Vanilla is my best friend. She is a lovely girl with two big, beautiful 1. But she always hides them 2 a pair of black glasses.
One day, however, I 3 ended our friendship. I remember that day clearly. We were sitting in the 4. The teacher was handing back our 5 exam papers. I had done very badly. I was never good at 6 math problems. I felt so 7 that I wouldn't speak to anyone. At lunchtime, I stayed in the classroom alone. Suddenly, I heard a 8. It was Vanilla. "You look very unhappy," she said quietly. "What's wrong?" I looked at her for a while, but said 9. I knew Vanilla had got a good grade in the exam. I thought she was laughing at me. I stayed silent, but Vanilla didn't go away. She 10 asking me questions, "Is it because of the exam? Do you want me to tell you the right 11?" I looked away from her. When I looked up again, Vanilla had gone. And so had my exam paper! I didn't know what to do. I looked for my paper everywhere, but couldn't find 12.
In the afternoon, Vanilla came up to my desk and gave my exam paper 13 to me. I looked at it and got a big surprise. Vanilla had written the correct answers next to every one of my mistakes. How 14 she was! My face turned red. I held her hands and said, "Thank you." That afternoon, 15 Vanilla and I were on the way home, I felt quite happy and thanked her again. We are still best friends.
Why do many Chinese people refuse to cut their hair during the first month of the lunar year?
This is because people believe that getting a haircut during the first lunar month is not a good idea. Tradition says that doing so will cause your mother's brothers to die. Although it's not true, some people still believe it.
So, after a month's wait, people usually flock to cut their hair on Dragon Head-Raising Day —the second day of the second lunar month. It was once tradition to line up outside of barber shops on this day.
Dragon Head-Raising Day falls on Feb 24 this year. It is an important traditional Chinese holiday. Ancient people believed that after this day, rainfall would increase because the rain-bringing Dragon King would wake up from his winter sleep. So that day is the start of spring and farming.
A well-known phrase (俗语) goes, "On the second day of the second month, the dragon lifts his head." Besides cutting their hair, there are also other ways to celebrate this holiday. For example, people eat food with "dragon names". People call noodles dragon's beard. Dumplings are dragon's ears and spring rolls (春卷) are dragon's scales (龙鳞).
Once upon a time a little leaf was heard to cry, as leaves often did when a gentle wind passed by. The twig (小枝) asked, "What's the matter, little leaf?" The leaf said, "The wind just told me that one day it will pull me off!" When the tree heard this, it swung all over and promised the leaf, "You will not go till you want to."
The sunny days of the autumn came. The little leaf saw all the leaves around becoming very beautiful. Some were yellow, some were red, and some were in both colors. The little leaf asked the tree what it meant. The tree said, "All these leaves are ready to fly away, and they have put on these beautiful colors because of joy."
The little leaf wanted to go, and grew very beautiful in thinking of it. When it was very bright in color, it saw the branches (树枝) of the tree had no color in them. The leaf asked, "Branches, why are you brown?" "We must keep our working clothes on. Your clothes are for holiday, because your tasks are over," said a branch.
Just then a little puff of wind came, took the leaf up and turned it over and over. The little leaf was like the fire in the air, and fell down silently among hundreds of other leaves. It began to dream — a dream so beautiful that perhaps it would last forever.
Many children spend a lot of time watching or playing with electronic media –from televisions to vide o games, computers and other devices（设备）.
So, it is natural that parents should wonder about the time children spend looking at a TV or computer screen. Americans say "screen time" when they talk about any time children spend in front of an electronic device.
Perhaps parents can stop worrying so much about screen time, at least for older boys and girls. In October 2016, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) listed several suggestions for parents and child care workers. Here are some of the suggestions.
Avoid digital media use in children younger than 18 to 24 months.
For children aged 18-24 months, avoid letting the child watch media alone. And avoid using media as a way to comfort your child.
For children two to five years of age, allow one-hour screen time on "high-quality（质量）programming" a day and watch it with your child.
For children aged 6 and older, don't spend too much time using media. Also, make sure that screen time does not take the place of healthy sleep, exercising, doing homework and other activities.
Make sure to have media-free time together as a family, such as dinner or driving. Also make some areas of the home media-free. Turn off you child's electronic devices an hour before bedtime.
Imagine a man who cannot read or write. Now imagine that same man creating a brand new alphabet(字母表). It sounds impossible,doesn't it? Yet that is exactly what one man did -a man named Sequoyah.
Born around 1770 in America, Sequoyah was a Cherokee(切罗基人). Like other Native Americans(美国土著) of that time，he could neither read nor write. He noticed, though, how white people wrote to one another on pieces of paper. They often used these"talking leaves", as some Native Americans called them to communicate.
Back then, the Cherokee had no way to write down words in their own language. Sequoyah believed it was essential for the Cherokee to have a system of writing. So, in 1809 ,he set out to create an alphabet that the Cherokee could use to do just that.
