A
In the summer of 1848, in Guatemala, a man called Ambrosio Tut went out into the jungle, as he did almost every day. Tut was a gum collector, looking for gum in the jungle. To do this, he had to climb the trees. One day, he got to the top of one tree and something caught his eye. He looked out across the trees and saw the tops of some old buildings.
Tut didn't really know what he had seen but he knew it was something special. He ran to tell the local governor excitedly, and together they walked into the jungle. There they found Tikal, the city that the Mayans had built, many hundreds of years before. The two men saw pyramids, squares and houses.
For a long time before that day, local people had known that somewhere in the jungle there was an old Mayan city. But no one had seen it for centuries. Between 200 and 900 AD, the city of Tikal had ben the centre of Mayan civilisation in the area, but then the Mayas let it—nobody knows why! After 1000 AD, the jungle began to cover it. And then people forgot that it was there.
Seven years before Tut found Tikal, two British explorers had gone to Guatemala and had written a report about Mayan treasures in the jungle—but they hadn't mentioned Tikal. Even earlier than this, local Indians had told people about a great city hidden in the trees, but no one had listened to them. So they lost the chance to find the treasure. Now the lost city had been found again, and people went there immediately to see it.
B
Atlantic puffins（角嘴海雀）are specially used to living on the open sea. Their feathers allow them to stay warm as they float at the ocean's surface or swim underwater. Diving as deep as 60m, they swim by flapping their wings as if flying through the water. There, they hunt herring, capelin, and sand eels.
Atlantic puffins are also excellent fliers. Flapping their wings at up to 400 beats per minute, puffins can reach speeds of 88km/h.
April to mid-August is the breeding season for puffins. When a puffin is around three to five years old, it will choose a partner at sea to mate with for life. It is thought that the birds' colourful bills and feet, which fade in the winter and brighten in the spring, help puffins find their potential（可能的）mates.
Puffins create shelter（庇护所）, about 90cm, in rocky cliffs either in the soil or between rocks. Often, couples will return to the same shelter year after year. At the back of the shelter, they build a nest lined with grasses, seaweed, and feathers. After the female lays a single egg, both parents take turns incubating（孵化）the egg for about 40 days.
Once the chick hatches, the mother and father will take turns bringing it fish to eat several times a day. Atlantic puffins have the ability to carry several fish in their beaks at one time. The ridges（脊）at the top of their bill hold the fish in place, which allows puffins to keep their mouth open to catch more fish without losing any. In general, they can hold around ten fish in their beak at one time.
In the wild, puffins can live around 20 years. Their main predator is the great black-backed gull, which can capture a puffin mid-flight or attack a puffin on the ground. Gulls are also a threat because they steal puffins' fish (sometimes right from their mouths), and they pull puffin chicks or eggs from their nests.
C
The idea of spending a year away from home is something that attracts nearly everyone. So why is taking a gap year still considered the wild card（百搭牌）?
Choosing to take a year out can help you gain valuable experience as well as give you the opportunity to save up some funds to help you with accommodations when you go to university.
For a teenage student, the prospect of providing for yourself, miles away from home, can be discouraging. But with an increasing number of gap year companies providing travel and trips abroad to suit any need, it is becoming easier to tailor a dream trip.
You can also find gap year companies that cover everything from internships（实习）abroad to paid work and volunteering. Such companies offer ideas and inspiration to kick-start your travelling dream.
But gap years don't have to be all about travel. You can have a beneficial year out of education and stay right where you are. Stephanie Wood wants to be a mental health nurse, but with related health courses being some of the most exclusive and competitive around, she is taking a year off from education in order to gain an edge through work experience: “My plan is to get a job that directly relates to my course for the next few months. Working there over a stretch of time will both give me an impression and insight into the working world of nursing—knowledge to help me through university when I choose to go.”
Gap years aren't for everyone. Readjusting to an academic timetable after spending time abroad can be a shock. You also need to consider the practicalities, from financing your gap year to surviving without home comforts.
D
Many people expect that they can learn a language fast. But learning a language well requires time and determination.
I came to Finland four years ago. I realized soon that if I wanted to become part of the Finnish society and befriend the Finns, I would need to learn their language. My roommate, who was a Finn, was very helpful, repeating words and talking slowly to me, but of course he was not a professional teacher. So I had to be a self-learner. I carried a notebook and wrote down every Finnish word I heard. I took online courses, watched learning videos and went through all the study material I got my hands on. Luckily there are many chances to do that for free nowadays.
For me, as for many other people, the most difficult phase in learning a language is to start speaking it. You have to overcome your own barriers, especially the fear of making mistakes.
