SONIA AND SAM
Sam, 54, is from Rosebud, a small town in New Jersey. Rosebud looks like many other towns in the United States. On Main Street, there is a post office and a bank. There is a bookshop between the post office and the bank. Opposite the bank, there is a shopping centre with a supermarket and a clothes shop. Sam’s office is next to the post office. Everybody in town knows Sam. He is a good doctor. He is short with dark hair and brown eyes. His wife’s name is Sonia. She is tall with blond hair and blue eyes. She is an engineer and she works for a large company in New York City. Every day, she takes the train to the city.
Sonia and Sam live in an old white house on Cleveland Road. They have two children, Ted and Jane. Ted lives in Brazil with his wife, Maria, and Jane lives in Alaska. Ted and Jane’s rooms are always ready for them, and sometimes they come to visit. At the weekend, Sonia and Sam work in the garden. Sonia grows flowers and Sam has a large vegetable garden. He likes cooking special meals for their friends using their own fresh vegetables.
LOS ANGELES – THE CITY OF ANGELS
Los Angeles (LA) is the second largest city, in America, It’s also home to fIlm stars, sunny weather, tall buildings and heavy traffic.
ACCOMMODATION
The hotels in LA are more expensive than those in many other American cities, but they are clean and safe. The Biltmore and The Omni are lovely, and close to special bus stops where you can get cheap rides to various sights.
PLACES TO VISIT
There are many interesting places you can visit, like Venice Beach with its street performers, Universal Studios to see how they make ftims, and’ GriffIth Park. You can also see the handprints and footprints of fIlm stars outside Grauman’s Chinese Theater. Children can visit the Children’s Museum – one of the most exciting museums in the world.
EATING OUT
There are famous restaurants you can eat at, like the Buffalo Club, a place packed with famous people, or Musso & Frank’s, Hollywood’s oldest restaurant. For the most delicious Mexican dishes, eat at the Border Grill.
SHOPPING
You can buy cheap fashionable clothes on Melrose Avenue. Do you want designer clothes? Then go to the expensive shops on Rodeo Drive. A visit there is always unforgettable.
ENTERTAINMENT
The nightlife is exciting on the Sunset Strip, an area in Hollywood with famous clubs like The Whiskey and The Roxy. There you can enjoy rock ‘n’ roll music. Also, 24-hour cafes like Van Go’s Ear are popular with visitors.
LA is a modern city with something for everyone. It’s noisy and crowded, but it’s also fascinating.
COMPUTERS AND GIRLS
The girls in the sixth-grade class in East Palo Alto, California, all have the same access to computers as boys. That is to say, boys and girls both have computers which they can use. However, studies show that by the time girls get to high school, they use computers less than boys, and this ca)lses a technology gap.
Janice Weinman of the American Association of University Women says, “Girls tend to be less comfortable than boys with the computer. They use it more to type letters, reports, etc. rather than to find ways of dealing with problems.”
The studies show that girls make up only a small percentage of students in computer science classes. Girls usually say that they have less computer ability than boys do. They are less confident when using computers. Besides, they use computers less often than boys outside the classroom.
The instructor of the computer lab in Cesar Chavez School says, “Boys are not so afraid they might do something that will harm the computer, whereas girls are afraid they might cause damage somehow.”
Six years ago, the software company Purple Moon also noticed that girls’ computer usage was falling behind boys’. Karen Gould of Purple Moon says, “The number-one reason girls don’t like computer games is not because they’re too violent or too competitive. Girls just find them incredibly boring.”
According to the study conducted by Purple Moon, girls want games with people similar to those around them and stories about what is going on in their own lives. Karen Gould says, “there is no real reason why girls wouldn’t want to play on a computer; it is just a content thing.”
The sponsor of the study says that the technology gap, which separates the girls from the boys, must be closed if women want to compete effectively with men in the job market in the 21 st century.