Eleven years ago, the world as I knew it ended. My husband of 19 years was diagnosed with terminal cancer Over the course of seven months, Bill went from beating me silly at tennis to needing my help to go to the bathroom. It was the best seven months of my life.
Maybe I don't actually mean that But it was certainly the time when I felt most alive. I discovered that the minor complaint of an annoying co-worker, or a flat tire pales in comparison with the beauty of sincere laughter, or the smells of a bakery. There were moments of joy; laughter, and tenderness. After Bill's diagnosis and brain surgery, I found clinical trials and talked to doctors in Texas, Pennsylvania, and New York. It gave me a sense of purpose.
In the latter days, being Bill's caregiver also meant being fully present for as many moments of every day as possible. During his last weekend, we had dinner together. Later, a relative visited. I noticed that she'd changed her appearance, and not in a good way. It was the kind of thought I'd usually keep to myself Just then, Bill voiced exactly what I'd been thinking, in that truthful way he had, and I found myself laughing out loud.
I thought I could look after this man forever. However, he would be dead in four days.
Eleven years later, I haven't started a foundation to cure cancer. I haven't left the news business to get a medical degree. But every day, I try to again be the person I became during those seven months. I try to be a little less judgmental, a little more forgiving and generous. I am a better person for having been Bill's caregiver. It was his last, best gift to me.
A Japanese company has created a "smart" mask that aims to improve communication for people wearing face coverings to prevent the spread of COVTD-19.
The use of face masks has become normal in parts of the world still struggling to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. However, it can affect the quality of communication between wearers.
The wearable electronic device is designed to help improve speech communication in such conditions. The Japanese company Donut Robotics calls its invention the "e-mask". The device is meant to fit over other kinds of face masks commonly worn by the public.
Made of soft plastic material, it contains a built-in microphone and has holes in the front to let air in. When turned on, the mask uses Bluetooth technology to connect to a mobile device. An app then helps users perform several actions, including turning speech into text, completing telephone calls and making the user's voice louder. The device can also translate a person's voice from Japanese into eight other languages.
Taisuke, the head of Donut Robotics, told the Reuters, "We worked hard for years to develop a robot and we have used that technology to create a product that responds to how the coronavirus has reshaped society." He noted that the company raised $265,000 in just the first 37 minutes to develop the smart mask through a campaign on the Japanese crowdfunding service Fundinno. "It would usually take three or four months to get that kind of money," Taisuke said.
The company produced a working model of the mask within a month by using software developed for its other robot products. The mask design was similar to one created years ago by one of the company's engineers that mapped facial muscles to interpret speech
Taisuke said the company plans to sell its first 5,000 e-masks starting in September, at about $40 per mask, in an effort to enter a global market that newly appeared.
A new study suggests that Medicare could spend billions of dollars on screening (拍片检查) smokers for lung cancer that would be better spent on helping them quit and keeping others from starting.
The new study indicated that screening more often supported smokers' beliefs that they could safely continue to smoke. Most participants remained smoking because they believed screening could catch cancer early before it would threaten their lives.
"They compared how hard it was to quit smoking with how easy it was to be screened," said Steven B. Zeliadt, the lead author of the study. "They engaged in magical thinking that now there's this wonderful painless external test that can save lives."
He and seven colleagues conducted the study of 37 current smokers who were offered lung cancer screening at Department of Veteran Affairs. After being screened and told the results, they were interviewed about their smoking-related health beliefs. For about half of those, cancer was not found. "Screening lowered their motivation for quitting," the team reported in July in JAMA Internal Medicine. The participants focused only on lung cancer, ignoring other potential harm of smoking.
A national study published four years ago found that annual CT screening for lung cancer three years in a row could reduce deaths among heavy smokers by about 20 percent. In an interview, Dr. Russell P. Harris, a preventive medicine specialist at the UNC-Chapel Hill, noted that "Screening is being believed by people as an alternative to stopping smoking. But stopping smoking would have huge benefits for the individual and society." Furthermore, smoking causes many other cancers.
Dr. Harris agreed that rather than screening, money is better spent on smoking prevention. He suggested providing free stop-smoking aids, sponsoring anti-smoking advertising and raising taxes on tobacco products and the age at which people are allowed to buy them.
Should you listen to music when you work? Some will say they love it, claiming that it improves their performance; others will say they cannot work effectively with music playing in the background. It just depends on what sort of work you're doing.
In a recent study, we brought participants into our lab with a variety of tasks. They included an easy task-searching through word lists and crossing out words containing the letter "a" and a more difficult task-memorizing word pairs and recalling the partner to each word. Some participants completed all of the tasks in silence, whereas others completed the tasks with instrumental music that was either loud or soft, and either simple or complex, the latter meaning music with more instrumental tracks..
We found that participants who listened to simple music or no music performed about the same on the easy task.Contrarily, participants performed worse on the more difficult task when they listened to any music, regardless of complexity or volume, compared to those who didn't listen to any music.
Not surprisingly we typically need to use fewer of our mental resources when we perform easy tasks, whereas demanding tasks require more brainpower. However, because we might be less engaged during easier tasks, there's a greater risk of drifting off to sleep. Music might give us the extra boost we need to get refreshed. Listening to music can become overkill (过犹不及). So we have to strike a balance between the type of music and the type of task.
