Four Cool Languages
Chinese
Around
1.4 billion people speak Chinese. Chinese is a tonal (声调的) language, meaning that changing the tone of just one syllable (音节) can affect a word's meaning. Chinese writing has ancient roots, which is thought to have developed starting around 2000 B. C.
Arabic
Over 370 million people speak Arabic. Written Arabic uses a cursive-style font (连笔) that looks more like artworks than writing. Arabic is written from right to left rather than left to right, making it different from many other languages.
English
Around 379 million people speak English as a native language. It's an official language in a huge number of other countries.
English is the most widely spoken second language, with over a billion people speaking it as a non-native language. That means around twice as many people speak English as a second language than people who speak it as a first language.
Italian
Nearly 68 million people speak Italian. If you play music or sing, chances are that you already know a lot of Italian because many familiar musical terms are actually Italian.
Not only will learning Italian help you pick up vocabulary, but it will also help you understand the meanings of musical terms in greater depth.
One winter evening, Kelly was walking home from her favorite bookstore. She had bought two cookery books and three art books, and couldn't wait to get home to read them in front of a warm fire.
"I read a lot, and love the pleasure of reading something that I want," she said. But when she reached into her pocket, she realized that her wallet was gone. She looked around and started to retrace (折回) her steps.
"I'm down on my hands and knees, looking in the gutters (排水沟) around the streets. I go back and forth. My wallet is nowhere," she said.
She went back to the bookstore, but nobody had turned it in. Kelly walked home hopelessly and was about to cancel her credit cards when an email appeared. It was from a man named Adam, who said he had found her wallet.
Through a name card, Adam found a way to contact Kelly and gave her his phone number and home address. Kelly had a taxi sent to Adam's house and 20 minutes later, a small brown paper bag arrived on her front steps.
"The loveliest detail is that when I'm digging the wallet out of the bag, I suddenly find Adam has dropped a bar of chocolate at the bottom, which he can not have possibly known is my favorite," Kelly said.
The kindness of Adam's gesture has stayed with Kelly. She decides to look for chances to pass it on.
A lot of people find it difficult to do exercise regularly, even though they know it's good for their physical and mental (身心上的) health. Yet keeping on a workout routine doesn't necessarily go to the gym or run around your neighborhood. Gardening is a great example of a popular hobby that can be used as a workout.
Nashville resident Tom Adkinson, 72, is on board with the idea of gardening to stay fit. He has three gardens, which he uses primarily to grow tomatoes, sweet banana peppers and okra. Like traditional exercise, Adkinson does a lot of preparation before gardening, and then he spends hours watering and weeding (除草) all three gardens, involving bending and stretching, which he compares to performing garden yoga.
"It is wise of Adkinson to do so. Even though gardening may not appear difficult, using the body in new ways can make you hurt if you don't warm up beforehand," said Zeller, who teaches at the Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Cape May County in New Jersey.
Working in your garden just two hours a week could improve your mood. And the communal gardening, which is done by a number of people as a group in communities and schools, provides social benefits that can reduce stress and help fight against loneliness and even dementia according to studies.
"With all these benefits, gardening for fitness will be a trend (趋势) in the coming year," announced Mandal, CEO of the fitness coaching app Future, "Our users at Future have already been asking their coaches to add gardening and landscaping activities into their routines because it's easy to get and fit into their lifestyle."
Finding a California condor in the wild would be the most unusual treat. perhaps even more unusual than finding a wolf in Yellowstone National Park. In fact, the wolf was what opened my eyes to the fact that humans could bring an animal back to the place where it had disappeared.
In 1987, there were only 27 California condors left, none of which were in the wild, only in captive breeding programs, It was those breeding programs that contributed to their population rise, enough that by 1991 some of them could be freed into the wild.
Still, the hope of seeing a California condor, which remains an endangered species, is very low, let alone getting a photo of one. California condor population dropped mostly due to human factors, such as poaching and living areas destruction-these are challenges California condors still face today.
Although this is just a bird's-eye view of the challenges California condors face and there are many others, it is part of why the opportunity to work with the US Fish and Wildlife Service team and their partners helping their recovery is so special to me as a photographer. I am not only able to photograph the birds in their wild living areas, but also understand and record how difficult the work is of those people on the front lines of the protection.
