— Certainly, it' s my pleasure to share with you all.
In the eighth grade, my classmates gave me a nickname "Dictionary. " until now. It all started the day a national spelling bee competition was held.
After hearing this news, I made an important decision to join it. In order to win, I opened my dictionary and started learning how to spell every word in English. To memorize the most words as possible, I tried every possible ways and began reading day and night so that I could remember them more 1 .
During the competition, I misspelled one word. The pain of this failure was so great that I still 2 the word "graffiti" today while not succeeding in something that I put in so much effort also reminded me to study harder.
Later, my school was participating in a French dictation competition hosted by a nonprofit(非盈利) organization that gives kids in poor areas a 3 to get an education, which is a good chance for them to change their life. The fact that French isn' t my first language has only made me put more energy into it. I 4 the books even harder, I spent all my free time studying.
In the competition, I scored the highest in my school! I felt so proud. That joy was 5 because I knew my victory was also helping children learn to read and write.
In the final, I took the fifth place. Although it wasn' t what I had dreamed of, it was quite 6 ! And I was not upset because of this result. Instead, I was proud of myself.
Besides the award, I got7 that I' d use for the rest of my life, such as persistence(坚持不懈) and critical thinking. So, no matter what I would be in the future, I believe I could do well in that. In fact, I was pleased that I had experienced a lot from the language competitions. Moreover, I found that whether we are making changes for ourselves or for others, we never know what can be the catalyst( 催化剂) of a brilliant future. Sometimes, that catalyst can be as 8 as a book. It could be a moment of inspiration that can change the course of our lives.
A | B | ||
| Are you a fan of "Dream of the Red Mansion"? Ever since it came out, it has been a huge deal and is more influential than any other classic Chinese writing. Check out this lecture where they really dig deep into this classic novel. |
| "Jiaguwen" is one of the oldest pictographic(象形) characters in the world. The discovery of Jiaguwen is a very important event in the Chinese language research. Do you want to know more about it? Come and enjoy this lecture. |
Place: The National Grand Theatre Time: 9:30 a. m. October 23rd. | Place: National Library Time: 9:00 a. m. October 24th. | ||
C | D | ||
| Professor Wang talks about his work experience at the UN and shares his understanding of the cultural differences between East and West. He thinks it is very important for teenagers to learn about the cultural differences between their country and the others. If you are interested in it, welcome to join us! Place: Beijing People' s Art Theater Time: 1:30 p. m. November 9th. |
| During the Spring Festival, you can see "Fu" everywhere. In order to express their longing and wishes, some people simply put up the character "fu" and say "happiness must come". But what is "Fu" and where does it come from? Why do people hang "Fu" character on the door? Get all the answers from this free lecture. Place: National Library Time: 2:00 p. m. November 11th. |
It was a summer night. Suddenly, the lights went out and everything went dark. I tried to find a source of light. I couldn' t see anything, so I waved my arms to avoid running into any furniture. I thought there was a power cut because of the thunderstorm. I remembered my mom keeping some candles for urgent situations.
I was alone at home as all the family members had travelled to another city. After a while, I touched a candle. I lit it immediately. Then I noticed my neighbor' s lights were on. I screamed out for help but the light disappeared in a flash. I remembered my father showing me a lamp which used to cause the electrical supply in the house. I rushed to his room to check it but it was disconnected. I heard the sound of something being moved around upstairs. To make sure I was not seen by whoever was in the house, I quickly blew off my candle.
I moved under the kitchen table and remained quiet. The thief disappeared from my view but I could hear his footsteps. No more than a second later, I saw the garage(车库) door opened by my neighbor, Mr Vasu. He led me out and into his house.
Mrs Vasu tried to calm me down and explained Mr Vasu saw the thief searching the bedroom facing theirs. And my parents had asked him to keep an eye on me while they were away.
Next morning, my parents were at Mr Vasu' s house to thank him for saving me. From their conversation, I guessed the thief managed to run away when he heard Mr Vasu storming through the door. I was grateful to him. I decided not to tell anyone about it, as I knew they would all worry about me.
Children can spend hours a day looking at computer screens and other digital devices. Some eye doctors say all that screen time has led to an increase in "computer vision syndrome(电脑视力综合征)".
Nathan Bonilla-Warford is an eye doctor in Tampa, Florida, he has seen an increase in problems in children. "A lot more children who are coming into the office either because their parents have noticed that they have headaches or red or watery eyes or discomfort, their near-sightedness, appears to be increasing at a fast rate and they' re worried," he says.
Dr. Bonilla-Warford says part of the problem is that children may be more likely to pay no attention to the early warning signs than adults. "Even if their eyes start to feel uncomfortable or they start to get a headache, they' re less likely to tell their parents, because they don' t want to have the game or the computer or whatever taken away," he explains.
He says another part of the problem is that people blink less often when they use digital devices. "The average person who uses a computer or an electronic device blinks about a third as much as we normally do in everyday life. And so that can result in the front part of the eye drying and not staying wet and protected like normal. "
Eye doctors offer suggestions like the following which is known as the 20/20/20 rule. That means every twenty minutes look away twenty feet or more for at least twenty seconds from whatever device you' re using.