Sequoyah started by drawing pictures, with each one symbolizing a different word or idea. He soon realized that writing sentences using pictures would be much too difficult. Sequoyah decided to try a different way. He began to develop symbols to stand for the sounds, or syllables (音节), that made up words. Twelve years later, he completed a system of writing with 86 different symbols. Each one stood for a different syllable in the Cherokee language. The symbols could easily be put together to form words. Soon thousands of Cherokee were able to read and write in their own language.
Sequoyah's work did not end there, however. He helped to set up a print shop and began publishing(出版) a bilingual newspaper in both Cherokee and English. In later years, Sequoyah became a political leader(政治领袖) among the Cherokee.
Sequoyah died in 1843, but many Cherokee of today still use the alphabet he invented. Thanks to him,the Cherokee now have a written history that will never be forgotten.
Du Fu, one of the greatest poets in China, is well-known to most of us. However, Du Fu remains unknown to many Western people. Thanks to a recent documentary Du Fu: China's Greatest Poet which was directed by Michael Wood, a British historian, they have a chance to know more about Du Fu. As the first English-language documentary about Du, it compares him to William Shakespeare, one of the greatest writers of the West.
In the BBC's one-hour documentary, the British historian visited a number of places connected with Du Fu. Michael Wood first visited Henan Province, the poet's birth place. The people there told many fascinating stories of Du Fu. He also visited Du Fu Thatched Cottage (杜甫草堂) in Chengdu, Sichuan, where people can know more about the poet. The documentary also includes works of Du that were read by a famous British actor Sir Ian McKellen. He is known for performing Shakespeare's works.
The documentary explains why Du's poems have been popular for centuries. It is because Du's poems give us a closer look at history. Du lived during the Tang Dynasty and worked for the emperor called Tang Xuanzong. At first, the country was rich and peaceful. But the war happened later and it caused huge problems for the whole country. Du Fu felt sad about the rulers of the government. He also went through ups and downs in his own life, but the poet never stopped pouring out his care for his country and people in his poems.
Du Fu is known as "the saint of poetry" in China. He wrote about 1,400 poems that are still with us today. These poems have been translated into English, which is expected to help Du Fu's works reach more readers.
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not afford take place steal celebrate express |
—Sorry, itby someone last week.
—Yes. Great changesin the past 40 years.
—Oh, she with her friends Betty's birthday in the dining hall.
—Yes. And I' m afraid more and more people canto buy even one.
Mom and Dad live in Calverton. On June 28, my parents celebrated 70 years of marriage.
They have been through years of hard work and good times, a supporting each other.
As a child, I remember my parents working side by side for spring, fall, winter, and summer cleaning or working in the yard, or painting and wallpapering.
My parents bought a h in Elmont. They never believed they'd be able to own their own home, and to them, it was their castle. They worked hard to decorate it and kept i looking beautiful. They taught us to work hard and to appreciate everything we had.
Mom likes everything—sightseeing, clubs, shopping, anything. Dad, even today, can't u why she always wants to go out!
Mom is really active with the Red Hatters women's group and her gardening club. Dad spoils (宠坏) her by taking care of the house.
The key to their s marriage is that they respect each other.
My brother, who is 67, and I (now 69), have always known we are lucky to have such great parents. They have shown us what love is, what hard work is, and what respect is all about.
My daughter and I try to see them almost every weekend w we play cards together and catch upon the week's news.
My parents are the glue that holds our whole family t , making holidays and ordinary days special to us all.
I know we are lucky to have them both, even save all of their voice-mail messages, just so I'll have their voice to h when they are not here. But Mom keeps t us all that she's definitely (绝对地) going to live to be 100. So we will have a f more holidays, birthdays, and memories to experience.
There was once a wise old woman who lived in the hills. All the children nearby always went to ask her all kinds of questions. Even the most difficult questions，the old woman was to answer them. It was easy for her （answer）the children's all strange questions.
There was a naughty （淘气） little boy among the children. One day he caught a tiny and held it in his cupped hands. Then he gathered his friends around. He said, "Let's trick the old woman. I （ask） her what I'm holding in my hands. Of course, she'll answer that I have a bird. Then I will ask her if the bird is living or . If she says the bird is dead, I'll open my hands and let the bird fly away. If she says the bird is alive, I'll quickly crush it and show her the dead bird. Either way，she'll be "
All the children enjoyed （have） such a good idea. Up the hill they went to the old woman's hut（小屋）. "Granny, you are clever that we all believe you, now we have a question for you, they said with a smile. "What's in my hands?" asked the little boy. "Well, it must be a bird," （reply）the old woman. "But is it living or dead?"The old woman thought for a moment and then answered, "it is as you will, my child. All the children looked at each other in surprise. But the old woman smiled and added, "I （tell） you the right answer already. "Then the old woman disappeared in the hills.
注意：
1）不少于100词。
2）不得出现真实校名和姓名。
