It's always adventurous and romantic to visit an island country. Take a look at some breathtakingly beautiful island countries in the world, which everyone should visit at least once in his lifetime
Maldives
It's believed that Maldives is one of the most popular honeymoon(蜜月) places as well as one of the most beautiful island countries. Situated in the middle of the Indian Ocean, Maldives is made up of a series of ancient coral reefs that grow up along the sides of ancient volcanoes, with fascinating beaches
Fiji
Fiji has plenty of surprises for any adventurous traveler. It is famous for the world best surf scenes, attracting many surfing lovers to ride the great waves. Well, if surfing is not for you and you love sitting on the beach and relaxing, hiking or seeing breathtaking waterfalls, Fiji is also a suitable island country to visit
Malta
Malta, a beautiful southern European country in the Mediterranean Sea, has a rich history and culture. There are amazing sky-high cliffs to climb, wonderful temples to visit and lots of amazing places to go diving. There are plenty of interesting things to explore here and everyone can find something to enjoy. The historic part of Malta is shown in its architecture, great walled cities, and many underground tunnels.
Edmund Halley was an English scientist who lived over 200 years ago. He studied the observations of comets(彗星) which other scientists had made. The orbit of one particular comet was a very difficult mathematical problem. He could not figure it out. Neither could other scientists who dealt with such problems.
However, Halley had a friend named Newton, who was a brilliant mathematician. Newton thought he had already worked out that problem, but he could not find the papers on which he had done it. He told Halley that the orbit of a comet had the. shape of an ellipse(椭圆).
Now Halley set to work. He figured out the orbits of some of the comets that had been observed by scientists. He made a surprising discovery. The comets that had appeared in the years 1531, 1607, and 1682 all had the same orbit. Yet their appearances had been 75 to 76 years apart.
This seemed very strange to Halley. The different comets followed the same orbit. The more Halley thought about it, the more he thought that there had not been three different comets, as people thought. He decided that they had simply seen the same comet three times. The comet had gone away and had come back again.
It was an astonishing idea! Halley felt certain enough to make a prediction(预言) of what the comet would happen in the future. He decided that this comet would appear in the year 1758. There were 53 years to go before Halley's prediction could be tested. In 1758 the comet appeared in the sky. Halley did not see it for he has died some years before. Ever since then that comet has been called Halley's cornet, in his honour.
Yi So-yeon. an engineer from Seoul, returned to Earth on Saturday after 11 days aboard the International Space Station(ISS) along with Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and US astronaut Peggy Whitson.
A technical problem turned a routine(常规) return to Earth into a sharper than usual descent(下降) that tested the group members' energy and courage. They landed in the Kazakh steppes(大草原) about 420km(260 miles)wide of their target.
"During the descent there was some kind of fire outside the Soyuz capsule because we were going through the atmosphere, Yi said.
"At first I was afraid, but the two other guys looked okay so I tried to look okay too. "
Yi smiled and joked her way through a 10-minute news briefing at Star City the wooded Soviet era cosmonaut training centre on the edge of Moscow. However Malenchcnko and Whitson looked tired and thin after nearly six months in space. Their answers were short and Whitson needed support to balance when she walked. The 29-year-old Yi has become famous in R. O. Korea since the take-off but she brushed this aside and said she has had little contact with friends or family since returning.
"In fact they are the heroes right now," Yi said referring to Malenchenko and Whitson. just a beginner and a little ashamed to say that I am a hero. She did though relate a more light-hearted incident on the ISS.
"I sang Fly Me to the Yi said about the 1950s pop song. "It's my favourite song from university although at that time I didn't know 1 would be an astronaut. "
The capsule's so-called "ballistic" re-entering made the group members face twice the usual pull from the centre of the earth. The flames Yi described may have been caused by friction(摩擦) heating the capsule as it fell through the atmosphere.
Whitson told reporters that Saturday's ballistic landing was irregular but not an emergency.
"The Soyuz has been through its history very reliable and there has obviously been some issue in the last couple of descents which went ballistic but I'm sure the engineers will determine what the problems are and get them fixed. she said.
In October a Soyuz capsule carrying Malaysia's first space tourist touched down about 200 km(125 miles)off course in a similar ballistic landing caused by a technical problem.
The Soyuz is the world's longest-serving manned space capsule. An early version of the craft the Vostok carried the first person into space in 1961.
Whitson,48, has become the American with the longest amount of time in space with 377 days.
Over the past few years I've had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been making changes to my brain. I'm not thinking the way I used to think. I can feel it most strongly when I'm reading. Involving myself in a book or a lengthy(冗长的)article used to be easy. That's rarely the case anymore.
I think I know what's going on. For over a decade, I've been spending lots of time online. The Web has been a godsend to me as a writer. Research that once required days in the rooms of libraries can now be done in minutes by a few Google searches. Even when I'm not working, I'm scanning headlines or just tripping from link to link.
The Net is becoming a universal medium where information flows through my eyes and ears and into mind. The perfect recall of silicon memory (硅制存储器)can be a blessing to thinking. But that comes at a price. As the media theorist Marshall Mcluhan pointed out, media are not just passive channels of information. They supply the staff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought. And what the Net seems to be doing is weakening my ability for concentration. Once I was a driver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a flying swallow.
I'm not the only one. When I mention my troubles with reading to acquaintances, Bruce Friedman, a blogger, also has described how the Internet has changed his mental habits. His thinking has taken on a "staccato (不连贯的)" quality. "I can't read War and Peace anymore," he admitted. "I've lost the ability to do that. "
A recently published study suggests that when reading online, we tend to become "more decoders (解码器)of information. We are not only what we read; we are how we read.