I am grateful for the work of the team, and my hope is that California condor population will continue to rise allowing future generations an opportunity I never had when I first got here-to look to the sky and see one flying around.
The Spring Festival is the most important celebration in China. There are some interesting Spring Festival traditions about Don'ts & Dos. Let's take a look!
Don't take out the rubbish
Taking out the rubbish, on that day, is said to stand for sweeping luck and wealth from the house..
Don't give a watch or clock as a gift
A clock is an unpopular gift at any time of the year in China, as the phrase "giving a clock" sounds exactly like the Chinese words for "song zhong". , so it is an especially bad gift for the elderly.
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During the festive period, you'll see amazing decorations all over China, and your house should be no exception. , you'll be able to find red decorations everywhere during the Spring Festival.
Popular decorations include red lanterns driving away bad luck, door couplets showing wishes for the coming year, and the character(fu) meaning good fortune.
Give hongbao or fruit
Hongbao, or a red envelope containing money, is a popular gift for adults to give children.
Fruit, especially tangerines or kumquats, are safe for friends. because the word for tangerine(ju) sounds similar to the Chinese word for luck(ji).
A. Wear red for luck
B. As red is a lucky color
C. Make your house attractive
D. Spring Festival is a time for delicious food
E. A clock also stands for running out of time
F. You will often see them on the table during the Lunar New Year
G. In fact, cleaning any kind of thing on the first day of the lunar calendar is considered unlucky
One day, Fainsilber Katz, who is 60 years old, went to visit her favorite 1 . She parked her car and 2 the beach with everything she 3 for the day: a chair, a beach umbrella, flippers, sunglasses and a cooler. With so many things, it was 4 for her to keep her body balance when climbing over some rocks.
When she reached a part of the beach entrance, she found there was a large step down. Unsure whether she could take the step 5 , she stopped, 6 what to do. 7 a young man, about 30 years old came over to Fainsilber Katz, and asked, "Do you need some 8 ?" "Sure!" Fainsilber Katz 9 .
The man took some of the things that Fansilber Katz was 10 . Then he gave Fainsilber Katz his 11 to walk her down the 12 . Fainsilber Katz felt 13 .
The man's act of 14 comforts Fainsilber Katz and reminds her that when life gets hard, one doesn't have to do it 15 . Where there is a help, there is a hope.
Everyone makes mistake at some point, but when we hurt our parents love us all their life, it's especially heartbreaking. The good news is that their big hearts have room for forgiveness if we just ask. Anna, a senior high school student, argued with her parents, and she (write) a letter to his parents for forgiveness yesterday.
Dear Mom and Dad.
I'm sorry about my argument with you. I haven't been the girl as you are expecting. My behavior was impolite. All I have done was just so stupid. I haven't been focusing what is more important. The two of you are always working hard for my brother and me. I'm sorry to miss the understanding of how hard you have been working for our family, and I just didn't value anything I have. I now realize how you want everything to be perfect for (we). It is wrong of me (take) advantage of you giving me the first, the second, and the (three) chances. I know if I keep (perform) badly like this, I will never be a winner in the future. I want to go to college, and I want to make you take (proud) in me. I promise to do better from now on.
Yours,
Anna.
Such an apology(道歉) letter is a (use) way to start a conversation, and Anna's parents forgave her.
Every Sunday, June, a six-year-old girl, tied her sports shoes and walked to Grandpa's house. Grandpa lived around the block(街区), and June was allowed to walk there by herself. Grandpa often told her stories. They also ate ice cream together while they talked. Sunday was June's favorite day.
This Sunday, June got dressed. She put on one sports shoe, but she could not find the other shoe. "Mommy, where's my shoe?"
"I'm sure it's in your room. Look carefully until you find it. You can't go until you have both shoes on," June's mother said.
June sat on her bed and looked around. Her room was quite messy. There were clothes on the floor and papers on the desk. She wasn't sure where to start.
Then June remembered a story Grandpa told her. When he was little, he lost a coin that he planned to use to buy his mother a candy. He walked back over every place he had been to that day until he found it. He had to go in order so he wouldn't miss anything.
June stood up. "I'll start in the corner and go around the room in order," she thought. "That way I won't miss anything."
注意：
1.续写词数应为150个左右；
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
June began in the corner where her desk was.
June quickly put on her shoe and ran out of the door to Grandpa's house.
