推荐：大学英语六级考试短文写作教材(9)

What are the causes of fire accidents? Most of the fires are brought about by carelessness and violation of fire safety regulations. Others are due to the poor quality of home electrical appliances. By the way, some people don't know how to use them properly. Besides, there are quite a few businesses which focus so much of their attention on profits that they tend to neglect and even ignore fire precautions.
In my opinion, in order to prevent fires we should first of all foster people's sense of fire prevention. The second thing we have to do is to increase the number of professional fire fighters, to whom regular training courses should be offered. Finally, we are to improve the existing fire engines and add more fire facilities to high-rise buildings. In this way, a reliable fire prevention system will be formed.

11． Practice Makes Perfect
A well-known proverb goes “Practice makes perfect”, which means that perfection lies in practice. Without practice, you can never expect to be really good at anything. On the contrary, the more you practice, the more likely you are to do things in a perfect way.
Taking a look around, we can find examples too numerous to list. The study of English is a case in point. If you wish to improve your pronunciation, you must practice pronouncing every English syllable again and again. Likewise, if you want to write an excellent composition, you have to sit down and write.
Another example is Deng Yaping, the world No. 1 woman Ping-pong player. This short girl, who does not seem to be cut out for sports, owes her success to painstaking and perseverant practice.
In short, practice is essential if we want to make achievements in our studies or work, or indeed in any other aspect of our life. Practice, to some degree, can make the difference between being merely good at something and becoming a champion.

12．Against a Robbery
Yesterday afternoon，Mrs. Luo left home for shopping. Halfway down the stairs, she found her way blocked by two men armed with knives. They threatened her, saying that they would stab her if she made any noise. Then, they forced her to take them to her flat and open the door. It seemed that Mrs. Luo was be in a big trouble and was bound to lose money or life.
In the flat opposite, a woman heard the noise outside. When she looked out through the window, she discovered that her neighbor was threatened by someone. She immediately called the police. In answer to the call, a patrol police car arrived at the scene of the crime quickly. Three policemen went inside the flat, others guarded outside the building to prevent anyone from escaping.
The two criminals were arrested and taken to the police station with their wrists handcuffed. There they would be questioned and probably charged with robbery.

13. The Robot is a Machine after All
As is vividly shown in the pictures, a man and a robot were playing cards. Obviously, the man was losing, for he was with a sad face. The robot, on the other hand, was smiling. Then the man went to open the body of the robot and changed something inside it. A moment later, they were back again to the game. Now it was the robot’s turn to frown: nearly all the coins were won over by the man.