You probably know who Marie Curie was, but you may not have heard of Rachel Carson. Of the outstanding ladies listed below, who do you think was the most important woman of the past 100 years?
Jane Addams (1860-1935)
Anyone who has ever been helped by a social worker has Jane Addams to thank. Addams helped the poor and worked for peace. She encouraged a sense of community(社区)by creating shelters and promoting education and services for people in need. In 1931, Addams became the first American woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
Rachel Carson (1907-1964)
If it weren't for Rachel Carson, the environmental movement might not exist today. Her popular 1962 book Silent Spring raised awareness of the dangers of pollution and the harmful effects of chemicals on humans and on the world's lakes and oceans.
Sandra Day O'Connor (1930-present)
When Sandra Day O'Connor finished third in her class at Stanford Law School, in 1952, she could not find work at a law firm because she was a woman. She became an Arizona state senator(参议员) and, in 1981, the first woman to join the U.S. Supreme Court. O'Connor gave the deciding vote in many important cases during her 24 years on the top court.
Rosa Parks (1913-2005)
On December 1,1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks would not give up her seat on a bus to a passenger. Her simple act landed Parks in prison. But it also set off the Montgmery bus boycott. It lasted for more than a year, and kicked off the civil-rights movement. "The only tired I was, was tired of giving in," said Parks.
When her five daughters were young, Helene An always told them that there was strength in unity (团结). To show this, she held up one chopstick, representing one person. Then she easily broke it into two pieces. Next, she tied several chopsticks together, representing a family. She showed the girls it was hard to break the tied chopsticks. This lesson about family unity stayed with the daughters as they grew up.
Helene An and her family own a large restaurant business in California. However, when Helene and her husband Danny left their home in Vietnam in 1975, they didn't have much money. They moved their family to San Francisco. There they joined Danny's mother, Diana, who owned a small Italian sandwich shop. Soon afterwards, Helene and Diana changed the sandwich shop into a small Vietnamese restaurant. The five daughters helped in the restaurant when they were young. However, Helene did not want her daughters to always work in the family business because she thought it was too hard.
Eventually the girls all graduated from college and went away to work for themselves, but one by one, the daughters returned to work in the family business. They opened new restaurants in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Even though family members sometimes disagreed with each other, they worked together to make the business successful. Daughter Elisabeth explains, "Our mother taught us that to succeed we must have unity, and to have unity we must have peace. Without the strength of the family, there is no business."
Their expanding business became a large corporation in 1996, with three generations of Ans working together. Now the Ans' corporation makes more than $20 million each year. Although they began with a small restaurant, they had big dreams, and they worked together. Now they are a big success.
The traditional Chinese Longtaitou Festival, or DragonHeadRaising Festival, falls on the second day of the second lunar month every year, and recognizes the start of spring and farming. This year it falls on March 8.
Ancient people believed that after this day, rainfall increases because the rainbringing Dragon King has awakened from his winter sleep. A wellknown phrase goes, "Er yue er, long tai tou, " meaning, "On the second day of the second month, the dragon lifts his head."
The festival celebrates ancient agrarian Chinese culture, and while some of traditional ways to celebrate it are no longer practiced, others continue to exist.
The most famous tradition is getting a haircut.Some believe that going to the barber on this day gets rid of bad luck, while others believe getting a haircut during the first month of the lunar calendar brings bad luck. Another saying warns that cutting your hair in the first month will cause your uncle to die. Although today few pay attention to it, it was once a tradition to line up outside barbershops on the day of Longtaitou.
People eat tofu balls in East China's Fujian province during the festival, and often make tofu and vegetable balls to pray for family and business. Fried beans are the traditional festival food for people in parts of Shandong province. Eating chengyao cakes, which are made with sticky rice, during the festival is a tradition in Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu province, owing to the saying, "If you eat chengyao on Longtaitou, your waist won't hurt all year." Meanwhile other foods, like noodles, dumplings, and spring rolls, are named after dragon body parts to mark the day. Noodles are dragon's beard (long xu), dumplings are dragon's ears (long er), spring rolls dragon's scales (long lin).
Some parents will buy any high-tech toy if they think it will help their child, but researchers said puzzles help children with math-related skills.
Psychologist Susan Levine, an expert on mathematics development in young children the University of Chicago, found children who play with puzzles between ages 2 and 4 later develop better spatial skills. Puzzle play was found to be a significant predictor of cognition(认知) after controlling for differences in parents' income, education and the amount of parent talk, Levine said.
The researchers analyzed video recordings of 53 child-parent pairs during everyday activities at home and found children who play with puzzles between 26 and 46 months of age have better spatial skills when assessed at 54 months of age.
