Reggie had been born deaf. He was well-known to everyone in town, and they all loved him. However, 1 , he always seemed to be treated differently from everyone else.
People acted like Reggie was unable to 2 them, as if he was a baby.
His friend Michael didn't like this. He decided that things had to be 3 . Michael's father was the town's mayor (市长) and Michael 4 to persuade (劝说) him that they should offer one day as the festival to deaf people this year. During that whole day everyone would have to wear earplugs (耳塞).
People liked the 5 . The day became known as The Day of Silence, and when it arrived, everyone put plugs in their ears. That morning was filled with jokes and laughter. But, as the hours passed, people knew more and more clearly how 6 life was when they couldn't hear anything.
On that day, nobody 7 Reggie as just a deaf person. This meant he could be treated just like any other boy, and people saw Reggie had a bright mind. On that day, using his usual 8 . Reggie was the one who could communicate best with everyone. This meant that people paid more attention to what he was expressing. They were 9 when they saw his intelligence and his ability to find ways to deal with almost any problem. They realized that he had always been like that, and that in normal life all Reggie needed was a little more time than others to communicate. That was the only 10 .
Spend your holiday in a smart way with these apps!
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| How can we exercise by ourselves safely? The app Fitbod can show you how to exercise correctly with clear and easy videos. If you have no equipment (器材), Fitbod can show you how to do simple exercises with just your body. Fitbod can change to meet your needs after each exercise. If some of your muscles (肌肉) are tired, the app will focus on others. |
| Do you always want to use a calculator to help solve math problems? Now there is an app that does even more for you than calculators. This app is called Mathway. It can show you how to solve difficult math problems. Even better, the app can explain each step for solving math problems. This way, you can understand how to solve a math problem. |
 | School, studies, family-we have so many things to do! How can we manage our tasks? Watoo can help us! It help us sort out what is important or urgent (紧急的) by using its colorful faces. A big red face means a task is really important. A small, happy yellow face means we can take our time. Let's use this app to organize your tasks in a fun way. |
I took up baking (烘焙) when I was twelve. At that time I was working on my school bakery project with my classmates. I tried a few times, but I wasn't very successful. My parents advised I learn from my grandmother, who later gave me her recipe (食谱) and instruction as well. After two years' practice, I was able to make delicious bread. I have come to realize making bread means a lot to me although it takes a long time.
To make bread, others usually use quick-rise yeast (酵母), but I don't. Every Saturday morning, after mixing proper amount of water with flour. sugar etc. I take time to wait for the dough to rise. This is my way to slow down and smell the roses.
Baking does require great patience. In my hands, the dough is slowly growing. It's becoming softer. I can feel the change, which connects me to something quite different from the modern way of living. To me, making bread is a push against our culture of convenience. It certainly takes more time than buying bread from a store, but I enjoy it.
I've stuck with my grandmother's recipe without making any change. Now this tradition has continued for years. Sometimes, in order to fit it in, I have to change my schedule. But I have never considered givingit up.
By the time my children get home from school, the bread has been baked and cooled. They step into the house and the first thing they do is to take a deep breath of the warm, honeyed air. My bread-baking has also helped them to slow down and understand the value of taking their time and leading an unhurried life.
Few would have expected that viewers at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics would include animals. And yet, besides the exciting events, news reports also focused on several sightings of wildlife, especially leopard cats.
On Jan 31, on the alpine ski slopes in Yanqing district, 90 kilometers northwest of Beijing, a leopard cat was found walking through an award-ceremony rehearsal. The event caught the attention of volunteers and staff, with many snapping photos. Three days later, a Chinese photographer captured another leopard cat in the woods near the Olympic ski slopes. The creature ran past him, jumped over a fence and looked back.
Leopard cats are wild felids (猫科动物), slightly larger than house cats, and they mostly keep clear of human activity. However, according to Luo Shujin, a skier and a conservation biologist at Peking University, the frequent appearance of the animals close to the ski runs shows that the species has lived in this area relatively close to Beijing where human takes charge. Strangely, their calm manner suggests they are not frightened by human activity.
Without any research date, it is too early to draw any conclusions that the creation of the Olympic skiing venue (体育场馆) has not influenced the surrounding forests and wildlife. However, it's possible that the wild cats have already got used to living with humans, likely because people at the venue have not shown an aggressive attitude toward the animals since it started being built.
