The main elements required for survival are food, fire, shelter and water. Their order of importance will depend upon where you happen to be. In the desert, water will head the list: in polar regions shelter(condition of being protected) and fire will be the main concerns. Ordering your priorities (thing that is more important than the others ) is the first step to survive.

　　It takes a healthy person quite a long time to die of starvation, for the body can use up its stored resources, but exposure to wind, rain and cold can e fatal even in mild climates and death comes in only minutes in the icy waters of the poles,. Food is rarely the first priority. Even in those places where it is difficult to find, there are usually other problems to face first. Shelter will often be the first necessity in extremes of climate such as temperatures such as in the frozen polar regions or in the baking deserts. The need for fire is closely linked.

　　Water is something that most people in the modern world take for granted. They are so used to turning on a tap that until an extreme drought causes water shortage they seldom think about it. Yet the survivor at sea, or after a flood, though surrounded by water may need drinking water very badly. And there are many places where, unless it rains, no obvious water is available. Although there would be other survival necessities to deal with, water is always universally important.

      We are so used to our life on the surface of the earth that it can be quite an effort for our minds to break free of all the ideas that we take for granted. We talk about “up” and “down”, but we know that what is “down” for us is “up” for someone on the other side of the world.

　 Because we can feel that things are heavy, we think of “weight” as being a fixed quality in an object, but it is not really fixed at all. If you could take a quarter of a pound packet of butter 4,000 miles out from the earth, it would weigh only a quarter of a pound.

　 Why would things weigh only a quarter as much as they do at the surface of the earth if we took them 4,000 miles out into space? The reason is this: All objects have a natural attraction for all other objects; this is called gravitational attraction (重引力). But this power of attraction between two objects gets weaker as they get farther apart. When the butter was at the surface of the earth, it was 4,000 miles from the center (in other words the radius(半径)of the earth is 4,000 miles). When we took the butter 4,000 miles out, it was 8,000 miles from the center, which is twice the distance.

　 If you double the distance between two objects, their gravitational attraction decreases “two times two”. If you triple the distance, it gets nine times weaker (three times three). If you take it four times as far away, it gets sixteen times weaker (four times four) and so on.

      The violin is known as the queen of instrument. Of the more than one hundred musicians in a great orchestra, over thirty are violinists. The violin’s high rank is due to the beauty of its tone and its wide range of expression. The violin took many centuries to develop. Its history begins in India, where the use of a bow to play stringed instruments was probably invented. During the early Middle Ages in Europe various stringed instruments were played with a bow. One of these was the vielle (六弦提琴), which was probably introduced to Europe in the 10th century. Like the violin, the vielle was held against the player’s shoulder. Later the vielle was changed through the influence of rebec (三弦古琴). This was an Arabic instrument that spread from Spain to the rest of Europe. By combining the solid body of the vielle with the clever arrangement of the pegs（琴栓）in the rebec, a new group of instruments was born.

　　The violin received its basic form between 1550 and 1600. Since that time it has changed only in small ways. The most successful violins were made in the 17th and 18th centuries. Italy produced famous families of violin-makers. Probably the greatest of these was Antonio Stradivarius (1644---1737). Stradivarius is called the master of all masters, which gave it more tone power. Stradivarius is said to have built 1,116 instruments. Of these, 540 “Strad” violins are known to us.

       Since its beginning 150 years ago, when Britain’s Foreign Secretary dismissed Hong Kong, Lord Palmerton, as a “ barren（贫瘠的） rock”, the territory (领土)has been a powerful lure（引诱，诱惑）to business in search of profit（利润） and opportunity. Today, on this “barren rock” stand some of the world’s most spectacular skyscraper(最壮观的摩天大楼), creating a prospect of “ Manhattan with mountains.” It has been said that Hong Kong is one of the few places where you can have a business idea at breakfast, register（注册）your company by lunch and make a profit by dinner.

　　Investment has been the name of the game. Large numbers of companies from the mainland and overseas have set up either regional headquarters of subsidiaries（附属公司） in Hong Kong. As a major international trading, financial and manufacturing center, Hong Kong is a lucrative(有利的，赚钱的) market for products, technology and investment. The free trade and open market policies, low tax regime(制度) and　free flow of capital without exchange controls, appeal to the business ideal of level playing field.

　　Hong Kong’s free market economy has produced a modern economic miracle. It is now the world’s tenth largest trading economy, with trade generally in balance. All this has been achieved on a tiny island perched(位于) on the tip of Southern China. But there are two essential factors in its success: it has one of the world’s finest deep-water harbors, and an entrepreneurial(具有创业才能的) and industrial population of over six million.

　　Being the gateway to the mainland, Hong Kong has reestablished itself as great Centerport(转口贸易中心). The rapid expansion in trade was spurred(驱驰) on by China’s adoption of an open-door policy in 1979. Hong Kong manufactures of more Labor-intensive consumer products began moving across the border into Southern China, and a fundamental restructuring of Hong Kong’s economy began to take place, transforming it into a service-based and sourcing center for the Asia-Pacific region.

　　Hong Kong is a major player in an increasingly globalized economy. Given its strategic location, internationally oriented(导向的) business culture and excellent communications, it is perfectly placed at the crossroads of world trade. Commercial links reach out to corporations in over 170 countries and regions.　　

　When did you last see a polar bear? On a trip to zoo, perhaps? If you had attended a winter activity in New York a few years ago, you would have seen a whole polar bear club. These “Polar Bears” are people who meet frequently in the winter to swim in freezing cold water. That day, the air temperature was 3℃, and the water temperature was a bit higher. The members of the Polar Bear Club at Coney Island, New York are usually about the age of 60. Members must satisfy two requirements. First, they must get along well with everyone else in the group; this is very important because there are so many different kinds of people in the club. Polar Bears must also agree to swim outdoors at least twice a month from November through February.

　　Doctors do not agree about the medical effects of cold-water swimming. Some are worried about the dangers of a condition in which the body’s temperature drops so low that finally the heart stops. Other doctors, however, point out that there is more danger of a heart attack during summer swimming because the difference between the air temperature and water temperature is much greater in summer than in winter.

　　The Polar Bears themselves are satisfied with the benefits (or advantages )of cold-water swimming. They say that their favorite form of exercise is very good for the circulatory(循环)system because it forces the blood to move fast to keep the body warm. Cold-water swimmers usually turn bright red after a few minutes in the water. A　person who turns blue probably has a very poor circulatory system and should not try cold-water swimming.

　　The main benefits of cold-water swimming are probably mental. The Polar Bears love to swim year-round; they find it fun and relaxing. As one 70-year-old woman says, “When I go into the water, I put my troubles into the ocean and let them float away.”