"Just sign here, sir," the deliveryman said as he handed Oscar Reyna a package.
The package consisted of a long, narrow box carefully1in brown paper. 2the box, Oscar saw an umbrella inside - a very old one with a beautifully carved wooden handle. 3 he had not seen it in more than 20 years, he recognized it immediately.
Oscar was 16 when he first saw the4umbrella. He had gone to a concert with his grandparents. As they were leaving, he noticed an umbrella on an empty seat. Impressed by its5, Oscar felt a strong desire to find its owner.
Oscar convinced the manager to look in the record of advance ticket sales. Just as he thought, a name matched the seat6Oscar had found the umbrella. The name was Mrs. Katie O'Brien.
Oscar's grandparents helped him to return the umbrella to Mrs. O'Brien.
"It was given to me by my father years ago. Thank you so much for returning it. May I offer you a reward for your7?"
"No, ma'am," he said, "My grandmother says that a good deed is its own8. " "Well, that's9what my father used to say. What is your name, young man?"
Years later, Oscar was staring at the finely carved handle of the umbrella as he remembered Mrs. O'Brien. It was in perfect condition, considering how old it was. Why had it arrived here?
A note fell from the paper. It read: Mrs. O'Brien wanted you to10this umbrella as a present for a kind, unselfish gesture long ago.
Written on the Wall at West Forest Temple
By苏轼
Translated by许渊冲
(1) Assuming different shapes viewed from far and wide.
(2) For we are lost in the heart of the very place.
(3) It's a range viewed in face and peaks viewed from the side,
(4) Of Mountain Lu we cannot make out the true face,
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Matt |
I created Teens Helping Seniors with my friends. The group has about 200 volunteers. The volunteers deliver food or other supplies for the elderly in town. I spent six to eight hours a week buying food and making deliveries. By now we have completed 350deliveries. |
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Linda |
I organized Mittler Senior Technology, a program to help the elderly learn how to use computers and smartphones. Now there are 50 local seniors in the weekly technology classes. I want to make sure that the seniors can stay connected to the world. |
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Jordan |
I camp up with a way to help lonely seniors with my friends. We call it the Joy 4 all project. By dialing 569-4225, the elderly can hear pre-recorded jokes and poems. The hotline has received more than 1800 phone calls. |
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Kathy |
I heard that the seniors in the nursing home couldn't see their families and friends very often, so my friends and I decided to cheer up the elderly by writing them letters. We want them to know that nobody is being forgotten. By now more than 100 students in my school have joined us. |
The Chongyang Festival falls on the ninth day of the ninth month of the Chinese lunar calendar, so it is also known as the Double Ninth Festival.
The festival is held in the golden season of autumn, at harvest-time. The bright clear weather and the joy of bringing in the harvest make for a festival happy atmosphere. The Chongyang Festival is usually per feet for outdoor activities. Climbing a mountain, carrying a spray of dogwood and drinking chrysanthemum wine have become the traditional activities of the festival.
The dogwood is a plant with a strong fragrance and is often used as a Chinese herbal medicine. Its history as a medicine goes back many centuries. People in ancient times believed it could drive away evil spirits and prevent one from getting a chill in late autumn. But the custom of carrying a spray of dogwood during the Double Ninth Festival is slowly dying out and many people in the cities, do not even know what a dogwood spray looks like. Early in Han Dynasty, about 2000 years ago, people used to climb a high platform outside the capital city of Chang'an on the Chongyang Festival. For many, it was the last outing of the year before the onset of winter. The custom evolved into the present form, when people go climbing to get some exercise as well as enjoy the autumn scenery.
But what about those people who live in plains far from any mountain? The problem is solved by going for a picnic and eating cakes. The Chinese word for "cake" is "Gao", a homonym of the Chinese word for "high". Mountains are high, so eating cakes can, by a stretch of the imagination, take the place of going for a climb.
If you are like most people, your intelligence varies from season to season. You are probably sharper in the spring than you are at any other time of the year. A famous scientist，Ellsworth Huntington (1876-1974), concluded, from his work among people in different climates that climate and temperature have a definite effect on our mental abilities.
He found that cool weather is much more favourable for creative thinking than summer heat. This does not mean that all people are less intelligent in the summer than they are during the rest of the year. It does mean, however, that the mental abilities of large numbers of people tend to be lowest in summer.
Spring appears to be the best period of the year for thinking. One reason may be that in spring man's mental abilities are affected by the same factors that bring about rapid growth of everything in nature.
Fall is the next-best season, then winter. As for summer, it seems to be good time to take a long vacation from thinking.
Nowadays, backpacking tour has become popular. It's not only a low-cost travel for budget travellers, but also a nice (entertain). When you have a backpacking tour, you can use public transportations like buses and subways and stay in hostels instead of big hotels, can save you a lot of money. Today, this kind of travel is (especial) popular with young people, because they can (cover) the interesting places and know more about the local cultures by themselves. It's so exciting.
If you want to have a better (understand) of a place, you can have a slow travel. When you have a slow travel, you better spend at least one week living in one place, stay with a local family and visit interesting sites near you instead of rushing around for a long day to see the (must see). In this way, you can make more local friends, and know the local traditions and customs deeper. Only so can you become more (know) and (wide) your experience.
It depends on your need (choice) the way you want to travel.
要求：1）呈现调查和讨论结果；
2）发表自己的观点，并说出至少两个原因支持自己的观点；
3）不得出现真实姓名和学校等相关信息；
4）词数80左右，开头已给出，不计入总字数。
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观点 |
原因 |
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35%的同学 |
不可能 |
父母太忙，没有时间关心他们 |
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65%的同学 |
可能 |
在家里，父母常常和他们谈心 |
Recently, our class have had a discussion about whether parents can be our friends.
