Louis Pasteur once said, "Chance favors the prepared mind." That's the truth behind the following inventions — the scientists were prepared and were able to see the magic in a mistake.
Mauve
In 1856, William Perkin was trying to come up with an artificial medicine, but his experiments produced a thick mess. But the more Perkin looked at it, the more he saw a beautiful color in his mess. Turns out he had made mauve, the first-ever synthetic dye (合成染料), which was far better than any natural dyes: the color was brighter, clearer, and didn't fade or wash out.
Superglue
This super-sticky substance was discovered by accident — twice! Chemist Harry Coover had been attempting to make clear plastic gun sights, and in 1942 one method he tested produced an extremely quick bonding adhesive (黏合剂). It was useless for his gun sights, though, and he forgot about it until almost ten years later, when he came across it again while developing heat-resistant parts for airplanes. This time he realised its potential, and the product was put on the market.
Plastic
In 1907, shellac (虫胶) was used in electronics. It was costly, so American chemist Leo Hendrik Baekeland tried to produce an alternative. Instead, his experiments produced a material that could take high temperatures. He later developed it into plastic, and it was soon used in the production of almost everything.
Teflon
Back in the 1930s, Young DuPont chemist Roy Plunkett was working to make a new kind of CFC for refrigeration. After storing the gas in certain containers, he opened one to discover that it had changed into a white powder that was extremely sticky and had a very high melting point. Three years later, the substance, which was named Teflon, was patented.
Thomas Hardy was born at Higher Bockhampton, Dorset, on June 2, 1840, where his father worked as a builder. From his father he gained an appreciation of music, and from his mother an appetite for learning and the delights of the countryside about his rural home.
Due to his poor health, Hardy did not start school until he was eight. At 16, Hardy helped his father with architectural drawings and then started to work for architects. Later he moved to London and began writing poems, but his works were rejected by publishers. In 1870, he was sent to work in Cornwall. There he met his future wife Emma Gifford, who encouraged him in his writing.
Hardy published his first novel Desperate Remedies in 1871, to universal disinterest. But the following year Under the Greenwood Tree brought Hardy popular praise for the first time. As with most of his fictional works, this novel incorporated real places around Dorset into the plot, including the village school that Hardy attended. After Under the Greenwood Tree came a serialized novel A Pair of Blue Eves. Once more Hardy drew upon real life, and the novel mirrors his romance with Emma.
Hardy followed this with Far From the Madding Crowd, set in Puddletown, near his birthplace. This novel finally netted Hardy the success that enabled him to give up his architectural practice and concentrate only on writing.
The Hardys lived in London for a short time, then in Yeovil, then in Sturminster Newton, which Hardy described as "idyllic (田园诗般的)". It was at Sturminster Newton that he penned Return of the Native, one of his most enduring (持久的) works.
In 1887, Hardy published The Woodlander, a story concerning an honest woodsman in a small village. Then in 1891 one of his best works, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, came out, which was set primarily in the English countryside during the 19th century.
Tess excited interest, but his next work, Jude the Obscure (1896), threw Hardy into a storm of controversy (争议), which made him turn away from fiction and focused on poetry for the rest of his life.
After being driven to near extinction, wolves are back in Washington state.
Wolf 32M, called The Old Guy by wolf specialist Ben Maletzke, lived some 12 years as the patriarch (族长) of the Teanaway Pack, kicking off the recovery of wolves in Washington. The pack's territory was roasted by wildfire in 2014. But wolf 32M and his family remained in existence, bringing the call of the wild back for the first time in a century. These wolves are what Maletzke calls stepping stones in recovery — the animals that could help lead the way to new territory not yet repopulated by wolves.
Wolves spread to new territory to find mates and begin packs of their own. It is this pack dynamic that wildlife biologists are counting on, in time, to urge wolves into areas where they do not presently live. "We just need a couple to pick up and go," Maletzke says.
