The Amazon River, from which the rainforest gets its name, isto 6,400 kilometres in.
Social media is our new travel agent, and it's changing the places we go. In some cases, the places we go. In some cases, the newfound fame brought about by social media platforms has helped to boost local economies and bring tourists to places they might never have discovered otherwise. In other cases, it's creating problems for countries and cities that are simply not equipped to deal with the influx(涌入) of tourists. Check out two of the incredible locations around the world that have gone viral on social media.
Iceland
This northern island nation has seen a dramatic surge(激增) in visitors over the past few years. One reason for that is the so-called "Game of Thrones effect,". This, combined with the availability of cheap flights and some very effective marketing campaigns, has made Iceland a popular travel destination. The number of tourists almost doubled from 566,000 to over 1 million between 2011 and 2015, according to Iceland's tourism board.
While this influx of visitors has brought a much-needed boost to the economy post-recession(经济衰退), it's also pushed up prices for residents and put pressure on the infrastructure. Locals complain of tourists destroying the fragile ecosystem and leaving a mess behind them as they trample over the formerly untouched natural sites.
Cuba
According to Cuba's ministry of tourism, four million visitors went to Cuba in 2016, an increase of 13 percent from the year before. The tourism boom has had some consequences for the country's residents, The New York Times reported in December 2016.
The surge in visitors has led to a food shortage, and basic food items have become completely unaffordable for locals. Local hotels and restaurants are buying up supplies in bulk for guests, pushing up prices and leaving limited amounts for locals.
The situation has been acknowledged by the Cuban government, who put caps on prices to make them more affordable for residents. This has only encouraged sellers to put products on the black market, according to The New York Times.
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。
I'm extremely sorry to know that you are upset about what to improve your handwriting. Here are a few skills you can use to making your handwriting more beautifully. First, it's important that you imitate something that is only written beautifully but also correctly and neatly. Second, while imitating, pay close attention to things like order, length or direction. Then you will get the key parts. If you are unable to do it on your own, I advise you to join in the calligraphy club, which is intended for foreign calligraphy lovers. With the help of teachers, you would be able to improve our handwriting quickly. Handwriting is never an easy task. However, it takes painstaking efforts and patience. I believe you'll make great progresses soon.
假设你叫王林，你的美国好友John来信说他最近每天晚上玩手机到深夜，导致白天没有精神且食欲不振。他对此很担心，但又管不住自己，因此写信向你求助。请你用英语给John写一封回信，谈谈你的想法并给他一些建议。
You may use banknotes every day. But did you know that there is a lot of science behind the money?
Australia was the first country to use polymer(聚合物）banknotes in 1988.
They can stop water from making them wet. They are also cleaner because bacteria don’t grow easily on them.
Now, the Australians have improved their banknotes again by creating a new 5-dollar note. The new one has a clear window in the middle in which there are pictures of an Australian bird and a building.
Tilt (倾斜）the note a little and you will see the bird flapping its wings as if trying to fly away. Turn the note from side to side and you will notice the building come to life and spin. While these features are impressive and entertaining, that was not the reason why the Australian Government spent ten years perfecting them. Their primary purpose was to make it impossible to fake a banknote.
The new $ 5 bill now has a raised bump alongside the two long edges, enabling the blind or those with limited vision, to quickly determine its value.
The Australian government will give the new 10-dollar note the same features in a year's time.
A. Note makers still have a long way to go.
B. Other notes will have them in the future.
C. The magic of the new features lies in them.
D. They have many advantages over paper notes.
E. The new Australian 5-dollar note is a good example.
F. The new note is also the first touchable Australian banknote.
G. Their material and pattern set them apart from ordinary banknotes.
Get a Thorough Understanding of Oneself.
In all one's life time it is oneself that one spends the most time being with or dealing with.
When you are going upwards in life you tend to overestimate(高估) yourself. It seems that everything you seek for is within your reach. It's likely that you think it wise for yourself to stay away from the outer world. Actually, to get a thorough understanding of oneself, you may as well keep the following tips in mind.
Gain a correct view of oneself. You may look forward hopefully to the future but be sure not to expect too much, for dreams can never be fully realized. You may be courageous to meet challenges but it should be clear to you where to direct your efforts.
Self-appreciate. Whether you compare yourself to a towering tree or a blade of grass, a high mountain or a small stone, you represent a state of nature. If you earnestly (诚挚地) admire yourself you'll have a real sense of self-appreciation.
