B
Two weeks before my 12th birthday, my teacher asked me to conduct an experiment. When I mixed some powder together, they exploded. Molten liquid hit me in the face, but I felt no pain.
I vividly remember standing there in a state of calm. I thought I was in a dream, but however hard I struggled to swim to the surface of consciousness, I couldn't wake up. I didn't understand how terrifying it was until I heard people saying, ＂Who's that?＂ That's when I knew I was unrecognizable.
I was taken to hospital, but the doctors didn't know what to do with me. Later I was flown to Houston for surgery. Between the ages of 13 and 16, I had 40 operations. As each operation came and went, my vision would come back, then fade again. Eventually, it faded completely and I had what was left of my eyes removed for cosmetic reasons.
Since then, I have lived in total darkness. Most blind people, even if they don't have any sight they're aware of, are still able to sense light. That gives them a sense of day and night. But not me. I absolutely lost that sense of time passing.
For many years, I felt my sight loss darkening my life like the loss of my parents from which I would never recover. But when I was in my 40s, I realized I had to find a way to live. I trained to become a counselor, and that has helped me see my experiences in a different way. I can't fix people's broken lives — just like I can't fix my sight — but I can help them find a way to manage.
Sometimes it feels as if all the struggles and negative experiences I've lived through were in fact a kind of preparation for helping others to make their own way towards the light.
For several billion years after the "Big Bang", the earth was still just a cloud of dust. What it was to was uncertain until between 4.5 and 3.8 billion years ago when the dust settled into a solid globe. The earth became so that it was not clear whether the shape would last or not.
eastward, you'll pass mountains and thousands of lakes and forests, as well as wide rivers and large cities. Some people have the idea you can cross Canada in less than five days, but they forget the fact that Canada is 5500 kilometers from coast to coast. Here in Vancouver, you're in Canada's warmest part. People say it is Canada's most beautiful city. by mountains and the Pacific Ocean. Its population is increasing rapidly. The coast of Vancouver has some of the oldest and most beautiful forests in the world.
However, this was not easy. When they first arrived in Gombe in 1960, it was unusual for a woman to live in the froest. after her mother came to help her for the first few months she allowed to begin her project. Her work changed the way people think about chimps. For example, one important thing she discovered was that chimps hunt and eat meat. Until then everyone thought chimps ate only fruit and nuts. She also discovered how chimps communicate with each other, and her study of their body language helped her their social system.
Todd Jones is a 15yearold student from Washington, D.C. In a chat room called Webfriends, he started talking to someone 1 to be a 13yearold junior high school student in Texas named Josh. For several weeks, they chatted online about their hobbies and quickly 2. Then Josh started telling Todd about his 3. He said that his father had lost his job and his grandmother was very ill. 4 money was urgently needed, he wondered if Todd could help. Feeling bad for his new friend, Todd transferred(转账) $50 to Josh's bank account.
Two weeks later, Josh asked Todd for $50 to help pay for school supplies like notebooks. 5, Todd sent the money. Over the next month, Josh asked Todd for money five times, for a total of $300. Gradually, Todd was beginning to feel 6 of his chat room friend. He turned to Bob Howard, a cybercrime specialist at the police department. After some checking, Howard discovered that Todd's chat room friend was not 13yearold Josh from Texas but 38yearold David Klein from New York. As it 7, Klein had made friends with more than twenty middle school students in different chat rooms, using a different 8 each time. By claiming to be poor or ill, Klein had 9 more than $3, 000 from these students.
Howard urges everyone to be 10 when they visit chat rooms: "Never send money to someone you meet online or meet online friends in person."
However exciting space exploration sounds, there's a necessary and important point about it that needs to be considered: food supplies. Right now, astronauts typically rely on dry food in airtight bags and cans, since there are strict weight limits on items taken into space. Foods that we take for granted, such as fresh fruits and vegetables, are out of the question for space explorers.
For those who've made an effort to try to grow food during space flights, they've faced many difficulties, including the absence of gravity, and a lack of soil, air and humidity (湿度). However, growing food to add and minimize (最小化) the food that must be carried to space will be increasingly important on long-duration flights into space. Great efforts have been made to explore the concept (idea) of space farming. Recently, a team led by Federico Maggi at the University of Sydney in Australia have worked out how plants can absorb nutrients from human urine (尿), as was reported by New Scientist on March 27.
