Once there was a boy named Gottlieb. His father had died when he was a baby. Although his mother sat doing needlework (缝纫), she found it difficult to 1 food and clothing for them.
Gottlieb was not old enough to2. He often sat at his mother's feet except school days and 3 the things he would do for his mother. Every time the mother 4 her boy, she was comforted. The 5 that she was working for him often gave force to her 6 fingers.
One night Gottlieb saw his mother was more than usually 7. She kept sighing (叹息), with tears falling down. The boy had been old enough to read the 8. He thought, “Christmas will be here soon. Mum is thinking of what a sad time it will be.”
What could Gottlieb give to9 his mother? He could only 10 and dream. However, as Gottlieb sat dreaming, a happy 11 came to him. Walking out of the 12 he took paper and a pen. He wrote a 13.
Soon Christmas came, and Gottlieb 14 very early. But others were up before him, for, to his surprise, he saw a 15. His mother looked surprised too. His 16 eyes soon saw other unusual objects, wood, food and beautiful clothes he had never even 17.
Then the stranger turned to Gottlieb with a smile, “The postman sent your letter to Father Christmas wrongly to me and I 18 to read it. The gifts you asked for are here, but they come from my hand.” 19, Gottlieb answered, “Thank you, sir. You're the 20 Father Christmas, for he put the thought into your heart.”
William Caxton was born in 1422 in England. He is the first English printer and plays an important part English literature(文学).
Caxton learned how to do business at age of 16 in London. Later, he moved to Bruges, Belgium, an important centre in the trade of paintings and manuscripts (手稿). (actual), in Bruges, he became a (success) and important member of the business community. And Caxton's interests were also turning to literature during that time.
Although the (invent) of printing with movable type had appeared in the 11th-century China, in Europe the technology was not developed until the mid-15th century. The first book that was produced with moveable type (print) in the 1450s in Mainz, Germany, but Caxton had realized the need for English literature was greater. So, in the early 1470s, Caxton decided (spend) some time in Cologne, Germany learning the art of printing. Toward the end of 1476 he returned to England and set up his company at Westminster. From then on he spent most of his time writing and printing.
The English language was changing fast in Caxton's time and the works were given to him to print were in different (style). Caxton has won praise for (make) the English language have one particular (特别的) type through printing.
What do you think when you hear the phrase “when pigs fly”? This common saying is used to express the idea that something is highly impossible. For example, if you ask your parents when they're going to buy you something very expensive, the answer might be: “When pigs fly!”
An old mention of pigs flying appeared in Lewis Carroll's Alice's
Adventures in Wonderland. However, it is believed that Carroll may have picked up the phrase from the Scottish, who had been using the phrase for several hundred years. That may be right.
There are also those who believe the phrase may have gotten its start in America.
It's not surprising that many common sayings that developed back then had an animal or farm background. For example, farmers used to take pigs to slaughterhouse (屠宰场) along rivers on small boats. If it was foggy, people on the bank could only see the pigs' heads above the fog. This might have caused the saying to appear.
Other countries also use animals to show impossibility. Other countries, such as France and Spain, use phrases like “when frogs grow hair” or “when hens grow teeth”.
A. Long ago, most Americans worked in farming.
B. The phrase was used back then as a clever reply.
C. Maybe funny pictures of pigs with wings fill your mind.
D. People like to use colorful phrases to get a message across.
E. For example, many countries use the phrase “when cows fly”.
F. This made them look like they were flying through the clouds.
G. No one is certain exactly who developed the phrase “when pigs fly”.
TOEFL and IELTS have been the main choices for English ability testing in higher education admissions (录取) for international students until now. In recent years, several companies have developed new English language tests that are low-cost and easy to use.
Duolingo set up its own test of English language ability. Jennifer Dewar works as an official (行政人员) at Washington University, which is one of the hundreds of universities in and outside the U.S. that now take the test results for international admissions. Duolingo created the test to make higher education available to more people worldwide.
The TOEFL and the IELTS cost between about $180 and $240. They are only given in several centers around the world. Some test-takers have to travel to take the tests, adding to the costs. However, Duolingo offers its test entirely over the Internet for $49. All test-takers need is a computer with a microphone, listening device and self-facing camera.
David Payne is a president for Educational Testing Service, which runs the TOEFL test. He agrees that improving availability of higher education is important. But he says general English knowledge isn't the only thing universities require. Universities need to know how successful a student will be in using the level of academic (学术的) English that their teachers will expect of them. But Duolingo may fail to show that. Payne said, “The tests for the academic market should provide the value that's necessary for making an important decision. And saving money doesn't seem worth it.”
