Four teenage girls from Minnesota, US. 120 hours of non-stop togetherness. No cellphones. This is not a reality show, but an adventure journey.
"It was really perfect," said Julia Ruelle of her recent adventure to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness with three of her childhood friends. "By unplugging, we had an amazing time."
Last year, the 16-year-old took part in an essay contest and carried off a prize. The award was a 5-day canoe and camping adventure with up to three friends. No parents or guides would be there. So Julia invited her friends Anna Wander, Madeline Wilson and Julianna Torelli.
The four Minnetonka High School juniors arrived in Ely for training the day before they began the journey. They set out the next day at 7 a.m., quickly developing a routine.
"We were done paddling by noon," Julia said. "We ate lunch at the campsites and then it was time for hammocks (吊床), reading, making friendship bracelets (手镯) and talking."
The girls had all had experience in the outdoors before.
Anna had been to the Boundary Waters with her family. "I love how you are separated from everything in your life, especially technology," Anna said. Without her phone, she said, "I'm less worried about things." Madeline, too, had been to the Boundary Waters a few years back. "But this time, I had to paddle right and set up camp," she said. The girls made fire and cooked meal together. No one was ever hungry or homesick, but they were nervous the final night as they waited out a thunderstorm. They left wet sleeping bags in one tent, and squeezed into another for the night. "Every thunderstorm in the Boundary Waters feels huge," Julia said.
On the car ride home, they were all on their phones catching up with friends. "It was a little at a loss turning my phone on," said Anna. "Mental health can be improved so much in the Boundary Waters. It really helps to get away and reconnect with yourself."
On a recent trip to the island of Newfoundland, Canada, my husband asked our talkative cab driver what made him most proud to be a native.
"Our generosity and hospitality (好客)" he replied in a strong local accent. "If your car breaks down in the middle of nowhere, someone will stop to help. People here are kind like that." His answer rang in my mind during that ride with my husband and teenage kids, as we headed out to explore on the first day of our vacation.
Little did I know we were about to experience some of that remarkable Newfoundland kindness for ourselves. We met Alma that same morning at the start of a long hike. Our teenagers hurried ahead, and as we walked behind, admiring the scenery, two women in sunglasses and summer hiking equipment stopped. They'd heard us discussing different routes, and then asked if we'd like suggestions. They looked to be in their 40s, and were both enthusiastic to share their local expertise.
We listened eagerly, taking mental notes, until one of the women asked, "You have a car, right?" I explained that there were no cars available during our week on the island, so we had to rely on cabs instead.
"Oh no," she said, "you need a car." And then, as casually as if offering a piece of chewing gum (口香糖), she said, "Take mine!" My husband and I just smiled in disbelief, dumbfounded.
"Why not?" she insisted. "You need a car to get to know all these places."
"But you don't even know us," I said.
"That doesn't matter," she continued with absolute determination.
Surprised, I looked over at her friend, who shrugged and said, "That's Alma."
Forty minutes of talking later, my family climbed into Alma's car. We spent the rest of our vacation discovering different areas of this beautiful island. But it wasn't the groups of whales we saw, or the vast areas of woodland, that made this place so memorable. Instead, it was the act of kindness from a complete stranger that made us realize how special Newfoundland really was.
Next year, there's no doubt where we'll be taking our summer vacation. Who knows what act of kindness we'll meet then?
Have you ever heard someone say "You totally look like you're a Jessica" or something similar? People seem to think that they know what kind of person a "Jessica" or a "Michael" looks like. Why is this?
According to a study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, humans tend to associate people's names with their appearances, and can even guess someone's name based on how they look.
Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, collected thousands of photos of people's faces. They labeled (贴标签于) each photo with four names. Then, they asked volunteers to guess which of the four names was correct.
The volunteers were able to guess the right name 38% of the time. It seems that certain characteristics of faces give them clues about someone's name, Reader's Digest reported.
However, this only worked when the volunteers looked at names from their own culture. In addition, the volunteers were not as good at guessing the real names of people who used nicknames(昵称)more often than their real names. This may show that a person's appearance is affected by their name only if they use it often.
"This kind of face-name matching happens because of a process of self-fulfilling prophecy (预言), as we become what other people expect us to become," Ruth Mayo from tile university told science news website EurekAlert.
Earlier studies have shown that gender (性别) and race stereotypes (刻板印象) can affect a person's appearance. The researchers believe there are also similar stereotypes about names. For example, people tend to think that men named Bob should have rounder faces because the word itself looks round. People may think that women named Rose are beautiful. They expect them to be "delicate" and "female", just like the flower they are named for.
For as long as we've known about it, humans have searched for a cure for cancer. Across the world, countless amounts of time and money have been spent on researching a way to stop this terrible disease. But now, it seems like the answer could have been inside our own bodies the whole time.
Recently, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the US, a government agency that's responsible for healthcare, approved a new form of gene therapy (疗法) that could mean the end of a certain type of cancer.
The therapy allows scientists to "train" the immune (有免疫力的) cells of sick patients to fight leukemia (白血病)—a form of blood cancer that mostly affects young people.
The exciting new treatment works by removing healthy immune cells from the patient, known as T-cells, which are then changed to be able to "hunt down" cancer cells.
The cells are then put back into the patient before they begin to get rid of the patient's leukemia over time, similar to how the body fights off other illnesses.
"This is truly an exciting new day for cancer patients," Louis J. DeGennaro, president of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, said in a news release.
Up until now, a long and painful marrow transplant (骨髓移植) was the only option for many leukemia patients.
