One day a teacher walked into the classroom and gave the students a surprise test. He 1 the paper and asked his students to turn the page and begin. To everyone's surprise, there were no questions, just 2 in the center of the page.
The teacher saw 3 on everyone's face and said, "I want you to write about what you 4 there." The confused students got started on the 5 job. At the end of the class, the teacher took all the answer papers and started reading each one of them. All of them described the black dot and tried to 6 where it was on the paper. After all had been read, the classroom was 7 . Everyone was listening to the teacher's explanation, "I am not going to give you grades according to this. I just want to give you something to 8 . 9 wrote about the white part of the paper. All of you focused on (专注于) the black dot. The same thing 10 in our lives. We have a white paper to enjoy, but we always pay attention to those dark spots (斑点). Our life is a 11 filled with love and care. We always have reasons to celebrate — friends that help us or jobs that provide our lives."
"However, we keep focusing only on the dark spots, the health problems, being short of money or the 12 relationship with a family member. The dark spots make people feel slightly angry, but they are very 13 . Take your eyes away from the black spots in your life. 14 each moment that life gives you. Be happy and live a(n) 15 life!"
City Life Shopping Coupons (优惠券)
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Our town is in the eastern part of our country. Once a year we choose a girl to show how beautiful and great our town is. All the girls hope to be the winner in an effort to become popular.
It was not an easy choice this year, since there were eight girls to choose from. The elder judge (裁判员) finally decided that either Sara or May would win. Both girls were beautiful with perfect appearance. Besides, they had a good education and cared about how pollution had a bad effect on the earth. Most important, both girls got up early to eat eggs at their breakfast. Eggs were important to people of the east of our town because our economy (经济) depended mainly on the production of eggs.
"Either girl will win," my father said, "But someone will cry in the end."
"Either will be fine," I said, "They are both great girls."
The final round was held at the east edge (边缘) of our town. Sara lived nearby so she did not need to get up early to arrive. However, she was the first person there. "You know what they say about the early bird," she said with a big smile.
However, May arrived fifteen minutes late to the competition. "It's the taxi driver's mistake," she said, "I told him to head east, but he was in one ear and thought I said Bread Cheese. You know, Bread Cheese is the name of our neighboring town."
I thought May would certainly lose because she was late, but to my surprise, she turned out to be this year's winner. The judges liked her answer to their last question, "If you could have anything in the world, what would it be?" Sara had replied, "World peace." May, on the other hand, said, "Better market to have our eggs sell well."
B . 
C . 
D . 
In our daily life, direct questions are usually used to ask for information we do not know. Direct questions are either yes/no questions such as "Are you married?" or information questions such as "Where do you live?"
It's OK to ask your friends or someone you know well direct questions, but they can seem abrupt at times, especially when you are asking a stranger. For example, if you come up to someone and ask "What time is it?" or "Can you move?", he/she may refuse to help you. It is certainly right to ask questions in this way, but it's very common to make these kinds of questions more polite by adding "Excuse me" or "Pardon me" to begin your questions. "Excuse me, when does the bus leave?" or "Pardon me, may I sit here?" sounds more polite.
It's also possible to use "can" in more informal (非正式的) situations. In the past, "can" was not used when asking for something, but only to speak about abilities. In the United Kingdom, Cambridge University publishes (出版) English teaching materials with the phrase (短语) "Can you lend me" "Can I have", etc. In the United States, this form is still considered to be not true, especially for written English, and "May I have" is better. Questions with "can" are made more polite by using "could": "Pardon me, could you help me?"
"Would" can also be used to make questions more polite. "Would you let me borrow your pencil?" is also polite.
Another way of making direct questions more polite is to add "please" at the end of the questions. We can say "Could you help me, please?" "Please" should not appear at the beginning of the questions.
These special new gloves are expensive, but they take the term "handsfree" to a new level. People can talk into them as they make a call. The gloves are known as "Talk to the Hand" and cost 1000 pounds a pair.
They come with a speaker in the thumb (拇指) and a microphone built into the little finger that can be connected to any mobile handset using Bluetooth. Mobile phone users will be able to keep their hands warm while they chat without taking their phone out of their pocket (口袋) or handbag.
Artist Sean Miles designed (设计) the great gloves. He puts gloves with parts from mobile handsets (电话听筒) recycled (回收的) through O2. Mr. Miles designed two pairs of the new gloves: one in pink and the other in brown and yellow. They will appear in an exhibition (展览会) this December and visitors will be able to win the gloves. If need is great, they will then be produced at a larger amount.
O2 Recycle, which backed Miles, says that there are already 70 million unused mobile handsets in the UK. Bill Eyers, head of O2 Recycle, asks people to recycle their phones responsibly.
