Since my retirement (退休) from teaching music in 2001, I have spent a good deal of time painting as an artist. I actually began drawing again in the summer of 1995 when my father died, so perhaps I was trying to recover from the loss of my father, or maybe it was just that it brought back memories of him. In any case, I drew pen and ink animals and landscapes much influenced by Krenkel and St. John for five years.
For some strange reason, I had been waiting until my retirement to start doing watercolors again, but as soon as I walked out of the school door for the last time I picked up my brushes and rediscovered Andrew Wyeth, who quickly became my favorite artist. I had looked through all the art books I had on my shelves and found his watercolors to be the closest to how I thought good watercolors should look. So I painted landscapes around Minnesota for three years and tried out many other types of painting. However, watercolors remained my first choice, and I think I did my best work there, showing my paintings at a number of art exhibitions.
Art is now together with my piano playing and reading. There is a time for everything in my world, and it is wonderful to have some time doing what I want to do. As Confucius once said，“At seventy I can follow my heart's desire (渴望).”
Throughout the history of the arts, the nature of creativity has remained constant to artists. No matter what objects they select, artists are to bring forth new forces and forms that cause change—to find poetry where no one has ever seen or experienced it before.
Landscape is another unchanging element (元素) of art. It can be found from ancient times through the 17thcentury Dutch painters to the 19thcentury romanticists (浪漫主义艺术家 ) and impressionists. In the 1970s Alfred Leslie, one of the new American realists, continued this practice. Leslie sought out the same place where Thomas Cole, a romanticist, had produced paintings of the same scene a century and a half before. Unlike Cole who insists on a feeling of loneliness and the idea of finding peace in nature, Leslie paints what he actually sees. In his paintings, there is no particular change in emotions and he includes ordinary things like the highway in the background. He also takes advantage of the latest developments of color photography to help both the eyes and the memory when he improves his painting back in his workroom.
Besides, all art begs the ageold question: What is real? Each generation of artists has shown their understanding of reality in one form or another. The impressionists saw reality in brief emotional effects, the realists in everyday subjects and in forest scenes, and the CroMagnon cave people in their naturalistic drawings of the animals in the ancient forests. To sum up, understanding reality is a necessary struggle for artists of all periods.
Over thousands of years the function of the arts has remained relatively constant. Past or present, Eastern or Western, the arts are a basic part of our immediate experience. Many and different are the faces of art, and together they express the basic need and hope of human beings.
On Monday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicted that 42% of Americans could be overweight by 2030. Our expanding bodies not only lead to a medical problem, but also endanger personal safety in some situations—in an airplane crash, for example, according to a recent article in The New York Times.
The New York Times' Christine Negroni reports that engineers and scientists are questioning whether airplane seats are designed to protect overweight travelers. Government standards(标准) for airplane seat strength—first set more than 60 years ago—require that the seats be made for a passenger weighing 170 pounds. Today, the average American man weighs nearly 194 pounds and the average woman 165 pounds. Negroni reports:
“If a heavier person completely fills a seat, the seat is not likely to behave as designed during a crash,” Robert Salzar, the leading scientist at the Center for Applied Biomechanics at the University of Virginia. “The energy that is built into the aircraft seat is likely to be overpowered and the passengers will not be protected properly”.
“Nor would the injury be limited to that passenger only,” Dr. Salzar said. “If a seat or a seat belt fails,”he said, “those people who are seated nearby could not be safe from the uncontrolled movements of the passenger.”
Most complaints(投诉) about airplane seats focus on their lack of comfort and high ticket price, and whether overweight passengers should be made to buy two seats. But The New York Times' article brings up another reason to feel anxious about flying. Investigators(调查者) got in touch with the airplane seat and seat belt makers, but they refused to talk about the problem. Experts agreed that crash testing should be done. Both airplane seats and seat belts should be tested, they said.
Fortunately, however, according to Nora Marshall, a senior adviser at the National Transportation Safety Board, the board's investigators have never seen an accident involving a commercial plane in which the weight of a passenger was a problem.
A long-term American study shows the importance of early education for poor children. The study is known as the Abecedarian Project. It involved more than one-hundred young children from poor families in North Carolina.
Half of the children attended an all-day program at a high-quality child-care center. The center offered educational, health and social programs. Children took part in games and activities to increase their thinking and language skills and social and emotional development. The program also included health foods for the children.
The children attended the program from when they were a few weeks old until the age of five years. The other group of children did not attend the child-care center. After the age of five, both groups attended public school.
Researchers compared the two groups of children. When they were babies, both groups had similar results in tests for mental and physical skills. However, from the age of eighteen months, the children in the educational child-care program did much better in tests.
