Just a few years out of law school, I decided that I wanted to write fictions. The only thing I had ever published before was a law-review article. I had made great efforts to write when I came home at night after work, but I was too tired. I decided to quit my job.
I began my new life on a February morning. I sat down at my kitchen table at 7:30 am and made a resolution. Every day I would write until lunchtime. Then I would lie down on the floor for 20 minutes to rest my mind. After that, I would return to work for a few more hours.
In my first year, I sold two stories. Then I wrote a novel, but I thought it wasn't good enough, so I ended up putting it in a drawer. My second novel, Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, was published to glowing reviews and received the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction.
My success sounds like a familiar story, but actually it was far from sudden. I quit my job, and for every story I published in those years, I had at least 30 rejections. The novel that I put away in the drawer took my four years. My breakthrough came in 2006, 18 years after I first sat down to write at my kitchen table.
Sometimes genius (天才) is just the thing that comes out after 20 years of working at your kitchen. Also, doing something truly creative requires the energy of youth. Orson Welles made his masterpiece, Citizen Kan, at 25. T. S. Eliot wrote The Love Song of J. Afred Prufrock at 23.
Years ago, students applying to colleges and universities had to have their applications and personal essays printed out and then “snail-mailed”. Flash forward to today's world of Facebook, Instagram and WeChat, where photos, videos and mobile phones rule. Fortunately, several new tools are making it easier for college applicants to use technology to show off their personalities, skills and creativity.
ZEEMEE
One of the more popular innovations in college applications is ZeeMee, a free mobile app that allows students to upload personal profiles and videos to create visual resumes. More than 220 colleges and universities offer a ZeeMee option as part of the application process. The video can show the unique creative aspects of the applicants.
THE COALITION LOCKER
Another relatively new tool comes from the Coalition for Access, Affordability and Success, now used by more than 110 member colleges and universities. Among the group's stated goals are getting students engaged in college prep early and using technology to create a supportive application process that encourages reflection and self-discovery.
Students who sign up for the free platform get access to a digital “locker”, which they can use all through high school to save class papers, artwork, newspaper stories, videos and photos to share with colleges when they eventually apply.
VIDEO — CHAT INTERVIEWS
At some schools, an interview with an admission officer is an important part of the application process. To make it easier, several virtual interviewing tools have popped up, such as a video-based platform from Kira. More than 140 universities worldwide use Kira's video assessment tool to conduct real-time interviews with prospective students. During the interview, candidates are shown the questions prerecorded by the particular school and must respond in real time by talking into the camera on their laptop or phone. In addition to showing their ability, to speak fluently in English and think on their feet, it helps admission officers determine the “motivation, commitment and drive” of applicants.
UNIQUE SCHOOL TOOLS
Some universities have come up with their own ways to allow students to show their skills and personalities. For example, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, encourages applicants to display their technical abilities and creativity by submitting a “Maker Portfolio” —a written or videotaped description of a project that shows creative and problem-solving skills. While a new app would fit the bill, the project could be anything from an origami design to a potato cannon.
Mexico sites on an island plateau (高原) surrounded by volcanic peaks, which makes air quality a constant concern for people who live there.
In April, the country took a decisive step toward improving air quality by enacting a temporary ban on private and Federal vehicles in the city. The rule forbids people from driving in the city one day each week and one Saturday each month. Electric vehicles, government service vehicles, public transport options and school buses are not included in the ban.
Mexico City isn't the first urban center to be involved in car-free living. But the ban is more than an awareness-raiser. It was enacted with the direct aim of solving air pollution. In March, the city sank into a deep brown haze of smog when the pollution levels passed the 200 mark. The city ordered some 1.1m of the area's 4.7m cars off the streets and also offered free bus and subway rides.
Mexico City's temporary vehicle ban raises questions about the best ways to improve urban air quality. India, whose citizens breathe some of the world's dirtiest air, has tried a variety of solutions. Earlier this year, the Indian government started a 4% sales tax on new-car purchases.
Beijing also has experience with cleaning the air. The city introduced alternate-day rules in advance of the 2008 Olympic Games, which produced good results. And then there is the London congestion (拥挤) charge, introduced in 2003. The charge has had a measurable effect on air quality.
For now, Mexico City — named by the United Nations as the most polluted city on the planet in 1992 — can look forward to the start of the region's rainy season, when daily showers will help lo clean the air.
Amazing concept images have shown what homes of the future could look like, as preparations are made for the world's first free from 3D-printed property (房产).
Experts will build a house called Curve Appeal, which will be 3D-printed off-site before being put together on-site to create two outside walls, a roof and an inside part. These four main sections will then be joined together.
Although 3D-printed buildings have been made before, this home - to be constructed in Chattanooga, Tennessee, later this year — will be the first of its kind, as it will contain no regular shapes or angles. The house is the creation of the design company WATG, based in London and California. The design for Curve Appeal draws inspiration from the Case Study House program.
The architects leading the program were famed for constantly pushing the limits in terms of minimalist (极简主义) materials, and trying to create open-plan spaces that focused on enhancing (增强) natural light. In a written statement, a spokesman for WATG said, “Employing many of the same modem design principles, Curve Appeal is the next evolutionary step. It's important that the architecture and the environment work together harmoniously. The chosen site is steps away from the Tennessee River in a beautiful wooded, sunlit area.”
