Dear Not an Artist,
Glad to hear from you. I know exactly how you feel when seeing a better drawing from your friend! I'm surely not the best 1 in the world, but I've always loved making pictures. That's why I got so 2 about Rafael's cookie-label(标签) idea.
Rafael is my father's friend who owns a cookie shop. One day he happened to stop by when my friend and I were 3 with sidewalk chalk in front of our house.
"Wow! Amazing pictures!" he said, trying not to step on them 4 he walked toward the door. "I really love your 5 drawings! Would you be up for making some pictures that I can use 6 the label?" He patted us, "You needn't 7 making everything perfect, just have fun." Then he left.
And away we drew! We both enjoyed the way we were drawing. 8 , we stopped and looked at each other's work. But it was seriously 9 . One minute, I liked my drawing. And the next minute, I felt like the 10 artist ever after comparing our works.
Rafael returned. With a smile on his face, he said, "I truly 11 your drawings. Each style is special. And I think they could work together in a fun and eye-catching way. That will be the front. "I could see what Rafael 12 . Each piece was different and amazing in its own way—even mine.
So, dear Not an Artist, I know it can feel disappointing when you start comparing 13 with other people. But please try not to 14 ! There's no right or wrong way to make art. And since everybody has different styles and tastes, nobody has to agree about what makes a piece of 15 good. Sometimes your art will turn out great, and other times it won't be your best, and that's OK. The coolest thing about making art is that it's fun!
Ciao for now, Arizona
Spring Festival is China's biggest and most exciting festival. Its celebration starts from the 23rdor 24th of the 12th lunar(农历) month. People always celebrate it in many traditional ways. Here're some little-known customs. Let's take a look at the following ones.
Little New Year 23rd of the 12th lunar month
| A Tight Sleep 3rd day of the first lunar month
| Birthday of Humankind 7th day of the first lunar month
|
On this day, people start to prepare for Lunar New Year celebrations. Little New Year is also called the Festival of the Kitchen God. People belięve that the Kitchen God will return from Earth to heaven on this day to report the things every family have done to the Jade Emperor, including the progress you've made in study over this year. As a result, offering of food, fruits and flowers are placed on the family altar to admire him, praying for the safety and health for family members. | The third day is a day for sleeping in and resting after so much preparation and celebration. Traditionally, people believed the third day is when rats marry off their daughters. Therefore, it is customary to go to bed early in the evening and avoid influencing the rats and preventing any bad luck as well. You can go to bed earlier than your usual school days. | According to legend, the goddess Nyuwa created humans on the seventh day, after she made such animals as chickens, dogs, pigs, cattle and horses. As such, it's considered humankind's birthday. Ancient people would also climb mountains and write poems in honor of the day. It's also advised that parents don't punish their children just like you on this date. Sounds exciting, doesn't it? |
Do you have a good memory? Can you remember English words you learnt last week? Or have you forgotten the deadline of your project? Many of us often say "My brain doesn't work well". Maybe you can try a new way of training your brain—Learn with your team members.
"Teamwork makes our brains work better. The memory expert, Jonathan Hancock said, "Being part of a team has many advantages for remembering things."In his memory research, he finds that the participants(参与者) in a team always behave better than people who work independently. That's because they have less personal pressure, more time to think over each question.
But there's even more going on according to Canadian researchers, who've shown that our brains get a natural improvement when they've got company(陪伴). Their study suggests two reasons. First, when we're with people who are trying to remember something, we can easily feel thattip-of-the-tongue feeling, so we also want to join in to challenge ourselves. Second, after knowing others can remember things well, we can be encouraged to make it too.
To make better use of the power of team learning, you can use the contagion(传染效应) to awaken and improve memories. For example, go over new words together with your partners. Believe it or not, you'll be amazed at your magic memory. Also, you can share the duty together. If you have many tasks to remember, ask your partner to remember the date of school play while you're in charge of remembering project deadline. In this way, both of you will remember things more easily and deeply.
A student project has discovered another power of AI: It can be good at locating(定位) where photos are taken.
The project is called Predicting Image Geolocations(or PIGEON). It's the work of three Stanford students. They designed it in order to recognise locations on Google Street View(谷歌街景). The team showed the AI a few personal photos it had never seen before, it could tell where they were taken.
PIGEON works well because it can pick upon all the little things in photos. It can notice small differences in leaves, soil and weather. The group says the technology can be used in many ways. It could recognise roads or power lines that need fixing. It may also help researchers do surveys of invasive(入侵的) plants in an area.
However, this new power is likely to be a double-edged sword. It could be used to reveal people's private, personal information, says Jay Stanley, an expert at the American Civil Liberties Union.
Stanley worries that companies might soon use AI to find out where you've traveled. Governments might check your photos to see if you've visited certain countries. Stalking (跟踪) is also a possible threat, he says. People have long been able to remove GPS location information from photos they post online. That may not work any more. Luckily, the Stanford students are well aware of the risks. Because of these worries, they haven't given the public entry to their program.
Stanley thinks the use of AI for identifying locations will become even more powerful in the future. What will that mean? Well, be very careful about what's in the background in the photos you post online, he says.
①There is really no reason for my writing the life of Su Tungpo except that I want to do it. For years, the writing of his biography(传记) has been at the back of my mind, but the regret is never quiet down. Now that I am able to apply myself to this task, I am happy, without any reasons.