In a word, universities have to do their research to decide if any new tests work as well as traditional ones in their cases. It really comes down to a question for the universities about what's available, what the products show, and if they're satisfied with their choices. In general, having choices is important.
A primary school art teacher has received a good deal of praise since her daughter posted photos of her special school project online.
Rebecca Bonner teaches at Mcauliffe Elementary School in Highland Village, Texas. In total, she hosts art classes for about 580 students who are aged from 3 to 11 years old. Bonner always tries to encourage her students to be creative by telling them to “turn their mess-up into a dress-up”. So as a way of giving an example of her words, she invited all of her students to draw freely on a white dress that she brought to school. For two weeks, the young students used their pens to add their own little designs to the dress. The art teacher then showed their work by proudly wearing the dress for a school art show.
Her students were not the only ones happy to see their art come to life — Bonner's 20-year-old daughter Charlece Lake was so moved by her mother's project. Charlece took some photos of Bonner wearing the dress and posted them to Twitter, saying that her mom was “the cutest art teacher ever”. Since posting the pictures, they have been shared thousands of times.
Though Bonner was surprised that her project had been widely known, she said that she was happy for the chance to serve as a good role model for art. “I'm not worried about being famous or anything like that but I do think it's great to promote (推广) the arts, because art is not common among primary schools,” Bonner said. “I think it's really important for kids to have that place to create, and that freedom (自由) to create,” she added.
When I entered high school, there were many things that worried me. I felt homesick and couldn't study well, which resulted in low marks as well as low self-esteem (自尊心). I didn't know what to do so I just followed others.
One day, all students were called to the school playground. We were asked to meet an education expert for personality development. All of us were waiting for him when we saw a thin man and the headmaster. He looked confident, with a smile on his face. He introduced himself to us and started his work. Most of it was interactive (互动的) lessons with students. Then he said, “Now I need 20 students, who want to take a talent (才能) test and consider them to be the best in the world.” We all wanted to attend, so all of us raised our hands in unison.
He chose 20 among us and gave them a question paper and said, “There are 10 questions on the paper, and the quickest person to answer it will be the winner! … When finishing it, write your name on the paper and give it to me.” When he said “Start”, all the students wrote quickly. Between their funny actions and our loud laughter, somehow the competition was over. At last, he told us the name of the winner … NOBODY. We all were surprised, and silence fell upon us. He said between the first instruction and the first question, there was another line which said, “Read all the questions carefully and answer ONLY THE 10TH QUESTION.” Needless to say, all the students were awkward.
After a few minutes, he spoke at last and told us to keep careful and have creativity in life. He got all our attention; he is none other than Dr. Tyler Ralph, one of the most famous experts in American education.
When she was 22 years old, Pat Jones decided to travel around the world and see as many foreign places as she could when she was young. When she finished college at home in Britain, Pat chose to visit Latin America first. She managed to get a job as an English teacher in a secondary school in Bolivia. Pat spoke a little Spanish, so she was able to communicate with her students even though they did not know much English.
A sentence she had once read somewhere stuck in her mind: if you dream in a foreign language, it means that you have really mastered it. Pat repeated this sentence to her students and she hoped that someday she would dream in Spanish and they would dream in English.
One day, Tim, one of the worst students in her class, came up to her and explained in Spanish that he had not done his homework. He said that he had gone to bed early, but slept badly. Pat was quite angry with him, for she did not think that his explanation had anything to do with his homework. But Tim told her that he dreamed all night and his dream was in English.
“In English!” Pat thought. She was greatly surprised, since Tim was such a bad student. She was also jealous (嫉妒的). Her dreams were still not in Spanish, but she decided to encourage her students and asked him to tell her about his dream.
“All the people in my dream spoke English,” Tim said. “And all the signs were in English. All the newspapers, magazines and TV programs were in English, too.”
“But that's wonderful,” said Pat. “What did all the people say to you?” she asked.
“I'm sorry, Miss Jones. That's why I slept so badly all night. I didn't understand a word they said. It is a nightmare (噩梦)!” Tim answered.
注意：
1）所续写短文的词数应为150左右；
2）至少使用5个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:
After hearing the boy's words, Pat
Paragraph 2:
In order to encourage her students to speak English, Pat
