—If I were you, I ______ for it last night instead of watching movies.
The Person Who Influenced Me the Most
I opened the box and took out the shining gold bracelet. “For me?' I could barely talk. Yes, of course, said my Aunt Estelle, I really shouldn't have been 1 because she was like that, unexpected and golden.
When I was younger, I knew that I could always go to my Aunt Estelle for comfort, advice and 2 She was my best friend and my guardian angel. I could always be 3with her and tell her anything that was on my mind. She also knew when I was trying to 4something. Aunt Estelle gave me advice when it was sought and guided me5many difficulties.
Last December, I was faced with one of the most difficult 6I ever had to make in my life. She was dying of cancer and I was 7to go to Israel for two weeks for a research project. 8 I sought Aunt Estelle's advice but for the 9time I didn't like her response. When I went to the hospital to visit her for what turned out to be the last time, she was waiting for me with a book about Israel on her bed and made it very clear that she10me to go—that it was her greatest wish for me to go—haw could I 11her. Aunt Estelle was the most unselfish person I ever knew and would not even consider my 12about going. She called me 13I left for Israel to tell me that she loved me and that she would always be with me.
I went to Israel and had the time of my life. When I returned, my parents 14me up, I told them I couldn't wait to tell Aunt Estelle about my journey. They became15and I knew before they said the words that she had died. Aunt Estelle's unselfishness was her greatest16.
The gold bracelet she gave me for my sixteenth birthday was the one that I had always admired on her. Each time I look at it I am17of an even greater gift from my aunt, the gift of her 18.
Whenever I find myself becoming too self-centered and19the needs of those around me, I recall her selflessness and20to follow her example to make the needs of others a priority.
She was walking home from work one evening when she got the idea. Rosa didn't like her job at the factory, but it was better than no job at all. So, while she was trying not to think about work, she saw the pots in an alley. They were cheap plastic pots, but there were dozens of them piled up behind the flower shop. Such a waste, she thought. When the pots were still there three days later, Rosa went in and asked if she could take some. The flower shop lady said she didn't mind, so Rosa carried home a tower of pots, pretending she was a circus performer on the way.
At home, Rosa set them on the fire escape outside her tiny apartment. And there they sat. Once a gust of wind sent them slipping to the street three floors below, and she had to go to run after and catch them before the gathering storm.
Every day, Rosa went to work and thought about her pots- She was wailing for something, but she had patience.
At last, the newspaper brought good news. A hardware store had a sale on potting soil. Rosa carefully counted her money, then walked six blocks to the store. She bought six bags and carried them home. She bought seeds, too. Rosa slept well that night and dreamed of masses of flowers and fat, glowing fruits,
Sundays were always good days. Rosa didn't have to work on Sundays. But Rosa couldn't remember when she had had such a good Sunday. She got up early and ate her breakfast on the fire escape with her pots. Then, she began to put dirt into the pots. She sang a little song until all six of her bags of soil were empty. Then, she laid her precious seed packets out and planned her garden. Tomatoes for the biggest pots, and peppers for the next-biggest ones. Flowers in all the rest.
At the end of the day, Rosa sat in her garden and watched the sunset. Soon, she thought, there will be masses of flowers and fat, glowing fruits.
Prinker: Color Your Way
Tattoos always look so cool, but actually getting one is quite a commitment. After all, apart from using expensive laser removal therapy, they stay on your skin forever.
The Prinker is here to change the game. It is a device (设备) that lets you create or print any image or temporary tattoos within a matter of seconds. It is connected to your smartphone and you can select a bunch of preloaded tattoos available in the app.
This device was exhibited at The International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this year. It is manufactured by a Korean startup company called “SketchOn”.
You can sketch your ideas out on your skin with this portable device that is almost twice the size of a computer mouse. This is a nice way to support your team in the match by printing its logo or design onto your skin. You can also share your tattoo designs with others through the app. It is also a fun and creative toy for kids to play with.
In order to print the design, all you need to do is select or draw a design on your mobile and then press and rub the base of the device against your skin and you are done. These designs and images are water resistant but can be washed off with soap water. The ink of the Prinker is non-toxic and is made only from certified cosmetic ingredients. Each cartridge (墨盒) contains enough ink for about 1,500 tattoos, or as J+ R. Smith would call it, “a good start.”
The Prinker is developed by a small team of five members. The company is planning to launch the device in China and then in the United States. The device is currently commercializing in Korea as a rental device. The agencies and organizations pay $150 for a day to use it in their events or marketing.
The current version of Prinker is aimed towards business users (think festivals, carnivals, sports events, promotion campaigns). But the company is working on a home version, and hopes to have it available to buy before the end of 2018. SketchOn estimates the personal model will retail at $200. The company is currently seeking to partner with international agencies for distribution opportunities.
Although Prinker is currently aimed towards novelty and creative purposes, its technologies could eventually be adapted for use by professional tattoo artists or medical professionals who provide tattoos for patients, such as after a breast cancer operation or skin graft.
A large body of research has been developed in recent years to explain many aspects of willpower. Most of the researchers exploring self-control do so with an obvious goal in mind: How can willpower be strengthened? If willpower is truly a limited resource, as the research suggests, what can be done to make it stay strong?
Avoiding temptation (诱惑）is an effective method for maintaining self-control, which is called the “out of sight, out of mind” principle. One recent study, for instance, found office workers are less attracted to candy in the desk drawer than that on top of their desks, in plain sight.