All along, the Teanaway pack has stayed mostly out of trouble probably, helped by a lot of range riding (牧区巡逻) intended to help reduce conflicts over wolf recovery by keeping wolves away from cattle. "He is an example of wolves living and doing what they do, even around people," Maletzke says of wolf 32M.
Story Warren, a student at the University of Montana, was just a girl when she first saw 32M's tracks in the Teanaway River Valley — an exciting encounter that helped generate a serious interest in wildlife that now fuels her studies. To her, the return of the wolf is about more than the species; it is about recovering something even bigger: hope.
"Growing up in my generation, there is so much bad ecological news, a lot of hopelessness about climate change and loss of biodiversity and extinctions," Warren says, "To have something as wild as wolves coming back to Washington is very encouraging for me — just to know such an amazing and powerful creature exists."
A little brain stimulation at night appears to help people remember what they learned the previous day, a study of 18 severe epilepsy (癫澜) patients has found.
During sleep, brain cells fire in rhythmic patterns. When two brain areas synchronize (同步) their firing patterns, they are able to communicate. During non-rapid eye movement sleep, the hippocampus, found deep in the brain, synchronizes its activity with the prefrontal cortex, which lies just behind the forehead. This helps transform memories from the day into memories that can last a lifetime.
Dr. Itzhak Fried at the University of California and his team gathered 18 epilepsy patients who already had electrodes (电极) in their brains for medical evaluation. This offered the scientists a way to both monitor and change a person's brain rhythms. They used a "celebrity pet" test in which participants were shown images matching a particular celebrity with a specific animal. The goal was to remember which animal went with which celebrity.
Patients saw the images before going to bed. While sleeping, some of them got tiny electrical stimulation through the wires in their brains. In patients who got the stimulation, rhythms in the two brain areas became more synchronized. And when they woke up they scored higher on the test.
The experiment was based on decades of research done by scientists, including Dr. György Buzsáki, a neuroscientist at New York University. But changing rhythms in healthy peoples' brains might not improve their memory, he says, because those communication channels are already in perfect condition. The epilepsy patients may have improved because they started out with sleep and memory problems caused by both the disorder and the drugs used to treat it.
Even so, he says, the approach has the potential to help millions of people with damaged memory. And brain rhythms probably play parts in many other problems. "They are not specific to memory. They are doing a lot of other things," Buzsáki says, like regulating mood and emotion.
How to Deal with a Colleague who Keeps Challenging Your Views
It can be difficult to develop an environment of teamwork when you continually run up against a colleague who challenges your views. . This will ensure you respect one another, even when you disagree.
• Handle unnecessary confrontation(对峙).
If a co-worker habitually challenges your ideas in a group discussion in a confrontational manner, don't engage him or get into an argument. Pause for a moment, look the colleague in the eye. . This will force the co-worker to either repeat his comment in front of everyone with the same level of confrontation, or soften his approach.
• .
There's a time and place for everything, including professional disagreements. If a colleague interrupts you or talks over you in an effort to contradict your point or insert (插入) his own opinion, gently remind him that you still have the floor. If the colleague is challenging something you say before you have a chance to address the point, note that as well.
• Agree to respect each other.
. Constructive debate and brainstorming can strengthen the overall performance of the entire team. Speak to your colleague at a time when you are emotionally stable. For example, you might say, "Can we agree to a respectful and civil way to discuss matters when it's clear there's no one ‘right' answer?"
• Prepare rebuttals (反驳).
If a particular colleague has a long history of disagreeing with you, you might be able to anticipate his arguments or objections. Prepare rebuttals to address anything your colleague might throw at you. . It also strengthens your points without being confrontational, and allows you to give him credit for his constructive comments when necessary.
A. Hold your ground.
B. Ask for peace-making.
C. This will help you support your own arguments.
D. And ask him in a calm voice to repeat what he said.
E. Here are the ways to deal with colleagues of this kind.
F. Just find ways to make peace and communicate with your colleague.
G. The bottom line is, colleagues are not going to agree with each other all the time.
My mom had spent years as a stay-at-home mom. However, I could tell that she 1 the working women. When I asked her about 2 again, she would just tell me to concentrate on my education.
