Cassandra Warren, a babysitter, was in a rush and feeling a little overcome with work and planning her 200-person wedding. As she was extending invitations for her wedding in the mail one day last year, she hurriedly addressed one to her aunt and uncle in Oregon.
A week later, the invitation came back, with a handwritten note on the return envelope: "I wish I knew you. Congratulations! I've been married for 40 years—it gets better with age." A $ 20 bill was inside.
Cassandra was at a professional crossroads and had been having a tough day. In fact, she nearly broke down, telling her husband-to-be, Jesse Jones, about her depression just as she opened the misdirected envelope. And the magic envelope wasn't finished with its surprises. Cassandra looked closer and saw that on the envelope were "Live long and prosper", a nod to the space-based film Star Trek (《星际迷航》).
Cassandra and Jesse had no idea who the anonymous note writer was. But they figured the Star Trek reference was because the person noticed the "fandom" corner of their invitation, which had both a Star Wars light-saber (光剑) and a Harry Potter wand (魔杖). "She assumed we'd understand her message,” Cassandra said. "Which we did."
The following night Cassandra and Jesse went out to dinner with a friend who was going overseas with the military. They happily put the $ 20 toward their bill. Then Cassandra stopped by a store and bought another card—a thank-you card. She wrote her aunt and uncle's incorrect address on the envelope again to "Kind Stranger". Inside, she wrote, "Thank you for the note and taking the time to send it. Not many people would have done that. It was a big blessing after the day I was having. I am thankful for people like you still being in the world."
In many countries of the world, people can confidently tell you the meaning of their town or city, but most people who live in Manchester, Oxford or Birmingham would not be able to explain what the name of their city means. The name of every British town or city, however, has a long history.
Two thousand years ago, most people living in Britain were Celts. Even the word "Britain" is Celtic (凯尔特语). Then the Romans arrived and built camps which became cities called "castra". This is why there are so many place names in England which end in "-chester" or "-caster", Manchester, for example.
The Romans never reached Wales or Scotland, and many place names there are Celtic. For example, Welsh place names that begin with "Llan" come from the Celtic word for "church".
After the Romans left Britain, it was attacked by the Anglo-Saxons who were from the area of Europe that is now Germany and Holland. The names of their villages often end in "- ham" or "- ton". Some get their names from the leader of the village. Birmingham for example, means "Beormund's village"
The Anglo-Saxons were farmers and the landscape was very important to them, so we have villages called Upton (village on a hill)—a good place to build a village and Moreton ("village by a lake") where floods could make life hard. Place names that end in "- ford" (a place where you could cross a river) also describe the location of Anglo-
Saxon villages.
Finally, in 1066 England became Norman—the Normans gave us the place name "grange", which means farm.
And how about London? Experts cannot agree. The Romans called the city Londinium, but they were not the first inhabitants (居民). People once believed that the United Kingdom's capital city got its name from the castle of a King called Lud, but this is very unlikely. Our best guess today is that the name comes from a Celtic word meaning a fast-flowing river. Like a number of British place names, its history is lost in time.
How much sleep do we need? It's a fundamental question about a basic human function we've been practicing for long, but there's still no simple answer. But whether you're a morning or evening person could be guided by your genes. That said, your sleeping pattern will change naturally with age, which is also reflected in the National Sleep Foundation recommendations: it suggests 14-17 hours of shuteye a day for newborn babies and only 7-8 hours for over-65s.
But scientists said it was about more than simple duration. Teens and people in their early 20s do want to go to bed later and get up later too, something researchers suggest might be to do with changing hormones (荷尔蒙). "On average, there's about a two-hour difference in preferred sleep times of somebody in their late teens or early twenties to somebody in their late 50s or early 60s," he said. "So asking a teenager to get up at 7 o'clock in the morning is the equivalent of asking a 55-year-old to get up at five in the morning."
At the end of the day, the best way to measure how much sleep you each need is to listen to your own body. Do you rely on an alarm clock to wake up? Do you take a longtime to feel awake? Are you dependent on coffee drinks to keep you focused during the day? Are you overly impulsive (冲动的) or do you find yourself running a lot of traffic lights, for instance? All these could be signs that you're not getting enough sleep.
And that, we know today, is bad. The environment can affect your sleep preferences but your genes stay. Scientists said that the understanding of the importance of sleep was "one of the great achievements of modern neuroscience (神经科学)," and that society was moving away from the all-nighter culture to respect the need for sleep.
Negative thoughts we have about ourselves can destroy our spirits. Many of us have problems with negative thoughts. The negative thoughts lead to bad feelings and they make you believe that the bad things you are suffering are actually true. In short, they bring your focus on your failures, which will make you depressed. What can you do to avoid negative thoughts affecting you? .
◎Recognize that actions always follow beliefs.
Whatever you believe, you'll experience more of them. . So start believing the best about yourself and believe that you're a valuable person.
◎Picture the good things.
If you want to change the negative tapes playing in your head, you have to imagine yourself positively that means judging yourself right. . How would that look? Draw it in your mind and expand it.
◎.
