—No.____ is black.
—Sure, here you are.
—For about two years.
—At 4 o'clock tomorrow afternoon.
Claire had always been a perfectionist. No matter what she did, whether it was organizing her own birthday party or working on a science project, everything had to be done perfectly to the last detail (细节). If her work did not turn out well, she would get very 1 for days.
When Claire heard about the singing 2 held by the community center, she was very excited to take part in it. Claire made up her mind to win the first prize. She had never come in second before in any of the competitions she joined. "It must be a 3 experience!" she thought. As usual, Claire made sure she was well-prepared. Not only did she spend a long time choosing a song, she also put in a lot of effort to sing each note correctly.
At the beginning of her show, Claire was doing perfectly fine. However, when she got to the chorus(副歌), for some reason, she could not. 4 a whole line of the words. Not knowing what to do, Claire just had to pass over that line. 5 . She was very disappointed in herself and nearly cried. "What a silly 6 I made!" she thought. In the prize-giving ceremony (仪式), when one of the judges announced that she had taken the second place, Claire couldn't help crying on stage.
Claire's mother comforted her after the ceremony. She said, "It's perfectly all right to make mistakes. That's how we learn. " Claire had never thought of it that way. She dried her tears and agreed. "Maybe it is not that bad to 7 , "Back home, she placed the cup on the desk in her room. It would 8 her how mistakes could help her to learn and improve.
Three students had some confusing experiences. Please help them get the information to understand better.
Maria: "When I went on a trip to Thailand last year, I found that people there eat food with their right hand. I want to know more."
Lingling: "I gave my seat to a British old man on the bus, but the man looked a little bit angry and refused to take my seat. I don't know why."
Peter: "I first met Judy at the airport on a cold winter morning. It was so cold that I shook Judy's hand without pulling off my gloves. Am I right to do so?"
A．In China, people are encouraged to give seats to the old, the sick and the disabled on the bus or subway. But in some western countries, some elderly people think you are hurting them if you try to help them without their agreement.
B．People in Thailand use their right hand to eat, because they believe that the left hand is unclean. So it's not proper to use one's left hand to hold food, touch others or pass objects. Doing so may make them angry.
C．Shaking hands is a common way to greet each other. But it is very impolite to shake hands with others when you are wearing gloves. You should take off your gloves first no matter how cold it is.
D．When you meet a Chinese man or woman for the first time, you should wait for him or her to offer his or her hand first. Chinese people are not supposed to kiss when they greet each other.
Fred had something important to tell his family. Everyone in his family was asked to sit at the dinner table and listen.
"I'm going to take part in the Olympics." he said.
"Can a fourth-grader do that?" asked Anna, his younger sister.
"I'm not going now. I'll go when I'm a little older. "Fred shook his head. "I've studied how the athletes(运动员) become the best. That is practice. If I practice hard enough, I can't fail."
"Sounds like a big challenge," said Dad. "Which sport will you take up?"
"I haven't made up my mind yet," said Fred.
After a month's practice, Fred got hurt again and again when he tried to find out which sport was for him. He tried different kinds of sport, such as running, jumping, badminton and so on. But at last he stopped practicing. "It's too difficult. I don't think I can find a sport right for me," Fred talked to himself.
The following Sunday, the family sat down for dinner as usual.
"I've decided not to play a sport,"said Fred.
Everyone was surprised.
"You're giving up on your Olympic dream?" said Anna.
"I didn't say I was giving up," said Fred. "I'm still going to the Olympics."
Anna looked puzzled. "How can you go if you don't do a sport?"
Fred held up a book titled Is Sports Medicine the Career for You? "Over the past few weeks, I've discovered that athletes need much medical help. So I am going to become a sports doctor. I'll still go to the Olympics—but as a doctor, not an athlete."
Fred answered confidently.
"Now that is another challenge, Fred!" said Dad. "I'm sure you would do as well as you can to realize your dream."
Do you have trouble trying to create the next big idea?
Sometimes the answer isn't to just force an idea out of your mind.
Instead, you might want to try sitting back, relaxing and letting your mind wander (走神). Yes, you heard that correctly. If you are in need of a new idea, try daydreaming.
Daydreams allow your mind to run freely and even increase productivity in some cases. Daydreaming develops creativity which is why you have an ah-ha moment and sudden insight about a situation. Daydreaming allows you to uncover thoughts and ideas you did not realize you even had and get the thoughts hidden under the surface.
Researchers from the University of California, Santa Barbara, found an association (联系) between daydreaming and creative problem-solving. Their study includes making participants (参与者) first do an "unusual-use task". They had to try to come up with as many different ways to use an object as they could.
Then, the participants chose to do one of the following four things before doing the "unusual-use task" again; complete a difficult task, complete an easy task, take a 12-minute break, or skip (跳过) a 12-minute break and move right on to the task exercise again.
