A few years ago, I took a sightseeing trip to Washington, DC. I saw many of our nation's treasures, and I also saw a lot of our fellow citizens on the street —1 ones, like beggars（乞丐）and homeless folks.
Standing outside the Ronald Reagan Center, I heard a voice saying: “Can you help me?” When I2, I saw an elderly blind woman with her hand 3. In a natural reaction, I 4 into my pocket, pulled out all of my loose change and placed it in her hand without even looking at her. I was 5 at being bothered by a beggar.
But the blind woman smiled and said: “I don't want your money. I just need help finding the6.”
In an instant, I realized what I had done. I had acted with prejudice（偏见）— I'd 7 another person8for what I believed she had to be.
I hated what I saw in myself. This incident brought back my basic belief. It 9 me that I believed in being modest even though I'd lost that 10 for a moment.
The thing I had forgotten about myself is that I am a (n)11. I left Honduras and arrived in the U. S. at the age of 15. I started my new life with two suitcases, my brother and sister, and a strong mother. Through the 12, I have been a dish washer, roofer, mechanic, cashier and pizza delivery driver 13 many other humble hobs, and14 I became a network engineer.
In my own life, I have15 many acts of prejudice. I remember a time, at the age of 17 — when I was a busboy, I heard a father tell his little boy that if he did not do well on school, he would 16 like me. I have also seen the same treatment of family and friends, so I know what it's like, and I should have known 17.
But now, living my American middle class lifestyle, it is too easy to forget my past, to forget who I am and where I have been, and to lost sight of where I want to go. That blind woman cured me of my18. She reminded me of my belief in being humble, and to always keep my eyes and heart open.
19, I helped that woman to the post office. And in writing this essay, I hope to thank her for the20 lesson she gave me.
Have you ever been to France before? It is not only a country of great food, fashion and art. It's also home to the most influential painters in the world.
Edouard Manet
He was one of the first artists to paint modern life. He began to paint in his own style, but still used some of Couture's techniques like thick lines and dark colors. He was greatly influenced by Claude Monet and Berthe Morisot, which can be seen in his use of light shades. Most of his paintings had scenes of daily life on the streets of Paris. His works include Olympia and The Absinthe Drinker.
Camille Pissarro
In his early years, Pissarro painted scenes of a river or a path from memory. After meeting Claude Monet and Paul Cezanne, who painted in a more realistic style, he changed his course to Impressionism. During his career, he experimented with various styles, and finally formed his own one. His works include Old Market at Rouen and Sunset at St. Charles.
Vincent van Gogh
He had a huge influence on art in the 20th century. His early works were most painted in somber tones. However, influenced by Monet, Pissarro, and Bernard, he adopted brighter colors in his works, and started creating his own techniques. Although he had produced more than 2,000 works of art, the artist sold only one painting during his lifetime — Red Vineyard at Arles. His works include The Potato Eaters, Starry Night and Bedroom in Arles.
Claude Monet
He was the founder of the Impressionist movement and completely changed the French painting in the 19th century. Although he first started by selling charcoal caricatures（木炭讽刺画）in Paris, he soon started painting with oil after meeting Eugene Boudin, who taught him to use oil paints and also encouraged him to paint outdoors. And then he painted with his own style. His works include Impression, Sunrise and The Water Liles.
Finding true love can be pretty tough for a lot of people, but a lady from a fairly well-known San Francisco advertising agency seems to think money helps. She is offering $10,000 to any of her friends who can introduce her to her Mr. Right. She wants to find her future husband through this way.
The unnamed husband seeker who sent out the email had just finished reading the best-selling book named Lean In. It was 11 p. m. on a Sunday night and she realized this was the second self-help book she had read in the month. She was still single. Things were not looking fine, but there was hope for her still. If the book had taught her anything, it was that she needed to take a more positive role in finding love. After all, if she wanted to get a better job, she wouldn't just sit outside an employer's building and wait for someone to offer it to her, so why should finding a husband be any different? But instead of going out and meeting new people she decided to write an email to all her friends, offering to give them $10,000 on her wedding day if any of them managed to introduce her to her future husband.
“I am writing you today because I've decided to make an aggressive action plan on finding the man that I get to hang out with forever,” the woman writes in her email. “Introducing me to my husband is just not high on your to-do list. But I think I have an idea that might change that…” You guessed it, and this is where she offers to reward her “closest friends” with cold hard cash.
“I will personally give ten thousand dollars to the friend who introduces me to my husband.
Here is how the program works:
Step 1: You set me up on a date with a man.
Step 2: I marry that man.
Step 3: I give you $10,000 on my wedding day.
I know you're thinking that this is nuts. Just plain crazy. 'You can find a husband without giving $10,000.' Well for starters, thank you! I'm happy.”
Taxi-booking app Uber agreed to sell its business in China to Didi Chuxing. The two firms had been fierce competitors, but Didi Chuxing had controlled the Chinese market with an 87% share.
Uber China launched in 2014, but it had failed to make any profit for a long time. Cheng Wei, founder and chief executive of Didi Chuxing, said the two companies had learned a great deal from each other over the past two years in China. He added that the deal would set the mobile transportation industry on a healthier path of growth at a higher level. As part of the deal, Mr. Cheng would join the board of Uber, while Uber chief executive Travis Kalanick would also join Didi's board.
Uber's China business would own its separate branding while US-based Uber Technologies would hold about 17.5% in the combined company. Didi Chuxing is backed by Chinese Internet giants Tencent and Alibaba.