You may talk to yourself with statements like "if only" or "what if". The former keeps reminding you of the past with regret, while the latter keeps you fearful of the future. There is nothing you can do about the past and the future isn't here yet.
◎Develop positive views.
Instead of always putting yourself down in your head, think of some things you actually like about yourself. Tell yourself "I am able. I'm good at it." instead of saying "I'm not good enough." .
Thinking poorly gets us nowhere and is extremely self-limiting. Decide, today, to turn off the negative channel in your mind and develop your true possibilities.
A. Forget the past
B. Live in the moment
C. Here are some suggestions
D. Make friends with optimistic people
E. Imagine a picture about yourself
F. Always keep positive, rather than say something negative.
G. You'll also find your actions are suitable for your beliefs
My nine-year-old cousin doesn't do well at school. As the youngest in the family, she is heavily laughed at thus 1 some resistance (抗拒) and distrust towards 2 ，who usually don't put high hopes in her.
Yesterday we went to an art 3 together. There were paintings from kids with disabilities. My little girl has a 4 eye, for the paintings she liked most were also the best of the show. She also helped to arrange the chairs and tables and 5 helped me get my bag from another room, something that doesn't happen often at home as she usually 6 her iPad.
Later we bought a book together written by a mom 7 her journey with her autistic (患自闭症的) son.
When I briefly introduced the book to my 8, to my surprise, she was truly interested. She 9 asking me to tell more 10 about this friend in the book who 11 with small things in life. This is the first time I've seen her so 12 by a topic. I'm very touched that the life of a stranger has 13 its way into this little girl's 14.
I'm very thankful for the 15 of books, for the beauty that my cousin 16 me, and for the time we had together. I expect that I can keep seeing clearly the 17 things in her, so that 18 the not-so-kind world puts her down. I can 19 her how truly wonderful she always is.
May we all do this for the 20 ones around us, and also for ourselves.
Many great people in the world devote themselves to (improve) society in their own ways. For example, Jane Goodall, a woman from Britain, would rather spend time studying chimps in the wild in Africa than (lead) a comfortable life. For 40, years she (be) outspoken about making the rest of the world understand and respect the life of chimps. Lin Qiaozhi, a specialist in women's diseases, is another woman who has made great (achieve).There was story after story of no matter tired after a day's work, she went late at night to deliver a baby for a poor family. It was because of her hard work and great consideration to her patients that hundreds of babies (deliver) safely by her. third example is Yuan Longping, the first agricultural pioneer in the world (grow) super hybrid rice. Using his hybrid rice, farmers can produce harvests twice as large as before. Therefore, now the UN has more tools in the battle to rid the world hunger. In short, so (impress) is their work that they all deserve praising and learning from.
One winter Sunday, my little sister, Colleen, and I built the greatest snowman ever. We gave him a carrot nose, beautiful hat, cozy scarf and gloves. He was a masterpiece (杰作).
The next morning when looking outside, we smiled lovingly at him over our meal. We gave him a high five as we passed by on our way to school. A lot of kids went past our house, so he was the hot topic at our school that morning. It was our pride!
The day dragged on until finally we could rush home. But as our yard came into sight, we saw something wrong. The snowman was gone! We only found a broken stick here, a torn glove there and balls of snow everywhere. Worst of all, the snowman's once-proud carrot nose lay limp (无力的) and half-eaten.
What had happened? We were both astonished and angry. But then, we were only kids, who wouldn't have anything take away our happiness. Actually we knew only one thing: Our snowman would rise again. And so we rebuilt him.
The next day we came home to find another mess on the front lawn (草坪). For the rest of the week, the destruction was repeated daily. Each afternoon we'd return to find our snowman had fallen apart, and then we built again.
By Saturday morning, we had a plan. We borrowed a really big bucket (水桶) from Mom, filled it with water and left it outside. The next morning, it was frozen solid. We packed snow all around the ice block as the base (底座) of the snowman. Then we built the other parts of it once again. The trap was set, and we waited for the snowman bullies (破坏者) to come.
注意：
1）所续写短文的词数应为150左右；
2）至少使用5个短文中标有下划线的关键词语；
3）续写部分分为两段，每段的开头语已为你写好；
4）续写完成后，请用下划线标出你所使用的关键词语。
Paragraph 1:
On Monday morning, hiding behind the window, we soon saw what we were waiting for.
Paragraph 2:
Seeing their pained look, we couldn't help laughing.
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号 (∧) ，并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线 (\) 划掉。
修改：在错的词下画一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：
1．每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；
2．只允许修改10处，多者 (从第11处起) 不计分。
Dear Jack,
I'm sorry to hear that you feel lonely in the new school, because you find hard to make friends. Now, I'd like to offer you any advice.
Firstly, it's normal for you to feel lonely because you were living in a new environment. Secondly, you should greet your classmates when met them on campus. Thirdly, it will be a good idea if you take an actively part in class activities, what can help them learn more about you. I believe you will be able to make new friends soon unless you're friendly to the others.
I hope the suggestion above will be helpful to you and everything will be fine with you for the future.
Yours,
Li Hua