"The children who played with puzzles performed better than those who did not, on tasks that assessed their ability to rotate(旋转)and translate shapes," Levine said in a statement.
The parents were asked to interact with their children as they normally would, and about half of children in the study played with puzzles at one time. Higher-income parents tended to have children play with puzzles more frequently, and both boys and girls who played with puzzles had better spatial skills. However, boys tended to play with more complex puzzles than girls, and the parents of boys provided more spatial language and were more active during puzzle play than parents of girls.
The findings were published in the journal Developmental Science.
Here's what your handwriting says about you
You'd be surprised to see what a handwriting analyst says about you.
How do you cross your "t's"？
If you write your "t's" with a long cross, you're likely to be determined and enthusiastic, possibly with stubborn tendencies. If you cross your "t's" up high, you likely have many goals and aim high. If you cross them low, it could mean it's time to raise the bar for yourself；low crossers tend to aim low as well.
Did you know outgoing personalities tend to write in large letters, and shy types prefer to write small？If you have averagesized writing, it shows a strong ability to focus and concentrate.
How much do you space your words?
People who leave large spaces between their words enjoy freedom and independence. If your words are totally jammed together, a handwriting analyst will suggest that you might have the tendency to crowd people.
How quickly do you write?
If you write quickly, it's highly likely that you're impatient and dislike wasting time. If you take your time getting your words down, you are independent and methodical.
How much pen pressure do you use?
While very heavy pen pressure can suggest tension and anger, modestly heavy pressure is a sign of commitment. Soft pressure means you're sympathetic and sensitive.
A. How big or small do you write?
B. If you use a short cross，however，it could be because you're lazy.
C. How often do you use capital letters?
D. It might also mean you lack energy.
E. Your "t's" have a lot to do with what your handwriting says about you.
F. The way you write could reflect more than 5，000 different personalities.
G. Those who squeeze their words together tend to like the company of others.
One night, when I was eight, my mother gently asked me a question I would never forget. "Sweetie, my company wants to1me but needs me to work in Brazil. This is like your teacher telling you that you've done 2 and allowing you to skip a grade(跳级), but you'll have to3your friends. Would you say yes to your teacher?" She gave me a hug and asked me to think about it. I was puzzled. The question kept me4for the rest of the night. I had said "yes" but for the first time, I realized the5decisions adults had to make.
For almost four years, my mother would call us from Brazil every day. Every evening I'd 6wait for the phone to ring and then tell her every detail of my day. A phone call, however, could never replace her 7and it was difficult not to feel lonely at times.
During my fourth-grade Christmas break, we flew to Rio to visit her. Looking at her large8apartment, I became 9how lonely my mother must have been in Brazil herself. It was then 10I started to appreciate the tough choices she had to make on11family and work. 12difficult decisions, she used to tell me, you wouldn't know whether you made the right choice, but you could always make the best out of the situation, with passion and a 13attitude.
Back home, I 14myself that what my mother could do, I could, too. If she15to live in Rio all by herself, I, too, could learn to be16. I learnt how to take care of myself and set high but achievable17.
My mother is now back with us. But I will never forget what the 18 has really taught me. Sacrifices 19in the end. The separation between us has proved to be a 20for me.
Are you facing a situation that looks impossible to fix?
In 1969, the pollution was terrible along the Cuyahoga River Cleveland, Ohio. It (be) unimaginable that it could ever be cleaned up. The river was so polluted that it (actual) caught fire and burned. Now, years later, this river is one of most outstanding examples of environmental cleanup.
But the river wasn't changed in a few days even a few months. It took years of work(reduce) the industrial pollution and clean the water. Finally, that hard work paid off and now the water in the river is(clean) than ever.
Maybe you are facing an impossible situation. Maybe you leave a habit is driving your family crazy. Possibly you drink too much or don't know how to control your credit card use. When you face such an impossible situation, don't you want a quick fix and something to change immediately?
While there are (amaze) stories of instant transformation, for most of us the(change) are gradual and require a lot of effort and work, like cleaning up a polluted river. Just be (patience).
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（∧）,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．每处错误及修改均仅限一词;
2．只允许修改10处,多者（从第11处起）不计分
The teenage year from 13 to 19 were the most difficult time for me. They were also the best and worse years in my life. At the first, I thought I knew everything and could make decisions by yourself. However, my parents didn't seem to think such. They always tell me what to do and how to do it. At one time, I even felt my parents couldn't understand me so I hoped I could be freely from them. I showed them I was independent by wear strange clothes. Now I am leaving home to college. At last, I will be on my own, but I still want to have my parents to turn to whenever need help.
1）指出现在部分同学不健康的学习生活方式；
2）结合实际从以下三方面提出具体健康生活方式：
a. 膳食； b. 体育锻炼； c. 人生态度。
