As we can see from the picture, a weary-looking woman, with her little sleeping son clung to her back, is cleaning and polishing shoes for a well-dressed lady. The dressy lady is also with his son, a boy, high-flying, fashionably-dressed, apparently from a well-to-do family. The picture is heart-rending-- a dramatic view of the widening gap between rich and poor in our nation.

　　Although a lot of efforts have been put into bridging the gap, the situation is far from optimistic. Take the uneven development of our nation for example. On one side of the picture, some people in the developed areas of country are enjoying almost everything that modern civilization can offer---- luxury cars, expensive houses and other devices for comfortable life. The other side of the picture is that in some underdeveloped areas, a lot of people are still living in sheer poverty. They do not have the minimal means of living, even no money for the education of the young. Looking at all these, how can we stay aloof and easy?

　　Our nation is building up a harmonious society. If we don’t do something to harmonize the situation by achieving common welfare for all the people, how can we accomplish that noble goal? As a famous man put it, “If we can not help the many who are poor, then we can not save the few who are rich.” Effective measures need to be taken to help the poor so that we can work towards a harmonious nation where the rich is just and the poor secure.

　　---------Adopted from Lily Lan’s work

Knowledge Is Power Recently there has been a discussion regarding the issue of knowl- edge in the newspaper. As can be seen from the picture， knowledge is symbolized by a clenched fist as power. The fist sends out a message for “obedience”， threatening to crack with power any hard nut. The more demanding and challenging a task is， the more powerful the fist seems to grow. Similarly， knowledge， the strongest power for human beings， feeds up the field of science and technology. The more ad- vanced and developed a field is， the more profound knowledge seems to become. A specific example is the dunaping of Mir， Russia‘s space station. As is the case of the Russian space program， the country could no longer afford to keep Mir aloft in orbit because of lack Of financial support. Therefore， Rus- sia decided to dump the space station. The effect is both immediate and far -reaching. As far as the present is concerned， the successful launching and dumping of IVrLr has proved to the world that mankind， armed with pro- fca. md knowledge， cannot just build things but can operate them welt. For the distant impact， the once- in- a- lifetime success of/VFtr provides man with valuable and indispensable experience for manned space flight in the years to crane. Then， someday in the furore， them might appear in space more Mirs， visiting Mars， spreading friendship， parading the perfect maste- ry of knowledge. As to the best way to master knowledge， I suggest that everyone of us “ask not what others will learn from you， but what you can learn from the others.” By so doing， I sincerely believe each person， pro- tected by’ the “fist”， will be learned and knowledgeable.