A Little Holiday Magic
Christmas Eve has always been my favourite day of the year. December 24, 2010, I decided to 1 a little last-minute shopping before joining my family at my mother's.
I bought large basket of cheese and bottle of wine. On my way down, the elevator(电梯)stopped at the third floor, where everybody but an older couple and me got off-and where tall, handsome man 2. We started down again then suddenly, the elevator stopped. We were stuck-on Christmas Eve!
3 there was a phone, and the old man called someone in maintenance(维修), who told us that we had to be in for a long wait.
At that point, we-the older couple, Mr and Mrs Phillips: John, the handsome man; and I-sat down on the floor and began 4 Christmas memories. An hour passed, then two: we found ourselves so involved in the conversation that we forgot we were stuck. I shared my basket of cheese and wine with them. I didn't realize at the time we were creating another special Christmas 5.
After five hours, the elevator finally moved. When the doors opened, the worried store manager was surprised to find us in such 6 spirits. Saying our goodbyes, the four of us ex- changed addresses and promised to send holiday greetings to each other in the years to come.
I got to my mother's for our traditional family Christmas-a bit late, 7 I got there.
On Christmas evening I returned to my apartment. Waiting for me was a single red rose and a message: I really miss the cheese basket, John. At the bottom was his phone number...
John and I were married the following Christmas Eve. And we are 8 exchanging Christmas greetings with Mr and Mrs Phillips. And I still wake up every Christmas Eve morn- ing filled with excitement at the magic of the day.
Have you ever heard of "Survival Holidays"? It is for children to go into the lonely place for exciting activities. Now about 1,100 companies are allowed to take children into the great outdoors without their parents.
The reason why people like "Survival Holidays" is that they think being close to nature is good for children. Many children in big cities spend all time watching TV and playing computer games. "Survival Holidays" gives them an important change.
Is "Survival Holidays" a wonderful idea? Maybe it is. Children need more free time to play. They need to be left on their own, without adults disturbing(干扰)them. Parents care too much about their children. They like to see the children being busy with activities that are controlled(控制)by adults, which causes many problems. Children don't know what to do when they are in danger. Even something like crossing a small river seems to be a hard challenge. Children are not comfortable with danger. Even slight danger like getting their feet wet or falling down seems very terrible to them.
Many people think the survival activities are good for children. Even years later, they will still remember what they have learned. Some have learned to stay calm in dangerous times. Some have learned how to keep safe. Others have learned how to work in a team. All these skills will help them a lot in their lives.
Q and A Today: the Internet
We asked two teenagers from the US about what they think of the Internet. Here are their answers.
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Question 1: How often do you use the Internet, and what for? |
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Linda |
I use it every day. I have a lot of online friends. I have my own blog. It's exciting. If we didn't have the Internet, life would be really boring. |
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Brett |
I use it a lot, too. I surf the Internet about twice a day. I have my own web page. write about my hobbies and interests on it. And I love getting mail from other people. |
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Question 2: What website do you think is the best? |
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Linda |
Agirlsworld. com! I like it because it gives girls advice on what to do in different situations, and there's also something interesting to read I can find new books every week. |
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Brett |
Honestly, I don't know what to say. I have visited so many websites. There surely isn't just one web site that I would recommend(推荐). |
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Question 3: If you were offered(提供)a job in computing, would you take it? |
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Linda |
I'm not sure. You can meet lots of people on the web, and there are cool games, but I'd like to meet real people in my job. So maybe I will be the manager of a big Internet company. |
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Brett |
Sure. If had the chance, I'd like to work as web designer. love designing(设计), and like creating my own things. |
Everyone has traits(特性)that make us who we are. We have physical traits, like red hair, long legs and funny-looking toes. We also have character traits including humor, warmth, creativity and so on.
Certain physical traits are fully inherited(遗传)such as blue eyes and knobby knees. About 25,000 to 35,000 genes(基因)are in single cell in the human body. These genes carry the traits that are passed down genetically from parents to their children.
Many traits exist between inheritance and development-the interaction with environment. One example is body shape. It tends to be passed down from parents. But once diet becomes a factor, environment begins to play an important role in how the body develops. Body shape is a trait that is a mixture of inheritance from parents and influence of environment.
So lots of our most important traits have been learned, rather than inherited. For example, if you're really great at video games, it's not because your parents passed down the skills in genes. It's because you have practised a lot of video games and developed those skills yourself. If you have kids who turn out to be great at video games, it is because they put in the hours, learned the skills, and memorized the moves that are necessary to play the video games well.