My mom could make anyone 3 . She has the ability to reach everyone's 4 .I once asked, "Mom, have you ever 5 being a stand-up comedian?" She laughed at the idea, but then began to cry and said it was too 6 for her I was sad to watch her struggle between 7 and doubt.
With her birthday coming, I realized what I 8 wanted to give her was the 9 to take a chance. I placed little notes of 10 inside the present I had bought. I asked my family and her close friends to do the same. On her birthday, when she saw and read the notes, she started to 11 with her hands full of notes. She could not believe the support was 12 , that everyone knew she had a special 13 and believed in her.
Within two months, my mom made a 14 performance in a New York comedy club. Within a year, she was performing at the nation's major comedy club monthly. For many parents, their children's 15 are their greatest achievement, but for me my mom's is mine.
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) originated in ancient China. It (include) acupuncture (针灸), Chinese herbal medicine, tai chi, qigong, tuina, guasha, cupping and so on.
Acupuncture was one of the first TCM (method) that were accepted by the healthcare system in the USA. It was first introduced to the USA in 1971 by a New York Times reporter, James Reston, in an article
(title) "Now, about my operation in Peking".
In 1997. acupuncture was (official) accepted by the National Institutes of Health of the US, and in a statement in 2002, the World Health Organization recognized acupuncture as an (effect) treatment for more than 43 common ailments (小病). TCM focuses not only the disease treatment, but also the disease prevention and (improve) of overall health.
Today, TCM is primarily used as an alternative for people (maintain) a healthy state in the US. It is widely practiced in more than 180 countries and regions around the globe; among them, 103 countries have approved use of acupuncture, 29 have established some forms of laws and regulations for TCM, 18 have included acupuncture into their national health insurance systems, more than 30 have colleges and universities that teach students in TCM.
时间 | 活动内容 |
星期六 | 开幕式、讲座 |
寻迹世遗 | |
星期日 | 手工制作、成果展示 |
结业仪式 |
注意：1. 写作词数应为80左右；2. 请在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Dear Terry,
I am writing to invite you to attend a weekend activity to promote the World Heritage City Quanzhou at the Marine Silk Road International Research Camp.
Yours,
Li Hua
I recently had a challenging time working on a group project. My teacher put me with three people who weren't all that excited about getting any work done.
Our assignment was to pick one of the 50 states and make a brochure about it. "Let's pick Hawaii!" said Emma, "Hawaii has super-cute swimsuits" "True!" Agreed Angela, "Speaking of swimsuits, there are some get-ready-for-summer sales happening now." "Really? Maybe my mother will take me shopping this weekend," said Emma.
I turned to Bernard, "Which state do you think we should pick?" He shrugged (耸肩), "I don't care. But what happened to your hair, Jessica? It looks like caught in a blender (搅拌机)!"
No one in my group seemed very eager to talk about our project, so I went ahead and shared interesting facts I knew about Hawaiian food and culture. When I was done, no one responded, so I pulled out my notebook. I asked Emma to search for pictures of Hawaiian sea life. But she said she was busy and asked if her picture at a Hawaii hotel pool would do. I requested Angela and Bernard to find Hawaiian historical information and geography respectively. It turned out they all had their own business. I was getting the impression that none but me planned to work on the brochure.
Later that day, as I set the table for dinner, my mom could tell I was stressed-out. "What's going on?" she asked. I told her what happened and sighed, "So I guess the only way to get the brochure done is for me to do it myself."
"Well," my mom said with a smile, "when it comes to homework, they don't necessarily do things you order. Second, I doubt if you're responsible for everyone else's part. Why don't you check in with your teacher about it?"
When I talked to my teacher the next day, he explained he would grade the assignment partly on the finished brochure but mostly on our individual work, which made me much less worried.
注意： 1. 续写词数应为150左右； 2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
At our next group meeting, I tried to bring up my concerns in a friendly way.
Finally, we were amazed to receive the grade for our group project.
