As a language learning enthusiast, I've come up with the best apps for learning English from the thousands of mobile apps out there.
Best for Pronunciation: ELSA Speak
ELSA Speak is probably the best mobile app around for helping you improve your English pronunciation. The app's greatest strength is its intensive AI feedback, but ELSA also provides mini-training sessions to really perfect your pronunciation. The AI analyzes your recordings based on pronunciation, intonation and fluency then points out exactly which parts sound inaccurate.
Best for Immersing in English Videos: FluentU
FuentU is a language learning app that teaches you English through authentic videos like news reports, movie scenes and interviews, with learner tools for all levels. Each clip has interactive subtitles so if you're not sure what a word means, you can hover over it and get in explanation. The app also gives video examples for each word so you can team vocabulary in context.
Best for Practical Topics: Babbel
Babbel has you learn and practice English with realistic conversations that surround things that you're personally interested in. Lessons are short and consist of written and audio versions of the grammar featured in the lessons. Then you are able to complete practice exercises to solidify your understanding.
Best for Fun Beginner Lessons: Lingodeer
Lingodecr uses games and short exercises to teach beginner and intermediate English learners. Lingodeer takes a gamified (游戏化的) approach to language learning with a goal-oriented curriculum consisting of structured lessons and regular reviews. Lingodeer's lessons are arranged according to themes, such as sports, weather, parts of the body and shopping.
I have lived in rural America for nine years, first in Michigan, where I got my PhD; then in central Illinois and now in Indiana, where I am a professor. In a place where most people have lived the whole of their lives, I feel like a stranger. There are few things I enjoy more than complaining about my geographic isolation. I'm a vegetarian, so there's nowhere to go for a nice dinner that isn't 50 miles away. I'm black, so there's nowhere to get my hair done that doesn't involve another 50-miled drive. And the closest major airport is two hours away.
I recite these gripes（牢骚）to my friends. We all have grand ideas about what life would be like if only we did that, or lived there. And there's this; I really don't intend to change most of the things I complain about. Griping is seductiye on those days when happiness requires too much energy. Bur it also makes me lose sight of the fact that I was born and grew up in Nebraska and have lived most of my life in one of the plains states. When I go to the coasts, I am struck by how unappealing big-city living can be.
While I may not love where I live, there are plenty of people who are proud to call this place home. At a party with colleagues, I was going on about everything I couldn't stand in our town when I noticed that they were silent and shifting uncomfortably. That moment forced a change in me. Complaining may offer relief, but so does acceptance. There is no perfect life. By focusing on gripes, I risk missing out on precious moments of appreciation. When I get home, I stand on my balcony, look into the night sky and see the stars. I know that I have absolutely nothing to complain about.
The rhino census (犀牛普查) is out, bearing good news for the greater one-horned rhinos! In September, 2022, the International Rhino Foundation (IRF) documented in a report that there is a baby boom in this population, representing an increase of 167 percent.
According to the report, there are a total of 4,014 greater one-homed rhinos living m India, Nepal, and Bhutan. Although this is positive news, their IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) status still remains vulnerable.
In India alone, the home to 70 percent of the world's greater one-homed rhinos, there was an increase of 274 rhinos since the last bi-annual census, according to the organization Rhino Review.
An important reason for this baby boom is the fact that Assam, India, has enlarged Kaziringo National Park, home to the world's largest one-homed rhino population. The park went from 430 square kilometers to 1,040 square kilometers. This gives more breeding areas for the things, and they are closed to visitors during breeding season.
India and Nepal are also protecting the rhinos by enforcing wildlife crime laws. To reduce rhino death by poaching (偷猎), the IRF donates vehicles and equipment, plus education including guard training and crime investigation.
The IRF data for other rhino species is not as promising, although the greater one-horned rhino numbers are encouraging for future conservation. According to the report, there is a decline in Sumatran rhinos, Africa's white rhinos, while the Javan rhino population is stable and threatened by loss of habitat.
The State of the Rhino report offers hope for these other species. Given that the greater one-horned things were once close to extinction, with fewer than 100 living in the world, their recovery is incredible. This demonstrates that there are solutions when organizations and people work together. It is hoped that this successful rhino baby boom will affect other endangered wildlife species around the globe.
The human brain is the most complex and poorly understood biological structure known to man. Our human brain is relatively large for our body size and wrinkled in comparison to other animals' brains. Across species, brain size and wrinkle number is related to intelligence.
University of Copenhagen researchers have made an incredible discovery seeking to learn more about the mammalian（哺乳动物的）brain. A vital enzyme（酶）, a special material, allows brain signals to be transmitted or transported. The enzyme is randomly turning on and off, even taking hours-long "breaks from work." These discoverie8 could have a significant impact on our understanding of the brain and the development of medicines. The discovery is featured on the cover of Nature.
Millions of neurons (神经元) are constantly communicating with one another, shaping thoughts and memories and allowing us to move our bodies at will. Neurotransmitters are transported from one neuron to another by a unique enzyme when two neurons meet to exchange a message.
This process is necessary for neuronal communication as well as the survival of all complex organisms (extremely small living things). Until now, researchers all over the world assumed that these enzymes were constantly active, transmitting vital signals. However, this is not the case.
It is almost impossible to understand that the extremely critical process of loading neurotransmitters in containers is carried out by only one cell per container. Especially when we find that 40% of the time these cells are switched off.
Using a new method, researchers from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Copenhagen closely examined the enzyme and discovered that its activity switches on and off at random periods of time, contradicting our previous understanding.