The researchers tested the children again when they were twelve and fifteen years old. The tests found that the children who had been in the child-care center continued to have higher average test results. These children did much better on tests of reading and mathematics.
A few years ago, organizers of the Abecedarian Project tested the students again. At the time, each student was twenty-one years old. They were tested for thinking and educational ability, employment, parenting and social skills. The researchers found that the young adults who had the early education still did better in reading and mathematics tests. They were more than two times as likely to be attending college or to have completed college. In addition, the children who received early education were older on average, when their first child was born.
The study offers more evidence that learning during the first months and years of life is important for all later development.
The researchers of the Abecedarian Project believe their study shows a need for lawmakers to spend money on public early education. They believe these kinds of programs could reduce the number of children who do not complete school and are unemployed.
结合语境，根据汉语或首字母提示用单词的适当形式填空。
结合语境，根据汉语或首字母提示用单词的适当形式填空。
—I agree with you. Nobody can p the change of situation.
—It's just (典型的) of him to spend all that money on the equipment and then lose interest halfway through the course.
→We all know that the big company is Tom.
→Mary met her old classmate when she did shopping in America.
→I think you'd better not move to America because your friendship means to me.
→He couldn't go there.On the one hand，he is very busy； ，he has no money.
→The members of the government the pollution problem.
根据语境，用方框中所给短语的适当形式填空。（每个短语仅使用一次）
by coincidence: on the other hand: be typical of: aim at: in possession of: in one's attempt as well as: a great deal of |
阅读下面短文，在空白处填入 1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。
In recent years many TV shows have become extremely popular among Chinese audience. Those programs, ranging from talent or dating shows to reality shows (receive) both commercial success and public attention.
Their popularity is (main) based on simple facts. First, they care social concerns. Second, without exception, they explore a perfect balance between the international forms and Chinese expressions.
Despite apparent highlights, much room (leave) for improvement. Above all, commercial interests often outweigh （education） purposes, causing many complaints about the (bearable) advertisements. In addition, some sharp remarks, they are eye-catching, may have misleading effects on the youth.
In my opinion, such shows should shoulder more responsibility instead of merely (entertain) the public. is expected, these programs should be positive in their forms as well as functions. Meanwhile, the (medium) should also safeguard the values of our society.
The key to losing weight is to understand what really interests you. Have you ever been excited about losing a few pounds? And to help you keep your weight under control, you need some coping strategies (策略).
Ask questions. When you're researching different dieting products and plans or even talking to a doctor about diets, ask as many questions as you can. Ask questions like: Do I have to buy special meals? Does the program include a part to help me keep my weight loss?
Get real. Don't burden yourself with unrealistic expectations. Remember, large amounts of weight loss are not realistic and are most likely not safe or healthy. Talk with your health care professional to determine a healthy weight goal.
To keep your weight, you must balance your intake of calories with the energy you burn. Just 30 minutes of fast walking in most days can take about 10 pounds off your weight each year.
Weigh yourself weekly. It's important to track your weight on any diet or weight loss plan, but don't get on the scale every day. Weighing daily won't show you the big picture.
A. Stay balanced.
B. Once a week is fine.
C. Stick with your healthy eating plan.
D. Losing one to two pounds a week is a realistic goal.
E. Being well informed will help you choose the best diet for you.
F. Regular weight check-ins will show you your progress over time.
G. If so, you must find a way to turn that excitement into determination.
The most successful people all have certain habits in their daily routines. Forming a new good habit can be a struggle, but it is well worth the effort. Here are the four steps you can follow to form good habits.
Set your goal. Before you can begin to work on your new habit, it is worthwhile to consider your goal. Make sure that your goal is specific, measurable and realistic to increase your chances of success.
Having good habits that are in line with the goals can improve your chances of attaining your goals. After you have set your goal and worked out all of the specifics of achieving that goal, identify a habit that is part of achieving that goal. Consider what good habit would help you accomplish that goal.
Consider your motivation. Once you have identified your goal and the new habit you need to accomplish this goal, take some time to consider your motivation. Good motivation can be the difference between success and failure in terms of forming a new habit. So take your time to consider your motivation.
Give yourself time. Forming a new habit can take a long time. Some people can form a new habit in as little as a few weeks, while other people will take several months. As you work to form your new habit, just keep in mind that it may be a while before it comes true.
A. Identify ways to achieve goals.
B. Find the habit you want to form.
C. Good habits are sure to make you a success.
D. These habits help contribute to their success.
E. Figure out exactly what you hope to accomplish.
F. Try to be patient with yourself as you form your new habit.
G. Your motivation is the reason you want to form this new habit.
