Drive south from San Francisco on scenic Highway One to the once sleepy beach town of Half Moon Bay, where you'll find Francis Beach, part of the Half Moon Bay State Beaches. With summertime water temperatures ranging from 13 to 18 degrees, a wet suit for swimming and surfing is a must. Although it's often foggy, on clear days you can see out to Pillar Point Harbor, a wonderful fishing site.
Rent a sea kayak(小艇) from Half Moon Bay Kayak Co, the first kayak company in the country to equip their boats with a GPS tracking device(装置). You can rent such a sea kayak and you will be at perfect surf wave, Mavericks($15 per hour; www.hmbkayak,com).
Hikers and runners will enjoy the gentle wind along the waterfront seaside path, connecting several beaches, or at the paths of Pursima Cree Redwoods Open Space Preserve in the hills above town.
Where to eat: Stay by the Half Moon Bay Brewery for high quality dishes, made with locally grown ingredients, or go back with the locals and a Maverick's Amber Ale on the waterfront deck(www.hmbbrewingco.com).
Where to stay: For five-star expensive hotels, check into the Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon Bay (from $305, www.ritzcarlton.com/resorts/half moon bay/). Enjoy the open-air dishes in the comfort of the new Ocean Terrace Restaurant overlooking the sea and be sure to enroll(使加入)the kids in the year-round Rita Kids program. For even more open-air living, book one of the 52 seaside campsites at Francis Beach's state campground. In April, the campsite equipment was renewed and now includes hot showers ($25 a night; www.reserveamerica.com).
a. Swimming b. surfing c. hiking d. fishing e. enjoying the open-air dishes f. enrolling the kids in the Ritz Kids program
Max Vernon Mathews has been called the father of computer music. He created electronic tools so that people could use computers as musical instruments. He had a huge influence on the development of electronic music and how it is written, recorded and played.
In 1957, Max Mathews wrote the first computer program that enabled a computer to create sound and play it back. At the time, he was working as an engineer at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey. His computer program was called Music. It enabled a large IBM computer to play a seventeen-second piece of music that he had written.
The computer was so slow that it would have taken an hour to play the piece of music in seventeen seconds. For that reason, Mathews moved the work to a tape player, which could be sped up to play the music at a normal speed. He later said that the sound quality of the musical notes was not great, but the technical importance of the music was huge.
The science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke visited Bell Laboratories in the 1960s. He heard a computer "sing" the song "Daisy Bell" on devices and programs developed by Max Mathews and other engineers. Clarke noted this technology in his book 2001: A Space Odyssey, which was later made into a movie.
Mathews continued creating other versions of the Music program. He became interested in how computers could help musicians outside recording studios. The Groove program he developed was the first computer program made for live performances. He also developed an electronic device he called the Radio Baton. The device looks like two drum sticks. It enables the user to control the speed and sound levels of orchestral music played on a computer. The user does this by moving the two sticks on a special electronic surface.
Max Mathews believed modern musicians are not making full use of the power of computer music. He said a violin always sounds like a violin. But with a computer, the way a violin sounds is unlimited. He said he did not want computer sounds to replace live music. But he said he hoped laptop computers would one day be considered serious instruments.
We know more about the surface of the planet Mars than we know about what is at the bottom of Earth's oceans. Until recently, scientists had mapped only about 20 percent of the sea floor. But our knowledge of the deep seas is changing because of information from satellites. Scientists have produced a new map that provides a detailed picture of the oceans.
The new map is twice as detailed as the map made 20 years ago. David Sandwell is a geophysics professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California. He and other scientists worked on the mapping project. He says they turned to space to look deeper into the ocean.
"The way we're doing that is to use a satellite altimeter(测高仪), a radar to map the topography(地形) of the ocean surface. That is because the ocean surface topography is different because of gravitational(引力的) effects."
The scientists collected and studied information from two satellites. One was the European Space Agency's Cryo-2 satellite that was placed in Earth's orbit to watch sea ice. The other satellite is the American space agency's Jason-1, studying the surface of the oceans. Scientists combined the satellite data with images gathered by equipment on ships. The equipment works by sending sound waves through the water. When the sound waves hit an object, its presence is confirmed.
