—Well, ________ this sweater________ that one is fit for her. They're too big.
—He was ____________ at first, but soon he told us about his terrible experiences.
—50 dollars____________.
—I'd love to, but it ________whether I can finish my homework.
—Yes, I've done everything ________ I can to win the game.
—________! Let's work together to protect the earth.
— But in his eyes, it didn't matter. So he ________ her soon.
Lin Fei is studying English in New York now. He has not been there long, and he is quite amazed at the great1between American and Chinese culture.
For one thing, Americans and Chinese are different in arranging（安排）a visit. Chinese usually call on their friends unexpectedly. However, Americans2making an appointment（预约）ahead of them. An unexpected visit is regarded to be3.
For another thing, their table4are different. Chinese usually eat directly from the serving dish. And during the meal, the hosts may keep putting food on the guests' plates. However, an American only eats from5own plate. He never picks up food for others6he isn't asked to do so.
What's more, they7differently when they receive complimenting remarks（表扬）. When a Chinese hostess is8for her cooking skills, for example, she will apologize（道歉） for being a poor cook at once. Yet an American hostess is likely to accept it, "Oh, I'm glad that you enjoy it. I went out of my way to cook it for you. "
At the beginning, it was hard for Lin Fei to9things around him because of these culture differences. But soon, he succeeded10adjusting to（适应）their way of doing things. " When in Rome do as the Romans do, "he'd like to say when he was asked how he could get along in a new culture.
Xiong Chuanfa often appears in one of the liveliest areas in Nanchang. As he creates a sugar human, children feel1. In their eyes, he2a magician. In fact, Xiong has been working on this traditional Chinese folk （民间的） art for 20 years. Every morning, he3syrup（糖浆）and drives to start his magic show. Many children like the sugar art very much, but this craft （手工艺） is dying4. With the time passing, it might disappear in the near future.
Ngendakumana comes from Burundi. He fell in love with one of sugar humans called "Bing Dwen Dwen". He couldn't stop trying making one5. But he couldn't make it, and then he6it wasn't so easy to do. With Xiong's help, he was finally able to make a horse. He looked so7.
Xiong said the sugar art can be back to the Ming Dynasty and his family has passed down this art8for four generations （代） . His wife and his son also had this skill. Ngendakumana was deeply9after learning the family's story. "It is an important part of Chinese10and it is known around the world," he said.
A: I visited the Museum of Failure last week.
B: Museum of Failure? I've never heard of it. What was on show?
A:Some of them were made by the most famous and successful companies like Apple and Coca-cola.
B: Does it make fun of these companies?
A:The companies always encourage young people to try and make mistakes.
B:.
A: Because they believe a person who never makes a mistake never tries anything new.
B: I see. Probably this is why the companies don't think it's shameful to have a show of their failed products.
A: You are right. The key is whether or not you can learn from your mistakes.
|
A. Of course not. B. It's unbelievable. C. Failure isn't always a bad thing D. You might change your mind. E. What for? F. Successful stories are all similar G. More than 100 failed products. |
Tan Dun, a world-famous composer showed an interest in music when he was young. He loves the sounds of the rushing water and the blowing wind because, to him, the best music comes from nature. Since he had no musical instruments then, he made music with common objects like stones and paper. In 1978, Tan entered the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. Eight years later, he went on to study in the USA. There he got to know great musicians from around the world. As he likes the sounds of nature, Tan uses them a lot in his music. His amazing piece of music Water does not use any musical instruments. Instead, Tan makes over 50 sounds from water by controlling the speed of water flow.
Tan has helped build a bridge between the East and the West. He has successfully brought Chinese and Western music together. The music for the Beijing Olympics uses traditional Chinese music and the sounds of an ancient Chinese bell, though it is in a Western style.
"My music is to dream without boundaries（边界）, " Tan once said. In his works, the past and the present, common objects and musical instruments, traditional Chinese music and modem Western music all mix together to make a new type-music without boundaries.
When I was a boy, we had a television set. The program I liked best was The Jetsons. It was a cartoon series set in a future that was full of fantastic machines that could do anything. I always dreamed of a day when I would have machines like this to do all my work, so I could just sit back and relax.