In time of anger, do yourself a favor by releasing (释放) it in a quiet place so that you won't be hurt by its flames; in time of sadness, do yourself a favor by sharing it with your friends so as to change a bad mood into a cheerful one; in time of tiredness, do yourself a favor by getting a good sleep.
Get a full control of one's life. Then one will find one's life full of color and flavor.
A. It has its own value.
B. Do oneself a favor when it's needed.
C. Do yourself a favor when you resist the attack of illness.
D. But it is precisely oneself that one has the least understanding of.
E. Especially if it is well within your reach, you are just too blind to see it.
F. When you are going downhill you tend to underestimate yourself for your own incompetence.
G. So long as you have a perfect knowledge of yourself, there won't be difficulties you can't overcome.
Alabama: Priester's Pecans
Dessert in the South basically starts and ends with an ooeygooey pecan (核桃) pie. Especially in Alabama, where the pecan is the official state nut. While there are plenty of farms that pick and package pecans, perhaps the most famous is Priester's, a familyrun business that's been supplying Alabama with its favorite nuts for over seven decades.
Alaska: Salmon jerky
Forget beef jerky (肉干) in Alaska, it's all about the salmon jerky. Home to five different species of the flavorful fish (king, red, pink, silver, and chum), the northernmost state produces nearly onethird of the wild salmon consumed around the world. Bonus: Salmon is one of the seven healthiest fish you can eat.
Arizona: Saguaro cactus
The largest cactus (仙人掌) in the United States, the saguaro cactus is found only in Arizona's Sonoran Desert. Living to be up to 200 years old, the cacti, whose flower is also the state's flower, are generally around 30 feet tall and can grow unlimited arms. Want to see for yourself? Visit one of these 10 outstanding desert escapes in America.
California: Wine Guide
It isn't called "Wine Country" for no reason. Northern California, specifically Napa Valley and Sonoma Valley, produce over 60,000 registered wine labels, making vino (酒类产品) the state's most valuable agricultural product. If you're looking for the most popular varietals (优质酿酒葡萄汁), the top two frequently planted grapes are chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon.
Climate change is a global challenge. One way to fight it is by reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the air. New research shows that trees planted in China have helped in this fight.
A recent study in the journal Nature shows that the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed (吸收) by new forests in two parts of China is more than we thought. These areas are in the northeastern Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces and the southwestern Yunnan and Guizhou provinces and Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. They make up about 35 percent of China's land-based (基于陆地的) carbon sinks (碳汇). A carbon sink is a natural area like a forest or ocean that absorbs more-carbon dioxide than it emits (排放). Carbon sinks help to reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.
China's goal is to peak (达到峰值) its CO2 emissions (排放) before 2030 and reach carbon neutrality (中和) by 2060, Xinhua reported. Carbon neutrality refers to removing as much CO2 as one puts into the air.
According to study co-author Yi Liu at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, "the afforestation (植树造林) activities described in our Nature paper will play a role in reaching that goal. "
When a typical kid hums (哼唱) a tune, it's usually something like "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star," not Finnish composer Jean Sibelius's Violin Concerto in D Minor.
So when Nygel Witherspoon began to hum the very difficult concerto (协奏曲), his family guessed that he should have music lessons. He was, however, just 3 years old.
"He was calm, with an ability to focus," recalled David Holmes, Witherspoon's cello (大提琴) teacher from age 3 to 16.
Witherspoon is a familiar name in his hometown. He has inherited his talent from both sides of his family, including his aunt, the late jazz vocalist Shirley Witherspoon.
The 17-year-old doesn't see himself as competitive. "I think it's more important for students to have a supportive environment than a competitive one," he said. "It's great to have a support system, where you can be yourself and improve right along with others doing the same thing."
Witherspoon's love of music blossomed as he attended viola (中提琴) lessons with older siblings (兄弟姐妹). Their teacher, David France, noticed that the little boy was a sponge (海绵).
"He'd absorb everything they did," France said. Witherspoon was given a box violin, but he wanted to play "the big one" ― the cello. He loved its size and tone. That's when he was matched with his teacher Holmes.
Witherspoon's drive is inspired by the connection music provides. He recalled that he and his siblings performed as a chamber trio (室内乐三重奏) at their grandmother's nursing home. The positive reaction from residents gave him motivation.
"It's so important, whether it's hip-hop or classical," he said. "Music is the universal language. It connects all of us."
His mother runs an in-home day care where lucky children can hear Witherspoon's concertos as background music.
Witherspoon finds the noisy environment helpful in terms of learning to focus and play with distractions. As he practices in the kitchen sometimes children toddle (蹒跚学步) up to listen.