②A vivid personality isn't that easy to be understood. One might say that Su Tungpo was an unchangeable optimist(乐观主义者), a friend of the people, a prose master, an original painter, a great calligraphist, an experimenter in wine making, an engineer, a secretary to the emperor, a dissenter in politics, and a poet. And yet that might miss the sum total of why people like Su Tungpo. Su Tungpo's complex personality gives a reason. Always deeply stuck in politics, he was always greater than politics. Without trick and without purpose, he went along singing, composing, and criticizing, to express something he felt in his heart, paying no attention to what might be the results of himself. He wrote just because he enjoyed writing, and today we enjoy his writing just because he wrote so beautifully, generously, and out of the clearness of his heart.
③As I try to find the reasons why for a thousand years in China each generation has a crowd of crazy admirers of this poet, I come to the second reason, which is the same as the first, stated in a different way. Su Tungpo had charm. The chief charm of Su Tungpo was a force of character (that could not be stopped by anyone), a force (that, started at the moment of his birth, had to run its course until death closed his mouth and stopped his laughing chatter). He wielded his pen almost as if it were a toy. He could be curious, or humorous or serious, very serious, and from his pen we hear various human emotions of joy, happiness, worry and love.
④On the whole, we get the impression that he played and sang through life and enjoyed it greatly, and when sadness came and unluckiness fell, he accepted them with a smile. That is the kind of charm which I am trying to describe in my way and which has made him the favorite poet of so many Chinese experts.
B . 
C . 
D . 
two library simple afford take action |
A: Excuse me, sir. Can you tell me the way to Jinhua Children's ?
B: Of course. Walk along the street and turn left at the crossing. It's next to Aiqing Memorial Hall.
A: Well, thanks a lot.
B: My pleasure.
A: Hey, Mike! I am thinking about volunteering at the local kitchen on Sunday. Want to join?
B: Oh, I've never done it before. What should I do?
A: You just prepare and serve hot meals to people who can't it, like homeless people.
B: Wow! It's really a good way to spend my weekend.
A: And something as as picking up trash can be very meaningful.
B: I'm pleased to and get involved in volunteer work!
Science finds that feeding wild animals may bring harm to them in the long run. Wolves with injured(受伤的) legs in the wild can usually do n but wait for death. But this was not the story of one injured wolf in a nature (公园) in Qinghai. It can get better thanks to tourists feeding it along the highway.
However, people have different ideas about w tourists should feed the wolf or not. It has caused a hot (讨论). People who support this act say that without feeding, the poor wolf would d. But those who are against think that humans should not (打破) the laws of nature. It has its own reasons.
Research in Scientific Reports studied how that human-provided food influenced the living of a group of dolphins. They said that asking for food from humans (增加)the risk of injuries for dolphins and sometimes it may also make them d on us for living.
So, what should we do when coming across wild animals that seem to need our help? I think it's (重要的) for them to learn to live on their own. Of course, the best help is to report to the local office for medical aid i of feeding them. Your action makes a big difference!
I'm a bit of an airplane fan. For the past few years, I (have) many model planes on my desk at work. You can imagine my joy when I had the chance to experience the first flight of C919 jet yesterday. Luckily, I got one just before the tickets (sell) out.
Before boarding, I found that almost every one of the 160 (passenger) walked around the plane to celebrate this historic moment. They got (excited) than ever before and some began to take a selfie(自拍). happy they were!
The excitement continued on board as the C919 took off. A special breakfast was served: Shanghai noodles, some White Rabbit milk a special dessert with a "World's First C919" logo on it. It was pretty short flight, about 2.5 hours from Shanghai to Chengdu. Soon we landed at our destination, and we cheered (loud). Almost everyone seemed overjoyed to have taken part such a proud moment for China.
Now I'm looking forward to (see) what new planes COMAC (中国商飞公司) has planned for the future. I can't wait to see them take on Airbus and Boeing!
When we talk about science fiction (科幻小说), many people will mention Isaac Asimov, one of the "Big Three" sci-fi writers (along with Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke).
When Asimov was three years old, he moved to New York City with his family. Though it was more difficult than they had expected, his father managed to buy a candy store. It turned out to be a big influence on Asimov's future.
As Asimov worked long hours in the store, he noticed that the sci-fi magazines kept drawing customers in. His father, however, thought that sci-fi magazines were useless. He told his son not to waste time reading about things that "do not exist and never will."
Asimov continued to read those magazines—secretly. While they opened the door to a whole new world for the boy, his father gave him a library card. The boy became a regular visitor to the library nearby. As Asimov himself once wrote, " And I made the most of it. For a poor boy whose family could not afford to buy books, the library was like a door to wonder."
Asimov sold his first sci-fi story when he was still in high school. As his writing kept improving, Asimov's stories became more and more popular. By the time he was thirty-six, He created the word "robotics" and invented the famous "Three Laws of Robotics". It's hard to believe that these great achievements all started from a love of "useless" magazines in a candy store.
A．Asimov was born in 1920 in Russia. B．Asimov became interested in them very soon. C．This didn't kill Asimov's love of science fiction. D．His father bought a lot of sci-fi magazines for Asimov. E．Asimov was considered to be a master of science fiction. F．I can never be thankful enough that I chose to walk into the library. |
Do you like science fictions? What do you learn from the story? (请用不超过10词回答第二个问题)
内容要点 | 写作参考 |
About Loong | What do Chinese people think of Loong? |
A story | What you do or see that makes you believe you are the descendants of Loong? |
Your understanding | Which spirit of Loong does the story show? Why? |
注意：（1）文中必须包含所给的内容要点 ， 可适当发挥；写作参考仅提供思路；（2）文中不得出现真实姓名、学校等信息；（3）词数80~100。
