— ____? She is second to none in English in our class.
—It's a pity that I missed it. I ____ to New York then
—I know. By next month, he ____enough for a used one.
—Well, ____ difficulties he meets, I believe he will never lose heart.
A businessman was in debt and couldn't figure out what to do. He was sitting on a bench in the park with his head down, thinking what could 1 the company from bankruptcy (破产).2 , an old man appeared in front of him.
"I see that something is 3 you," he said. After listening to the businessman, the old man said: "I think I can 4 you. " He asked the businessman what his name was, wrote him a 5 and said: "Take this money. We will 6 here exactly in one year, and you will be 7 to return it to me at that time. "
After that, he turned around and 8 just as suddenly as he appeared. The businessman saw a check in his hands for an amount of 500,000 dollars, signed by John Rockefeller , one of the 9 people in the world at that time!
"It can 10 all of my problems in no time!" He thought. But instead, the businessman decided to put the check into his 11 . Thinking about its existence gave him the 12 to find a solution to save his business.
With the return of his 13 he made profitable(赢利的) deals. Over a couple of months, he got out of 14 and started to earn money again.
Exactly one year later, he returned to the 15 with the same check. At the agreed time the old man appeared again. Just as the businessman wanted to return the check and share his story of success, a 16 ran up and grabbed the old man.
"I hope he wasn't bothering you. He always runs away from the hospital and tells people that he is John Rockefeller. " She said to the businessman.
The businessman was 17 . During the whole year, he was creating and building a business, buying and selling,18 that he had half a million dollars. And suddenly he understood that it was not the 19 real or imaginary, that had changed his life. It was his new confidence and belief that gave him the strength to 20 everything that he went after.
Chicago's museums rank among the best in the world. Below are the top four ones you need to visit.
The Shedd Aquarium (水族馆)
Location: the Museum Campus, just Northeast of Soldier Field, 1200 South Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605
Tel: (312)939-2438
The Shedd is dedicated to (致力于) engaging, inspiring, entertaining and informing the public about the life in our oceans and waterways. They feature an Oceanarium , Wild Reef exhibit, Amazon River exhibit, and they pride themselves on their dedication to conservation and protection of wildlife habitats.
The Art Institute of Chicago
Location: Downtown Where Adams Street Meets Michigan Avenue, 111 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL 60603
Tel: (312)443-3600
The Art Institute consistently ranks among Chicago's most-visited museums. From French impressionist paintings to African masks to the new wing for Modern Art, the museum offers visitors a rich cultural experience.
The Museum of Contemporary Art
Location: Michigan Avenue, a Few Blocks East of the Old Water Tower, 220 East Chicago Avenue Chicago, IL 60611
Tel: (312)280-2660
Chicago's contemporary art center explores, exhibits, and collects art created since 1945. They're dedicated to allowing the public to directly experience the work and ideas of living artists, and understand the historical , social, and cultural background of the art of our time.
The Chicago History Museum
Location: In Lincoln Park on Chicago's North Side, 1601N. Clark Street, Chicago, IL 60614
Tel: (312)642-4600
The Chicago History Museum exhibits artifacts (史前文物) from the depth of their 22 million-item collection and from the city's past history. From the famous basketball team — the Chicago Bulls to the Great Chicago Fire, the museum covers it all and offers history information and exhibits to make Chicago's history connect to our lives today.
Last year I lived in Chile for half a year as an exchange student with the American Field Service. Compared to most visitors, I didn't travel much. I lived with a Chilean family and had the responsibilities of any Chilean teenager. I went to school every day, in uniform. I had good days and bad days and days that I didn't understand.
Chuquicamata, my host community, is a mining camp in the Atacama Desert. There is no disco, no shopping center, no museum or beach. Driveways must be watered daily to keep the dust down.
When I arrived here, I was scared. It was so different from the urban middle-class America I was accustomed to. There were lost dogs on the streets, and a constant cloud of brick-colored dust came from the mine. There was no downtown, few smoothly paved(用砖石铺的) streets, and little to do for amusement. The people worked extremely hard. Rain was a rare phenomenon; earthquakes and windstorms were frequent.
I had studied Spanish for two and a half years and was always one of the best students in my class. But in my first week in Chile I was only able to communicate and needed one person to whom I could explain my shock. I couldn't speak the thoughts in my head—and there were so many.
Most exchange students experience this like me. Culture shock presents itself in everything from increased aggression towards the people to lack of appetite. I was required to overcome all difficulties. Being an exchange student is not easy.
As time passed, everything changed. I began to forget words in English and to dream in Spanish and love Chilean food. I got used to not depending on expensive things for fun. Fun in Chuquicamata was being with people. And I took math, physics, chemistry, biology, Spanish, art, and philosophy.