Now my life is full of machines like these, but I seem to have more to do than ever. Just today I had to spend most of the morning downloading a new version（版本）of my word processing program so I could write this article. When I first started out, I wrote my stories on lined notebook paper, and it took half the time. Last week, I spent most of another morning trying to get my new coffee maker to work right. I seem to be drowning in a sea of new rules and problems that come with new technology.
Now don't get me wrong. Computers and machines have done a lot to help all of us. I just want us to be able to use them without them using us. We always seem to be busy because we're spending all of our time using these machines.
I hope that in the future, machines can be more user-friendly, so we don't spend all our time on them. With machines we can live an easier life, but they can never replace time spent will family and friends.
Peterson always got into trouble. One day, he got to know the wise man Jeff came to his city. Peterson decided to go to see him, "My life is full of all kinds of problems. Please tell me the way to solve them and live a peaceful and happy life."
Jeff smiled and said, "There are hundreds of camels （骆驼）. If all of them sit down, you can sleep. Peterson went to do it.
The next morning, Peterson became sad, "I couldn't even sleep for a moment. I tried a lot but I couldn't get all the camels to sit down at a time. Some sat down themselves but some wouldn't sit even if I try. If one sits down, another will stand up."
Jeff smiled, "Some sat because of your efforts（努力）. Others wouldn't sit even after you tried to make them sit. And then later you would find that some of them sat themselves wasting time."
The same way if we solve a problem, we can still see another problem standing there. Problems are part of life. We should learn to face them in a peaceful heart.
A person called me while I was busy writing yesterday. "I'm reading your book, "he said. "There's a typo （打印错误） on Page 383. "
"Thanks, but you don't need to tell me about it, " I said politely.
He was quite surprised. He expected me to write down the information and then have a talk with him. Instead, I simply thanked him for calling and ended it.
I have got many calls like this in the past 25 years. I knew they wanted to be kind to me. But that kindness often lost the primary meaning. Most of the time, people hoped that I'd become friends with them or I could follow the free advice happily. The typo could set up a relationship between us.
This was where they went wrong. They wanted to have a relationship with me, but they didn't really understand me.
I'm a busy writer. I've written 60 books, over 12, 000 pages. No one is going to print my early books again, so there's nothing I can do about the typo. Also, I have lots of important tasks to finish.
So, a better way to begin a talk with me might be as follows:
"Hi, Bon. I'm reading your book. There's one thing in it that I'd like to discuss with you. It'll take you a few minutes. Do you have free time now? "
This works beautifully in daily life. If you want to set up a relationship with someone, you need to know what he thinks, needs and fears. In other words, you have to, as the old saying goes, "Put yourself in the other person's shoes."
In the morning, you're on the school bus. But as soon as you turn a corner, you'll find yourself at the end of a very long queue（队）, it's another traffic jam! Meanwhile, in Antarctica（南极洲）, snow covers the land. A group of emperor penguins crowd together to keep warm using stop-and-go movements to protect themselves from the winds. Can you see the connection?
Emperor penguins move like cars in traffic jams to keep warm, according to a new research. A penguin only needs to move 2 cm in any direction for its neighbor to do the same thing. These movements then flow（涌动）through the whole group of penguins like a "traveling wave（波浪） ".
These waves also help the smaller crowds join bigger groups, keeping more and more of their friends warm. A single Antarctica "traffic jam" has thousands of penguins. Interestingly, the technology once used for studying road traffic jams was used to study the penguins. It included studying time-lapse（延时）videos. Scientists also discovered that's unlike on the road, these waves can be made by any penguin and in any direction.
With temperatures usually dropping 50 degrees below zero and winds reaching speeds of up to 200 km/h, these traveling waves are very important for penguins to keep warm.
These penguins can also teach us a lesson. In a big group, they learn to be orderly and patient, and never to crash into each other. These are skills that we should all learn from them when we are on the road!
In the train, two kids were making much noise by jumping on the seats and running here and there. Their father was sitting nearby quietly. When kids stopped to look at him, he would reply with a smile. At last, all the passengers got angry with them and their father.
Then one of the travelers came to the father, "Your children are making so much trouble for others and you don't stop them but encourage them by smiling. You should let them know how to do correctly."
To everyone's surprise, the father said, "My wife went to her hometown to visit her parents, but there she died from an accident（事故）yesterday. I really don't know how to explain to them they will never be able to see their mother again."
Hearing this, everyone was surprised. Till then, they realized that they shouldn't say whether people are good or not before truly knowing them.
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The Students' Union
