Travel Journal
Friday
We arrived in Paris on Friday lunchtime and went straight to our apartment. We then went for a walk around our area and realized how close we were to the centre of Paris. It only took us 20 minutes to walk to the Louvre. After a walk around the Tuileries Gardens, we went for afternoon tea in a café called Angelina which has the most delicious hot chocolate. After warming up we then walked along to the big department store Printemps, on the top floor where you get a wonderful view of Paris (this was free). We walked along a street called Grands Boulevards which was beautiful with all its Christmas lights. The shops on this street are famous for their Christmas window displays. In the evening we cooked at the apartment and went to a Scottish pub which was funny as two of my friends are Scottish.
Saturday
In the morning we went for brunch (a meal between breakfast and lunch) at a really cool café called FAB (French American Bakery). We had waffles with bacon and fresh carrot and ginger juice. We found out that we were really close to a chocolate museum, so of course we took a visit— who doesn't love chocolate! In the afternoon we went to a Christmas market with unique handmade gifts and crafts. In the evening we ate at a Tunisian restaurant and had roast chicken and vegetable stew with couscous. It was delicious and the restaurant was in a cute little lane.
Sunday
On Sunday we went for breakfast at the same café and we caught our train back home at midday, carrying shopping bags full of lovely presents that we had bought at the Christmas market. We had a great weekend in Paris. Exploring this beautiful city with no plans was an unusual but great idea as we got to do things we wouldn't normally discover. I highly recommend spending a weekend somewhere trying to be a local!
Simply being quiet is a growing appeal. Lots of business have appeared to meet a rising demand for quiet time, from silent weekend getaways to silent dining, silent reading parties and even silent dating. Silence can mean different things to different people. We are usually silent only with those closest to us. So there is something almost radical(不同凡响的)about the recent trend towards enjoying silence with strangers.
Mariel started a regular silent reading party in Dundee just under a year ago. Readers bring their books and meet in a bar, where they read together in silence for an hour or sometimes two and then put their books away to chat and have a drink. "When the reading party starts, everything goes quiet," says Mariel," It's a little bit surreal (超现实的), especially in what is usually a noisy bar. However, there is something special about sharing the silence with others. It offers a chance to escape from reality; everyone is so busy with work and with technology being ever present. An event like this gives people the opportunity to escape these things for a while."
Honi Ryan is an artist based in Berlin who began hosting silent dinner back in 2006. The rules of the dinner are: no talking, no using your voice, no reading or writing, trying to make as little noise as possible, not connecting with technology, and staying for at least two hours. So far she has taken her silent dinner project to Mexico, the US, Australia and China. "It's evident that the age-old connections we make over food do not depend on the words around it. Silence creates the space for the people and places involved to fill with whatever is needed; it is quite different from our usual social behaviors."
Cancer is a leading cause of death around the world. When it comes to cancer, the sooner you know you have it, the better your chances of surviving. A new blood test could change the way doctors and researchers find cancer in patients. Researchers say the test could provide evidence to the early forms of the disease.
Scientists at Swansea University in Wales came up with the idea. Gareth Jenkins is a professor at the university." In this blood test we don't measure the presence of cancer; we measure the presence of mutant red blood cells which are collateral(附属的) damage that occurs—a by-product of the cancer developing."
The researchers used normal laboratory equipment to perform the test. This equipment looks for changes in the structure of millions of red blood cells. Those mutant cells lack a surface protein that healthy cells normally have. "The main purpose of the test is to look for very rare cells which have picked up a mutation. The number of mutant red blood cells in a healthy person is around 5 or so per million. You have to look at millions of red blood cells to detect those rare events. These numbers increase in cancer patients—they go up to 40 or 50 mutants on average."
The researchers tested blood from about 300 people, all of whom have cancer of the esophagus(食道). Patients with esophageal cancer have high levels of mutant red blood cells. Jenkins says that at this point he is not sure if other cancers will produce similar results.
The hope is that the new test and other non-invasive methods could one day become part of commonly used medical methods. He says that using a battery, or series, of tests will be the best way to find out if a person has cancer. These new technologies could save millions of lives.
Growing up in Venezuela, there was never really much cause to learn English.
For years I knew nothing past "hello," until I started high school. For five years, I spent two hours a week immersed in understanding the verb "to be", numbers, colors, and the difference between saying "good evening" and "good night".
I thought two hours a week was enough time to invest in learning a foreign language. I would always get top marks, and my teachers would regularly praise me.
Even as an adult, I still thought I spoke the language, just by understanding English menus or translating common phrases.
Yep, that used to be me, walking like a queen among everyday Spanish speakers.
"Bring it on, life," I said.
"I can handle whatever you've got; I'm a rock star." But when I moved to Canada, life hit me so hard that it knocked me down. Years later, I am still recovering.
Living in a new land, with different people, new rules, new weather, a new culture and language, I was no longer a queen.
Did I speak English?
No, not at all.
So, I went back to school, thinking that it was a challenge I would conquer in record time. But the reality was different. English was more like a solid wall in my path.
