—Sorry. I don't know. But he was here just now.
Who says only adults can influence the world? Teenagers can too. A good 1 is 20-year-old Canadian singer and songwriter Shawn Mendes.
Mendes is on Time magazine's list of the most influential teens of 2017. He is 2 as a role model (榜样) who always shares 3 ideas on social media (媒体).
Indeed, unlike others, Mendes uses social media in a good way. In 2012, he was still a high school student. One day, he put a clip (片段) of 4 singing Justin Bieber's song As Long as You Love Me on Vine, a video-sharing app. In only six seconds, he 5 to show his sweet voice and cute smile. By the next morning, he had 10,000 likes.
From there, he became a singer. His first album Handwritten topped the Billboard 200 chart in 2015. At 20 years old, he's the youngest artist on the Forbes Famous People 100 list thanks 6 to a strong showing on the road. He played over twenty festivals across Canada and 27 European shows.
Mendes 7tries to be himself. "There are lots of people who say 'act this way' and 'talk this way' on social media, but 8 worked for me was just being myself," he told Seventeen, a US teenager magazine. He keeps putting his music videos, good or bad, online.
He does so in life as well. During his first concert in Toronto, he asked for the house lights to be 9 and he sang without a microphone. A guitar accompanied (陪伴) him. "So I can see their faces, and see there are real people, that it's not just a 10," he told The Telegraph. "I'm not the best singer in the world. I'm just good at picking up what I want to sound like," he added.
Americans buy more bottled water than any other nation in the world. 29 billion bottles of water are drunk each year. It takes 17 million barrels of oil to make these bottles. That's enough oil to keep a million cars going for twelve months.
So why don't more people drink water from the tap in the kitchen? Some people drink bottled water because they think it is better for them than water out of the tap, but that's not true. In the United States, the government makes sure water from the tap is safe.
People love bottled water because it is convenient to take with them. But maybe if they understand the problems it makes, they will try drinking from a glass at home or carrying water in a reusable bottle instead of a plastic one. Although plastic water bottles can be turned into some other useful things, only a small number of them are reused. The rest are taken away in rubbish trucks, or even worse, they end up as rubbish on the land and in rivers, lakes, and the ocean. Plastic bottles take hundreds of years to break down.
Water is good for you, so keep drinking it. But think about how often you use plastic water bottles, and see if you can make a change. If you take one to school, don't throw it away — bring it home and put tap water in it for the next day.
The students have given Miss Chan the following:
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Passage 1 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland It is an interesting story about a girl named Alice, who follows the White Rabbit down a rabbit hole and finds herself in Wonderland. She not only finds the White Rabbit, but also meets other animals such as the Dormouse and the Caterpillar. During her adventure, Alice eats and drinks things that make her change in size. At last, Alice enters a garden, where she happens to see a trial (审判). The Knave of Hearts is accused (指控) of stealing the Queen of Hearts' pie, while the King of Hearts is the judge. As Alice argues with the Queen, the Queen becomes angry with Alice and orders her men to kill Alice. In the end, Alice grows to a huge size and knocks over the playing cards. Suddenly, Alice wakes from her dream. The classic Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, written by Lewis Carroll, an English author, was fantastic. It took you to a world of fantasy. The storyline is so imaginative. Alice, with her pleasant personality is attractive. It is one of the classics needed to complete your bookshelf. |
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Passage 2 The Wonderful Wizard of Oz It is an interesting story about a girl named Dorothy, who is taken away from her home in a storm and finds herself in the Land of Oz. Dorothy, together with her companions the Tin Woodman who wants a heart, the Scarecrow who wants a brain and the Cowardly Lion who wants courage, journeys in search of the wizard (巫师) in order to return home. After facing many difficulties they successfully meet the Great Oz, who in fact is not a wizard. However, the old man gives the Scarecrow a brain made of pins and needles, the Tin Woodman a heart made of silk and filled with sawdust, and the Cowardly Lion a bottle of courage. In the end, Dorothy finally gets home to where her aunt and uncle live. They are very glad to see she is safe. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, written by L. Frank Baum, is an enjoyable American classic. What I loved most were Dorothy's friends, who were always there when Dorothy needed help. Dorothy is also loved by everyone for her sweetness and honesty. If you have not read it, why don't you give yourself a treat? |
① they are about adventures
② the main characters are girls
③ the writers were born in America
④ they are both classic
They say that "travel is the best teacher" and there is no better example of this idea than the Ming dynasty travel writer and geographer Xu Xiake (1587-1641). His book The Travel Notes of Xu Xiake, not only encouraged a love of travelling among Chinese people but provided important scientific information about the country's land and geography.
Born into a wealthy
Jiangyin family 
Xu became interested in books about different places at an early age and wanted to travel. When he was 18, however, Xu's father died and so, it seemed, did his travelling dreams. He now was responsible for the family farm and taking care of his 60-year-old mother as tradition required.
But his mother had different ideas. Understanding her son's love of travel and valuing the knowledge he could get from such experiences, this modern-thinking woman refused to keep her son at home. She agreed that Xu could travel for three months every year, when there was less farm work.
So at the age of twenty and with his mother's support, Xu set off for the first time, leaving behind not only his mother but his new wife as well. He would repeat this goodbye each year for most of the next 30 years. During this time, he travelled throughout the Ming kingdom, carefully studying the lands he passed through and recording his experiences and many discoveries in a diary. This diary, which once had over 500,000 words, would finally become The Travel Notes of Xu Xiake.
Although rich, Xu avoided comfortable travel, preferring to go almost everywhere on foot. This way he could research the environment in detail and get a true picture of the natural world. Many of his trips were to hard-to-reach mountain areas, and through wild forests where few people lived. His willingness to face hardships came at a cost however. Progress was slow and tiring and he was frequently sick, robbed and beaten during his journeys.
