The peaceful little town Cherrywood Dale was made up of colorful houses, each one home to a warm-hearted family. The neighbors were the salt of the earth, always ready to lend a helping hand to one another. However, among them was an exception, an old man named Mr. Johnson, who lived alone in a small cottage.
Mr. Johnson was known for his excellent gardening skills. His gift for gardening had turned his backyard into a beautiful rose garden. However, his passionate devotion to gardening had left him with little time for personal life. His only company was his beloved roses.
Not far from Mr. Johnson's cottage lived a young couple, Tom and Emily. They were the complete opposite of Mr. Johnson—lively and sociable, always up to something new and exciting. Their home was always filled with the sound of laughter and good cheer. They had a young son named Charlie, who was Mr. Johnson's favorite neighbor. Charlie's infectious laughter and boundless energy brought some life to Mr. Johnson's quiet existence.
One day, Charlie decided to surprise Mr. Johnson by decorating his front yard for the upcoming Harvest Festival. He knew how much Mr. Johnson loved autumn and the changing of the leaves. Charlie enlisted the help of his parents and set to work, painting pumpkins(南瓜)and hanging decorations. They were so caught up in their creation that they ended up accidentally stepping on Mr. Johnson's prize-winning roses.
The next morning, Mr. Johnson came out of his cottage and saw the beautiful display, his face shining with delight. But his smile quickly turned into a frown(皱眉)when he saw the destroyed roses. He called over Tom and Emily, who were equally displeased by what had happened. They apologized sincerely, promising to replace the roses, but Mr. Johnson was unmoved. The once friendly neighbors became locked in an uneasy standoff. Charlie was heartbroken, not understanding why Mr. Johnson wouldn't accept their apology.
注意：
1. 续写词数应为150个左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Then one afternoon, Emily decided to make the first move.
Mr. Johnson was moved by the three's sincere understanding.
"Moja, mbili, tatu…"One, two, three. Juliana Rubashai is counting aloud to show what she has learned in school. Delighted and proud, she counts to 20, but her mother, Zefrina Nandia, adds that Juliana can keep counting, and that she also can do some reading.
Nine-year-old Juliana is one of the children who have received aid through a project run by International Aid Services(IAS)in southwestern Tanzania, where many children stay at home all day, cut off from social contact and schooling. The project improves school facilities and raises local community's awareness about education. They train teachers and lobby(游说)the local authorities. In these ways, IAS is struggling to ensure basic education for everyone.
Zefrina was contacted last year by project coordinator Fortunatus Rafael, who gets in touch with families to get an overview of children's needs and school options. Zefrina had previously asked the local school to enroll Juliana, but was turned down due to lack of resources. Thanks to the project, the school can offer chances to more children.
Part of the project is training teachers in special needs education. Many teachers have received additional training in estimating the degree of a child's disability. During the first year of the project, 270 children with special needs have been evaluated, and of these, 200 got the chance to go to school. The teachers Scolastica Nyoni and Bwigane Mwasipu both appreciate how it has strengthened their skills. "When teaching children with special needs, we know whom to pay extra attention to. This means a closer relation between teachers and students," says Scolastica.
It's a year since Juliana got into the classroom, and her mother notices definite improvement. "She used to be lonely and unhappy. Now, she's much happier and always wants to go to school," says Zefrina. The teachers also notice big changes have taken place in the local community. "Parents are now coming to us to find teachers to teach their children with special needs. Previously, they didn't think that schooling would be possible for these children," says Bwigane.
Hikes in grocery prices often arise from factors outside of governments' control, whether it's bird flu driving up egg costs or heavy rain in California drowning crops. But farmers can gain more control over the availability of certain foods by using satellite data, finds a new study led by researchers from University of Maryland.
Remote sensing has long been used to track and make predictions about crop harvests. But governments have been hesitant to heavily invest in the technology for crop monitoring and planting because they lacked evidence of the ability to produce quantifiable economic benefits-until now.
"The models we created show that remote sensing forecasting can reduce food prices in import-dependent countries by 1.1%~12.5%," said Laixiang Sun, a professor in the Department of Geographical Sciences. "By using remote sensing to predict a poor harvest in the Northern Hemisphere(半球), the Southern Hemisphere can plant more to avoid a shortage. If the Northern Hemisphere has a good harvest, the Southern Hemisphere can plant less to avoid an oversupply. This will keep prices stable."
