—You should ________ a study group to help them.
Xian Xinghai was a very famous musician in China. He wrote one of the greatest pieces of music of the 20th century. In his short life he wrote1300 songs and an opera.
Xian was born in Panyu, Guangzhou, China in 1905. Because his father died before he was born, Xian moved from place to place with2mother. He began learning to play3violin when he was 20 years old. In the beginning, his violin was4cheap and badly made that he5not play it well. His friends laughed at him. Xian did not stop6and soon showed his talent. In 1934, he was one of the first Chinese students7studied in a special music school in Paris. Before he8, Xian became the school's best student9won several prizes for his talents.
In 1935, he returned to China and helped fight against the Japanese army. Later, he came to Yan' an10music at a collage.11there were no pianos in Yan' an at that time, Xian still wrote12of his most important music there, including The Yellow River, his most famous work.
In May 1940, Xian13to the Soviet Union by the Chinese Communist Party to write music for movies. In the Soviet Union, life was very14. Xian got sick and later died of a lung illness15October 30,1945, aged only 40. Xian's music, however, lives on in people's hearts.
Scientiststhink that there has been life on earth for millions of years. However, wehaven't found life on other planets yet. The earth is a planet and it goesaround the sun. And there are seven other planets that also go around the sun.The sun and its planets are called the solar system. The solar system is asmall part of the universe.
Scientistshas launched many spaceships to explore other planets in the solar system. Somespaceships have gone beyond the solar system. However, no one has discoveredany life in space yet.
Why has noone from other planets sent us a message? Have they tried to send informationto us? With so many stars in space, are we alone, or is there life on otherplanets in space?
On March14, one of science's brightest starswent dark. Stephen Hawking, theworld-famous British scientist, died at 76 in Cambridge, UK.
Hawking isconsidered to be the greatest scientist in history since Albert Einstein. Hecame up with the theory that the universe (宇宙) began with the Big Bang (大爆炸) and will endin black holes. He also wrote books to help common people understand the universe.His most famous book is A Brief History of Time, which has sold more than 10million copies around the world.
Besideshis scientific achievements, Hawking was also someone who had a strong will (意志) and optimistic (乐观的) attitude.
When Hawking was 21, he got a serious illness thatstopped him from walking and talking. Later in life, he had to sit in awheelchair and "speak" by using a computerized voice. But this didn'tstop him from living a meaningful and colourful life. "If one is physically(身体上) disabled, one cannot afford tobe psychologically (心理上) disabled as well," heonce said.
Hawkingtravelled the globe to attend science conferences, visiting every continent. Hewas also a fan of pop culture and appeared on TV shows.
He celebratedhis 60th birthday by going up in a hot-air balloon. When he was65, he took partin a zero-gravity (零重力)flight to experience weightlessness. He hoped to travel into space one day.
In 2013,Hawking spoke about how he felt life was unfair when he got ill at first."But now, 50 years later, I can be quite satisfied with my life," hesaid.
Today isDecember 15, 2030. Influenced by the launch of the first manned mission to Marsnext month, you will most likely get a gift card for a space trip.
Theinterest in trips, 100km above the surface of the Earth, has grown steadilysince such a trip began. However, the market has grown much larger this yearsince the official announcement of the Mars mission. More low-cost spacelineshave entered the market and you can now find the price for such a trip is aslow as $3,495. It's very reasonable.
Spacetourism (旅游业;观光业) is one of the markets that have developed fast during the lastdecade, with the opening of the Starbright Hotel on the moon as well as the loworbital (轨道的) hotels that started accepting guests.However, accommodation (住宿) in space is still expensivefor theaverage household, so the suborbital (亚轨道的) flights with thirty-minute weightlessness during the three-hourflight will for some time be the most popular trip.
However,the spacelines might face fierce (激烈的) competition for space elevators (太空升降舱) inthe future, like the one that is projected to start construction (建造) within two years. Once it is fully functional (工作的), it will
start to ship cargo (货物) to space. But it will accept passengers as soon aspossible to get back the large investment. Even if the elevator (电梯) becomes successful, it will take several years before there aremore elevators in the world to get in the competition for space traffic withthe spacelines.
Those whoare looking for a little bit of adventure and have extra money to spend maywant to consider a suborbital flight in space. While a suborbital flight maynot be the space mission that you have always dreamed of, it will give you therare opportunity to see what our planet looks like in a high-altitude (高度) flight outside our atmosphere.So before you enjoy a trip by elevator to space, enjoy a suborbital flightfirst.
My fatherwas German, but he worked in England. He married my mother, who was English.Her family name was Robinson, so when I was born in England, they called meRobinson, after her.
