18.ideals [br] everyone has his ideals. a businessman wishes to make greater profit; a farmer expects bumper harvests; a student tries to learn more and better. and everyone strives, with more or less effort, to realize his ideal. [br] one should be sensible about whether his ideal is well founded or not. if it is, one has to plan and work hard for its realization. effort, skill and persistence are all necessary. and very often, one has to get help from others, including advice and support in one form or another. [br] my ideal is to become a doctor, it is said that the field of medicine is a well-paid profession, but i take it as a lofty profession entrusted with saving people’s lives. to realize my ideal i have concentrated on laboratory work to develop the analytical skills necessary to become a qualified doctor. i am sure i will realize my ideal if i persevere in this pursuit. [br] 19.popular sports in china [br] sports are flourishing in china now. more and more people are willing to take part in sports of different kinds, such as table-tennis, football, volleyball, and so on. every year there are many matches played on the city, provincial or national level. sports are no longer limited to a few professional players. [br] early in the morning people may be seen doing exercise. martial arts (like chinese boxing or swordplay) which formerly were cultivated for self-defense, now have become a form of physical exercise and are practiced in parks, streets, gardens, or on campuses. in addition young and old people are also often seen running in order to build up their bodies. [br] china promotes sports to enhance the physical condition of its people; she is formulating policies to provide encouragement of this activity. she awards prizes to the excellent players for the best records both in china and the world. in the world the chinese have become a strong people instead of “the weaklings of east asia”. [br] 20.is failure a bad thing? [br] failure is what often happens. it is everywhere in our life. students may fail in exams, scientists may fail in their research work, and athletes may fail in competitions. [br] although failure happens to everyone, attitudes towards failure are various. some people don’t think their failure is a very important thing at all. so they pay no attention to it. as a result, they will have the same failure a period later. some people think themselves are fools and lose their hearts in everything after they get a failure. consequently, they spend their time and energy on useless things and they may really be fools as they have thought. [br] other people are quite different from the two kinds of people mentioned above. instead of being distressed and lost, they draw a lesson from every failure and become more experienced. after hard work, they will be successful in the end. it is said that failure is the mother of success. success will be gained after times of failures so long as we are good at drawing lesson from our failures. [br] in my opinion, failure is not a bad thing, the really bad thing is taking a failure as failure or even lose our heart after failure. [br] 21.modernization of family life [br] with the rapid development of the society, family life is becoming modernized. years ago, people considered owing radios, sewing machines, watches and bicycles as being modernized. but in recent years, almost all families have tv sets, refrigerators and washing machines. it is very common to see people ride motorcycles or even drive private cars and more and more families have telephones, computers and air-conditioners. [br] the modernization of family life brings us convenience and comfort. one may enjoy tv or radio programs, communicate with his friends through telephone or work with his computer while his washing machine, refrigerator and air-conditioners are running. and by car or motorcycle one can quickly reach wherever he wants to go. [br] in spite of this, these modern facilities also bring us disadvantages. for example, radiation from tv sets and computers is harmful to our health; improper driving of cars and motorcycles becomes the major cause of traffic accidents. the quietness of a family is often disturbed by a falsedialing or unwelcome phone call. but it is believed that these disadvantages will be disposed of with the improvement of modernization and our life will be more healthy and more comfortable. [br]