Surprisingly, the group that performed best was the one that completed the easy task. Many participants reported that they were daydreaming while performing the easy task. So the researchers believed that this daydreaming might have helped unlock their creativity.
But how could daydreaming help the brain come up with creative ways? The answer is something known as "unconscious thought" . Even when you are not actively working to solve a problem, it is still in the back of your mind. Your brain is still thinking about the problem, but in a much more subtle(不易察觉的) way.
When you daydream, your mind is allowed to think in ways it normally would not.
Because it is free of control, it can create completely new and out-of-the-box ideas.
Great ideas never come easily, but that does not mean you always have to work hard to get them. Feel free to do what you want and let your mind wander.
Ten years ago, many people thought that the age of physical books was coming to an end. The objects that had been the companions (伙伴) of millions of readers for hundreds of years were about to disappear. Soon, we'd all be reading on little electronic screens and laughing at the memory of places called "libraries" and "bookshops".
But it seems not true about the idea of the death of the physical books. At least in the UK, as The Guardian noted, sales of e-books are falling while sales of physical books are rising. More surprisingly, it's young people who are buying the most physical books. More than 60 percent of 16-to-24-year-olds preferred print books to e-books. The most popular reason given was:"I like to hold the product."
Books become very personal objects to lovers of reading. It often starts with the way they get them. Many buyers of books like to write down their names on the inside cover when they've bought one. And we carry books around with us everywhere.
If there's a mark made on the pages from coffee or food, it doesn't matter. These accidents make the book—our book—even more personal. It's as if readers of physical books make friends with them.
Of course, some could say that the devices(设备) on which people read e-books, like Kindles and iPads are also objects that we like. But it isn't quite the same. A Kindle can hold as many pieces of writing as a whole library. But a story we remember from our time turning its pages in our favourite armchair enters our memory forever.
Physical books are as valuable to some readers as photographs of family members.
This "friendship" people develop with books isn't just about feelings. Research has shown that readers remember more information read from physical books than electronic ones.
However, there's no doubt e-books are here to stay. They aren't simply a "here today, gone tomorrow" thing. But it's also certain that physical books, which have been in production since the fifteenth century, are here to stay, too.
Chinese traditional painting and dance are two important parts of the art world. But what about when they meet each other?
A dance drama called The Journey of a Legendary Landscape Painting was shown on CCTV's Spring Festival Gala. It became popular overnight.
According to CCTV, this dance got the idea from the 900-year-old Chinese painting—A Panoruma of Rivers and Mountains （《千里江山图》）, which was created by Song Dynasty painter Wang Ximeng when he was about 18 years old.
A Panorama of Rivers and Mountains is the only extant（尚存的）work by Wang. Now the painting is at the Palace Museum. It has been on show to the public only four times since 1949. The 11.9-meter-long painting records people's lives and the natural scenery（景色）including mountains, rivers and villages of that time.
The dance show tells the story of a researcher who has worked hard to study the painting. By chance, the researcher travels back in time to see the moment when Wang was about to finish the work. As the painting was finished, the researcher guides the audience（观众）into the world of the painter. The dance show provides the audience with a new experience to better learn about the work. It shows the process of how painting is done.
The dancers each had a different hairstyle, which looked like a mountain rock. The clothes that they wore were color of green and blue, which is also poetic show of the mountains and rivers. When the dancers danced beautifully, the audience seemed to be looking at the moving mountains and rivers. Huge mountains and rivers are coming to life! More than a thousand years later, green mountains and rivers still wow people as they did long ago.
In recent years, more and more modern shows with Chinese traditional culture have received a warm welcome, especially among young people. They show great love to Chinese culture and are proud of it.
要求：根据中文和英文提示，完成一篇不少于50词的文段写作。文中已给出内容不计入总词数。所给提示词语仅供选用。请不要写出你的校名和姓名。
提示词语：meeting hall, short speech, colorful school life, dance
提示问题：
● When and where will the school-leaving party be held?
● What will you do at the school-leaving party?
Dear Peter,
I'm writing this letter to invite you to take part in our school-leaving party.
……
I am looking forward to your coming. Please feel free to ask me if you have any questions about the party.
Yours,
Li Hua
某英文网站正在开展以"我的小欢喜"为主题的征文活动。假如你是李华，请你用英语写一篇短文投稿，分享一次让你心生欢喜的经历，为什么心生欢喜，并谈谈你的收获。
要求：根据中文和英文提示，完成一篇不少于50词的文段写作。文中已给出内容不计入总词数。所给提示词语仅供选用。请不要写出你的校名和姓名。
提示词语：fail an exam, comfort, promise, moved, mean a lot
提示问题：
● What happened?
● Why were you happy at that time?
● What have you learned from the experience?
Happiness is always around us if we put our heart into it.