A. What should we make of these findings?
B. Several key findings emerged from our study
C. However, difficult tasks already demand a lot of our mental resources.
D. Our research has found that the effects of work may depend on our personalities.
E. We want to develop a more comprehensive framework that could be applied broader.
F. However, participants who listened to complex music performed best on the easy task.
G. Interestingly enough, our research has found that both of these perspectives can be true.
I was a boy of nine in 1960. I used to mow the lawn for Mrs. Long. She paid me little for the job, but 1to give me a Christmas present.
I spent much time2what it would be. Many boys had baseball gloves or ice skates and I was
3to have any of these. "It would4be a baseball glove," I5with myself. "She wouldn't know much about baseball." So I was6that she would give me ice skates. I even7myself upon the skates.
As Christmas approached, it was with8that I tried to stop myself from reporting to Mrs.
Long and demanding my present. On December 22, 19myself at the door of the house. Mrs. Long sat me in a chair and handed me a small box which under no circumstances could 10a pair of skates.
I was11. When lifting it from her, I was curious about the12of the present. It weighed almost nothing.
"What is it?" I asked.
"A kind of magic," she said. Her words were enough to set my mind dancing with new13. There were other presents of normal dimension and weight. But Mrs. Long's box dominated all, for it had to do with 14.
On Christmas morning, before the sun was up, I had this box on my knees. With great15I opened the box to find inside ten sheets of black paper, each labeled in colorful letters, Carbon Paper Regal Premium. "What is it?" I asked. Mum took two pieces of white paper, placed between them one of the black paper, and wrote my name on the upper sheet. Then she handed me the second sheet, which her pencil had in no way touched. There was my name!
It was a miracle to my16mind. In that one moment, I17the ideas about the duplication (复制) of words and the printing and the mystery of spreading ideas. Thank Mrs. Long for her18 to guess that a boy might profit from a present totally outside the realm (领域) of his19 experience.
The average present20satisfies a temporary desire; the great one lights up all the years of life that remain.
As a child, Obaida Omar (narrow) escaped the enemy's invasion of her native Afghanistan, walking for weeks through the mountains. Now mother of three and Islamic Center of Rochester board member, Omar provided first-hand experience of what it means to be a child made (home) by war as the speaker at the "Dinner for Peace" hosted by the Student Association for the Development of Arab Cultural Awareness last Saturday. About 250 guests attended the dinner, the profit of will go to education for children affected by the Middle Eastern crisis.
"Children did not create this conflict, they are its greatest victims," said Alanoud Alcaide, the group's president, who gave the opening speech at the dinner. "Tonight we have raised roughly $3,000 in profit, which means over 1,000 children can get the education they deserve, he said. " you, tonight would not have been possible,"
(entertain) the audience, the Yellow Jackets kicked the night off with a (select) of lively songs. "We (plan) this for two months now. It feels wonderful to see such an amazing performance. It brings back the human element, making you remember that we're all the same," said Gabby Stillman, a (twelve) grader.
1）活动时间、参加人员；
2）游学活动安排(坐游船、参观纪念馆Memorial Hall等);
3）活动反响。
注意：
1）词数80左右；
2）可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
3）不得出现考生个人信息及学校名称。
When a tornado touched down in a small town nearby, many families were left completely ruined. Afterward all the local newspapers carried many human-interest stories featuring some of the families who suffered the hardest
One Sunday, a particular picture especially touched me. A young woman stood in front of an entirely shattered(破碎的,mobile home, a depressed expression on her face. A young boy, seven or eight years old, stood at her side, eyes downward. Clutching at her skirt was a tiny girl who stared into the camera, eyes wide with confusion and fear.
The article that went with the picture gave the clothing sizes of each family member. With growing interest, I noticed that their sizes closely matched ours. This would be a good opportunity to teach my children to help those less fortunate than themselves. I stuck the picture of the young family on our refrigerator, explaining their difficulty to my seven-year-old twins, Brad and Brett, and to three-year-old Meghan.
"These poor people now have nothing," I said. "We'll share what we have with them. I brought three large boxes down from the room upstairs and placed them on the living room floor. Meghan watched seriously, as the boys and I filled one of the boxes with canned goods and foods.
While I sorted through our clothes, I encouraged the boys to go through their toys and donate some of their less favorite things. Meghan watched quietly as the boys piled up old toys and games.
Meghan walked up with Lucy her worn, much-loved rag doll hugged tightly to her chest. She came to the box that held the toys, pressed her round little face into Lucy's flat, painted-on-face, gave her a final kiss, then laid her gently on top of the other toys.
"Oh, Honey," I said." You don't have to give Lucy. You love her so much."
Meghan nodded seriously, eyes filled with held-back tears, "Lucy makes me happy, Mommy. Maybe she'll make that other little girl happy, too."
注意：
1）所续写短文的词数应为150左右；
2）应使用5个以上短文中标有下划线的关键词语；
3）续写部分分为两段，每段的开头语已为你写好；
4）续写完成后，请用下划线标出你所使用的关键词语。
Paragraph 1
The boys, with their mouth wide open, matched as their baby sister placed her favorite doll in the box.
Paragraph 2
Hooked at my children for a long moment.