The researchers first created models to predict how much warning farmers in the opposite hemisphere could have of potential shortages or surpluses. To do so, the researchers used remote-sensing data before a 2008 poor wheat harvest in, Russia, a 2012 good wheat harvest in Ukraine, and 2012's poor soybean harvest in Brazil. The wheat-forecasting models accurately predicted production in 2008 and 2012 two months before the harvests.
The researchers also developed economic models to show how predictions of upcoming shortages and surpluses could prevent food price changes. With data from 2007 and 2011, the years immediately before the wheat and soybean harvests, the models showed that consumers in import-dependent countries could save some money if farmers could see and respond to the predicted harvests in the opposite hemisphere.
Sun said the findings justify continued monitoring of crop growth from space—and not a moment too soon, either. "This is important, as global food security is increasingly threatened by regional human conflicts and extreme weather events from climate change," he said.
If you're looking for some festive atmosphere, here's part of the Florida festival calendar.
Kumquat Festival, Dade City, Jan. 27
The downtown in Dade City fills with as many as 35, 000 people for this free event celebrating the tangy little fruit grown locally. Along with dozens of booths and live entertainment, a highlight is enjoying kumquat treats, from kumquat pie, kumquat cookies to kumquat salad.
Sunnyland Boat Festival, Tavares, Mar. 22-24
This antique and classic boat festival is one of the largest classic wood boat shows in the country with as many as 250 to 300 restored ancient boats on display in the water and along one third of a mile of Lake Dora shoreline at Wooton Park in Tavares, which is really a feast to the eye for free.
Siesta Key Sunsculpting Festival, Sarasota, Nov. 10-13
Two dozen professional artists compete in creating sculptures on the gorgeous Siesta Key beach. Those who buy tickets can watch the sculptures take shape, view them under colored lights at night, see demonstrations and take lessons. The party atmosphere includes a tent with ful bar (no ticket required) and a vendor(小贩) village.
Art Basel Miami Beach, Miami Beach, Dec. 8-10
Art Basel, an international art fair, draws top galleries from around the world plus the rich and celebrities to South Florida. A far cry from the street art festivals all over Florida, this is an event that is not cheap-Tickets start at $65. Over the years, however, a variety of satellite events have developed, creating art-related events for regular folks, including Miami Art Week.
I'd like to share with you a funny incident that occurred almost 4 years ago
I was an 8th grader at high school. One day, the teacher gave us a group assignment and we went to some libraries after class to collect data. In the evening, I found that my group members were complaining that they were hungry and needed to have some food.
Together we entered a restaurant nearby. When the waiter approached our table, one of my classmates made an order directly without even looking at the menu. And after we were done with our food, a classmate asked the group leader to pay the bill. The group leader was surprised as he had not offered the meal and said that he did not have the money to pay the bill. I asked the waiter to bring the bill and we were shocked to see the amount. It was much more than we had expected. Though we were a bit worried, we started laughing and enjoying the whole thing. At this moment, a group member suggested we collect all of our money to pay the bill. We searched our wallets, pockets and bags for money. There were so many coins there that we had to count 2-3 times. But unfortunately, the total amount was still not enough to pay the bill.
As the scene unfolded, the atmosphere shifted from casual laughter to a shared sense of responsibility. Realizing the gravity of the situation, I stepped up and decided to explain our situation to the manager, hoping for some understanding or perhaps a way to work out a payment plan. To our relief, the manager kindly listened to our story. Seeing our genuine efforts to resolve the issue, he agreed to let us pay what we had collected and arrange for the rest to be settled later.
注意：
1. 续写词数应为150个左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
We left the restaurant with empty wallets but light hearts.
This incident served as a reminder for better teamwork in the future.
China produces and uses so much bamboo that the country is sometimes referred to the Bamboo Kingdom. 40% of all known bamboo species in the world are grown in China, so it's not (astonish) that China grows more bamboo than any other country in the world. Today, roughly one fifth of the global supply of bamboo is grown in China, with Sichuan and Fujian (be) the provinces with the largest total area of bamboo cultivation.
Bamboo is one of fastest-growing plants on earth. Although some types of bamboo can grow to be almost 35 meters in height, you may be surprised to learn that bamboo is (actual) a type of grass rather than a tree.
In traditional Chinese culture, bamboo, plum blossoms, orchids (兰), and chrysanthemums (菊) form a group is called the Four Gentlemen. Each member of the group is used (represent) some aspect of the character of an ideal person. In the case of the bamboo, it serves as an emblem (象征) of modesty and mental (strong).
