Urban gardens are valuable assets to communities. They provide green spaces to grow sustainable food, build community cohesion (凝聚力), make new friends, connect with the earth, and much more. So, let's check out our list of 4 inspiring urban gardens in the US.
Gotham Greens
Where: New York &Chicago
What: Gotham Greens first started in Brooklyn and now has four locations in New York City and Chicago. Their flagship farm in Brooklyn produces over 100,000 pounds of greens per year. But it doesn't just produce healthy local vegetables. It is using high-tech greenhouses with solar panels to make sure the food grown is healthy and sustainable.
Baltimore Urban Gardening with Students
Where: Baltimore, Maryland
What: The Baltimore Urban Gardening with Students (BUGS) program encourages students to get their hands dirty and plant vegetables through their after-school and summer programs. Many of these kids don't have access to green spaces, and have never had the opportunity to grow food.
ReVision Urban Farm
Where: Boston, Massachusetts
What: ReVision Urban Farm in Boston works in partnership with the ReVision Family Home-a shelter for 22 homeless parents and their kids. The farm provides these families with information on healthy eating, and access to the farm's fresh vegetables. The organization also provides job training to help families escape the cycle of poverty.
Swale
Where: New York
What: Swale, a floating food forest located on a large boat, is an innovative project meant to inspire citizens to rethink the relationship between our cities and our food. This urban garden serves as both a living art exhibit and an educational farm. Food forests are sustainable gardens that include vegetables, fruit, nut trees, bushes, herbs, and vines -each one complementing the other in a symbiotic (共生的) relationship.
Like many other five-year-old, Jeanie Low of Houston, Texas, would use a stool (凳子) to help her reach the bathroom sink. However, the plastic step-stool she had at home was unstable and cluttered up the small bathroom shared by her whole family. After learning of an invention contest held by her school that year, Jeanie resolved to enter the contest by creating a stool that would be a permanent fixture in the bathroom, and yet could be kept out of the way when not in use.
Jeanie decided to make a stool attached to the bathroom cabinet door under the sink. She cut a board of wood into two pieces, each about two feet wide and one foot long. Using metal hinges (铰链), Jeanie attached one piece of the wood to the front of the cabinet door, and the second piece to the first. The first piece was set just high enough so that when it swung out horizontally from the cabinet door, the second piece would swing down from the first, just touching the ground, and so serving as a support for the first piece of the wood. This created a convenient, strong platform for any person too short to reach the sink. When not in use, the hinges allowed the two pieces of wood to fold back up tightly against the cabinet, where they were held in place by magnets. Jeanie called her invention the "Kiddie Stool".
Jeanie's Kiddie Stool won first place in her school's contest. Two years later, it was awarded first prize again at Houston's first annual Invention Fair. As a result, Jeanie was invited to make a number of public appearances with her Kiddie Stool, and was featured on local TV as well as in newspapers. Many people found the story of the Kiddie Stool inspiring because it showed that with imagination, anyone can be an inventor.
In Japan, you are what your blood type is. A person's blood type is popularly believed to decide his/her character and personality. Type-A people are generally considered sensitive perfectionists and good team players, but over-anxious. Type OS are curious and generous but stubborn. Type ABs are artistic but mysterious and unpredictable, and type Bs are cheerful but eccentric, individualistic, and selfish. Though lacking scientific evidence, this belief is widely seen in books, magazines, and television shows. Last year, four of Japan's top 10 best-sellers were about how blood type determines personality, through which readers seemed to be able to discover the definition of their blood type or have their self-image confirmed.
The blood-type belief has been used in unusual ways. The women softball team that won gold for Japan at the Beijing Olympics is reported to have used blood-type theories to customize training for each player. Some kindergartens have adopted teaching methods along blood group lines, and even major companies reportedly make decisions about assignments based on an employee's blood type. In 1990, Mitsubishi Electronics was reported to have announced the formation of a team composed entirely of AB workers, thanks to "their ability to make plans".
The belief even affects politics. One former prime minister considered it important enough to reveal in his official profile that he was a type A, while his opposition rival was type B. In 2011, a minister, Ryu Matsumoto, was forced to resign after only a week in office, when a bad-tempered encounter with local officials was televised. In his resignation speech, he blamed his failings on the fact that he was blood type B.
The blood-type craze, considered simply harmless fun by some Japanese, may reveal itself as prejudice and discrimination. In fact, this seems so common that the Japanese now have a term for it: bura-hara, meaning blood-type harassment (骚扰). There are reports of discrimination leading to children being bullied, ending of happy relationships, and loss of job opportunities due to blood type.
You've most likely heard the news by now: A car-commuting, desk-bound, TV-watching lifestyle can be harmful to our health. All the time that we spend rooted in the chair is linked to increased risks of so many deadly diseases that experts have named this modern-day health epidemic the "sitting disease".
Sitting for too long slows down the body's metabolism (新陈代谢) and the way enzymes (酶) break down our fat reserves, raising both blood sugar levels and blood pressure. Small amounts of regular activity, even just standing and moving around, throughout the day is enough to bring the increased levels back down. And those small amounts of activity add up -30 minutes of light activity in two or three-minute bursts can be just as effective as a half-hour block of exercise. But without that activity, blood sugar levels and blood pressure keep creeping up, steadily damaging the inside of the arteries (动脉) and increasing the risk of diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and other serious diseases. In essence, fundamental changes in biology occur if you sit for too long.
But wait, you're a runner. You needn't worry about the harm of a sedentary lifestyle because you exercise regularly, right? Well, not so fast. Recent studies show that people spend an average of 64 hours a week sitting, whether or not they exercise 150 minutes a week as recommended by World Health Organization (WHO). Regular exercisers, furthermore, are found to be about 30 percent less active on days when they exercise. Overall, most people simply aren't exercising or moving around enough to counteract all the harm that can result from sitting nine hours or more a day.