After over 20 years of experiments, the results suggested that human urine could supply three to four out of the six nutrients that plants need. The researchers also found out that urine-fertilized plants produce no harmful by-products, such as carbon dioxide or ammonia.
According to New Scientist, human urine is 95 percent water, with the other 5 percent made from nutrients which are harmful to the human body but not to plants. The advantage of this urine-fueled life support system is obvious: By recycling liquid waste and producing food, an efficient cycle will be created.
And most importantly, said New Scientist，the duration of space flights will be greatly extended to “20 years of flight”, meaning we may be soon sending astronauts on flights to Mars, or even beyond.
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：在错的词下划一横线，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。
Of all my teachers, Mr. Black is the one impresses me most. He is 34, so he looks young for his age. And he's one of the most popular teachers in our school. Mr. Black always pay more attention to his way of teaching, comparing with other teachers. He tries different ways to make his classes actively and lively. In his opinion, we should not only know "what", but also understand "why". So, instead of giving us answer immediately, he encourages us to think by ourselves every time when he puts forward questions. Under his help, we've learned how to solve problems. He leads us to so wonderful world of "why" that we all admire and respect her.
The first newspapers were written by hand and put up on walls in public places. The earliest daily newspaper was started in Rome in 59 BC. In the 700's the world's first printed newspaper was published. Europe didn't have a regularly published newspaper until 1609, when one was started in Germany.
The first regularly published newspaper in the English language was printed in Amsterdam in 1620. In 1621, an English newspaper was started in London and was published once a week. The first daily English newspaper was The Daily Courant (《每日新闻》). It came out in March, 1702.
In 1690, Benjamin Harris printed the first American newspaper in Boston. But not long after it was first published, the government stopped the paper. In 1704, John Campbell started The Boston Newsletter (《波士顿新闻通讯》), the first newspaper published in the American colonies. By 1760, the colonies had more than thirty daily newspapers. There are now about 1,800 daily papers in the United States.
Today, as a group, English language newspapers have the largest circulation (发行量) in the world. But the largest circulation for a newspaper is that of the Japanese newspaper Asahi Dhimbun (《朝日新闻》). It sells more than 11 million copies every day.
Artificial—intelligence systems like Grammarly, an automated grammar—checker, are trained with data. for instance, translation software is fed sentences translated by humans, Grammarly's training data involve a large number of standard error—free sentences and human—corrected sentences. The software then looks at a user's writing: if a line of words seems ungrammatical, it tries to spot how the generally supposed mistake is most closely similar to one from its training inputs.
Advances in language technology have been impressive in, for example, speech recognition, which involves another sort of statistical guess—whether or not a stretch of sound matches a certain line of words. . It can rate the tone of an email before you send it, after being trained on texts that have been assessed by humans, for example as "admiring" or "confident".
But grammar is the real magic of language, joining words into structures, joining those structures into sentences, and doing so in a way that maps onto meaning. . Computers can analyse grammatical sentences fairly well, labeling things like nouns and verb phrases. But they struggle with sentences that are difficult to analyse, precisely because they are ungrammatical—in other words, written by the kind of person who needs Grammarly.
But computers don't work in meaning or intention, they work in formulae（惯用语）. Humans, by contrast, can usually understand even sentences that are not grammatically correct, because of the ability to guess the contents of other minds. Grammar—checking computers illustrate not how bad humans are with language, but just how good.
A. Grammarly can seem to miss more errors than it marks.
B. One Grammarly feature that works fairly well is feeing analysis.
C. To correct such writing requires knowing what the writer intended.
D. Grammarly has some obvious strengths in understanding meaning or intentions.
E. Computers outpace humans at problems that can be solved with pure maths.
F. Developers also add certain rules to the patterns Grammarty has taught itself.
G. In this decisive structure—meaning connection, machines are no match for humans.
We are warned by our teachers not to waste time because time 41 will never return. I think it quite 42 . What does time look 43 ? Nobody knows, and we can’t see it or touch it and no 44 of money can buy it. Time is abstract, so we have to 45 about it.
Time passes very quickly. Some students say they don’t have 46 time to review their lessons. It is 47 they don’t know how to make use of their time. They waste it in going to theatres or playing, and 48 other useless things. Why do we study every day? Why do we work? Why do most people 49 take buses instead of walking? The answer is very 50 . We wish to save time because time is 51 .
