Spelling Bee
An Annual Community Tradition
Since 1992, the Needham Education Foundation (NEF) has held an annual Spelling Bee to raise funds to support educational programs that benefit all Needham public school students. The event has become a fun community tradition that draws hundreds of spellers from Needham schools, businesses, and the community.
Ways to Support the Bee
The NEF relies on local businesses, community organizations and individuals to make the Bee a success. No matter how you choose to support the Bee, you are making learning come alive for Needham public school students. Thank you!
* Register (注册) a Bee Team - $375
All teams must have three participants. Consider forming a team with your friends, co-workers, or neighbors (adults only please)! All student teams are selected and registered by their individual schools. Receive a $50 discount if you also purchase a full-page ad!
* Sponsor a Student / Teacher Team － $375
We are happy to see both students and teachers representing all eight Needham schools at the Bee each year. Consider sponsoring one of these student or teacher teams so that they may compete for free. Sponsors are listed on the team's sign and in the Bee program. Receive a $50 discount if you also purchase a full-page ad!
* Purchase an Ad in the Bee Program - $300-$200-$100
Advertise your business in the Bee program book which is given to the hundreds of Bee attendees. Choose from a full-page ad, a half-page ad, or a business card ad.
The sutures (手术缝线) were changing colors - quickly. First light purple, then dark purple. This was what Dasia Taylor had hoped would happen. She had the idea as a high school junior after she read about "smart" sutures that use technology to detect wound changes and then send information to a smartphone. Taylor's first thought was: This is cool, but what about those who won't be able to afford this technology?
So she set out to create a more cost-effective solution for an honors chemistry research project. She found it in beets (甜菜). Taylor developed a surgical suture additive from the root vegetable that changes color when an infection is present.
Human skin is naturally acidic, and "when our wounds are infected, our pH level increases from five to eight or higher," Taylor said. "I found that beets also change color at that point. So I put two and two together." In the lab, she observed that the beet-treated sutures change from light purple to dark purple when the pH level changes from healthy to infected, Taylor said. "All of these things were happening, and I was like, this is amazing and my guess was right," Taylor said.
According to the World Health Organization, 11 percent of patients in low- and middle-income countries who have surgery are infected in the process and such infections complicate 1.9 percent of surgical procedures, though it added that the number is likely to be higher. Taylor's project earned her a great international award. But the girl said that for her, the research has never been about the award. "I consistently classified (归类) my project as where equity meets science," Taylor said. "When you're doing research like this, you have to think about the lives you're going to impact. You have to make sure the people you're affecting will be able to have access to it."
I'm at the salon (美发厅) and my hairdresser Kristi Lauren is talking rubbish. To be precise, she's telling me exactly how much waste her salon recycles: last year it was 125 tonnes. Everything from hair to shampoo (洗发水) bottles is recycled in innovative ways. Her waste is collected by Waste Free Systems, a social enterprise.
Lauren explains the problem, "Our colour tubes are boxed, and they can have a paper ingredient (成分) list as well as the plastic cover and the metal tube. All our product bottles. Then there's all that cut hair, and the unused colour that would normally be washed down the sink."
Waste Free Systems charges a fee for collecting the waste, and money raised by selling recycled materials goes to charities: Lauren, who runs an eight-chair salon, says, "It's a small price to pay. It ends up being just about $2 per client － we call it a green tax."
Paul Frasca is the co-founder of Sustainable Salons, a similar service which now works with almost 1,000 hairdressing salons and beauty salons across Australia and New Zealand. Frasca says many salons are now using their green programs actively as a marketing strategy. "The environmentally aware consumer is now the most important customer on the market. So it doesn't just make environmental sense."
Both programs are researching new ways to redirect waste. Waste Free Systems is using hair to provide nutrients for plants, while Sustainable Salons makes hair products for cleaning up oil leakage. Sustainable Salons has partnered with Dresden Vision to turn plastic shampoo bottles into frames (框架) for eyeglasses. Waste Free Systems has experimented with turning plastic bottles into 3D printing material.
A new study shows that the more people read any kind of fiction, the better their language skills are likely to be. The piece was written by. Sandra Martin-Chang of Concordia University in Canada, and her student Stephanie Kozak.
Martin-Chang and Kozak used a scale (量表) called the Predictors of Leisure Reading (PoLR) to investigate reading behaviours (motivations, attitudes and interests). They then examined how well the PoLR predicted the language skills of 200 undergraduate students, with all data gathered at York University in Toronto. The researchers note that the age range of the subjects in the study is of key interest. In early adulthood, reading becomes self-directed rather than forced by parents or teachers, which makes this a perfect time for developing one's own reading habits. This population is also rather understudied, with most existing research focusing far more on children.
The researchers administered a series of measures over two separate half-hour sessions. First, the volunteers completed the 48-question PoLR scale measuring various reading behaviours. They were then given language tests. The researchers found that people who enjoyed reading fiction for leisure and who identified themselves as readers scored higher on the language tests, while those who read to access specific information scored more poorly on the same tests.
The many benefits of reading have long been established. Besides having better language abilities, lifelong readers are known to be more understanding of others, attain higher socioeconomic status and even live longer, healthier lives than non-readers.
"Teachers and parents can develop a love of reading by letting young people read what they want, without guilt or shame. This established interest, wanting to read something over and over again, having a strong desire to read an entire series, feeling connected to characters and authors, these are all good things," Martin-Chang concludes.