In this procedure, healthy blood cells are taken from a donator and placed into the sick patient, who also has to go through chemotherapy (化疗) to allow their body to adjust to the new cells.
But with a recovery rate of around 83%—according to a news release published by the FDA—it's hoped that the days of painful trips to the hospital, or even death, are over for leukemia sufferers.
"We're entering a new frontier in medical innovation (创新) with the ability to reprogram a patient's own cells to attack a deadly cancer," FDA representative Scott Gottlieb said in the release. "New technologies such as gene and cell therapies hold the potential to transform medicine and our ability to treat and even cure many incurable illnesses."
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A. but they are very time-consuming B. all you need is an Internet connection C. when a friend suggested that I try a MOOC D. I chose a six-week Social Psychology course E. it is difficult to find a course to combine with work F. But the advantages of MOOCs for busy people today are obvious G. In fact, that seems to be one of the problems of this new way of studying |
I've always been interested in why we do the things we do, so last year I decided I'd like to study psychology. Most courses I found, however, were either too expensive, too long or were impossible to combine with work. I was about to give up .
At first, I had no idea what they were talking about, but they explained that a MOOC is a Massive Open Online Course—a new type of course offered completely online to thousands of people, which is designed so that anyone can follow it, regardless of age, location or education—. You can search for hundreds of different subjects, and can usually watch a short introduction video to get an idea of what the course is about.
. At first, I didn't know what to expect or how much time I might spend studying. Each week there were video lectures to watch and readings to do as well as some short assignments. The lectures were really interesting and easy to follow, and it was great to be able to watch them again or pause them to go and do something else. Most MOOCs have online forums (论坛), too, where students can discuss what they are learning. These are often really fascinating because there are so many different opinions, . If you read everything on the forums, you won't have time to finish the lectures!
. There is a huge range of courses on offer in hundreds of subjects, and you have the chance to learn new things and be in contact with many different types of people, all from the comfort of your own home. Why not check out a MOOC and start learning something new today?
Cheques have largely replaced money as a means of exchange, for they are widely accepted everywhere. Though this is very 1 for both buyers and sellers, it should not be forgotten that cheques are not real money: They are quite 2 in themselves. A shopkeeper always faces a certain 3 when he accepts a cheque and he is quite within his rights if, on occasion, he 4 to do so.
People don't always 5 this and are shocked if their good 6 is called into question. An old and very wealthy friend of mine told me that he had ever had an extremely 7 experience. He went to a famous jewelry shop which kept a large stock of precious stones and asked to see some necklaces. After examining carefully, he 8 to buy a particularly fine diamond necklace and asked if he could pay by cheque. The assistant said that this was quite in order, but the moment my friend 9 his name, he was invited into the manager's office.
The manager was polite, and he explained that someone with exactly the same name had 10 them with a worthless cheque not long ago. My friend got very 11 when he heard this and said that he would buy a 12 somewhere else. When he got up to leave, the manager told him that the police would arrive at any moment and that he had better stay there 13 he wanted to get into serious trouble. Sure enough, the police arrived soon afterwards. They politely 14 to my friend for the inconvenience, but explained that a person who had used the same name as his was 15 for a number of recent robberies. Then the police asked my friend to 16 a note which had been used by the thief in several shops. The note read: "I have a gun in my pocket. Ask 17 questions and give me all the money in the safe." 18, my friend's handwriting was quite unlike the thief's. He was not only 19 to go without further 20, but to take the diamond necklace with him.
Learning English used to be about developing four skills: reading, writing, listening and speaking. After all, that's the exams are designed—with four skills tested separately.
But over the years, educators have come (realize) that these four skills should never have been separated, but practiced all at once. And the best way to do that is, perhaps, through public speaking.
According to Mei Deming, a professor of English at Shanghai International Studies University, giving a speech in an international language (require)a speaker to integrate (使成为一体) knowledge and content (mental)and express the result systematically. Speakers must draw on the beauty of the language as a whole in order to communicate with an audience.
This is why the annual China Daily "21st Century Cup" National English Speaking Competition has been gaining in popularity since it began in 1996. "This competition has worked a model for developing students' public-speaking skills in English and provided ideas for English teaching in schools and in learning in a broader sense," said Mei.
Shi Guohua, English teacher at Shanghai Qibao High School, held a similar view. He said that key competence in acquiring English today comes from the ability to express oneself rather than in simply passing exams.
He also (stress) that communication should go both ways since traditional English speaking education has focused too much on getting messages out while (ignore)the receiver of these messages—the audience. "It's important to understand the audience and build the link between the content being delivered and the interests of the audience," he said. "It's also important to create an impressive opening to a speech."
As China continues to play an important role in global conversations, there will be more (chance) for young Chinese people to present China and tell attracting stories. And in order to tell Chinese stories (well), we first need to develop a more overall English skill. Working on public speaking is, perhaps, the place to start.
以下作文。文中共有10处语言错误，每句中最多有两处。每处错误仅涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。 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。
Hearing you're worried the coming exam, I can quite understand you because we're in the same boat. But I think we can deal with it properly and my suggestion are as follows.
First of all, it's normal for us to be nervous till faced with the exam which we think is important. Secondly, we'd better try our best to study hard and built a solid foundation, and then we'll feel confidence of winning by then. Thirdly, no matter how we felt, the exam is still approaching. So, why not to face it bravely? After all, it is our learning process which really determines our success. If we always spare no effort on your studies, there is no need to worry, because we've done all we should. So please stay calm and relaxing. I hope my suggestions will be of help to you.
注意：①词数100左右；②可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；③开头和结尾已为你写好，不计入总词数。
Dear Frank,
Best wishes,
Li Hua
