Two cats were walking through a forest. Suddenly, they found a loaf of bread 1 under a tree. Both pounced (猛扑) on it and caught the loaf at the same time. Neither would 2 and so they decided to divide it into two pieces and take one piece each. "But 3 do we divide it?" one cat said.
A 4 sitting on a branch of a tree saw what had happened between the two cats. He got a(n) 5. He came down from the tree and walked up to the 6 cats. "Hi, my dear friends! Can I help you?" the monkey asked. The cats told the monkey what the 7 was and asked, "Can you divide the loaf 8 us?" The monkey agreed.
The monkey broke the bread into two pieces. But one piece was a little 9 than the other. "Oh no! I will take a little bite of this bigger piece to make 10 equal (相等的)." the monkey said. He took a bite from the bigger piece. 11 the bite he took was too big. "Uh oh! Now it has become smaller than the other piece. I 12 just have to take a little bite from this piece now." the monkey said.
The monkey took another bite. The two cats sat in front of the monkey, seeing the loaf of bread get smaller and smaller. When the whole loaf was 13 gone, the monkey said, "I am sorry. It was really difficult to divide that loaf. I must be going now." He jumped back 14 his tree and was gone.
"15 we had not fought against each other, we could have stuck together and kept our bread." the two cats said.
Skateboarding, surfing and sport climbing will be part of the 2024 Paris Olympics. But they will make their first Olympic appearance at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. These are all popular sport among young people. Would you like to give them a try?
◎Skateboarding
In this sport, you ride on a skateboard and perform tricks. Some people skate on or over obstacles(障碍) such as stairs and rails. It's a sport that celebrates creativity and individuality(个性). There are about 11 million active skateboarders in the world.
◎Surfing
Isn't it cool to ride breaking waves? Surfing is a free-spirited sport that allows you to "walk on water" with a surfboard. Surfers have their own language. "Surf's up!" means the surf is high enough to ride. "Wipeout!" means to fall off your board.
◎Sport climbing
Athletes have to climb a 15-metre-high wall. There are holds on the walls, but some of them are just big enough for a single fingertip.
Climbing needs great strength, requiring the use of 650 different muscles. Athletes can't see the wall before they compete. They must make quick decisions about which way they should take to reach the top.
In a city in France, a history teacher named Mitchell found a note in an old book. It said there was a large amount of treasure buried on an island near the city.
Mitchell invited his school's gym teacher Scott to go with him to the island. They brought water, food, and set out for the island. At first, they thought they would find the treasure and be back in a day or two. However, they got lost at sea and had no idea how to get back home.
They finished all of their food by the seventh day. There was just half a bottle of water left. Scott kept it from Mitchell and wouldn't let him drink it.
"Please, give me some water." Mitchell begged. He grabbed at the bottle and started fighting with Scott. In the end. Scott beat Mitchell to death.
Two days later, Scott was rescued (获救). He went onboard the rescue ship and took off his hat. His head was all wet with sweat.
Officer Derek watched Scott board the boat. He waited for Scott to tell his story. Scott later said that he killed Mitchell accidentally. He said he was trying to stop Mitchell from drinking seawater. By that time, they hadn't had any fresh water to drink for seven days.
"Are you sure that you hadn't had any water for seven days?" Derek said.
"Yes, it was all my fault. I was just trying to stop him from drinking the seawater," Scott answered
"I see. That's quite interesting, Scott. I think you're lying. You killed him on purpose so you wouldn't have to share any fresh water with him."
How did Derek know that Scott was lying?
①Scott was rescued ②got lost at sea
③set out for the island ④fought for water ⑤learnt about the treasure
①At 15, Gitanjali Rao is a scientist and an inventor. This week, Time magazine picked her as its first Kid of the Year.
②Gitanjali is a teenager from Colorado. When she was 10, she watched the news about Flint, Michigan. People had a hard time finding clean water. The water in their homes had lead in it. Lead is a chemical that can make people sick.
③She began working on a device to test water. It connects to an app on a phone. It tells people it water is safe to drink. Gitanjali won an award for the invention when she was 11.
④Gitanjali also created an app called Kindly. She made it to help stop bullying online. Kindly uses artificial intelligence(AD). This is an approach that uses code. It teaches a machine to spot patterns and make decisions. Kindly can spot words that are mean(刻薄的).
⑤Over time, Gitanjali's goal changed. _________. She wants to connect with other students, too. "It's not easy when you don't see anyone else like you," she said.
⑥She partners with schools and museums around the world. Her workshops help students create their own inventions. She's guided more than 30,000 students so far.
⑦Along with Gitanjali, there are four other talented kids of the year. Tyler Gordon, 14, is an artist. Jordan Reeves, 14, is a designer and activist. Bellen Woodard, 10, is the world's first crayon activist. And lan McKenna, 16, is a youth hunger activist. Each of them will receive a prize. They will also be able to write for the magazine.
⑧Andrea Delbanco is the Time for Kids editor. She says these everyday kids are helping their communities in an important way. "Small steps can lead to big change," she said.
In the summer of 2019, Sasha Olsen took a boat trip with her family to Asia. The ten-year-old girl was very excited before setting off. However, when she saw serious plastic pollution in the ocean and many dying sea animals, she felt sad.