My fatherdid well in his business and I went to a good school. He wanted me to get agood job, and live a quiet, pleasant life. But I wanted adventure and anexciting life.
"Iwant to be a sailor and go to sea," I told my mother and father. They werevery unhappy about this.
"Please don't go," my father said. "You won't be happyyou know. Sailors have a difficult and dangerous life. "Because I lovehim, and he was unhappy, I tried to forget about the sea.
But Icouldn't forget, and about a year later, I saw a friend in town. His father hada ship and my friend said to me, "We are sailing to London tomorrow. Whydon't you come with us?"
OnSeptember 1st, 1651, I went to Hull. And the next day we sailed for London.
But, a fewdays later, there was a strong wind. The sea was rough and dangerous, and theship went up and down, up and down. I was very ill, and was very afraid."Oh, I don't want to die!" I cried. "I want to live! If I live,I will go home and never go to sea again!"
The nextday the wind stopped, and the sea was quiet and beautiful again.
"Well, Robinson," my friend laughed, "how do you feelnow? The wind wasn't too bad."
"What!" I cried. "It was a terrible storm!"
"Oh,that wasn't a storm," my friend answered, "just a little wind. Forgetit, come and have a drink."
After afew drinks with my friend, I felt better. I forgot about the danger, anddecided not to go home. I didn't want my friend to laugh at me!
I stayedin London for some time, but I still, wanted to go to the sea. So, when thecaptain (船长) of a shipasked me to go with him to Guinea in Africa, I agreed. And so I went to the seafor the second time.
It was agood ship, and everything went well at first, but I was very ill again. Thenwhen we were near the Canary Islands, a Turkish pirate (海盗) ship came after us. They werefamous thieves of the sea at that time. There was a long, hard fight, but whenit finished, we and the ship were prisoners. The Turkish captain and his mentook us to Sale in Morocco. They wanted to sell us as slaves (奴隶) in the market. But in the end, the Turkish captain decided to keepme for himself, and took me home with him. This was a sudden and terriblechange in my life. This Turkish captain was now my master.
a. One of Robinson's friends invited him to sail to London.
b. The Turkish captain took Robinson home.
c. A captain asked Robinson to go with him to Guinea.
d. Robinson drank with his friend. e. A long and hard fight happened.
Florence Nightingale was a nurse who saved many people in the 19th century. She was named after the city of Florence in Italy.
Florence was an (usual) young woman for her time, because she didn't want to go to parties or get married. She wanted to be a nurse and help people. Her family (not) want her to become a nurse because hospitals back then were dirty, horrible places.
the age of thirty-one, Florence went to Germany and learned all about nursing. It was hard work, she loved it.
In 1854, lots of British soldiers went to fight in the Crimean War. Army hospitals were filled with injured people, but there (be) no nurses and many soldiers died. Florence and a team of nurses went to help.
Florence worked 20 hours a day to make the hospital a (clean) and safer place. She brought fresh food, she cleaned the beds and she used clean bandages on the wounded soldiers. Soon, fewer (man) were dying.
At night, Florence talked to the injured soldiers and helped them (write) letters to their families. They called her "the lady with the lamp", she always carried a lamp.
When Florence returned to England, people called her a hero. Queen Victoria wrote her a letter to say thanks. She (give) the honour (荣誉)—Order of Merit, becoming the first woman to receive it.
Sophie Chen is a 14-year-old girl from Taiwan. When she was 6 years old, she did something amazing.
She finished a 2,100-kilometre bike journey from Xi'an, the capital city of Shaanxi, to Turpan, a city in Xinjiang, with her parents. It took them two and a half months. Sophie became the youngest child in the world to have biked along the Silk Road. Chinese novel Journey to the West inspired her to do so.
That is not all. Sophie wrote a book about the long journey with her father Jack Chen, a professional outdoor explorer. On April 26, 2017, the book's English version (版本) Biking the Silk Road: 6-year-old Sophie's Fantasy Tour came out in Beijing.
Now Sophie studies at Ta Hwa High School. She sees the journey as a special experience in her life. She became more hard—working and learned history and geography better because of it.
On the way, she met many friendly local people and saw amazing things. She even picked grapes! "The grapes in Xinjiang were so big and sweet. I have never seen grapes like them in Taiwan," she said.
Still, it was not easy. "The biggest challenge was the bad weather and road conditions," she said. She wrote in the book, "It was terribly hot in the Gobi Desert. I almost got sunstroke and could never have enough to drink."
Sophie has biked in other countries, such as the United States and Turkey. This summer holiday, she plans to ride a bike from Greece to Portugal in Europe.