Other suggestions include putting more distance between you and the device and using good lighting. Of course, another way to avoid eye tiredness is to spend less time looking at screens. Many experts say children should spend no more than two hours a day using digital devices—with no screen time for children under two.
While more and more eye doctors have noticed an increase in problems in children.
Dr. David Hunter says he has also seen an increase in his practice. "While it is possible to develop tired looking at various screens for a long period of time, researchers still need to find the exact cause in order to give children more effective suggestions. "
Many people have participated into lots of virtual( 虚拟的) meetings these years. Some research shows this change might not influence productivity. A new study, though, suggests the opposite.
In the study, 602 participants were paired and asked to come up with creative uses for a product. They worked together either in person or virtually and were ranked based on the total number and degree of creativity of their ideas. Finally, they presented their best ideas. Among the groups, virtual pairs came up with fewer ideas, suggesting that face-to-face interaction produces greater creativity.
"Based on feedback from companies, we ran this experiment to solve the challenge of keeping creativity in online work environments," said lead researcher Melanie Brucks. "While video meetings closely copy face-to-face interactions unlike other virtual communication methods such as phone calls or emails, I was surprised to discover meaningful disparities between face to face and video interactions for idea generation. "
When objects were placed in both the virtual and physical rooms, the virtual pairs spent more time looking directly at each other rather than letting them looking around the whole scene. Eyeing the whole environment were connected with increased idea generation. However, the screen takes up most of our interactions. Our look changes less. "Looking around might be seen as rude, so we have to focus on the screen," said Brucks.
Like most educators, Brucks has taught online in the past three years, and she noticed some benefits of this modern method as well. Her students were more likely to take turns speaking and shyer students spoke up more often, felt less anxious than in a large classroom. Brucks found that one solution to improve creative ideas generation might be turning off the camera, as students felt "freer" and more creative when asked to do so. And this advice might also work well in the workplace.
However, virtual communication can' t take place of face-to-face teamwork. Face-to- face teams are the best way to produce winning ideas. Perhaps school will finally find a balance between the two forms. This could involve a completely new learning model, which can allow students to attend in-person or online classes based on their own needs and situations. In this way, students would have the opportunity to connect with their peers face-to-face during certain days for increased creativity while also benefiting from the convenience of online learning on other days.
J. K. Rowling is the writer of Harry Potter, which is now one of the best sellers in the world. She was born in Britain on July 31st, 1965. She had one sister who was two years younger than her. Both girls liked listening to their father' s bedtime stories. They especially loved stories about magic. Rowling wrote her first story at the age of six.
On a long train trip in 1990, an idea came to her. She wanted to write about a boy who had magic but he didn' t know it. In 1992, Rowling began to write the first Harry Potter book for young readers. It appeared in June, 1997. The book was a great success. And the film came out in November, 2001. Now the Harry Potter series is popular with people of all ages and about sixty million books have been sold in 200 countries. In this series, Harry is an ordinary boy: polite, friendly, brave and clever, so when children read about Harry, they can imagine being like him. That' s why the Harry Potter series has been so popular.
J. K. Rowling had a hard time in the early years. She once got divorced from her husband, and then she didn' t have enough money to raise the family. Later, she had to look after her mother who was badly ill in hospital. However, J. K. Rowling never gave up writing no matter what difficulties she had. Instead, she thought all the success came from the early failures. Now she' s really enjoying the life and is very satisfied with the success. Harry Potter books are a global success and her fans are very loyal (忠诚的). Children that were eight, nine, or ten when the books first came out in the 1990s are now in their 20s. Plenty of adults loved the books whether they had children or not, so the future market for her is huge. Most people think that J. K. Rowling' s readers will be more and more and no one can take the place of her position.
J. K. Rowling says she will go on writing for her whole life, just as what she said in the speech to Harvard students, "As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters. "
腹有诗书气自华 ， 一本好书往往能改变人的一生。每年 4 月 23 日是"世界读书日"，某英文网站正在开展以"My Favourite Book" 为主题的优秀书籍推荐活动， 请用英语写一篇短文进行推荐，谈谈你最喜欢的一本书是什么？书的主要内容有哪些？你为什么要推荐这本书？
提示词语： classic, belief, personality, fantastic, knowledge, recommend(推荐)
●提示问题：What' s your favourite book? What' s it about?
●Why do you want to recommend this book?
人生在勤，不索何获。学习的道路任重而道远，同学们在学习的过程中一定遇到过各种各样的问题，也有各自独特的办法去解决困难。现学校以"My English Learning"为主题开展征文活动，请用英语写一篇短文投稿，谈谈你在英语学习中遇到过什么问题以及你是如何解决这些问题的。
提示词语：vocabulary, grammar, improve, practice, enlarge
提示问题：
●What English learning problems did you have?
●How do you solve the problems?