Of course, some of us have brains that are more advantageous to video game playing. Say you were born with a large and powerful part of the brain that controls your hand-eye coordination(协调能力).That's inherited. What you do with it, how you choose to develop that advantage, is up to you.
You can pierce your nose or get tattoo-it doesn't matter how much you change your body during the lifetime. None of those things will turn into genetic material to be passed down to the next generation. However, if your children grow up in an environment with role models who are pierced and covered in tattoos, they are more likely to get piercings and tattoos!
In 2013 alone at least 20,000 African elephants were killed for their teeth. In South Africa over the last two years more than 2,200 rhinos were killed for their horns. These numbers are alarming, because current rates of illegal hunting are faster than birth rates, which could lead to extinction for these ecologically important creatures in their environment. Indeed, some elephant and rhino populations are on track to be locally extinct within the next decade.
If you are reading this, you may already be aware of these facts. But you might not know that wildlife trafficking(走私)not only threatens the existence of elephants and rhinos but is also leading to extinction of other species, such as tigers, tortoises, sea turtles-and the world's' most trafficked mammal(哺乳动物)-pangolins.
Pangolins are the only mammals that are entirely covered in tough scales(鳞), which makes them look very strong. But actually they are endangered mammals. There are eight different kinds of pangolins, four in Asia and four in Africa, and all are threatened with extinction. Although pangolins are protected throughout most of the countries where they live, high demand in East Asia, where the delicious pangolin meat is considered a delicacy and where their scales are used in traditional medicines, is driving an illegal trade in both live animals and pangolin parts. The number of pangolin trafficking is shocking. Experts believe that over the last 10 years more than 1 million pangolins were taken from the wild. It is estimated that be- tween 40,000 and 81,250 pangolins were killed for the illegal trade in 2013 alone.
In February, the United States plan to deal with wildlife trafficking, which lays out the steps we will take to fight the illegal trade in wildlife, including pangolins. We are strengthening the carrying out of the plan, building international cooperation and contribution to protect wildlife, raising awareness to drive down the demand that is fuelling the illegal trade.
Get involved and remember World Wildlife Day（March 3）by spreading the plan. Use social media and tell everyone that now is the time to get serious about wildlife crime and end the demand that threatens species, big and small, from the huge elephant to the shy pangolin.
Email helps workers to communicate at any time, from any place. Email is an important tool, but it can also lead to a waste of time. How can workers make sure that email is tool and not time-waster-? Here are some simple tips to follow. They can help you use email more efficiently(高效地)at work.
First of all, turn off the sound in your computer that tells you that you have a new email message. That "You've got mail!" sound is like a telephone or a doorbell. It interrupts your work. When you hear it, you will want to check your messages. And it will take you at least a few minutes to get back to work after that. Can you imagine how much time you waste because of that little sound?
Second, limit how often you check your email. Try checking it only three times a day, for example, at 9:00, 12:00 and 16:00.Also, limit the time you spend reading and answering email each time. Fifteen minutes is usually long enough.
Third, use a separate email account for work and personal life. Do not give your work address to friends or family, and do not give your personal address to people at work. If you are working on several projects at one time, use a separate email account for each one. So you can focus on the most important project.
Fourth, you won't have to read all the email messages every time you open your email. You can look quickly at the subject lines and then decide which messages to answer right away. You can read the others later.
Finally, do not always use "reply to all" to answer email. Only send the message to people who need to read your answer. That way you won't fill your workmates' inboxes with messages that they don't need. And they won't waste time reading them.
If you follow these simple steps, you will be a more efficient worker. Best of all, you will be able to leave the office earlier.
题目①
你的学校一定组织过很多有意义的外出参观活动，让你和同学们开阔了眼界，体验了快乐，增进了友谊。《英语学习报》现正举办“My School Trip”征文活动，请你根据下面的提示问题，向大家介绍一次你所参加的外出参观活动，说一说大家去了哪儿，做了什么，以及你的感受。
提示词语：learn from, fantastic, experience, enjoy, exciting
提示问题：·Where did you go on the school trip?
·What did you do on the trip?
·How did you feel about the trip?
My School Trip
题目②
学校英语校刊“人生目标”栏目正在征稿，请你以“My Dream Job”为题写一篇短文，内容包括你的理想职业是什么，你为什么会有这样的想法以及你打算如何实现它。
提示词语：important, helpful, study, practice, try my best
提示问题：·What do you want to be when you grow up?
·Why do you have this dream?
·What are you going to do?
