An artist went to a beautiful part of the country for a holiday, and stayed with a farmer. Every day he 1 out with his paints (绘画颜料) and his brushes and 2 from morning to evening, and when it 3 dark, he went back to the farm and had a good 4 before he went to bed.
At the end of his holiday he wanted to5 the farmer, but the farmer said, "No, I do not want money, but 6 me one of your pictures. Because in a week the money will all be used up, but your painting will still be here."
The artist was very 7 and thanked the farmer for 8 such kind things about his paintings.
The farmer smiled and answered, "It's not that. I have a son in London. He wants to 9 an artist. When he comes here next month, I will 10 him your picture, and then he will not want to be an artist any more, I think."
One day, I was cooking with my friend Sandy in the kitchen. Suddenly, Sandy cut her finger. I went to her quickly. But to my surprise, I saw computer chips in her finger.
“Now you know my secret，you have to die!” Sandy said and picked up the knife. “No, please, Sandy. Aren't we good friends?” I shouted. But before Sandy could say anything, she fainted.
“Oh，Sandy!” I took her to hospital in a hurry. After a doctor checked her, he said, “I'm afraid we can't help her. Why don't you take her to a robot centre?”
I hurried to a robot centre. A few days later, Sandy was well. She asked, "Mary, why did you save me even after I tried to kill you?”
“Because I'm sure you are my friend. Can you tell me where you are from?”
“I'm from another planet. It's far from here. Thank you, my friend. Now I see how friendly people are on the earth.”
Two days later, a UFO came and picked her up. Since then I've never seen her.
We know the mosquito very well. Mosquitoes fly everywhere. They are almost all over the world, and there are more than 2, 500 kinds of them.
No one likes the mosquito. But the mosquito may decide that she loves you. She? Yes, she. It's true that the male mosquito doesn't bite and only the female mosquito bites because she needs blood to lay (产) eggs. She is always looking for things or people she wants to bite. If she likes what she finds, she bites. But if she doesn't like your blood, she will turn to someone else for more delicious blood. Next time a mosquito bites you, just remember she chooses you. You're different from the others!
If the mosquito likes you, she lands on your body without letting you know. She bites yon so quickly and quietly that you may not feel anything different. After she bites, you will have an itch (痒) on your body because she put something from her mouth together with your blood. By the time the itch begins, she has flown away.
And then what happens? Well, after the delicious dinner, the mosquito feels tired. She just wants to find a place to have a good rest. There, on a leaf or a wall, she begins to lay eggs, hundreds of eggs.
Americans with small families own a car. If both parents are working, they usually have two cars. When the family is larger, they will sell one of the cars and buy a van (住房汽车).
A small car can hold four persons and a large car can hold six persons but it is very crowded. A van can hold seven persons easily, so a family with three children can ask their grandparents to go on a holiday travel. They can all travel together.
Mr. Hagen and his wife had a third child last year. So they sold their second car and bought a van. They thought it would be more convenient for them to go out together.
Americans call vans motor homes. They always use them for holidays. When a family is traveling to the mountains or to the seaside, they can live in their motor home for a few days or weeks. All the members of a big family can enjoy a happier life when they are traveling together. That is why motor homes have become very popular.
Mark began to introduce the guest speaker to the listeners, but then stopped for a while. He had forgotten her name.
Perhaps you've had an experience like this. Most people have. But most of them haven't realized that they have a memory problem. Neither do they know a simple but important fact: Memory can be improved. Well, let me show you how.
First, relax. If you are over worried about something, you'll forget it. If you keep telling yourself that your memory is bad, your mind will come to believe it and you won't remember things.
But relaxing isn't enough. To improve your memory, you'll need to take an active role. Like your body, you can make your memory strong through exercise. Look for opportunities to exercise your memory. For example, if you're learning a language, try to actively remember a lot of new words.
If you don't take notice of things actively, you won't remember them. So, you can make pictures of what you see in your mind every day. For example, don't just put your keys down! If you want to find them again, make a mind picture of the place where you're putting them.
Have you ever seen a horse with toes? Millions of years ago, horses had many toes. They had four toes on each front foot. They had three toes on each back foot. The horses were no bigger than cats.
These small horses lived in the forest. Their many toes helped the horses run over the soft, wet ground.
It was very hot in the forest. But the weather changed. It became cold. Many trees could not live in cold weather. The trees died and fell. Open fields took the place of forests. The sun made ground dry and hard.
Horses began to change, too. They began to get bigger. This took a long time. On the dry, hard land, horses needed only their middle toes for running. Their middle toes became hard. After a long while, horses had only one hard toe on each foot. We call this hard toe a hoof.
A magician (魔术师) was working on a ship. The audience (观众) would be (difference) every week, the magician did the same tricks over and over again. There was only one problem: parrot saw the shows each week and began to (understand) how the magician did every trick. Once he understood, he started shouting, "Look, it's not the same hat", "Look, he is (put) the flowers under the table." The magician was (anger) but couldn't do anything. It was, after all, the captain's parrot. One day the ship had accident and sank. The magician found (he) on a piece of wood in the ocean the parrot. They stared at each other with hate, but did not say a word. This went on for some (day). After a week the parrot said, "OK, I give up. Where's the boat?"
要求: 语法正确、逻辑合理, 80词左右, 可根据提示内容适当发挥。
提示:
1）. 美国著名的作家，写了许多著名的小说;
2）. 1835年出生于佛罗里达的乡村, 4岁时全家搬到城里, 12岁时父亲去逝;
3）. 从童年就开始工作, 做过不同的工作。他最著名的小说之一是《汤姆·索亚历险记》;
4）. 他写作的才能并不是从小就有, 而是来自于他个人的经历。
生词提示:
马克· 吐温Mark Twain, 小说novel, 佛罗里达Florida,《汤姆·索亚历险记》The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, 个人的经历personal experiences