Scared straight out of your chair? Good. The remedy is as simple as standing up and taking activity breaks.
From the dawn of civilization, paper records have been a method of keeping track of important and necessary documentation. A common experience throughout the world's record keeping has been the necessity to ensure that all documents are kept together, and none are lost.
These included tying ribbons through the paper, and melting wax to secure the papers in place. For nearly 600 years, these were the methods used to secure papers.
In 1835, a machine that could mass-produce straight pins was invented by Howe J. I, an American inventor. Although straight pins (大头针) were originally designed for sewing and tailoring, people began using them as a quick and easy way to secure papers. In 1899 he patented the device, which consisted of a wire bent into a particularly shaped hoop for the purpose of securing papers.
During this time, however, the paperclip (回形针) was not a widely distributed device. Therefore, the Gem Manufacturing Company of England developed a machine to manufacture and standardize the paperclip design.
Today the paperclip is a famous invention used throughout offices, schoolrooms, and business throughout the world.
A. The next paper invention was that of the straight pin.
B. Before the paper clip, people had to be creative to keep paper together.
C. The humble item only came into popular usage around the mid-19th century.
D. Later, inspired by the straight pin, Norwegian Vaaler J. came up with the idea of the first paperclip.
E. This manufacturing development allowed for the expansion of the modern paperclip worldwide.
F. Being a wonder of simplicity and function, the paperclip remains a standard office supply throughout the world
G. Therefore, from the early 13th century people had created various methods to ensure documents were kept together.
We live in a world increasingly dominated by science. Since elementary school, I have always 1 subjects like science and math. To me, these subjects, full of discoveries and 2, seem to play more significant role in human progress than humanities. And I always 3 thought of these subjects as more solid and serious than classes like English. If there was no right 4 I thought, why bother? But recently I had an 5that taught me my academic interests are more flexible than I had thought: I took my first philosophy class.
Before I entered the classroom, I was 6. I waited outside with the other students and wondered what exactly philosophy would involve. I imagined getting into pretty long and boring conversations 7 intended to reflect on the meaning of life. But what I got was something quite 8
A young man in jeans, Mr. Jones—"but you can call me Rob"—was far from the white-haired, buttoned-up old man I had 9. Rather than pulling us into dull arguments about difficult-to-understand philosophical points, Rob 10 us on our level. To talk free will, we looked at our own 11_. To talk morals, we looked at dilemmas we had faced ourselves. By the end of class, I'd discovered that questions with no right answer can turn out to be the most 12 ones.
It 13 me that if I let go of my 14, I can actually get a lot out of the subjects I once thought little of. The class taught me - in more ways than one - to look at things with a(n) 15mind.
The Getty Center sits on a hilltop in the Santa Monica Mountains, (tower) above the city of Los Angeles. The museum was (origin) constructed to house the vast art collection belonging to oil tyooon J. Paul Getty. Today, the modernist complex (stock) with so many art works that the exhibit arenas can show just a part of them at a time, making the artistic special exhibitions a highlight of any visit to the Getty.
The Center's award-winning architect, Richard Meier, did outstanding job of creating a public space that has surprised many visitors. Visitors go to the Getty thinking they are visiting a museum with works of art on the inside. they discover instead is a work of art with a museum inside. Meier took some basic (material): metal, stone and glass. Working with a billion-dollar budget, he combined them to create a work of architecture that can excite visitors as much as the art collection inside (do). Around every corner and at every turn, there is a new view store for guests. And then, just they think they have seen it all, a new fountain or landscape pops up.
In addition to museum tours, the Getty also provides various free on-site tours, including tours of the gardens. These explorations are a must for anyone (interest) in learning more about Meier's techniques and ideas.
1）自我介绍；
2）告知到达时间；
3）询问住家的兴趣爱好及其他信息。
注意：
1）词数80左右；
2）可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
When school was over, the day was fading and it started to drizzle(毛毛雨). I stood at the school gate, with a loaded backpack on my shoulders. It was Friday again: a weekend of joy with unlimited sleeping hours and dinner courses specially made to my taste, a weekend at home. I waved goodbye to my friends as they jumped into their fathers' warm and comfortable cars. Curiously, this gave rise to a disturbing feeling in me. It was not exactly what they called jealousy, but something like dismay(沮丧). I knew all I could expect was an old bike Mom would ride along on, with the badly-oiled chain creaking(嘎吱作响) against the wheel to announce her arrival.
Every Friday when Mom came to pick me up for the weekend, it was a moment full of great expectation and great unease. I always felt my face burning as we rode our way in and out of the numerous cars and saw my friends' faces sticking out of the car windows. It was like stepping into a ballroom with beautifully dressed ladies and finding yourself in a smelly T-shirt.
To tell you the truth, Mom is quite a headache once in a while. She just looks a homely middle-aged housewife. Being a practitioner of DIY, she knits most of my sweaters, chiefly in old styles. Whenever caught by some curious classmates asking what brand my sweaters are, I'd force a smile and reply in a half joking manner: homemade.
I couldn't remember when I started to find her such an embarrassment. As a little boy, I relied on her so much. She had been working at home, cooking in the kitchen, knitting by the lamp or riding across town to buy me a book I badly needed. It had always been much fun riding with mom. But just now there seemed to be something standing between us, something that made her so strange to me and me to her.
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。
Today she showed up in a raincoat.
……
Mom tried to cover me with the back of the raincoat again as a storm set in.