Today we are living in the 21. century We 52 time as life. When a person dies, his life ends. Since life is short, we must 53 our time and energy to our study so that we 54 be able to work and live well in the future. Laziness is the 55 of time, for it not only bring us 56 , but also does other 57 to us. If it is necessary for us to do our work today, 58 we do it today and not 59 it until tomorrow. Remember that time is much more 60 .
41. A. lost B passed C. missed D. used
42. A. important B. true C. interesting D. usual
43. A. for B. like C. after D. over
44. A. amount B. quality C. quantity D. price
45. A. think B. imagine C. examine D. check
46. A. spare B. free C. enough D. much
47. A. that B. why C. because D. certain
48. A. doing B. making C. taking D. getting
49. A. needn’t B. have to C. had better D. would rather
50. A. easy B. simple C. stupid D. interesting
51. A. worthless B. priceless C. ready D. little
52. look upon B. agree C. think D. believe
53. A. spend B. give C. set D. devote
54. A. must B. should C. may D. would
55. A. helper B. thief C. friend D. teacher
56. A. wealth B. health C. failure D. illness
57. A. danger B. harm C. trouble D. difficulty
58. A. help B. make C. have D. let
59. A. keep B. remain C. manage D. leave
60. A. valuable B. expensive C. worth D. rich
Word of the Day Writing Competition
Days are getting colder, and everyone is slowly backing to the warm comfort of their homes. It’s the best opportunity to make good use of the quietness and peace of the season by taking pen and paper(or a computer) out to write.
OxfordWords of Oxford University Press(OUP) is calling all aspiring(有抱负的) authors out there to take part in our writing competition. What we’re looking for are imaginative(富有想象力的) short stories—not more than 500 words---that include every Word of the Day (WOTD) from November.
Each entry will be carefully considered by the OxfordWords team before deciding on a winner. The best storyteller will be given a year’s fee to OxfordDictionaries.com, as well as ￡50 worth of OUP books, and have his or her piece published on that website.
Before you get started, please make sure you’re read our terms and conditions. Entries can be submitted(递交) through the entry form, or posted into the comment section. Closing date for the competition is 5th January 2015.
And finally, for inspiration, have a look at the charming short story that gives us the idea for this competition, written by a fellow Oxford Dictionaries team member, and including all thirty one Words of the Day from October.
Find out more about our Word of the Day service and sign up to receive the words via email, or on Facebook, Google, and Twitter.
1. What type of writing is this test?
A. An exhibition guide.
B. An art show review.
C. An announcement.
D. An official report.
2. The stories for the competition must______.
A. be about OxfordWords
B. have more than 500 words
C. contain all the words of WOTD
D. be handed in before 5th January 2015
3. The winner of the competition can______________.
A. read all the books of OUP free of charge
B. use OxfordDictionaries.com for free for a year
C. be allowed to be on the OxfordWords team
D. publish all of his or her works on OxfordDictionaries.com
______overseas, as the professor puts it means a valuable chance for soldiers to practice the skills.
A ． Stationed B ． Stationing C ． Having stationed D ． Being stationed
______ is known to us all is that the 2012 Olimpic Games will take place in London.
A .It B. What C.As D. Which
Most teens I meet these days lack basic social courtesy when dealing with people.
My own son, who basically grew up with his grandmother, the original 21 guru, has perfect table manners. This is partly because he was 22 to manners at a very young age. However, when we eat at home, he would not 23 manners. So I asked him why. He said,” I behave the way I am supposed to 24 when I’m out, but when I am at home I want to be 25 .”
That’s when I realized that most parents, myself included, do 26 their children the proper way to behave outside the home, but they are also 27 to believe that at home, anything goes.
My 28 to him was “good behavior has nothing to do with where you are or whom you are with”.
Then he answered, “But I behave 29 when I’m with others so that they think better of me.” And that is when I realized that I was doing things all 30 . I explained to him that it had nothing to do with what people think. This 31 him even more.
So I went on to explain that behavior, whether in your everyday 32 with people or at the dining table at home, is an 33 of who you are. Well, at the age of 13, he got it.
So basically, what I am saying is that teaching your children 34 comes with the underlying lesson that it is not about 35 to do or not to do, but rather, who they are. This way it is not 36 ; it comes from within.