According to Luo, wild cats are seldom seen so close to big cities. "I think this is a little-known side of Beijing, " says Luo, who is proud that such wildlife can be found so close to the capital city. "Such an event causes me to hope that we can try our best to ensure the balance between wildlife and human. "
As Xiong Chuanfa, 34, blew a lifelike puppy out of molten maltose (溶化的麦芽糖) in just minutes, kids looked carefully at him with great surprise, thinking he was a magician.
Xiong Chuanfa has been working on blowing sugar figurines, a Chinese traditional folk art with a history of over 600 years, for more than twenty years.
In this special art form, the artist heats the syrup (糖浆) to a certain temperature, pulls off a small amount, makes it into a ball with an open center, presses the open area together and stretches (拉伸) it to form a tube. Then he blows air into the tube and makes it into different shapes. The traditional folk art has been listed as a state-level intangible cultural heritage (非物质文化遗产).
Every morning, Xiong prepares the molten syrup and drives to start his "magic show" around his city. "Many people, particularly kids, are attracted by this sugar art. After all, the ancient art is gradually disappearing, " Xiong said. Simon, from Australia, was attracted by a sugar Bing Dwen Dwen, the mascot of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, in Xiong's stall. Simon couldn't resist trying to make one himself. However, he couldn't get the wanted shape though he tried several times. "It looks simple, but actually it's very difficult to master the skill, " he said. Thanks to Xiong's helping hand, Simon finally saw a horse slowly taking shape. "Can't believe I've done this, " he said, expressing his joy at how a pot of sugar syrup has been turned into something "truly amazing".
Xiong said that blowing sugar figurines (小塑像) can date back to the Ming Dynasty and that his family has passed down this art for four generations. "My 6-year-old son often blows up a balloon-like sugar figure, just like I used to do as a child. " he said. Xiong's wife Wang Li is an artist of the sugar painting, which is a form of traditional Chinese folk art that uses hot， liquid sugar to make 2-D things.
"None of the cultural heritage left by our ancestors (祖先) should be lost. They are name cards of the wonderful Chinese culture and should be spread around the world, " Xiong said. The couple often show their skills beside colleges to draw youngsters closer to the traditional art and allow them to experience its charm. "Sugar paintings and sugar figurines are childhood memories of several generations of Chinese people. We try to combine paper-cutting skills and modern elements (元素) with sugar figurines, making them similar to modern trend (趋势) while keeping a balance between beauty and taste. We will spend the rest of our lives helping pass on this intangible heritage, " Xiong said.
Many people were deeply moved after learning about the family's story.
a. Making it into a sugar ball. b. Stretching it to make a tube.
c. Pulling off some heated syrup. d. Blowing air to make wanted shapes.
You might have seen beautiful rainbows in the sky before. They form when sunlight falls on water drops in the air. But in fact, moonlight can also create rainbows in the same way. They are called "moonbows", They are similar to rainbows, but they are created by moonlight instead of direct sunlight.
Moonbows are rarer than rainbows. Different weather and astronomical (天文学的) conditions have to be just right for moonbows to be created.
The moon has to be very low in the sky — only 42 degrees from the horizon (地平线). The moon period has to be a full moon or nearly full. The sky must be very dark for a moonbow to be watched clearly — any bright light can obscure it. Water drops must appear in the air in the opposite direction of the moon.
Moonbows appear on the opposite side of the moon and usually look white to the human eye. This is because their colors are not bright enough to be noticed by the human eye. It is possible, however, to view the colors in a moonbow using long exposure (长时间曝光) photography.
Moonbows more often appear in some locations around the world. Most of these locations usually have waterfalls, which create thin fog in the air. Some of these locations are the Yosemite National Park in California and Cumberland Falls State Resort Park in Kentucky, US; Victoria Falls on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe; and Waimea in Hawaii, US.
Moonbows do really happen. So at a certain time and a certain place, when a moonbow happens to appear, you can't miss it if you're right there.
| finish; you can; understand; hardly; be |
Confidence can help you form a healthy attitude. But how can we be more confident?
Speak louder. When you are not confident, it's hard to do what you want to do well. You speak in a voice so low that other people can hear you. Try to speak loud enough so people can hear you clearly.
Play sports. A strong body helps you to confidence.