After staying three months in Finland I found a language cafe, which was a meeting point for Finnish language learners. As a beginner, I only knew how to introduce myself in Finnish, but here were many people to help me. It was also a relief to notice that I was not the only one struggling with the language.
I want to stay in Finland and I would like to build my life here. This is why I have also worked hard to write Finnish well. I have studied Finnish even harder after I got into the University of Helsinki to study international politics. Now I am finishing my studies and I am looking for a job where I can take advantage of my Finnish skills. Although it is difficult to get a professional job here, I'm not ready to give up yet.
Finnish makes me feel modest as there is still much to learn. So far, all the work I have done has paid off. I feel that I am now closer to the Finns.
We all want to do so much: complete our never ending list of tasks and projects, help everyone, travel everywhere, learn a lot of new skills, read every book and watch every good film. There isn't enough time in the day, nor do we have much attention to devote to everything.
Give up on trying to do it all. It is important for you to make your days count（有价值）. How do you do that? Here are some ideas:
When you eat a good meal, it's wasted if you actually ignore（不理会）it and are reading on your phone instead. It's an amazing meal only if you really enjoy it. In this way, if we enjoy each moment, they really matter.
Be satisfied. We always want to do more, be more, experience more. And so, we're never satisfied with the little we actually can do and experience. Instead, we should learn to be happy with what we've chosen to do, knowing that we let go of the rest for a reason.
Realize that we're not really in control. The first few items on this list might give you the idea that you can control your life by simplifying…but the reality is that your day will never go as planned. You can try, but there will always be the unexpected, the unplanned. We should learn to appreciate that experience as it comes, whatever it is.
A. Pay attention. B. That's just how things go. C. Yet we can't possibly do them all. D. Put only the best things in each day. E. Don't try to have the most perfect life you can create. F. We can accept the reality that is exposed when we let go. G. We should be thankful for what's actually in front of us and the experience we are given. |
Leon Logothetis is riding his yellow motorcycle, which he calls Kindness One. He is trying to 1 around the world on the kindness of 2. No money. No food. Nowhere to stay. Leon 3 on the generosity of the human spirit to keep him going.
"It's all about 4 other people," Leon said. So far, he's met with 5. In Las Vegas, a family gave him food and a place to sleep. In Nebraska, cowboys let him stay 6 them. "The American people have been 7," Leon said.
Andin Pittsburgh, after a dozen people had 8 him down, Leon met Tony, a 9 man who gave me his food and offered to let Leon sleep with him in a garage. "It was so inspiring for me," Leon said ."The people in Pittsburgh hadn't 10 helped but he offered me a place to stay and shared his food."
So just how far can 11 get you? Leon is determined to 12. "I used to be a manager in London, sitting behind a desk, 13 12 hours a day, and it wasn't for me." he explained. "Then I went and travelled the world and 14 with people. And that's what it's all about. That's where the 15 is: Connection. Heart to heart."
On his blog, Leon said he'll 16 a ship from New York to Europe, adding he'll do so "as a non-paying 17. Kindness Rocks!"
He also lists a trip that would 18 him travelling to France, Italy, Greece, India. Cambodia and Vietnam and other countries. His 19 will be shown on TV. The trip also serves to 20 money for Make-a-Wish Foundation.
Take a book; leave a book. When you walk on the streets of Germany, you feel you (surround) by books. In Germany, public bookshelves are lined across nation on street corners, city squares and supermarkets.
In the free-for-all (library), people can take whatever they want to read, and leave behind anything they want for (other). There's no need to register, no due date, and you can take or give as many as you want. This project is aimed at everyone who likes to read—without regard to age or education. It is open for . Each shelf holds around 200 books and it takes about six weeks for a complete turnover, with all the old titles (replace) by new ones. The public book shelves are usually cared for by local volunteer groups.
Germans think they should make easy for everyone to enjoy (read) in this “reading culture on the street”—from old readers to kids. While most of the shelves have so far been put up in rich neighbourhoods, they are (plan) to put up future shelves in poor neighbourhoods, people often don't have easy access to literature.
增加：在缺词处加一个漏子符号（∧）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。
We spend two weeks in London last year. We went there in autumn. We think it is the best season to visit England. The weather is usually good but there aren't too many tourists in October.
We stayed in a small hotel in the West End. It was convenient as we did most of our traveling by foot. We went to look at the places where all tourists see. We saw Buckingham Palace and the National Gallery. We went to shopping in Oxford Street and spent too many money. What we liked most, though, was going to theatre. We don't have the chance to see so wonderful plays at home. A lot of people say English food is very badly. We didn't think so. It's true that most of the restaurants are French or Italian or Chinese, but we had some very good meal.