Even after getting a job, it took all my courage to stop myself from hiding in the washroom during my lunch break, crying, completely overwhelmed (不知所措的) and scared.
Learning English, speaking, listening – it hurt me. Not the language. Not the unkind people, it hurt because I wasn't good, despite my efforts.
Now, after almost seven years in Canada, I've decided not to apologize for my accent, grammar mistakes, or pronunciation. I'm going to chase my dreams and enjoy a beautiful, rich, and fascinating language without being ashamed.
Don't get me wrong, my brain still screams "Give me a break!" from time to time, but that's completely natural.
I know it's going to take a while, but at least now I accept the person I am – not the perfect person I thought I was.
While there are not any magic shortcuts to learning words, the larger your vocabulary becomes, the easier it will be to connect a new word with words you already know, and thus remember its meaning. There are four basic steps to building your vocabulary.
Be aware of words. When meeting new words, instead of avoiding them, you will need to take a closer look at them. Second, make a daily practice of noting words of interest to you for further study whenever you are reading, listening to the radio, or watching TV.
Read. When you have become more aware of the words, reading is the next important step to increasing your knowledge of words. When you come across a word you have recently studied, you understand it, which proves you have learned its meaning. What should you read? If you like sports, read the sports page of the newspapers or magazines.
Use a dictionary.Remember, words can have more than one meaning, and the meaning you need for the word you are looking up may not be the first one given in the dictionary. Even if it is, the other meanings of the word will help you understand the different ways the word is used.
Study and review regularly. Once you have begun looking up words and you know which ones to study, vocabulary building is simply a matter of reviewing the words regularly until you fix them in your memory.
A. First, try to guess at a word's meaning from its context.
B. This will give you a quick form of review.
C. Read the entire entry for the word you look up.
D. It is also the best way to check words you have already learned.
E. Reading alone may not be enough to make you learn new words.
F. Whatever interests you.
G. So your learning speed should increase as your vocabulary grows.
My grandma was in a nursing home. She was unable to move; now her eyesight was almost 1. Grandma and I often exchanged cards. I knew that she enjoyed 2 in touch with people. Since I returned, Grandma thought I should be her "personal 3 ". I said, "I guess you've forgotten how bad my 4 is." Grandma acted like she didn't 5 me. Grandma would have me write letters on the cards she would send. She would dictate(口授); then I would 6 what she said. Grandma would always have me 7 what I had written back to her. Grandma didn't have a hearing 8 then because she was always telling me, "That is not 9 what I said!" I would then rewrite what she exactly said.
Since I was 10 before Christmas, I asked Grandma if she would send some Christmas cards. Grandma readily agreed. I prepared several 11kinds of cards. I knew she had friends and family who all had different 12. I would take each card and 13 the front of the card in detail.
After a while, I looked up and I 14 several nursing home 15 standing in the doorway. I started to notice as I read each card, the 16 on their faces and Grandma's face, too. Each one had a smile in 17 eyes, as they were seeing the scenes in their minds.
I thought I would be doing Grandma a favor when I started to write the Christmas 18 for her, 19 it turned out that she did me a big favor. I would always cherish this special memory of bringing some Christmas20and pleasant memories to Grandma and her fellow residents. That was it.
His days are long, 12 hours crisscrossing the city and (drive) local residents to buy groceries, get medicine and go to the hospital. And roads he travels are mostly empty since the city was sealed off(封闭). In his blue and white car, Zhang Lei is a rare sight on the streets of Wuhan.
During normal times, Mr. Zhang, 32, is a taxi driver in this Chinese city at the epicenter of the outbreak. after the local government abruptly locked down the city late last month, Mr. Zhang became one of the thousands of people who have volunteered to help ease the transportation problems.
Most of his passengers are poor, (elder) residents who don't have children or family is outside Wuhan and can't come home because of the quarantine(隔离). "It's heartbreaking," he says. "There is no one to take care of (they) ."
The free rides(arrange) by neighborhood committees, which typically serve as a go-between for residents and the local government. In the current crisis, those committees are in charge of allocating community (resource) and helping coordinate with hospitals.
Like other drivers, Mr. Zhang doesn't get (pay). Many Chinese have praised these volunteer drivers for donating their time and (energetic) to help their fellow residents out.
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号(Λ)，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l1处起)不计分。
Congratulation on the 5th anniversary of Global Mirror!
I'm regular reader of it. I like it very much that I hardly miss any copy. By simple turning the pages, I can know all important things that have been happened both home and abroad. Besides, the success stories of world-famous people are also attractive to me, that help me learn a lot. In a word, thanks for Global Mirror, we are well-informed and keep up with the changed world.
As a young student, I suggest that Global Mirror provides articles about English learning for us. But I hope that Global Mirror will become more and more popular.
1）举办目的(提高同学们的意识)
2）稿件内容
3）稿件长度:500词以内
4）交稿日期:7月20日前
注意：文章的开头、结尾已给出，不计入总词数。
Dear fellows,
Our campus environment is becoming increasingly worse because of some improper behavior of the students.
……
Looking forward to your reply.