But the sacrifices were nothing compared to the gain. I learned how to accept as well as to succeed in another culture. I now know the world is my community and have a much deeper understanding of both myself and others.
When international aid is given, steps must be taken to ensure that the aid reaches the people for whom it is intended. The way to achieve this may not be simple. It is very difficult for a nation to give help directly to people in another nation. The United Nations Organization(UNO)could undertake to direct the distribution of aid. Here however rises the problem of costs. Also tied with this is time. Perhaps the UNO could set up a body of devoted men and women in every country who can speedily distribute aid to victims of floods and earthquakes.
More than the help that one nation can give to another during a disaster, it would be more effective to give other forms of help during normal times. A common proverb says,"Give me a fish and I eat for a day, teach me to fish and I eat for a lifetime. "If we follow this wise saying, it would be right to teach people from less developed nations to take care of themselves. For example, a country could share its technology with another. This could be in simple areas like agriculture or in more complex areas like medical and health care or even in building satellites. Even a small country is able to help less developed nations. Sometime what is taken for granted, like the setting up of a water purification plant or the administration of a school, could be useful for countries which are looking about to solve common problems. It does not cost much to share such simple things. Exchange students could be attached for a number of months or years and learn the required craft while on the site. They can then take their knowledge back to their homelands and if necessary come back from time to time to clear doubts or to update themselves. Such aid will be truly helpful and there is no chance of it being temporary or of it falling into the wrong hands.
Many countries run extensive courses in all sorts of skills. It will not cost much to include deserving foreigners in these courses. Besides giving effective help to the countries concerned, there is also the build-up of friendships to consider. Giving direct help by giving materials may be effective in the short run and must continue to be given in the event of emergencies. However, in the long run what is really effective would be the sharing of knowledge.
We like to think we can read people like a book, relying mostly on facial expressions that give away the emotions inside. But when it comes to the strongest emotions, we read much less from facial expressions than we think we do. In fact, even though we believe it's the face that tells the story, we're typically reading something very different: body language.
That's the new finding from a study published this week in the journal Science. Researchers from Princeton, New York University, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem presented volunteer study participants with a series of pictures showing people experiencing extreme emotion, either positive or negative. The images included professional tennis players who had just won or lost a point in a major match.
In some of the images, researchers only show the study participants a face; in others, only a body; and in others still, both the body and the face. You might think it'd be obvious from a face whether he has just won Wimbledon. But it turns out it isn't.
"The striking finding was that our participants had no clue if the motion was positive or negative, when they were judging faces only," says lead study author Hillel Aviezer from Hebrew University. "By comparison, when they were judging the body (with no face), or the body with the face, they easily told positive from negative expressions. "
The findings are doubly surprising because the study participants themselves were convinced that they recognized the emotions from the faces, not from body language. "They even had their own theories about what part of the face was most important — but this was a false idea," Aviezer says. He adds that we do, of course, read a great deal of emotional information from faces but only in certain situations.
"I think the findings may have some clinical applications," he says. "Consider populations such as individuals with autism (孤独症). We know these people often have difficulties with recognizing facial expressions," he says. "Until now we have been trying to help them by training them to better understand just the faces. But our work suggests that perhaps we should teach them how to recognize emotions from the full person. "
There is a woman named Tao Porchon-Lynch. She was born in India in 1918. So , if you do the math , she is 98. And at the age of 98, she has been recognized as the oldest yoga teacher in the world. She has been teaching yoga in a gym in her hometown , full-time ,since 1967.
But that is not all she has done . She has also been a model , actress and dancer. She became a model after she graduated from high school. She acted in more than ten fields. She won a lot of medals as a dancer in many competitions. She once said , " If you try your best and never give up, nothing is impossible. " And she is a firm believer in positive thinking. She dreams the impossible dreams , and she is also well-known as a thinker.
Tao Porchon-Lynch is not the person who talks the talk; she is the person who walks the walk. When she makes up her mind to do something , she takes action to do it without delay. At the age of 85, she learned how to dance and even won several dance competitions. She offers this piece of advice to others , "Don't put off till tomorrow what you can do today. Don't delay. Tomorrow never comes. "
So, what about retirement ? At 98, she is well past the age when many people make retirement plans. Retiring , it turns out , is not Tao's style. "A little girl , who is only 6 years and now learning yoga with me , once asked me , Dear granny , what are you going to do when you retire？"
Tao Porchon-Lynch told the little girl that she had no plans to retire but instead would continue to teach yoga and dance her way to the next planet.
注意：
（1） 词数不少于 100；
（2） 可适当加入细节，使内容充实、行文连贯；
（3） 开头已给出，不计入总词数。
Dear Mrs. Green,
Yours sincerely,
Lijin