The new map shows the sea floor as it has never been seen before. It shows thousands of underwater mountains and places where continents pulled apart. It shows where earthquakes were active many years ago. In one place, three mountain ridges(山脊) join at the same area. "It's called the Indian Ocean Triple Junction. It's one of my favorite spots in the ocean. You have three plates-the African plate, and the Indo-Australian plate and the Antarctic plate-all connected at this one point in the center of the Indian Ocean," says David Sandwell.
The map is a powerful tool for those interested in protecting the environment and for oil exploration. It also can help ships travel safely and improve scientific projects worldwide. Of course, scientists will make many more discoveries as they examine the new map and the information it provides.
How to Feel Attractive and Be Confident of Yourself
Feeling attractive and confident has little to do with your appearance and everything to do with how you feel about yourself on the inside. Every person is an individual and has attractive qualities to focus on.
Do what you can do.
. Don't complain about something that you are not willing to change. Begin dieting and exercising if you are overweight. Change your hairstyle, have your nails done or arch
(使成弓形) your eyebrows.
Let your hands swing, keep your neck straight and hold your shoulders back. Walking confidently will make you feel more attractive and be more confident.
Don't compare yourself to others.
You don't have to look like a model or a host on TV. However, you can learn to love yourself as you are. Make a list of your attractive qualities, and think about those each time you want to compare yourself with someone else.
Avoid negative thoughts about yourself.
View pictures that show you at your most attractive. Force yourself to think about the things you like about yourself rather than the things you don't like.
A. Walk confidently.
B. Focus on the areas over which you have control.
C. Learn how to be attractive and confident from models.
D. You will be happier when you don't need to compare with others.
E. The way you handle yourself can make you feel more attractive and confident.
F. Focus on achievements that will make you feel more confident and attractive.
G. Each time you think something negative, replace it with a positive thought or action.
A mother was criticizing her daughter after watching the girl was not good enough to compete at a championship level during the daily training in the gymnastics camp.
The scene reminded me of my1of the day when one of my own gymnastic performances put me close to tears.
My mother became seriously ill when she was young, and she has 2a wheelchair ever since. But she never let that3her. She has raised five children and has a career as well.
One day I joined a gymnastics program at a nearby park. Before long, I was totally4in it. By 1972, I was on the National Gymnastics Team for the Olympic Games. I couldn't think of anything else but 5 a gold medal.
Before the competition, all in my mind was6not to disgrace (使……丢脸)my country and myself. But, though I tried my best, I didn't win a gold medal. I was so7. When the winners were receiving8, I joined my parents in the stands, and we all cried. "I'm sorry. I did my best," said me.
She said nothing but ten words I never9, "Doing your best is more important than being the best." Suddenly I understood my mother10than ever before. She had never let her handicap(残疾) 11her from always doing her best.
Now I approached the crying girl and put a(n)12around her. "Honey," I said." I know you have done your best, and doing your best is more important than being the best. I'm 13 you."
She 14at me with tears in her eyes. Maybe somewhere, someday, she'll15those words along.
According to a review of evidence in a medical journal, runners live three years (long) than non-runners. Two of the authors of the review also made a study published in 2014 showed a mere five to ten minutes a day of running reduced the risk of heart disease and early death from all (cause).
(avoid) knee pain, you can run on soft surfaces, do exercise to strengthen your leg muscles, avoid hills and get running shoes. Running is always (energy). If you are time poor, you need run for only half the time to get the same benefits as other sports, so perhaps we should all give it a try.
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5处，多者（从第6处起）不计分。
When I was little, Friday's night was our family game night. After supper, we would play card games of all sorts in the sitting room. As the kid, I loved to watch the cartoons, but no matter how many times I asked to watch them, my parents would not to let me. They would say to me that playing card games would help my brain. Still I unwilling to play the games with them sometimes. I don't realize how right my parents were until I entered high school. The games my parents taught me when I was a child turned out to be very useful later in my life.
1）充分理解所要背诵的诗歌；
2）纠正发音；
3）多交中国朋友。
注意：
1）词数100字左右（开头和结尾已给出，不计入总数）；
2）可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
3）参考词汇：朗诵比赛reciting contest
Dear Emily
……
Yours,
Li Hua
