Anyone who enjoys reading bus tickets or cereal packets will understand the appeal of poems on the underground. Some years ago, a few acquaintances who lived and worked in London, who used the Tube (地铁) and loved poetry, decided that it would be pleasant to read a few lines by their favorite poets as they traveled around by Tube, instead of just glancing upwards at the tiresome advertisements. The underground had a surplus (剩余的) of advertising space on the trains. They suggested filling the blank space on the trains, for the entertainment of the traveling public.
The poems took on a new life when they were removed from books and placed alongside the adverts. Commuters enjoyed the idea of reading Keats' "Much have I traveled in the realms of gold" on a crowded Central Line train, or trying to learn by heart a sonnet (十四行诗) between Hammersmith and Piccadilly. The choice of poems wasn't arbitrary (随机的) but specially chosen. It suits all tastes including living and dead poems from the homeland and from all over the English-speaking world, and especially poems which have association with London.
The success of the poems on the underground company confirmed that Britain was a nation of poetry lovers. Hundreds of people write to London Underground suggesting poems, or just to say thank you. In January 1989, on the third anniversary after the first poems on the Underground, London Underground promised to donate all the spaces free, to increase the number available (at least one poem in each train carriage), and to pay for the production costs as well. They also updated the poems every few months. Posters of the poems decorated the British Council libraries throughout the world, but the best way to view the poems is to see them by yourselves, on whichever train you choose, in every zone of the network—for the price of an underground ticket.
I think my hometown Belarus is a lucky place because it doesn't experience dangerous natural disasters such as volcano eruptions, earthquakes, or hurricanes.
However, sometimes spring floods happen in low areas of my town. It can be strong enough to damage crop fields, roads, and plants. Moreover, it is dangerous for the livestock which might die in the water. As you can see, a flood is rather harmful for the countryside.
In the summer time, hail and heavy rainstorms visit Belarus, but they never cause serious damage to buildings or people's deaths. Even though some trees or other plants might be uprooted or destroyed, people actually don't pay a lot of attention to these disasters because they don't occur very often.
In winter, we sometimes experience snowstorms with heavy snow and strong winds. Several years ago, for instance, people couldn't arrive at their jobs because a lot of snow was on the streets. Schools were closed on that day, but children weren't anxious about it. They really enjoyed the snow mountains outdoors.
As for me, I was unhappy about that day. My apartment building is located on a hill. It isn't big, so I had never had any problems with driving a car near my home. However, it took me almost two hours to arrive home from the foot of the hill because there was so much snow on the road that my car couldn't move. I had to ask people in the street to help me to push the car out of the snow. Later, when everything was over, my friends and I were laughing when we imagined how funny I was while pushing a heavy car.
As you may notice, natural disasters in my country depend on the seasons of the year. Although we experience several kinds of natural weather conditions, they are not very dangerous. And people often try to have fun during or after them.
How does an ecosystem work? What makes the populations of different species the way they are? Why are there so many flies and so few wolves? To find an answer, scientists have built mathematical models of food webs, noting who eats whom and how much each one eats.
With such models, scientists have found out some key principles operating in food webs. Most food webs, for instance, consist of many weak links rather than a few strong ones. When a predator (掠食动物) always eats huge numbers of a single prey (猎物), the two species are strongly linked; when a predator lives on various species, they are weakly linked. Food webs may be controlled by many weak links because that arrangement is more stable over the long term. If a predator can eat several species, it can survive the extinction of one of them. And if a predator can move on to another species that is easier to find when a prey species becomes rare, the switch allows the original prey to recover. The weak links may thus keep species from driving one another to extinction.
Mathematical models have also revealed that food webs may be unstable, where small changes of top predators can lead to big effects throughout entire ecosystems. In the 1960s, scientists proposed that predators at the top of a food web had a surprising amount of control over the size of populations of other species—including species they did not directly attack.
And unplanned human activities have proved the idea of top-down control by top predators to be true. In the ocean, we fished for top predators such as cod on an industrial scale, while on land, we killed off large predators such as wolves. These actions have greatly affected the ecological balance.
Scientists have built an early-warning system based on mathematical models. Ideally, the system would tell us when to adapt human activities that are pushing an ecosystem toward a breakdown or would even allow us to pull an ecosystem back from the borderline. Prevention is key, scientists say, because once ecosystems pass their tipping point (临界点), it is remarkably difficult for them to return.
Scientists Who Changed the world
Master Your Deadlines
The struggle begins in high school, sometimes earlier. Deadlines, and lots of them, start to pile up. At college, the pressure sometimes leads to last-minute rush and unsatisfactory work. At work, failing to meet deadlines can easily get you fired. Here are a few best practices.
▪Assign deadlines to what matters.