Designer Sean Miles, the 41-year-old man behind the designs, said, "I hope that my Talk to the Hand project will get people to think again about the waste created by not recycling gadgets (小器具). If a few more people recycle their gadgets rather than throw them away as trash, I think this project will have lived up to its aim (目标)."
Miles is now working on putting phones together with handbags. So people don't spend time searching around in their bags to find a phone when it rings.
punish, able, center, die, steal |
Stan Lee was (出生) in New York City in 1922. At the age of 17, he got a job at Timely Comics, the company that later developed into Marvel (漫威). There he soon learned writing duties and penning superhero (小说).
Lee spent nearly 80 years of his life (创造) hundreds of characters and teams. Some of them are well-known around the world, such as the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Iron Man, the Avengers, X-Men and Thor.
Actually, Marvel's superheroes existed long before Lee got into the (商业). They were perfect in comic books. However. Lee's heroes are quite different. (正常情况下), they do have superpowers (超能力) that ordinary people don't have. But they are also troubled by daily problems. People who (欣赏； 仰慕) Lee's heroes think that they can even feel for these superheroes.
Lee has also played many cameo roles in Marvel movies, a (传统) that continued after Walt Disney. In these films, he waters flowers, delivers (邮件) and even works as a security guard. In 2008, Lee was awarded the National Medal of Arts.
On November 12, 2018, this (明智的) old man died of illness in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 95. But (无论谁) likes Marvel Comics will always remember him and his superheroes.
People have been celebrating Christmas for years. However, only a small number of people knew it at the (begin) of the 19th century. Thanks to Charles Dickens and his great work – A Christmas Carol, Christmas became one of (popular) festivals around the world.
Charles Dickens was known (wide) as a writer at the age of 31. But life wasn't easy for . His last book didn't seem to sell well. What was worse, some of his friends (keep) borrowing money from him and his wife was going to give birth to their fifth baby ...... He wondered he could afford (负担得起) it or not. On an October evening, he walked along the Thames (泰晤士河), lonely and unhappy, hoping to find inspirations (灵感) for his next book. The moment he saw the terrible living conditions of homeless people, he came up an idea. Why not write a story (encourage) people in need before Christmas?
Luckily, this book became great success. Since then, it (spread) to non-English speaking countries. People all like his books because the spirit of his stories is always truth, goodness and beauty in humans.
How many languages do you think there are in the world? 1000? 3000? 5371? You are getting closer. In fact, there are 7,111 languages that are spoken today. But among them, some words are very common. Every day, we use the word a lot. "The meeting's at 2, OK?" "Are you OK?" "OK, no problem!"
Each year on March 23, people celebrate OK Day. And this year, the word "OK" turned 184 years old. It first appeared in the Boston Morning Post on March 23, 1839. It read: O.K. It was a short form of the phrase "oll korrect", a wrong spelling of "all correct". Although it began as a joke, people later used "OK" on formal occasions to say that all was well.
You may often see that some people use "OK" while others use "okay". Well, they're both spoken in the same way. But "OK" is the most popularly accepted spelling. It is often used in writing. Some people like "okay" because it looks more like a word.
People like OK for many reasons. It is easy to say, to write and to understand. If you say something is great, some people may disagree. But with "OK", almost everyone agrees.
You may not know the language of someone you are talking with, but saying "OK" along with gestures (手势) helps others understand you. So next time you travel to another country, don't worry if you don't know the language well. With "OK" and a few gestures, you can help yourself out.
A. "OK" is a neutral (中性的) word. B. "OK" is one such word! C. "OK" is welcomed around the world. D. "Okay" is also widely used in daily life. E. Where did this simple word come from? F. What's the difference between the two words? |
Subject: Chinese learning From: Jack To: Li Hua |
Dear Li Hua, How are you? It's been a long time since we wrote to each other. I miss you so much! I've been learning Chinese recently and I feel so stressed. There are so many Chinese characters to remember and I can't write them beautifully. What's worse, it's really difficult for me to pronounce Chinese well. What should I do? Could you give me some advice? Yours, Jack |
小词典：stressed 焦虑的； character 文字；
注 意：1、请回复邮件中涉及的所有问题，不可遗漏，并适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。2、文中不得出现真实的学校、姓名等信息。3、邮件开头与结尾已给出，不计入总词数。词数：80--100。
Dear Jack,
I'm glad to receive your e-mail. Learning Chinese is not difficult if you use correct methods. Here are some good ways I would like to share with you.
……
Hope that my suggestions will be helpful for you to become a good Chinese learner soon.
Yours,
Li Hua