WATG was awarded the first prize in the Freeform Home Design Challenge in 2016 and given prize money of $ 8,000 to make its plans a reality. The competition was aimed at architects, designers, engineers and artists. Participants were challenged to design a 600 to 800sq ft single-family home that rethinks traditional aesthetics (美学), ergonomics, construction, building systems and structure.
Over the last year, WATG's Chicago office has been developing their design with Branch Technology. This project is currently underway, working towards breaking ground later this year. Once completed, the Curve Appeal home will have open and light-filled inside living spaces.
The 21st century has introduced the world to a new way of doing Business. It's now a foregone conclusion that global commerce will be as revolutionized by it as Henry Ford's rnass-production techniques were a defining characteristic of the 1900s.
It allows Internet-based purchase and sales transactions involving almost anything to be safely conducted at lightning speed. Safeguards are in place to make identity cheating, charge back prevention and funds verification (核实) much more of a surety than anything the conventional means of payment in the non-cyber world can provide. E-currency may only exist in the cyber world, but that is nothing new. It was officially accepted by the countries of the European Union in 1999 to simplify business by abolishing exchange rates, but it began life 20 years before that by private financial institutions who saw it as an idea that had to happen. It is now arguably the second-most influential currency in the world.
Experiential shopping is the next big thing. You order online on your phone, card or whatever, and it's delivered to you by the time you get home. Money is being already lent to people based purely on the positive rankings a person has on a website. Online paying is so difficult. Also, we're moving to a world where we all have one online ID. Whether it's your face, your fingerprint, your credit card or your mobile phone remains to be seen.
A. In modem England, the way people spend, earn, save and invest is being revolutionized.
B. You've got your log-ins, your password, card numbers and so on for different websites.
C. When the euro has already gone, today's e-currencies will follow.
D. By 2002, the euro had evolved from cyber-tender to hard cash.
E. Shops are like museums you can touch.
F. The euro began in the same manner.
G. The Business is e-currency.
Three years ago, when I entered my school for the first time, I was welcomed by students wearing white shirts with a badge (徽章) saying "Prefect" on them, who greeted me with the1"Welcome to Huaxia Middle School". I was immediately impressed and2 I could be one of them. Then next year, in the summer of 2016, my wish3 when I was selected to be a prefect. Just like the ones4 me, I was to stand at the school gate and 5 new freshmen.
So, you may wonder, what 6 is a prefect? Prefects are student leaders in our school. They're usually top students7 from higher grades to help teachers run the school 8 of the classroom9 you're chosen to be a prefect, you need to be a nearly perfect student. Becoming a prefect wasn't10 for me. I used to be sensitive and 11 caring too much about what others thought of me. But since I was12 to become a prefect, I tried my best to be more brave and hardworking, making rapid13in a year.
The biggest benefit of being a prefect is that it teaches me to be14 and set an example for lower grade students. I was a member of the school soccer team, but I wasn't a good 15 and felt embarrassed about my poor 16. After having some students from lower grades join our team, however, I knew that I had to set a good example. So, I kept practicing my skills and 17 greatly.
Being a prefect doesn't 18 mean I have a badge on my shirt. It also means that I have a hardworking attitude deep in my19"You can make it," I always remind myself. Becoming a prefect has20 me to work harder and become an even better person.
China, which boasts epochal (划时代的) inventions in ancient times, has once again proved its ability (change) the world with its “new four great inventions”: high-speed railways, electronic payments, shared bicycles and online shopping. The new four great inventions are all related to China's high-tech innovation, which improved the quality of people's lives.
My wallet is no longer in use. I can buy and eat whatever I want (simple) with a tap of my phone, and even pancake sellers are using Alipay ( mobile payment).
The bikes (them) are not new, but the operating model of bike-sharing (base) on satellite navigation (导航) system, mobile payment, big data and other high technologies. Shared bikes are bringing cycling backpeople's lives... and they are making public transport more attractive and convenient, and (encourage) people to be more active.
It is increasingly clear that China is innovating (创新) and no longer copying western ideas. It is increasingly clear that China is leading in many (way) such as social messaging app WeChat. This is partlyChina skipped over the PC era-and went directly to mobile. China has the largest mobile use in the world.
growing number of foreigners hope to promote economic ( develop) in their home countries by highlighting (聚焦) the need for technological achievements like that of China.
增加：在缺词处加一个漏词符号（∧），并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线（\）划掉。
修改：在错的词下面划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1．每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；
2．只允许修改10处,多者(从第11处起)不计分。
The photo was taken during the sixty anniversary of our school. The elderly man on the picture attended our school 50 years ago, shortly after it founded. It was the first time he has been back to our school from he graduated and he was deeply impressed by its look. Once a young student, the elderly man now has gray hair or wrinkles, while our school has a new and more modem look. After all these years, he's still emotional when talking about that how proud he is of once being a student of our school. I was great touched by the scene. I know someday I'll have a same feeling as this lovely man.
1）目的；
2）个人情况．
注意：1）词数100左右，邮件开头和结尾已为你写好，不计入总词数；
2）可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯．
Dear Mr．Blake，
Yours，
Li Hua．
