—Sure. I made it for you.
—Yes. I couldn't help singing and dancing along with him.
—She's ____________ to do so. After all, she knows what is best for her.
—____________ of them. It says it will be sunny tomorrow.
—Well, I ____________ him on his mobile phone instead.
—Wait a minute. Let me ____________ my e-mails to see whether there is a reply or not.
—No wonder I can still smell the paint, but it is so bright now.
—That's a good idea. He always wants to learn to cook.
— ____________! We don't have more time to talk.
"Ouch!", I fell over and soon my ankle blew up like a tennis ball. Hours and hours of training, and then this! The sports meeting was only a month away. All I could do was to tell myself 1 would turn out OK,but I knew it was a glimmer.
"Four weeks maybe, possibly five," the doctor said, "and even then, you'll need to take it easy for a while." I 2on my way home. Kim visited me as soon as she heard about the 3. "You poor thing, you must feel brokenhearted. I know how4 the sports meeting is for you, but there is a silver lining in every cloud." then Kim said something unexpected. "Maybe this is a chance to try something 5. You see, we need a prompter for our school play, and they just 6 around perfect!" Despite how much I wanted to say 7, I just couldn't refuse her. She was my best friend.
What did I do as a prompter? Basically I listened carefully and 8 people their lines when they forgot them. The actors messed up all the time, and I was yelling out so many times, so I had to 9 glasses of water. Things went all right 10 Mr. Leshko asked me to fill in Amanda because she had a flu.
"But she plays the officer," I squeaked, "and I can't act and my ankle…" I needed an 11 to escape.
"No problem. I'll get you a chair, and you can pretend you're 12 horseback." Then he was gone, just like that.
I had to go for it. And because I had been the prompter, I knew the lines. I even did the job 13.
Mr. Leshko noticed it, so he decided to rewrite the play and made me the officer permanently. What I really couldn't believe was how 14 I felt when I heard the decision.
The show turned out great. Kim was so happy for me and kept saying she was proud of me. I realized I had more 15 than just running. Maybe there is a silver lining in everything. You just need to take a leap and try!
The latest 2020 World Air Quality Report shows the changing levels of PM2.5 around the world during the year. Let's take a look at the part about Asia.
Key findings:
※As COVID—19 reduced travel and producing around the world, the air quality improved in 84% of the countries.
※Chinese cities made a 11% drop in PM2.5 levels in 2020, after a 9% drop in 2019. Most parts of Asia remain the same. South Korea was the most polluted country for PM2.5 among developed countries during 2020. Twenty—two of the top 30 most polluted cities are in India.
※Open burning had a lot to do with the air quality of cities and countries around Asia, such as Singapore, Indonesia, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and Chiang Mai. Sandstorms played a big role in poor air quality in the Middle East and Northwest China.
Karate is a sport event to be held in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. It will be the first appearance of karate at the Summer Olympics.
Karate, like Chinese Wushu, is a kind of martial—art. It developed in East Asia over centuries, becoming systematized in Okinawa in the 17th century. It was brought into Japan in the 1920 s. After about fifty—year development, it became an international sport event. Generally speaking, karate competition includes two types— kata (forms) and kumite (sparring).
Kata are demonstrations of attacking and defensive movements of one person against a imaginary opponent. Competitors choose the kata to demonstrate from 102 kata that are recognized by the World Karate Federation. Competitors are not allowed to demonstrate the same Kata twice during the competition. Its stage is an 8 m x 8 m square. Lined up outside the square, seven judges judge the competition. And the scores given by three of them are added to decide who the winner is. What the score is depends on the strength, speed, rhythm, balance and power of strikes and kicks and so on.
In kumite, two competitors spar with each other. A head judge with four side judges observe their sparring. Attacks with good form, power and control gQt between one and three points.
•One point — "Yuko" —is given for a closed hand punch to the head, neck, stomach, side or back of the opponent.
•Two points — "Waza—ari" — are given for a middle kick to the body.
•Three points— "Ippon" — are scored for a high kick to the head.
A competitor wins by having eight points more than their opponent within three minutes. In a tie, the competitor who scores the first point is the winner. In a scoreless competition, the winner will be decided by the judges.
People in poor and faraway areas have few chances to visit the Internet. In Africa, 72% of the population cannot connect to the Internet. Luckily, "Balloon Internet System'', developed by Loon, is now providing service to faraway, mountainous places in Kenya where there are too few people to support the building of signal equipment on the ground.