"Contrary to popular belief, and unlike many other proteins, these enzymes could stop working for minutes to hours. Still, the brains of humans and other mammals are miraculously able to function," says Professor Dimitrios Stamou, who led the study from the research center at the University of Copenhagen's Department of Chemistry.
Our lives are full of habits. Unfortunately a great many of them are bad habits. One way to break these bad habits is to fill our lives with good habits. Most people decide one day that they need to make changes to their lives and then they go all out to make big sweeping changes. This may work for them for the first few days, but then they get burned out. This is a very unproductive way to spend your time and energy
Say your goal is to get up an hour earlier every day. One day you start setting your alarm for an hour earliet and you keep this up for one week. Then because you are naturally resistant to change, you go back to your old habit. A better way is to set your alarm one minute earlier every day. After two months you are getting up an hour earlier and you will not even notice the change.
This approach can work for just about anything. If you are exercising for half an hour every day and you want to increase that time to one hour then add a minute every day. After one month you will have reached your goat with very little resistance from your body and mina.
This method of change is gentle, but very powerful. Think of everything you can accomplish if you just continuously improve a little at a time, The change itself creates the momentum (动力) you need to keep going. What one minute change can you make to your life today?
A. The key is to change a little bit at a time.
B. Keeping on exercising can build up strength.
C. It may take longer, but with this approach you are likely to succeed.
D. Nothing will happen if you are not determined to achieve your goal.
E. Pretty soon they are back to their old habits and nothing has changed.
F. Changing slowly removes the greatest barrier we have to change: fear.
G. Soon you will find yourself reaching your goals with almost no pain involved.
Yu Jinwen, a counselor from Wuhan University of Engineering Science, initiated a project in 2015, to take wedding photos for those who had no chance to do so when they were young. The photographer, lighting operator and makeup artist are all students from the university, working as a form of community 1.
The program has 2 the elderly and helped improve the overall ability of young students. However, this program 3 many difficulties early on.
The budget has always been 4, but there are good-hearted helpers to lend a 5.
For example, one of Yu's friends, who happened to have closed his wedding photo studio in Wuhan, donated about 100 sets of secondhand wedding dresses.
The university pays for uniforms and insurance for students. Though some offer 6most funds are raised by students, who 7 secondhand items in a flea (跳蚤) market on campus, do part-time jobs and pay their own expenses.
At first, when volunteers went into the 8 to talk to the elderly, many did not trust them, 9 that it was a fraud (诈骗) for money,
Now, the program's reputation has 10 ，and besides canvassing（游说），they cooperate with the university's Communist Youth League of China to contact the staff in communities to 11elderly residents, who can also find ads for the program on newspapers and12platforms.
"No pains, no gains. It's through these difficulties that students have learned about the significance of the project, and 13 them gives a sense of achievement," Yu says.
"The program has developed into maturity and can 14 be duplicated（复制）now. I'm glad to see that other universities and institutions are also running similar projects for the elderly,15 the greater population."
Jointly produced by Shanghai Animated Film Studio and streaming site Bilibili, Yao—Chinese Folktales, (gain) over 26 million views and a score of 9.6 out of 10 on rating site Douban since it aired last Sunday.
The eight-part series was inspired by various classics from traditional Chinese literature and showcases a range of artistic (style) such as paper cutting, watercolor painting, and computer graphics.
The first episode (集) is based the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West, with characters preparing. (capture) a Tang Dynasty Buddhist monk.
Its plot, depicts one of the characters being punished after their leader was dissatisfied with their work, has resonated (共鸣) with wide audience, reminding (they) of their own dilemmas and hardships in the workplace.
The new series is part of the growing trend of Chinese animation (turn) to ancient legends and folktales for (inspire).
(domestic) produced animated films featuring classic figures such as "Monkey King", "Ne Zha", and "White Snake" have proved to be big hits in recent years!
1）解释字面意思；
2）阐释道理；
3）该成语对你产生的影响。
注意：
1）写作词数应为80左右：
2）可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
3）开头已给出，不计入总词数：
4）请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Here comes the Weekly Chinese Idiom－"shuǐ dī shí chuān".
My Father's Son
It's hard being an astronaut's son. I often wonder how my father ever had a son like me. I mean he's so special and so good at everything the does. But I'm just an average eleven-year-old kid.
Nowadays I dream about being a famous writer, but I used to dream about doing something spectacular to impress my father and make him proud of me — something like rescuing a child from a burning building or chasing a robber away from an old lady.
I was daydreaming in school one morning. I was daydreaming about being some kind of hero when my friend Ellen reminded me of my English teacher's announcement about a Father's Day essay contest.
"I hope we have a winner right here in my English class," she said. "There are three prizes for each of you."
When I got home, I kissed my mom quickly. Then I went upstairs to my room and sat down with a pen and a pad of paper. I started to think about what I would write.
How did I see my father? Hmm.
I saw him teaching me how to use a bat and how to throw a baseball.
I remembered how he hugged me for hours when my dog Spotty was hit and killed by a car. And I remembered how he sat and tried to explain death to me when Grandpa Bob died.
These were the things I was going to write about my dad. To me, he wasn't just a world-famous astronaut. He was my dad.
I wrote about all these memories and put them in my essay. I handed it in the next day and was surprised to find out that the winning essays would be read in the auditorium on Thursday night. All the parents and students were incited.
My parents and I went to school Thursday night. One of our neighbors said, "I bet you'll win the contest, David. I bet you wrote what it's like to be the son of an astronaut, and you're the only one in town who could write about that."
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。
| I shrugged and then the first prize winner - Ellen was announced. …… Surprised and thrilled, I went up to the stage. |