Last November, Michelle McGagh, a 34-year-old journalist, looked at her finances and discovered that every year she spent a lot of money unnecessarily. She allowed herself £30 a week to buy food and household essentials. But she couldn't spend money on anything else - no clothes, no buses or flights, and no meals out.
At first, she tried to see her friends as often as before. She cycled 120 miles to be at a friend's wedding, and camped in their garden to avoid paying for accommodation. But she couldn't join them for dinner in a restaurant, and when they went to the pub, she drank tap water. In the end, she simply went out less, which made her feel a bit lonely.
Of course, she couldn't afford to go abroad, so she missed a trip to Brazil. Here, for the first and only time in the year, she bought food that she had not cooked herself － a bag of chips for £ l .95.
At the end of the year, she had saved £23,000. She was much slimmer and fitter. She says she now feels freer and happier, because she appreciates the simple things in life. But she learned the hard way that you can't really socialize if you don't want to spend money. The evening after her year-long challenge ended, she bought all her friends a drink in the pub. But she has not gone back to her past spending habits.
"Whenever you open your wallet, think about whether what you are buying is something you need or something you want," says McGagh.
A. Why did she decide to take up this challenge?
B. So what's her key tip for those who want to save?
C. She occasionally pays to socialize and go on holiday.
D. She also gained confidence and a sense of adventure.
E. So she made a plan: to stop spending money like that for a year.
F. The following weekend, she rode 60 miles to meet some friends.
G. Her only holiday was a cycling trip to East Anglia, where again she camped.
The other day, veterinarian (兽医) David Wise was called to a small village in Turkey to attend to a client's cow. He hadn't planned on1long. But what began as just a routine visit ended as one David won't soon 2.
After wrapping up the job he'd come for, David was about to 3 the village. Before he did, however, something in the distance 4 his eye. There, trudging (跋步) toward him on a path thick with snow, was a(n) 5 girl. And she was not 6. On her back was a dog. 7, word had gotten around that a vet would come and that 8 an opportunity which the girl, 8-year-old Cemre Su TiirkBz, refused to pass up.
Cemre's dog, named Pamuk, had fallen9. Desperate to get him help, she decided to carry Pamuk more than a mile from her home to the spot she'd 10 that David would be visiting.
David, of course, couldn't turn Cemre and Pamuk away. While the little girl 11 David performed a(n) 12. Fortunately, the dog' s sickness wasn't all too13. David found Pamuk just had some skin 14 that were making him uncomfortable, but could easily be treated.
Cemre and her dog had gotten 15, but they also got a friend. David didn't blame Cemre for his services that day.
The Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel runs across a large water expanse with the Chesapeake Bay on one side and the Atlantic Ocean on other.
Before the bridge (build), ferries (渡船) carried 50 to 60 cars a time across the almost 18 miles of water. It took 90 minutes, and bad weather or rough waters sometimes delayed the ferry. As time went by, more people wanted to get across the bay quickly and on a (rely) schedule. So in 1960, thousands of people began work on the engineering wonder.
The bridge was completed in 1964. But you could say that it's never really complete. Johnson, who (work) on the bridge for 20 years, and his crew go out daily (inspect) the bridge structure, making sure it's safe and functioning. Between 1995 and 1999, more roadway was added, making the bridge two lanes (车道) in each (direct). In the next few years, a new tunnel (隧道) will be added to one of the (original).
To some, the bridge is beautiful, inspiring and a symbol of people can do. But to people such as Johnson, the bridge is (simple) something necessary. It's for someone who might need to go to the doctor's office, buy school supplies or visit a friend.
1）展览的时间和地点；
2）展览的内容和意义。
注意：1）词数 80 左右；
2）可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
April Fools' Day
Nat woke early and jumped out of bed. Today was the best day of the year for him. Nat loved to play tricks, and today was April Fools' Day.
Some of Nat's tricks were big hits. Last year, he short-sheeted his sister's bed. She couldn't understand what was going on and started to think that her legs must have grown much longer during the day. When she realized what had happened, she laughed her head off.
Some of Nat's tricks were not so successful. Mom didn't think finding a furry toy mouse in the fridge was humorous at all. After she calmed down a bit, she said, "That's it! There's a ban on Nat tricks for two weeks."
Nat was also the class clown. He was always making jokes in class. He liked it when he made the other kids laugh. Since it was April Fools' Day, he felt like he had to come up with something really good to provide his classmates with some really good entertainment.
For that, Nat thought long and hard before he came up with his brilliant idea. He bought two toy frogs which were made out of green plastic and looked very realistic. Nat knew just the trick he would play on his classmates.
Nat arrived at school early. To succeed in his plan, he needed to get into the classroom before anyone else. Nat's class had a rainforest terrarium (饲养皿). It had plants, insects, and three frogs in it. Nat's idea was to pretend that the frogs had escaped. He knew that Ms. Lopez, his teacher, wasn't afraid of frogs but several of his classmates, including himself, were.
Nat slipped into the classroom. Good! There was nobody here. He put one of the toy frogs on the floor, near the terrarium and the other on his friend Stacey's desk. Nat knew that Stacey really didn't not like frogs. Also, she played a great trick on him last April Fools' Day. To make his trick more convincing, Nat pushed the lid of the terrarium open. Then he rushed off to morning gathering.
注意：
1）续写词数应为150左右：
2）请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
When the students got back to class, no one noticed the toy frogs at first.
……
Nat realized that he had opened the lid of the terrarium.
