You may be familiar with the following famous people, but have you heard of their graduation speeches, in which they either share their unforgotten experiences or give you some great inspiration.
Michael Dell, University of Texas at Austin
And now you've accomplished something great and important here, and it's time for you to move on to what's next. And you must not let anything prevent you from taking those first steps. … You must also commit to the adventure. Just have faith in the skills and the knowledge you've been blessed（赐予）with and go.
J.K. Rowling, Harvard University
Half my lifetime ago, I was striking an uneasy balance between my ambition and the expectation from my parents who were not rich…But what I feared most of myself at your age was not poverty, but failure. The fact that you are graduating from Harvard suggests that you know little about failure, you might be driven by a fear of failure quite as much as a desire for success.
Steve Jobs, Stanford University
Sometimes life's going to hit you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith…Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work, and the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking and don't settle.
Bill Gates, Harvard University
We need as many people as possible to have access to the advanced technology to lead to a revolution in what human beings can do for one another. They are making it possible not just for national governments, but for universities, smaller organizations, and even individuals to see problems, see approaches and deal with the world's inequities（不公平）like hunger, poverty, and so on.
The next generation of artificial intelligence (AI) may be sitting right beneath you, at least if furniture maker Ikea has any say in the matter. The Swedish furniture company's “future-living” research lab in Copenhagen is conducting a survey to understand what people want when it comes to smart furniture.
AI is now walking into more aspects of people's daily lives. Self-driving cars are just around the corner, and AI robots can play and beat the best players of strategy games. As smart home technologies have become more ubiquitous, products ranging from smart electrical outlets（插座）to smart smoke alarms are flooding the market. Therefore, it's not surprising that Ikea would be moving in the same direction.
Exactly why people would want their sofa or bed frame to speak to then, track their daily movements or offer help is not yet clear. Though Ikea's the new survey doesn't directly answer that question, it does provide a hint of what people would feel comfortable with. Most participants wanted a more human0like form of virtual（虚拟的）assistants, as opposed to one that is more robotic. In terms of the ideal gender（性别）of the assistants, the most popular choice was neither male nor female. Few wanted a religious form of AI.
Just as with human friends, most wanted AI friends that were like them, affirming their own worldview. They wanted an AI assistant that was reasonably intelligent-that could collect data to predict what a person wanted before he or she asked, and that could prevent someone from making mistakes.
This is not the first time that Ikea has set foot in the field or futuristic technologies. In addition to wireless charging tables and chainless bikes that never rust（生锈）, the furniture giant has also pictured smart kitchens that can cook the best meal. To decide on how intelligent you want your next sofa or bookshelf to be, you can take Ikea's survey online.
It is that time of year when people need to lock their cars. It's not because there are a lot of criminals running around stealing cars. Rather, it's because of the good-hearted neighbors who want to share their harvest. Especially with this year's large crop, leaving a car unlocked in my neighborhood is an invitation for someone to stuff it full of zucchini（西葫芦）.
My sister-in-law, Sharon, recently had a good year for tomatoes. She and her family had eaten and canned so many that they began to feel their skin turn slightly red. That's when she decided it was time to share her blessings. She started calling everyone she knew. When that failed, she began to ask everyone in the neighborhood like a politician, eventually finding a neighbor delighted to have the tomatoes. "Feel free to take whatever you want," Sharon told her. She felt happy that she could help someone and that the food didn't go to waste.
A few days later, Sharon answered the door. There was the neighbor, holding some bread. The neighbor smiled pleasantly, "I want to thank you for all of the tomatoes, and I have to admit that I took a few other things and hope you wouldn't mind."
Sharon couldn't think of anything else in her garden that had been worth harvesting and said no. "Oh, but you did," the neighbor said. "You had some of the prettiest zucchini I've ever seen."
Sharon was confused. Zucchini in her garden? They hadn't even plated any zucchini. But her neighbor insisted that there really were bright-green zucchini in her garden. The two of them walked together into the backyard. When the neighbor pointed at the long green vegetables, Sharon smiled, "Well, actually, those are cucumbers that we never harvested, because they got too big, soft and bitter for eating or canning."
The neighbor looked at Sharon, shock written all over her face. Then she smiled, and held out the bread that she had shared all over the neighborhood, "I brought you a loaf of cucumber bread. I hope you like it."
Persuasion is to convince someone to agree with you, just like art which also calls for special techniques to accomplish. According to the ancient Greeks, there are three basic tools of persuasion: ethos, pathos and logos.
Ethos is a speaker's way of convincing the audience that he is trustworthy, honest and reliable. One common way a speaker can develop ethos is by explaining how much experience or education he has in the field. After all, you're more likely to listen to advice about how to take care of your teeth from a dentist than a fireman.