The balloons, are about 24 meters tall and 8 meters wide. They are made of a plastic material that is built to last at least 100 days. They are filled with gas that is lighter than air and rise up to 20 kilometers into the sky — a height twice as high as airplanes fly. This helps the balloons avoid weather problems and wildlife. The balloons move through the skies by wind currents that carry them up and down during the flight path. They are designed to link up with a team of balloons over areas with little Internet connectivity. Stations on the ground send signals from local Internet service providers up to the balloons. These signals are then fed back to earth in a similar way to how satellites work. Then people on the ground can connect to the high—speed Internet service. Solar energy collectors power the equipment during the day and charge a battery as well. The battery runs the system at night. When the life of the balloon ends, a parachute self—deploys to guide it back down to the ground.
The sky—based system has many advantages. It is cheaper than building signal equipment on the ground and undeveloped countries are able to afford it. Moreover,it already showed success in Peru and Puerto Rico during natural disasters. The balloons were usable in 48 hours in May after a powerful earthquake struck a rural part of Peru. In the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, Loon balloons were deployed after Hurricane Maria hit in 2017.
The launch in Kenya creates a first in many ways: the first non—emergency use to provide service in large areas, the first successful use of balloon—powered Internet in Africa and the first of lots of business uses to come round the world.
My mother's brother Uncle Mike got a violin from his father. His father got it from his grandfather and so on, back to the day when an earlier Mike had brought the violin from Italy to Cork. It lay in its bed of rich, shining green cloth within a worn black case. The violin was with a faded label: Antonius Stradivarius Cremonensis Facibat—Anno 17. It was in its accustomed shrine on the top of the china closet in the dining room.
Once my father took a risk to open his own shop when he needed a mortgage, but my mother didn't not agree with him.
She cried, "They could turn us into the street. We'd be beggars, Carl."
"I tell you, Mary, there's no risk whatever," said my father. "It's only a matter of your signature on this loan application. I can pay three thousand dollars back in two years without any trouble."
A quarrel broke out between my father and mother when Uncle Mike offered the violin to my father.
"I've read where a Stradivarius violin has sold for as much as five thousand dollars. Take it out and sell it,Carl." His hands trembled a little, but his voice was perfectly calm.
So my father went out to sell it, yet he came back later with the violin, saying "Up there where it is, it's just as if we had a strong box with fifty new one-hundred-dollar bills. And if we have that, a three—thousand—dollar loan needn't worry us."
Uncle Mike left the violin to buy me a college education after his death. I went to sell it again the day before I left for my college where the old shop owner recognized it and told me something quite unexpected.
"It's got a Strad label in it," he said gently. "Lots of violins have that. Not genuine. Never was genuine. This violin is maybe a hundred years old, but it is not, excuse me, a first—class violin." He peered at me curiously. "I have seen this instrument before. Aren't you Carl's girl?
Returning home, I decided to take the violin to the college and keep my father's white lie a secret, speaking to my mother,
"You won't have to worry about me,if anything happens and I need money. It will be just as if I had a violin case filled with bank notes. Won't it, Papa?
"It will, Marie, it will,'' my father said, avoiding my eye.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Thank you for coming to attend the graduation ceremony. First of all, I'd like to congratulate all the students who are here (今天). When you were just starting Grade 7 at this school, you were all so energetic and thirsty for knowledge. But now I see a room (满的) of talented young adults who have great hope for the future. You (长大) up already and I'm so proud of you.
Although you've all worked very hard over the last three years, none of you could have succeeded by (你们自己). Along the way, I'm sure many people have helped and supported you. I'd like you (记得,想起)to thank all of these important people in your lives. Never fail to be thankful to the people around you.
Lastly, the end of junior high school is the beginning of a new life. I don't need to tell you that life in senior high school will be (困难的,辛苦的)and that you have more trouble ahead of you.
You'll make (错误) along the way, but the key is to learn from them and never give up. But along with trouble, there will also be many exciting things waiting for you. (在……后面)each door you open are chances to learn new things, and you have the (能力,才能)to make your own choices. Choose wisely and be responsible for your decisions and actions. Although you have to go your separate ways now, (无论何时) you want, you can come back. As you set out on your new journey, you shouldn't forget where you came from. The future is yours.
Good luck and hope to see you again soon sometime!
要求:文中不能出现真实的人名、校名等相关信息;字数:110词左右。
The Ant and the Grasshopper