Walt Disney World Holiday Celebrations in the 4 Parks
Magic Kingdom
Walt Disney World's first parade since March 2020 is hitting Main Street just in time for the holidays. The parade kicks off with Mickey and Minnie in their holiday styles and ends with a visit from Santa Claus. The only way to see this parade is with a ticket. Other celebrations include a special fireworks display, holiday-themed stage performances and dance parties. Guests may even get to experience a little snowfall in Florida.
EPCOT
Have a look at how countries around the world celebrate this time year at the EPCOT International Festival of the Holidays. Guests will experience unique performances such as a Chinese Lion Dance celebrating the New Year. They also will enjoy taking part in the Cookie Stroll. Participants get stamps in a special passport when they buy five different holiday-themed cookies. Once they collect all five stamps, they'll earn a special treat.
Disney's Animal Kingdom
Tree of Life Awakenings will take place on select nights when the park is open late. The Tree of Life will display a series of winter tales accompanied by familiar holiday music. Guests also will get to see a Merry Animal Show of winter animals. Reindeer, foxes and polar bears interact with guests, accompanied by musicians as they create a playful atmosphere.
Disney Springs
Each evening, Town Center at Disney Springs will experience snowfall, Florida style. Also enjoy the Christmas Tree Stroll. Don't forget to bring your Christmas list to Disney Springs. With a huge range of shopping options, you're sure to find something for everyone on your list.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic (流行病), the social distancing commands separated family members from each other in 2020. However, it also resulted in some lifelong friendships between people who would have otherwise never met.
The unlikely friendship between 99-year-old Mary and her two-year-old neighbor, Benjamm began in May 2020. The lockdown was particularly hard for Mary, who has been living alone since her husband passed away 37 years ago. Her other family members are in other states. The 99-year-old spent her days watching television game shows. Benjamm, a then one-year-old who lived next door, was also stuck at home and unable to play with kids of his age.
The unusual friendship developed gradually. At first, Mary would wave at Benjamin from her window whenever she saw the young boy in the yard. Then, she began adventuring outside to greet him in person. The routine eventually expanded to daily gatherings by the fence that separated the two homes. The unlikely pair even invented a socially distanced game that Mary calls cane (手杖) ball. 4tI came out of the house one morning, and he threw his ball toward the fence," she said. "I got my cane, and I reached over the fence and hit the ball toward him, and he'd throw it back. That's how it started."
When the weather turned cold, the two were unable to meet in the yard as regularly. But Benjamin's mother, Sarah, kept the friendship alive by often stopping by Mary's house with the kid. The friendship between the two has developed even further since Mary got vaccinated (接种疫苗) earlier this year. The two give each other hi-fives across the fence and often sit outside Mary's house. This spring, Mary and Benjamin gifted each other with their favorite.
Benjamin now goes to daycare three times a week. But he still regularly makes time to visit his best friend who he refers to as "Mimi". ''Friendship really knows no boundaries," Sarah said. "Certainly, you wouldn't guess that a 99-year-old and a 2-year-old would be friends, but they can be. And they both get a lot out of it."
Beethoven is undoubtedly one of the greatest musicians. He completed 722 musical works. Unfortunately, the master died while still working on his 10th Symphony (交响曲). Now, a team of musicians and scientists have used artificial intelligence (AI) to complete the artist's final composition.
Dr. Matthias first came up with the idea to complete the composition in 2019. He thought it was an appropriate way to celebrate Beethoven's 250th birthday in December 2020. He began by enlisting an international team of music experts to help him with the giant task. They included music composer Walter and Dr. Ahmed, the creator of an innovative AI technology for the art market.
Ahmed and his colleagues started the process by familiarizing the AI software initially with a broad range of classical music, and then, narrowed it to just Beethoven's work. Meanwhile, Walter and his group tried to interpret the rough drafts and the handful of notes that detailed Beethoven's plans for the 10th Symphony.
The team then began the slow and careful task of feeding the AI software musical notes from the unfinished composition. To stay true to Beethoven's original composition, Ahmed's team sent Walter hundreds of Ai-generated musical note variations every evening. Walter would listen to them and then select the one that he thought was closest to what the artist would have written. The AI team would add the music and rerun the software to generate the next suggestions. And piece by piece, the team was able to complete Beethoven's 10th Symphony!
The composition was firstly released on October 9, 2021. Not surprisingly, it caused some controversy (争议). Critics believe technology should not be used to replicate the human creative process. Ahmed and his team agree with their opinions and say their AI software is not out to replace humans - it is just a tool to help artists to express themselves in new ways.
On August 8, 2021, the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its first assessment of climate science since 2013. The news was not good. The report stated that this past decade was the hottest in 125,000 years and that the atmospheric carbon levels are the highest in at least 2 million years. Glaciers are melting faster than any time in over 2,000 years, and ocean levels are rising at twice the rate since 2006.
At the current pace, the researchers expect global temperatures to rise by at least 1.5°, compared to pre-industrial levels, within the next 20 years. The temperature increases will result in significant changes to the planet's water cycle. Areas that currently receive a lot of rain will get significantly more, while dry regions will become increasingly likely to droughts.
The IPCC's findings come as no surprise to the millions of people worldwide currently feeling the impacts of climate-related disasters. America and many European countries are battling wildfires. Meanwhile, an unprecedented (史无前例的) week-long storm in July 2021 caused flash floods and mudslides in Western Europe. Climate change is even impacting the Earth's coldest and most remote regions which experienced the first rainfall event in recorded history.