Despite years of performing, Witherspoon said he still gets nervous sometimes.
"But once I'm on stage, I connect with my instrument and try to tell a story with my music."
It is reported that many a company of production of high pollution
down at present because of the heavy haze(雾霾)in China.
A. are being closed B. were being closed
C. was being closed D. is being closed
When the class teacher came in , he saw Wang Lin____ in front of the TV set .
A．seated B．sat C．sit D．seating
________ the kids had when they experienced the first snowfall--in the South.
A. How fun B. What fun C. How funny D. What a fun
The hotel wasn’t particularly good. But I ____ in many worse hotels.
A .was staying B, stayed C. would stay D. had stayed
Not many years ago, a wealthy and rather strange old man named Johnson lived alone in a village in the south of England. He had made a lot of money in trading with foreign countries. When he was seventy-five, he gave￡12,000 to the village school to buy land and equipment for a children’s playground.
As a result of his kindness, many people came to visit him. Among them was a newspaperman. During their talk, Johnson remarked that he was seventy-five and expected to live to be a hundred. The newspaperman asked him how he managed to be healthy at seventy-five. Johnson had a sense of humor. He liked whisky and drank some each day. “I have an injection (注射) in my neck each evening,” he told the newspaperman, thinking of his evening glass of whisky.
The newspaperman did not understand what Johnson meant. In his newspaper he reported that Johnson was seventy-five and had a daily injection in his neck. Within a week Johnson received thousands of letters from all over Britain, asking him for the secret of his daily injection.
64. Johnson became a rich man through .
A. doing business B. making whisky C. cheating D. buying and selling land
65. Many people wrote to Johnson to find out .
A. what kind of whisky he had B. how to live longer
C. how to become wealthy D. in which part of the neck to have an injection
66. The newspaperman .
A. should have reported what Johnson said B. shouldn’t have asked Johnson what injection he had
C. was eager to live a long life D. should have found out what Johnson really meant
67. When Johnson said he had an injection in his neck each evening, he really meant that .
A. an injection in the evening would make him sleep well B. he needn’t an injection in the neck
C. he liked drinking a glass of whisky in the evening D. there was something wrong with his neck
The British Isles consists of two large islands: One is called Ireland and the other 36 . Britain, or Great Britain, is 37 of these two islands, and it is divided into three parts: Scotland, Wales and England.
The United Kingdom is that part of the British Isles ruled over by the Queen. It __38__ Scotland, Wales and England, that is, the whole of Britain, and also about one 39 of Ireland, the Northern part. The 40 of Ireland is self-governing. The 41 name of the United Kingdom is 42 “The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland”. 43 is larger and richer than Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and has the largest 44 of the United Kingdom, so people often use the 45 “England” and “English” when they 46 “Britain” and “British”. This sometimes makes the Scots and the Welsh a little 47 . The Scots in particular are very 48 of their separate nationality. The Welsh too do not regard 49 as English, and have a culture and even a 50 of their own.
Ireland became part of the United Kingdom in 1801, but for forty years the “Irish 51 ” was the greatest headache of the United Kingdom. 52 , Ireland is divided into two: Northern Ireland still 53 to the United Kingdom, and in 1922 the rest of Ireland broke away 54 an Irish Free State, later called Eire and now the Republic of Ireland.
The Republic of Ireland does not regard itself as part of Britain, and is not now even a supporter of the Commonwealth of Nations (英联邦). 55 the major Commonwealth countries it did not lift a finger to help British in the Second World War and now wants the whole of Ireland to be a republic.
36. A. Britain B. Wales C. England D. Scotland
37. A. the larger B. larger C. the largest D.largest
38. A. makes up B. consists of C. is consisted of D. makes up of
39. A. sixes B. six C.sixths D. sixth
40. A. smaller B. rest C. larger D. island
41. A. correct B. true C. full D. complete
42. A. therefore B. also C. likely D. perhaps
43. A. The UK B. The British isles C. Great Britain D. England
44. A. colleges B. population C. officials D. cities
45. A. words B. names C. spellings D. pronunciations
46. A. speak B. forget C. call D. write
47. A. angry B. difficult C. tired D. lonely
48. A. kind B. fond C. full D. proud
49. A. it B. Wales C. them D. themselves
50. A. capital B. history C. language D. programs
51. A. Country B. Question C. Disease D. Republic
52. A. At last B. So C. Meanwhile D. Also
53. A. returns B. belongs C. gets D. speaks
54. A.found B.find C. to found D. to find
55. A. Disliking B. Like C. Dislike D. Unlike