Teach your teens or children the 37 courtesy of greeting their friends’ parents and 38 themselves when they go to someone’s home. Teach teenage boys to open the door of a car, or any door 39 that matter, for any girl, whether they are their girlfriends or not. This includes holding elevator doors or letting women step out of the elevator first.
Just 40 that teenage boys who practice good manners’ and courtesy grow up to become men who respect people in general.
21．A. knowledge B. wisdom C. manners D. intelligence
22．A. exposed B. limited C. cared D. concerned
23．A. learn B. practice C. remember D. make
24．A. live B. Obey C. react D. behave
25．A. gentle B. polite C. comfortable D. kind
26．A. teach B. offer C. guide D. support
27．A. attended to B. brought up C. cared about D. depended on
28．A. answer B. devotion C. apology D. affection
29．A. strangely B. nervously C. calmly D. properly
30．A. reasonable B. important C. wrong D. necessary
31．A. confused B. encouraged C. moved D. pleased
32．A. competition B. argument C. struggle D. interaction
33．A. impression B. expression C. appearance D. attitude
34．A. lessons B. skills C. manners D. examples
35．A. what B. how C. where D. why
36．A. practical B. natural C. gradual D. mechanical
37．A. minor B. formal C. basic D. casual
38．A. pleasing B. Introducing C. enjoying D. amusing
39．A. with B. on C. For D. at
40．A. consider B. confirm C. predict D. remember
请根据以下提示，并结合具体事例，有英语写一篇短文。
Questioning is a bridge to learning. When you begin to doubt something and search for an answer,you will learn.
注意：1.无须写标题；
2.除诗歌外，文体不限；
3.内容必须结合你生活中的具体事例；
4.文中不得透露个人姓名和学校名称；
5.词数不少于120，如引用提示语则不计入总词数。
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San Francisco has its cable cars. Seattle has its Space Needle. And, Longview has its squirrel bridge. The bridge, which has attracted international attention, is now a local landmark.
The Nutty Narrows Bridge was built in 1963 by a local builder, Amos Peters, to give squirrels a way to cross the busy road without getting flattened by passing cars.
The original bridge was built over Olympia Way on the west edge of the library grounds. Before the bridge was built, squirrels had to avoid traffic to and from the Park Plaza office building where office staff' put out a nutty feast for the squirrels. Many times, Peters and others who worked in and near the Park Plaza witnessed squirrels being run over.
One day Peters found a dead squirrel with a nut still in its mouth, and that day’s coffee break discussion turned into squirrel safety. The group of businessmen cooked up the squirrel bridge idea and formed a committee to ask the blessing of the City Council（市政会）.The Council approved, and Councilwoman Bess La Riviere named the bridge "Nutty Narrows."
After architects designed the bridge, Amos Peters and Bill Hutch started construction. They built the 60-foot bridge from aluminum (铝) and lengths of fire hose (消防水带). It cost $1,000.
It didn't take long before reports of squirrels using the bridge started. Squirrels were even seen guiding their young and teaching them the ropes. The story was picked up by the media, and Nutty Narrows became known in newspapers all over the world.
In 1983, after 20 years of use, Peters took down the worn-out bridge. Repairs were made and crosspieces were replaced. The faded sign was repainted and in July 1983, hundreds of animal lovers attended the completion ceremony of the new bridge.
Peters died in 1984, and a ten-foot wooden squirrel sculpture was placed near the bridge in memory of its builder and his devotion to the project.
56. The Nutty Narrows Bridge was built in order to .
A. offer squirrels a place to eat nuts
B. set up a local landmark
C. help improve traffic
D. protect squirrels
57. What happened over the coffee break discussion?
A. The committee got the Council's blessing.
B. The squirrel bridge idea was born.
C. A councilwoman named the bridge
D. A squirrel was found dead.
58. What does the underlined phrase "teaching them the ropes" probably mean in the text?
A. Passing them a rope B. Directing them to store food for winter
C. Teaching them a lesson D. Showing them how to use the bridge.
59. Which of the following is true of the squirrel bridge?
A. It was replaced by a longer one. B. It was built from wood and metal
C. it was rebuilt after years of use D. It was designed by Bill Hutch.
60. What can we learn about Amos Peters?
A. He is remembered for his love of' animals.
B. He donated $l, 000 to build the bridge
C. He was a member of' the City Council
D. He was awarded a medal for building the bridge.