Sadly Xu became seriously ill during his last and longest journey, a 4-year trip through the Southwest of China. He died in 1641, soon after returning to his hometown for the last time. When his diary was finally printed years after his death, much of it had been destroyed or lost. Although incomplete, it still made Xu a travelling legend (传奇人物) around the world.
a. He went on his first journey.
b. His book was finally printed.
c. He returned to his hometown for the last time.
d. He developed an interest in books about other places.
e. He started managing the family farm after his father died.
A high school history teacher once told us, "If you make one close friend in school, you will be the most lucky. A true friend is someone who stays with you for life." Experience teaches that he is right.
To most of us, friendships are considered very important, but we need to make it clear in our minds what kinds of friendship we want. You may ask yourself the following questions. Do we want to share ourselves or do we want to walk on surface?
For some people, many friendships on the surface are quite enough and that's all right. It's whether or not our expectations are the same as our friends' expectations. If so, the sharing of personal experiences including our tears as well as our dark dreams is the surest way to deepen friendships.
The greatest is to expect too much too soon. Deep relationships take time. Another "main difficulty" is the selfishness (自我中心；任性) to think one "possesses(控制)" the other, including his time and attention. In fact, friendships require actions in return. Finally, there is a question of taking care of. Unless you spend reasonable time together, talking on the phone, writing letters, doing things together, friendships will die away.
A. Good friendship is just not easily formed.
B. We should understand why we need friends.
C. Are they to be close or kept at arm's length?
D. What are some of the difficulties of friendship?
E. In other words, you must give as much as you take.
F. But at some point we need to make sure one thing.
You have to be careful when throwing away wet rubbish, which may include food or other kinds of rubbish. Maybe these kinds of waste have made a big mess when you've thrown (they) away before.
Shi Yuan, 14, from Shanghai Wenlai Middle School, has made a special plastic bag to solve this problem. plastic bag has a band of adhesive tape (粘贴带). When one end of the tape is open, the bag can (turn) upside-down. You can hold the bottom end and throw wet rubbish into a trash can (easy).
Shi came up with the idea after an unpleasant experience in which he got wet waste all over his pants while throwing it away. He found that many other people had the same problem. He decided to solve this problem and (invent) his special bag.
He first thought about using a gunny (麻布) bag or placing a bag break on his trash cans. But of these ideas worked. So he decided to just design his own rubbish bag. "I didn't want to put any extra burden (负担) on the bag, so I used adhesive tape." Shi said.
, the bag he made first was a one-off product and not environmentally friendly. So Shi kept on improving his design.
He remembered (read) about the adhesive used for Post-it notes (便利贴). Shi thought this weak glue could be used for the adhesive tape and allow the rubbish bag to be reused.
So far, he (sell) 2 million bags online. His bag has become popular in many communities. His father is quite proud of him.
" (child) like to play. Shi just changed the way he 'plays' and put his mind toward looking for a way to make life easier," Shi's father said.
The Chinese saying goes: Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. This is what the Seattle-based Fare Start does. Not only does the charity provide meals for the homeless but it also teaches them cooking skills that prepare them for jobs in food service.
In Seattle, 13.2% of people live below the poverty (贫穷) line since its beginning in 1999. Fare Start has grown, graduating 100 people from its adult cooking training program in 2013, 90% of whom went on to well-paid job within 90 days of graduation. 88% of those people still held their positions six months later.
At Fare Start, students begin their training with simple tasks like reading recipes (菜谱) and planning menus. Many also receive housing. In return, they are required to work. Starting with helping in the kitchen preparing meals for people, the trainees (实习生) move their way up the ranks, ending up in the kitchen of the Fare Start restaurant in downtown Seattle.
The practical skill-training and other support services allow successful graduates like Jayna. She lost her job as a nurse due to alcohol abuse. Since graduating from Fare Start, she has worked in a small house at Yellow stone National Park. She said, "I could not have put myself back together again. Fare Start did that for me."
Kevin is another success story. He found that having to show up at the same place every day kept him on track. Upon leaving Fare Start, Kevin began setting goals for his future and seeing them through—including holding down his job for almost a year.
Going forward, Fare Start plans to shift more focus to women especially women with children.
The writer uses numbers in Paragraph 2 to show Fare Start is. Both Jayna and Kevin must be to Fare Start.
White-furred animals are in danger of dying out. Climate (天气) change is causing a fall in snow cover, leaving them exposed (暴露的), a new study suggests.
Scientists in Poland have been following the worrying case of the white-coated weasel (白鼬), which sheds (褪去) its brown covering in the winter for a milky coat in order to blend easily into its icy environment.
But researchers have discovered that between 1997 and 2007 the number of days with snow cover was from 80 to 40 in Bialowieza Forest, Poland. It means that the little animals are caught out in a completely unsuitable environment, where they can be caught by foxes and crows. Scientists found that on days when there was little winter snow cover. The number of white-coated weasels they managed to catch fell to as low as 20 percent of the total. It meant that the rest had been killed.
The problem is likely to affect other white-furred animals such as the Arctic fox when the snow cover increasingly gives way to a landscape (风景) of greens and browns.
In the near future white weasels may disappear completely from many areas of Northern Europe and America. They will either be replaced by brown ones or they will evolve (进化).
Researchers also carried out tests using toys of brown and white-coated weasels to see if the colors were actually making a difference to predators (捕食者). They found lots of animals had come near to the white toys, but none had shown interest in the brown toys.
The researchers are hopeful the animals will learn to adapt (适应), but say they cannot rule out the animals disappearing completely.