Encourage yourself. Write down a list of things that you did during the day to see how many things you did well. Did you your homework? Give yourself praise (夸奖) for the good things you have done.
Get rid of (消除) fear. Fear goes along with failure. But it is easy to overcome if you that failure is part of life. Try to start again and believe you can do better.
Pick up a hobby. If you like singing, sing as much as . It will make you happy and confident.
Dreams and goals（目标）are important because they give us a ruler against which to measure our progress. But progress, not meeting a goal, is what brings true happiness.
After winning the silver medal in women's single figure skating at Beijing 2022, Alexandra Trusova was heard screaming that she hated the sport. Even the gold medalist, Anna Shcherbakova, said that "this has been what I've been working toward every day. . . " You can feel in her words the emptiness in her heart.
This kind of pressure (压力) might be difficult for you to imagine. After all, you probably aren't an Olympic athlete. But have you ever connected your happiness to a far-off goal that you could achieve only by putting great efforts into it? Maybe it's finishing a degree or gaining a certain amount of income.
Researchers have found that satisfaction is brought about not by big wins, but by making progress in meaningful work.
Some researchers think that when a goal is the final point for progress, the sudden stop in the process of forward can lead to a feeling of emptiness, which is exactly what Shcherbakova described in Beijing. This doesn't mean that you should give up all goals, however. You just need to understand and pursue them in different ways.
• Enjoy the journey not the destination. Instead of chasing (追赶) a goal with a single eye, think more on about whether you're getting anything out of your progress right now.
• Think about the purpose of your goals. The point of a useful goal is to improve your quality of life by changing, not to limp (艰难地移动) across the finish line and stop after a difficult challenge.
• Take one step at a time. Researchers have found that common, small achievements help to start a cycle of success and happiness much more than rare, big ones. Make sure you can break your long-term goals into smaller tasks. Enjoy the daily and weekly achievements that you know are leading you down the road to success.
The writer's opinion | What brings you happiness is not meeting a goal, progress. | ||
People's feelings | Alexandra Trusova | A sports woman came | Screamed out that she hated the sport. |
Anna Scherbakova | A sports woman won the gold medal | Achieved the goal she had been worked for, but felt in her heart. | |
You | Not an Olympic athlete | May feel to understand the athlete's pressure. | |
Researchers' opinions | One may feel satisfied not just when he wins, but when he makes progress in meaningful work. | ||
The goal is the final point for progress. If someone suddenly in the way, he may feel empty. | |||
The writer's three | • Instead of paying only attention to where you go, value what you can get the progress you make. • Instead of just trying to rush past the finishing line and stop, make sure what you want to achieve does help to improve your quality of life when you . • Instead of setting rare and big goals, break them into tasks and finish them step by step, so that you can make progress day by day to start a cycle of success and . | ||
After spending the weekend away with my adult son, I was so impressed by his g heart that I sent him this letter.
Dear son,
I want to thank you for teaching me a very valuable lesson in life by the great e you set. When we were eating at that cafe in Bondi and a person who had ordered his h didn't have enough money to pay for them. Without any hesitation, you went over and put the extra $2 into his hand.
When we were leaving, you also t a five-cent coin onto the road and said something 1 "Some kids will really enjoy finding it. "
Last week, a young man ahead of me in the line at a petrol (汽油) station didn't have enough money to pay for his petrol. I asked the money collector, "How much short is he? " She told me he had meant to put $15 petrol in his car but he had been looking at the w gauge (计量表) and had put in 15 litres (升) which came to just over $20. This is an e mistake as both gauges run fast.
Something made me think of you and w you did that night at the cafe in Bondi. I handed the young man $6. He was so surprised and said, "But why would you do this for me? " I just smiled as I thought of you.
Thank you, son. It's better to give than to r . Now when I see a five-cent coin on the ground and want to pick it up, I think of you and leave it there just in case some kids will get e to find it.
Love always,
Mum
⒈What does David look like?
⒉What are David's personality and his hobbies? Give some examples.
⒊Where did he visit in China?
⒋What's his ideal school like ?
注意事项：
1. 涵盖所有要点，适当发挥；80词左右；
2. 文中不能有真实的姓名、校名等信息；
3. 文章必须包括所有要点，可适当发挥，使短文，连贯、通顺。
My New Friend