Rich and Famous
Twenty years ago the most common ambition of American children was to be a teacher, followed by working in banking and finance, and then medicine. But today's situation is quite different. Instead they most commonly say they want to be a sports star, a pop star, or an actor—in other words, they hope to become a celebrity .
According to experts, young people desire these jobs largely because of the wealth and the fame. Let's take athletes and singers as an example. Their careers are short-lived. Many athletes' best time only lasts a few years and singers can have a very limited career. The field that was once the focus of their lives becomes something they have little or no involvement in. As a result, they'll have a feeling of worthlessness and a lack of control. The truth is quite simple: they have been so far removed from it for so long.
In spite of these disadvantages, there is greater ambition than ever among young people to achieve that status. They are not satisfied just making a living—they want to be rich and famous. Globally, more and more TV shows provide talent competitions where winners can achieve their goals in just a few weeks or months. They unrealistically believe that this lifestyle is easily obtained and leads to great satisfaction.
While many people argue that there is nothing wrong with having such ambitions, others feel that this trend will finally lead to dissatisfaction as more and more people are unable to reach their goals. That means they ignore the simple fact that great effort is needed before success. As a result, many people won't realize their childhood dreams, which could have a negative effect on their happiness.
A. The younger generation don't favor these professions any more.
B. In many ways this has been brought about by the celebrity culture.
C. Unfortunately, they do not always have a positive effect on people's life.
D. Besides, it can be difficult for them to adapt back to a normal everyday life.
E. People no longer have a sense of satisfaction once their goals have been achieved.
F. This quick way of gaining wealth and fame creates a celebrity culture among people.
G. The reason is that they don't realize it takes talent and hard work to be rich and famous.
I never went to university but always thought about it. The only way I 1 it was listening to my children talk about the interesting classes they were taking. University was just a life-long 2 of mine. I just turned sixty-four years old. I still thought about that old dream 3 one day when there was an Advanced-Age 4 at the local university. I decided to 5 .
My first day of school finally arrived. As I drove there, my mind was filled with 6 thoughts, "What am I doing? The 7 will laugh when they see me in class. I probably won't live long enough to get a 8 . Maybe I should just turn the car around and go home. "
Then, suddenly, I saw it! A large billboard on the side of the road with a picture of Kermit the Frog. I slowed down a little and read the words, "Live your dreams. " Was Kermit talking about me? I didn't turn the car around.
I drove a little 9 on up the highway and there was another 10 . This one had a picture of Albert Einstein with his tongue 11 out. A line read, "As a student, he was no Einstein. " And there was a word in red, "Confidence". A new attitude was 12 inside me.
13 the gate of the university, I found there 14 still another billboard. This one showed a photograph of a proud woman. Under the picture was her name, Nola Otis, aged 95, the oldest university graduate. Below it was the words, "Live Life". At that moment, my outlook changed 15 .
Yu Rong, a famous artist, thinks of a new way to introduce ancient story of Hua Mulan in her picture book. In the book, I Am Hua Mulan, she tells the story by (combine) paper-cutting with international artistic styles. She places Shaanxi paper-cuts over western-style pencil sketches (素描) (create) a typical presentation of Chinese elements, which turns out to be a (success) and impressive breakthrough.
Hua Mulan, story has been told by generations in China, was a fighter from the Northern Wei Dynasty(386 -534). As a devoted daughter, she dressed herself as a man to serve in the army place of her father. Mulan's characteristics, such as courage, kindness and a disinterested attitude toward fame and fortune, made (she) one of the most respected historical Chinese heroines. Mulan's story has been adapted (frequent) in modern media. For example, in 1998, Disney produced a film named Mulan, which (consider) a great success by critics and the public.
To better tell the story, Yu Rong draws inspiration from her several (visit) to sites of ancient battles and Henan Opera. After years of preparation she finally makes this extraordinary work.
Though it is one of the faded memories of my life today, there are times when I remember his face clearly, especially his eyes. As he had yellow spots on his eyes we called him Spotty. He would have been a stray (流浪)dog, until he came to me.
I was seven years old. My dad had just got a new job in Nasik. We had moved into a rented house. It was raining very heavily on the day we moved.
It was a cold dark night. We had our meal and went to sleep. Somehow in the midnight I heard some strange sounds outside the main door. I gathered courage and looked out through the window and I was really amused with what I saw outside.
There was a small puppy lying on an old doormat which my mother had put outside the door. It was wet and trembling. At first it was difficult to see the little one. It was the yellow spots on its eyes that made me realize its presence.
It was trying to get under the doormat to avoid the cold air outside and it had managed to get in as I could see only its head outside the doormat. Was it sick or injured?
I felt pity for the poor soul. I went in and came out with an old towel. I went near the innocent one and held it in my hand and wiped the puppy till he had become dry. I took him into my room and made a bed for him with a woolen blanket and a small pillow. He seemed very healthy and comfortable in his new bed as he went to sleep immediately.
The next morning, everyone in the family came to know about the unusual guest, "Shall we keep him with us?" I questioned my mom.
Like any other parents would, my parents first totally refused my idea but my sister and I convinced them to keep Spotty.
Slowly Spotty got on with everyone and became one of the family members.
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。
Paragraph 1:
One day, Spotty returned from his daily walk with a broken leg.
Paragraph 2 :
Almost a year later, one midnight we heard Spotty barking breathlessly.
