Help 113年國中教育會考

It was around eight o’clock on Saturday night. Philip was at home with his little brother, Jason. Jason was hungry and kept crying. But Philip couldn’t cook and their father was not home yet because he was working late in the office. So Philip decided to take Jason out for some food.

Half an hour later, when they came back home, Philip was surprised to find that their father was talking to the police and a woman outside their house. He didn’t know who the woman was. She looked scared and stood behind the police. Philip’s father was very angry and kept shouting, “I didn’t do anything wrong! I forgot my keys and was just trying to get into MY OWN HOUSE!” But the police didn’t believe him until Philip ran to them and explained everything.

The police told Philip that the woman called 110 when she saw Philip’s father trying to get into a house through a window. That was how it all happened.

TAINAN CORNERS

Usually, people visit bookstores to buy books. But those who walk into Cotoha come to see its owner, Chen Bing-Hong. They bring him books with different problems. Some have lost their covers, some are missing a few pages, and some have pages that are falling out. Chen can always fix the books and make them whole again.

Chen sees himself as a doctor. He says that books, like people, get sick and need help. In Taiwan, there are not many "doctors" like him, and most of them work for big libraries and museums. If big libraries and museums are hospitals, Chen's bookstore is a health center. Big libraries and museums fix important old books with serious problems, and Chen helps people with books that have smaller problems. However, the smaller size of the problems doesn't mean Chen's job is less important.

Chen gave an example of a science book he once worked on. It was very old and half of its cover was lost. Its owner still wanted to keep it because it was a gift from a teacher who helped him follow his dream of studying science. When he got his book back, he was very surprised at the new-old book. He felt he was brought back to the days with his teacher. Seeing the owner's smile made Chen happy, because smiles like that are what his magic is for.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic started, people have begun “social distancing”— keeping a safe space between you and anyone you don’t live with. Though it has been a very popular topic this year, social distancing 40. In fact, it was widely used in the U.S. in the flu pandemic in 1918. But how well did it work? The Americans’ experience can tell us whether it really saved lives.

From the picture, we can see that 41 started social distancing earlier than the other three cities. This helped the city keep the number of deaths down. Besides taking early action, keeping the action long enough was also important in fighting the pandemic. The picture shows that Portland and Denver did well in the first few weeks. However, both cities 42, and the numbers of deaths climbed again.

But there was one thing Portland did right. The city used several ways of social distancing at the same time to deal with the pandemic. 43, sick people were kept away from healthy ones; schools were closed; public activities were not allowed. All these were useful in keeping people safe.

The lessons of the 1918 pandemic bring us hope. While we are still learning to fight Covid-19, social distancing may be the best way to get us through the dark days, at least for now.