1.咨询信--要求更改课程

Dear professor Moss¹:

I am Sandy Lee, an undergraduate student of the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. At the beginning of this semester, I registered one of your courses, African Literature and Culture. It is a two-hour course held on every Thursday afternoon. Yesterday, I received a notice from my department that a major course, Computer Principle, would be changed to Thursday afternoon. This major course conspicuously² influences my credits and it is every important to me. Unfortunately, I can not study your course this semester.

Because of your reputation and my enthusiasm in literature, I hope I could study this course in next semester. I also heard that another course of yours, China Literature, is held every Friday afternoon. If the registration³ of this course hasn’t closed yet, I will be so glad to participate in your class.

Sorry to bother you, your help will be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely yours,

Sandy Lee

2.作为一名员工，为本饭店的发展提建议

Dear General Manager,

As a staff of Sales Department, I’m very glad to see the rapid development of our hotel. With the coming of New Year, I am writing to you to pre I think more on the further improvement of our hotel—to establish a website of our own to attract more clients.

Firstly, with the development of Internet, more and more people are willing to go to the outside world through the information on Internet. Thus if we could establish our own website and introduce ourselves on it, more friends, especially foreign friends, could know our latest promotion⁴ at home whenever they want. Secondly⁵, according to the statistics of World Hotel Association, 33% of clients made hotel reservation through the Internet last year. And the proportion will largely increase in year 2000. Thus if we could introduce reservation system on our homepage, clients could contact us and make reservation directly. Finally, hotel promotion on Internet could reduce our operation cost greatly.

As someone says that Internet shorten the distance of the world, I believe that the one who could make use of Internet effectively today will be the winner tomorrow. We will get a lot and have a brilliant future.

Yours sincerely,

Livia Lim

3.用纳税人的钱修路，改善交通状况

To construct and maintain roads is a public service administered by the government. However,swheresdoes the money come from? Somebody believe that the government should allocate⁶ money from national finance on the road construction; but others think that the roads are constructed for people, so every tax-payer has the responsibility for constructing and maintaining the roads. It is so called“What is taken from the people is used in the interests of the people.”

To the first opinion, since government is the administrative⁷ organ, it has responsibility to do overall plan on those public services of city construction, including constructing the road. They think that the government should do plan and allocate every penny on all things concerning people’s life.

However in reality, the government cannot do all specific plans and money allocations on every detail concerning the society running. It only has the right of macro-adjustment and control. To be specific on the road construction, many people believe that based on the principle above, since the road is constructed for the convenience of people themselves, every tax-payer has duty to devote a little on the road construction, which is not only for the city overall plan, but also for their own use fundamentally. Once the constructions finish, the roads will be wider and longer, the facilities along the roads will be better in use, by then people could further improve their working efficiency, etc..

As I know, the second opinion is more reasonable and feasible, because it has two advantages: 1. The government could reduce heavy burdens, simplify and make clear the usage of money; 2. Tax-payers are clear about the usage of money they turn over, thus improve the transparency. Therefore, it is a good measure for both sides to allocate money from the tax paid by people on the road construction.

4.遗失信----财物遗失在民航班机上,写信给机场海关请求帮助

Dear officer:

In 01/01/2000, I took flight CA983 from Beijing to Los Angeles. When the flight arrived at Los Angeles, because of my carelessness, I left my handbag, a black leathered bag, on my seat. There are some important things in it, including my passport, ID card, credit card, some checks and one thousand US Dollars. But the most important thing is my business address book, in which record all my clients’phone numbers and appointment agenda in the following two weeks.

Since this bag is very important to me, my friends told me that I should contact your department to seek help, so I write this letter to you anxiously. Hope you and your staff can help me find my lost bag. Your meticulous⁸ and warmhearted help will be greatly appreciated.