Olsen became even more upset after returning home to South Florida. Some local beaches had been closed because of plastic pollution. The girl decided it was time to do something. She joined forces with her cousin, Narmina Aliyev, and started the "I Want My Ocean Back" movement.
The movement started small. The two, together with their friends, cleaned up local beaches. Later, they hosted events to raise money for beach cleanups. Olsen has encouraged many other kids in her city to join her. Last summer, she organized "Kids Heal the Oceans." The girl spoke about how to stop pollution. After that, her guests made art out of the plastic that had been gathered from their beach cleanups.
Olsen and her younger sister Mia have been working on a book about the ocean. They want to show how pollution in the oceans affects children. "I want my sister to care about the ocean as much as I do." said Olsen. "I want to set an example not only to my generation but also to the generation after me."
Olsen and Aliyev now hope to extend their movement to other seaside cities. Olsen has set up a channel on the video-sharing platform YouTube. She posts videos from events. And for her "Table Talks" interviews, she chats with people from different professions (行业) about the ocean. After the interview, she and her guest will create a painting. After having been signed by the guest, the painting will be sold to raise money for environmental organizations.
"To bring back clean oceans, we need everybody's effort." said Olsen. "Do something, or we will all have to swim in oceans with lots of waste instead of with beautiful sea animals!"
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amount, design, rubbish, strict, sell out |
On December 17, 2020, China's Chang'e-5 safely returned to the earth. It brought back the country's first samples(样品) of (岩石) and soil it had collected from the moon.
Behind the (成功) of the moon mission(任务) was a team of great scientists. One of them is a young woman named Zhou Chengyu. 24-year-old Zhou has become both the (年轻的) and the first female space commander at the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in Hainan Province.
Zhou's colleagues often call her "Big Sister." That's a sign of (尊重) for her. She has now taken part in five space missions. All of them (需要；要求) the highest level of professional knowledge. For the launch of Chang'e-5, Zhou was in charge of the rocket connector (系统). This was one of the most important roles in the mission.
The Chang'e-5 mission was named after the Chinese moon goddess. Therefore, many people found it fitting that a strong female figure had (获得) international attention. They have spoken highly of Zhou's achievements, regarding her as a role model for Chinese girls to look up to.
However, the young commander has shown no (兴趣) in fame. In fact. Zhou has (拒绝) many requests for interviews. She feels that they will only get in the way of her work.
Zhou's story gives an encouraging (启示): Girls are just as capable as boys in science or aerospace. They can do whatever boys can do.
A group of children from poor families from all over China gather at a baseball camp in Beijing. They live and train together, hoping to change their life through (play) baseball.
This is the story of the film Tough Out(《棒！少年》). It came out on December 11, 2020 and it is one of this (year) best films with a score of 8. 7 out of 10 on Douban.
These children are being helped by Power Baseball Angels, a charity(慈善) programme launched in 2015 by Sun Lingfeng, former captain of China's national men's baseball team.
"Baseball changed my personality, teaching me rules and how (live) life. Without it, I would have probably become a bad boy," Sun told China Daily. Sun wants to help poor children in same way.
Ma Hu is one of the stars of the film. He (raise) by his grandmother in a poor village. He often fights others and almost never follows the rules at first. But with the guidance of his coaches, he learns to comfort his teammates instead when they lose a game. "I behaved (bad) back then," Ma said. "I'm not like that anymore. My goal is to become a member of the national team in the future."
The film hopes to draw attention to the 40 million children who live in poor (condition) in China. Just like Ma, many of the kids in the movie are left-behind children. They don't have much money, education parents' care. How can these (problem) be solved? The baseball charity programme is offering hope to these kids.
As an English language teacher, I have come into contact with many different cultures. Now, let's see some of my interesting and special experiences.
When some Saudi Arabian students invited me to their houses for meals, we sat on the floor to eat. When I complimented(赞美) a student on his smart coat, he offered it to me! That seems to be the expected response in some parts of the Arab world. When I asked a Saudi student when his birthday was, he said he didn't know. I kept asking him the same question, thinking he didn't understand, but the problem was that in some parts of the Arab world, people simply don't celebrate their birthdays.
When I was invited to a meal by some Japanese students. I was shocked that I had to take my shoes off before going into the house. I have noticed that when I ask Japanese students a question, they often don't say anything until they have the answer. The silence is longer than we expect in English culture, where you normally make some kind of noise to show that you are thinking about the questions.
We had a group of Chinese teachers here. They made their tea in their cups. Boiling water was added to the same leaves when they wanted another cup of tea. I found this interesting because we make our tea in a teapot, using boiling water. But new leaves or teabags are used every time we want another pot of tea. And we usually put milk or sugar in the tea.
Cultural differences haven't brought me any real problems. They just make life interesting.
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Interesting cultural differences |
in Saudi Arab |
to those who compliment them |
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in Japan |
before entering the house |
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while answering questions |
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in China |
make tea in |
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make another cup of tea with the same tea leaves |
要求：①明确自己的观点和态度，并说明原因；
②文中不得出现真实的校名和人名；
③词数：80-100；
④短文的开头已给出，不计入总词数。
My View on Short Videos
Over the past few years, watching short videos online has become a part of many people's daily life. Some people fear that video will one day replace text.