Along with the pine and plum blossom, bamboo also sometimes (appear) as part of the Three Friends of Winter. Each of these three plants (admire) for its ability to remain firm and fresh when the weather turns cold.
A few years ago, I asked a neighborhood handyman to build a tree-house in my backyard. In part, this was to solve a problem: my children were good friends with the children who lived beside us and they liked to climb over the fence that separated the two yards. We could have just put a gate into the fence, but I decided that building some kind of climbable structure around the large fir tree in the yard, which also included a staircase into the neighbor's yard, was a more creative solution to the problem, and I liked the idea that the tree-house would also serve to join the two play spaces together.
The handyman took the task much more seriously than I had expected. He made drawings, built small wooden models, and even held a kind of "visioning" exercise with the children and their parents to make sure that he hadn't missed any important details. At the end of our lengthy discussions, he asked, "Where would you like me to put the beer rail?"
The question took me aback as I hadn't really considered the possibility that a nice play structure in my yard might also facilitate beer consumption among the neighborhood children, but I quickly tuned in to the fact that our designer had intuited what should have been obvious to me- the children wouldn't be the only ones to take advantage of this platform up among the branches of the beautiful old tree. And, indeed, over the years that I lived in that house I discovered that the platform made a pretty good perch (栖息处), not only for the occasional cold beer, but also for sitting and dreaming, reading a book, enjoying a picnic or even getting some writing done. My children enjoyed climbing around in the tree-house, playing tag, setting up imaginary pirate ships and fortresses (城堡), and they also used it for some quiet thinking and even the occasional math homework. The tree seemed to be a particularly good algebra tutor.
Camping isn't the same without a fire and in fact, many campsites even allow the use of one as long as you remain responsible and eco-friendly. As daylight disappears, there's nothing quite like a campfire to see you through the evening and into the night.
Remember, campfires can be fun as long as you put some common sense into your practice. If you're a first-timer to the whole campfire scene, or simply want to know how to get your fire blazing in no time at all, we've got some great tips to help you.
• Choose the right location. With any campfire it's important to select a location that's safe. Preferably you'd keep away from areas with overhanging branches and dry undergrowth.
• Use dry wood. If your wood logs are wet or damp, you'll really struggle to get any fire going. Therefore, store the wood in a dry place and keep your matches tucked away in a Ziploc bag.
• Build up from small beginnings. You'll need to start small and get the blaze going with firelighters, kindling or newspapers. Only then can you start to apply larger wood logs.
• Don't add the larger logs on too quickly, as this can stifle (抑制) the fire and see your efforts wasted at the first hurdle.
• Remember to put the fire out. After you sat around the campfire, enjoying great conversation and some light-hearted games, you'll need to put the fire out. Instead, let the fire die down and pour water or shovel earth on as required.
A. Avoid rushing the process.
B. Don't put all your eggs in one basket.
C. A great campfire takes time and patience.
D. Never go to bed believing a smoking fire safe.
E. You might come across a variety of problems.
F. Also make sure not to build your fire too near any tents.
G. Camping is a fantastic experience for people of all ages.
I was struggling earlier in the year, even though I'm a(n) 1 person by nature. The entire world seemed to have come to a stop all of a sudden. I was 2 with worry about my family and paying the bills, and whether life would ever be the same again.
Then, one evening I went outside and 3 . The sky was dark and the stars were shining so brightly that I almost held my breath. As I stood under that splendid ceiling, I was filled with 4 .
I really wanted to find out more about them. Suddenly, I remembered I'd 5 an app on my phone a couple of months earlier, which 6 all the stars and planets. Together with my daughters, I raced to the upstairs, where we had a perfect 7 of the night sky. Using the app, we were excited to 8 that bright white star hanging over the horizon was Venus. Then we looked past Betelguese, a dying red supergiant star 700 times the size of Earth, and many more. 9 , the world no longer seemed like an unfamiliar place. It 10 me that the Earth had been around for
4. 5 billion years and had experienced things much more 11 . That realization 12 brought my worries into a much broader perspective (眼界).
Plus, that twinkling night sky was just so beautiful — I felt happier and calmer just looking at it. It became our 13 to sit at the window every evening, gazing at the stars. Not only did it help us 14 the reality, but for half an hour each day we got to 15 outside our four walls.