The research suggesting that we possess a limited reservoir of self-control raises a troubling question. When we face too many temptations, are we to fail? Not necessarily. Researchers don't believe that one's willpower is ever completely exhausted. Rather, people appear to hold some willpower in reserve, saved for future demands. The right motivation allows us to tap into those reserves, allowing us to carry on even when our self-control strength has been run down. High motivation might help overcome weakened willpower—at least to a point.
Willpower may also be made less vulnerable (脆弱) to being exhausted in the first place. Researchers who study self-control often describe it as being like a muscle that gets tired with heavy use. But there is another aspect to the muscle comparison, they say. While muscles become exhausted by exercise in the short term, they are strengthened by regular exercise in the long term. Similarly, regular practices of self-control may improve willpower strength.
The evidence from willpower-exhaustion studies also suggests that making a list of resolutions on New Year's Eve is the worst possible approach» Being exhausted in one area can reduce willpower in other areas, so it makes more sense to focus on a single goal at a time. In other words, don't try to quit smoking, adopt a healthy diet and start a new exercise plan at the same time. Taking goals one by one is a better approach. Once a good habit is in place, Baumeister says, you'll no longer need to draw on your willpower to maintain the behavior. Eventually healthy habits will become routine, and won't require making decisions at all.
Many questions about the nature of self-control remain to be answered by further research. Yet it seems likely that with clear goals, good self-monitoring and a little practice, you can train your willpower to stay strong in the face of temptation.
The aggressive spread of market economics and communication technologies~often under the control of Western multinational companies—brings new challenges to local cultures and values in non-Western societies. Sometimes it seems as if a tidal wave of the worst Western culture is creeping across the globe like a giant strawberry milkshake spill oat and over the planet, with a flavor that is distinctly sweet, sickly and apparently homogeneous (同质的).
For some, especially the young, change may mean escape from oppressive traditions. It may also bring new opportunities for cultures to be combined in creative ways. However, there is genuine cause for concern about the rate at which cultures are being worn away in such a globalized world.
Perhaps by far the most important far-reaching effect of cultural globalization is the commercialization of culture, which has a disturbing impact on local people's existing values. They are increasingly bombarded with new images, new music, new clothes and new values. The familiar and old are to be abandoned. While there was cultural change long before globalization, there is a danger that much will be lost simply because it is not valued by global markets. In West Africa for example, traditional values have been overtaken by Coca-Cola culture which the local people don't yet have the values to deal with successfully.
Another common aspect of the globalized culture is that it pursues (追求) the same “one size fits all" American ideal. The result of this cultural process of homogenization is that a large section of the world's population dreams of living like Cosby & Co. or like the characters in any other stereotype American soap opera. In addition, the dream of living a better life causes thousands of people to move to already overcrowded cities whose population has boomed by millions within the last decades. The majority of these new immigrants end up in slums leading to poverty, pollution and misery.
Such gradual aggression against people's existing values and cultures has a destructive impact on their sense of who they are, what they want and what they respect. It attacks spiritual values and faith traditions. The accumulative (累积的)effect in non-Western societies is a crisis of cultural confidence, combined with the increased economic uncertainty and crime which global integration (一体化)may bring. This creates real problems for social stability» whether it is at the level of nation, community or family.
In conclusion, cultural globalization，or worldwide McDonaldization, destroys diversity and displaces the opportunity to sustain decent life through a mixture of many different cultures. It is more a consequence of power concentration in the global media and manufacturing companies than the people's own wish to abandon their cultural identity and diversity,
If you were like most kids, your mother told you there were three no-no's when it came to your fingers: Don't put them in an electrical outlet, don't stick them up your nose ( at least not in public ), and don't use them when you are counting.But experts in education and cognition now believe that using your fingers to do math is not only a perfectly good idea but may even help children become superior students.
It certainly makes sense. When children count on their fingers, they take an abstract concept— mathematics—and translate it into the most basic and visual form. Even when we aren't actually counting on them, they still can help us on math problem,
It activates when we respond to heat, pressure, pain, or the use of a given finger. Studying brain scans, researchers discovered that when students aged 8 to 13 work on subtraction (减法) equations, this region “lights up” on the scans, even if the students aren't using their fingers. The more complex the problem, the more activities are detected.
The connection between finger use and math ability has been shown on old-fashioned math tests as well. With their eyes closed, first graders were asked to identify which of their fingers a researcher was touching,When college students were given the same quiz, the highest scores once again performed best on calculation tests.
So what does all this mean? For one thing, parents and teachers shouldn't discourage children from counting on their fingers.Memorizing the multiplication tables may help, but it is not the best option. “I would like to see interesting and creative representations of ideas.” says Jo Boaler, a professor of math education.
Recently, a series of activities have been designed to strengthen students' perception of their fingers. Maybe in the near future, there will be only two no-no 1s regarding the use of fingers.
A. The first two laws of fingers are as true as ever.
B. There is a section of the brain, called the somatosensory finger area.
C. Researchers also stress that students simply learn better using visual tools.
D. Researchers are unimpressed by those students who finish quickly as well.
E. In fact, experts believe the brain is able to “see” a representation of our fingers.
F. That may sound simplistic, but the researchers offer an interesting explanation.
G. Researchers found those scoring highest on the finger-ID questions scored higher on a math test.
1). 书的题目和作者；
2). 书的主要内容；
3). 你的推荐理由。
注意：1).词数不少于50;
2).开头和结尾已给出，不计入总词数。
Dear Jim,
Yours,
Li Hua
注意：词数不少于60。
提示词：校友日 Homecoming Day