Pathos is a speaker's way of connecting with an audience's emotions. For example, a politician who is trying to convince an audience to vote for him might say that he alone can save the country from a terrible war. These words are intended to fill the audience with fear, thus making them want to vote for him. Similarly, an animal charity might show an audience pictures of injured dogs and cats to make thee viewers feel pity, so they will be more likely to donate money.
Logos is the use of facts, statistics or other evidence to support your argument. An audience will believe you if you have convincing data to back up your claims. Presenting this evidence is much more persuasive than simply saying “believe me”.
Although ethos, pathos and logos all have their strengths, they are often most effective when used together. So, the next time you listen to a speech, watch a commercial or listen to a friend try to convince you to lend him some money, be on the lookout for these ancient Greek tools of persuasion.
Test anxiety can be a real problem if you're so stressed out over a test that you can't get past the nervousness to focus on the test questions and do your best work. Feeling ready to meet the challenge can keep test anxiety at a manageable level.
Be prepared. Some students think that going to class is all it takes to do well on tests. You will find your test anxiety eases when toy start to study more regularly. The reason is that the more you know the material, the more confident you'; feel. Having confidence going into a test means you expect to do well.
Watch what you're thinking. If expecting to do well on a test can help you relax, what about if you expect you won't do well? They can contribute to your anxiety. If you find yourself having these thoughts, replace them with positive ones. Not unrealistic positive messages, of course, but ones that are practical and true.
Accept mistakes. Another thing you can do is to learn to keep mistakes in view-especially if you are a perfectionist or you tend to be hard on yourself. Everyone makes mistakes, and you may have heard teachers refer to mistakes as learning opportunities.
If sitting for a test gets you so stressed out that your mind goes blank and causes you to miss answers that you know, then your level of test anxiety probably needs some attention. Your teacher or your school guidance counselor（顾问）can be good people to talk to.
Take care of yourself. For some people, this might mean learning a simple breathing exercise. Practise breathing exercise regularly when you feel stressed. Then you can calm yourself down and get centered.
A. Ask for help.
B. Learn to praise yourself.
C. This helps your body receive a signal to relax.
D. But good study habits and skills are more important.
E. So it's time to regard small failures as valuable experiences.
F. Then you will become more interested in asking questions.
G. You may send yourself some negative messages about the test.
My 8-hour sleepy voyage finally came to an end after I stepped out of the airport. 1 on the bus, I was waiting anxiously for it to start.
A woman beside me and her daughter both seemed 2. She told me that her daughter had an upset stomach and would3 continuously; 4, the mother had lost her purse. Apart from a significant 5 of money, the purse also had her phone and a phone number of an important 6. She would meet him for discussing a(n) 7 matter which had to be 8 by tomorrow morning.
I handed her my cellphone without 9 and told her that she could make any 10 she wanted. I also produced a bottle of water I had in my bag to relieve her daughter of her 11. After making several calls, they finally 12 to the official! They turned to look at me 13 and thanked me many times. The woman tried to 14 for my assistance, but I refused 15 I knew she had lost her money.
The next morning, I received a call from the mother, saying that they couldn't 16 how much my generous act touched them. They were so 17 that they had taken down my number to thank me. I was astonished to be thanked in this way. I never thought my simple offer 18 so much in her heart. And I thought of how many opportunities for kindness we had lost by plugging into cellphones and being disconnected 19 the reality around us-something with easy 20 may make a big difference to others.
When we mention the most famous Chinese painting of the Northern Song Dynasty, the image coming into people's mind (be) Qingming Shangle Tu or Along the River During the Qingming Festival.
This painting is important several reasons. First, up till that time, almost all Chinese paintings were landscapes, (contain) no or only a few images of people. Second, this is the first scroll（卷轴）painting (describe) both Chinese urban and suburban life during the period in the capital, Bianjing (now Kaifeng in Henan Province). Third, the painting is (high) detailed and features shops of all kinds and different economic (activity) in and out of the city. People are able to see the Chinese technologies of the time, which helps them great deal in understanding the Chinese lived.
The Beijing Palace Museum keeps the (origin) Song painting and one of its famous copies-the Qing version (hold) in the National Palace Museum in Taipei.
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（∧），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：在错的词下画一横线，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。
Times waits for no man. This is something I learned very clear last term. I spent so much time fool around that my grades began to fall. I finally realize that something necessary had to done. It was time of a change.
Now I have a new plan for using my time wisely. I have set my alarm clock ahead half a hour. This will give him a head start on the day. I have also been decided to keep a record of what I do and when I do it. Looking back on which I've done will give me some idea on how to rearrange my time.
1）向他表达生日祝福；
2）介绍中国的茶文化（4000多年历史、种类繁多、好处等）；
3）希望他将来有机会来中国时体验中国茶文化；请他介绍加拿大咖啡文化。
注意：1）词数100左右，（开头结尾已给出，不计入词数）；
2）可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
Dear Smith,
How time flies! ……
Yours,
Li Hua