The situation may sound hopeless. However, many experts believe it is still not too late to turn things around, if we all act now. While governments need to do their share by introducing and obey stricter carbon emission laws, individuals can also help. Driving less, conserving water, and reducing electricity usage are some great ways to start. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle will help conserve natural resources and energy. It will also save you and your community. Be sure to start doing your part to save our beautiful home today!
Every year, natural disasters affect about 250 million people and global warming is making droughts and floods more common. But we can reduce the number of people who die in them.
In Bangladesh, a lot of people have to live on flat and near the sea, but the cyclones (旋风) there bring terrible floods. In 1970, Cyclone Bhola killed at least 300,000 people. In 1991, the even stronger cyclone Gorky hit the country. This time, people could use special school buildings as emergency shelters. Unfortunately, many women and children didn't go to them and around 140,000 people drowned.
After this, villages set up groups of emergency volunteers and teachers had to talk to children every week about the things which they should do if there was a cyclone warning.
It came in 2007. Twelve hours before cyclone Sidr reached land, a Bangladeshi scientist in the USA calculated (计算) the exact areas of danger on a computer. The emergency volunteers in the villages spread the warning fast.
"You must come to the school now," they shouted. "You won't be safe if you stay here." All the buildings in the village were destroyed in the cyclone except for the school shelter.
Not everyone in Bangladesh was so lucky. But this was a much smaller number than in the big cyclones of the twentieth century. With modem technology, planning and education, we don't have to lose huge numbers of lives in natural disasters.
A. Sadly, we can't stop the disasters.
B. Four thousand people died in cyclone Sidr.
C. Heavy rains, too, contribute to the total cyclone damage.
D. They didn't have to wait many years for the next big cyclone.
E. It was one of the worst natural disasters of the twentieth century.
F. Ten-year-old Rupa and her friends ran to all their neighbours' homes.
G. A tropical cyclone can be up to six miles high, and hundreds of miles wide.
Physical Education (PE) is a requirement for all kids in school. 1 making kids do laps around a gym track, an alternative school in Iowa is 2 their students to earn their physical education credits by helping disabled and senior citizens.
At most traditional high schools, students can finish their PE course by3 sports or other after-school activities. The students at the Alternative Learning Center in Dubuque, however, are being encouraged to satisfy their PE 4 by doing yard work for people in the community who are 5to do it themselves.
The learning center is specifically designed for junior and senior high students who are at risk of dropping out of 6schools.
Thompson, the teacher who 7the program, has been managing those volunteer students' 8 work over the course of the last few weeks and he says it has already had a very 9 impact on the teens as well as the homeowners.
"The students come out and help them in sweeping leaves, 10 weeds, cutting grass. It just 11what they need," Tim said.
"The students aren't 12too excited at the beginning. But once they get involved (参与) and 13doing the yard work, they become more 14 ," he added. "What they really like is to 15 people. They really like giving back to people and meeting the person."
Bees are disappearing. But does it (real) matter if bees disappear? Are they so important to our environment? The short answer is, yes, it does matter and yes, they are important. Bees fly around from flower to flower, (look) for pollen(花粉) . They use these to produce honey, is food for their colonies. But at the same time, the bees help to move pollen from one flower to another. This process (call) pollination(授粉) . Pollination means that the flowers can create seeds and new flowers. bees, many flowers can't make seeds or fruit. In fact, bees are responsible for the pollination of one (three) of all the plants which we eat. A single hive(蜂箱) with 50, 000 honeybees can pollinate 500, 000 plants in one day! Imagine world with no apples, carrots, onions, strawberries or, of course, honey. That's a world with no bees.
So, are the bees disappearing? Scientists think that there are several possible reasons, including climate change, disease and pesticides.
But it's not all bad news. Primary schools, businesses, universities and community centres are now setting up their own hives. They enjoy the delicious honey and at the same time they know that they (help) to look after some of the most important (insect) on the planet.
My knees started shaking, yet my body froze; it felt as though my soul departed(离开) my body and I had no control over it. Anxiously, I looked through the name list posted on the wall of the locker room; my heart was beating harder and harder as I slowly saw all my friends' names on that list but could not find mine. John, Bryce, Ro, I thought, everybody is on here except me. At that moment, I froze; I just could not accept that all my friends were on the basketball team but I was not.
I was so convinced there was a mistake that I went and found the coach. "Hey coach, are you sure that the name list you posted is correct?"1 asked anxiously.
"Yes. Sorry if you did not make it this year. There is always next year," the coach replied without the slightest bit of regret.
I could feel the hot, bitter tears building in my eyes, and I ran out of the room as fast as I could. As soon as I walked out, I saw my friends crowding into the locker room to look at the team list. I heard them shouting and laughing as I slowly walked away, every one of them jumping around with excitement after seeing that they made the team.
I felt dead inside, like nothing mattered. I trudged (步履艰难) through the rest of school; walking was such a burden that it felt as if I had a 100-pound weight tied to my backpack. My mind was also blank for the rest of the school day; everything my teachers said went m one ear and out the other.
After school, as I walked to the parking lot to get picked up, I saw all my friends gathered near the back of the lot, celebrating and joking around. I detoured (绕道) around the side of the school to avoid them, trying not to think about being one of the only people in our friend group to not make the team.
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。
I saw my father's red car pull up near the school lot.
……
After almost a year of training, I tried out for my seventh-grade team.