Uber had been struggling to break into the Chinese market despite having Chinese search engine Baidu as an investor. Last February, the company admitted it was losing more than $1 billion a year in China. “Funding their Chinese dreams was becoming too expensive for Uber,” Duncan Clark, chairman of Beijing-based consultancy BDA, told the BBC. Travis Kalanick said, “As a businessman, I've learned that being successful is about listening to your head as well as following your heart.”
The fierce competition had led both companies to spend much more on their journeys. The combination is likely to see fewer such subsidies（补贴）. “One thing to watch carefully is how quickly consumers feel the impact as subsidies are withdrawn.” Mr. Clark added.
The deal with Didi Chuxing came just days after China had agreed to provide a legal framework for taxi-ordering apps. Both Uber and Didi welcomed the decision. The new rules took effect last November and could, among other things, forbid such platforms to operate below cost.
You get anxious if there's no wi-fi in the hotel or mobile phone signal up the mountain. You feel upset if your phone is getting low on power, and you secretly worry things will go wrong at work if you're not there. All these can be called “always on” stress caused by smart phone addiction.
For some people, smart phones have liberated them from the nine-to-five work. Flexible working has given them more autonomy（自主权）in their working lives and enabled them to spend more time with their friends and families. For many others though, smart phones have become tyrants（暴君）in their pockets, never allowing them to turn them off, relax and recharge their batteries.
Pittsburgh-based developer Kevin Holesh was worried about how much he was ignoring his family and friends in favour of his iPhone. So he developed an app — Moment — to monitor his usage. The app enables users to see how much time they're spending on the device and set up warnings if the usage limits are breached（突破）. “Moment's goal is to promote balance in your life,” his website explains. “Some time on your phone, some time off it enjoying your loving family and friends around you.”
Dr. Christine Grant, an occupational（职业的）psychologist at Coventry University, said, “The effects of this 'always on' culture are that your mind is never resting, and you're not giving your body time to recover, so you're always stressed. And the more tired and stressed we get, the more mistakes we make. Physical and mental health can suffer.”
And as the number of connected smart phones is increasing, so is the amount of data. This is leading to a sort of decision paralysis（瘫痪）and is creating more stress in the workplace because people have to receive a broader range of data and communications which are often difficult to manage. “It actually makes it more difficult to make decisions and many do less because they're controlled by it all and fell they can never escape the office,” said Dr. Christine Grant.
Nobody likes to think they are “that guy” at work.. So, what are some of the rudest things that people do at work — and why shouldn't you do them?
Behaving in an unacceptable way
The most common form of this is eating smelly foods at lunchtime. Other things alike include body smell and its opposite, the wearing of strong perfume, messy desks, or bad breath..
Checking email on your phone when you're talking to other people
A recent survey shows that 49 percent of people said their bosses checked their phones while talking with them.. If you've ever wondered why your team members are unmotivated, this may be why. In fact, when you're talking to someone at work, you should reject any non-important calls.
Do you like the sound of your own voice? Great. Perhaps it's time you learned to like the sound of other people's voices too. If you interrupt others when they speak, they'll dislike you and discount whatever you're saying. And if you routinely take up three quarters of the meeting with your monologues（独角戏）, people will turn off and, quite rightly, start checking email on their phones. However, if you listen to what others say and show interest by asking intelligent questions, they'll love you and be likely to give you their support when you speak.
Showing off how much you earn
. If you show off your income to someone and then discover you get less than them, you'll look like a fool. If you earn more, they'll feel tired of you. So keep them guessing and hide your earning power in quiet ways — like always paying for the team coffees.
A. Talking all the time
B. Being a good listener
C. Team-working can never be ignored
D. All these things will become part of your personal brand
E. It's better to be modest when you talk about your incomes
F. Bad behavior at work is common — and often we do it without thinking
G. An interesting email is more valuable than the person you are actually talking to
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（∧），并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线（\）划掉。
修改：在错的词下面画一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1．每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；
2．只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。
How to keep mental health
As we know, mental health links to our happiness index. However, it's vital to keep our mental health. Here are some advice on how to do it.
Firstly, accept yourself true. Knowing your own potentials and making practical goal instead of setting high expectations can keep yourself away from heavy burden, thus enjoy good mental health. Secondly, be friendly and sociable. Life with friends is miserable. So make friends. It's their comfort and support which help you go through hardship in life. Lastly, commit yourself to your career. Your efforts bring you a sense of achievement, which will in turn ensure your happiness.
In a brief, it pays to focus our attention on our mental health. The more, the best!
There was a state (call) Zhou in the Chinese history. One day, the king of Zhou asked his officials for advice on (deal) with the prisoners of war. An official said, “If you love someone, you (suppose) to love even the crows on the roof of his house. The prisoners of war are enemies fighting against us. In my opinion, we'd better (kill) them all.”
But the king didn't agree with him. “I think we should treat the prisoner of war (different) by differing them into those who are guilty and those who are not. They guilty ones will be sentenced death in order to avoid future disasters.”
Then another one said, “Your majesty, I think all the prisoners should be set free and sent back home to work in the fields and support themselves by their own labor., you should keep strictly the rules for reward and (punish). The people are sure to believe in you you govern our country be morals and laws.”
The king thought the official's proposal was quite reasonable so be accepted and followed it. As result, the domestic situation soon settled down and gradually the country became stronger.
注意：1）词数100左右；
2）可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
3）短文开头和结尾已为你写好，不计入词数。
参考词汇：人才回流reversal of the brain drain；海归人员returnee。
Dear Tom,
How are you doing? In your last letter, you asked me about the reversal of the brain drain in China,
Best wishes!
Yours,
Li Hua