If the task isn't of high importance, don't set a specific deadline. In this way, you are able to keep it on your radar for a while without feeling pressured. This will provide just enough pressure to ensure you get it done.
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Set a personal deadline for yourself a day or two before the actual deadline. If you're working with a group of people, add in even more time to account for potential follow-ups and the need for approvals.
▪ Keep communicating.
This means letting others know when something is taking longer than expected, when a delivery didn't come in, when a client is not providing the necessary information, etc. Although it may feel embarrassing to admit that something is not on schedule, being honest is much better for relieving your stress.
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A. Plan for flexible hours. B. Finish your project as early as possible. C. But if an activity is urgent, set a deadline immediately. D. In this way, you'll never have to stay up late and feel stressed. E. But handled properly, deadlines can actually improve productivity. F. Whenever you feel challenged to finish work on time, communicate. G. So if anything takes longer than expected, you can still wrap it up and submit it on time. |
Martha and Sandy have been running a tech charity—pass IT on—for 15 years. Pass IT on is a charity that repurposes old tech, such as computers and tablets, for people with1who cannot access public computers.
Sandy and Martha2that no matter what your health, social or financial circumstances, everyone should be treated3and participate in society. Today, that means making computers4.
Their charity, pass IT on,5computers and IT equipment for disabled people in Edinburgh. Each computer is6to the requirements of the individual and the team help with7an internet connection and installing the equipment in the client's home free of charge.
One of their clients, Callum, is 12 years old and has autism (自闭症). After Callum8a free adapted computer, his father9to pass IT on saying that his son's "manual skillfulness has10and his communication skills are much better." Callum is just one of the many people whose lives have been11by Martha, Sandy and pass IT on.
To thank Martha and Sandy for their12, their local community have come together to13a surprise party.
Former trustee Allan Wilson said: "I can't think of more deserving people for this surprise party than Martha and Sandy." Another14: "It's lovely to be able to do something like this for them." The pair were described as "15heroes".
China has designated a special day for farmers (celebrate) the annual harvest, the first festival created by the state (specific) for the country's farmers. The Chinese farmers' harvest festival will fall the Autumnal Equinox (秋分) each year. Autumnal Equinox is one of the 24 solar (60) (term) of the Chinese lunar calendar and usually falls between Sept. 22 and 24, during the country's agricultural harvest season. The festival will give greater (significant) to rural work, speed up the fulfillment of China's rural vitalization (振兴) strategy, and push for faster development of agriculture and rural areas.
A variety of celebrations will (organize) to display the agricultural harvest, rural technology achievements farmers' creativeness. Farmers are encouraged to engage in activities (relate) to their work and life. But farmers are advised to avoid waste in the celebrations.
Rural vitalization is the government is taking efforts to achieve. By (develop) its vast rural regions, China expects to see a strong agricultural sector, a beautiful countryside and well-off farmers.
Christmas Day was coming. I was just a kid then, and my big sister told me there was no Santa Claus. I fled to my grandma because she would be straight with me. I knew Grandma always told me the truth. Grandma was home, and I told her everything. She was ready for me. "No Santa Claus!" She shouted. "Ridiculous! Don't believe it. That rumor has been going around for years, and it makes me mad, plain mad."
"Now, put on your coat, and let's go."
"Go where, Grandma?" I asked. "Where" turned out to be Kerby's General Store, the one store in town that had a little bit of just about everything. As we walked through its doors, Grandma handed me ten dollars. "Take this money," she said, "and buy something for someone who needs it. I'll wait for you in the car." Then she turned and walked out of Kerby's.
I was only eight years old. I'd often gone shopping with my mother, but never had I shopped for anything all by myself. The store seemed big and crowded, full of people competing to finish their Christmas shopping. For a few moments I just stood there, confused, holding that ten-dollar bill, wondering what to buy and who to buy it for. I suddenly thought of Bobby Decker, who was a kid with bad breath and messy hair. He sat right behind me in Mrs. Pollock's grade-two class. Bobby Decker didn't have a coat. I knew that because he never went out for recess(放假) during the winter. His mother always wrote a note, telling the teacher that he had a cough, but we kids knew that Bobby Decker didn't have a cough, and he didn't have a coat. I would buy Bobby Decker a coat! I settled on a red one, which looked really warm, and he would like that.
"Is this a Christmas present for someone?" the lady behind the counter asked kindly, as I laid my ten dollars down. "Yes."
The nice lady smiled at me, put the coat in a bag and wished me a Merry Christmas.
注意：
1）所续写的短文词数应为150左右；
2）续写部分分为两段，每段的开头语已经为你写好；
Paragraph 1:
That evening, Grandma helped me wrap the coat in Christmas paper.
Paragraph 2:
Grandma and I waited breathlessly for Bobby Decker's front door to open and finally it opened.
