And thus he had plenty of time for socializing or private study. He would be out shooting, collecting beetles, doing his scientific hobbies or visiting friends. He played cards and drank wine at night, just like students always have.

A. Thanks to the richness, he was able to hire servants to help with the daily life.

B. The findings were published on the Internet.

C. So he paid five and a half pence extra each day to have vegetables.

D. He enjoyed the kind of comfortable university life that most of today's students can only dream about.

E. He had several people to help him to deal with the daily housework.

F. When you look at the ledgers, you can find there were many rich students in Cambridge.

G. The bills were paid by his wealthy father, Robert Darwin, a doctor.

Life is full of heartaches, joys and many lessons to learn. However, it is up to us to decide how we begin and end it. I 1 believe that every day when we 2 up in the morning, we should be 3 of the fact that time is slipping away fast and violently like sand in an hourglass(沙漏).

We can choose to free our minds of whatever lies ahead and prevent life from limiting our vision of the future or 4 us from achieving what we are tending to become. Although, the journey of life will not always be 5 because at times we will meet many challenges, we should never despair but 6every moment. Every choice or decision we make should be pursued7.

Despite the fact that at some point life present to us countless possibilities, it is those challenging times that always8us towards realizing our purpose in life and greatness.

Sometimes life’s 9can make us feel that the current situation we face conflicts with how we’d like to keep in life. However, it is only if we allow life’s challenges to 10 our direction and decision that we may never  11realize our potential. We should not allow life’s challenges to limit our reach for a better future. If we take control of today to our12by leaving no stone unturned, tomorrow is already reshaped for the better.

Life is always filled with uncertainties. It is on this basis that we should not13time on small things and with people who take us for  granted. We ought to learn from experiences and use them to reset our14and goal in life. This way, we will be better off, more successful. We should never waste any time or15and this can only be actualized once we realize that life is full of possibilities.

Guilin is my favorite city in China because of its beauty, its waterways, its cafes, and most of all because I met my wife there. It is her hometown and we will both retire there in a few years.

Not only is Guilin a fascinating city, there are many interesting places to visit within a short drive from there. The Ling (sometimes called Lingqu) canal is the oldest canal in the world. It was built about 2,200 years ago and connects two major river systems, the Yangtze (to the east) and the Pearl River.

Longsheng Rice Terraces (龙胜梯田) is another manmade wonder that was built around 650 years ago. I have some photos of both of these places in my China Daily homepage Albums. Gudong Waterfall Park(古东瀑布) is another attraction that is worth visiting. The hike to the top of all these waterfalls isn’t very difficult and if you want, you can take a ride to the bottom on a personal rail car whose speed you can control with a brake.

If you want you can also climb up some of the waterfalls with the help of chains that are placed for the convenience of amateur climbers.

I have only been in Guilin during the winter and spring but my wife tells me it gets pretty hot in the summertime. That’s OK because I grew up in the Midwest of the US where it gets very hot and humid during the summer months. It rarely freezes in the winter and the spring and autumn are pleasant. Guilin receives a lot of rain, especially in late spring and early summer. Because of this there is lush(多汁的) plant life and many large trees in the area.

Being from California I’m used to having a car to get around. In fact, it’s practically a necessity in California. But in Guilin almost everything is within walking distance and if you need to go further, public buses are available every five minutes on the busy streets and every 10-15 minutes just about everywhere else. There are plenty of taxis too and most trips are only six yuan.

It’s a perfect place to retire.

The cases in Jingdezhen’s exhibition hall are full of delicate porcelain(精瓷) pieces, all apparently from ancient royal collections. Appearances are misleading, however, because every piece is of modern manufacture.

For their creator Huang Yunpeng, who has spent almost his entire life making porcelain in the city in Jiangxi province, the local industry’s reputation is closely connected with his personal life.

Huang is regarded by many as the industry leader in the town known as “China’s porcelain capital”, because of his use of traditional manufacturing methods. He’s a quiet man, but when the media crowded into the city, labeling it a “hub(中心) for fakes”, the 72-year-old suddenly found his voice. “It’s very unfair to our industry,” he said, pointing to several exquisite(精致的) pieces of original porcelain in his studio. “How could visitors enjoy these beautiful exhibits without our efforts?”

The pieces, owned by some of China’s top museums, were sent to Huang to be reproduced in detail.

“Making replicas(复制品) is an important way of protecting the treasures collected by the museums,” Huang said, “But their meaning goes far beyond that.”

Demand for fine old-style porcelain is sky-high, but few can afford the extra high prices, so replicas are made to fill the gap. For example, in 2010, a vase made during the rule of the Emperor Qianlong (1735-96)was sold for HK$250 million ($32.3 million) at an auction(拍卖) in Hong Kong, setting a new record, but Huang’s replica cost just 30,000 yuan ($4,830).

He said it’s hard to distinguish between the originals and his replicas by sight, but insisted that he doesn’t try to make his pieces feel like antiques. “That’s the difference between replicas and outright fakes,” he said.

Huang stressed that his logo is always visible on the base of the replicas, so purchasers will not be misled, but admitted he was concerned that some of the city’s smaller studios don’t follow that practice.

“They may make fast money but they will harm the industry’s long-term reputation. The law needs to crack down on these people,” he said.

①As a student, you should focus your school work rather than some other things.

②Working in so much noise can cause damage your hearing.

③His laziness and carelessness led his failure in the examination.

④I am still a little confused what happened.

⑤I don’t want to make comments  other people’s privacy.