The kids in this village wear dirty clothes. They sleep beside cows and sheep in huts (棚屋) made of sticks and mud. They have no school. Yet they all can sing the English letters, and some can make words.
The key to their success: 20 tablet computers (平板电脑) dropped off in their Ethiopian village in February by a U.S. group called One Laptop Per Child.
The goal is to find out whether kids using today's new technology can teach themselves to read in places where no schools or teachers exist. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers analyzing the project say they're already amazed. “What I think has already happened is that the kids have already learned more than they would have in one year of kindergarten (幼儿园),” said Matt Keller, who runs the Ethiopia program.
The fastest learner—and the first to turn on one of the tablets—is 8-year-old Kelbesa Negusse. The tablet's camera couldn't save memory, yet within weeks Kelbesa had figured out its workings and made the camera work. He called himself a lion, a marker of accomplishment in Ethiopia.
With his tablet, Kelbasa rearranged the letters HSROE into one of the many English animal names he knows. Then he spelled words on his own. “Seven months ago he didn’t know any English. That's unbelievable,” said Keller.
The project aims to get kids to a stage called “deep reading,” where they can read to learn. It won’t be in Amharic, Ethiopia's first language, but in English, which is widely seen as the ticket to higher paying jobs.
In your life, sometimes you may be asked to speak in front of a large group of people.Although it sounds a little scary, even those with stage fright can speak successfully to the group with adequate preparation.
Practice your speech before the big day. If possible, practice the speech in front of a friend or family member to get used to saying it to real people.If you feel you must have note cards, limit the amount to about three cards.This will force you to keep your speech concise and help you keep your eyes focused on your audience.
Remember why you've been invited to speak.If you're battling fear over speaking to a large group of people, keep your mind on the fact that you were selected for this important role.The speech organizers must have seen something valuable in you or your expertise.
Remember that fear of public speaking is very common. Most of the people in the audience would be feeling the same fear and stress that you do in your position.Knowing this may make you feel better.
What you say should be tailored to why you're there and who you're speaking to in order to avoid sounding general.If speaking to a charity group, mention the good work certain specific individuals have done for the cause.If speaking at a business conference, briefly state why you want to help these people.
Keep eye contact with the crowd. Pick one person in each section and look at him while you're speaking.After each important point in your speech, switch your focus to another section.When you focus only on one person at a time, the size of the crowd isn't as frightening.
A．A good memory is really helpful.
B．Show appreciation to your audience.
C．Mention your audience in your speech.
D．The more you have it memorized, the better.
E．In fact, it's normal to feel nervous or stressed out before a big speech.
F．Separate the crowd into three sections mentally as you get up to speak.
G．The knowledge of other people's respect for you should reduce some of the fear.
注意:
1）词数100个左右(开头和结尾已给出, 不计入总词数);
2）可以适当增加细节, 以使行文连贯。
Dear Tom,
Yours,
Li Hua
|
protect…against… prevent…from… get burnt take off choke carry out be proud of iron present sb. with sth. heal |
David will never forget what happened to him the day before yesterday. He (eat) something at home when he received a strange phone call from a hospital. The caller said that his son (fall) to the ground unconscious on the way to school. It was he took him to the hospital. David hung up his cellphone and rushed to his son's classroom, only to find him listening to the teacher attentively. He suddenly realized that he had been cheated, but he felt (relieve). Just at that time the phone rang again, saying, "Your son is in great danger and he needs immediate operation which costs 48,000 yuan. The doctors here say they will not operate your son until they receive the money." When (ask) from where the caller had taken his son to hospital, the caller rang off. David gave a big smile and said, "What a pity!"
If the cheater thought he could get money from David in such a(n)(honest) way, he was wrong. Such phone calls are common these days. A few of them might have fallen victims to such tricks. Most parents are sensitive to (they). It was really silly to cheat educated men like David.
Believe it or not, it's a true story. The (colleague) in his office can confirm it, such as Tom, Peter and so on.
I woke up earlier than my brother as every other day of the week. I jumped out of the bed, got dressed, brushed my teeth, and had breakfast. Saying good bye to my mother, I got in the car no later than 7:05. I got to school on time, even though my brother came out of the house late as he used to.
It was a Thursday. I was walking to the chemistry rooms when my phone in my left pocket vibrated(震动). I took it out and looked at the shiny screen. As soon as I saw my father's name on that screen I realized something was not right.
He would not call me in the middle of a school day just to talk. He would want me to focus in school and do well. I answered the phone, and my father sounded worried. He told me to find my brother as soon as possible, walk with him to the school picking-up zone and get in the car with my brother. Our driver would take us back home where my father was.
When I was in the car with my brother my dad called the driver and told him to take us to the hospital. We were going to meet him and my mum there. As soon as my brother and I found about the change in plans, we looked at each other in the eyes. I immediately noticed the fear in my brother's eyes.
To be honest, I was really scared too, probably more than he was. But I did not say anything. We arrived at the hospital. I saw my dad on the phone waiting for us at the entrance. He was smoking. Seeing my dad smoking made me more worried. I had never seen him smoke before. He hated it. As soon as he recognized the white car, he threw the cigarette away. I looked at my brother; he was looking out of the other window. I did not tell him what I just saw. I did not want him to worry.
注意:
1）所续写短文的词数应为150左右；
2）至少使用5个短文中标有下划线的关键词语；
3）续写部分分为两段，每段的开头语已为你写好；
4）续写完成后，请用下划线标出你所使用的关键词语。
Paragraph 1:
The car stopped right in front of my dad.
Paragraph 2:
We walked down the hall with our eyes closed.
Gaiman is an English author of lots of science fiction and fantasy works. His argument is that children shouldn't be discouraged from reading what adults may think of as bad books. He is dead right.
A child in a library is an explorer venturing into a land where he has no map to guide him. This is part of the excitement. Everything is new. His taste is yet unformed, and it cannot be formed until he has tried a variety of things.
Not knowing what books are good or bad, an
eager child will try very different things. At the age of eleven or twelve,
I still read Enid Blyton
Stevenson's Kidnapped, was happily terrified by ghost stories and desperately
wanted to be Rupert of Hentzau, a most attractive evil character in literature.
A child reads for enjoyment from all sorts of books. I can't remember when I stopped reading comics like the Wizard and Hotspur, but I'm pretty sure that my reading of them continued even while I was delighted in Sherlock Holmes or in the short stories of HG Wells.
Never say "Don't read that rubbish" or "You're too young for that". If he is really too young and the book is beyond him, he'll put it aside. If he doesn't, then he's not too young, even if he misses much that an adult reader would find in it.
The only useful thing an adult can do is to give a child a book and say, "I think you might enjoy this." Don't complain if he doesn't like it and turns to something that you think is bad.
A. Anything he reads may be attractive, too.
B. Everybody has a secret world inside of themselves.
C. For the young reader even a bad book has its own value.
D. Adults should be careful in what they say to a child about his reading.
E. Almost everyone who reads widely as an adult has read wildly as a child.
F. The world always seems brighter when you've just made something that wasn't there before.
G. He is also a productive blogger and the point he gave in one of his blogs surely makes sense.
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。
After shopping, Mother and I went to restaurant for lunch. I notice Mother looking at a nearby table occupy by an elderly woman and a young couple. They ate silently, and it was clearly that things were not going well. As we left, Mother stopped on their table. "Excuse me," she said, put her arm around the unhappy old woman. "You remind me so many of my mother. May I hug (拥抱) you? " The woman smiled happily as she accepted to it. After we left, I said, "That was very nice of you, Mother. So I didn't think she looked like Grandma." "Neither did me," said Mother cheerfully.
